They both stepped back and listened to the ghouls continue to rain blows against the door.
Danny sucked in a big breath. “Let’s not do that again. Ever.”
“It’s all in the wrists,” Will said, pocketing the key.
“That’s what she said,” Danny grinned.
It took them the rest of the morning to put up a concrete wall directly over the steel door, covering up the entire front of the shack just to be safe. By the time they were done, they were covered in flakes of concrete and rivers of sweat. Will didn’t know what smelled worse — the state he was in this morning, or the way he had been last night while he was running with ghoul flesh and blood stuck to his face.
At ten minutes past noon, they tossed the trowels to the ground and gave the shack a long look.
“You think it’ll hold?” Danny asked.
“They’d need a tank to get through that,” Will said.
“Need I remind you about that unfortunate incident with a car?”
“I doubt that tunnel’s big enough for a car.”
They paused for a moment.
“Has to be a tunnel down there, right?” Danny said.
“Has to be,” Will said.
“Which means it comes out on the other side, on land.”
“Sounds logical.”
“We should find out where that is and close it up like a virgin’s legs.”
“We should, yeah. But not yet. This should hold for a while.”
“You got a hot date I don’t know about?”
Will was about to answer when his radio, sitting on one of the unused concrete blocks, squawked and they heard Gaby’s voice: “Will, Danny, I see movement on land.”
Will snatched up the radio. “Where?”
“At the marina.”
“Cars?”
“Trucks. More than one.”
“Stay with them.”
“Will do.”
They picked up their shotguns and gun belts and began jogging back toward the hotel.
“And here I thought it was going to be a quiet morning,” Danny said.
The door to the Tower was gone, shattered from last night’s assault. They hadn’t bothered to fix it yet, so Will and Danny ran through it and up the spiral staircase to the second floor, then kept going all the way up to the third floor.
Gaby was at the south window, peering through binoculars. “Two trucks.”
“Marina?” Will asked.
“No. They drove past it and went straight to the house.”
Will walked to the window and picked up a second pair of binoculars dangling from a hook on the wall. He peered through them at the house and spotted two new trucks parked in the front yard, like toys left out in the sun.
He lowered the binoculars and glanced down at his watch: 12:36 p.m.
Danny was peering through Gaby’s binoculars. “More of us, or more like Karen?”
Will looked over at the computer station behind them. Josh had put it back together earlier, but it looked turned off. “Is that thing still broadcasting?”
“No,” Gaby said. “Josh said you told him not to turn it back on yet.”
“Maybe Karen’s in that house,” Danny said. “If we’re lucky, we should start hearing gunshots any time now.” He put down his binoculars and waited silently. Then, after about ten seconds, “Or not.”
“You’re assuming she made it off the island,” Gaby said.
“Of course she did,” Danny said.
“How can you be so sure?”
“She’s a bitch. They don’t die that easily.”
Lara climbed up the stairs behind them. “I heard more survivors showed up?”
“Maybe,” Will said.
She walked over and he handed her his binoculars. She peered through them for a moment. “What could they be, then?”
“That’s the question,” Will said.
“More collaborators?” Danny said.
“There’s always that.”
“God, how many of them are out there?” Lara said. She sounded exasperated.
“Probably as many as the ghouls need,” Will said.
He had once tried to imagine how many blood farms were out there just to feed the millions (billions) of ghouls roaming the planet at the moment, but he had given up after the number became too incomprehensible. It was something he didn’t want to waste too much of his time thinking about. The truth was, it didn’t matter, because it didn’t factor into keeping everyone alive right now.
Will looked over at Danny. “Grab the ACOG. You’ve got sentry duty.”
“You sure you don’t need me out there?” Danny asked.
“I’ll take Josh. Where is Josh, anyway?”
“He went to the hotel to get us something to eat,” Gaby said. She looked over at them, and added, “Can I stay here in the Tower with Danny? I want him to teach me how to shoot.”
“You noticed that she didn’t ask you?” Danny grinned at Will. “That’s because she recognizes skill when she sees it.”
“I just thought because Will was leaving,” Gaby said.
“Ouch,” Danny said.
He walked back to the beach with Josh and Lara in tow, their shoes clacking against the cobblestone pathway. Will had washed off the grime from this morning’s labor and put on his urban assault vest and comm gear. He carried his M4A1 and was thankful there was plenty of 5.56x45mm ammo in the basement underneath the Tower, enough to feed his and Danny’s rifles for weeks to come. Finding ammo at the end of the world was always the easy part; turning it into silver was the challenge. It was also the priority.
“I’m not sure you should be leaving us right now,” Lara said. “At least take Danny with you.”
“I need Danny’s rifle in the Tower,” Will said.
“Then wait for tomorrow. The marina will still be there in twenty-four hours.”
“We need silver, Lara. Everything we need to make that happen is back in the marina.”
Lara wasn’t convinced. Neither was Josh, who walked quietly next to them. Will imagined the kid must feel caught up in a parental spat. He had given Josh a stripped-down version of their urban assault vest and hadn’t realized how awkward the kid looked until he had strapped it on. Besides his gun belt, Josh carried the Remington over his shoulder. Will didn’t expect the kid to use the shotgun. Fact was, if Josh started shooting at all, they were already in deep trouble.
“You already sealed the power station,” Lara said. “They’re not getting back on the island, so we don’t need silver yet.”
“We don’t know what other kind of access they have, and I don’t want to take the chance.”
“Sarah doesn’t think there are any other ways onto the island.”
“Sarah didn’t know about the power station, either.” He glanced down at his watch: 2:10 p.m. “Josh is coming with me, Lara. We’ll be fine.”
“Be serious, Will,” Lara said, exasperated. Then she quickly glanced over at Josh. “No offense.”
“Hey, I agree with you,” Josh said. “I’ll let you guys hash it out.”
He walked on ahead, leaving them on the beach.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Will smiled at her. “Now you’ve hurt his feelings.”
“Will, this isn’t the time to leave,” she said, undeterred.
“It’s the only time. We’re stuck here on this island. We need something to defend ourselves with. We need silver.”
“Okay, let me rephrase that. After last night, I don’t want you to leave.”
He brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “I’m not doing this because I want to. I’m doing this because I have to. You know that.”
“I hate you,” she said, and pulled him to her and kissed him deeply.
Will slipped his arms around her and held her against him, lingering against her lips. She tasted warm, like the sun. Kissing her was always like coming home.