Suite three-twenty-six was inviting, warm, and well organized. Minimally furnished, the open space reminded Tom of the studio apartment he’d left seven days before. Against the wall at the opposite end of the room sat a fold-away sofa, twin two-drawer nightstands, and a fully stocked bookcase. Closer and to the right, a mini-fridge hummed quietly alongside the room’s only illumination, a small desk lamp burning softly against the coming night.
Following Cedric into the suite, Tom limped to the table at the center of the room and sat facing the failing city beyond. “I don’t understand—you all have power?”
Cedric stayed at the door as the woman moved slowly to the window. He continued to watch the hall as he pulled free a two-way radio. “One of the other suites was running completely off solar. I was able to tie into it a few days ago. Nothing too fancy, but it works for now.”
Tom again rubbed the back of his right leg. “How long have you and your family been here in this building?”
Keying the mic, Cedric held up his hand. “Patrick, you there?”
Waiting for his son to respond, he turned back to Tom. “Since the very beginning.”
“Anyone else in the building?”
Cedric peered down at the black device in his hand, willing his son’s voice to come through. “One other group—they left three days ago, thought they’d do better out there.”
“Not likely.”
Peering out into the hall, Cedric again keyed the radio. “Patrick, what’s going on? Where are you?”
A moment of static and then a voice came through, not Patrick, but a woman. She sounded out of breath and only spoke two words. “We’re here.”
Out in the hall, a door slammed and as Cedric stepped back, holding the door open, Patrick came through. He was closely followed by woman who stopped just inside the door and handed a bright orange flare gun to Cedric. “Took two this time. They seem to be drawn to the place a whole lot more than usual.”
Closing and locking the door, Cedric moved to the nightstand. He placed two flare guns in the bottom drawer and moved to the table. He kissed the woman and turning to Tom and his friend said, “I’d like you both to meet my wife Veronica. She’s the reason you’re here.”
Tom stood and reached for her hand. “Hello, my name is Tom.” And turning to the woman who saved his life more than a few times today, he said, “And this is…”
He didn’t know.
He didn’t know her name and he didn’t know what to say. And as the awkward silence continued, all he could do was tell them what he did know. “This is my friend. She saved my life today, as did you and your family.”
Veronica smiled and turned to the woman at the window. “Does your friend have a name?”
“I don’t know,” the woman said. “I woke up two days ago out on the street. I don’t remember much before that.”
“Anything at all?”
“Just bits and pieces, nothing that tells me how I got here or really anything else.”
“I’m so sorry,” Veronica said. “Maybe if you get some rest, things will come back.”
Moving away from the window, the woman stood at the table alongside Tom. She dropped her backpack on the floor and looked from Veronica to Cedric. “Thank you.”
Turning to her husband, Veronica looked back toward the door. “Do we have enough hot water?”
He nodded. “You want to take her downstairs?”
Tom looked to the woman and then back to the husband and wife. “Showers? You have showers?”
“We are able to heat the water once every three or four days. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s better than nothing.” And looking toward the woman at Tom’s side, he said, “You’ve been out there a while. I think it may just do you some good.”
She forced a smile. “I couldn’t ask you to—”
“Nonsense,” Veronica said—a smile beginning to form at the corners of her mouth. “We’re not taking no for an answer. We’ll get you a nice lukewarm shower and something that’s at least semi-edible. You’ll be as good as new.”
The woman grabbed her bag off the floor and looked back to Veronica. “Semi-edible sounds really good.” She handed Tom her backpack and followed Veronica through the suite toward the door.
This felt different. Not having to run, not having to hide. Her heart rate now finally at a normal level had her questioning who these people were and their motivation for helping. She was exhausted and her mind was going to places it shouldn’t—she knew this—but she also couldn’t control it.
Even the man who pulled her out of that SUV, the one who somehow freed her from the parking garage only minutes before it was overrun. The one who had also driven in from out of nowhere and found her amongst a sea of walking corpses. Why was he here, why today? Was it fate, maybe karma, or was it simply her own paranoia working overtime due to the events she couldn’t remember living through?
