Will nodded. He didn’t need Leo to give him the details. He knew what had happened in Dunbar two nights ago, because he had been there. Kate’s shock troops, Harrison’s people being slaughtered…
He walked outside with Leo. “What was she before all of this?”
“State trooper,” Leo said. “She actually busted me a couple of times for hunting out of season. I don’t think she ever had to draw her weapon before the world went to shit, though. Funny how things work out.”
“Yeah,” Will said, though the word “funny” wasn’t quite what he would have used.
“An island? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“An island. You’re out of your mind.”
“The radio broadcast? I heard about that.”
“I say we keep going.”
“Maybe we should go back to Dunbar.”
“We have to find someplace else. Dunbar’s lost.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Let’s find more of these fuckers and kill as many as we can, before they get us.”
Because what remained of Dunbar’s fighters didn’t have anything resembling a leader, everyone spoke at the same time. Which made it difficult for Will to judge who was leaning toward his proposition and who was just shooting off at the mouth.
Natasha, though, had kept out of the fray. She leaned against the Ford’s hood and looked solemnly back down Route 13 through the underpass, as if she expected Mason’s soldiers to pop up at any moment. By the way she was holding her M4, he guessed she was hoping for exactly that.
“Shit, it’s not any more unbelievable than what’s happening now,” Leo was saying. “Look around you, boys. The impossible is possible. What makes this any less possible, considering everything we’ve been through? Have you forgotten about those blue-eyed fucks we all saw two nights ago?”
That seemed to quiet them.
I have a champion, Will thought, fighting back a smile. He couldn’t have chosen a better person to argue for him, either. Leo was tall, big, older than the rest, and forceful when he talked so you couldn’t help but pay attention.
Leo turned to him now. “And it works. The bodies of water. Just the way the woman on the radio says it does?”
“She was right about the silver,” Will said.
“You’ve used silver on them?” Ray asked.
“We have. After we heard the radio message, we started sharpening silver crosses into weapons. All you have to do is stab them and they die. They actually die.”
Ray, Leo, and the others exchanged a look. All except Natasha. She was still focused on the underpass, oblivious to the conversation. Will thought she would at least react to his confirmation that silver worked on the ghouls, but no. Natasha was in her own world. Right now, he didn’t think anything besides the presence of Mason’s men could make her care.
“Dammit,” Ray said. “We heard that same broadcast days ago, but Harrison insisted it was all bullshit, so we never followed through on it. But you’re saying it works. You swear it?”
“I swear it,” Will said, “and I’ve used it.”
“So, silver bullets?” Leo said. Will could practically see the gears in the older man’s head turning. “We could do that. Make silver rounds. It’d be nice to finally be able to shoot and kill the fuckers for once.”
“Silver works, just like the woman on the radio said it would,” Will said. “If she’s right about that, she could be right about the bodies of water, too. All we’d have to do is get to Song Island. You guys are looking for a new place to stay. There it is.”
“I have a question,” Ray said. “How the hell are we going to survive on an island?”
“It has a hotel and solar-powered electricity.”
“And you know this how?”
“We didn’t all come from Mississippi. One of us was from here. He was born and raised around Beaufont Lake and he saw them building the hotel over the years, and he says it’s mostly finished. As for what you’d eat, that’s easy — the lake is filled with fish. When we heard the radio broadcast, it just made sense to retreat to Song Island.”
“Sounds like a fool thing to do,” another man, Greg, said. He was in his thirties, squat, and looked ridiculous next to the tall Ray.
The other two were Olsen and Barnes, who had been manning the technical all this time.
Olsen was leaning out the front passenger side door looking bored. “They’re from Mississippi, what’d you expect?”
Will ignored him, said, “Look around you, guys. There’s not a lot of choices left these days. If it’s not the creatures, it’s the soldiers.”
“And hiding on an island is better?” Ray said.
“Better than out here.”
“He’s got a point,” Barnes said. He was resting against the front hood of the Ford. “We barely got out of Dunbar with our hides. This island sounds pretty good to me. I mean, what the fuck? We gonna run around getting into fights all our lives? We did what we could. Maybe it’s time to move on.”
The others didn’t argue Barnes’s point, but they didn’t exactly shout their agreement, either. A couple of them, like Leo and Greg, sneaked a quick look over at Natasha. If she noticed them, she didn’t show it.
“When we get there, how do we reach the island?” Ray asked.
“John, the guy who told us about it, said there are a couple of marinas with boats in the area,” Will said. “He also said there are houses along the shoreline, in case we get there and need emergency shelter.”
He stopped talking to let all of that sink in. If he didn’t know better, he’d think it was working because each man seemed to have retreated into his own internal monologues, maybe even weighing the pros and cons. He hoped at least most of them were leaning toward the pros. He probably had Leo and Ray. The others, though, were a toss-up.
“Clock’s ticking,” Will said. “If you’re going to decide to go, you need to do it soon.” He glanced at his watch for dramatic effect. “You know what happens when it gets dark out here. We all do.”
They glanced at each other in silence. All except Natasha. Will wasn’t sure if she had even heard any of the conversation going on around her.
“Well?” Leo said finally. “Do we go, or continue taking our chances out here?”
“Fuck it,” Ray said. “How long we going to last out here like this, anyway? We had it good in Dunbar, but that’s gone. Harrison’s dead or worse. Rachel, too. What’s left?”
“An island,” Greg said. He sounded as if he wanted to laugh, but couldn’t make himself do it. “Well, shit. I’ve heard of worse ideas, I guess.”
“If we go, we all go,” Leo said. “So do we go?”
They nodded one by one.
Except for Natasha. She still hadn’t said a word.
“Nat,” Leo said, turning to her. “Did you hear—”
“Okay,” she said before he could finish.
“Okay?” Leo repeated, just to be sure.
“Yeah, okay.” She walked past him and to the back of the truck. “I guess we better hurry, then. Like the man said, the clock’s ticking.”
The others followed her example and began piling into the truck.
Leo turned to Will and grinned. “You better hope this island’s there, buddy, ’cause if it’s not, we’ll be standing around watching the sunset with our balls in our hands.”
Will smiled back at him.
I’m coming home, Lara. Just hold out a little longer, babe.