Suckers (33 page)

“So he’s just gonna stay out there?” Buddy said, still with his coat on.

“Have they eaten?” Faye asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“I could get stuff out
to
them—” Rich started.

“Dad!”

“—but I don’t know how we get it into the car without one of those things getting in, and I can’t guarantee any wouldn’t get into the garage when I opened the door to go out myself.”

“They got blankets or anything?” Buddy asked. “They can’t sit in the car like that, those things banging at the windows all night, the two of them exposed on all sides.”

Dan paced, trying to think of any kind of workable plan. The only things Ray was likely to have in the Fury were fast food trash and junk mail.

“Maybe blankets could get them in here,” Rich said.

“They don’t have blankets,” Dan said absentmindedly.

“
We
do,” Rich said.

“Dad…” Sarah pulled forward on the couch.

“Shh. I’ve already been bitten. I can get them out to them. I’m thinking two layers of blankets each. Tell them to get that car as close to the garage door as possible. They just have to crack a window enough for me to feed the blankets through one by one. Once they’re bundled up, I’ll run them each to the house—”

“That’s crazy!” Sarah said.

“And let those fucking things get in the garage,” Buddy said. “And then what? The three of you are stuck there with ’em in there.”

Dan chewed his cheek. There had to be something. There
had
to be.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Buddy said. “That’s my brother out there, and I want him the fuck in here. But we’ve gotta be smart about this.”

Dan was still half lost in his own thoughts. “We can’t handle three infected people. There’s not enough of us.” He was still hoping there were enough of them to take care of just the one. So far so good, but…

Faye looked up. Looked at each one of them. “We could distract them.”

“What?” Sarah said.

“We can uncover the windows in my bedroom, turn on the lights, turn on the TV. We can shut the bedroom door in case anything breaks through. They might be drawn to it.” She looked at each of them again. “It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

Her bedroom, like Dan’s, was right above the garage. It might work.

“No,” Sarah said. “No, we can’t do this.” She looked at her dad. “
You
can’t do this.”

“Who else then?” he said. “We’ve got two people out there, and we need to get them in here. And I’m already infected.”

“I’ll get blankets,” Faye said.

“We can use some from my room.” Dan went after her, leaving Rich and Sarah to hash it out. Hoping like fuck this worked, and that they weren’t just about to fuck themselves in the ass with this stupid plan.

† † †

Outside the door to the garage, he pulled up Ray’s number again.

“Are you sure about this?” Buddy asked, piling the blankets into Rich’s arms.

Rich said, “As sure as I am about anything anymore.”

“If any of those things get in the garage…”

“We’re screwed pooches.” He clutched the blankets to his chest.

Ray answered, and Dan told him the plan. Ray only had two comments: “Seriously?” and a quiet “Okay.” Ray wanted to be out of the car as much as Dan wanted him out of there.

Dan nodded at the others.

“Jesus,” Buddy said. “We’re out of our fucking minds.” He stepped to the bottom of the stairs, cupped his hands to his mouth, and yelled up for Faye to go ahead.

Feet bounced on the floor above. The murmur of the TV sifted down. The bedroom door banged shut.

“Well then,” Rich said.

Buddy clapped him on the arm. “Take care, man.”

Rich gave a nod, and Buddy swept the door open for him.

The garage lights came on.

Buddy shut the door and leaned against it with his eyes closed. “You think this’ll work?”

“I sure as fuck hope so.”

“We could be making the biggest strategic mistake possible. We could be a house full of suckers by morning, eating each other’s faces off.”

“Do you want to call it off?” Dan asked.

“No. I want my fucking brother in here where it’s safe.”

“Me too.”
Me fucking too.

In the garage, the lights clicked back off. The door to the outside opened, then closed quickly. It was out of their hands now.

Dan strained for any sign one of those things had slipped in while it’d had a chance.

The waiting took forever. He leaned on the wall, his legs shaky with adrenaline.

In the finished part of the basement, on the other side of a closed door, Jane’s voice asked a question. They couldn’t hear Sarah’s response, but Dan pictured her smoothing the girl’s hair in the dark and whispering, “Shh, it’s all right.”

He said to Buddy, in that little hallway between the garage, laundry room, and family room, “Do you believe in God?”

“
Now?
”

“Yeah.”

He faced the door. “Jesus, what’s taking them so long?”

Dan checked his phone. He itched to call Ray, ask the status. Itched to be up in his mom’s room, where he could look out the window and see what was going on. She was being quiet up there. Probably standing in the hall, waiting for the go-ahead to reach in and flick the light back off. He and Buddy would take care of putting the boards back when they got upstairs.

A noise came from the far side of the garage. Dan pushed off the wall and stood at the door with Buddy, who rubbed his thumbs across his fingers, ready to do something—anything.

Stepping closer, putting his ear to the door, Buddy said, “I think they’re inside.”

The crack underneath was still dark. Dan heard soft sounds—it irritated him that he couldn’t tell if they were the sounds of people moving under blankets or one of those things flapping its wings.

The end of the house shook as the door to outside thudded closed. Muffled voices came through. Footsteps. After a long moment, the crack under the door lit up.

“Everything okay out there?” Dan bumped against Buddy.

“I think we’re good,” Rich said. “Just making sure nothing hitched a ride in the blankets.”

“Go tell your mom to turn the light off,” Buddy said.

Dan took the stairs two at a time, rounding the corner when he got to the top.

