But if they left, he couldn’t tell if they planned to leave or if they were hastened out by some sort of disaster. If they planned to leave, Matthew assumed they would take everything that wasn’t nailed down. Supplies were hard to track down, so if they wanted to have everything they needed, they wouldn’t leave food, clothing, and other necessities behind. Their group was resourceful—they wouldn’t purposefully waste goods they worked so hard to collect.
His leading theory was that something went terribly wrong, and the group fled before they had a chance to leave a note or some sort of sign that they had willingly moved on. There was no bad blood between the soldiers and the rest—this much was clear. They would never leave if it weren’t necessary, no matter how much Crystal questioned it. So, if they escaped the zombies for safer ground, Matthew could live with that interpretation of the facts.
But that didn’t help with tracking them down. Matthew stared down the street, feeling helpless once again. There was so much of the city to search. In two days, they could be halfway across the country. It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. But knowing the company he kept, living with the mystery was not an option. He would either have to go out on a larger search and rescue mission or he would have to part ways with the two friends. Neither was a great option.
He dreaded having to talk to the others. It was of some consolation that he could tell them that he couldn’t confirm their deaths, but not great that he couldn’t confirm that they were alive or well. How could he look them in the eye and tell them that their friends were gone without a trace?
Matthew walked down the stairs as slowly as he could. When he reached the bottom and came into view of the others, he knew he couldn’t stall any longer.
Sergio and Carl got to their feet, looking at Matthew for some news. He didn’t know exactly what to say, so he just shrugged.
“What?” Carl asked, his face falling even farther than before.
“I don’t know,” Matthew said. “They’re not in there. I found a few personal items, not anything really significant, but no sign of people. I don’t know what to tell you. I knocked on the windows, but no one appeared. There are some zombies milling around up there, so I don’t think they would be on any of the floors I could reach.”
Sergio sat back down on the ground and rested his head in his hands. Matthew looked away. It felt like he was intruding on a very personal moment. For that reason, he could hardly look at Carl, who looked as though he had seen a ghost.
“What do we do?” Carl asked, sinking to the ground to sit next to Sergio. “I think we’re dealing with the very real possibility that I’m never going to see my sister again. I’ll never see Jennifer—“
His voice cracked and fat tears began to dribble down his face. He tried to wipe them away, but they were falling way too fast to keep up.
Matthew looked at Crystal for help. He had a giant knot in his stomach. He knew that there were no words that anyone could say to make the men feel better at a time like this.
Crystal took the hint and knelt down besides the men. She cautiously placed a hand on Carl’s shoulder.
“Don’t give up hope yet. For all we know, they’re still in the area. Why don’t we just get in the car and drive around for a little bit? If they’re waiting around, they might hear the car. We don’t know what happened to them. Let’s not expect the worst just yet.”
Both of the men began to weep silently, tucking their heads out of sight from the others. Crystal quietly grabbed Matthew’s arm and pulled him away from the others until they were out of earshot.
“Do you really think they’re okay?” Matthew asked naively.
“Probably not,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s not a great look when people go missing without a trace. But what we don’t need right now is a meltdown. It seems quiet now, but that’s probably too good to be true. We know that this is where Mayor Schilling sends her zombies. So, what we need to do now is make a plan. We can look for a place to crash or we can start looking for your friends. What we can’t do is sit in the middle of the street and make noise. Let’s make a decision and get in the car. We’ve likely got about a minute before we’re ambushed. You have to make a call.”
“Me?” he asked, though he knew that was no one else for the job.
“Who else?” she asked, looking exasperated. “Go,” she urged, pushing him from the small of his back.
Matthew shuffled forward, feeling extremely uncomfortable. He took a deep breath then put his hands on his fellow soldiers’ shoulders.
“Let’s find them,” Matthew said, mustering as much enthusiasm as possible. “Let’s get in the car and bring them home. We have two cars now—if we split up, it will take half the time. We said we were going to create a system to search for survivors. We can do those things now.”
Neither man responded, though Matthew could hear sniffles. He looked back down the street and swore he saw zombies crawling out of buildings.
“Let’s go,” he said, raising his voice. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
“We don’t have any time,” Carl moaned. “They’re gone.”
“They’re not gone, not yet,” he said with all the authority he could muster. “Now, get in the car before we get attacked.”
They hardly moved.
“Let’s go!” Matthew barked. “Move it!”
This seemed to get their attention. It took a few seconds, but Carl and Sergio slowly got to their feet and shuffled toward the Jeep without saying a word. Matthew felt bad about yelling at them but it was working. Perhaps the military training had elicited a Pavlovian response in them that caused them to jump to their feet.
Matthew hurried over to Crystal and lowered his head so the others wouldn’t hear him.
“Now what?” he whispered. “Where are we going?”
“You’re in charge now,” she said, flashing him a smile. “Get in your car and we’ll follow.”
Matthew took a deep breath to steady himself.
“Right,” he said with false confidence. “We’ll start searching the streets.”
“I don’t want to leave this place,” Sergio said, sniffling. “It doesn’t seem right.”