Two paces behind Veronica, she stopped and remembered. It was something he’d said in passing, but now it seemed relevant in light of their new circumstances. “Veronica?”
The taller woman with light green eyes and strawberry-blond hair paused. “Yes?”
“I know we just met and that you and your family have gone completely out of your way to help Tom and I, but…”
“But what?”
Turning back toward the suite, the woman peered in through the door. “I would like to ask you for a favor.”
“Sure,” Veronica said. “What can we do for you, sweetie?”
Watching Tom set her backpack on the table, he must have had the same idea. Crossing the floor, she unzipped her bag and pulled out the blood-speckled cell phone she’d stared at for the past few days. “Do you have enough power for me to charge this?”
Horatio carried the twin black duffels and stopped short before entering the lobby. Squatting and placing the bags on the tile floor, he motioned for the men to join him as he peered out through the front doors. “They only want your vehicle and your supplies. These people are getting rid of anyone who might pose a threat and are only keeping the women around as servants. Everyone who poses a threat is either sent away or killed. You and your people have to leave right now.”
Ethan knelt alongside the twin duffels and pulled free two nine millimeter handguns. “Why are you helping us?”
“Listen,” Horatio said, “there isn’t time, you have to—”
Ethan readied his weapon and placed it against the smaller man’s head. “Okay, give me the condensed version.”
“These people are savages. They’ve killed more people than I care to remember. I came through here five days ago on my way out of town and Josie saved me from a big group of those things. She said I owed her, that I could come work for her here. I didn’t know what this was. I didn’t know what these people were.”
“What are they?”
“They’re just murderers—nothing else. They only survive because they kill—everyone and everything.”
“You didn’t try to leave?”
“I was waiting for the right time. She has Maddox babysitting me like twenty-four seven, but I can’t see any more of this. You and your people have to go.”
Ethan began putting the pieces together. “Horatio, where did Maddox go?”
“A gated community about a mile from here. He and a few others are finishing what they started earlier tonight, before we were called to go get you.”
“Silverwood?”
“What?”
Ethan couldn’t get the words out quickly enough. “The name of the community, was it Silverwood?”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. Big ten-foot iron gates, the entrance lined with blue and white lights?”
Turning to Griffin, Ethan stood and slipped both weapons into his waistband. “It’s my father, that’s where he is, and that’s where I’m going.”
“The women and your mother?”
“I need the four of you to go get them.”
“What?”
“I’ll be back within the hour. If not, head north to Highway Seventy. I will find you.”
Stepping to Ethan, Horatio extended his hand. “Good luck.”
“No need, I’m counting on you to help my friends, and when we leave, you’re coming with us.”
Horatio nodded. “Okay, you know where you’re going?”
“Out through the back. You just help my friends get the women out safely… all of the women.”
As Ethan turned to walk away, Ben reached into the bag and grabbed a weapon of his own. “I’m coming with you.”
There wasn’t time to explain to the kid why he wanted to go alone, why he felt he needed to do this without any help. The path away from the university and into his parents’ neighborhood would take less than ten minutes to cover on foot and probably only half that for Ben. The question now—would having him along be more of an advantage or a possible liability?
As the men waited for Ethan’s response, Griffin interjected. “The three of us can handle it. Take the kid; he’s the only one here who’d be able to keep up, and you might just need some help.”
“Alright then,” Ethan said. “Stay close and no going off on your own. I’m serious. I can’t be responsible if you get yourself into trouble.”
The kid smiled and turned to the others. “Tell the girls I’ll make sure Ethan gets back.”
The men shook hands and parted ways. Ethan and Ben drifted into the darkened hall and disappeared as Griffin, Frank, and their new friend stood at the front doors and looked out over the lifeless college campus.
“Well,” Griffin said. “If you’re the prayin’ type, now might just be a good time.”
The room-temperature water felt good on her skin. She showered quickly, washing away the obscenity of the past several days and then dried herself even faster. She was back in her clothes and out of the locker room before Veronica had finished two chapters of the current novel she was rapidly devouring. “Wow, you
are
fast.”
