The Next World Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Olah, Jeff

  “Natalie …”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think there’s really a chance to figure all of this out, to get back to the way things were before?”

  She didn’t like the idea of offering too much detail. That would only lead to more questions, but with Owen tending to Kevin and the others having drifted off, there wasn’t much else to talk about. Natalie had wanted to be able to sleep, but just like every other night for the last several, she knew it would be a battle. Tonight, she just didn’t feel like fighting.

  “I still believe, but it won’t be easy, and even harder now that we’ll be stuck here for at least the next few days.”

  Harper seemed to consider Natalie’s comment before continuing, her eyes darting toward the door and then back. “Stuck here?”

  Natalie was in no mood to temper her thoughts. She was running on fumes and starting to succumb to the thoughts that she might never find the man who may save the world. She had a pretty good idea of where he may have headed, probably one of three or four places, none of which were near her current location. The itch to get in the car and drive away was growing by the minute.

  “Not exactly what I meant, but we aren’t going to get much done sitting on our hands. I don’t want to push Owen and I really don’t want to be the one to have to ask the group to decide between what’s best for Kevin and what’s best for everyone else.”

  Harper pushed her hair back behind her ears, set her elbows on the table, and leaned in toward Natalie. She kept her voice only slightly above a whisper, checking her grandmother and then the door before speaking. “Kevin’s going to be okay, right?”

  “Yeah, I talked to Owen. He’ll be fine, just a little slow for a while.”

  “Then we should leave. I mean there are plenty of us who can drive, and he can ride around in a car just as easily as he can sit around here.”

  This was good, she had an ally. Harper hadn’t initially struck her as the type to disrupt the flow of the group, but through the conversation they’d had over the last hour, she had been surprised more than a few times. “I don’t know.”

  “We could talk to Owen in the morning, maybe come up with a plan for us taking turns driving and also keeping an eye on Kevin.”

  “I don’t think Owen’s going to like that. I think he feels responsible for what happened to Kevin and for all of us as a group. He doesn’t like to take chances, trust me. I can probably count the number of times he’s taken a risk on one hand.”

  Harper again glanced toward the door, this time looking back at Natalie a little slower. “He took a risk to help me … twice.”

  “That’s true. He’s done quite a few things over the last few days that didn’t follow his typical MO. He’s a different man than he was two weeks ago, ever since the first day of the outbreak. It’s like he’s finally awake.”

  “All I know is that without him and Kevin, my grandmother and I probably would never have made it out of that building. There was no way I could help her, nothing I could do, but they saved us. And for that, I am so grateful. I would do anything for them, including going out and looking for your doctor friend.”

  She had Harper moving in the right direction; now she simply needed to give her a little push. A gentle nudge, a bit of motivation. It would sound better coming from someone else, and at the same time, make it harder for Owen to disagree with her plan.

  Now Natalie lowered her voice, looking around the room quickly. “You think Cookie would be okay getting back out there so soon? You really think she’s up for it?”

  Harper smiled as she nodded. “She’s tougher than she looks. And I think that as stressful as the last twenty-four hours may have been, now that she’s eaten and gotten some rest, she’ll be as good as new.”

  Now she couldn’t tell who was leading who. Harper didn’t appear to be the type to be pushing some hidden agenda, but Natalie hadn’t actually taken the time to get to know the twenty-something. She seemed genuine, but over the last few hours, there was something different, something she’d seen before, but couldn’t quite work through.

  “If you’re sure.”

  “I don’t think she wants to stay here anymore than the rest of us.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Harper again leaned in close. “That woman, her husband, those kids, they seem kinda creepy. Like … uh … I’m not sure. Like …”

  It appeared Harper was looking for confirmation or for Natalie to finish her thought. It was a different angle, but either way it may get her what she wanted. She could double-down and finally convince Owen that they needed to get back out on the road.

  “Yeah, I agree. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something odd about that family. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that they were able to help, but you’re right, something seemed off about the whole family.”

  Harper put her hand next to her face, shielding her mouth from the left side of the room. “Where’d she take them?”

  “Her boys?”

  Harper narrowed her eyes, looked hard into Natalie’s, finally nodding. “Yeah, I mean the way they left, kinda sudden.”

  “Don’t know, I think she said she needed to get them to bed. Either way, it’s better than them still being in here with us, right?”

  Harper giggled nervously under her breath. “I guess, but it’s still a little creepy. Did you get the feeling that the wife wanted us here even less than the man that worked on Kevin?”

  “I think they were probably getting used to being here alone and wanted to keep it that way. You don’t really know who you can trust anymore.”

  Harper looked down at the table, biting into the side of her cheek. She had gone quiet when they first arrived and then again when Travis came by for the last update. There was a desperation in her eyes, something even deeper than their current conversation. “Yeah …”

  “What is it?”

  “That man, the doctor, the one you knew from before, you really think he can fix all of this?”

  Natalie nodded, she figured this was going to come back up at some point. They’d had a brief conversation a few hours before; however, she could sense that Harper didn’t ask everything she had wanted to know. “I do. I think that right now we at least have a chance, but with every day that goes by, every hour, that opportunity continues to fade. And at some point, it’s just going to be too big, too many of them. It’ll just be too late.”

