Lila was concerned by how silent and withdrawn Gloria Patton was acting. The woman sat in one of the plush theater seats beside her husband and patted the blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms. Little Ian had been so quiet since they'd arrived Lila began to have the horrible suspicion Mrs. Patton was carrying around a dead child. She went over and offered the woman a packet of trail mix and peered into the blanket at the sleeping baby's face, round-cheeked and rosy. He was snoring slightly and the tightness in her chest eased.

"Does your baby need anything? We don't have much an infant can eat. How old is he?"

Gloria looked up at her with a blank gaze. Doug rubbed her back. "Honey, Lila's talkin' to you. Tell her about Ian."

"He's six months. He's on breast milk and cereal now, too."

Lila glanced at Doug. "I suppose you'll need diapers and stuff."

He indicated the bag he wore over one shoulder. "We have a few left, but we'll need supplies tomorrow." He paused then added, "So, do you people have a plan in mind?"

"Like you said, to the waterfront to get a boat," Ari said. "We'll head to the mainland and try to find out more about what emergency plans are in place, and get Carl to the authorities so he can share what he knows."

"Wish I could see the data right now," Carl complained.

"You can," Derrick said. "I've got the laptop and cables. I can connect the hard drive if you give me a few minutes." He set to work with Carl leaning over and giving him suggestions that made Derrick's shoulders grow tenser by the second.

"I think Carl's going to get his head bit off in about a second." Lila sat down beside Ari. The rest of the group had broken off into side conversations and at last she had a moment to talk to him privately.

He looked over at Derrick. "He was amazing today. Saved my ass. I had a zombie at my throat and he finished it off."

"Really? I didn't hear about that." She studied Derrick. "It looks like he's dealing with it all right. That had to be tough." Then she turned her attention to Ari and realized he was as blood-splattered as the rest of the strike team had been when they returned. "You should clean up and get some rest."

She rose and held out her hand to him. Ari took it and she pulled him to his feet and led him back to the dressing room. There was a sink with no running water, but also a cooler to draw water from.

"I'll find you something clean to wear," Lila promised as filled a basin with water for him to clean up with. She glanced over to find Ari shirtless, and her stomach did an acrobatic series of sommersaults. For a moment, her gaze was glued to his chiseled pecs and abs and, oh God, those powerful shoulders. She swallowed and looked away.

Lila carried the basin over to where Ari leaned against the counter while he unlaced his shoes. She set the water down, keeping her eyes averted, but couldn't help inhaling his scent—male sweat that wasn't at all unpleasant but tugged on a spot deep in her belly. Heat blossomed through her and her body tensed with want.

"I'll, uh, get you some clothes," she repeated lamely, and hurried off to the wardrobe room. Everyone was wearing clean clothes, courtesy of the theater. Racks of costumes from a wide variety of productions made for some interesting outfit choices. Lila's favorite was Joe's circa 1970's powder blue leisure suit. It had been the only garment large enough to fit his lanky frame and it gave the reserved man an amusing flair.

For Ari she found a vaguely Robin Hood looking costume. She passed on the tights, but thought the collarless, long sleeved shirt with a tunic style vest over it actually looked comfortable. She also grabbed a couple of pairs of pants for him to try on. They all needed to stop by a store tomorrow for a fresh change of underwear. Not that it was a top priority by any means, but if they had to get other supplies, they might as well be clean and comfortable.

When Lila returned to the dressing room, Ari was finger combing his damp hair back from his face. He'd stripped down to his undershorts so Lila got another pleasing eyeful of male flesh—good, strong thigh and calf muscles and a pair of oversized feet.

"Here you go," she said overly brightly as she handed him the pile of clothes. "There's kind of a bizarre assortment of stuff back there."

He held up the shirt and vest and looked at them doubtfully. "No kidding."

"Look at it this way. Who've you got to impress? We could all wear clown suits or muumuus every day and it wouldn't matter any more. There've gotta be some perks to an apocalypse," Lila teased.

She was rewarded with a smile, a big beautiful smile that lit his shadowed eyes and made them sparkle. Her heart flipped like a landed fish. She hated the way her body betrayed her, suffering all the pangs of a childish crush, her hormones rampaging beyond her control.

"How do you like my outfit?" She strutted an imaginary catwalk and posed, hoping to earn a full fledged laugh from him.

"Very sexy. I especially like the sparkly unicorn." He indicated the image on the front of the T-shirt Ronnie had picked out for her to wear. His words were joking, but his eyes lingered on her rainbow and unicorn emblazoned chest a few beats longer than necessary, checking out her attributes as she had his.

"Wonder what play this was used in." Lila picked at the rhinestones studding the unicorn's horn and made small talk to quiet the rapid beating of her heart. But though she tried to pretend everything was normal, the air between them was charged with enough electricity to light the building.

Ari moved closer, filling her vision although she didn't look up. She felt him there and it was almost as if he'd already touched her. "I thought you weren't coming back," she said softly. "You scared the hell out of me. Don't do that again."

"I don't plan to." He reached out and picked a loose piece of glitter glue from the unicorn's tail. His fingers happened to graze her breast in a completely accidental way.

Lila's lips twitched in amusement. She looked up at Ari and all the oxygen was sucked from her body at the searing heat in his gaze. What the hell? This had escalated so fast and so unexpectedly she felt like she was sliding inevitably down a mudslide into a yawning pit from which there was no escape. But it was a tumble she wanted to take.

She licked her lips and his attention dropped to her mouth. She leaned toward him and his hands slid around her waist. And then their faces were inches apart and Lila's eyes began to close.

The door slammed open and footsteps entered the room. "Ari, are you here? Oh!"

Lila opened her eyes and stepped back, blood rushing to her cheeks. She ducked her head. "Yeah. So, I'll, uh, do that." She looked over at Sondra as if only just realizing she was there. "Oh. Hi."

Transparent, stupid charade. As if anyone looking at them couldn't tell they were about to kiss. Why was she covering anyway? It wasn't anyone's business what they chose to do. But she certainly wasn't going to kiss in front of a complete stranger and didn't really want to have the entire group gossiping about them.

"I'm sorry." Sondra smiled. "I just wanted to ask Ari about the plans for tomorrow. I need some things from a store and wondered where exactly we'll be shopping."

Lila stared at her. Shopping? Was this girl serious? She acted as if they were going on a spree rather than foraging for necessary supplies. It was a wonder she was still alive.

"I don't know. It depends on what happens on the way. We'll make it up as we go along." Ari sounded impatient. He wasn't any happier than she was about being interrupted.

"Because I was thinking," Sondra continued, "We're fairly close to Humboldt's and that would be—"

"I'll keep that in mind." He cut her off. "Look, it's been a really long day. If you don't mind, we can discuss it tomorrow. I'm exhausted."

Sondra's perfectly shaped brows drew together in a petulant frown. "Sure. I understand. I just thought we could all use new clothes." She nodded at Ari's odd attire and laughed. "I mean, really use new clothes. Is that all you could find?"

Her brilliant thoughts were interrupted as the door opened and more members of the group trooped into the room. Disappointment and the remnants of desire swirled through Lila. She and Ari were clearly not going to get a chance to pick up where they'd left off.

"Carl's taking first watch," Derrick reported. "Doug's next, then Joe. The Pattons say they'll sleep in the theater, because their baby wakes up at night. Ronnie's staying with them. She likes the baby, and that Gloria has a real 'mom' vibe even if she is a little out of it."

"Sounds good." Ari accepted his report. As Derrick turned to prepare his bedroll for the night, he added, "By the way, thanks for today, man. You saved my ass."

"No problem." Derrick tried to sound casual, but Lila could tell he was pleased Ari had recognized him.

Her moment with Ari was past. With people milling all around there was no more time to talk, let alone do anything else. Perhaps she could've given him a nod and gotten him to go someplace else with her. It was a big theater with lots of private spaces. But Ari was practically swaying on his feet with exhaustion. He needed to sack out not make out.

Lila turned her attention to redistributing bedding so the newcomers would have places to sleep. She carried the blankets she'd gathered into the other room where Gloria and Doug were preparing a spot to sleep. Doug had found a sofa bed in a prop room and dragged it backstage. The little family probably had the most comfortable bed in the place.

"Got everything you need?" Lila asked as she offered them the bedding.

"Yes, thanks," Doug said. "We're so grateful to be here and thank y'all for taking us in like this."

"I got my princess nightgown on." Ronnie stood up from the cushions she'd laid on the floor beside the sofa bed and spun around. She was wearing a woman's white, lacy negligee that swept the floor on her small body.

"Very pretty," Lila said. "I want to thank you again for picking out this great unicorn shirt. It's very cool."

 "I still think you should wear one of the ball dresses. You could look like a princess, too." Ronnie referred to the chiffon prom dresses hanging on a rack in the dressing room awaiting their scene in the zombie play.

"Yeah, well, I don't think those would be too good for hiking in," Lila said.

She glanced at the Patton family, their combined weight making the sofa bed sag deeply. Gloria was feeding the baby. Finally animated, the kid waved an arm and snuffled loudly as he nursed. Doug had an arm around his wife and Lila's heart melted a little. It was nice to see an intact family. She prayed hers was. Her throat tightened as she thought about her parents.

 "Well, if you guys have everything you need. I guess I'll say goodnight." She made a hasty exit before she cried in front of Ronnie and got the little girl started again. It was a pleasure to have her happy—or at least content in the moment.

Lila returned to the dressing room to find everyone mostly settled for the night. Sondra sat cross-legged on Lila's bedroll, talking to Ari, who lay on his back with an arm over his eyes. When she saw Lila, she waved her over.

"I saved you a spot here." Sondra patted the sleeping bag on her other side.

Lila forced a smile. "Thanks." She eyed the new sleeping arrangement and the flat pillow Sondra had generously allotted her and decided Sondra was a complete douchebag—as if she'd had any doubt.

She lay down on the sleeping bag with no cushion beneath it, and covered up with a trench coat from the costume rack.

"Tell me more about yourself." Sondra was as chipper as if she was on speed. "Where are you from? I can tell you're not a native New Yorker."

"How?"

"You have some kind of flat accent. Midwest?"

"Ohio. I'm going to college at NYU. Was going."

"What's your major?"

"Undeclared. What about you?" Lila didn't feel like talking and guessed Sondra was the type who'd be only too happy to take the burden of conversation and run with it. She was right.

"No college for me. I've taken a few classes here and there, but mostly I'm working on my modeling career. Hands not face." She held up her bandaged hand. "God, I hope this doesn't leave a scar. You've probably seen my hands in ads before. You know Staunton Jewelers? My hand was featured in their fall catalogue. Just last week my agent landed me a choice gig as the hand model for Ogilvie lotion. That's nationwide exposure, not just local." Her dark eyes suddenly glistened with tears. "Of course, all that's fucked now. That's so my luck. I finally get my big break and the world goes to hell."

Lila grunted. She had no comforting words to offer.

"It'll get better though, right?" Sondra leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. "It has to. The government will find a way to fix everything. Or that Carl guy will."

The echo of Ann's constant insistence help would come reminded Lila of her, and of the way she'd died. She looked over at Ari. He glanced back at her from beneath the arm across his forehead.

"Things will work out," Lila said. "I'm sure you'll model again some day."

"That's what I think, too. And hey, probably the competition will be less fierce." The tears were blinked away and Sondra smiled again.

Complete douche, Lila confirmed to herself.

* * * * *

Chapter Ten

Ari fell asleep to the drone of Sondra's voice explaining how hand modeling was different from what people thought, and woke to the sound of Doug coming in to tap Joe for the last guard duty of the night.

Ari rose from his sleeping bag. "I'll take his shift. I can't sleep any more." Better to be doing something useful than lying sleepless and restless.

He walked with Doug out of the dressing room to the backstage where Gloria and Ian slept peacefully on the sofa bed. Ronnie had crawled in beside them, leaving no place for Doug to lie. The man shrugged. "Guess I'll use your bedroll for the rest of the night if that's okay."

"Sure. Anything happen outside tonight?"

"Some noise in the distance; gunfire, some explosions like grenades going off and a larger one like maybe a gas line blew up. There was a glow in the west that could be from a fire. Nothing nearby though," Doug reported.

"Busy night," Ari commented.

"I think it's going to get wilder before all this is through," Doug said, then bid Ari goodnight and went to lie down.

Ari walked across the stage, past the lunch tables of "Atomic High" according to the sign on the backdrop. He went through the dark theater, past the rows of empty seats and imagined the ghostly applause of theater-goers from years past. The chances of this little theater ever seeing another audience was slim.

He turned off his flashlight before entering the theater lobby. They'd agreed on no lights so as not to draw attention. The lobby was ghostly with only moonlight spearing through the windows. There was a faint smell of chocolate in the air from the candy counter—a welcome relief after the odor of sweaty feet and Fabreze that lingered in the actors' dressing room.

Ari peered out the window and saw the glow in the distance Doug had mentioned. With no one to fight fires, how many blocks might be demolished before a fire burned out on its own? There were other dangers besides zombies in this besieged city. So far they hadn't come across any violent people, but Ari had no doubt they were out there. The longer this went on and people had to scavenge for increasingly scarce food and supplies, the more certain types would use force to keep the best for themselves. Man was an animal at heart; the strong survived and the weak were eaten.

The door behind him opened and Ari looked toward it. Lila, wearing a man's trench coat that ended nearly at her ankles, padded across the floor on bare feet. "Hi. I couldn't sleep any more either so I thought I'd join you."

"Cool."

There were low, backless benches around the lobby for patrons to sit during intermission. Ari sat on one near the window, scooting over far enough so Lila could sit beside him. As she sank down, he studied her profile, the slender bridge of her nose, her firm chin and the curve of those lips he'd almost gotten a chance to taste earlier. She was cute with her hair tousled from sleep and looked like a little girl in that oversized coat with her bare feet poking out from beneath it.

"Aren't your feet cold?"

She glanced down and wiggled her toes. "Naw. I'm always hot."

Ari grinned. He didn't fire back a teasing comment, instead, letting the double entendre breathe and watching Lila blush. In the dim light he couldn't see her cheeks blushing, but had no doubt they were from the way she shifted on the seat.

"That didn't come out quite right," she said.

"I think it came out just right," he replied, low and sexy and moved a little closer to her.

She laughed nervously. "Have you always been such a flirt?"

"When there's someone worth flirting with."

Running out of words, she leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. Her shoulder length hair fell forward curtaining her face and hiding it from him. "So, tell me some more about Ari Brenner," she said. "What were you like as a kid?"

"Trouble, I told you. My mom worked a couple of jobs so I was on my own a lot, but even when I was young enough to have a babysitter, I'd sneak out and get into shit. My mom always liked to believe it was the kids I hung around with dragging me down. But the truth was I was kind of the ringleader."

"I can see that." She tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced over at him. "Mean little punks like you used to give brown-nosing, straight-A girls like me a hard time."

"I bet you gave them a hard time right back." He leaned forward, too, so he could see her eyes better.

"No. I just told on them. I was kind of a snitch. A real by-the-book type. I hated when things weren't fair or when someone weak got hurt."

"I wasn't a bully," Ari said abruptly, suddenly anxious for her to know he hadn't been a complete tool. "I never beat up littler kids. But me and my boys did steal things and wreck stuff just for the hell of it. By the time we were in high school, we were stealing more expensive things and wrecking other peoples' cars, which is how I ended up spending time in juvie."

"Was it bad there?" she asked. "You always read how juvenile detention only makes moderately messed up kids even worse."

He shrugged. "I have to say I was lucky. In my case it was the best thing that could've happened to me. There was a great guy there, a real mentor. And I was in a different frame of mind by the time I'd served my time. I finished high school, which was in serious doubt before that, and after bumming around for a while, I joined the army."

"Mm." Lila frowned. "Do you really think this is a good time to join that team with all the pies the U.S. has its finger in?"

"It's the perfect time. There's work to do. I want to do it. And the pay and benefits are excellent." He was annoyed but not surprised at her liberal reaction. He'd figured Lila's politics veered to the left. Not that he was some right wing zealot. He agreed with some aspects of both parties but generally believed all politicians were self-involved assholes. The army was a job, as good or bad as any, and it kind of pissed him off to hear her question his choice.

Lila must've caught his tone, because she instantly backed off. "Sorry. I tend to get worked up about foreign policy. But I guess none of that matters now. We're in a new world. I wonder if this has spread overseas."

"Maybe not, if the drug wasn't shipped out of the country. Although I suppose an infected person could be treated, recover, travel someplace by jet, die there and then reanimate. Guess it all depends on how long patients live before they relapse and how long it takes the corpses to reanimate."

Lila exhaled a long breath. "Let's not talk about this tonight. Moratorium on the subject of zombies."

She was right. Zombies weren't conducive to romance and he was much more interested in getting closer than in discussing the future right at the moment. In fact, he eased himself a little closer physically and put his arm behind Lila's back, resting his hand on the bench behind her. Next move, an arm around her waist. Usually he wasn't this slow to move on a girl who was obviously interested in him, too. But Lila was outside his usual zone and he didn't just want to grab at her.

"Now you've heard my sordid childhood story. Tell me about yourself. An A-student, Girl Scout, and 4-H, too, I'm guessing. Isn't that what kids do in Ohio, raise pigs or horses or something?"

"Now who's stereotyping? We didn't live on a farm. I've never ridden a horse. I've rarely been to a county fair for that matter. So no 4-H here."

"But I bet you joined clubs and volunteered for committees in school. You seem like the useful kind of girl who knows how to get things done. Class president maybe?"

"Vice president. And yes, I was in a few clubs."

He smiled, taking that "few" to mean "many". He would've liked to have seen what Lila looked like back then, all pigtails, braces and earnest face. She was right. He would've either ignored or teased a girl like her when he was younger. Now he admired her idealism and caring nature. She was good at keeping things calm in their little group, whether by distracting and entertaining Ronnie or by defusing tension. In a crisis, a man wanted to rely on a woman who knew how to get things done. Suddenly that was a far sexier quality than a nice rack or long legs.

"Well joining's a good thing," he said lamely, trying to express his admiration without saying it bluntly. "Maybe if I'd played more sports or been in some clubs, I would've gotten into less trouble back then. But live and learn."

"I've changed a lot since high school." Lila straightened her back and a shaft of moonlight etched her face in white and black. "Not so much of a joiner these days. I think a lot of it was tied up with trying to please my parents, or to be some kind of model citizen rather than figuring out what I believed in myself. Maybe that's why I'm so interested in philosophy and comparative religion courses. They've opened my mind to bigger thoughts than I ever dared to entertain back then."

And that, in a nutshell, was why Lila was unlike any girl he'd been with before and why he was a little nervous around her. She was damn deep. She considered things beyond the day to day, and was concerned with more than how she looked, what she owned or wanted to own. It made him realize he'd been wading in a very shallow dating pool up until now.

"I've never met anyone like you before." The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them, the truth although it sounded like an unoriginal pick-up line.

She could've come back with some smart ass comment, and they could've kept up the banter for the next couple of hours while the black of night turned to gray, but instead Lila turned toward him and leaned in. She cupped the side of his face and pressed her lips to his. It was only a small kiss, nothing heavy or deep, but somehow it rocked him to his core. His stomach clenched and his lips burned as if he'd never been kissed before. And his cock went stiff as a board.

Ari recovered fast and went into make-out mode, slipping a hand around her waist and curving the other at the back of her neck, feeling her warmth against both palms. He kissed her harder, deeper, pulled her body against his. By the time he let her go, they were both gasping for breath. He rested his forehead against hers and just breathed for a moment, his heart thumping against his breastbone. "Whew, that was…"

"I know."

"But I'm supposed to be keeping watch." He knew if they went on like this, pretty soon they'd be throwing down on the lobby floor with neither of them paying any attention to the world outside at all. "I should, uh, do that."

"You're right. Absolutely," she panted.

Reluctantly he released her body. Lila took her warm hand from his cheek, leaving it cold. She sat back on her side of the bench, leaving a little space between them, and looked out the window. "This probably isn't a good idea anyway. We're in the midst of a crisis. Who needs the distraction?"

"Mm-hm," he agreed, even as he imagined lunging at her again, dragging her off the narrow bench onto the floor and doing so much more than kissing. He rose and went to the window, turning his mind away from Lila and back to the task at hand. Nothing moved on the street and the orange glow of fire in the west seemed to have faded a little.

"Do you want anything to drink?" she asked. "I could go make you a cup of coffee or something. You didn't eat much dinner either."

"No, I'm fine. Thanks." A movement in one of the upstairs windows across the street caught his attention and his gaze shot up there. "Did you see that?"

"What?"

"Up there. Something moving."

