Will had no illusions that the barricades were going to hold, but putting them up gave everyone something to do and took their minds off what was about to happen in less than an hour. It was either this or watch them staring off into empty space, waiting for the inevitable darkness to fall.
Gaby glanced over when he came down the stairs. “We’re almost done. What about the upstairs windows?”
“Three windows — main bedroom and two additional rooms in the back,” Will said. “We’ll save the rest of the doors for them.”
“What if we run out?”
“We’ll pull the floorboards. There’s just dirt under them anyway.”
The house was old and the stairs groaned. The wallpaper was peeling, and the floorboards were real wood that could be easily ripped free with the proper tools, like a hammer or a prying bar. Everything moved and creaked as they walked around.
Lance sat down on a couch and drank deeply from a warm bottle of water. His clothes were soaked, his face was flustered, and his tired, hollowed eyes sought out Will. “They’re not going to hold. You know that, right? I told you we had them up at the other house, too. They broke in after a couple of hours.”
Gaby and Annie didn’t say anything. Even the two girls seemed to greet the matter-of-fact comment with subdued acceptance and were paying more attention to the heat. The temperature had been tolerable earlier, but now with the windows covered, it had become insufferable.
“We don’t need them to hold,” Will said. “They just need to keep them out for a while.”
“And then what?” Lance said.
“Then we make our stand on the second floor.”
“What about the basement?” Gaby asked. “Those have always worked for us in the past.”
“Against the black-eyed ghouls, it’s a no-brainer. But not with the blue-eyed ones around.” Images of Dunbar and the basement under Ennis’s flashed across his mind. “They’re too smart. Even if they couldn’t get through — and that’s a big if—there are the soldiers to worry about. If we seal ourselves down there, we’re trapped with only one way out.”
“Like what we did to the other house,” Annie said softly.
“What did you do?” Gaby asked.
“We burned it down because we thought there might be creatures — the things you call ghouls — in the basement.”
“Did that kill them?”
“I don’t know. We never checked.”
“We’ll make our stand on the second floor,” Will repeated. He glanced at his watch again. “We need to finish up soon, so let’s get it done.”
Lance got up and held out his hand, and Annie took it and the two of them exchanged a private smile. Will thought they looked almost resigned to their fates as they walked past him and up the stairs. Claire and Milly followed, leaving him on the first floor with Gaby.
The nineteen-year-old stood next to him and looked after the others. “It’s going to be close,” she said, keeping her voice low enough that the others couldn’t hear.
He nodded. “So what else is new?”
“These blue-eyed ghouls… They can be killed?”
“Yeah, but you have to shoot them in the head.”
“Regular bullets or silver?”
“I don’t know. We’ll default to silver just in case. I stabbed one of them in the head with my knife and that seemed to work, too.”
She glanced down at the cross-knife at his hip. “I really gotta get me one of those.”
“I’ll make you a copy when we get back to the island. Deal?”
“Deal.”
They walked up the stairs together. Slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.
“So it’s the brain,” Gaby said. “Which would explain why you say they’re smarter than the others. They actually still have brains.”
“As good an explanation as any.”
Gaby smiled at him through her scars, bruises, and broken nose. “I thought you were dead after we split up in Harvest.”
He smiled back. “Someone once told me I’m too stubborn to die.”
“They’re probably right.” Then, she surprised him by hugging him in the middle of the stairs. “I knew you’d find me. I always knew you would.”
Will hugged her back and felt her body trembling in his arms. He decided she didn’t need to know that he was prepared to leave her behind, thinking she was dead, until he found out differently just a few hours ago.
Instead, he said, “There’s someone else who’ll be glad to know you’re still alive…”
“Gaby,” Lara said through the radio. She sounded breathless and happy. “It’s good to hear your voice again.”
“That’s funny, because I’ve been hearing your voice a lot these days,” Gaby said, smiling across the window at Will.
They were back in the main bedroom on the second floor of the house, with the portable ham radio sitting on the windowsill between them, its antenna sticking outside the open window.
“The broadcast,” Lara said.
“How did you know?”
Lara told them about other survivors who had reached out to her through the radio because of the message she had sent out into the world. People from Russia, the United Kingdom, and even some kid living on an island in Japan.
“Wow,” Gaby said. “That’s amazing. I didn’t know there were so many people still out there.”
“Neither did they,” Lara said. “I guess this is why Kate’s so pissed off. We unwittingly brought everyone together. At least, over the airwaves. People are starting to coordinate as a result. Guys in New York are talking to guys in San Francisco. Will, there are two groups in East Texas that we didn’t even know about until now.”
Gaby passed the microphone to Will. “All of that’s great, but I’m more worried about the island right now,” Will said. He sneaked a look outside at the darkening skies. “Are there any signs of an attack yet?”
Lara didn’t respond right away.
Will and Gaby exchanged a worried look.
“Lara,” he said into the mic.
“Do you trust me, Will?” Lara said finally.
“You know I do. Implicitly.”
She told him about some guy named Keo and the two women he had been traveling with. What they had seen back on shore, including more men in uniforms roaming Louisiana, and a staging area higher up Beaufont Lake. He listened and didn’t interrupt, absorbing everything she said, especially what she had attempted — and succeeded — with this Keo guy.
“I think it might have worked,” she said. “I guess we’ll know for sure tonight.”
“And everything’s ready just in case it didn’t?” Will asked.
“Plan Z…”
“Yes.”
“Everyone knows their roles,” Lara said. “I just hope we don’t have to use it.” She paused for a moment, then, “I knew you weren’t going to make it back today, Will. That’s why I made the choices I did.”
“You did the right thing, Lara.”
“Did I? Maybe I just made things worse.”
“Things can’t get any worse, babe. Besides, the island’s still there, isn’t it? You’re still safe. And the others, too.”
“Yes…”
“So you made the right choices.”
“I wasn’t sure…”
“Don’t doubt yourself. You’re smarter than me. Always have been.”
“You’re the one who kept us alive all these months.”
“Not by myself.”
“You and Danny…”