  “So then we do need to go? We need to find that doctor.”

  “Yes,” Natalie said, “Before there’s no longer a reason to.”

  76

  Jerome Declan wheeled the janitor’s bucket out of the men’s room and into the hall. The twin in the red jacket—he remembered as being Jacob—held the door as his twin stood at the end of the hall staring down at the lobby below.

  “Joshua,” Declan shouted, “How we lookin’?”

  The more skittish of the two turned quickly and gave a thumbs-up. As he started back into the darkened hall, he kept his voice only slightly higher than a whisper. “We’re good, it looks like it’s holding and they seem to be losing interest.”

  Declan turned toward Jacob, motioning in the direction of his brother. “What are we going to do with him?”

  Jacob stepped out of the way of the door, held it as it closed. “I told you he’ll be fine.”

  “So you did.” Declan dropped into a squat. He pulled the bucket in between his legs and pulled his sleeves back. Dunking his hands into the cool water, he used what little light bled into the hall to rinse the drying blood from his hands. “You boys still interested in packing it in here for the night?” He looked specifically at Joshua, a grin beginning to form at the corners of his mouth. “Or you got somewhere else to be?”

  Joshua eyed his brother, looked to be waiting for his twin to make the decision for the both of them. When Jacob didn’t, he hesitantly turned to face Declan. “Yeah.” He forced the word out, like he was in a hurry. “We can stay here toni
ght, and then we’ll see what we want to do tomorrow morning.”

  Declan was—for a moment—impressed with the younger man. There was an obvious social disorder, of what nature and to what extent, he didn’t yet know. But he also didn’t care. They were tools to him, a means to an end. And right now, there was only one thing on his mind. “Good,” he said, “then how about you two get cleaned up so we can pop those cans.”

  Jacob had already submerged his hands in the pinkish brown water. He rolled the stiffness from his neck, but didn’t look back at Declan. “Okay, so we got two cans of beans, how do you think you’re gonna open them?”

  “Those giant backpacks, what do they weight, like twenty, twenty-five pounds apiece?”

  Joshua shook his head, but looked toward his brother. “You ask the weirdest questions, what does that have to do with anything?”

  Jacob stood and turned away from the bucket. He used his foot to push it toward his brother and let out an annoyed snicker as he walked toward Declan. “He knows that we probably have a can opener. That we look like the type who would be prepared, even if he isn’t.”

  Declan motioned toward the suite opposite the elevator and shrugged his shoulders. “So sue me, you guys just kinda come across as Boy Scouts. The same windbreakers, same pants, same shoes, same everything, all the way down to the matching dollar-store haircuts. And those packs, you’ve got to be kidding. If there’s not a can opener in one of those things, I’ll go to the roof and throw myself off. But, if there is, and I know there is, how about we dig into those beans? I could easily go through both cans all on my own.”

  Joshua looked like he was going to laugh. Standing and moving away from the bucket that now looked like it held more blood than water, he said, “Yeah, but then you’d be stuck in the bathroom for the rest of the night.”

  Jacob reached for his pack. “Yeah, maybe we do have a can opener, how very observant. But what about you?”

  Declan stared at the man, his eyes going wide. “What about me?”

  “We found the food, we have the can opener, and we cleared all three floors, almost without your help. What are you bringing to the table?”

  Declan wiped his hands on his shirt and reached into his waistband. He pulled the nine millimeter and looked at it as he started toward the suite. “I got this and plenty more. I would assume that fact alone would buy me a seat at your very small table.”

  Jacob again shook his head, his jaw beginning to tighten. “Josh, let’s go.” He moved past Declan and into the suite, holding his gaze as he moved to the windows at the far end of the massive room. “Were you this unlikable before two weeks ago or is it because of all of this?”

  Declan waited for Joshua to move into the room and then followed. At the windows, he slipped the pistol back into his waistband and peered out over the street below. “In some ways, I think people must have liked me even less before the world turned itself inside out. But then again, there are less people around now, so read into that what you will. But I’m pretty much the same guy that I was before, only now I don’t have to answer to anyone.”

  Joshua looked confused, like he got lost in Declan’s words. He waited a few seconds, dropped his pack to the floor, and pulled out a stainless steel, hand-held can opener. He smiled as he looked to Declan and handed it to Jacob. “Yep, you were right.”

  Jacob swiped it from Joshua and reached for the first can. “We eat first, then you can have whatever’s left over.”

  Normally he would have taken the younger man’s reluctance to back down as a slight, but tonight he found it a welcome change, and Jacob somehow intriguing. He usually wouldn’t have let it go on this long, but for some reason he was feeling uncharacteristically generous and needed to occupy himself until morning anyway. “Sounds fair.”

  As Jacob opened both cans, Joshua reached back into his pack. He pulled out a small stainless steel plate, a folding spoon, and a thirty-two ounce bottle of water. He reached for the first open can, poured half of it onto his plate, and leaned to the left, handing it to Declan. “Did you live in the city before the outbreak?”

