“You sure they left town?” Will asked.
“Wouldn’t surprise me if they all split and went their own ways. Manley, in particular. He never really liked Folger and Del. Plus, he’s the only one who can drive the big rig. If I was him, I’d take off with it. Get to keep all the supplies inside, too.”
“All right, I guess we’re done,” Will said, and looked over at Blaine. “It’s up to you. You decide what we should do with him.”
Blaine only had eyes for Miguel. “Sandra. When you caught her last night. Did you…do anything to her?”
Miguel looked back at the big man, with an expression that Will thought was sadness, and something that almost approached (but not quite) regret. “I didn’t. But I wanted to. I’ll be straight with you. Man to man. I wanted to, but Del caught her, so he got her first. We were supposed to get her later last night, but like I said, she escaped with the kids first.”
“Okay,” Blaine said.
“Take him into the woods,” Will said.
CHAPTER 9
JOSH
He woke up with Gaby’s elbow in his ribs, and when that didn’t work, she began pushing him back and forth until he opened his eyes and yawned. Gaby looked beautiful with the sunlight over her face, but then again, she always looked beautiful.
At the moment she also looked a little afraid. “I hear a car coming,” she said in a hushed voice.
Josh sat up and listened.
He could hear a sound, but it was still too far away and he couldn’t be sure if it was a car or something else. He scrambled up from some stained bedsheets. Josh moved toward the wall and stood under the small window and listened.
Gaby was right, it was a car, and it was getting closer. “I have to go upstairs,” he said. “To make sure.”
Gaby looked horrified at the thought. “Josh, we don’t know what’s up there. Anything could have come into the house last night while we were asleep down here.”
“I’ll be okay.” He found that he could fake confidence if he tried hard enough, even if every ounce of him just wanted to stay down here in the basement with Gaby.
He picked up Matt’s revolver, resting on top of the backpack where he had laid it last night. For some reason, the gun felt much heavier this morning, but maybe that was just his imagination. He stared up at the basement door and felt his heart beating loudly against his chest. It was stupid, he knew. Only an idiot would go out there. There could be bloodsuckers in the kitchen, for God’s sake, that had slipped in sometime during the night and were now lying in wait for him.
He should stay down here. With Gaby. That was the smart thing.
And he was smart, wasn’t he? Of course he was.
“Josh, don’t go,” Gaby said behind him.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, and before she could respond, he hurried up the stairs because if he didn’t, if he let her argue, he knew he would change his mind. Josh didn’t overestimate himself. Being brave wasn’t something that came easily to him, especially when Gaby was there begging him to do the opposite.
He stopped at the top of the stairs and pressed his ear against the door. He listened, waiting a full thirty seconds, and didn’t open the door until he was satisfied he didn’t hear anything on the other side. No footsteps, no sounds of any kind at all. Of course, they could be playing possum, waiting for him. That was possible, too.
This is so stupid.
He unlocked the door, then quickly opened it and slipped out into the kitchen. He turned and closed the basement door behind him, then turned back around again, the revolver out front, holding his breath.
He was relieved to find a brightly lit kitchen, already filled with morning sun flooding through the windows above the sink as well as other windows in the living room. Everything was where it should be. He hoped.
He glanced down at his watch: 8:17 a.m.
Josh moved toward the front door, entering the foyer. More lights in the room made him breathe a little easier. He knew the bloodsuckers didn’t hide in dark corners in brightly lit rooms. They hid in rooms that were dark, like that back room in the store, where Matt was bitten. The creatures weren’t stupid. Far from it. They sure as hell had proven that eight months ago.
He hurried toward the window and looked out. He could hear the car getting closer. Soon, he saw the nose of a GMC turning the corner and cruising up the street in his direction. Josh lowered himself to the floor, with just his eyes peering out from behind the windowsill. The curtains fluttered above him, and he realized with slight anxiety that the window had been open all night.
How had he missed that? He was thankful nothing had come in during the night. God, he hoped nothing had come in during the night…
As the truck passed by on the street, Josh saw Manley behind the steering wheel, scanning the area with those cold, reptilian eyes of his. His heart began racing at the possibility of being caught by Manley. Of all their captors, the man scared him the most. There was just something so wrong about that guy.
When Manley and the GMC finally passed the house and turned right onto another street, Josh let out a big sigh and sat down on the floor to compose himself.
After a moment, he got up and headed back into the kitchen, where he opened the refrigerator and almost fainted at the overwhelming stench of rotten food. He held his breath and searched through the slabs of cheese and meat teeming with maggots. At least some life was thriving at the end of the world.
Josh grabbed a two-liter bottle of Coke and four warm bottles of water. He closed the refrigerator and finally let himself gasp for air again.
Next, he raided the cabinets and closets, looking for food. He opened one of the drawers and saw glossy silver packages of Kung Fu noodles stacked high.
Jackpot, mofos!
Gaby looked glad to see him coming back through the basement door, but she was even more glad see the bags of Kung Fu noodles in his arms. “Oh my God, I’m so hungry,” she said, and quickly pulled open one of the bags and broke off a big piece of noodle and stuffed it into her mouth.
“How is it?” he asked.
“Food,” she said between a mouthful of noodles.
He laughed and handed her a bottle of water. “Try not to choke on it.”
“Trying,” she grinned back.
Sandra gratefully took another bag of noodles from him. “Wow, Kung Fu noodles. I haven’t had these since college.”
“Where did you go to school?” he asked.
“Baylor. That was a lifetime ago.” She wandered back to her corner, where she opened the bag and pulled out a big piece of noodle and bit into it, looking utterly satisfied.
Josh sat down next to Gaby and opened a bag. The noodles were a bit stale and didn’t make that crackling sound he was used to. But they tasted okay, and that was what mattered. He happily ate his entire bag and chased them down with some warm Coke.
They sat in the basement and ate in silence. The only sounds were their chewing and drinking.
Josh found himself oddly content. Sure, his parents were probably dead, and his friends were probably all dead, too. But he had Gaby sitting here next to him, so close that every time she went to pinch noodles from her bag of Kung Fu, her shoulder rubbed up against him. She had washed and scratched away as much of Betts’s blood as she could, but there were still specks of red clinging to her fingers. She seemed to not notice, though.