They sat quietly for a few minutes, listening to birds chirping as they swarmed the wide-open skies above them. Even the sloshing of the ocean was calming, as if last night’s rainstorm had drained the sea of its power and it was only now starting to regain its strength. It was so peaceful he wanted to close his eyes and go to sleep.
He did close his eyes, but he didn’t go to sleep. That wasn’t going to happen for a while, no matter how tired or sore or numbed he was. Instead of lingering on what he couldn’t control, Keo spent the next few minutes swapping out the bandages with fresh ones.
“Need a hand?” Jordan asked.
“Nah, I got it.”
“I was just trying to be nice. I hate the sight of blood.” She watched him working for a moment before asking, “So what’s the deal with you and Gillian?”
He didn’t answer right away, because he didn’t know how, though the more he thought about it, the more simple the answer was. So much so that it pained him to finally realize it.
The deal with him and Gillian? There was no deal. That was the painful truth of it.
“She has Jay and the baby,” he finally said. “I guess that’s the deal.”
“Sorry.”
“Yeah, well, it is what it is.” He finished up and shoved the supplies back into the pack. “When you were with Tobias, did you ever shoot anyone?”
“I’ve shot plenty of people.”
“Maybe I should say, did you ever kill anyone?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “There were a lot of skirmishes and bullets were always flying, but if you’re asking me if I’m one hundred percent certain I killed someone during those moments, then no. I can’t say for sure if I’ve ever killed anyone or not.”
“What about that ambush at the strip mall? The day I showed up?”
“By the time I got there, Tobias had already sounded the retreat. I fired a magazine into where I thought there were some soldiers, but again…”
“You can’t be sure.”
“I can’t be sure. Sorry.”
“That’s nothing to be sorry about.”
“Considering what’s about to show up soon, I think there is. You don’t know if you can count on me.”
“That’s not true.”
“No?”
“I know I can count on you.”
She looked at him seriously. “How?”
“The same way I knew I could count on you to keep Gillian and the others safe back at the cabin.”
“And I did a hell of a good job with that. Gillian and I got captured, Mark’s dead, and Rachel and…” She let the rest go unsaid.
“But you got them safely away from the cabin and here, just like I knew you would. What happened after that was out of your control.”
“You weren’t there…”
“You did the best you could.”
She wasn’t convinced, and turned her head and looked over at the solitary houses that lined both sides of the street instead.
“You should have been there with us, Keo,” she said finally. “Things would have turned out differently if you had been.”
“I know,” he said quietly. “I know…”
CHAPTER 26
“They’re not coming,” Keo said.
“How can you be sure?” Jordan asked.
Keo didn’t have to look at his watch, thanks to the sight of the setting sun. The calm, clear skies weren’t darkening just yet, but it wouldn’t be long now. Maybe another hour, maybe less. In the back of his mind, he still remembered the speed with which yesterday had darkened.
“They would be here by now if they were coming,” he said.
“Maybe he’s dead. Steve. You said it yourself; you couldn’t see anyone back at the marina, just silhouettes. One of them could have been Steve. If he’s dead, would they still come after us?”
It was a fair question, and she had a point. It had been unfathomably dark back there, and he and Dave were shooting at everything that wasn’t them. One of the bodies spilling out of Marina 1 could very well have been Steve.
Or was that just him trying to be overly optimistic?
“Maybe,” he said.
“You didn’t answer my question. Would they still come after us if Steve’s dead?”
“I don’t know. You’ve known the guy longer than I have. Would he?”
“I’ve seen him, and Tobias has talked about him a lot, but I never sat across a desk from him drinking shots of whiskey. You have.”
Another good point. Jordan was full of good points today.
“Steve’s the boss,” Keo said. “He would move Heaven and Earth to find and snuff out Dave for killing Jack. Without him, the town-and the soldiers running it-might not consider us important enough to commit the manpower. I wouldn’t, in their shoes. What’s two or three more stragglers when they have an entire town to watch over?”
“So there’s a chance no one’s coming.”
“There’s a chance, yeah.”
She cocked her head, scrutinizing him with her one good eye. In a day or two, she would probably be able to see out of the right side just fine.
“What?” he said.
“You’re telling me what you think I want to hear, but you don’t actually believe any of it, do you?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
Jordan sighed. “You know what’s ironic about all of this?”
“What’s that?”
“This place.” She looked around at the empty streets and the houses around them again. “We’ve been trying to get here all this time, and here we are, finally. Is it everything you thought it would be?”
“Not quite.”
“Yeah…”
He glanced down at his watch. 5:11 P.M. “It’ll be dark soon. We need to find a place to hole up for the night.”
“And maybe find some food. Did I tell you I was starving?”
“Maybe a time or two.”
“I thought I’d just remind you in case you forgot.” As if on cue, her stomach growled. “See?”
He stood up. “Let’s go get Dave.”
“You think he’s hungry, too?”
“I’m sure he is.”
“Because I’m starving.”
“You don’t say…”
*
Dave heard them coming behind him and glanced up from the boulder where he was hiding, overlooking the eastern marina on the other side.
“I don’t think they’re coming today,” he said.
“Doesn’t look like it,” Keo nodded.
“That’s good news for us, right? Maybe they won’t come tomorrow, either.”
And maybe monkeys will fly out of my ass, Keo thought, but said, “Maybe. For now, let’s find someplace to bunk down for the night. This island might look empty, but it’s far from it.”
Dave looked up at the sky, and Keo thought he might have shivered involuntarily.
“Been awhile?” Keo asked.
“What’s that?” Dave said.
“Since you’ve been out here.”
Dave tried to smile. “Something like that.”
Keo thought about saying something reassuring. Not just for Dave, but for Jordan standing next to him, but with the night creeping up on them and Steve coming (You’re out there, aren’t you? I know you’re out there.) sooner or later, whatever he said would have just sounded hollow.
“Let’s try to stay alive tonight first, then worry about tomorrow, tomorrow,” was all he could think of to say.
*
Choosing a place to stay the night was a no-brainer. The two-story white house on the hill in the middle, where he had found the guns, was the first and last choice he considered. From up there, he could keep an eye on the entire island, including both marinas. The house was also in a perfect spot to, even with just three people, hold off a lengthy assault.
He didn’t like the idea of getting into another standoff with very few outs, but Keo had learned long ago that what he wanted and would rather do was usually not what he had to do in order to survive. Pollard, Song Island, and T18 were proof of that.
“Adapt or perish,” as Lara and the folks on the Trident were fond of saying.
The house was flanked by a half dozen others, with a long, winding driveway that connected it to the streets. A ten-foot-tall metal fence surrounded the property, with an extensive front and backyard, and an electronic gate that they left the way Gene had found it-open. Gene might have just been a sixteen-year-old kid, but he had survived on the island by himself for months; he had done that by not attracting the ghouls’ attention, which meant leaving things as he found them, including the doors, windows, and front gates.