  Declan took the can, and looked from it to Jacob and then back to Joshua. “Sometimes.”

  Joshua appeared nervous, or maybe again confused. “You lived in the city some—”

  “We don’t care.” Jacob had finished pouring out most of what was in his can, before setting it aside and turning to his brother. “You don’t need to talk to him. We aren’t staying here after tonight.”

  “But he’s got a gun and you said—”

  “Forget what I said before, he’s not like those others.”

  Declan sat with his back to the wall, now between the two brothers. He turned from Joshua to Jacob. “Looks like you boys might have a few things you need to work out. But how about for tonight you and I call a truce? I’ll take it down a notch and you do the same, maybe level-up the civility and get to know one another.”

  Jacob just stared back at Declan. He parted his lips like he was going to speak, but then didn’t. He only scraped together a spoonful of beans and tossed them into his mouth.

  As the twin in the red windbreaker began to chew, Declan dropped his chin slightly and set what was left in his can aside. “And you’re right.”

  “I’m right, about what exactly?”

  “You and your brother, I’ve taken advantage of the both of you, and I apologize. It was you who helped me get in here and it was you—well, mainly your brother—who found us something to eat. I shouldn’t have gone in on you the way I did earlier, it’s just that …”

  He paused, wanted to give his performance just the right amount of flavor. If he were going to sell what he had planned for the rest of the night, he was going to need to reel back the sarcasm and somehow lighten his menacing demeanor.

  And when neither of the men offered a response, Declan pushed the half empty can toward Jacob. He dropped his head back to the wall and stared through the windows. “It’s just that I’ve lost so many … sometimes I don’t even know why I keep going, why I haven’t …”

  His voice trailed off and the brothers looked first to one another and then to Declan. They didn’t speak, they just watched.

  “What is that?”

  Joshua turned back to his brother, shrugging his shoulders.

  Declan leaned away from the wall, sniffed at the air, and looked over his left shoulder into the hall. “You guys getting that?”

  Jacob shook his head. “No, I don’t know. What are you talking about?”

  “That smell.” Declan motioned toward the two cans, a smirk growing on his face. “I can’t tell what’s worse, those beans or what’s coming from the hall.” He looked from Joshua to Jacob and curled his nose. “You men have any air freshener in those packs?”

  His quick change in emotion caught Jacob off guard, and it was exactly what he’d wanted. The younger man looked like he was going to laugh, but only offered a half grin. “And here I thought that stench was coming from you.”

  Declan began to nod as he returned Jacob’s gesture. “If it were coming from me, neither of you would be able to stay in this room, I can guarantee that.”

  Joshua laughed out loud, and that seemed to please his brother. Then there were a few seconds where no one spoke, the air in the room beginning to lighten.

  “Hey.” Declan again peered through the windows, this time tilting his chin as he spoke. “You boys travel out here before or after everything went down?”

  As Jacob’s smile quickly began to fade, he sat up tall. “What?”

  “You obviously aren’t from around here.”

  “No.”

  “So wait, no don’t tell me. The Midwest, uh … I’d say Iowa, Arkansas, maybe even Nebraska.”

  Joshua turned to his brother, his look of disbelief saying everything Declan needed to know.

  “Good guess,” Jacob said without even a second of hesitation. “You spend time in Arkansas, have family there?”

  “Not that I kno
w of. You two just don’t seem like you’d fit in around here, not before anyway.”

  There was a long pause where the twins just stared at one another, like they were trying to determine whether he had just given them a compliment or if this was something else. Jacob finally regarded Declan with a slow nod, folding his hands into his lap.

  “Thanks.”

  The room was once again his, now all he needed to do was bring it home. “Again, I apologize for earlier, I hope that the two of you will forgive—”

  Jacob stopped him. “Let’s not go back through it all, what’s done is done. Tomorrow’s a new day.”

  “Fair enough,” Declan said, “But as a sign of good faith, I’d go ahead and take first watch. You boys get some rest.”

  Jacob was almost standing before Declan finished. He reached for his pack and tossed it over his shoulder. “I’ll go first. I’m not much for sleeping lately, and I want to get a feel for the rest of the building before I put my head down.”

  Declan couldn’t tell if Jacob was actually sincere or if he simply didn’t trust him. Although for the moment it didn’t matter, and he didn’t necessarily care. He’d gotten exactly what he wanted, and now just needed to ride it out until morning. “Okay,” he said, “but only if you let me take over at dawn, it’s the least I can do.”

  77

  Gentry woke with his neck in an odd position and his left leg tingling from hip to ankle. He didn’t remember drifting off or even where he and Margaret had left things. He thought he’d asked her to stay, at least until the storm passed, but even that was a bit hazy. The bottle of wine they’d split was the first he’d had in more than ten years, and this morning he was starting to remember why.

  To his right, the chair she’d last occupied was now empty, and looking around the room it appeared that she had cleaned up before leaving. There was now a folded blanket that had been laid over the top of the recliner, her glass and the bottle from the previous night now nowhere to be found.