“What happened exactly?” Lara asked Keo. “It sounded like you had to improvise.”
“There was a kid,” Keo said. “He ruined the plan.”
“We didn’t see him,” Bonnie said. “But then we had to stop the truck pretty far away so they couldn’t hear us coming.”
“Carrie told me about them,” Keo said. “The soldiers are using them as lookouts. They send the brats across the cities to look for survivors, then radio in if they find any.” Keo wiped fish oil from his lips. “I should have shot the little bastard.”
Lara and Bonnie stared at him.
“I said should have,” Keo said. “I didn’t, for the record.”
“So, in your expert opinion,” Lara said, “do you think you stopped them?”
“Stopped them? Not even close.” He shook an ice cube out of his glass and popped it into his mouth, crunching it loudly. “Delayed them, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know these ghouls as well as you do, so I can’t predict what they’re going to do next. I would have liked to take out more. That house, for instance. But situations being what they were…”
“The kid,” Lara said.
“Yeah. The kid.”
“They’re using children,” Bonnie said, shaking her head. “It’s hard to believe they’ll stoop that low.”
“It’s actually pretty smart,” Lara said. “Kids are impressionable. Adaptable, too.” She thought about Elise and Vera and how the two young girls had carried on despite everything they had been through. “You give them a job and they’ll glom to it. Especially if you make them think it’s the most important thing in the world. And by extension, they’re important for doing it.”
“Yeah, well,” Keo said, “I still think I should have at least stolen the little tyke’s bicycle. That was a pretty sweet-looking ride.”
“There are plenty of rooms left to choose from if you don’t like the one I picked out for you,” Lara said when she was walking with Keo up Hallway A after dinner. “This is assuming you’re at least staying the night.”
“It’s a little too dark out there to be sailing, don’t you think?” Keo said.
“I didn’t want to presume. You’ve already done more than enough to earn everything I promised you. We’re grateful. I’m grateful.”
“Are you propositioning me?”
“What?”
He laughed. “I’m just messing with you, Lara.”
“Oh.” Then, because she thought she had been blushing just a bit, “You’re anxious to get going.”
“I made a promise, and I’m way overdue.”
“She doesn’t know you’re trying to make your way over?”
“No. We didn’t exactly plan to separate. It just came up at the last minute, so we didn’t put any kind of communications system into place, the way you have with your boyfriend. You guys are a lot smarter than us.”
“We have our moments.”
“But it’s not going to last, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“Regardless of how many times you push them back, delay them, or repel a full-on frontal assault. You can’t do it forever. Sooner or later, if they want this island bad enough, they’ll get it. And when that happens, a lot of people will die.”
She didn’t answer him because she knew he was right. She had spent countless days and hours thinking about it, trying to find a way out, a way that would keep them all alive. And each time she failed to see the answer. Always.
They walked in silence for a moment, the only sounds coming from their footsteps against the hallway and the slight hum of the lightbulbs.
“What would you do if you were in my position?” she finally asked.
“The odds are against you,” he said with that matter-of-fact tone that annoyed her, but at the same time she found herself grateful for because it was the truth—or at least, as he saw it. “Even with the Army Rangers, you won’t be able to keep the island indefinitely. I understand why you don’t want to leave. The hotel, the power supply, the beach… Hell, I’d risk it just to have ice water every day, but that’s me. I’ve survived past my sell-by date even before the world went kaput. Bottom line? There’s no reason why you and the others can’t start again someplace else.”
“Where would we go?”
“I can’t tell you that.” He paused, then added, almost reluctantly, “This island is a paradise, Lara, but it’s not worth dying for. What’s that old saying? ‘Home is where the heart is’? These days, it might be enough just to have a home that isn’t constantly under attack.”
It was almost dark outside when she stepped out onto the hotel patio with Keo’s words echoing inside her head.
“The odds are against you… This island is a paradise, Lara, but it’s not worth dying for.”
Wasn’t it, though? If Song Island wasn’t worth spilling blood for (and God knew, they already had, too much), then what was these days?
She just wished Will were here with her. Right now, she would be satisfied with just hearing his voice.
She looked toward the Tower, where Carly was still posted with Jo, Bonnie’s little sister. The two of them were moving from window to window with night-vision binoculars. Lara had doubled up on the watch to improve their chances of catching an attack if Kate decided to send her collaborators anyway. It was dead quiet out there, so if they were coming by boat (which they would be — was there any other way?), even using those trolling motors, they would give away their approach.
“This island is a paradise, Lara, but it’s not worth dying for.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
Lara unclipped her radio and said into it, “Everyone in position?”
“Lake looks quiet from up here,” Carly said. “Jo and I are good to go.”
“Keo’s coming up to relieve you later tonight, Carly.”
“He’s staying?” she asked, sounding surprised.
“For tonight.” Then, “Roy?”
“Beach is clear,” Roy said.
“Piers, too,” Blaine said.
Blaine and Roy had the beach tonight, with Bonnie scheduled to relieve Roy in an hour, and Gwen for Blaine an hour after that. Not that she expected two people on the beach to repel a full-scale attack. But if they could see an assault coming, it would give them time to set up the real defense at the hotel and, if necessary, start putting Will’s Plan Z into motion.
God, that’s such an awful name for a plan that’s supposed to save our lives, Will. We need to come up with a better, more optimistic-sounding one.
“Benny?” Lara said.
“Looks good from up here,” Benny said.
Lara glanced up at the roof of the hotel behind her but couldn’t see Benny up there. He wasn’t alone; Stan the electrician and Kendra’s son Dwayne were also up there somewhere. Lara had been hesitant to make use of twelve-year-old Dwayne until she saw him shoot with his bolt-action rifle. Even Benny and Blaine were impressed. The kid was, easily, the best shot on the island. She hadn’t asked the boy if he had ever shot anyone before, because she didn’t really want to know.
She listened to the others calling out through the radio. Gwen and the fourteen-year-old Derek were with Sarah, along with Carrie and Lorelei, in the hotel lobby. They had looked nervous when she walked through the room a few minutes ago. She didn’t blame them and she wondered if they were thinking the same thing: