“Oh, and this.” She handed him the white bag. It was leather and at one point someone had used it to carry makeup.
“I don’t need makeup, Lara,” Blaine said, grinning at her.
She smiled back at him. “It’s an impromptu aid kit.” She unzipped the bag and pulled out a plain white bottle. “I restocked your painkillers, for when the pain kicks in. And trust me, it will, sooner or later.”
“More Vicodin?”
“Tramadol. Not quite as strong as Vicodin or Percocet. At this point, I’m supposed to tell you not to take more than three a day, but I doubt you’ll listen anyway.” She put the bottle back into the bag and pulled out a roll of gray duct tape. “This is for your wounds, if and when they open again. Let’s hope they don’t, but if they do, this will do in a pinch. Clean the wound as thoroughly as you can, then use this to keep it closed so it can heal up. It’ll hurt, but it’ll also keep you from bleeding out.”
He took the duct tape hesitantly. “Isn’t this something MacGyver would do?”
“I don’t know who that is.”
“He’s a guy on TV. He did crazy things with household items.” Blaine shook his head. “Never mind. Does this actually work?”
“I would have given you superglue, but we don’t have any.”
He gave her another doubtful look, probably wondering if she was just messing with him now.
“Superglue works wonders to close up a wound,” she said. “But since I don’t have any on hand, duct tape will have to do. Just make sure to clean the wound first.” She reached into the bag and took out a small bottle of rubbing alcohol. “This will do the trick. Then squeeze the wound together and apply as much duct tape as you need to cover it up. That’ll give it time to heal and keep it from opening again.”
“Why don’t I just do that now?”
“Because I spent a lot of time stitching you back together and properly dressing the wounds. This is worst-case scenario. If you ever need to reach for this white bag, you’re already in trouble.”
“You’re the doctor, doctor.” He took the bag from her and put it on the seat next to the AR-15.
“Third-year medical student, actually.”
“I sold car parts for a living and did part-time work in my uncle’s garage in Dallas. Trust me, third-year medical student is a better doctor than I could have afforded even before the world went to shit.”
He climbed into the truck and looked back out at Lara, and for a moment she thought he was going to announce he had changed his mind, that he was going to stay with them after all.
Instead, he said, “Thank you. Not just for the supplies. But for everything. For saving my life. You didn’t have to do it, especially now with everything the way it is, but you did, and that means a lot to me. One of these days, I’m going to pay both you and Will back. I just don’t know how I’m going to do it yet.”
“You’ll have to stay alive to do that.”
He grinned at her again. “That’s the plan. But I have to find Sandra first. She means everything to me. If she’s not here beside me, I might as well just lie down and let those monsters drain me dry.”
He closed the door and turned on the engine.
“Blaine,” she said, leaning closer to the door so he could hear her over the engine. “We may still be here in a day, or a week, or we might be gone by tomorrow morning. It all depends on what’s out there and how safe we can be by remaining here. But if you can’t find us, remember Song Island across the border.”
“We’ll find you again, Sandra and me. You can count on it.”
She was convinced that he believed every word. She nodded and stepped back. “Be safe.”
He put the truck in gear and pulled out of the parking lot.
She watched him drive off, going up Chance Street in the direction they had come, speeding up with urgency a second later and then, just like that, he was gone, the sound of his truck engine fading with him.
Good luck. God knows we all need some these days.
CHAPTER 11
WILL
The First Assembly of the Lord building was a big, squat structure on the right of South Main Street, about four kilometers from the courthouse. Lancing had a surprisingly large number of houses of worship, most of them more elaborate and bigger than the First Assembly of the Lord. Will was sure they all had basements, but the others were too large and in the busier parts of town. That would draw attention, something they didn’t need at the moment.
Right now, he was purely in SERE mode — Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. The grunt in him wanted to stop and fight, to take the ghouls head-on and see what would happen. If it were just him and Danny, he might have done just that. But it wasn’t just them. There was Lara, Carly, and the girls to think about.
Sometimes it still amazed him what he had gotten himself into. Taking care of civilians was one thing, but Lara…she complicated matters. She made him think differently. Act differently. Take fewer risks. She was a game changer, and for the first time in his life, Will cared about living to be an old man.
So he knew exactly what Blaine was thinking when the big man had told them he was leaving. Danny knew, too, because Danny had Carly. Before they left the courthouse, they gave Blaine everything he would need to find a car and get it running. They also gave him as much ammo as he could carry. Will figured Blaine would probably end up needing it sooner or later, especially if he had the bad luck to get caught up in the wave of ghouls hunting them. Considering Blaine’s run of luck lately, that was highly likely.
The First Assembly of the Lord had a parking lot that was mostly gravel. Danny, behind the wheel of the Ranger, pulled into it now, and they heard the crunch of loose pebbles under the truck’s tires. They spotted a couple of cars in the parking lot, but apparently the end of the world hadn’t convinced any of the church’s followers to rush over for salvation. Or if it had, they hadn’t made it.
They climbed out of the Ranger and grabbed the Remington 870s from the back. The shotguns were always preferable in close-quarters situations, whereas the M4A1s, slung over their backs, were more for long-range work. They wore their stripped-down urban assault vest over T-shirts and cargo pants, and carried just enough equipment for emergencies, with the rest piled up back in the courthouse.
They entered the church through a side door and were relieved to find that the layout was very simple. It was essentially one big room up front, with a reception area/baptistery that stretched about three meters from the front door, seventy percent of the church made up of the nave and pews; and finally, the lectern. An empty choir section looked back at them from one side of the church as they moved quickly across the communion area. All of it looked bright and sunny under large stained glass windows.
There were two rooms in the back. One led into a big office that apparently doubled as a sort of guest room, or possibly a consultation room, with couches, comfortable armchairs, and fold-out beds. The second room led into a big closet with janitorial supplies stacked on shelves and a large black piano covered by heavy tarp. Dust swarmed Will like thousands of floating termites when he pulled at the covers to see what was underneath.
He was surprised they had gone through almost the entire length of the church without encountering one ghoul. That was the case with most of Lancing. The city seemed to have very few of the creatures around, which was both a relief and eerie. Every city, regardless of size, had its share of ghouls. Lancing, on the other hand, was unnervingly lacking.