“They’re not here,” Matthew said, trying to be sensitive to their pain. “But if we hurry, we have a better chance of finding them.”
“Finding who?” a voice asked from behind an abandoned car.
Everyone whipped around to the source of the voice. The street seemed so empty.
“Pip?” Carl breathed.
“He’s lost it,” Crystal muttered under her breath.
“No,” Matthew said, frozen with shock. “That’s his sister, Pip.”
Carl and Sergio stood stupidly in the middle of the street while Pip sauntered up to them, as casual as ever. She had a big grin on her face as she saw her brother and his friend with tear tracks down their cheeks. Her baseball bat dangled casually from her hand.
“What—” Sergio started to say but couldn’t keep a train of thought.
“I knew you guys missed me, but it’s only been a few days. You don’t have to cry about it.”
“Where is everyone?” Matthew asked.
“Oh, did you notice that we left our old digs?”
Matthew shot her a warning look. They didn’t need any more drama.
“Good news.” She smiled. “We upgraded. As you may have noticed, we got a little crowded in the office. Too many zombies for our liking, you know.”
“I can’t believe you’re alive,” Carl said, rushing over to give her a hug.
“I can’t believe you’re alive,” she countered. “We were all a little worried.”
“We thought you were dead,” Sergio choked out.
“Sorry I scared you,” she said sheepishly. “I always planned on running out and grabbing you when you showed up. I guess I was just a little slow to the party.”
“I’m just glad you caught us before we left,” Matthew said. “We were just about
to scour the streets of New York for you.”
“You wouldn’t have gotten very far. We’re just down the street. Who are the new people?”
Carl smiled. “We have a lot to tell you.”
“Any of it good?”
“Not really.”
The siblings cracked up. Matthew didn’t understand what was so funny.
“So, are you going to introduce me?”
“Oh, yeah,” Carl said. “This is Crystal. Adele’s in the van. There’s a couple of others, but we haven’t even learned their names. We picked them up less than an hour ago. It’s been a strange couple of days.”
Pip wandered over to the cars as a one-woman welcoming committee while the others stood in stunned silence.
“She’s exactly how you described her,” Crystal said, winking at Matthew. “Why don’t you see where she moved headquarters to? I don’t think we have a lot of time left.”
“Good call,” Matthew said. “So, Pip, do you mind taking us to our new home? I hate to disrupt the festivities, but we’ve got zombies out here.”
“Sure thing, Matthew,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “You’re going to love this. Follow me.”
She ran to the driver’s side of the Jeep and took the wheel. The others had no choice but to pile in quickly before she took off.
“It’s a short drive from our old home,” she said, peeling out of their parking spot. “It’s not much, but it’s home.”
She drove about two blocks before coming to a quick stop. Matthew had to hold onto the door to keep from flying forward.
“And here we are,” she said, gesturing to their new building. “We really liked your office, Matthew, don’t get me wrong. But I think this place suits our needs a little better. Now that we have newbies in our midst, it’s especially fitting. Welcome home, friends.”
“Thanks, Pip,” Matthew said, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.
23
“So, did you bring me back a present like you promised?” Pip asked, making googly eyes at Sergio.
“Later.” Sergio grinned. “We have stuff for everyone.”
“They’ll be so excited to see you all. Everyone’s been so concerned that we’ve allowed Sally to hold twice-daily prayer meetings on your behalf. But to be perfectly honest, I’ve fallen asleep for most of them. It’s a relief you’re back, because it would probably be my fault if you were all eaten by zombies.”
Matthew’s mind flashed to the man they couldn’t save, but he forced it out. Everyone was in such a celebratory mood. He wanted to feel happy about all the new changes.
“What is this place?” Carl asked, trying to see the whole building from the window. The shiny, gold doors made the place look even grander than their former home.
Pip opened the doors of the Jeep and escorted everyone out like a limousine driver. “It’s a hotel, and it’s pretty awesome. When I was a kid, I always dreamed about living in a hotel.”
“You watched Home Alone 2 too many times,” Carl corrected. “You purposefully tried to get lost in New York on our family vacation. Mom had to put you on a leash.”
“Let’s get inside before we attract attention,” she said softly, ushering everyone through the doors. She tapped twice on the glass and the door opened. Sally smiled at the survivors but didn’t greet anyone.
“She’s still a little shy,” Pip explained as Sally scurried up the stairs.
“Welcome to Hotel Marigold,” Lucas proclaimed from the front desk. He stood up from his chair and waved at his new guests. Instead of his normal street clothes, he was wearing tight black pants that hardly covered his ankles and an equally snug maroon top. It was clear that the whole ensemble was designed for a female housekeeper. When Matthew got closer, he noticed that the shiny gold nametag on his chest read Mary.
“I like it.” Carl smiled. “This place is pretty nice.”
“I know,” Matthew agreed. “Why didn’t I find it when we got here first?”
It was certainly a hidden treasure. Despite the fact that zombies were taking over any building they could enter, the golden floor was spotless. Every tile in the mosaic sparkled in the dim light from the crystal chandelier that hung overhead. Even the air smelled like freshly bleached linens and the citrus scent hotels pumped into their lobby to give the illusion of a tropical paradise.
