Lara was prepared for the worst, but she was still shocked to see Carly sitting on the floor with her back against one of the lobby walls, bleeding badly from the left side of her neck. Blood trickled out between the fingers of Carly’s left hand, which she had pressed over the wound to stem the flow. There was a Glock on the floor nearby, just out of Carly’s reach, and her eyes were focused on the woman standing in front of her, about five feet away.
Sienna.
She was holding a Glock aimed at Carly’s head and her back was to Lara, but as soon as she heard Lara’s footsteps, Sienna looked over her shoulder. Lara didn’t recognize the young woman from last night. The same one who had screamed when Jake was swallowed up by the flood of ghouls in the hallway, who had cried into her shoulder all night as they sat on the third floor of the Tower and waited out the horror.
This woman looked different. She looked angry, and Lara heard all that fury come out in a scream that paralyzed her: “Stay back!”
Lara slid to a stop ten yards away, and her gun snapped up and she took aim at Sienna’s head, and in a split-second she wondered if she could do it, if she could pull the trigger.
Jack Sunday. That man in the church. I’ve killed before. I can do it again.
Please, please, let me be able to do it again, for Carly’s sake…
But maybe she didn’t have to. Maybe she could talk her way out of this. Maybe…
“Sienna, what are you doing?”
Lara’s eyes moved briefly back to Carly. She looked awful, all the color drained from her face. There was a thin trail of blood stretching from the kitchen to the wall where Carly sat. Carly looked back at her, and her friend blinked, as if she didn’t quite have the strength to keep her eyes open, and was fighting, fighting just to do that much.
She’s losing too much blood…
“This is the natural order of things,” Sienna was saying. She sounded rational, calm again. “Jake’s dead. Everyone’s dead.”
“Not everyone,” Lara said.
“Everyone that matters to me!” Sienna shouted.
“Don’t, please…”
She wasn’t sure if she was actually pleading. Maybe she was. All she could focus on was Carly, bleeding on the floor, and how heavy the Glock felt in her hands, how strong the trigger was against her forefinger, and the smell of fish, not just frying, but burning now…
“You can’t stop me,” Sienna said, smiling. “I—”
She never finished. There was a loud gunshot from across the lobby and Sienna’s forehead exploded and blood (brain) splattered the floor. Sienna’s body crumpled like used skin and bones, the Glock that was gripped so tightly, so insistently in her hand mere seconds ago fell and clattered against the floor even before what was left of Sienna’s head did.
Lara looked over at Danny, entering the hotel lobby through the front doors, holstering his Glock. He ran the rest of the way, reaching Carly about the same time Lara did.
“Dammit, babe, I told you not to get shot,” he said, crouching next to her.
Carly looked at him and somehow managed to smile. “My hero,” she said, her voice soft, barely a whisper.
“What happened?” Lara asked. “Why did she shoot you?”
“I don’t know.” Carly shook her head. She looked even paler up close. How was that possible? “I was in the kitchen, doing woman’s work—”
Danny grinned.
“—and I saw her come in. She looked at me and then shot me without saying anything. God, she shot me. I’ve never been shot before. It hurts.”
“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been shot,” Danny said.
“I hate you,” Carly said, then closed her eyes.
Danny glanced at Lara and she saw all the boyish charm disappear, replaced by worry and love and, for the very first time, very real fear.
“She’s lost a lot of blood, but it’s not a fatal wound,” Lara said. “She’ll be fine.”
Please let me be right. Just this one time, God, let me be right. You owe me that much, don’t you?
“Help me get her to the table,” Lara said. “And keep her upright.”
Danny lifted Carly in his arms as if she weighed nothing, with her head resting against his chest instead of dangling off his arms, and carried her to a big table in the middle of the lobby. Lara walked alongside him, her hand pressed against Carly’s neck, the blood squirting through her fingers. She pressed harder and Carly moaned but didn’t open her eyes. They had to step over Sienna’s still body, twisted awkwardly on the floor.
“She’s really bleeding,” Danny said.
“She’ll be fine…”
Sarah arrived in the lobby when they were halfway to the table. She saw Sienna, then Carly, and ran over. “My God, what happened?”
“Sienna shot Carly, then I shot Sienna,” Danny said, like he was discussing the weather.
“Oh my God…” Sarah said, putting one hand over her mouth.
“Where are the girls?” Lara asked Sarah.
She didn’t want Vera to see this. Didn’t want Elise or Sarah’s daughter, Jenny, to see it, either. But especially not Vera. The girl had already been through too much; Lara didn’t think she could — or should—see this, too.
“They’re at the Tower,” Sarah said. “I sent them to stay with Gaby when I heard the gunshots.”
“Good, good,” Lara said, grateful for that, at least. “Clear the table, Sarah.”
Sarah ran over to the table ahead of them and with two hands brushed the surface clean except for the linen sheet on top. Danny sat Carly down gently, with all the care and love in the world, but kept her head leaning against his chest, upright.
“Sarah, I need your hand,” Lara said. Sarah rushed over to her side and Lara showed her where to put her hand against Carly’s neck. “Here. Push hard. Don’t worry, you’re not going to hurt her. Whatever you do, don’t let her lay her head down on the table.”
Sarah gave her a reluctant look but pushed on the wound the way Lara showed her. Lara stepped back. She looked down at her hands, covered in blood up to the wrists.
She’s lost so much blood…
She looked back at Sarah. “Keep it pressed as hard as you can, understand?”
Sarah nodded, but she looked queasy, especially every time blood squirted through her fingers and peppered the thick tabletop.
“I’ll be back,” Lara said, and jogged off quickly.
She ran back to her room, trying to wipe the blood off on her pant legs, but only succeeded in bloodying them up, too.
The black bag was in the corner of her room, on the armchair where she had put it this morning. She snatched it up and hurried back out, rushing down the hallway. For some reason, it seemed to take her much longer to get back to the lobby.
Somewhere between her room and the lobby, she heard the soft, echoing reports of gunfire.
For an instant, her mind conjured up images of Sienna, risen from the dead, engaging in a gun battle with Danny. But no, the gunfire wasn’t from the lobby. It was distant, reaching them from across the lake.
She hurried into the lobby, where Sarah and Danny were still standing over Carly. Lara was afraid Carly wasn’t breathing, but as she drew near, she saw Carly’s chest rising and falling slightly, if labored.
“Will,” Lara said, catching Danny’s eyes.
“He can take care of himself,” Danny said. “I need you to focus on Carly right now, okay?”
She nodded, and willed herself to ignore the soft, echoing pop-pop-pop of assault rifles firing in the background.
Instead, she pried back Sarah’s hand to reveal the bullet wound in Carly’s neck.