"I thought I saw the curtain move when I was watching earlier in the day." She rose to join him by the window. "Think someone's over there?"

Before he could answer, a head and shoulders crashed through the window they were staring at before the body was dragged inside the building. Shattered glass rained down on the sidewalk below. A scream shattered the silence and then dead quiet followed.

Both of them stepped quickly back from their own window.

"Jesus!" Ari breathed. "What the hell?" But he knew what had happened. A survivor in that building had been attacked and run toward the window. He pictured a zombie or two springing on them, the person falling through the glass before being hauled away. The message hit home hard. The revenants were everywhere out there, roaming the city, infiltrating the buildings in search of more food. None of Ari's group was safe and they had a long way to go to reach the river. His raging hormones were doused like someone had turned an ice cold fire hose on him. He had to be more diligent. This was no time to be fucking around, literally or figuratively, with a girl.

"I think I'd like that coffee now," he said.

* * * * *

Chapter Eleven

The next day was bad from the beginning. For one thing, Ari had a headache and his nerves were jittery from drinking way too many cups of coffee during his watch. The Pattons' baby kept crying and he was afraid the noise would draw zombies. Everyone seemed to be in a foul mood, picking at and arguing with each other about minor things. He felt too irritable himself to soothe any egos and was glad when Lila stepped in between Derrick and Carl to mediate and escalating argument.

"Listen, guys. There'll be plenty of time later to figure out why patching in the hard drive isn't working. It's no one's fault. No one's questioning anyone's abilities. We know the data is on there and getting it someplace safe is what's important. So let's pack up and get on our way."

"Ari." Sondra was right by his elbow, looking up at him with pleading eyes. "Did you think about what I said yesterday? I don't think I'm being unreasonable. Humboldts is on the way to where we're going so we might as well stop there as anywhere else—get the baby some diapers and things."

He resisted the urge to shove her away. "We'll stop wherever's convenient and safe. Drop it." He couldn't believe how whacked Sondra was to be at all concerned about choosing a particular department store. Had she not noticed the zombies around her? Or was this her crazy means of coping? Focus on a stupid detail and pretend everything is normal like an ostrich with its head in the sand.

The day went from bad to worse when Doug Patton got the runs from something he'd eaten and spent nearly an hour in the restroom, delaying their start.

At last they got underway, walked a few blocks without incident, and then Ian decided to get fussy. Gloria did her best to calm the baby, but his crying escalated. Perhaps the kid could sense the tension in the air or maybe he was just being a normal baby. No amount of shushing would quiet him and Ari was terrified his piercing yells would attract zombies like ringing a dinner bell.

Since they were near Humboldt's, Sondra got her way. The building was locked so Ari broke into the store. A marauding horde of zombies charged up the street as he ushered the last of the group inside the building. He slipped through the door himself and watched for a moment to make certain they hadn't been spotted, but the creatures raged past. How many more near misses before they got caught and at last, and could they even fight with people like Mrs. Patton and the children along? At some point he might have to make a hard decision and cut the weak ones loose in order to keep the rest of them safe. Getting Carl to freedom was his main mission. The sacrifice of a few for the good of the entire world was never a pleasant thing to consider but sometimes it was necessary.

Inside the store, Deb and Joe went on a quick sweep of the ground floor while he led the rest of the group to the furniture department. They dropped onto chairs and couches, exhausted more from anxiety than from walking a few city blocks. It was no Sunday stroll out there.

"I'm going to get some things for the baby." Doug Patton started to head off.

"Wait a minute," Ari called. "We don't know if the store's secure and you're not even armed."

"I'll go with him," Lila volunteered, hefting the rifle which she'd yet to use. It wasn't that Ari didn't trust she would if necessary, but he didn't feel comfortable having people disperse to all departments of this huge store on individual errands.

"Wait until the others come back with a report," he ordered.

Derrick grumbled something under his breath about dictators, but Doug obediently sat back down.

Ian cried and Ari cringed inside. What would it take to quiet that kid? He found out a moment later when Gloria draped a blanket over her shoulder and nursed the baby.

"I'm hungry," Ronnie whined.

"Have some more Fritos." Derrick tossed a bag at her.

"I don't want any more. I want real food."

"We're all hungry. Just shut up about it," her brother said. "Grow up a little."

Ronnie was right. They couldn't keep eating snack foods. They needed better nutrition to keep up their strength. Another stop at a grocery store or restaurant would be necessary before the day was through.

Joe returned from scanning the east side of the store. "I didn't see or hear anything. But there are two floors above this. It's too big to scan it all. I don't feel comfortable here."

Me either, Ari thought. The sooner they got what they needed and got on their way, the better.

"I brought company." Deb approached from the other direction along with a group of about ten people.

Ari's stomach dropped. He should be glad to see more survivors, but the larger their number became, the more danger for everyone. Where two or three could move fast and hide well, bigger groups were slower and more obvious. Nevertheless, he held out his hand and greeted the leader of the group, a woman in her thirties. "How you doing? I'm Ari."

"Hunter." She briefly related their story. The group of survivors was mostly Humbolts employees, seven women and three men who'd hidden in a storeroom until the first wave of zombies had passed. They'd come out of hiding, barred the doors, cleaned up the place and were living on an upper level from with access to several fire escapes if need be.

"Until now it's been pretty quiet. We patrol and watch from the windows, but none of those things has tried to get in the building yet. Thanks for breaking our door, by the way." She fixed Ari with a hard stare.

"Sorry. We needed supplies and shelter." He indicated Gloria and Ian. "We've got a baby with us."

"Where are you headed?"

"The waterfront. We're going to get a boat." He didn't ask if they wanted to come along and hoped she didn't suggest it. If anything, he'd like to leave the Pattons here.

Hunter ordered a couple of her people to secure the door and invited everyone up to the second floor. "Do you have food with you? We'll trade whatever you need for more food and water."

It was ridiculous of her to claim the entire contents of the store as theirs to bargain with, but Ari let it go. No point in starting an argument. Besides, the Humboldt crew was armed with guns from their sporting goods department. He couldn't imagine it coming to a shootout. They weren't quite Lord of the Flies yet. But if these people continued to squat here instead of moving on, they'd soon become desperate for fresh supplies and likely to take them from anyone who wandered into their territory. The department store had a wide variety of useful items. Unfortunately food wasn't one of them.

"We'll share what we have," Ari said.

He and the rest of the group joined their hosts, who escorted them around the store to the various departments. Sondra seemed content to stay in women's clothing and try on one outfit after another. Maybe the act of shopping assured her the world still spun on its axis.

Soon they were supplied with everything they needed including personal care and baby items. In return, the Humboldt group took most of their provisions. Ari wasn't happy to lose the rest of their groceries, but he'd figured they'd need to stop for food today anyway.

When they were finished trading, everyone gathered near the top of the escalator. Ari stuck out his hand to shake Hunter's. "Guess we'll be moving on." He glanced at the Pattons and wondered if there was any polite way he could suggest they stay behind.

"Pam and I want to go with you," a woman named Lauren said abruptly. "We can't stay here. We'll all die before anyone comes to rescue us."

Hunter glared at her. "I told you a hundred times we're better off sitting tight. This is only the third day. Something's bound to happen soon. The government will fix this."

It seemed there were a lot more people in the "stick your thumb up your ass and wait for rescue" camp than Ari had thought.

"I'm sorry," he said to Lauren. "We can't take on any more people. It's hard enough to move with the group we've got." He looked around at their familiar faces. "In fact, if any of you would rather stay here with these people, you're welcome to."

"Nuh-uh," Hunter shook her head. "We've got all we can support right here. No one stays and no one goes."

"We do," Pam spoke up, supporting Lauren. "We want to get the hell out of here. Hunter, you can't keep us here. Why would you want to? You said yourself we're running out of food." She pointed at Ari. "And he can't stop us from going with them."

As the argument escalated, Ari sought advice by pondering W.W.V.D.—What would Vogt do? His sergeant wouldn't have put up with insubordination that was for sure, but this wasn't the army and these people weren't soldiers. He offered a suggestion. "Maybe we can trade, keep the numbers even. If a few of our members stayed and a few of yours wanted to join us..."

"You mean my family," Doug Patton interrupted. "You can't leave us behind. We won't be abandoned."

"I'm not talking about abandoning anyone. Only if you wanted to stay."

"Why would we? We're not crazy."

"Doug." Gloria set her new diaper bag on the floor and reached out to take her husband's arm. "Maybe it would be best for Ian. If we wait here with these people—"

"We'll end up dead. No, honey. I know you're scared, but we've got to keep going," the big man beseeched his wife. "We've got to think of the future. There isn't one here."

Great. At this rate Doug was going to talk the whole pack of Humboldt's employees into joining them. He should've been an army recruiter.

"Let's stay calm and keep our goal in mind," Ari cautioned. "The most important mission is getting Carl and the data to safety. Maybe it's time to split up and have just a few of us strike out for the marina." At last, he'd put out there what he'd been thinking, and now he held his breath, awaiting reactions. There was an immediate clamor of voices protesting the suggestion.

"Who would you leave behind, Ari?" Lila asked softly, looking up at him with questioning eyes. "The children, Mrs. Scheider, me? Anyone who slows you down?"

"No, of course not." Goddamn, why did this have to be so tough? "But the baby keeps crying, putting all of us in danger. I'm trying to consider what's best for the mission."

"Enough!" Deb snapped. "No one's staying and no one's coming with us. We got what we needed and now we're moving on. Just our group. End of story. Come on, Julie."

She headed toward the frozen escalator and that's when the bad day suddenly got much, much worse. There was the sound of shattering glass from below.

"Attack!" the watchman on the ground floor shouted. "They've broken in. They're coming!" A burst of gunfire followed his words.

Hunter ran to look over the balcony railing at the mezzanine below and Ari followed her. If the number of zombies was small, perhaps they could kill rather than run from them. But one glance showed the undead swarming through the ground floor.

Ari's heart stopped. "We've got to get everyone out of here."

He and Hunter ran back to the others. Many were already heading to the fire exits. There were two—one on either side of the store, and all of these people had to make it through the doors and down the stairs to the alley. Locating their camp on the second floor may have seemed like a good idea in theory, but in reality it might prove disastrous.

The nearer exit was already jammed with the Humboldts employees so Ari grabbed Ronnie by the hand and ran toward the exit at the other side of the store. They dashed through house wares and hardware toward the red glow of the exit sign, shining like a beacon in the dark. When they reached the door, he passed Ronnie off to Mrs. Scheider. "Get her out of here."

Deb already had the door open. She, Julie and Carl headed down the stairs. The rest of their group was still somewhere in the store. Ari went to find them and passed Derrick pulling Gloria Patton by the hand. She carried Ian in one arm and looked back over her shoulder, screaming for her husband as Derrick tugged her along.

"Come on, lady," Derrick urged. "Just run."

"I'll find the others," Ari promised as he went in the opposite direction.

The zombies were pouring up the stairs to the second floor now like frantic shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving rushing for the best deals. Bargain priced human cuisine. Some of the creatures were riddled with bullets from the watchman's rifle, but he'd missed their vital spot so they kept coming. There were at least a dozen monsters and most were focused on the people queued and struggling to get through the exit.

Ari stopped and shot into the running horde of zombies. Aiming for their heads, he cut a swathe across the group, the gunfire ringing in his ears as pretty as a choir anthem. Some dropped like stones and others tripped over them. Soon the creatures were tangled together, their momentum slowed.

Easy as bowling. The cocky thought darted through his mind a second before he was tackled from behind by one of the silent predators. The zombie's weight bore him to the floor. Ari dropped his rifle and reached for the skinning knife at his belt while twisting to face his attacker. He wouldn't die this way—bitten in the back of the neck and never seeing the thing that had killed him.

Ari rolled and jabbed upward with his knife simultaneously. The blade stabbed through the revenant's chest before hitting bone and wedging there. He fought against the weight of the creature pinning him to the floor. Pushing it off him, he wrenched out his knife.

The zombie was a woman—had been a woman. Only a bag of rotten flesh now. She fell back when he pushed her off him, but immediately rallied and started toward him again, ignoring the gaping hole above her breast.

Ari leaped to his feet and rushed toward her, slicing at her face and cutting across the eyes. When she continued to stagger blindly toward him, he grabbed her hair, pulled her head down and hacked at the back of her neck. His knife cleaved cleanly through vertebrae, severing the neural connection. She went lifeless and Ari dropped the body, which sagged to the floor. They aren't that hard to kill. There are just too damn many of them.

He whirled around, taking stock of the situation. The zombies had descended on the knot of fleeing Humboldts' people at the door, but the survivors weren't going down without a fight. Ari saw Lauren, the woman who'd wanted to go with them, using an acetylene torch to hold off a zombie. She set fire to its clothes and the fire quickly burned upward to catch the zombie woman's long hair. In seconds, her head was flaming like a birthday candle, but even then the creature kept after Lauren. Ari saw this with a glance before continuing to search for his own people.

Two zombies had someone pinned to the floor and were tearing into him like lions on a zebra. Ari's stomach lurched. The large figure in the green polo shirt and jeans was Doug Patton. His instinct was to drive the predators off Doug, but it was far too late for that. At this point, it was better to let them finish feasting, hopefully leaving nothing of Doug behind to rise again.

Joe appeared from around the corner of a display case. He ran toward Ari and grabbed his arm as he went past. "Come on."

"Lila's still in here."

Joe pulled on him. "You can't look for her. We've got to go."

Ari shook him off. "You go. Take the others someplace safe. I'll catch up."

Lila. Despite everything he'd said about the mission coming first, he couldn't leave her behind. She might be alive, hiding somewhere, needing his help. He had to find her.

* * * * *

Chapter Twelve

Lila gripped Sondra's hand as if it was a life preserver and she was floating near the Titanic. Bodies buffeted them this way and that, people clawing and fighting to get to the door. An elbow cracked into Lila's ribs, pain spearing through her. A woman fell back against her, nearly knocking her off her feet, but she continued to cling to Sondra.

When everyone had started running, Lila had been swept along with them. She'd seen Sondra, standing with a deer in the headlights look in her eyes, and seized the woman's hand. Soon they were caught in the pile-up at the exit door. Immediately, Lila realized this was a dead end. People were panicking, pushing each other to get out first before spilling through the door like clowns exiting a tiny car.

The zombies would see this large, struggling group and attack them first. Maybe the few who had made it down the fire escape would get away, or maybe they'd be chased down. Either way, she and Sondra weren't going to make it through that door. Lila wanted to be free of the struggling crowd, but she was trapped by bodies.

A deafening round of rifle fire added to the mayhem of screaming, yelling people. Lila caught a glimpse of the undead coming toward them and surrounding the leader, Hunter like a horde of ants crawling over a dropped Popsicle. Lila jerked on Sondra's wrist, at last pulling her free from the melee and over to a rack of men's jackets. They dropped down behind it to hide.

"My ankle," Sondra moaned. "I think it's broken."

"Sh." Lila peered past a black sleeve, inhaling the rich scent of leather. She thought the smell would remind her of this moment for the rest of her life—the heart-stopping terror, the inability to move. Although, maybe the rest of her life would only be the next few minutes.

She didn't have her rifle. She'd set it down just before all hell broke loose. All she had on her was the big hunting knife Ari had given her. Lila let go of Sondra's hand and drew the knife. The heft of it in her hand was comforting. She wouldn't hesitate to use it. Non-violence could take a flying fuck. But she'd rather get out of here without having to confront a zombie if possible.

"Follow me," she whispered and ran in a low crouch from the rack of jackets to a display of packaged dress shirts with Sondra limping behind her.

Lila peered around the edge of the display case. About twenty zombies blocked the way to the rest of the store. She and Sondra were effectively trapped near one wall of the building. The monsters were ripping through the group at the door. The people fought back, shooting into the swarming zombies, but at such close quarters, they sometimes hit each other. Others were engaged in hand to hand combat, slicing at their attackers with knives. But a single-minded, unwavering will to eat drove the zombies and their sheer numbers overpowered the humans.

All of this happened in mere moments and now the bulk of the zombie crowd was focused on either eating or pursuing their prey out the door. The way was clear. It was possible she and Sondra could sneak past behind them. Lila turned to Sondra. "We've got to run for it. Now."

"I can't. My ankle."

"Run or I'll leave you here to die." Without waiting for an answer, Lila grasped Sondra by the wrist and pulled her to her feet. Together they ran from men's wear toward house wares.

There Ari stood with his back against a display of crock pots, hacking with the hatchet he'd picked up in sporting goods at three zombies surrounding him. He swung with a whirling arc, but the blade missed them all.

 All Lila could think was that she had to help him. She let go of Sondra's hand at last and ran toward him. She raised her knife and brought it down with a chopping slice across the back of one of the zombies. But with her unskilled aim she missed the target of his neck and buried the blade in the thing's back. Before she could pull it out again, the zombie whirled toward her. The buried knife was ripped from her grasp and she was left weaponless.

The dead creature surged toward her. It was the first time she'd seen one so close. He was only a middle aged man with thinning hair and glasses. Yes, the creature still wore glasses. But he snapped at her like a mad dog. Lila danced back out of reach of his snatching hands.

A gunshot snapped from behind her and she swore she felt the bullet whoosh past her before slamming into the zombie's face, shattering a lens of its glasses. And then Sondra was tugging Lila's arm, yelling, "Run. Run!" with a pistol dangling from her hand.

The two women raced past the disoriented zombie before it could recover just as Ari felled his second opponent. Gasping for breath, he stood over the two unmoving zombies. He looked up and his gaze met Lila's for a moment, then he stooped and hauled his hatchet out of the back of a zombie's neck. He ran with Lila and Sondra toward the other exit. They didn't look back to see if they were chased. They simply ran, flat out, dodging display racks of tools and automotive supplies.

Ari nearly tore the door of its hinges and ushered them through. Lila pelted down the rickety metal fire escape. She glanced back to see Sondra stumble and Ari catch her and help her down the stairs. Coming through the door behind them was the zombie with Lila's knife sticking from his back. Lila faced forward and ran faster, skipping the last few steps and landing on the pavement with both feet. She scanned the alley from one end to the other. The way was clear. She ran in the opposite direction from the other fire escape, which would be around the corner. A quick glance back assured her Ari and Sondra were still there. She wasn't sure where to go, but went in the direction she thought the others would take, rounding the corner of the building and heading toward the street. These alleyways were too narrow and dangerous with little chance of escape.

Lila paused at the corner to check out the street. Ari and Sondra caught up with her and she was happy to let Ari take the lead.

"How's your ankle?" she asked Sondra.

"Hurts," she whimpered.

"It's probably only sprained or you wouldn't be able to run on it. We'll stop someplace soon." Lila put her arm around Sondra's waist and supported her as they followed Ari down the street, moving swiftly from one bit of cover to another.

"Hey! Over here." Derrick's voice came from across the street and he emerged from the shadow beneath an awning to wave at them.

They crossed the deserted street, dodging around the fenders of abandoned cars. Derrick waited for them, pressed flat against the side of the building.

"You made it. Where's Doug?"

Ari shook his head.

"Damn, that's too bad." Derrick frowned. "I told her he'd be okay."

Lila wanted to prop Sondra against the wall and take a breather, but there was no time for a break. They followed Derrick as he led them to the rest of the group, down yet another alley and into a Tastee-Freeze that had been deserted since long before the zombie attack. A hole was smashed in the glass door, allowing access to the lock.

They filed inside. The furnishings were vintage '60s soda fountain with a long counter and metal stools bolted to the floor. A clock with hands frozen at two fifty-eight hung on the wall, as well as faded posters announcing various ice cream confections. Someone had spray painted "suck on this" below the poster of a happy child with chocolate covered frozen banana. The ice cream display case was grimy with dirt and also colorfully painted with graffiti.

Derrick led them behind the counter to a back room, which was larger than the serving area. Apparently the owner of the Freeze had once lived a one room apartment back here.

Gloria Patton sat on the edge of the bed, her face bright red and eyes puffy although she was no longer crying. Julie was beside her, bouncing Ian on her knees and singing quietly to him. Ronnie pressed close to her side, watching blank-eyed with no smile on her face.

Mrs. Scheider sat on the floor, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, while Carl, Joe and Deb stood in the center of the room arguing. They all looked up when Derrick and the others entered.

"You made it!" Deb threw her arms around Lila and hugged her, crushing her bruised ribs. Lila grunted in pain, but hugged her back.

"I told you they'd come," Derrick said. Lila could tell from his tone there'd been some discussion about whether he should go back and wait for them.

"Doug?" Gloria jumped up from the bed, her eyes searching Ari's face.

"I'm sorry," he said. There was nothing else to add, no explanation that needed to be given under the circumstances.

Gloria let out a keening wail, and Joe hurried to shush her, holding her and pressing her face against his chest. "Sh, Mrs. Patton. Please be quiet."

They'd lost one. It could have been much worse, but that was of no comfort to Gloria. Lila collapsed onto the ground, leaning against the opposite wall from Mrs. Scheider. She thought of the people they'd met today and wondered how many had made it out alive. What were they doing now? Where had they run to?

She stopped thinking about it. There was no point. Besides, she was too exhausted and jittery to focus on anything. Bits of thought scattered through her mind like kaleidoscope colors, but she couldn't put them together into any coherent pattern. Mostly she thought of what it had felt like to drive a knife into human flesh and then stare right into the face of death.

She looked at Sondra. Ari had helped her to the bed and Julie took a look at her injured ankle while Ronnie held the baby. Sondra winced and whined and made a big deal about how much pain she was in. Lila still sort of detested her but the woman had saved her life.

"You shot that thing," Lila said. "Thank you."

Sondra smiled at her. "I just squeezed the trigger. I've never shot a gun before in my life. Lucky I didn't accidentally shoot you instead." And then she was off, telling everyone every detail of their escape and how she'd saved Lila's life.

Julie wrapped Sondra's ankle with tape from the first aid kit and Deb passed out the last of the water bottles, admonishing everyone to drink lightly until they could get more.

They'd lost almost all of the merchandise they'd acquired at Humboldt's and the sport shop. Backpacks, sleeping bags, even Ian's diaper bag had been abandoned as they ran for their lives. So the entire stop had been for nothing. They'd gained little and lost a life.

Ari leaned against the wall then slid down to sit beside Lila. He leaned close and whispered, "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "You?"

"Sure." He rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes like Mrs. Scheider.

Lila wanted to curl up on the floor and put her head in his lap. Instead, she leaned next to him, shoulder to shoulder. Her eyes fell shut and the drone of conversation washed over her. Being alive had never been sweeter than at this precise moment, after the near loss of it. They were safe, for now, and that was enough.

* * * * *

Chapter Thirteen

Their trip to the marina began to take on the quality of an epic quest. A few short miles—it should've been accomplished in a day, even on foot. Two at most. But Sondra's twisted ankle and Mrs. Patton's nearly catatonic state following the loss of her husband forced them to postpone the start of their journey for another full day. They squatted in the deserted Tastee-Freez, while Ari and Joe went and brought back food for them.

That night they didn't dare to have any light. With no bedding, they lay in complete darkness on the linoleum and waited restlessly for morning. The theater where they'd spent the previous night seemed like a plush palace in comparison. The only good thing as far as Lila was concerned was that she lay next to Ari, his body curved around hers, his arm slung over her. She didn't mind being on the hard floor so much with his body heating her back and the beat of his heart lulling her to sleep.

The next day there was nothing to do but sit and wait for Sondra to heal and listen to her babble. Everyone made attempts to offer their sympathy to Gloria, but she was beyond their words. No one could reach her or connect with her. At last, impatient Deb snapped at her. "Look, you got a kid here. Pull yourself together. Feed him. Take care of him. Live because of him. You can mourn later."

Lila cringed at her harsh tone but evidently it was what Gloria needed to hear. The blank look left her eyes as she focused on Deb's face, then she took her infant son from the other woman and held him to her breast.

A dull afternoon of waiting, playing cards, taking naps, coloring pictures with Ronnie, putting together a meal of canned food and cleaning up after it with limited water, was followed by another night. Once more Ari took the spot beside Lila. If the others noticed how close together they slept or that they were curled together when they woke in the morning, no one said anything about it.

The next day Sondra could limp around the room. Dr. Joe pronounced her well enough to travel as long as they didn't go too far that day.

Lila was ready to move on. She couldn't have taken another day of idly waiting. They might be risking their lives out there, but they were in just as much danger here in the Tastee Freez.

They headed out, walking in their diamond shape with Ari on point, Deb and Derrick flanking him on either side, Joe and Lila bringing up the rear and the others protected in the center. Lila was nervous, acutely aware of her position and the need to almost literally have eyes in the back of her head. Zombies might attack from behind at any time and her neck was sore from swiveling it to constantly look over her shoulder.

"We need rearview mirrors," Joe commented as they marched along.

Lila eyed the empty cars they passed and wondered how hard it would be to rip one off.

Today, the fifth day into the crisis, the air reeked so badly from rotting corpses it was hard to breathe. All of them wore handkerchiefs or other strips of material over their noses and mouths as if that would help. Lila wondered if a person could get sick merely from the overpowering odor. Weren't organisms present in the stench of decay? Just as she would begin to think she was adjusting to the awful smell, they'd pass another site of a zombie attack and the rank odor would break over her in a fresh wave.

They walked along a side street and were several blocks from the Tastee Freez when Lila checked behind them and saw a little girl. She was skipping in the middle of the street, a child of about Ronnie's age with a doll in her arms. Only when she lifted the doll to her face to kiss it did Lila decipher what she was actually seeing. The child wasn't skipping she was shambling and thing Lila had taken for a doll was a severed arm the girl chewed on. Lila gave a low whistle, their signal for a zombie sighting, and everyone's heads swiveled almost simultaneously to look behind them.

The creature was some distance away and hadn't spotted them yet. Ari motioned them forward and the group hurried around the next corner.

Lila's heart pounded, her nerves fried by a fresh jolt of adrenaline like a double espresso to the system. She grew even more diligent about scanning the empty streets around them. With everything so quiet, it was too easy to be lulled into believing they were safe and could walk unnoticed all the way to the Hudson River. But the truth was every step was as treacherous as quicksand and their enemy could erupt from anywhere at any moment.

"You hear that?" Joe asked and shaded his eyes to look up at the sky.

The distant sound of a helicopter—maybe more than one—was the sweetest music Lila had ever heard. She stared into the cloudy sky, but saw nothing. Too many tall buildings blocking the way. But the chopper noises were followed by the sound of gunfire echoing from the skyscraper mountains

They all stopped, straining to see or hear more. Something was happening in the distance. At last, something was being done to help.

"Maybe that Hunter woman and Ann were right," Joe muttered so only Lila could hear. "Maybe it really is safer to find a place and hole up until everything is sorted out."

"Come on," Ari called. "Keep moving."

"My ankle," Sondra said. "I've got to rest soon."

Lila stifled her irritation. It wasn't Sondra's fault she'd been injured, and maybe her ankle really did hurt as much as she claimed. It had certainly been swollen yesterday. But the woman was such a drama queen Lila couldn't help but feel she enjoyed being the center of attention.

"There's a diner up there." Deb pointed. "Maybe we can find some food that's not spoiled."

The greasy spoon joint was open for business and smelled like the bowels of hell. They entered carefully, listening for sounds of other survivors or the roving undead, but the place was still except for buzzing flies. The floor was tacky with blood. Red was smeared on the walls, the booths, the counter, remnants of customers mingling with abandoned plates of the lunch special, which a hand-written sign announced was tuna salad and minestrone soup.

Lila's eyes watered from the stench. She wanted to turn around and go right back outside, but Ian was fussing, working himself up to a good, hard cry. They didn't need that noise drawing attention.

Gloria found a booth in the back that wasn't gore spattered and sat down to feed her son. She moved like the undead herself, a blank-eyed automaton going through the motions of living. Sondra and Ronnie sat across from her. Ari kept watch while the rest of them went to the kitchen to scavenge for food.

Derrick and Carl investigated the dry goods pantry, bringing out boxes of cereal, crackers, chips and cans of soup and pudding. Julie opened one of the industrial sized soup cans which Deb put in a pan to heat. The stove was gas so she could light the burner with her Bic. Lila realized she hadn't seen Deb smoke a cigarette the past couple of days. Either she'd run out or was choosing the most stressful time possible to give up the habit.

After Julie opened a gallon can of tapioca, Lila scooped it into bowls. Joe produced a package of bacon from the freezer, which he claimed hadn't completely defrosted yet. He laid strips on a griddle over another burner then got bread from a rack on the wall.

"Don't dare spread that mayonnaise on it. No doubt it's spoiled," Mrs. Scheider warned as he unscrewed the lid of a jar.

"I'm not an idiot. I didn't get it from the fridge. It's freshly opened," Joe said.

Even the grown-ups are getting short-tempered, Lila thought with amusement. The rising scent of frying bacon tantalized her nose and had her saliva glands working overtime. It almost covered the horrible odor of decay all around them. Deb prepared a pot of coffee and it started to percolate on the back burner.

The familiar breakfast smells of bacon and coffee eased Lila's taut nerves and gave her comfort. But the very moment she relaxed, the sound of shattering glass came from the front of the building. Sondra and Gloria's screams resounded through the air followed by gunfire.

"Shit! You guys, go." Derrick grabbed his rifle and rushed to the front to help.

The others ran for the back exit. Deb grabbed Carl by the arm and dragged him along with her. Lila was torn between escaping with them and going to help Ari. But he'd given them all instructions to "run, Forest, run" if they were attacked. While she hesitated, her moment to decide was past as zombies swarmed around the lunch counter. Lila threw the cast iron frying pan of bacon at the closest one then ran out the kitchen door into the alley.

Joe, Carl and Deb were pushing a dumpster in front of the door to block it. Lila barely made it out in time before they heaved the heavy metal container in front of it. Bodies banged against the door from inside. The loud, horrible thumps made the door rattle in its frame, but the dumpster held firm.

"Come on." Deb lead the way up the alley.

"But the others." Lila protested.

"We can only hope they made it out the front. We'll meet them at the building on the corner like we said we'd do if we got separated."

Lila knew she was right, but it didn't make leaving the others behind feel any better. She trotted to keep up with the group, but her heart and mind were with Ari in the diner. It didn't seem possible he and Derrick would manage to fight off the zombies and get everyone safely out.

On the way to the office building they'd chosen as a meeting point, they saw a running group of people in the distance followed by a posse of revenants. Flattening their bodies against the nearest wall, they held still and waited for the commotion to die down before resuming their run. They burst into the building's lobby. Joe and Deb did a quick sweep of the ground floor, which was mostly a maze of cubicles. Julie, Carl and Lila waited near the front, watching anxiously for the rest of their group.

When Lila sighted them, her throat tightened. Ari carried Ronnie, her arms and legs wrapped tight around him as if she was a little monkey. Sondra limped beside Derrick, holding onto his arm, and Gloria with Ian in her arms brought up the rear.

"Wait. Where's Mrs. Scheider?" Julie said. "She was in back with us."

"She went to use the restroom just before... Shit!" Carl exclaimed.

"No." Lila looked around the lobby as if the woman would magically appear. "I'm sure she was with us." But no amount of wishing would make it true. Mrs. Scheider was missing.

Ari and the others burst through the door just as Deb and Joe returned to give the all clear status on the ground floor of the building.

"We left Mrs. Scheider," Lila announced.

"Damn it!" Derrick's face was a mask of blood, the whites of his eyes stark against it. "We fought off about a dozen zombies and got everyone out without a scratch, and you guys ditched Mrs. Scheider?"

"It was an accident. We didn't mean to leave her behind. We didn't notice she was missing until we got here. But she was in the restroom, so she might be alive."

Ari unfastened Ronnie's arms from around his neck and set her on the floor. "I'll go back and see if I can find her."

"Wait," Deb said. "She's gone and it's terrible but we can't risk losing you. What happened to 'it's all about the mission'?"

"I'm afraid Deb's right," Joe added. "It's not likely Patricia made it out alive."

Lila had nearly forgotten Mrs. Scheider's first name. Hearing Joe say it filled her with a fresh pang of guilt and sorrow.

"No one went back for my husband. No one saved him!" Silent Gloria was suddenly vocal, her eyes blazing and her face twisted in a scowl.

Ari turned to her. "It was too late for him, but it might not be for Mrs. Scheider. I'll only do a recon. If it's too dangerous, I won't go in." Before anyone could argue, he left, slipping out the door and running down the street much faster than he could with all of them slowing him down. Maybe he'd been right before and he should take the data, Carl and only a couple of other useful people like Deb or Derrick and head for the marina. They could probably make it there in an afternoon, take a boat and be on the mainland by evening. The rest of the world might be overrun with zombies, too, but it couldn't possibly be as dangerous as being trapped on an island with them.

Lila sank to the floor, but her leg jiggled nervously as she waited for Ari's return. She listened while Sondra related the story of their escape, how the zombies had stormed the diner, crashing right through the large, plate glass windows; how Sondra had grabbed Ronnie and Gloria and led them outside through the broken window while Ari and Derrick held off the zombies; and how they'd dodged and hid to shake some of the monsters which pursued them.

"Shut up, Sondra," Derrick cut across her chatter. "Just shut up for a while." He sat on the floor, holding Ronnie on his lap and rocking her. She was pressed against his chest, her thumb in her mouth and the stuffed unicorn clenched in her other hand. Her eyes were wide open and staring.

Lila wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her head on her knees. Seconds slipped past like droplets of blood, clotted and sticky. Ari wasn't coming back. … He was. … He'd have Mrs. Scheider with him, safe. … Both of them were dead and they were waiting here for ghosts—or maybe zombies.

"They're here," Joe announced. "He's got her." He opened the door and Ari came in, carrying Mrs. Scheider in his arms. There was blood everywhere, her face, her arms, and his, too. Ari staggered and Joe helped him lower the woman to the floor.

Joe stripped away her blouse and checked her wounds. With no running water and their supply of bottled water running low, he used it sparingly, rinsing away the blood from her neck and shoulder. Deb knelt beside him, holding a flashlight trained on the wounds, while Julie dampened fresh cloths and offered them to him.

Lila did the same for Ari, wetting a T-shirt and offering it to him to clean up with. "Are you hurt?"

He shook his head. "It's her blood—and some of theirs. The things were gone when I got back there. She had run into the pantry and barricaded the door, but not before they bit her. Luckily she was still conscious and heard my voice, because she passed out almost immediately after I found her."

"If their blood mixed with hers, she must be infected," Deb said.

"I don't know," Carl answered. "I don't know if the mutated blood could enter her bloodstream. If she's not the same blood type, I couldn't imagine that happening."

"I can't imagine any of this happening, but it is," Joe said sourly as he continued to swab the bites on Mrs. Scheider's shoulders and upper back.

The old woman stirred, blinked, and opened her eyes. She looked around at them all hovering over her.

Julie offered her water, holding a bottle to her mouth and cupping the back of her head. "How do you feel?"

Mrs. Scheider swallowed. "How do you think I feel?"

"Like you've been bit by zombies." Derrick matched her dry tone.

"We're so sorry we left you. We thought you were with us." Julie smoothed her hand over the woman's gray hair, the salon style now flat and limp.

Mrs. Scheider tried to sit up and winced at the pain.

Joe pushed her back down. "Just lie still and rest while I bandage you." He took the strips of cloth Gloria had torn from a shirt and began to bind her wounds.

Lila knelt beside Ari, wet another rag and sponged at the blood he'd missed along his hair line. She cupped his face and wiped away the traces of gore, but knew they were there whether they showed or not. The memories of what he'd seen and done—what all of them had—could not be erased so easily.

When she'd finished wiping his face clean, she paused for a moment, his face still cupped in her hand. She studied the dark outer ring of his iris and the velvety brown within and the way his pupils dilated as he looked back at her. Tension crackled between them. A kiss floated on the air waiting to be snatched. Then Lila let go, took her hand from his warm skin and sank back onto her heels. "There. That's better."

But it wasn't. Better would have been leaning in and giving him a long, deep kiss.

The near miss in the diner along with Mrs. Scheider's injuries and Sondra's swollen ankle put a stop to their travels for the day. They'd only made it a hand full of blocks from the Tastee-Freez. No one, not even Ari, had the stomach to venture back out to find food so they ate the last of their power bars and shared some sports drinks.

"I sure would've liked some of that bacon," Derrick murmured.

Lila agreed with him, but tried to remember they were lucky to have any food. She thought of her mother's voice telling her to clean her plate. "Think of the starving children in third world countries." She slowly chewed and swallowed her half of a power bar and prayed her mother and father were still alive and safe.

They moved out of the lobby to set up camp in office cubicles so generic they were utterly forgettable. Temporary walls, cheap furniture and pathetic attempts by their owners to personalize the cubicles were all the impression Lila had of the place. Sleeping on industrial grade carpet with no cushions or covers the group passed another night, huddled together in darkness.

By morning, Sondra's ankle was much better, but Mrs. Scheider was pale, weak and unconscious again. Joe felt her pulse and listened to her labored breathing. "I don't know what's wrong with her besides this bite. Perhaps she's just had too much strain on her heart. She needs to be in a hospital getting fluids and oxygen."

"She should rest another day. We all should," Gloria said.

It doesn't look like she has another day in her, Lila thought.

Ari stood, looking down at the woman for a few moments. Lila could almost see him weighing his options. The need to keep moving was obvious, as was the fact that Mrs. Scheider was not likely to recover. But he didn't want to simply pronounce her dead and abandon her, leaving her struggling for breath.

"I'm going up a few floors to take a look at the city and get some perspective," he said.

His double meaning wasn't lost on Lila. She would've liked to go along with him, but sensed he needed time alone to consider his decision. She watched him disappear through the door to the stairs then went to help Julie and Deb scavenge food in the offices and break room.

All they could find in the desks was snack foods and a couple of apples. By the time they'd brought their loot to the conference room and everyone was seated around the table to eat, Mrs. Scheider was much worse and Derrick went to get Ari.

Although her stomach was grumbling, Lila couldn't stand the thought of eating. She didn't know how they could either with Mrs. Scheider lying there wheezing. They should've laid her in a different room, but it was too late to move her now.

Lila knelt beside Joe, dipped a cloth in water and held it to the old woman's dry lips. She wished she had ice chips to feed her and remembered doing that for her grandmother when she was in the hospital on her deathbed. She held Mrs. Scheider's frail hand, closed her eyes and prayed for her to leave the world peacefully—and not reanimate. The thought of having one's corpse tottering around trying to eat people was horrible.

After a few minutes, Lila rose and went to get herself a drink. But after Ari arrived and knelt beside Mrs. Scheider, she went over to him. "Hey, you're back." His shoulder felt strong and warm beneath her hand and when he looked up, her stomach gave a little flip.

"I see you found brunch for everyone."

She babbled on about food for a few seconds, but wasn't really listening to herself. She was caught by the pain in his eyes, the knowledge that he would be the one to behead Mrs. Scheider if she rose again.

Lila volunteered to clear the room. She went to the conference table and told the others the end was near—conscious of the irony of her word choice. Everyone filed past Mrs. Scheider as if she was already a corpse and they were paying their last respects.

When the room was empty, Lila returned to crouch beside Ari. "Do you need me to help?"

"No. I'll handle it." He gave her instructions about making sure the perimeter was secure and she left to follow through on his orders. But she couldn't stop thinking about what he was facing, especially when Joe came out of the conference room to announce Mrs. Scheider had died.

All of them reacted with the same numb acceptance. They'd experienced too much death to react very emotionally to the loss of yet another of their number.

"She was a great lady." Deb offered a eulogy. "Strong, smart and with a sharp sense of humor. I really liked her."

"She was the coolest old lady I ever met," Derrick added.

That summed up what Lila felt as well. She stared at the conference room door which Joe had closed behind him. Everyone knew why and what would probably happen next inside that room.

Lila's felt sick at the thought of Ari in there all alone, dealing with this as he had with so many other things the rest of them couldn't handle. It wasn't right or fair. She walked toward the closed door.

"Where are you going?" Julie asked.

"I'm going to help him." Or at the very least, be with him when he has to do it.

Inside the room, Ari sat on his heels beside Mrs. Scheider's still body, his hatchet across his knees and his hand rubbing absently up and down the wooden handle. He looked up when Lila entered. "What's happened?" He started to rise.

"Nothing. I just wanted to… I could help you." Lila would have liked to offer to do the job for him. She wished she were brave enough to lift that ax and make the vital cut, but she knew in her heart she didn't have the emotional strength to do it. Not to someone she'd known and cared about. "Or maybe I can't help you, but I can at least wait with you. Ari, you don't have to do this alone."

He was silent a moment, still looking at her, and then he nodded. "That would be nice, if you'd wait with me."

Pulse racing, Lila hunkered beside him on the floor to keep watch over the dead woman. All of them had discussed earlier the option of cutting off her head simply to be on the safe side, but decided it would be good to find out if she'd been infected and how long after death the body reactivated. Perhaps they would sit with Mrs. Scheider for hours and nothing would happen. Maybe she was simply dead.