The hallway was empty.

“Mom?”

The TV blared through her bedroom door. He stuck his head in his own room, then the guest room. “Mom?”

Jesus, don’t tell me…
He stopped in front of her door. “Mom, are you in there?”

The TV clicked off. The light under the door went out. He stepped back as the doorknob turned.

“Are they in?” She slipped through the doorway, pulling the door shut behind her.

“What the hell were you doing?”

“They didn’t seem interested enough in the lights and TV. I stood in the window.”

“
Mom
.”

“Don’t tell me I risked my life for nothing. Did they—”

At the sound of feet, they looked toward the steps. Ray emerged first, gave a nod. Dan had never been so happy to see someone in his life.

Jamie was behind him, followed by Buddy and Rich, Buddy’s hand on Rich’s shoulder, Rich looking a little out of breath. Jamie’s eyes, big and dark, engulfed his face. His blankets were wadded in his hands.

Faye headed past Dan, saying, “We saved dinner for you. Let me heat it up.”

While they gathered in the kitchen, small feet came up the steps.

“Janie,” Buddy said, his voice a warning before the girl even appeared in the doorway.

“Uncle Ray?” She was in her pajamas. Maisie the doll hung from her hand.

“Jane-Jane. You’re supposed to be in bed.”

“You’re not supposed to be out at night.”

He slid from his chair to give her a hug. “Won’t happen again.”

“Better not or you’re grounded.”

Smiling, he ruffled her hair.

The fact that they were actually there, and in one piece—and not bitten—started to sink in for Dan. Ray turned Jane around and nudged her back toward the stairs. Sarah appeared in the doorway, hugging herself.

“You want to let her sleep up here till we go back down?” Buddy asked.

“No, I’m going back down with her. I just wanted to see everyone for myself.” She looked like she hadn’t slept for a week, as if the night had taken its toll on her all at once. She dragged a lock of hair behind her ear and touched Jane’s shoulder to get her attention.

“Do you need any help with anything?” Faye said.

“It’d be a big help if you could put everything back to normal.”

Faye smiled and went over to hug her.

Dan turned to Jamie. “So what’s the story?”

“I had to get out of Merrimack, you know? My parents were driving me toward suicide.”

“That’s where you’ve been through all of this?”

He gave half a shrug.

“You weren’t bit, were you?” Dan asked.

“No.”

As if Jamie would tell him if he were.

Rich said, “No shame in it if you were. These guys could take care of it. They’ve been doing a good job for me.”

“Yeah,” Dan said. “It’d be pretty tight, five people feeding two, but we’d find a way to make it work.”

“Four, isn’t it?” Rich said.

“I’ll be donating if we have to support two people.”

“Yeah?” Jamie said. He cocked his chin. “What’s stopping you from doing it now?”

The explanation caught in his throat. Ray came in for him with a quick rundown, and Dan watched him talk—never so happy to see someone in the flesh in his
life
.

“We didn’t want to take chances he’d caught something,” Ray finished.

“Oh good,” Jamie said, “I’d get to get the tainted blood. Good thing I
wasn’t
bitten.”

The microwave was going, a dinner plate turning inside.

Faye kissed the top of Ray’s head. “Don’t do that to us again.”

“Yes, Mom.”

And all was right with the world, Dan thought, clutching one of the blankets they’d discarded in his lap.

Ray caught his gaze and looked away.

Dan couldn’t help but think there was something hollow in the back of his eyes.

† † †

“The National Guard and local law enforcement are overtaxed with the responsibility of protecting a panicked public. We ask everyone to…”

Ray, sitting on the living-room floor, pushed to his feet. “Cigarette.”

“Me too,” Jamie said.

“Anyone want tea?” Faye asked.

Dan, gnawing the side of his thumb, shook his head. Sarah’s needles made quick, nervous clicks, a baby blanket slowly emerging from yarn Faye had dug from the back of the guest-room closet. At one point during the litany of recorded announcements, Buddy grumbled, “No fucking shit,” his hand gripping a glass of water, because that was mostly what they were down to for beverages now.

Just another big family night at home, except that Ray had something he wasn’t telling Dan, and Dan couldn’t get him alone for a moment to pin him on it.

Long minutes passed.

Ray and Jamie didn’t come back up.

The house was thick with stale air. Too many people, too few open doors—too few cracks for the fresh air outside to get in. Hemmed in by the boards over the windows, Dan was about to climb out of his skull.

And Ray’s behavior was gnawing at his guts.

He got to his feet.

“Are you all right, honey?” his mom asked.

“Yeah. I’m gonna grab some ibuprofen and go to bed.” Under the blankets, he could pretend it was just really dark outside instead of going all to hell. He gave her a peck.

He had no intention of sleeping, though. He stepped over Ray’s mattress on his way to his bed.

Ray had to turn in eventually.

He hoped.

He stripped down to his shorts and slipped between the sheets, half worried he’d get up in the morning and find Ray’d spent the night on the couch, avoiding him. Avoiding telling him what he was pretty sure he already knew. He just wanted Ray to tell him was overthinking things, that there was nothing to fucking worry about. Scout’s honor.

He felt like he could still hear the click-clicking of the knitting needles from down the hall. He crossed his arms over his eyes. Waiting.

The floor creaked outside his door, but the footsteps headed across the hall.

A toilet flushed.

Dishes rattled in the kitchen.