“We named it after our little Marigold, who is just the sweetest baby in the whole wide world,” Lucas gushed at the baby. “Yes, you are! You’re the cutest little baby here!”
He tickled her under her chin, eliciting coos. When he tickled her belly, she let out a tiny giggle.
This was a performance. Even the survivors with the hardest of hearts and weariest of souls couldn’t help but smile when the baby laughed.
“You guys have been living the life here, haven’t you?” Carl asked.
“Well, not at first. You see, the whole reason we left was because the creeps outside were threatening to tear down the walls. It was hard to sit and read a book when you expected a zombie to come running in at any moment. So, we put up a big fight and did a little exploring. You should have seen Lucas. He fell in a puddle of blood. It was pretty sick stuff.”
“Believe me, we know,” Matthew said.
“I think it was actually Sally who found the place and suggested we take a look. It had its flaws, but overall, it was much better than anywhere else we looked. So, we made a handful of kills, dragged a bunch of bodies outside, and did some scrubbing. We all worked really hard to make this place feel like home and not a haunted house. We wanted it to be nice for when you got back, like a surprise.”
“We’re very surprised, Pip,” Carl said. “Well done.”
She smiled, but this time, there was no ornery twinkle in her eye. It was genuine gratitude.
“You haven’t even seen the half of it,” she said, wandering farther into the lobby. “I bet this place was selling rooms for five hundred dollars a night or more. Let me take you on the tour.”
She walked down the first hallway and pushed open a door. “This is the fitness room,” she said. “No one really uses this. We get a good enough workout as it is killing zombies and dragging bodies around.”
She shut the door and walked toward the next room.
“And here we have the pool, sauna, and spa. Again, not really worth our time, as the water is filthy and we have bigger things to worry about than pool maintenance.”
She picked up her pace, pointing to random doors and calling out labels.
“Heater, air conditioning, cleaning closet,” she said in rapid-fire. “A lot of stuff that I know very little about. But we’re pretty comfortable with whatever we have going on here. Lucas says that the roof is covered in solar panels that provide a little electricity to the building. As long as we don’t run all the hairdryers at once, it’s enough for us. There’s also some sort of rainwater collection tank that feeds the sinks and showers. But we try not to use it too often because there’s not enough for all of us. But if you’re covered in blood, go ahead and give yourself a rinse. We just got this place smelling nice again.”
Crystal raised her eyebrows. “I hate to say it, but it’s almost as nice as our old place,” she said softly so only Matthew could hear.
“I’d say it’s much nicer,” he responded under his breath. “No one here is orchestrating mass murder.”
“We realized that one of the office spaces in the big building sold fancy soaps. We brought a whole bunch with us, only to realize that the hotel carries the same ones,” Pip explained. “That was a waste. But we did a pretty good job of taking anything useful with us.”
Matthew screwed up his face in confusion. “Pip, when we were looking for you, I saw some stuff you left behind through the window. I thought that something bad had happened to you guys.”
“What kind of stuff?” she asked.
“Food, clothes, and a baby pacifier.”
She thought for a moment. “Well, we did leave some trash behind, em
pty wrappers and that sort of thing. The clothes probably belonged to one of us. We were all pretty well covered in blood. You’ll have to ask Marigold about the pacifier. I wasn’t using it.”
Carl rolled his eyes. “Why didn’t you leave a note? We were worried sick.”
“We’re fine,” she groaned. “Can I continue on with my tour?”
“Go on,” Carl grunted.
“Down the hall is the kitchen and dining room. We discovered that the solar power kept the refrigerator and freezer going all this time. A bunch of stuff in the fridge was pretty rancid, but there’s some good stuff in the freezer that will last us for quite a while if we play it smart. The wine cellar and bar is decently stocked, too,” she added quickly.
Carl gave her a warning glance. “Have you been behaving yourself?”
“I’ve been to busy to even have a drink,” she replied. “But tonight is a celebration. I think I’ll enjoy one.”
“Glass?”
“Bottle,” she corrected. “Now, that’s basically the whole first floor,” Pip announced as she led the group back to the lobby. “I’m sure you’re all pretty pooped, so you can choose whatever room you like and rest up before we party tonight.”
“Pip, I’m not sure if people are going to be in the mood for a party. It’s been a long day. I don’t think anyone is ready for a Pip party, in general,” Carl said gently.
“We’ll keep it casual,” she said brightly. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
“Me too,” Carl replied.
“Oh,” Pip added, “I forgot to mention that the fourth floor is off limits. I mean, you can go up there, but I wouldn’t recommend choosing a room there unless you like sleeping in zombie blood. There was just too much to clean up by the time everyone got back. There are still a bunch of perfectly suitable rooms to choose from, though. Just go upstairs, find one you like, then write your name on the door to claim it. You can have a single room, or there are plenty of doubles if you don’t want to be alone.”
Last Man Standing (Book 2): Zombie Annihilation Page 18