After several minutes had slipped past, Lila asked, "How long do you think?"

Ari shrugged. "That one in the subway seemed to rise right away. But Carl seems to think the delay can vary from minutes to days, which would explain why some of the zombies looked like they came from a funeral home instead of a morgue."

"But when bodies are embalmed all the blood is replaced with formaldehyde. Where does that leave Carl's theory about the mutated blood cells causing some kind of reaction? And why would it take different lengths of time for the reanimation to occur? For that matter, why would a bite be enough to infect someone?"

He looked at her from beneath his brows. "I've got no answers. I'm just along for the roller coaster ride." Mrs. Scheider's fingers twitched and his attention focused on them. "And here comes the next hill so hold on."

Lila's stomach plunged. She remembered how much she hated amusement park rides.

Ari rose and reached out to take her hand and draw her to her feet. He continued to hold her hand as he gazed into her eyes. "You don't have to see this. You can leave now."

She shook her head. "No. I'll stay. I don't want you to have to be alone."

He hefted the ax in his hand and Lila's gaze was drawn to the sharp edge. She swallowed bile that rose in her throat. Ari gave her a little push toward the conference table. "Go over there, then, and wait."

Behind him the corpse stirred, her elbows bracing against the gray carpet as she started to push up from the floor.

Lila did as Ari bid her, gripping the back of one of the metal-frame chairs and staring at a framed print of splashy colors and shapes on one wall. What would Ann, the art curator, have thought of the piece? She clenched the chair and flinched at the sound of Ari's small grunt as he swung the ax and metal cleaving flesh and bone.

There was a pause before he said. "Okay. It's done."

Lila turned from the table and walked back toward Ari, standing with the hatchet hanging from one hand by his side. He'd wiped the blade clean but there were spatters on his hand and forearm. Lila avoided looking at the decapitated corpse. She grasped Ari's arm and pulled him away from the body.

"You've done all you can. It's not like we can bury her. I'll find something to cover her body with and we'll leave her here."

 She pulled Ari into her embrace, locking her arms around his back and hugging him tight. He hesitated only a moment before dropping the ax on the floor and wrapping his arms around her, too. They held each other for seconds or maybe hours. Lila felt the heat and strength of his body and the way it trembled against hers. Silently, she offered what comfort she could.

At last they reluctantly separated. Ari stooped and kissed her briefly, a warm brush of lips and touch of her cheek before he turned away. He stooped to pick up the ax while she went to tell the others Mrs. Scheider was truly dead now.

She found a suit jacket in one of the offices and took it back to the conference room to drape over the dead woman. She tried to do it without looking too closely, glimpses of white hair and a blood-stained blouse were all she took in as she laid the coat over her. Lila said a prayer, wishing Mrs. Scheider well as she continued her journey to another state of being.

When she returned to the others, they were discussing moving on since it was still quite early in the day. A contingent composed mostly of Gloria and Sondra wanted to rest another day, but the others were ready to go.

"We've got to get out of this city," Deb said. "Even if we only make it a few more blocks today before we have to stop for the night, we've gained a little more ground."

"We should think about finding a car and driving. The streets may be gridlocked, but maybe on the sidewalks," Carl suggested

They'd already addressed the issue before, but Ari patiently explained his reasoning again. "Getting a car or two isn't a problem, but I doubt we'd make it far before hitting an impasse and meanwhile the noise would draw zombies to us. Going on foot is the best way to travel."

"Let's go then." Lila picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulders. It could be difficult to get everybody moving and leading by example was usually the best way to motivate them. "We have a few hours of daylight left."

It was getting more difficult every time to mentally gear up to go back outside. She understood Gloria's whimpering and Sondra's whining, but couldn't afford any sympathy for them. "Come on. I'll carry Ian for a while, Gloria." She held out her arms to take the baby. Gloria looked doubtful but passed him to her. He was a heavy little thing and immediately began squirming in her arms.

"Here. Give him Bright." Ronnie offered her plush unicorn with the air of a brave soldier offering her canteen to a dying mate. Lila knew what a sacrifice it was for her.

"Thank you, Ronnie. That's very generous of you." Lila took the stuffed toy and gave it to the baby, who gripped it for all of two seconds before dropping it again. "But maybe you'd better carry Bright for him. I don't know if Ian can hold onto him."

She propped the chunky baby against her shoulder and patted his back, calming him down. By now the rest of the group had gathered their things and they headed out into zombie city once more.

After their dramatic and draining day and the loss of another one of their party, the group was exhausted and edgy. For Lila, a sense of inescapable doom draped her like a smothering mantle. She usually considered herself an optimistic person, but for the first time she seriously doubted they'd make it through this crisis alive—not a single one of them.

They walked for a number of blocks without incident, moving as quickly as they could given their large number. Lila's arms ached from carrying Ian, who felt heavier with each step she took as he fell asleep against her shoulder. Finally she passed him off to Julie to carry, trading the child for a rifle.

Ari called a halt as the deep gold of the late afternoon sun cast dark shadows from the tall buildings around them. They needed to find shelter before it was too dark to see.

"We'll try here." He led them into a Good Night's Rest hotel. The lobby was pristine, not as much as a piece of flesh or a finger marring the front counter or the sitting area.

"So far, so good," Carl muttered.

Fanning out, they checked the ground floor and left the upper levels unexplored. Instead they barricaded each of the doors to the stairways to ensure if there was something up above, it couldn't come down. The rooms were all locked. Tapping and calling at the doors didn't summon any survivors from within. Lila imagined that in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, the motel had probably been pretty empty to start with. Everyone met back in the lobby where Derrick and Joe had locked and barricaded the front doors.

"Guess we have free run of the place," Deb announced. "Let's get a keg and throw a party."

"There are mini-bars in the rooms," Sondra pointed out, not quite registering the sarcasm. "We could collect a bunch and have a drink by the pool."

Pool. The very word conjured heavenly images of bright summer days and cool water washing over her skin. Lila thought the only more beautiful words right now would be "hot shower".

They got key cards from the registration desk and chose a block of rooms right by the pool and the breakfast room. The milk in the mini fridge had gone bad, but there were stale yet edible bagels and muffins and boxes of dried cereal. Apples, tangerines and brown-skinned bananas added fresh fruit to their meal.

"My God, I never thought I'd love Raisin Bran," Julie crunched a handful of dry cereal.

Juice boxes made fine mixers for the little bottles of rum and vodka they liberated from the mini-bars in a few of the rooms. Sondra played bar tender and mixed drinks for everyone.

Lila took muffins, fruit and juice to Joe and Ari, who were guarding the front. They kept the indoor lights off as nighttime spread over the city.

"I'll take your place for a while," she told Joe. "The others are going to clean up in the pool after they're done eating. Go ahead. I'll take a turn later." She tried to convince herself she didn't make the offer with any ulterior motive—like spending some time alone with Ari keeping watch, and later in the pool. An image of them having a swim in the intimate dark long after the others had gone to their rooms floated in her mind. Was it wrong to want that in the midst of death and destruction? Maybe. Did she care? Hell, no. If they weren't going to make it out of this alive, she at least wanted one good memory to see her through at the end.

"You sure?" Joe asked.

"Oh yeah. Go take it easy. I think Sondra's got a juice box cocktail with your name on it."

After Joe was gone, she took his seat by the window. Her leg bumped against Ari's as she slid into the chair beside him. That slight, accidental touch set off a crazy hormone attack. She felt their embrace from earlier imprinted on her body, remembered the last few mornings when she'd woken pressed against him, and relived the few kisses they'd shared. None of that was enough. She wanted more now.

"Anything interesting out there tonight?" she asked.

"Nothing but a few rats scavenging and that's about as interesting as I want it to get."

They lapsed into silence for a bit, while Ari polished off the food she'd brought him, but it was a comfortable silence, the kind old friends shared rather than the awkward pauses of a first date.

"What day is this? Friday?" she asked. "If it was a normal Friday night, what would you be doing?"

"Mm, I don't know what's a 'normal' Friday night anymore. If you'd asked me that back in high school or the summer after, I guess the answer would have been partying with friends, getting too drunk, hitting on girls, maybe going home with one. While I was in basic, we didn't get leave most Fridays, so we'd play poker or pool on the base in our free time. Since I've been home again," he paused. "Well, it's only been about a month, but everything feels different. I thought I'd go back to old routine, hanging with my boys, but I don't know, I've felt kind of out of it. Like, I want something different now, you know?"

"I get that," Lila said. "The summer after my freshman year of college, I was so looking forward to going home to Ohio and seeing my friends again, but it wasn't the same there anymore. I wasn't the same."

"What'd you do?"

"Worked at my uncle's car dealership and waited for a new school year to start. I'm not saying I didn't have some good times with my old friends, or enjoy some parties, but my heart wasn't in it and I was just marking time. When I got off the plane in New York at the end of summer, I felt like I was coming home at last."

They talked a little more about what their plans and dreams had been before everything fell apart. They talked about movies, music, stand-up comics, favorite foods, family squabbles, anything except zombies for once.

When Deb and Julie came to relieve them from their duty, Julie's auburn hair was still damp from her swim and hung lank around her face. Deb's braids had shed the water like sealskin and remained in beautiful, wild profusion. The women's hands were clasped together as they approached across the lobby. Lila thought how comforting it would be to be together with your loved one while going through this crisis—but frightening too, seeing her in danger and wanting to protect her at all costs. Deb and Julie were lucky to have each other.

"The water's cold but it feels great," Julie announced. "And everyone else is pretty much finished so you should have it all to yourselves." She smiled and winked at Lila.

Lila felt her cheeks grow warm and willed herself to stop blushing. There was no shame in having a fling, or whatever she was having with Ari. But she hated everyone knowing and talking about it. It was like being in middle school and having rumors flying through the class before a couple had even finished the note-passing stage of their courtship.

The pool room was as dim as the rest of the building and the pool itself was an ominous, flat, black sheet. Lila imagined frightening things under that dark surface waiting to grab and pull under anyone foolish enough to dare to enter the water. She shook off her paranoia.

A few of the others were still in the room. Derrick was helping Ronnie dry her hair, while Gloria put a fresh diaper on Ian. Sondra stood looking at the hot tub and combing her straight, black hair. She brightened and smiled when she saw them—saw Ari, Lila corrected herself. Sondra hadn't been too subtle in her attempts to get close to him over the past few days, asking him specifically to look at her ankle, leaning on him or offering him coffee and coy looks.

"Hey guys. The water's nice." Sondra took off the towel wrapped around her body to reveal a trim waist and blood red bra and panties that hugged her curves. "Maybe I'll take another dip with you."

Gloria snapped Ian's onesie and lifted him in her arms. "Sondra, don't be dense. Leave them alone." She gave Lila a pointed look. "Sondra will be rooming with me."

Good God, even Mrs. Patton knew about their flirtation. Lila was embarrassed but grateful to Gloria for helping her out. She felt more of a connection with the quiet, mourning woman than she had since meeting her as Gloria gave her a brief smile before ushering the others from the room. Sondra pouted but went with her leaving Lila and Ari alone in the empty, echoing pool room with not even the hum of a pump to disturb the quiet.

Ari took off his shoes and socks and tested the water with one foot. "Well…I guess people have, uh, some expectations about us."

"Guess so." Lila played with the hem of her tank top, not quite ready to pull it off in front of him. "Wonder where they got those ideas."

He smiled. "Are they wrong?"

She shrugged and played it loose. "Time will tell." Flirting was not her thing. She felt silly indulging in this kind of banter, but she could hardly come straight out with "Yeah, I fully expect to sleep with you tonight and screw your brains out."

Then Ari stripped his shirt off and tossed it aside and Lila's heart stopped for a second. Damn, his body was fine, muscles upon muscles that made her appreciate what the U.S. Army could do to a man other than turn him into a killing machine. Without hesitation he undid his fly and took off his pants leaving him clad in a close-fitting pair of boxer briefs.

Lila swallowed. Enough girlish wavering about showing a little skin. She took off her shoes, her top and shimmied out of her jeans. Her bra and underpants were mismatched and modest, unlike Sondra's scanty set. Every naked bit of her flesh burned as if she had a fever as Ari swept a glance up and down her body. She hadn't felt this way around Doyle in longer than she could remember. Maybe it was because Ari was practically a stranger, someone new and sexy and very different from the guys she'd dated in the past. Maybe it was the situation they were in or maybe it was simply him. But Lila was so hot she thought she'd spontaneously combust and she felt dizzy. If he grabbed her and tossed her down right there on the tile floor beside the pool, she'd have had her legs around his back faster than Jesus Christ turned water into wine.

But instead of turning toward her, Ari dove into the pool, cutting cleanly through the water and swimming with steady strokes toward the shallow end. Lila followed his example, dousing her overheated libido in the chilly water. It was a wonder steam didn't rise.

Taking a lap and a half back and forth across the pool, cleared her head and calmed her down. She emerged, dripping, in the shallow end and sat on the steps to watch Ari swim a few more laps.

At last he surfaced. Crouching in the shallow water by her feet, he looked up at her. "So, you never answered the question you asked me. What would you be doing on a normal Friday night?"

"This," she said. "Sneaking into a hotel pool and swimming."

"You and your boyfriend did a lot of that?"

"Absolutely." She smiled then sobered a little, reflecting on Doyle, their relationship, and where he might be now. "No. Doyle and I weren't what you'd call an exciting couple but we were content. Happy even, I think. For a while. There just wasn't anything keeping us together any more."

"I'm sorry." Ari moved closer, climbing out of the water to sit beside her on the steps. "I know you're worried about him."

"We're all worried about someone." She shrugged. "But let's not think of that right now."

He took hold of her wrist, his thumb stroking over the pulse point. "No. Let's think about... getting you back in the water." He suddenly lunged backward into the pool and pulled her with him. They grappled and splashed and laughed as she fought him off. He pulled her into his arms and dragged her over into deeper water. She clung to him to keep from going under.

And then he was kissing her, his lips cool and wet from the water, but warm underneath. Her mouth opened to the pressure and her tongue darted out to swirl around his. She gripped his slippery wet shoulders and held on, skin sliding over skin. The water might be cool but heat pulsed between her legs with every beat of her heart.

Suspended in the water but supported by Ari's arms, Lila felt safer and lighter than she had in days. The bobbed there, kissing and holding one another until he miss-stepped and they both plunged under and rose, sputtering.

Coughing and laughing, he rasped, "Are we done swimming now?"

"I think so." Lila backstroked into shallower water, and he followed.

They climbed out of the pool and found a couple of thin hotel towels on one of the deck chairs. Wrapped in the rough fabric, Lila scooped her clothes and shoes from the floor. She glanced at Ari also gathering his clothes. When he straightened, the damp towel around his waist molded against his groin, giving a nice view of the bulge she'd felt pressing against her in the pool. The gooseflesh popping out on her arms had little to do with being chilled from swimming.

Ari walked over to her and her breathing went shallow. She licked her lips, prepared for more kissing, but he merely slipped an arm around her waist and guided her from the room.

Passing the lobby, Lila glanced toward the front windows where Deb and Julie kept watch. The two women leaned toward each other, talking earnestly. She thought about what Deb had told her about their commitment ceremony and their plan to adopt. There might be a lot of orphaned children needing homes by the time this situation was resolved—assuming it ever was.

Ari went to the room Deb had assigned him and unlocked the door for Lila to enter. This time her shiver was nerves more than lust. There'd been too many new rooms containing too many horrible surprises for her to feel comfortable entering a dark bedroom.

Ari went to the window to make sure the drapes were completely closed before turning on his flashlight to guide her way. The room was stuffy and smelled faintly of cigarettes even though they were in the non-smoking area.

"Sorry there are no candles to make it a little more romantic." He glanced ruefully around the standard bland motel room.

"After the places we've slept the last few nights, this is heaven," Lila assured him as she went over to one of the two queen-sized beds and pulled back the covers. Her heart was tripping along in a much more pleasant way than when zombies were chasing her. She was a little nervous, but an excited, happy kind of nervous.

She dropped her wet towel to the floor and combed her fingers through her damp hair, trying to smooth it out a little. It was tangled mess, but it felt so good to be at least a little cleaner.

"Leave it. You look fine." Ari's husky voice sent a renewed flush of heat through her. He cast aside his towel and walked toward her, all lean muscle and naked skin, the gray briefs leaving little to the imagination. He pulled her to him with enough force to startle a gasp from her.

Lila's arms went around him. She slid her hands up his smooth, warm back and curved one hand around the back of his shorn head. Had she scoffed at his military crew cut when she'd first seen him on the subway train? The soft stubble of hair felt sexy as hell scraping her palm, the hard skull underneath, solid. She tipped her head back and her eyes fell closed as his breath brushed her lips, and then his mouth sealed over hers drawing her into a deep, exploring kiss.

For long minutes, they kissed, hands roaming, desperate to feel every part of each other. He unfastened her bra and she took it off. His mouth descended on her breasts, sending waves of shimmering heat through her. Then he bore her down to the bed, pinning her beneath him. She loved the feel of his weight on top of her. It made her feel secure, safe, grounded in reality at last.

He broke off their kiss at last, gasping for air. "I've wanted this for so long."

"Me, too," she panted. Not that "so long" had been very long. As real time was measured, they'd only known each other a few days, but it seemed like years. Nothing like a monumental crisis to break down barriers and bring people close real fast. Which was kind of a sad commentary on how people interacted with each on a daily basis, always maintaining their distance.

Ari rocked a little, pressing his hardness into her. Lila lifted her ass and pulled at her underwear, trying to get free of it. Awkward and laughing, they struggled out of the last of their clothes then crawled, shivering under the covers, seeking one another's warmth.

"A real bed. My God, this feels good, and so do you," he flirted.

"Mm. Maybe we should just curl up and fall asleep."

"Uh, I don't think so."

"No," she agreed, and grabbed his ass, pulling him to her once more and wrapping her legs around him. "Like my mom always said, 'You'll have plenty of time to sleep when you're dead.'"

* * * * *

Chapter Fourteen

Ari's body quivered, the muscles in his arms and back shaking, but not in the "my God, I just decapitated a woman I know" kind of way. He was exhausted in a good way, all the tension drained out of him. He fell back onto the bed beside Lila and stared up at the smoke detector on the ceiling. "That was…"

"Not bad," she completed.

He grinned at the understatement, shot a sideways look at her smug smile and began to laugh. Damn, he'd forgotten what laughter felt like.

She laughed, too, and snuggled up against his side, all soft curves and warm skin. He loved the way she felt and the contented sound of her breathing. He really liked her wit and sense of humor and the way he could count on her to stay calm in a crisis. There was no woman he'd rather be with right now, including sexy Sondra, who'd let her interest in him be known numerous times. That empty-headed wench had nothing on Lila.

After everything that had happened that day, he should've been tired, but he was feeling too much of an endorphin rush to fall asleep immediately. He rose from the bed. "Want something? Water, lukewarm soda, room temperature tea?"

"If there's any bottled water left, that'd be great." She yawned and stretched, raising her arms above her head and making her chest move in interesting ways that distracted him for a few moments.

"Um, right. Water." He reached in his backpack and pulled out a half full bottle, all he had left. He took a small sip and gave the rest to Lila.

"Thanks."

He noticed she only drank a little, too, carefully conserving what was left before capping the bottle and setting it on the nightstand.

"I should be sleepy, but I'm not. Let's see what's on." She picked up the TV remote and pointed it toward the dead television. "Ah, Gilligan's Island. The world ends and Gilligan's still broadcasting somewhere out there in the cosmos. Gives me a real sense of continuity."

Ari smiled and slipped into bed beside her, propping up a pillow behind his back.

Lila scooted over so her head rested on his chest and continued to stare at the blank face of the television. "Ginger or Maryann?"

"If I say both, you'll think I'm a dog, so Maryann, of course," he replied and pressed his lips to the top of her head. "Professor or Gilligan? Or Skipper?"

"Maryann," she replied without missing a beat. "I'd join Deb and Julie's team if I had to live on that island. It's so obvious men made this show. There are no male hotties for women viewers to ogle."

"I've seen this episode. They try to make a raft made out of bamboo and cocoanuts. Give me that." Ari seized the remote from her and pretended to change the channel. "That's better."

"W.W.F.? Nascar? Basketball? I can't quite see. The reception's terrible."

"Sports. Is that all you think I'm about?" he asked. "This is the History Channel. Tombs of the Pharaohs."

"Mm. Interesting. But I've had enough of dead bodies and dying civilizations lately. Turn it to something lighter. Maybe just cartoons."

"Classic or modern? We've got Bugs on one channel and Adult Swim on Cartoon Network."

