College.
She used to have plans for college. She’d had everything worked out, too. Good grades, after school programs, extra credits, stacks of college preparation books, and admissions forms from every school around the country.
What was that old saying? “The plans of mice and men…” Or something like that.
“There you are,” a voice said behind her.
Gaby looked back at Amy, who walked over with two cans of diet soda.
Gaby took one. “Thanks.”
She opened her can. There was no fizz, of course, and the taste was sludgy and warm, and she suddenly missed the freezer back at the hotel. She did her best to hide her disappointment and hoped Amy hadn’t caught it.
“Jen says you guys have a freezer on the island,” Amy said. “That would be nice right about now.”
“Refrigerators in our rooms, too.”
“So, ice and cold drinks?”
“Uh huh.”
“I’ve forgotten what that’s like.” She took a sip from her soda and made a face. “Yeah, I could really go for a little ice right about now.”
“Where’s Jen?”
“Asleep in her room. She always crashes after every trip. I personally think she does it on purpose — keeps going out there to tire herself out, because it’s so hard to sleep day after day in here. There’s not a lot to do, and you know hospitals…”
Gaby replayed the faces of the people on the tenth floor in her mind. Droopy, sleep-deprived, and pale. It was a depressing thought, and she pushed it away.
“What’s out there?” she asked instead.
“The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Go Ragin’ Cajuns.”
“I’ve never seen a Ragin’ Cajun before.”
“They’re like your average Cajun. Only ragin’.”
“Ah.”
They shared an awkward smile.
Amy took another sip from her flat soda and made another face. “Ugh. This thing tastes terrible. You swear you guys have ice over there?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die.”
“Good enough for me.”
“Are you going?”
“To Song Island?” She seemed to think about it. “If everyone’s going, I guess there’s no reason for me to stay behind.”
“Jen doesn’t seem to care either way.”
“It’s ‘have helicopter, will fly’ with her. I don’t think she cares about anything else, to be perfectly honest.”
“Was she in the Army, too?”
“She was the news chopper pilot for one of the local stations around here. You should have seen her at the beginning of all this. Ferrying people to the hospital like some kind of aerial avenger. It was beautiful.”
Gaby took another sip from the soda, thought about spitting it out, but didn’t want to hurt Amy’s feelings, so she forced herself to swallow it instead.
“Can you hear it?” Amy asked.
“What’s that?”
“The city.”
Gaby thought that was a strange question. She tried to listen to the city, but she only heard the whistling of the wind, the occasional flap-flap-flap of trash moving around the street and the parking lot below them.
“I don’t hear anything,” Gaby said.
“Yeah,” Amy said. “We heard them in the first few months. Dogs and cats. But we haven’t heard a single one of them for months now. The only animals that are safe are the birds.”
Gaby watched a flock of birds glide gracefully across the skyline in front of them, far from the reaches of the streets below…
She found Will in his room, next to hers along the north tower. There weren’t nearly enough people for the tenth floor’s 200 rooms, so they had their pick. She guessed Will had chosen two rooms within twenty yards of the stairs for the quick rooftop access.
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” was his and Danny’s motto. They did almost everything with it in mind, something she had slowly begun to adopt. It was a new way of not just thinking, but living, and it took more effort than she had expected, mostly because Will and Danny made it look so effortless.
He stood next to his window, staring out through rusted rebars. Every room on the floor had the same long, rectangle windows that stretched almost the entire width of the back wall. Will had dumped his pack on an uncomfortable-looking pull-out sofa, and his beaten up M4A1 rifle lay across the patient bed behind him. The good thing about staying in a hospital was that every room had its own bed and bathroom. Unfortunately, the bathroom didn’t have running water or working plumbing, but the bed was clean enough, if not entirely comfortable.
Will glanced over. “Settled in?”
“Lumpy bed, window you can’t open, and the smell of desperation in the air. What’s not to like?”
He chuckled. “What’s up?”
“About Mike’s people…”
“Close the door first.”
She nodded and closed the door after her. “Are we taking them back with us?”
“Some. Maybe ten at first. See how that works out, then act accordingly.”
“We could definitely use more guns.”
He nodded. “You can never go wrong with more guns, as long as you can trust the finger pulling the trigger.”
She stood next to him and looked out the window at the quiet, empty city below. It looked more dead from behind bars than it had from the rooftop. They didn’t speak for a long time, something Gaby had become used to with Will.
“Thanks again for bringing me with you,” she said after a while.
“I wouldn’t have if I didn’t think you could hack it.”
A sudden flush of pride raced through her, and she did her best to not let it show on her face.
Instead, she reached through the bars, rasped her knuckles against the glass window, and got back a dull thudding sound. “Can they get through this?”
“Doubtful. Hospital windows are made to be permanently closed and nearly impossible to break.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“It’s to keep the patients from deciding to end it all when times get tough.”
“That’s a pleasant thought.”
He glanced back at the door briefly, as if to make sure it was still closed. “They’ve been really lucky here so far. I think Mike knows it, too. That’s why he’s so desperate to get them to the island.”
“There are a lot of long faces in those hallways.”
“They look like good people, so there’s that.”
“Pretty decent, yeah.”
“It won’t hurt to bring them over. Mike would be a valuable asset…with some sleep.”
“And the others?”
“Danny and I have experience sanding down kids and turning them into decent soldiers.”
She smiled. “Did Mike say what they’re planning to do with the silver bullets we brought over?”
“There’s an Archers Sports and Outdoors a few streets down with supplies he’s been itching to get at. The last time he tried to take them was about three months ago, and they lost a couple of guys.”
“So we’ll be here for at least tonight.”
“Homesick already?”
“Nah,” she said. “Just missing that kitchen freezer, that’s all.” Then she added, “And the cold drinks. And the ice. And the showers. But mostly the showers.”
There wasn’t a lot to do until tomorrow, so after washing her face with warm bottled water in the bathroom, Gaby sat on the bed, stripped down her M4, and cleaned it piece by piece while she still had some light from the window. She took out a small pouch with cleaning solvents, an old toothbrush, lint-free cloth, and a bore brush for the job. It was the most basic cleaning kit they could put together using equipment available at the hotel.