“Hold on,” Dr. Gardiner said from his seat behind him. “Did I hear you right? We’re heading into New Mexico?”
The Humvee rumbled onto the street and turned toward the interstate.
“That’s correct, Doctor.”
“No, no, no! We’re going to Nevada. That’s where my family is.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll get you there eventually,” Ash said. “At the moment, your services may be needed elsewhere.”
“Uh-uh. No way. I didn’t sign up for this.”
“You didn’t sign up for anything,” Chloe said. “We saved your ass. I saved your ass. You and your family would already be dead otherwise.”
“This isn’t the old world anymore,” Ash said. “We don’t get to sit around in our living rooms while someone else fights our fights.”
“I don’t consider what I’ve been doing just sitting around a living room,” the doctor argued.
“No, that’s true, but there’s more work to be done. What Matt and the rest of the team are planning will go a long way to saving a lot of people. They’ll be putting themselves in harm’s way, which means they will very likely need medical attention, probably more than Lily can handle on her own.”
“So we’re following them because they might need me?”
“No,” Chloe said. “We’re going because they will definitely need Ash and me. You are an additional benefit.”
Davis’s voice came over the radio. “Weren’t we supposed to take that?”
Ash glanced outside. They had just passed the US 160 exit off the I-40.
He picked up the radio. “Change of route,” he said. “I’ll explain when we take a break in a while.”
“All right, sir.”
Ash looked back at the doctor. “Is this going to be an issue?”
He knew Gardiner was a good man who was still trying to come to grips with all that had happened. The doctor wanted to be with his family, to know they were safe. But these days, the best way to keep loved ones safe often meant risking one’s life. Ash was sure that on some level, the doctor understood this.
A few moments later, his hunch paid off.
“No,” Gardiner said. “Not an issue.”
“Robert, you up?”
Someone knocked rapidly on Robert’s door.
“Hey! Come on. Wake up!”
Robert forced his eyes open and checked his watch. It was already after seven. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept that late.
“Robert! Wake up!”
He recognized Renee’s voice now.
“Just a minute,” he said.
Estella stirred beside him, her body draped over his side. “What’s going on?” she whispered.
“I’ll check.”
He extracted himself from the bed as Renee began pounding on the door again.
“I’m coming,” he said.
He grabbed his shorts off the floor and pulled them on as he moved out into the small living room that made up the rest of his apartment. Since he was now in charge, he could have moved into Dominic’s larger place, but that seemed wrong.
“Robert!” Renee yelled.
He pulled the door open and stepped onto the threshold in case she had been planning on coming inside. But the moment she saw him, she turned and started walking away.
“Come on,” she said, hurriedly. “We’ve got to go.”
“What’s going on?”
“Another plane,” she said. “They just radioed and said they’ll be here soon.”
“The UN?”
“Yes.”
“Give me a second.”
“I’ll be in the radio room.”
Robert ran back inside to grab his shirt and sandals.
“What is it?” Estella asked.
“The UN. They’re coming back.”
She pushed herself up. “With the vaccine?”
“I don’t know. I would think so. Look, I’ll, um, meet you at the bar in a little while.”
“Sure. Okay.”
Robert went over to the bed, gave her a deep kiss, and ran out of the room.
After giving the plane instructions to land in the lagoon, Robert and Renee — and pretty much all the rest of the island residents — headed down to meet it.
The plane buzzed overhead as it did a flyby of the lagoon before coming in and landing smoothly on the calm waters. The engine noise increased again as the aircraft taxied across the bay to the main pier, where Robert and Renee were waiting. A few of the others were also on the pier, while most remained on the beach, with a mix of wary and excited looks on their faces.
As the plane pulled up next to the dock, Robert counted six people inside — four men and two women. He grabbed a rope and tied the front of the pontoon to the dock while Renee did the same at the back.
The plane’s door opened, and the first visitors the resort had received since the outbreak climbed out.
Leading them was a smiling woman with brown hair and tan skin.
Robert offered her his hand and helped her down. “Welcome to Isabella Island.”
“Thank you,” she said. “We’re very glad to be here.” She had a hint of a Hispanic accent but her English was perfect. “I’m Dr. Vega, but please call me Ivonne.”
“Robert,” he said. “Robert Adams.”
The other woman was next, introducing herself as Helena Chavez, a nurse, and then one of the men, a doctor named Peter de Coster.
“The others will join us in a little bit,” Ivonne said. “They need to unpack the supplies.”
“We can get some people to help them out, if you’d like,” Robert offered.
“That would be great.”
He asked for volunteers and saw almost every hand shoot up. He picked out three, who quickly made their way to the plane.
“We will need someplace to set up,” de Coster said.
“Of course,” Robert said. “The bar will probably be best. Plenty of room there, and that’s where people tend to hang out anyway.”
“Sounds perfect,” Ivonne said.
“Follow me.”
As they walked along the path back to the resort, Renee said, “I can’t tell you how glad we are that we didn’t have to wait long for you to come back.”
“We’re glad we could make it,” Ivonne replied.
“Can you tell us what’s going on out there?” Robert asked. “How bad is it?”
Ivonne’s smile faltered. “About as bad as you can imagine. Billions have died already.”
He stopped walking. “Did you say billions? With a b?”
“Yes,” she said.
Robert couldn’t get his head around the number. Did that mean whole countries were gone? Continents? Was that possible?
“That can’t be right,” he said.
“I wish it wasn’t, but there’s no part of the planet that hasn’t been touched.” She paused. “Except, perhaps, your island.”
“No,” he said, still stunned. “We’ve been touched.”
Dr. de Coster’s eyes widened. “The disease is here?”
“Not anymore.”
“How can you be sure?” he asked.
Robert told them what had happened to Dominic.
“No one else has come down with the flu?”
“Not a one,” he said.
Ivonne smiled. “Sounds like you dodged a bullet.”
“Dominic didn’t.”
“Of course. I’m very sorry about your friend.”
They fell into silence for several seconds.
De Coster finally spoke. “You were going to show us where we could set up?
“Right,” Robert said. “This way.”
I had to go into the farmhouse this morning. I know I said I didn’t want to, but the one thing I hadn’t taken with me when I left the dorm was matches, and I really wanted to light a fire to warm up. There’s a side door that leads straight into the kitchen. I looked through the windows first. If I’d seen even a hint of a body, I would have just dealt with the cold. But the room looked empty, so — with apologies to the homeowners — I broke a window so I could unlock the door.