"If its the one where Bugs sings opera and carries Yosemite Sam up to Valhalla, leave it there for a while." She fell silent, rubbing her hand in idle circles on his bare stomach, making it twitch. Pretty soon Ari forgot about watching pretend TV in favor of more interesting entertainment. He reached for Lila again and found he had more energy left than he'd thought.

* * * * *

Ari woke to a pounding on the door. He jerked upright, knocking Lila's arm off him. "What?"

"Hey, wake up," Derrick's muffled voice came through the door. "We've got visitors. Living ones."

"Okay. I'll be right there." He scrambled out of bed to get dressed, hating the feel of the stiff, blood-stained shirt, but he had nothing clean to wear. He glanced at Lila, who'd also sprung up and was searching for her underwear. A pang of sharp regret stabbed through him that their breathing space had been so brief. He wished they could've at least stayed undisturbed till morning. Hell, he wished they could've had a full week of doing nothing but lying around in this bed, watching make believe TV, and having sex and bonbons.

He laced his shoe then rose and looked at Lila, zipping her jeans. Newcomers brought all sorts of changes. These might be their last few moments alone together. Who knew what the next day would bring. He went over to her and drew her close, cupping her cheek in one hand and giving her a kiss that might be for goodbye. When he pulled away, he said, "I'm glad we..."

"Me, too. Very glad." Her hand was cool and soft on the side of his face for a second and then he had to step away.

"I'm going to get going. Don't feel like you have to hurry." Ari took a deep breath before opening the door.

Derrick waited for him in the hall. He jerked his thumb toward the lobby. "They're waiting with Joe. Two guys. They saw light in here and came to check it out."

So much for being careful. But it only took one small, moving light, maybe no bigger than the tip of one of Deb's cigarettes, and a single pair of eyes to see it to signal there were living people in the motel.

"Why're you up? I thought it was Joe's watch?" he said.

Derrick shrugged. "It's almost morning anyway, and I couldn't sleep any more. I'm too hungry." He nodded toward the door Ari had closed behind him. "So, Lila. Did you tap that?"

"Shut up, you little perv. None of your business." He strode ahead of Derrick to the lobby where Joe stood talking to the two men, who looked to be in their late twenties or early thirties. They were fit and athletic, the kind of guys Ari needed to help strengthen his group. He wouldn't mind traveling with them, unless they had an agenda of their own.

They looked up as he approached. Joe's habitually gloomy face was more cheerful than Ari had ever seen it. "Ari, this is Walter Marsh and Taishawn Streeter."

"Hi." Marsh was a stocky, boulder of a man, who looked like he could bench press Gloria Patton and then some. "Saw your lights. Thought we'd come over and say 'howdy'. You should really tell your people to keep blackout at night. Even a little light can be dangerous."

Ari's hackles rose at the man's condescending tone, but he didn't bother to explain he'd already given that order. Instead, he nodded and shook Marsh's hand and then Streeter's. "I'm Ari Brenner."

"Taishawn. How you doin'?" If Marsh looked like a weight lifter or wrestler, his buddy had the appearance of a long distance runner. Streeter was a tall, long-limbed black man with hair shaved even closer than Ari's. "Your man Joe here says you got a whole party you're trying to move all the way to the river."

Ari nodded. "Ten of us altogether."

"Eleven counting the baby," Derrick added helpfully.

"Shit. That's a big group. Lucky you made it this many days."

"We lost a few on the way," Ari said, thinking of Ann's quivering white tennis shoe and Mrs. Scheider's last painful breath. "But we're doing okay."

"That's tough," Marsh folded his arms and nodded. "We had a bigger group when we started out, too. We were at Colossus, working out when things started happening."

"Did you guys already know each other?" Joe asked.

"Not really. Just casual acquaintance at the gym."

"You buddy up fast when shit like this hits," Streeter said. "Marsh here's got a plan. He can fly helicopters. We're on our way to the Sanilac building. They've got a corporate helipad on the roof. You could come with us."

"That's a great idea!" Derrick said.

"I think we're closer to the marina," Ari pointed out. He knew the office building the men were talking about and tried to calculate the number of blocks there, as well as the difficulty of climbing all the way to the top. It was hard to know whether the marina or the office building posed more dangers.

The two strangers looked past Ari so he knew Lila had come to join them before he heard her greeting them and introducing herself.

"Nice to meet you." Marsh held out his hand to shake Lila's.

For a brief moment, Ari wanted to pull her away from him. He didn't want to share his people or information with these strangers. He didn't want to fall in with their plan and have things change. But that was crazy. They offered a viable solution, just a different course from the one he'd been on.

"A helicopter," Lila said after Marsh explained his plan. "Would it be big enough to hold all of us?"

He nodded. "Sure. I've seen the copter come and go from the Sanilac building. It's a Bell 222. It'll carry ten including the pilot."

"Uh, we already have ten people. With the two of you that makes twelve," Ari said.

"It's more about weight than numbers. You said you had a couple of kids? They can sit on someone's lap. We'll make it work." Marsh paused. "That is, if you want to go along."

Before Ari could answer, they were interrupted by more early risers drawn by the sound of their voices. Sleep-rumpled and yawning, Deb and Julie wandered out to the lobby.

"Shall I wake the rest of them so they can be a part of this discussion?" Lila asked Ari.

He'd just as soon make the decision without Carl, Gloria or Sondra's input, but they were a part of this. Besides, there was no point in wasting time, repeating everything for their benefit after they finally rose. "Sure. Go get 'em."

While they waited, they gathered in the sitting area in the lobby. Deb and Julie introduced themselves and Julie went to get refreshments for their guests.

"We've been running on fumes," Marsh said. "But I'm sure you've had an even harder time feeding this many people. Snack foods only take the edge off. I'd give anything for a hot, cooked meal."

"Why haven't you guys left town by now?" Joe asked. "It's been days since this started."

"We were trapped for a while," Streeter said. "Near the hospital there were hordes of the damn things coming in waves. Then the army comes in, ground troops and helicopters shooting the shit out of anything that moved. We couldn't go anywhere. Just had to hole up and wait for the worse of it to be over."

"Where'd you hide?" Deb leaned against the check-in counter, arms folded. Ari felt her mistrust as if it was a reflection of his own. It made him see his own doubt for what it was, an alpha personality threatened by another alpha entering his territory. He should be grateful these guys were willing to take them along, happy to pass some of the burden to other strong leaders.

"After we escaped from the gym, we ended up at a school near the hospital. But with things they way they were outside, we were stranded there for a while," Marsh said. "I remembered seeing a chopper land on the Sanilac the day the shit hit. We decided to head there."

"What about the children?" Julie returned with sodas for the men.

Streeter shook his head, his gaze downcast. "They didn't make it."

"None of them? You couldn't take any of them with you?"

"It was an elementary school. These were little kids. They couldn't outrun the zombies. It was safer for them to stay there. There was school faculty with them."

Julie dropped the subject. There was enough blame to go around. They'd all left people behind.

Ari checked the street outside, where early morning gray illuminated a car with its fender crumpled against a light pole, and the windshield ruptured by the driver's body. A crow picked at the woman's face. Ari scanned the block as far as he could see in either direction. It was deserted.

As he turned away from the window, he came to a decision. They needed the extra protection Marsh and Streeter could offer and the idea of flying with a trained pilot was better than his half-assed plan to hotwire a boat. Of course, the rest of the group would air their opinions, but he knew which side he'd weigh in on.

Lila returned with the others. Sondra, dressed for bed in an oversized T-shirt with nothing on her bare legs, turned on all her charm around the two new men. She really was a shameless flirt, the kind of girl who didn't know how to dial it down no matter what the circumstances. Gloria stayed only long enough to be introduced and then returned to her room to take care of Ian. Lila hadn't wakened Ronnie.

"This is Carl," Ari introduced the scientist, who shook hands with Marsh and Streeter.

"Pleased to meet you. Lila says you got a plan to get out."

Marsh explained for the third time about the helipad and his ability to pilot a copter.

"That seems like the way to go," Carl said as he took a seat on the couch beside Sondra and Taishawn. "And it looks like you're well armed." He indicated the rifles the two men had set aside.

"You know you can't just shoot 'em though, right? You have to cut their heads off to kill them," Derrick said. "I was the one who figured that out."

"We've taken down a few," Streeter assured him, "haven't we, man?"

"A few." Marsh leaned back in the armchair across from the couch, looking as relaxed as if this was his own living room. "What was Joe saying about you having some kind of cure?"

"Not yet." Carl leaned forward, eager to share. "But I have an idea, a modification of the formula that could alter the effects of the original antidote." He launched into an explanation of the cure for A7 and why he thought it had caused this drastic result. "But the solution wasn't totally flawed. I think with slight changes I could create not only a real cure for the A7 virus, but also counteract the effects of the current antidote."

He would've gone on to explain in more detail than any of them could hope to grasp the specifics of what he intended, but Derrick interrupted. "The information is on a hard drive I got from Carl's computer at Quantus. We were attacked while we were there and I killed one of the zombies."

Ari rolled his eyes. Derrick seemed intent on impressing the newcomers with his accomplishments as if they were Daddy come home.

Marsh gave a low whistle. "It sounds like you hold the key to saving the world," he said to Carl. "We've got to get you off this island and some place safe."

No shit. What do you think I've been trying to do? Ari couldn't help his irritation at Marsh's manner, as if they'd been doing nothing but cooling their heels by the hotel pool until he came along to take charge of things. But once again he suppressed his emotions. This was no time to let personal feelings color his judgment. So his ego was a little bruised. The damn world was at stake here.

"We have a choice," he addressed the group, cutting across the chatter. "Continue on our way to the marina or try to fly out of here with these guys. The Sanilac building is about the same distance as the river, but in the opposite direction. Once we get there we'll have to climb all the way to the roof and there's no guarantee the helicopter will even be there."

"You don't sound convinced." Streeter stared at him. "Well, you haven't seen the waterfront yet. It's crawling with flesh-eaters, picking off anyone who tries to get to a boat."

"I'm only trying to present all possibilities," Ari said. "Everyone should have a complete picture of both options before they decide."

"I want to fly," Derrick said. "So does Ronnie."

"I'm in." Sondra leaned close to Streeter. "These guys seem to know what they're doing."

One by one, the others agreed, some more enthusiastically than others. But even Lila, after pausing to glance at Ari, was on board with the new plan. Even as Ari cast his vote in favor, too, he felt ridiculously abandoned.

Marsh looked outside where the light had turned from gray to pink. "We should get started. With luck, we can be flying out of this shit storm by noon."

Maybe to face another shit storm on the mainland. They'd gone days without hearing from the outside world, and Ari dreaded what they would find there.

As Marsh started giving orders, Ari felt his own authority slipping away. And even though this was what he'd longed for since the beginning, someone else to step up and take control, his sense of desertion grew as people addressed their questions to Marsh or even Streeter instead of him. Damn, he really was pathetic.

As he gathered things from his room, Lila came to get hers, too. She closed the door behind her and went to him, knocking his backpack from his hands and putting them on her hips instead. She slid hers around the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss.

Minutes later when they finally drew apart, she murmured, "How are you doing? What do you really think about these guys? Dicks, right?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. They haven't done or said anything wrong. I just don't… mesh well with either of them."

"I know. But do you think we can trust them?"

Ari paused to consider. "They haven't tried to take anything from us. They're inviting us to travel with them when they could move faster alone. I can't see any reason not to trust them, although Marsh might be wrong about that chopper and we could go a long way out of our way for nothing."

Lila nodded. "That's what I thought, but I still feel like we have to give it a try. A helicopter would give us so much more flexibility. We could land anywhere it seems safe. With a boat there's a chance of not finding a harbor that isn't overrun with zombies. But I still don't like Marsh much. He seems really arrogant."

He felt the same way, but if they were going to follow Marsh now, they had to wholeheartedly recognize him as the leader. Ari turned and stooped to pick up his bag. "Well, whether he's a dick or not, Marsh is the man in charge now so all we can do is follow his lead."

* * * * *

Chapter Fifteen

"Shut that kid up or I swear I'll gag him," Streeter glared at Gloria over his shoulder.

"We need to stop for a while," the plump woman replied, breathless from trotting along at the long-legged pace Taishawn set. "Ian needs to be fed and changed."

"We can't stop every two minutes. We gotta keep moving."

"Hey," Lila interrupted. "You guys aren't traveling alone now. You had to know a group with children in it might slow you down." She really didn't like these guys and with every step regretted her choice to join them more.

"We'll call a halt in another few blocks," Marsh declared. "Meanwhile, muffle the baby and keep walking."

"Here, Gloria, let me try." Julie took the little one in her arms and his wails amped up. She jiggled him and crooned softly but couldn't get him to quiet down.

"I don't think we have a choice, Marsh," Ari said. "We're going to have to take a break."

"Fine. We'll get some food as long as we're stopping."

Their new leader directed them to a convenience store. Ari went inside to check out the interior and returned more blood-spattered than when he'd gone in. He announced it was now clear. He'd taken care of a lone revenant snacking on old body parts. "The thing was pretty weak and easy to kill. I think you're right about them needing fresh meat to survive," he said to Carl.

The group went inside to ransack the store, while Ari, Streeter and Marsh kept watch. Lila had to admit it felt safer having them there. Not that some of the rest of them couldn't handle the job, but these men seemed at ease with their weapons and a bit more lethal in their bearing.

Gloria changed Ian's diaper and sat with him in a corner to nurse. Lila brought her something to drink and petted the top of Ian's soft head. "Everything better now, buddy? You got what you wanted?"

His mother looked up at Lila. "Those men are going to cut us loose. I can feel it. Don't let them do it. Promise me, you'll stick up for me."

Lila crouched beside her, frowning. "No. I'm sure they wouldn't. Besides, none of us would let them."

"Oh wouldn't they?" Mrs. Patton spoke bitterly, shooting a hard look at the rest of their company moving around the store. "They'd gladly be rid of the trouble Ian and I cause, his crying and my dead weight, but they could salve their consciences by laying the blame on the new guys."

"That's not true. Stop thinking like that." The woman was growing paranoid. Coupled with her misery over the loss of her husband it was an ugly combination.

"We'll see," Gloria muttered, moving Ian to her shoulder to burp him.

Soon they were on their way again, moving quickly in the shadows of the tall buildings. Lila walked with Ronnie, holding her hand and cajoling her to be strong and walk just a little further. They were within sight of their destination, when a cadre of the undead burst from the bar they were passing.

A jumble of sensations hit Lila all at once: the door banging open, the creatures' running feet, Sondra's piercing scream, Ronnie's little fingers gripping her hand, shouts, shots, the sharp odor of gunpowder. Lila scooped Ronnie off the ground to carry her, but the child was too heavy to run with and Lila couldn't defend herself with the girl in her arms. She glanced over her shoulder to find Joe intercepting one of the zombies, hacking at it with his hunting knife, then she faced forward and concentrated on hurrying as fast as she could

After firing an initial salvo of bullets into their attackers, Marsh and Streeter didn't stop to help anyone. They raced toward the Sanilac building, leaving the slower members of the herd to the wolves.

Lila caught a glimpse of Ari fighting hand to hand with a zombie that had gotten a grip on Gloria. Lila wished she could help, but her arms were full of Ronnie. She had her own mission. Her feet thudded on the pavement, heavy from the extra weight of her burden. Far ahead, Marsh and Streeter were already entering the door of the building with Sondra racing right behind them, her ankle remarkably, completely healed.

Derrick ran up beside Lila and reached out for his sister. Lila passed her off like a baton in a relay without slowing her pace. Ronnie wrapped her arms around her brother and he darted away with her.

Lila whirled around, drawing the handgun she carried, and assessed the deteriorating situation. Ari still grappled with the zombie that had attacked Gloria, while Gloria staggered away. Joe was down on the ground beneath two zombies, his arms and legs flailing as he tried to fight them off.

Carl, too, fought for his life against one of the creatures, a young boy, who'd latched onto his arm with ferocious teeth that threatened to tear through his jacket sleeve. Deb slashed at the back of the boy's neck with her knife. Just as Lila went to help, Deb hit the spot and the zombie went limp. Carl threw him off with a grunt, the boy's body landing in a crumpled heap on the ground. He picked up the precious bag containing the hard drive and ran with it.

Julie had taken Ian from Gloria, and was encouraging the stout woman to run faster. Deb and Carl joined them. Deb urged all of them toward the building then turned to shoot at several zombies on their tail.

Lila went to help Joe. She moved behind the two creatures which were crouched over him, ripping at him like a pair of hungry dogs with a steak, completely oblivious to her approach. She shot first one then the other directly in the back of the neck. Both zombies fell still. Lila dragged their corpses off of Joe, straining at the effort of hauling their limp weight. But one look at the doctor's mangled body told her it was too late. At least one of the things had gone for his throat and torn a huge chunk out of it. Joe's blue eyes were staring, fogged over, dead. She could see it without checking his pulse, but she checked anyway. And then, without hesitation, Lila shot him directly through his throat to make certain he wouldn't rise again.

"Come on." Ari was beside her, tugging on her arm, dragging her with him as he ran. She looked up and saw the others had nearly reached the building. Only she and Ari were left…with a few zombies chasing them. She forced her leaden legs to move faster, every breath like knives in her chest.

Deb had gotten the others inside before turning to fire at their pursuers until her clip was empty. The shots echoed in the canyon between the buildings. She held the door open for Lila and Ari and they bolted through it. Derrick locked the door behind them.

Streeter and Marsh moved a desk in front of the door as a barricade. They wrestled it into place while the creatures outside continued to beat against the glass like desperate birds trying to escape a house.

Lila bent over, hands on her knees, gasping for breath. Nausea overtook her and she wretched and spat bile onto the floor.

Beside her, Ari recovered much quicker. He straightened and strode toward Marsh and Streeter. "What the fuck? You left us out there!"

"Back off." Streeter stepped toward Ari, challenging him with a glare and threatening him with his height. "Back the hell off. We all ran."

"Yeah, but you ran first. You didn't fight or help anyone."

"Survival of the fittest. If someone can't keep up, they go down."

Ari's fists were clenched, his body quivering with tension. Lila was sure he was about to throw a punch. "We never should've come with you."

Marsh moved in beside Streeter. "The same thing might've happened if you'd gone your own way. You still would've been on your own."

"Bullshit," Deb exploded. "The difference is we wouldn't have been expecting your help. You only brought us along to use as canon fodder, like you probably did with those school kids."

Lila was as enraged as the others, but the growing altercation wasn't helping anyone and meanwhile, zombies were still pounding on the glass, trying to get in. She moved to insert herself into the argument, holding up her hands and shouting, "Hey! Let's all calm down. This isn't the time to fight. There are those things out there," she pointed at the door, "and for all we know, more inside the building. So get it together and save your arguments for later."

Everyone still bristled like angry cats poised to attack, but her words got them moving. Marsh and Streeter fortified the door with more office furniture. Ari, Deb and Derrick swept the immediate area to make sure they weren't barricading themselves in with more of the undead.

Julie held Ronnie, who cried hysterically, hiccupping sobs that shook her body. Carl checked to see that the hard drive was undamaged. Sondra found a water cooler and carried cups of water to Marsh and Streeter.

Lila moved in a dreamlike haze to Gloria to make sure she was unharmed. She wrapped an arm around the woman's shoulders and hugged her. "We're almost there. Only a few hundred stairs between us and freedom."

Gloria stared at her. "There is no way out. You know that. The world out there is just as bad. There's no place to go."

Lila clenched her jaw, suppressing the urge to shake her. "But we have to believe in something. We have to set some kind of course and follow it, or give up and die. Hope is the only thing that will keep us sane right now."

Gloria laughed harshly. "Too late."

Lila took her arm away, done soothing and supporting. "If you can't pull it together for yourself, do it for your son. He deserves a mother who at least pretends to believe in a future."

She rose and went to put a fresh clip in her weapon, trying not to think about how it had felt to fire the gun and see the two zombies' necks explode in a shower of blood and flesh. What bothered her wasn't that she'd done it, but how satisfied, almost gleeful, she'd felt ending their existences. She'd wanted to shoot them until her clip was empty. That wasn't the person she wanted to be, taking joy in destruction.

And she really didn't want to think about Joe right now. There'd be time enough later to process her feelings about that shooting, and maybe even a little time to think about last night with Ari and what it had meant to her. But right now was the time for action.

"Okay, guys," she addressed the others. "We've got a long haul ahead of us. Let's gear up and be ready for it, 'cause clearly these guys," she gestured at Streeter and Marsh, "aren't going to wait for anyone to keep up."

The advance team returned to declare the area, zombie-free. Everyone jettisoned most of the contents of their backpacks to make them as light as possible and they started for the stairs.