“I just want to get back up there.”
Out of the locker room, the first-floor lobby appeared to have taken a majority of the initial destruction. Multiple overturned desk chairs, destroyed marble countertops, and a smashed eighteenth-century sculpture sat at the foot of the stairwell—a makeshift barricade that probably kept out no one.
Crossing the floor, Veronica guided the woman toward the stairwell. At the door, she paused. “I am so sorry. I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through, and on top of everything, the entire world has gone to hell.”
The woman reached for Veronica’s hand. “Actually, I may be the luckiest person in this building. Not being able to remember for now is a good thing. I don’t know my name, where I’m from, or anything else about my life. I’m sure when it finally comes back, I’m going to also remember what happened to me the first few days and I’m not sure that I want to.”
“We just met, but as the only other female, I want you to know that I’m here for you. Whatever it is you find in that phone.”
Veronica powered up a small flashlight and they made short work of the two flights of stairs. Into the lobby of the third floor, Tom and Cedric had moved the three leather-backed chairs away from the wall and brought the table out from suite three-twenty-six. Moments later, Patrick appeared from the hall with two folding chairs and two candles.
Situating the large round table near the window facing north, Cedric turned to the women. “This is the one spot on this floor where we can sit and not have to stare into that mess down there. It’s just us and that amazing night sky. I can’t remember ever seeing stars that bright.”
“Yeah,” Tom said, “no planes and no pollution—the one upside of this whole damn mess.”
Reaching into his pocket, Tom turned to his friend and handed her the phone. “You’ve got forty percent, it’s good to go… but.”
“But what?”
“You need a passcode.”
She hit the power button and hung her head. “Now what?”
Tom turned back toward the table. “Let’s see if we can’t figure it out.” He held out his hand and she gave him back the phone. He sat at the table and held the screen so that the candlelight reflected the trace fingerprints left behind. He twisted the phone to the left and then to the right. Leaning in close, he used his sleeve to lightly brush away the dust glossing over the screen and quickly looked back. “Looks like this may not be so difficult after all. There are four numbers that have pretty noticeable fingerprint smudges over them. We just have to figure out the sequence.”
“You’ve done this before?”
“I used to do this with a few of my buddies. We’d agree not to wipe down our phones for a whole day and then see if we could guess each other’s passcode. Worked about half the time.”
She looked confused. “How would I know what order the numbers go in?”
“I’m not sure, but we only have ten tries before it locks us out.”
Returning from the hall a second time, now carrying a large bowl of room-temperature canned chili, Patrick moved to the table. “There are twenty-four combinations. Your chances are actually pretty good.”
“I’ll give you the four numbers, you say the first thing that comes to mind.”
The woman shook her head. “That’s not going to work. I can’t even remember my name, so how am I supposed to—”
Handing her back the phone, Tom waited for her to power it back up. “Close your eyes and just listen. Zero… one… four… six.”
The woman frowned. She opened her eyes and took a seat at the table. “I don’t know, I just can’t—”
She paused, looked around the table, and placed her free hand over her mouth. “I can see them. They we’re there all along.”
“The numbers?”
“Yes.” She turned back to the phone and keyed in her passcode. The screen brightened and she smiled. “My family, my friends, and my life. They were here with me the whole time.”
Tom stood and moved to her. “Is it coming back?”
Nodding, the woman began to cry. She stood, put her arms around him, and through the tears, kissed his cheek. “Thank you, all of you.”
Wiping her face, she quickly returned to her seat as the others fell in around her at the table. Scrolling through her most recently viewed apps, she stopped on the camera. Just shy of six-hundred photos were organized into more albums then she could count. She pulled up the first, labeled family vacation, and froze on the first picture.
She slid down and rested her elbows on the table as it all came rushing back. Her mother, her father, her first kiss, her senior prom, and the way her date shook as he placed the corsage along her neckline, the college prank she had yet to tell anyone other than her brother about, and finally the job that brought her here and how much she regretted having taken it.
Lifting her head away from the screen, her smile began to fade. “I remember… everything.”