There was a second’s hesitation as the words sank in before Kat dropped her bags and began running toward the boat. Luke sped up, undoubtedly thinking he could use her as a bargaining chip to get back on the ferry.
“Luke! Stop!” Pax yelled.
The man was no longer listening.
“Stay away from me!” Kat yelled.
Jumping off the boat, Pax shouted, “Stop now! Last warning!”
Luke was thirty feet away from Kat and showed no intention of stopping. Robert could see Kat was not going to outrun him.
The boom of Pax’s rifle echoed across the water.
Luke thrust forward, as if trying to dive the rest of the way to Kat, and smacked into the ground.
With his rifle still tucked tight against his shoulder, Pax rushed over to the downed man, Robert following right behind.
“Get on the boat,” Pax told Kat.
She had halted in terror when Luke fell. “Is he…is he…”
“Get on the boat,” Robert said.
She looked at Robert.
“Now,” he said. “Or stay here. But make the choice.”
With a tentative nod, she headed for the ferry.
Pax knelt down next to Luke.
“Is he dead?” Robert asked.
Pax scanned the body without touching it, and then stood back up. “He was dead the moment the virus entered his system.” A flash of anger touched his face as he looked at Luke. Without another word, he headed back to the boat.
Robert glanced at the body one last time. The area around Luke’s eyes had started to darken, a sure sign the man was getting sick. A part of Robert wished Pax’s bullet hadn’t killed the man. A suffering death was exactly what Luke deserved.
Another part of his mind tried to protest these thoughts, tried to point out how inhumane they were, that this wasn’t the kind of person Robert was, but it faded fast. That may not have been the way Robert was in the Before, but it was clear he couldn’t be that Robert anymore.
As he lifted his gaze, he spotted the bags Kat had dropped. Several items had rolled out. Fruit, they looked like.
He jogged over. Papaya and caimitos and even some rambutans. As he put them back into the bags, he discovered Kat had found more than just fruit. She’d also scored two larger packages of cookies, a box of Corn Flakes, and several bags of gummi bears.
Pax was already untying one of the ropes from the pier when Robert returned.
“I take it you fueled us up,” Pax said.
“I did,” Robert replied as he set the bags down.
Kat was on one of the benches, her arms wrapped tight across her chest. Robert knew he should probably go talk to her, but it would have to wait. He met Pax at the front of the ferry, where a final line was all that was holding them to shore.
“Wait,” Robert said as Pax started to release the rope. “What about Aiden?”
“Nothing we can do for him.”
“I realize that, but shouldn’t we get him off the boat?”
Pax glanced at the door to the down staircase. “I don’t have any desire to go down there and carry him out, do you?”
“No,” Robert admitted.
“Better if we leave him there, then. There’s enough room on this deck and on top for everyone. We don’t need the below.”
Robert was relieved. While he didn’t exactly like the idea of having someone with Sage Flu coughing under their feet, the idea of going down there and helping the man off the ferry was even less appealing.
He took over untying them from the dock so Pax could head up to the wheelhouse. Even though Robert had more experience piloting boats, Pax had become the resident expert of the Albino Mer.
Moments later, the engines fired up and the ferry pulled from the dock. Robert watched the expanse of water between shore and boat grow for a few moments before sitting down next to Kat.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No,” she said after a moment. “No, no, no. I’m not all right.”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, take it easy. It’s over.”
She looked at him as if he were crazy. “It’s not over. It’ll never be over. Everyone’s gone. They’re all dead.” Her voice trailing off, she said again, “They’re all dead.”
He put his arm around her and pulled her close as she began to cry. He tried to think of something to tell her, to make her feel better.
In the end, he said nothing.
The journey back to Isabella Island took a little over two and a half hours. As they came out of the channel and into the bay, Robert blasted the ship’s horn while Pax guided them toward the dock.
“See anyone?” Pax asked.
Robert was watching the hotel, but had so far seen no movement. He sounded the horn again, his gaze glued to the resort’s upper deck right outside the restaurant where they had left the others.
“There!” he shouted as two people ran out onto the deck.
The Albino Mer was still too far from shore for him to identify them, but he saw them disappear into the stairwell that would take them down to the bottom of the hotel.
“I’ll get the ropes,” he said, and headed to the main deck.
He grabbed the line attached to the bow and jumped up on the gunwale, steadying himself against a post to keep from falling into the water. He felt an odd mix of excitement and dread as he watched the dock approach. This island had been his home for a while now and he always enjoyed returning to it. But all the other times he’d come back, there had been people on the beach, Jet Skis on the bay, vacationers on the bar deck. Now the Isabella Island Resort looked deserted. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think everyone had died.
Something else added to the eeriness, too. The morning sun glistened off the sheen from the virus solution that had been sprayed over the island, and was still clinging to many of the plants and parts of the building. If it weren’t for the death it represented, the sheen would have looked beautiful. Robert wondered how much rain it would take to restore the island to the paradise it once was.
As the boat neared shore, Robert focused on the dock, ready to jump the moment it was within range. When they had closed to no more than fifty feet, he saw Renee and Estella running down the stairs that connected the bar deck to the beach. Though it had been only a day, it seemed he hadn’t seen them in forever.
The Albino Mer slowed to a crawl, inching forward at a pace Robert suddenly found excruciating.
Come on, come on.
“Robert!” Estella yelled as she and Renee ran across the sand toward the dock.
He waved back and checked the dock again. Close enough.
He leapt over the water and landed with a few inches to spare at the very end of the dock. He moved forward with the boat as it came alongside and tied the line to one of the clamps. As he rose to his feet, Estella raced past Renee and jumped into his arms, hugging him tight.
“When you did not come back last night, I thought…I thought something had happened,” she whispered in his ear.
“Well, something did happen, but we also came back.”
She pulled back far enough so she could look at him. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
She stared for a moment longer before pressing her lips against his.
“So, um, there’s a stern line that needs to be tied off, too,” Pax called down from the open window of the pilothouse. “That is, if you don’t mind.”
Robert reluctantly pulled from Estella’s embrace. “We can pick this up in a bit.”
“Yes, we can,” she told him.
He set her down and took care of the rear mooring line. As he returned to where the bow was tied off, Pax exited the boat.