Lila prayed with all her heart for a helicopter to be waiting on the roof of the building when they arrived.

* * * * *

Chapter Sixteen

Ari was in better shape than he'd been in his whole life. He was used to running miles with a heavy weight on his back, scaling walls and climbing obstacles. But even so, his calves ached after a half dozen floors. He could only imagine how difficult this climb was for some of the others like Gloria Patton.

He dropped back to help the stragglers along. Surprisingly, little Ronnie wasn't one of them. She seemed intent on reaching her helicopter ride and darted up the stairs like a girl on a mission—her tears turned off for the time being.

Meanwhile, Gloria, red-faced and panting, brought up the rear, along with Lila, who was carrying Ian, and Carl.

The scientist cursed a steady stream under his breath as he gripped the handrail and laboriously climbed the steps. "I've been meaning to join a damn gym," he said. "I spend way to much time sitting on my butt. Guess this is a good argument for taking better care of your health."

Lila laughed. "If we'd known zombies were coming, I think we all would've kept fitter. Not to mention taking combat training."

"I've got to rest," Gloria wheezed as she leaned against the wall on the next landing.

The footsteps of the rest of the group clattered up the stairs ahead of them. "Hey," Ari called, "Take a break."

"No," Marsh's voice echoed down the stairwell. That was it. No explanation or embellishment. Just "no".

Ari agreed with Deb. The only reason these guys had brought them along was to throw them under the bus if they were attacked—a distraction to give Marsh and Streeter time to get away. And he also thought she was right about the men using the school kids as fodder to aid their escape. Something about the way Streeter had said "They didn't make it" before switching his story to say they'd left them with faculty at the school.

But they were committed to this route now. Only another dozen or so floors and they'd be at the top of the building. Ari didn't like Marsh, but doubted the man would make such a climb if he wasn't almost a hundred percent sure he'd find a helicopter on the roof as he expected.

Gloria slid down the wall to sit with her head lowered as she breathed in and out.

Ari crouched beside her. "You feel like you're going to faint?"

Lila passed the baby to Carl, who awkwardly accepted the struggling bundle. Ian, who was already fussing, began to cry in earnest, his wails ringing through the stairwell.

Lila knelt on Mrs. Patton's other side and offered her a nearly empty bottle of water. "Don't give up. You can do this."

The flushed woman looked at her and nodded. "I will. I heard what you said earlier and I'm not giving up. I just need a breather."

Ari glanced back and forth between them, understanding they were resuming an earlier conversation. He left them to it and went over to Carl. "How about you? Are you going to be all right? Wouldn't want to lose our ace in the hole."

Carl waved him away, jiggling the baby awkwardly. "I'm good."

Gloria climbed to her feet, leaning on Lila, grasped the banister and started up the next flight of stairs, a look of grim determination on her face.

Lila and Ari exchanged a silent look. Ari was glad the woman was finally motivated, but worried about having her collapse. Gloria looked about a floor or two away from a heart attack.

"I'll carry the kid now." Ari took Ian from Carl. He hadn't held the baby yet and was surprised to find the little guy felt like he weighed more than Ronnie. While the girl was all spindly arms and legs like a spider monkey, Ian was solid flesh. "Kid, you're going to be a linebacker some day," Ari told him.

Distracted from crying for a moment, Ian stared at him with big, goggly eyes, reached for Ari's dog tags and stuck them in his mouth. Happy to have the baby occupied, Ari hefted him onto one hip and resumed the climb.

Step after step, floor by floor, they made their way to the top of the building. By the time they reached the last landing, everyone was drenched in sweat and the rest of the group had already disappeared through the door leading to the roof.

Carl opened the door and the sunlight nearly blinded them. Ari shielded his eyes as he emerged from the dark stairwell. Across the roof, the corporate helicopter was parked on its pad as Marsh had promised. His heart soared as if he was already flying away, but it quickly landed with a thud as he realized the copter didn't look big enough to carry them all. He passed the baby to Lila and strode toward the group clustered near the helicopter.

Marsh and Streeter stood shoulder to shoulder, their weapons in their hands, not pointed at anyone, not yet, but a sinister threat all the same. Sondra was by Streeter's side, one of her famous modeling hands resting on his hip, claiming her allegiance.

"What's up?" Ari tried to sound casual, as if he and Streeter hadn't been ready to tear each others' throats out down in the lobby.

"I was wrong. It's a six-seater, not eight." Marsh was blunt.

"But we can fit everyone in," Deb said. "People can double up on the seats."

"I told you before. It's about weight. The machine can't carry this much weight and fly. A few of you will have to stay behind." He looked at Gloria.

"Unbolt a few seats and take them out. That'll knock off some pounds," Carl suggested.

"We don't have the tools or time for that." Marsh stared at Ari, challenging him with his gaze. "Since I'm the pilot, I'll decide who goes and who stays. After we get someplace safe, we can send help for the others."

Ari doubted that would happen. Marsh couldn't make such a promise, not unless he intended to fly back himself, which he wouldn't do. Looking into Marsh's eyes, Ari also knew the man had been aware how many this helicopter would carry and had lied about it seating ten.

He swallowed his anger and kept his tone cool. "Who do you plan to take with you?"

Marsh had the grace to hesitate before he replied. "Those with the greatest chance of survival."

"Survival of the fittest," Streeter echoed. "I told you, the slow and the weak got no place in this world now."

Sondra gripped his arm, sticking to him like a burr. "You'll take me, right?" She looked up at Streeter, eyes anxious, breasts pressing against his arm, reminding him of what she had to offer.

He looked down at her and grinned. "Told you I would, sweetheart. You got a ride. Might have to earn it later, but you're on."

"Carl, of course," Marsh said. "He's worth gold."

That left two seats.

"I'll take the lesbian. She's tough." Marsh nodded toward Deb. "And you, Ari. You've got strength and skills. The rest of them couldn't have come this far without you. You deserve a ride out."

For one heartbeat, Ari imagined himself in that chopper, rising from the rooftop and flying away, tearing off the clinging vines that dragged him down, becoming himself again—alone, self-sufficient, no needy people asking him what to do next. Then reason slammed shut like a cage door, the bars solid and real. He had no choice. Of course, he wouldn't abandon them—not any of them.

"Great offer, but no," he said. "I'll give my seat to Gloria and Ian."

"You son of a bitch!" Deb shouted at Marsh. "You knew this. Even before we climbed all the way up here you knew we couldn't all go, you bastard. Do you think I'd leave my girl behind?"

Marsh shrugged. "Not really. It's your choice. I'll take Derrick then. He's a scrapper."

"Only if my sister goes," Derrick said. "She can sit on my lap."

"Sorry, kid. You're skinny and so is she, but with this one's weight," Marsh nodded at Gloria, "that's too many pounds. Can't do it. It's not safe."

"Then take Ronnie," Derrick said.

"Derrick, you can have my spot," Carl offered. "You shouldn't be separated from your sister. You're all she's got."

Marsh shook his head. "Nu-uh. You're too important to leave behind."

Ari hated to agree with him on anything, but he was right. Carl must be taken someplace he could work on a cure. Too bad Marsh and Streeter hadn't remembered that when they'd abandoned him on the street.

"Sondra?" Lila said. "Won't you give Derrick your seat? Or you, Mr. Streeter. It's the right thing to do."

Sondra looked down, unable to meet Lila's eyes, but Taishawn stared back at her. "Don't try to guilt me. This is the way it works. Better get the fairytale ideas out of your head and accept the truth—the world's a hard place."

"Forget it, Lila. They're assholes. They're not going to budge," Derrick said, then turned to Gloria. "Take care of Ronnie. Promise me."

"I will." She nodded. "I promise to look after her as if she was my own."

"Derrick?" Ronnie's voice rose and she grabbed her brother's arm.

He squatted to face her, took hold of her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "It's all right, Ronnie. Mrs. Patton will look after you and help you try to find mom or dad. I'll look for them, too, and probably we'll be together again soon."

"No! No, Derrick. I don't want to go. I want to stay with you."

"It's not safe here. You know what it's like. These guys are going to take you some place better. You should go with them." Derrick's voice was rough and thick. He suddenly seized Ronnie and gave her a hard hug. "Be good. See ya later."

Ari's throat was choked, too. He clenched his jaw hard. "Jesus, Marsh," he snapped. "The boy doesn't weight that much. Just let them double up. Let him on the damn helicopter."

"Can't do it. I'm not risking all of us crashing." Marsh had already turned away, heading toward the cockpit.

Ari took a step after him, ready to fight for Derrick, but Streeter brought his gun down off his shoulder and leveled it at him. "It wouldn't bother me at all to shoot you."

Ari knew he wasn't lying. There was a glitter in the man's eyes. Taishawn Streeter may not been just a regular guy working out at the gym a few days ago, but he'd turned quickly into a hard-ass, selfish prick without remorse or mercy in his nature. Streeter continued to keep his weapon trained on him while the others took their seats on the helicopter.

"I'm sorry," Carl said to Julie. "This is so wrong."

"You've got to do it. Go. Find a way to fix this," Julie gave him a quick hug. "Take care of yourself."

Gloria took Ian from Lila and murmured her thanks before addressing Ari. "Thank you. I know you tried to help Doug but there was nothing you could do. I needed to blame someone for his death so I accused you of leaving him behind, but I know it wasn't your fault. I'm sorry. And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving Ian and me a chance."

Ari nodded.

"Hurry up, lady, if you're getting on," Streeter prodded.

Gloria went toward the copter. Sondra had already boarded without a word of goodbye, thanks or good luck to any of them. She stared out the window on the opposite side of the helicopter, refusing to look back.

The engine growled to life and the rotors whirred, whipping the air around them. Lila held her windblown hair back from her face.

Derrick buckled Ronnie into one of the seats. Ronnie threw her arms around her brother's neck and clung to him until he pulled away and stepped out of the chopper. Then she gripped the little stuffed unicorn Ann had given her. Her face was twisted into a gargoyle's frown and tears spilling down her bright red cheeks.

Derrick moved away from the helicopter. Lila went over to put an arm around him. At last Streeter lowered his weapon, ducked his head to avoid the rotors and ran for the chopper. He boosted himself inside and closed the door.

Through the window, Ari could make out Marsh's head bent over the controls. A few seconds later, the helicopter rose into the air. Ari squinted as the wind blew grit into his eyes and when he opened them again, the copter was already a block away, flying low across the tops of the buildings. The sound of the blades cutting through the air faded. The sunlight reflected off the metallic body of the copter, blinding Ari for a moment, and then the bird veered southwest, disappearing behind a cliff of granite and glass.

"That's it." Lila had come over to stand beside him.

He glanced down at her. "Guess so."

"So we start for the marina again."

"Yep." He glanced at Derrick, who'd gone to the far edge of the roof for some privacy, and at Deb & Julie, who clung together in a fierce hug. Then Ari looked back at Lila, her beautiful eyes and grim mouth.

"We'll make it." She reached for his hand and squeezed it. "We will."

He nodded, too tired to say anything. He wished she'd stop trying to be encouraging. He didn't want a cheerleader right now.

Lila seemed to sense that and stopped talking. She let go of his hand, slid her hands around his waist and rested her head against his chest. He embraced her solid warmth, rested his cheek against her hair and closed his eyes.

Breathe. Just breathe. He remembered Lila telling him in the tunnel when he'd begun to panic about which direction to take. He followed her advice now and his accelerating heartbeats slowed. He drew strength and comfort from her like a vampire sucking blood, but the difference was, he gave it back and when they finally broke apart, both were replenished.

Deb and Julie came over with Derrick trailing behind them. His face was splotchy, his eyes red, but his voice was firm when he spoke. "Now what, captain?"

"How do all of you feel?" Ari asked. "We have a lot of daylight left so we could start for the waterfront. Or we could stay here for the night and regroup."

"Stay here," Julie voted. "And I mean right here on the roof. I don't think I could face those stairs again."

"I bet there are executive offices on the top floors. They might have a kitchenette where we could get food," Deb suggested.

"I don't want to go back inside yet," Derrick said abruptly. "Can't we just sit here a little while?"

Ari took stock of Derrick's pale face and drained expression. "Sure. We can do that."

He sat on the asphalt, leaning against the wall near the door, legs bent and arms wrapped around his shins, and the rest of them sat in a row beside him—five survivors perched like birds on a wire, silent, resting.

They remained that way until the sun was too hot to stay on the roof then Deb rose and held out her hand to Julie. The rest of them hauled their tired bodies upright and followed her inside.

The stairway that he'd climbed with rising hope in his heart Ari now descended in a leaden haze. He second-guessed every decision he'd made along the way, decisions that had led to losing Ann, Doug and Joe. He wished they'd never met Marsh and Streeter, wished he'd never chosen to follow them. Even though Carl and the data were probably on their way to safety, Ari couldn't help but feel he'd failed by not delivering the scientist personally. What if something went wrong? Would Marsh leave Carl and the others to fend for themselves as he'd done once already?

When they reached the top floor of the building, Lila bumped shoulders with Ari as they walked down the corridor behind Deb and Julie. "Hey. Stop it. I can read you like a book. You're blaming yourself for stuff that's not your fault. Don't."

He shrugged, not denying her words, but not ready to admit to them either.

 "If anyone should feel bad it should be Julie and me." A hint of laughter shimmered in Lila's voice. "At least you three rated enough to be asked along. Julie and I are apparently so useless Marsh didn't even consider taking us. Nice to know how we rate."

Julie snorted with laughter. Lila grinned, and a chuckle bubbled up in Ari's chest. Lila's comment wasn't that funny. It certainly didn't earn a belly laugh, but suddenly he was laughing uncontrollably. Deb joined in, too; the four of them with tears in their eyes, wheezing for breath, collapsing on the floor and letting their tension wash away on a wave of hilarity.

"It's not funny." Derrick's sober voice brought Ari under control. He looked at the boy standing in the middle of their sprawled bodies, glaring down at them. "Nothing about this is funny."

"Oh, sweetie, I know. That's why we're laughing. It's too horrible to do anything else." Lila climbed to her feet and reached for him, but he jerked away.

"I'm going to look for food." Derrick strode away, readying his rifle before throwing open the door of one of the offices.

Ari went to back him up. He would've been shocked if there were zombies all the way up here after so many days with no fresh food source, but you couldn't be too careful. He followed Derrick into a lavish suite of rooms. Some lucky corporate type had had an eagle-eye view of the city with windows spanning an entire wall. A glossy desk dominated one room, but there was also a sitting area and kitchenette as Deb had guessed.

Derrick poked through the fridge, searching for anything edible. Ari set down his rifle and came up beside him. "Hey, man. I'm sorry about the meltdown. I know you're hurting about losing Ronnie."

Derrick didn't respond, just kept pulling things out of the fridge.

"You were brave to put her on that helicopter. It was the best thing you could've done for her."

The boy slammed the items he'd scavenged onto the counter and whirled to face Ari. "Was it? Do you think Gloria is really going to take care of her? If things get bad, she'll be busy with her own kid. She's not going to think about Ronnie first." His voice cracked. "And even if they're okay, Ronnie will always think I was trying to get rid of her. We fought all the time. I was mean to her. I never wanted her around. She's going to remember me as the big brother who hated her."

"No she won't," Ari said.

"I'm never gonna see her again." His voice was broken and so was his face—cracked wide so Ari could see all the emotion Derrick had fought to keep hidden.

His heart ached for the kid, but Ari couldn't bring himself to spout comforting lies like the women would have. "I don't know. They might have refugee camps and you might find her there." God, he was hopeless at this. Was he supposed to hug Derrick now?

"I'm sorry, man," he added helplessly.

Derrick nodded once, a sharp jerk of his head, then turned back to sorting through the food on the counter. Ari gave him time to collect himself and went off to search through the cupboards. He came up with a jar of olives—for martinis, he supposed, and crackers. The bar was well-stocked, however. He grabbed a bottle of vodka and one of gin. Might as well make use of those olives.

The three women joined them after searching the other offices and brought a few more items for their meal. Julie cut the mold off some cheese and sliced it to go on the crackers. Apples, mottled brown bananas and more power bars completed the meal. It seemed American office workers were fueled by power bars.

Ari mixed vodka and a splash of vermouth, stirred not shaken. Since there was no ice and the drinks were room temperature, it hardly mattered. He floated an olive in the martini glass he got from the bar and drank it in a few gulps. The alcohol burned down his throat and set up a nice warm fire in his stomach before spreading through his blood stream. He filled his glass again and guzzled, appreciating the relaxing buzz that soon filled his brain.

Armed with drinks and their meager meal, the five of them sat in a circle on the plush carpet.

Ari found he was ravenous after climbing all those stairs. He'd hardly been aware of the ache of hunger in the pit of his stomach, but one bite of cheese and cracker woke his appetite. He could have easily devoured all the food himself. Instead, he poured another martini. Why the hell not?

Julie raised her glass, her pale blue eyes a little uncertain. "I don't know if this is a time for toasting but I'd like to propose one to all those we lost."

Personally, Ari didn't want to think about them right now. He'd done his best to shove every trace of them from his mind, but he lifted his glass anyway and took another drink.

Pretty soon the haze in his brain fogged his eyesight. He listened to Deb and Julie's low and high voices rising and falling in counterpoint to one another. He looked at Lila, leaning toward Derrick and talking earnestly. Her hair was wind-whipped and wild around her shoulders and falling over her eyes.

Ari thought of how she'd looked last night, lying in bed with her hair spread over the pillow, her face contorted in ecstasy. He wanted to see her like that again. Abruptly he was as hard as stone and aching to hold her. If he grabbed her hand and pulled her from the room, would it be rude? Did he care? He was pretty far past caring what anyone thought about anything and their time together was too short to waste.

Just then, Lila looked over at him. Their gazes locked, silent messages telegraphed like lightning between them, and she smiled, a mischievous grin that made him even harder.

She turned back to Derrick. "Why don't you lie down and get some sleep. That's what you need right now."

The boy drained the last of his drink, and Lila took the empty glass from him. "Another one of these isn't going to help you feel better, I promise. You'll just wake with a headache."

Derrick didn't argue. Maybe he felt like having someone tell him what to do next. When Lila rose and offered her hand, he took it. She pulled him to his feet and led him to the beige leather couch. He took off his shoes and lay down. Lila spread a jacket over him and stroked his hair before leaving him.

She walked toward Ari, gazing at him with a look hot enough to sear his skin. He stood, a little unsteadily after three—or was it four?—drinks, and took her hand. Hers was cool and dry, his a little sweaty.

Julie and Deb looked up simultaneously, brown eyes and blue studying them.

"We're going across the hall," Lila said.

"Cool," Deb replied, smiling. "We'll keep watch."

Ari and Lila left the room, walked a little way down the hallway and entered another fancy office. "So this is where all the bailout money goes," he said, looking around at the décor. His gaze lighted on another comfortable couch and stopped there. "Crap. I don't have any more condoms."

"Want to bet Mr. Corporate Exec has some?" Lila went to the restroom and came back with a box. "Really, do these people do any actual work?"

Ari pulled her hard against him, interrupting her with a kiss, fierce and hot. It wasn't just a matter of want. He needed her right at this moment with the desperation of a man who'd been slogging through the desert and encountered an oasis. He fell into her, arms open and drank her up.

Lila seemed just as eager for him, her hands all over, stripping him bare and rediscovering his skin underneath. Within seconds they were both naked and grappling each other to the floor like wrestlers. He pinned her beneath him, covering her with kisses, throat, chest, breasts and lower. A few minutes down between her legs and she arched up with a shudder and a moan. When Ari glanced at her face, tears tracked from the corners of her eyes down her temples and caught in her hair.

He crawled up to lie beside her, pressing against her, wanting entry, but concerned about the tears. "What?"

She wiped her nose and shook her head. "It's nothing. It's just been a really hard day and I needed this release." She pushed him onto his back and straddled him. "And so do you."

He lost himself in her then, groaning and rising into her heat and wetness, every thrust an affirmation of life. He gripped her waist, anchoring himself to her and closed his eyes as waves of pleasure broke over him.

Far too quickly, it was over. He wished he could promise her other times when they would spend hours building up slowly and making it last. But these might be the only precious moments they could spend together and their urge had been like a speeding train destined to collide.

Lila collapsed on top of him and he wrapped his arms around her heaving body, warm and moist against his.

"You're sure you're okay," he asked. "Today was…"

"Hell." She completed his thought. She had a knack for that. Her voice was muffled against his skin, puffs of breath tickling his neck. "I'm trying to put it out of my head. All of it. But I keep reliving Joe and those things I had to put down. I know they weren't human any longer. I know that. But it's still hard."

