“Maybe with bikes.”
“Ride piggyback, two to a bike?”
“Something like that.”
“Gonna have to teach the big guy and one of the girls to ride if the two new ones decide to come along.”
“True.”
“What about the guns?”
“That’s a problem.”
“Lots of problems if you ask me.”
“Yup.”
“Maybe find another way.”
“I’m open to suggestions.”
“Fly out?”
“We’d need to find a helicopter. You said you knew how to fly one, right?”
“I said I’ve flown in a helicopter. So did you. In Stan. I had sex in the cockpit of one once. Does that count?”
“Not really, no.”
“There goes that option.”
“Yup. Got another one of those?”
Danny fished out another stick of beef jerky. Will took a bite in silence.
“You come up with another idea yet?” Danny said after a few minutes.
“Nope.”
“Some brains of the operation you turned out to be.”
“Who’s the brains of the operation?” a voice said behind them.
Will glanced back at Kate as she walked across the roof toward them. He stared just a bit longer than he should have. He couldn’t help himself — she was a looker, even in the plain pants and T-shirt that was at least a size too big. She had no make-up on, not that it seemed to matter.
“This guy,” Danny said, hiking a thumb in Will’s direction. “Supposedly, anyway.”
“Did you and Luke eat?” Will asked her.
“We definitely filled up on our share of tacos,” she said. “What’s for tomorrow, Subway sandwiches? I saw one on the way here. It looked small. Probably not many of those creatures inside. They like the bigger buildings, don’t they?”
“Have no fear, we have God on our side,” Danny said, tapping the silver cross-knife strapped against his left leg. “And silver bullets. Those are good, too.”
“We were talking about leaving,” Will said. “You’re welcome to come with us. You and Luke both.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I appreciate that. We both do.” Kate walked to the edge of the roof and looked down at the quiet parking lot spread out in front of them. “Carly told me about this Harold Campbell. You know for a fact that his facility’s there?”
“Yes.”
“And we can get there?”
“That part’s going to require a bit of faith.”
“Just faith, huh? Short supply of that these days…”
“Faith is bullets,” Danny said. “A few thousand rounds, to be exact. We’ll make more as we go, collecting silver along the way. Kinda like the great train robbery, minus the whole people giving a shit part.”
“Don’t you guys already have a few thousand rounds stashed down there?” she asked. “Carly says you’ve been making bullets since you got here.”
“We should definitely get there by tonight,” Will said.
“And that’s going to be enough?” she asked doubtfully.
“Not nearly. But it’s a start.”
Soon they were back at work making more bullets, with Danny and Ted melting and pouring silver and mixing them with lead in one room, while Will knocked out rounds for the Glocks in the setup area.
Kate showed up as he banged a plastic hammer on the molds to free the freshly cast bullets, plopping them into a bucket of water, the hot lead and silver weights hissing and sizzling in the bucket.
“Isn’t there an easier way to make bullets?” she asked.
“About a million different ways. Unfortunately all of them involve machines that we don’t have. And electricity.”
“How did people make bullets before electricity?”
“You’re looking at it.”
He took the molds back to the workbench. The pot of lead and silver liquid was almost empty, though he could probably bang out a dozen or more before waiting for a new batch. Danny and Ted worked nearby, the acidic evidence of melting lead and silver thick in the air around them.
Kate looked nervous, shuffling her sneakers once or twice. She had the look of a woman who wanted to ask something but didn’t quite know how to broach the subject.
“What’s on your mind, Kate?”
She pursed her lips. “Can anyone learn to shoot?”
“If you want to learn, I can teach you.”
“I should learn, right?”
“It’s up to you.”
“I should learn,” she said, obviously trying to convince herself.
She looked down at the bucket, at the 200 or 300 rounds resting at the bottom. Once the bucket was half full, he would prime and recast them into new bullets. They wouldn’t be nearly as perfect as the ones out of a factory, but those didn’t have silver in them. In this new war, these were the new perfection.
“What’s up first?” she asked. “Learning to shoot, I mean.”
“Have you ever owned a gun before?”
“No.”
“Hold one?”
“Not really, no.”
“Does that mean you’ve touched one?”
“At the pawnshop before we came here. But Luke and I were too scared to actually use them.” She gave him an embarrassed smile. “I’m a lost cause, aren’t I?”
“Everyone has to start somewhere.”
“Are you just trying to make me feel better, Will?”
“Yes,” he smiled back.
“This is a Glock,” Will said. “It’s an excellent gun for a beginner because of the simplicity. Pros swear by them because it’s one of the most reliable brands out there.”
She held the Glock 19 with both hands. She looked exactly how he had expected her to look — uncomfortable. He showed her the proper way to hold it, then had her repeatedly holster and draw the weapon over and over.
“You’re holding a Glock 19,” he continued. “It’s what you’d call a starter Glock. It’s twenty-one ounces unloaded, thirty-one with a full magazine. Go ahead and load it, but don’t chamber a round.”
She picked up the magazine from the counter and loaded the weapon without chambering a round. She had done it five times already, and each time she got better at it. He was impressed, but not terribly surprised. He had met women like Kate before — career-minded, driven, and ambitious. When they put their minds to something, nothing was impossible. Guns were, after all, just tools. Anyone could learn how to use a tool. Eventually.
“The Glock 19 magazine holds fifteen rounds. Can you feel the difference between a loaded Glock and an unloaded one?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “It’s a lot heavier with the magazine in. I didn’t really expect it to be that heavy.”
“Good. So next time when you’re watching a movie and they pull that bullshit ‘I gave the bad guy an unloaded gun, and he tried to shoot me with it, thus proving his bad guy-ness,’ you’ll now be the only one in the theater laughing your ass off.”
“Are we talking from personal experience?”
“Not at all… Okay, maybe once or twice.”
“I notice there’s no hammer,” she said.
“There isn’t one. There’s also no safety switch. But if you’re worried about accidental discharges, don’t. I can count on one hand the number of times a Glock has misfired on me.”
“That’s a lot.”
“I said one hand, not all five fingers, Kate.”
“Oh.”
“Okay, let’s go ahead and chamber a round…”
He got her shooting at paper targets plastered to the wall until it was nearly dark. Luke and Carly had come over to watch. Will noticed Luke looking on anxiously, wanting to get in on the action.
Boys and guns.
With darkness coming, he cut Kate’s lesson short so they could prepare the Archers for the night. He and Danny slipped their SWAT gear back on, then he went outside to turn off the siren. He spent a minute scanning the parking lot, still startled at how quiet the city could be without people.