Kate met them outside the diner. “Is this going to work?”
“It should,” Will said.
“Should?”
“It’s just a precaution. Chances are, we won’t have anything to worry about tonight, and tomorrow we’ll be in Starch by noon.”
“I thought Danny was the optimist,” she said with a wry smile.
“He is, but I like to pretend I’m Danny every now and then.”
They loaded Luke and the couch he was lying on into the back of the F-150. With Lara and Kate sitting in the back with Luke, they headed to the bank, careful to avoid bumps on the road.
By one in the afternoon, Will, Danny, and Ted were breaking down the bank’s counters into thick slabs. They chopped what they could with axes, cut the rest with handsaws, and tossed the useless pieces into the parking lot. Vera and Lara sat with Luke, while Carly and Kate scoured the stores around them for supplies, food, and water. They found plenty of all three and, like Will and Danny earlier, didn’t run across one ghoul.
They’re gathering. For tonight…
They barricaded the back door with a thick slab of countertop that covered the entire frame, then nailed two more across for good measure. They pulled heavy metal shelves from the office and stacked them against the door as a secondary barrier. In all, there were at least 500 pounds of resistance, though he didn’t think they would need it. If they came at all, the ghouls would come through the front doors, which provided a wider berth and allowed them to use their greatest strength — their number.
“Ted,” Will said, “you’ll take the back. There’s no point in having everyone in the lobby. That means swapping the rifle for a shotgun.”
“Okay,” Ted said, though he looked a little pale.
“You’ll do fine, Ted. Trust yourself.”
Ted nodded, looking unconvinced.
They used up more of the teller counters on the two front windows. Then later, on the two front doors once everyone was inside and settled. They checked, doubled checked, and triple checked that everything they needed from the trailers was inside with them, or where it was supposed to be. Most importantly, that meant Danny knew where all the C4 were.
Will and Danny spent a few minutes outside the bank going over just that.
“Everything in place?” Will asked.
“It’s a big strip mall,” Danny said. “But everything’s where it’s supposed to be.”
“How much did you have to use?”
“Most of it. Got a little left, though.”
“Maybe we won’t need them at all.”
“Look who’s playing the part of Captain Optimism now?”
They retreated back into the bank, where they stripped the rest of the office and employee lounge, moving shelves and desks to the front and piling them against the thick slabs of countertop already plastered over the two front glass doors. Everything not nailed down was used to strengthen the barricades.
By four, they had hung portable LED lanterns along the lobby, the curved back hallway, and inside the office. Using screws, they attached the lanterns to the ceiling and walls for maximum coverage. Powered by rechargeable lithium batteries, there was no danger of spilling fuel. Soon it was intensely brighter inside the bank than outside. The LED lights didn’t make it any less cool though, and the temperature began to drop noticeably.
“Time to break out the thermals,” Danny said.
Will already wore a thermal sweater underneath his assault vest, and he was carrying so many shells and magazines in a half-dozen pouches that when he moved, he jingled. Danny looked similarly bloated when they took up positions on either side of the front doors, the boarded-up windows over their shoulders. They leaned the M4A1s against the wall and kept the Remington 870 shotguns in their laps.
Kate and the others had quietly settled around the bank. Vera and Carly, along with Lara, were watching over Luke in the office.
The plan was to retreat into the office if the front doors fell. That was unlikely, but Will liked having backup plans. All their ammo, weapons, food and drink, along with their other supplies, were already stored in the office. Their last stand. The vault, of course, would have been ideal.
“It would have been nice to have the vault,” Danny said.
Will smiled. “I was just thinking that.”
“Because of the money inside, right?”
“Um, no, not because of that.”
“I bet there’s a lot in there,” Danny continued. “Millions, maybe.”
“Paper isn’t going to do us any good, Danny.”
“I’m just saying. It’d be nice to be a millionaire for once. Even if the only thing money’s good for now is to wipe my ass.”
“Thanks for that visual.”
“I’m just being practical. Toilet paper isn’t going to last forever. We’re going to need a substitute sooner or later. How long does toilet paper take to break down, anyway?”
“How the hell should I know?”
“You seemed like someone who would know.”
“Ten years?”
“Are you just guessing?”
“Yup.”
“Useless,” Danny grunted.
Will watched Ted across the room, fidgeting with the Remington shotgun in his lap. He looked uncomfortable, staring at the weapon like he was afraid it might bite him if he held it too tightly.
Kate was staring off at the window over his right shoulder, lost in thought. She must have sensed him watching, because she turned her head slightly and their eyes met. She gave him a small smile, and he smiled back.
She hadn’t really been the same since yesterday, since Luke got shot. In so many ways he pitied Kate and the others. They weren’t prepared for this. Not that he and Danny were, but it was easier for them. As long as he thought of this as just another war, he could treat it as just another tour of duty to get through.
He wanted to reach out to Kate and tell her that everything was going to be okay, that tonight would be uneventful, and tomorrow they would get Luke to Harold Campbell’s facility in Starch, Texas, and everything would be all right.
But he didn’t, because he didn’t trust himself to be that good of a liar.
“We’re officially at sundown,” Will announced when his watch ticked to 5:30 p.m.
They sat and waited.
He checked the Remington, then the M4A1 for the fifth time in the last hour.
At 6:15 p.m., Danny said, “Looks like we got dressed up for nothing.”
“Captain Optimism,” Will smirked.
“I’m just saying. It’s dark outside, and they’re not here yet. Maybe we were both wrong.”
“Anything’s possible.”
“Not that I mind the waiting. I love waiting.” He licked his lips. “That, and cheesecake. You know what would be great right now? Waiting while eating cheesecake.”
“Good to know, good to know.”
So they waited.
At 7:16 p.m., Danny said, “Reminds me of a joke.”
Will groaned.
“Shut up, you’ll love it. A guy goes into a bank—” But Danny stopped suddenly and glanced over at Will for confirmation.
Will nodded back at him.
There was a slight change in the way the wind moved across the parking lot outside. With the change came the vibrations. A minor tremble, easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it.
Will guessed there must be at least a dozen, possibly more, gathering outside.
As they listened, it seemed as if the dozen were joined by more until there were so many of them out there that the ground moved slightly with them.
Across the room, Kate said, “Did you guys feel that?”