"Mm," he murmured, nuzzling the top of her head. He had nothing more useful to offer, no words that could take away from the horror, so he simply kissed her and hugged her hard enough to drive the breath from her body.

"I think," she said after a few silent minutes, "the only way to deal with all this is to stop feeling at all, put up a wall and don't let anything through it."

Ari rubbed her back, considering. "But then you could end up like Marsh or Streeter, so hard and selfish you use other people as human shields. We have to keep some humanity or we're no better than the zombies."

Lila lifted her head, propped her arms on his chest and looked into his eyes. "That's insightful."

"I have my moments. I'm not all about action, you know."

She smiled. "I do know, and that's why I like you so much."

"I like you, too." A lot more than I ever would have expected.

She slid off him to cuddle next to his side, one arm flung over his stomach and her head resting on his shoulder. More quiet moments passed and Ari felt himself drifting toward sleep.

He roused himself and shook Lila awake. "We should go back with the others. It's safer if we're all together."

She yawned and reached for her clothes. "Besides, Julie and Deb might want some time alone."

Ari hadn't thought of that. He felt sorry for Derrick, the odd man out. The rest of them had someone special to cling to. The boy was all alone now that his sister was gone. Ari promised himself to keep Derrick close throughout this ordeal. He and Lila would be a pseudo family Derrick could count on.

They dressed and returned to the office down the hall. The city spread out below them, a landscape of stark light and shadow. The trek here, the climb and its aftermath had taken most of the day and now evening drew close once more. Ari gazed at the view and imagined how it would have looked at night with lights glowing in hundreds of windows. Instead, when darkness fell, the city would be plunged into blackness once more, like a dark jungle where ravenous beasts roamed.

He was suddenly almost too exhausted to keep his eyes open. But he had to keep alert on watch, even if it meant chewing coffee beans from the blend in the cupboard by the espresso machine. Derrick joined him at the window. "Go ahead and get some sleep. I've had a nap. I'll take first shift."

Ari glanced at the deep shadows under his eyes. "You sure? You still look pretty tired."

The boy nodded. "I couldn't sleep any more. But you look wrecked. You should crash."

"Thanks." He clapped Derrick on the shoulder and went over to where the women were making up pallets for the night. They'd gathered couch cushions from the other offices that occupied the top floor, but there was little to cover up with. Most of their supplies had been abandoned on the ground floor before they began their climb to the roof.

"Go ahead and take the couch," Deb said.

Ari glanced at the furniture then back at the nest on the floor they were creating. He didn't want to lie alone on the couch even if it might be more comfortable. Without a word, he dragged the cushions from the couch and stretched out beside Lila.

Ari stared at the ceiling as the last of the light drained from the room and then closed his eyes against the pervading blackness. He felt Lila's hand curl around his, their fingers entwined, a barrier against hopelessness and fear. At last, he relaxed and slept.

* * * * *

Chapter Seventeen

Streeter hadn't lied. The waterfront was swarming with zombies. The band of survivors had stopped several blocks away from the marina to check out the situation. They were on the second floor of a building, above what appeared to be a family-owned deli, peering out the windows at the 79^th Street Boat Basin; close enough to smell the river, hear the cries of the circling gulls and see the undead attacking those who attempted to reach the boats.

Lila watched zombies rove and feed for only a few moments before handing the binoculars back to Ari. Her empty stomach rolled at the thought of running a gauntlet past all those creatures. "How are we going to get through?"

"Very carefully," he said dryly, taking the glasses from her and putting them to his eyes.

"Maybe a distraction," Derrick suggested. "Pick which boat we're heading for then draw them away from it with an explosion or something."

 Ari lowered the binocs and nodded. "That's not bad. It might buy a little time, but whatever boat we go for is going to have to start—probably without keys. Like I said, I've hotwired cars a time or two, but never a boat. I'm not positive it'll work the same."

"I grew up on the water," Julie said. "Our family spent every summer on Christie Lake. I know boats and how to pull-start an engine if the electric starter breaks."

"That's fantastic!" Ari's relief was evident. Lila knew he'd been sweating his ability to get a boat running.

"But pull-starting only works on smaller engines," Julie continued. "You have to take the cover off and disconnect the wiring harness before you can do it. If we go for a bigger boat, it's more like a car and we'd have to hotwire the starter. An older boat would be better. Because newer engines are computerized, they might be trickier."

"How would you do it?" Ari asked.

"Pull off the key switch. The wires are located behind it. You have to be careful to connect the right ones. Every manufacturer has different color codes. Connect the positive and negative and touch to the starter wire."

"Did you boost a boat before, baby?" Deb said. "I didn't know you were so gangsta."

Julie smiled. "My high school boyfriend took me out on his family's boat a lot. Once we got stranded when the engine wouldn't turn over and I watched him jump it that way."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Ari asked.

"You seemed to know what you were doing. I didn't realize you were bluffing."

"Well, look at you. Not so useless after all," Lila commented, carrying on her and Julie's running joke about their relative value to the group. They'd teased each other all the way to the waterfront—every time one of them had evaded or outrun a zombie. The journey had been dangerous but they'd managed to avoid any more hand-to-hand death matches with the creatures. They could move a lot faster and more stealthily with only five of them. But Lila guessed they weren't going to make it to a boat so easily.

Julie shot Lila a look and chalked up an imaginary tally mark in the air before turning her attention to the marina. She took Ari's binoculars and scanned the moored boats. "You see the Bayliner, that one in the slip next to the sleek Monterey Cruiser? That's what we should go for. It looks like an early 90's model so nothing computerized. Won't be too fast, but we don't need speed. We just need something trustworthy we can start."

"All right." Ari paused and closed his eyes for a moment, rubbing his forehead. "So we need a distraction or two. We can make some Molotovs easily enough with bottles from the deli and siphoning gas from the cars. Also we could set a car on fire, put a weight on the accelerator and head it toward the marina."

 Lila wondered if the zombies would be attracted by loud explosions and fire or if they only responded to the smell of blood and the sight of fresh victims.

"Hey," she said, "what if we could draw them with chum, like in Jaws. Smells seem to attract the creatures and, of course, running people. We could drench a mannequin in gore and attach it to the front of that moving car." She tossed off the first idea to dart through her mind.

"And put explosives in the car so when they come near it blows up in their goddamn faces," Derrick added excitedly.

It would certainly be a distraction.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm," Ari said, "but we don't have any explosives or a way to detonate long distance. I don't know how to rig a car bomb with the materials we have so I think we should keep it simple."

Lila felt like she'd been downing No Doze with Mountain Dew she was so wired. They were nearly to their goal but the zombies were an impenetrable wall blocking their way. She followed the others down to the deli where they opened and emptied bottles of soda, setting the bottles upside down to dry completely before they put gasoline in them.

Ari showed them how to twist strips of rag to act as a fuse. "These things are dangerous as hell," he warned. "They'll easily go off right in your hand, so when you light one, you'd better be ready to throw it immediately."

While the bottles dried, Ari and Derrick went to siphon gas into five gallon buckets that had once held pickles according to their labels. Deb and Julie were in charge of finding a mannequin to act as bait. They'd discussed tying a human corpse to the front of the car to add to the olfactory factor, but a mannequin would be more erect and manageable and probably look more alive than a boneless corpse. Besides, most bodies that weren't completely decimated were out there walking around.

Lila stayed in the deli to make chum stew. She tied a handkerchief over her nose and mouth as she poked through the freezer full of spoiling meat. "Never thought I'd wish for fresh blood," she muttered, as she took out chops and bacon and all the ground beef she could find. She had her doubts about the idea of ground up animal meat drawing them. But having the mannequin move was the key. She hoped their enemy wasn't smart enough to tell the difference between living and dead as long as their quarry was moving.

The women returned with a long-limbed mannequin—copper colored, faceless and wearing a Dolce and Gabana knockoff.

"Sorry," Deb apologized. "They didn't have any with realistic features, and we weren't about to go shopping for one."

"It'll work, if it's the movement and scent that attracts them," Lila said.

Derrick and Ari returned, arm muscles straining from the weight of the buckets they carried. And even now, facing an uncertain future and possible death, Lila felt a sharp tug of desire at the sight of Derrick's corded biceps and forearms and his fists gripping the bucket handles. She remembered how those hands had felt on her body last night, and more importantly, the emotions being with him had aroused in her—warmth, connection, a deep bond.

Please God, help us through this, she prayed. I'm not ready to die. Please give us more time together first. Years would be great, but she'd settle for days the way things were now.

With a deli full of food at their disposal, some of which was edible, none of them had any appetite as they prepared for their bait and switch maneuver. Maybe the smell of the rotten meat had something to do with that.

Lila and Julie carefully poured gasoline into the bottles, filling them halfway, inserting the alcohol-soaked fabric twists and fastening the caps on with duct tape.

Outside, Ari chose a car and the other three prepared it by fastening the dummy to the grill and putting gasoline soaked rags in the seats. They wanted it to burn not explode—at least not until the vehicle had driven closer to the marina.

Lila coated the dummy with bait. She plastered gobs of stinking meat on the stylish mannequin, quite enjoying ruining the faux designer dress. She threw the rest of the smelly chum in the back seat of the car, while Ari added some human blood to the figurine. Lila winced at the application of guts and goo that had once been part of a living person. How quickly they'd all become immune to the horror. She reflected on the one good insight to come from this event. It was now easy for her to see that a body was merely a meat puppet, quite separate from the spark of life, the soul, inhabiting it. She'd believed that before, but now felt she actually knew it deep inside.

After preparing the car, they went back inside the deli for a final conference.

"Not all of them are going to run and check this thing out," Ari warned. "We have to be prepared to fight. Check your weapons and make sure you have more clips ready."

They went over everything, making certain they had working lighters and reviewing the timing for using the bombs and the route they would take to reach the boat. When there was nothing else to discuss, no more preparations to be made, and the moment to act was upon them, everyone fell silent.

"I just want to say, it's been a pleasure knowing all of you," Julie began.

But Ari cut her off. "Don't. No speeches or goodbyes. We're going to do this thing and then drive away on that boat. That's it. So let's go." He picked up his backpack and strode from the room without a glance at Lila.

The sight of his back turned on her as he walked away hurt a little, but she totally understood his point. There was no room for doubt right now. They had to convince themselves they'd succeed. Sentiment, however heartfelt, would only detract from their focus.

Lila scooped her own bag from the ground, the incendiary bottles clicking together. She was nervous about lighting one of them and tried not to picture the thing blowing up in her face.

The marina was a massive grid of slips with moored boats ranging from two-man runabouts to fully equipped yachts. The larger, more expensive boats were docked in a high rent section of the marina, while the one they'd chosen was in the "cheap seats" closer to land along with other mid-priced craft. The plan was to attract the zombies to the far side of the marina and hopefully slip past them unnoticed. Ari was responsible for getting the car going on its course. Lila and Deb would throw the homemade bombs, and Derrick and Julie would run for the boat and get it started.

"How's your pitching arm?" Deb asked, hefting one of the bottles in her hand.

"Norwalk Girls' Softball for eight years," Lila said. "Unfortunately, I wasn't a pitcher. But today I'm so hopped up I think I'll be able to throw about a mile."

They trotted to a truck and crouched behind it, waiting for Ari's signal. It came in the form of a car engine turning over. He would steer the car as close as he dared, then bail.

Lila peeked around the edge of the truck to watch both zombies and seagulls swooping and devouring interesting tidbits from the docks or the decks of boats. It seemed the zombies preferred fresh game but would scavenge on dead meat when necessary. Again, Lila wondered what happened to them when all forms of sustenance ran out. Would their nervous systems continue to activate their bodies or without fuel would they eventually run down like wind up toys?

She glanced at the car coming slowly up the street, driving around abandoned vehicles and over smaller obstacles. The mannequin strapped to the hood didn't look much like a real person but perhaps enough to fool zombies. Lila's gaze swung back to the revenants. Some responded to the sound of the car engine, heads snapping up from their food and swiveling toward the noise. When the vehicle came into view, several began to run toward it. Soon nearly every zombie within her sight rushed to join them. The creatures seemed to have a herd mentality.

The car passed out of Lila's view behind a building. She pictured Ari lighting the rags, putting the brick on the gas pedal, jumping from the car, rolling across the pavement and scrambling to his feet. This was a critical moment. Some of the zombies would see and chase him. She and Deb must distract them with the bombs, giving him time to get away.

"Go!" Deb ordered Derrick and Julie, but the pair was already on the move, racing from this first hideout point to the next. They'd visually mapped their way all the way to the boat. Deb lit and hurled the first of her bombs. It sailed over the stalled vehicles to land with a crash on the pavement. The shatter of glass was followed immediately by a small yellow fireball that lit the area.

Lila's hand was moist against the slick surface of a glass bottle. She clicked her lighter twice before flame bloomed. With trembling hand, she set the flame against the wick. The fabric caught immediately and began burning its way toward the bottle. She drew back her arm and launched the bomb with all her might, aiming for the huge target of an abandoned Hummer. She wished it was as easy as in the movies, where simply hitting a vehicle magically made it explode, but in real life it wasn't that easy to make a gas tank ignite. The bottle crashed against the Hummer and blew up.

As she pulled another bottle from her pack, Lila checked on Derrick and Julie. They were yards away, crouching behind a kiosk to rest before starting the next leg of their run. The way to the boat was rapidly clearing as the zombies migrated away. But they would return just as quickly if any of them sighted Derrick and Julie. Lila lit another fuse and threw another bomb, back behind them this time. It hit a wall and exploded with a satisfying crash.

Deb threw another, too, then tugged on Lila's arm. "We should go now."

They'd discussed this ahead of time. Ari would circle in the other direction to meet them on the docks, but Lila had a horrible feeling they were leaving him behind as she raced after Deb toward a bait and tackle shop. The bottles in her bag clinked together and she feared they'd break, dousing her backpack and clothes in gasoline.

She and Deb reached the wall of the shop and pressed flat against it, panting. The new hiding place afforded her a better view of the entire marina and also the flaming car with the gore-streaked mannequin strapped to the front like a sick hunting trophy. With its weighted accelerator, the car was gaining speed despite bumping over obstacles. It careened down the street toward the docks. Ari had aimed it for a stretch free of other vehicles, but the sedan soon veered off course and crashed into a building.

From all directions, zombies raced toward the burning car. The first undead reached the mannequin and pawed at it. Finding it wasn't human, their interest evaporated. Instead they opened the car doors and rummaged inside, checking out the rest of the meat Lila had thrown there. At least one's hair caught on fire, but he continued to burrow among the burning rags for tidbits.

Others raced past the car, heading for something else. Lila guessed they'd spotted Ari. She lit another Molotov cocktail and hurled it with all her strength into the midst of the running zombies. When the glass broke, the fire hit the gas vapor and the thing exploded. The fireball caught the hair and clothing of some of the zombies and set them alight. They raced on as if unaware of their flaming bodies.

"We need another distraction," Deb said after she'd thrown two more bombs in different directions.

"A big explosion," Lila agreed and a cartoon light bulb went off in her head. The idea was so simple one of them should've thought of it before. "Why not a car? Put a wick into the gas tank and set it on fire just like the bottles."

"Then run like hell. Sounds good. Let's do it." Deb took immediate action, finding a vehicle with a gas tank cover that didn't require a key to open it. She pulled the fuses from the rest of her bottles and tied them together. Lila tied a weight on the end of the strand and threaded the wick down into the gas tank. When she thought it had reached fuel, she held the wick to the side and loosely fastened the cap back on, then exchanged a look with Deb.

Deb flipped open her lighter.

A quick glance told Lila that Derrick and Julie had almost made the boat. There were still no zombies in their immediate vicinity. The distraction tactics had worked so far. She turned her attention back to Deb in time to see the fuse catch fire and start sizzling down its length toward the car.

The women ran, darting behind the building and across open ground to the next spot they'd chosen for cover. They crouched and waited for a thunderous explosion. Nothing happened. Maybe the wick had burned out or the enclosed space had stifled the flame before it could ignite gas fumes.

Lila turned her attention to the docks, only yards away now. Derrick and Julie had boarded the boat and were crouched beside the dashboard. Lila could just see the tops of their heads. They were well hidden. Safe. She grabbed Deb's arm, holding her back and whispered, "Maybe we should wait a few moments and give them a chance to do their work. If we're spotted running, we might attention to them before they're ready to go. Besides, Ari needs to catch up."

Deb nodded and hunkered back down to wait. A second later an explosion shook the ground, trembling through their bodies. The bang was followed by a whooshing noise, a yellow glow in the air, and a warm rush of air as the blast spread outward from its epicenter. Shrapnel rained down from above like pellets of hail peppering Lila's body. She ducked her head, pulling herself into a small ball.

Good thing we were sheltered by this building, she thought. She looked at Deb to congratulate her on the success of their bombing. Deb was hunched over like she was...and there was a piece of jagged metal protruding from her back near her shoulder.

For a moment, Lila stared at the offensive object, trying to make sense of it.

Deb raised her head, her expression confused "What?" She reached over her shoulder.

"Don't!" Lila stopped her with a hand on her wrist. "You've got something embedded in your back, but maybe we shouldn't pull it out." She envisioned a gush of blood, a punctured lung, and Deb wheezing for her last breath right here on the ground.

The other woman's eyes widened, and she winced as shock wore off and pain set in. "Ow, fuck! It hurts. Do something. Get it out." She turned her back so Lila could operate.

The metal had torn through Deb's jacket and shirt. Lila gently tore the fabric away so she could see how bad it was. The shard was deeply embedded in the flesh to the right of Deb's shoulder blade. Could it be piercing her lung? Lila had no idea how much of the chest lungs occupied.

"Just pull it." Deb begged. "It can't stay in there. We've got to run for the boat

Lila reached out a trembling hand to take hold of the long shard of shrapnel. She moved it a little and blood oozed from the wound. She needed something to bandage the wound with and searched in her backpack for more of the fabric they'd used to make the fuses. There wasn't any, so she took one of the alcohol-drenched wicks and pulled it from its bottle of gasoline.

"Okay, I'm going to pull it out on the count of three and stuff this rag in the wound. It'll sting so bite down on something if you think you're going to cry out."

Lila took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She held the cloth that reeked of gas close to the wound and took hold of the metal with her other hand. "One. Two. Three..."

* * * * *

Chapter Eighteen

It was a lot more difficult than Ari had estimated to set the brick weight on the pedal and dive from the moving vehicle before it picked up too much speed. He landed on the sidewalk with a jolt that sent a sharp pain through his shoulder and drove the breath from his body. But there was no time to recover. The zombies would be on him like flies on meat. He rolled to defuse the impact and pushed up from the sidewalk, staggering to his feet.

A glance at the car told him it was already careening off course, heading toward the wall of a building. But the same glance also informed him the zombies were running toward it—and toward him. Behind him, he heard the crash and pop of the bottle bombs going off. Lila and Deb were hard at work trying to create a distraction for him.

He ducked into the first open doorway he could find, a fish market that advertised the fresh catch of the day in the window. Unfortunately, the fish in the unrefrigerated display cases were days past fresh now. The store reeked almost worse than the odor of decaying bodies pervading the city. Ari ran through the shop and out the back door. His plan was to run a parallel course to the one the rest of the group was taking. When he reached the marina, he'd cut across to the boat. If all their diversionary tactics worked, the revenants' attention would be focused further inland, away from the docks.

There was an alley behind the fish shop and the rest of the row of buildings. He followed the narrow passage, jogging steadily, but holding back some speed in case he needed to sprint later. He paused at the corner of the last building in the row and peered around the corner. His view of the waterfront was limited by the angle, but the docks definitely looked emptier than they had earlier.

Pressing his body close to the wall, he eased around the edge and started toward the front of the building. Now he could see hordes of the undead streaming toward the car he'd abandoned. Whether it was the movement or the mannequin that had caught their attention, they were eager to check it out. Even from a distance, he could smell the burning oil rags, which he'd set fire to before he'd abandoned the car. They had burst easily into flame and he hoped they'd somehow make the entire car explode in the zombies' faces like Derrick had wished.

Ari couldn't see the rest of his group from where he was and prayed they were making their way to the boat as planned. Lila's eyes, squinting as she laughed, flashed in his mind and he wished he'd given her a proper goodbye with a good, long kiss, instead of being such a hard ass.

Suddenly, a bottle arched through the air, the glass catching the sunlight and his attention. The bottle shattered on the ground and a satisfying fireball rose from it. He mentally cheered Lila or Deb as some of the zombies ran to investigate the new distraction.

