Will drew his Glock and replaced the magazine with one marked with an “X.” Danny and the others did the same thing.
“You’re with me, kid,” Danny said to Josh.
Gaby stayed behind with Carly and the girls. “We’ll just wait here and soak up the sun,” Carly said. “Whistle if you need anything.”
“Lara,” Will said, “you should stay behind, too.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
“Your arm…”
“It’s a lot better. Besides, I’m a righty, anyway.”
He thought about arguing but saw the look on her face and decided against it.
She walked next to him as they moved through a row of about twenty trailers, testing the back doors as they went. Most of the trailers had simple locks that could be opened with a key, though some had more expensive-looking security devices on them. They went along the row, pulling at doors but finding none that would yield.
Danny said through the radio: “Locked, locked, and locked. Any luck on your end?”
“Not a one,” Will said into the radio.
“We might have to break into one of these things.”
“Looks like.”
“Good thing I packed that bolt cutter…”
Danny was probably right. The owners of the trailers hadn’t been sloppy enough to leave their property unlocked, even if there was nothing inside to steal. He guessed it was because no one liked the idea of someone playing around with their things.
“Semitrailers?” Lara said after a while.
“It’s not an entirely bad idea, and I wish I had thought of it.”
“Wouldn’t it get claustrophobic in there?”
“Maybe after a while, but we’re not going to be spending that much time in them. We should be able to cross into Louisiana by tomorrow, then Beaufont Lake later the same day.” He noticed she was looking at him closely. “What?”
“I’ve never seen you this anxious to get to Song Island.”
“I’m not.”
“So what is it? This thing with Kate? The dream?”
“That’s part of it.”
“That’s most of it, you mean.”
He wrinkled his nose at her. “One person invading my thoughts is more than enough, thank you very much. I don’t need you in there, too.”
She looked like she was warming to the idea. “Can you imagine? Your ex-girlfriend and your current girlfriend knowing everything you’re thinking?”
“Heaven forbid,” he said, and faked shivering.
She laughed. “But I’m a lot nicer than Kate. At least, my skin is probably softer.”
“Only in real life.”
“What does that mean?”
“When I dreamt about her, she was the old Kate.”
“Oh.”
He smiled. “It was just a dream, Lara.”
“Still, I don’t know how I feel about you spending quality time with your ex-girlfriend in a park. Dream or not, a girl can get a little nervous.”
He grabbed her by the waist. She let out a surprised yelp as he pulled her to him, very careful not to touch her left arm in the sling. He kissed her deeply, passionately, and she moaned against him. They were still lip-locked and sweating under the sun when Will’s radio squawked and they heard Danny’s voice.
“I think it’s time for that bolt cutter,” Danny said. He waited for a response, and when he didn’t get one: “Guys? You still there? Ghouls get ya? Oh, man, you’re doing something bad to one another, aren’t you? Gross. She’s wearing bandages, too. Double gross.”
“What can’t bolt cutters do?” Danny said as he clamped the sharp metal teeth down over a lock and snapped it in two with a solid crunch. “Not a whole lot, that’s what. Anyone got a sandwich they want split in half?”
“Danny and sharp objects,” Carly said, shaking her head.
Lara laughed, and so did Gaby and the girls.
“What?” Danny said, and stepped away from the truck.
Will grabbed the doors and threw them open. He didn’t worry about the possibility of ghouls waiting for him on the other side. Ghouls didn’t do locks, and they certainly didn’t bother locking a room back up after they left.
The musty odor of time and dust swarmed them in a thick fine mist. Everyone coughed and backed away from the trailer. The vehicle itself was empty, its floor, sides, and ceiling heavily scratched by past cargos. The trailer sat in the middle of the lot, where it had been wallowing in the heat for months now, and there was nothing to make it stand out from the others. Which was what Will wanted.
He grabbed the ramp and lowered it to the ground, then climbed up with an LED lamp, hanging it on a hook along the ceiling. He pegged the trailer’s length at twenty-two meters long and four meters high, more than enough room to move around comfortably.
He walked back to the opening. “All right, let’s start moving what we need in here while Danny cracks open the second trailer.”
Everyone moved with purpose, including the girls. They transported the ammo, guns, food, and personal items from the trucks over to the trailers. They had done it so many times now it was second nature, and Will found he didn’t have to tell anyone what to bring. They just knew. Even Josh and Gaby got with the program in no time.
Will climbed down the ramp and walked over a meter and threw open the second trailer once Danny broke the lock. The others were piling boxes and moving crates into the first trailer behind him, their boots and sneakers clanging loudly back and forth.
Too loud. It’s too loud.
Danny saw the look on his face. “What now?”
“Footsteps,” Will said.
“Where?”
“In the trailer. It’s too loud.”
“So?”
“Noises, Danny.”
Danny listened to the others moving noisily around in the trailer behind them. “Yeah. Way too loud.”
“Let’s go shopping.”
“Awesome. You going to buy me something pretty this time?”
“We’ll see,” Will said.
Elmo’s next door had what they were looking for — mattresses. They carried what they needed over to the semitrailers until they had enough to cover most of the floors.
“Really? Mattresses?” Lara asked.
“To keep the noises down,” Will said.
“And sleep like a baby,” Danny added. “These things are expensive. Who can afford these things?”
“Rich people,” Josh said, helping Will carry one of the mattresses up the first trailer’s ramp.
“God, I love being rich,” Danny said.
Once the mattresses were in place, Will had them move around inside while he listened, and he was pleased with the result.
“We’re good to go,” he announced. “Drill ’em.”
Danny brought out a battery-powered drill and went up and down the trailers, creating holes in the floor and along the sides, far enough apart to not be readily obvious if someone went searching under the vehicles. It was going to be claustrophobic enough inside without trying to fight for air. The holes, as small as they were, would fix that problem without giving their positions away.
Dead, not stupid.
Will and Danny drove the trucks over to the Discount Tire store and parked inside the garage. They slammed the doors shut and locked them from the inside, then slipped out through a side entrance. Even if other survivors stumbled across the trucks and raided the supplies in the cargo trailer, the loss wasn’t anything that couldn’t be replaced by raiding nearby stores and buildings. They had become, much to his surprise (but very much to his approval), brutally efficient in the last few months.
It was almost five in the evening by the time Will and Danny began walking back to the others. He took a moment to glance over his shoulder at the highway behind them. Quiet and congested, with cars frozen in place, it made for an eerie sight.