Ari retreated from the corner of the building, back in the direction from which he'd come. He needed a moment to plot out the rest of his course, cover to cover, all the way to the boat. The sunlight shone on the gray waves as he looked beyond the marina to open water. Soon they'd be out there, heading down the Hudson to freedom—or whatever passed for freedom these days. Visions of refugee camps and soldiers destroying zombies danced in his mind like sugar plums, but the mainland might not offer any more safety than what they'd found here in the city.

A flicker of movement in the corner of Ari's gaze snapped his head to the left. A zombie as silent and deadly as a stalking mountain lion was slinking toward him. Its eyes were flat and dead, but its mouth gaped wide and hungry. Blood stained the man's face and clothing, a coverall that made Ari think of Hector for a moment. An appliqué that read "Crowder's Carpet Cleaning" was stitched on the pocket. These details etched themselves in his mind as he drew his knife and launched himself at the zombie. He couldn't shoot it without drawing the notice of the others so it would have to be hand-to-hand until one of them was dead. Or deader.

Ari slashed through the air, but the zombie raised an arm that deflected his blade. The knife cut through the navy coverall and into his upraised arm before the hilt was ripped from Ari's hand.

The creature clutched at him, but Ari spun away, avoiding him by inches. He knew zombies' hands were as vice-like as a pit bull's jaws once they clamped down. He didn't even want to think about what their teeth would feel like tearing through his flesh.

Ari ran toward the alley with the zombie on his heels. He preferred to kill rather than try to outrun it, but first he had to get his knife back. The hilt still protruded from the monster's upper arm, the blade deeply embedded like a carving knife standing in a Thanksgiving turkey.

On the ground in the mouth of the alley was an empty liquor bottle. Ari remembered Sergeant Vogt's advice about urban combat. "If you're disarmed, you might have to use whatever's at hand to fight with. Being creative can save your life."

He bent to retrieve the bottle, holding it by the neck and smashing off the bottom against the wall. In seconds, the zombie was on him, weaponless but plenty lethal with its unnatural strength and gnashing teeth. Ari slashed at the thing's eyes but missed, slicing jaggedly down its cheek instead.

Repairman Zombie grabbed Ari and drew him into a tight embrace. Ari wrapped his arms around the creature as if to return a friendly hug, and plucked his knife from the zombie's arm. But having the knife in his hand didn't make it easy to cut the back of the monster's neck. He was too close, the zombie's reeking, rotted-meat breath blowing into his face, the empty eyes staring dead-on into his.

Ari sawed at the side of the creature's neck with the broken bottle with one hand, then stabbed the knife into its upper spine with the other. He missed the spine and the thing clawed at Ari's back and snapped at his face. Ari reared back to avoid its gnashing teeth, but the arms around his back were like steel bands binding him to the rotting corpse.

At a loss for how to fight the super-strength creature, he fell back on the simplest tactic he knew to get out of a clinch from his old street fighting days, a head butt. Ari slammed his forehead into the thing's nose. Pain sparkled like fireworks behind his closed eyelids, but the move served its purpose, snapping the zombie's head back. Its grip loosened just enough that Ari could squirm away from that punishing grip.

However, his knife which was still buried in the thing's back. Free of the revenant's arms, Ari darted behind his opponent and pulled the blade free. It released from the zombie's flesh with a wet, sucking sound.

The zombie started to spin around to face him, but Ari plunged his knife again, this time in the tender hollow at the base of its skull. The energy cut as abruptly as a switch being turned off and the body toppled to the ground, a discarded shell once more.

Winded and panting, Ari stood over the collapsed zombie. He scanned the area for more of the revenants. For the moment, they were all at a distance, unaware of him.

He pressed flat against the wall again, taking a moment to catch his breath and plan his next move. There was a wide open stretch between his position and another hiding spot behind a Jet Ski and watercraft shop. Then he'd have to navigate across the parking lot littered with vehicles abandoned by their owners before they'd made their desperate bid for the boats. Beyond that, he would run along the waterfront to the dock where he could just see the Bayliner he was aiming for. He wondered if any of the others had made it there yet. He couldn't see them from his position.

Ari glanced to the left, not forgetting the stealth of the zombie that had attacked him. He wouldn't be surprised again. Just then an explosion sent a shock wave rolling through the air. Ari spun back in the opposite direction, searching for its source. It wasn't the sedan he'd set on fire but another vehicle close to the ice cream shop which was one of the rest stops for the group on their way to the boat.

Ari grinned. He had no doubt either Lila or Deb, maybe both, had blown up the car. He peered around the edge of the building again to witness an orange fireball, black smoke and zombies clustering around the wreckage as if they were at a bonfire roasting weenies. The way would never be clearer than right now.

He ran for the watercraft shop, legs and arms pumping, lungs burning, and when he reached it, since the way was still clear, he didn't stop. He wove his way between the haphazard cars in the parking lot. A naked zombie woman popped from behind a pickup truck right in front of him like a pornographic jack-in-the-box, her breasts bobbing and her arms missing. Ari didn't take the time to kill her, just knocked her aside with a push that bounced her off the side of the truck like a pinball.

He reached the boardwalk and his feet pounded over wooden slats instead of asphalt. The scent of the water was almost stronger than the rotten meat on which the gulls feasted and the green trimmed Bayliner was in sight.

Ari glanced inland, checking for pursuers, and his heart dropped. Lila and Deb were running for the docks, too. Deb was obviously injured and Lila had an arm around her. Zombies were on their heels.

As Ari watched, Lila pushed Deb toward the boat and Deb lurched like a zombie herself as she staggered forward. Lila whirled to face their attackers. She took a bottle from her backpack, lit the fuse and tossed the bomb in the midst of the running zombies. Glass crashed and fumes ignited sending up a small fireball. A few zombies were engulfed in the flames, their hair or clothing catching on fire, but the rest kept coming toward Lila.

Ari ran to help her. He dodged around cars until he was close then jumped up onto a hood, grabbed the rifle strapped to his back and fired into the group of zombies. At least some of the shots cleaved the spinal cord and a few zombies dropped, their bodies tripping up the others. It was enough to slow them down a little.

But a couple of faster zombies were already on Lila. A man with a gaping chest wound seized her arm. She slung her backpack into his face and tried to jerk away, but he gripped her hard. He looked like he'd been healthy and fit when he was alive and whole. Another man wearing a charcoal gray suit and a string of entrails like a necktie took hold of Lila's other arm and lifted her hand to his mouth as if he would kiss it.

Ari sighted down the rifle, aiming for the second one's head, but Lila was too close. This was no sniper's weapon; it was meant to cut a lethal swathe, and he was no sharpshooter. He jumped off the car hood and hurtled across the ground separating him from Lila. Bending low, he plowed into the suit-wearing zombie like a linebacker, driving his shoulder into the creature's gut and pushing him backward.

The dead man seemed content to switch victims and grabbed for Ari instead of Lila. Past the thing's shoulder Ari could see many more coming. In a few seconds they'd be overrun. It was impossible for his blood to carry one more drop of adrenaline than was already scorching through his system. As if he was on industrial strength steroids, for a moment Ari was convinced he was invincible. Yelling like a madman, he pulled the knife sheathed in his belt and drove it into the cadaver's throat with all the force in his body. His arm pistoned, stabbing until the dead man slumped.

Without pause, Ari tossed the corpse aside and went for the other. The body building, chest wound zombie had Lila pinned to the ground. She was beating on his back and squirming to get out from under him as he lunged for her throat.

Ari didn't try to pull him off. Trying to break that powerful grip would be futile. Instead he sawed across the back of the thing's exposed neck with his knife, cutting through gristle and bone until the man flopped to a stop, draped over Lila like an obscene blanket. Ari hauled the body off her while Lila crab scuttled backward from underneath it.

Ari held out his hand. She seized it. And they ran, barely ahead of the rest of the pack. The creatures were right behind them. That was the problem—they weren't so impossible to kill once you knew how, but there were always more and they were as persistent as cockroaches.

The boat was near now. They'd reached the docks and were pounding toward it. But if Julie and Derrick didn't have the motor running, they'd all be trapped on board.

Ari had a death grip on Lila's hand, dragging her beside him, but he suddenly stopped and thrust her ahead of him. "You go. I'll hold 'em off."

She hesitated.

"Go!" he ordered, doing his best Sergeant Vogt impression. Without waiting to see that she obeyed, Ari spun around, took the rifle from his shoulder and peppered the approaching zombies with bullets. He sprayed back and forth as if watering a lawn with lethal chemicals. Bits of pink and red gore flew through the air like confetti.

Then his clip emptied. The gun clicked and the hailstorm of bullets stopped.

"Ari. Here!"

He turned toward Lila's voice and caught the new clip she tossed to him. He jammed it into the gun and started firing again. Stupid, brave girl hadn't run, and thank God for him she hadn't.

The revenants continued to surge toward them, only a dozen, but it was a dozen too many. Ari braced his legs and fired at their heads, scalping the faux-hawk off a once pretty girl in a once white sundress, ripping through the side of an old man's face, and hitting directly into a policeman's gaping mouth, dropping him.

"Die! Just fucking die!" he bellowed as he swung the rifle back and forth.

And then he heard the blessed sound of a motor puttering to life like a choir of angels singing. He backed down the dock, still shooting.

A second later, Derrick was beside him, also firing. Together they held off the remaining zombies, only a half dozen now, but still stupidly, relentlessly coming.

"Come on," Lila called. "We're casting off."

Ari and Derrick ran for the boat. Ari skidded on a slick of goo and started to fall. His arms pinwheeled and he nearly dropped his rifle before he caught his balance and ran on. The boards shook beneath his weight. He leaped onto the deck of the Bayliner and turned to make sure Derrick was still with him.

Derrick raced down the dock with several revenants right behind him. One tackled him and then they were all on him like a pack of hyenas. Ari jumped off the boat and ran back, firing into their midst, praying he wouldn't hit Derrick by accident.

When he got too close to shoot, Ari hit at them with the stock of the gun, bashing zombies like whack-a-moles. He wished he still had his ax, but there'd been only so many weapons he could carry. Seeing Derrick's hand beneath the pile up of zombies, he grabbed hold of it and pulled him out from under them. He hauled the kid to his feet and ran with him. This time he didn't let go of Derrick's hand until they'd reached the boat. Julie was already guiding it away from the pier. They jumped over a yard of water before hitting the deck and collapsing in a heap.

"Are you all right?" Lila dropped down beside them. "Were you bitten?"

Derrick pulled his hand away from his neck so they could see the blood gushing. It looked really bad, like maybe the zombies had hit an artery.

Lila exchanged a look with Ari. "Deb's been injured, too. Shrapnel. You take care of him, while I bandage her."

Ari nodded. "Derrick, keep pressure on the wound. I'm going to find something to bandage it with."

As he headed for the cabin, he looked at the wharf receding behind them. The undead milled around from dock to boats and back again, searching for a way to reach them. Some even jumped into the water and began to swim after them. They looked as forlorn as Ari had felt when the helicopter had risen from the rooftop leaving them behind. Wait. You forgot us, their brainless zombie eyes seemed to say.

Ari ducked below deck to search for a first aid kit and towels. There were dishcloths in the galley and everything else they needed stored in cupboards near the head. He returned topside and gave some of the alcohol swabs and gauze bandage to Lila. Then he returned to Derrick, who lay on the floor, slumped against one of the seats. His eyes were closed and his face was paper white. For a moment, Ari was certain he was dead. He knelt beside him and felt for his pulse and Derrick's eyes shot open. "I don't want to die. Don't let me become one of them."

"I won't. But you're not dying. We'll fix this." Ari gently lifted the boy's hand from his neck and studied his mauled neck. The blood flow had slowed as it began to coagulate. That was a good sign. If it was an artery, it would have kept on gushing until he bled out.

"This is going to sting." He swabbed the bite with the alcohol drenched cloth and Derrick flinched and hissed.

"How do you know I'm not dying?" Derrick sounded panicked. "Maybe just their bite kills. We don't really know anything about how it works."

Ari gripped his hand. "Mrs. Scheider was old and worn out. You're young and strong. I'm sure you'll be okay." He wasn't certain at all, but projected all the confidence he could muster. Derrick needed a strong dose of assurance even more than the aspirin Ari gave him to take down the swelling of the tender flesh around the bite.

Ari placed a patch of gauze over the wound and fixed it in place with adhesive tape then he checked the rest of Derrick's neck, chest and back for more bites. His shirt was ripped and there were red scratch marks down his back, and not the fun kind a guy got from his lover. Ari swabbed them with alcohol, too.

"Let's go below. Find some clean clothes and you can lie down and rest." Ari grasped Derrick's arm and pulled him to his feet then supported him as the boat pitched beneath them. The wind was churning up choppy waves in the harbor and the gray clouds on the horizon looked ominous.

Please God, haven't we been through enough? Just let the damn weather hold off for a while. Give us a few minutes to catch our breath.

In the time they'd spent together Lila had talked about her belief in karma and how the seemingly random bad or good shit that was flung at a person wasn't God's cosmic punking, but merely what a soul had earned or needed to learn from. She'd said believing that helped put things in perspective when she had a really shitty day where everything went wrong. Well, he could use some of that belief now, because he hated to think God was simply a cruel son of a bitch who enjoyed torturing people. A collective lesson for humanity to learn from was certainly preferable to a collective ass kicking for no apparent reason.

As Julie expertly guided the boat into open water, she asked Lila for an update on Deb's condition. Lila reported the gash in Deb's back wasn't as bad as it appeared. She'd pulled out the metal and staunched the wound, and was bandaging it as Ari took Derrick below.

In the cabin, Ari settled Derrick on a bunk, covering his shivering body with a blanket and checking the bandage on his neck. There was a spot of red on the gauze so the wound was still bleeding but not nearly as badly as it might have. Ari got up to leave, but Derrick grabbed his hand, stopping him.

"Wait. Don't go. I don't want to die alone."

"Cut it out. I told you, you're not dying." Ari figured his usual impatient tone would do a lot more to convince Derrick than sudden out of character kindness. "Try to get some sleep. You need it. And look, here's Deb to keep you company."

Deb came down the steps into the cabin, leaning heavily against one wall for support. Her shirt was off and her arm and shoulder were wrapped like a mummy. Her dark face was ashen, even her lips pale. She must have bled buckets, which might have been part of what drew the zombies to her and Lila.

"How you doing?" Ari asked.

She sank down on the other bunk. "I feel like a vampire on a lucky day." At Ari's blank look she added, "Nearly staked through the heart." Then she managed a smile. "But we made it. We really made it."

For the first time, Ari let the glow of victory swell inside him. "Yes, we did."

He spread a blanket over Deb and smoothed her braids back from her face. "You did good."

Ari bumped fists with her, but then Deb grabbed his hand and pulled him down to give him a one-armed hug. "You, too. You got us here."

Ari straightened and found Lila had followed Deb downstairs to put away the first aid kit. She and Ari bumped into each other as they moved around the small cabin. Ari found a cache of water bottles in a cupboard. Lila sat beside Derrick, bending over to talk softly to him.

After offering each of the injured patients some water, Ari went up on deck to check on their progress with Julie.

"Take over the wheel," she demanded before he even opened his mouth. "I want to see Deb."

"I've never driven a boat in my life."

"But you've driven cars. It's practically the same thing. Point and steer and don't run into anything." She abandoned him before he could protest.

Julie disappeared below deck and a moment later, Lila emerged. Bloody, bedraggled and with her greasy hair lank around her face, she was absolutely beautiful. If Ari didn't have a hard grip on the boat's steering wheel and his attention riveted on the water before them, he would have gone to her and pulled her into his arms.

She came to him instead, slipped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his back. "So Derrick's finally right. You are the captain."

"For now." He leaned back slightly, the better to feel her body pressed against him. He'd almost lost her today, and was just beginning to understand what an enormous loss that would be.

They didn't speak. There would be plenty of time later for sharing war stories about what had happened while they were apart. Right now it was a relief to be silent and finally at peace. The river flowed beneath them. The city drifted by on either side of them, barely betraying the horror show it had become. But smoke billowed from up ahead signaling a fire blazing out of control with no FDNY to put it out. In a few minutes, they passed the burning neighborhood, only a couple of buildings for now, but soon, perhaps, blocks of the city.

Lila let go of him and moved to the railing to stare at the cityscape as they floated past. When she turned back to Ari, her eyes glistened. "Nothing is ever going to be the same. I've known that, but we've been so busy simply surviving, I could avoid really realizing it until now."

Ari released the wheel and reached out a hand to her. "Come here."

She walked into his arms and he held her close, resting his chin on her head as she pressed her face against his chest.

"Go ahead and cry now if you want. You've earned it." He kissed her hair and breathed in her scent, earthy and real.

Her body trembled a little in his arms, but when she lifted her face to look up at him, her cheeks were dry. She shook her head. "No tears. I'm not ready for that yet. But I appreciate the cuddle." She held him hard, her fingers clutching his shirt in back, and lifted her face for a kiss.

He was happy to give it, inclining his head to cover her lips with his. Neither of their mouths was minty fresh, but he'd never tasted anything more delicious than that kiss. He sank into it as if falling into bed after a hard day of running an obstacle course. Lila slid a hand around the back of his neck, pulling him closer as she rose up on her toes and leaned into him.

For a few moments, they were fused together, only their clothes and skin keeping them from melting into one being. At last, Lila pulled away to draw breath. She settled back on her heels and turned in the circle of his arms to face forward.

Together they looked past the prow of the boat to the gray water stretching before them. "What happens when we leave the harbor? We have to think about where to dock on the mainland. I wonder where would be safe."

"Guess we'll have to get close to shore and take a look." He glanced at the gas gauge that indicated the tank was half full and thought about what would happen if they reached a point where they had to put in to shore whether it was safe or not. Then he took another look at the far horizon. The storm clouds that had threatened seemed to be breaking up and the sun shone through, streams of pale yellow that looked like heavenly light. Hopeful—that was what the sky looked like now.

Ari squinted as he saw something flashing on the open water in front of them. The light strobed with mechanical regularity.

"Take the wheel," he ordered Lila, and went to get the backpack which he'd managed to keep with him through everything. He pulled out his binoculars and focused on the horizon. The boat coming toward them had a coast guard flag flying.

"Shit!" he dropped the glasses on the cord around his neck and they bumped against his chest. Running to the dashboard, he searched for some way to signal back. "It's a coast guard boat," he informed Lila. "Do you see a button for a signal light?"

"Get Julie," she said, and he ran to obey, hollering for her before he reached the cabin.

"What is it?" Julie emerged from below, wide-eyed and worried.

"A coast guard boat. We need to signal it."

Julie went to a storage bin near the cabin and rummaged through it before producing a flare. She unscrewed the lid and held the flare by the handle over the railing. She pulled the tag and by the time orange smoke was billowing into the air, Deb and Derrick had come on deck, too. The acrid smell of smoke filled Ari's nose and he breathed it in like it was the sweetest bouquet as it beckoned the coast guard boat closer. All of the survivors clustered together, staring at the emerging shape of the other vessel.

"They've spotted us. They're coming for us," Derrick said, and then a hoarse sob wrenched from his chest. He broke down, his body shaking as he covered his face with his hands. Deb grabbed and held him with her uninjured arm, murmuring the soothing things people said to comfort other people. "It will be all right. Everything's okay. We're safe now." The words didn't change the truth, but there was nothing else to say.

Lila hugged Derrick from the other side, sheltering the boy between her and Deb. The flare burnt out and Julie dropped the spent canister into the water before coming to join their group hug. Ari watched all of them for a moment, these people who'd become closer than family in the brief time he'd known them, and then he moved in to put his arms around Lila and Deb.

"They're almost here. Everything's going to be all right," he added his voice to the litany of hope and lies. But even as he clung to his friends, he also clung to the belief that he was speaking the truth. Maybe they would be all right. Maybe order would win over chaos. Maybe someone like Carl was creating a solution even now.

And maybe the world would once again become a place where strangers on a train could share a compartment and never speak to one another or become friends. There were some perks to being burned in the crucible of a zombie attack, Ari reflected as he held his family close.

* * * * *

About the author: Bonnie Dee began telling stories as a child. Whenever there was a sleepover, she was the designated ghost tale teller, guaranteed to frighten and thrill with macabre stories. She still has a story printed in second grade on yellow legal paper about a ghost, a witch and a talking cat. Writing childish stories later led to majoring in English at college. Like most English majors, she dreamed of writing a novel, but didn't have the necessary focus and follow through at that time in her life. It was only in 2000 that she began writing again and became a multi-published erotic romance author. You may see her backlist of books at http://bonniedee.com. Join her Yahoo group for updates on new releases at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bonniedee/. Bonnie Dee is also on Facebook and Twitter.

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