“You’re okay with having me here?” I asked, not even contemplating staying with either woman.
“Not one bit.”
“Tera won’t have a problem with it?”
“Why would she?”
“I don’t know. I thought maybe the two of you were…”
“No. I mean, she’s pretty and all, but we’re only friends.”
“Okay, I didn’t want to cause any issues. I’d rather stay here because I know you more than I know them, and so that you can care for my leg.”
There was probably someone else who could bandage my leg, and that person would have to when he left, but I didn’t say that. I also didn’t mention that I’d be alone while he was gone either. He could have challenged my excuses, but for whatever reason, he didn’t.
He quickly showed me the rest of the apartment before leading me down to the gardens and park. The area was much grander up close than it appeared from his balcony. I spent much of the morning down there. The only way Jason was able to get me back into the building was to tell me he was hungry and ready for lunch. I could have easily skipped the meal, but I couldn’t force him to go hungry for my own selfish reasons.
Because of how long I stayed in the gardens, we weren’t able to tour the rest of the compound until after lunch. Jason showed me about half of it, and most of it was the levels underground where our supplies were. If nothing else, he wanted me to know where most of the food, clothing, and other supplies I’d need were.
Jason also showed me where the theater was, the pool, and other notable areas that I might want to visit to amuse myself while they were gone. I planned to spend all my time out in the gardens healing and reading all the books in the library I could.
That night during dinner, I ate and listened to the group make plans for the next day. Kayla was the only one of the group who was staying behind with me, aside from Jasper. Jason made her swear to amuse me and tend to my wound, but I told her later that she didn’t have to entertain me if she had other things to do. I was capable of keeping myself busy. She was nice and said she didn’t mind doing whatever I wanted to do while the rest were gone. At that time, there wasn’t much that we had to do inside the complex aside from daily cleaning and upkeep.
Russ, Tera, and Kayla eyed us suspiciously when Jason wheeled me into his apartment at the end of the day but said nothing. He didn’t acknowledge their looks, and I found something on my fingers to admire until the door closed behind us.
“So what do you think of the place?” he asked, helping me out of the chair and onto the sofa.
“It’s amazing. Unbelievable actually.”
“How so?”
“It’s exactly what a person would need in a situation like this. I feel like I’m in a dream or something. I feel bad for being here, safe, comfortable, with a full belly, and there are so many people out there starving and running for their lives. He had to have known this was going to happen,” I said, kicking off my shoes and wrapping myself in the blanket Jason handed me.
Jason took a seat on the opposite side of the sofa and turned to look at me. “As I’ve said before, to my knowledge, he didn’t know this—the zombie apocalypse—was going to happen. Jasper feared something apocalyptic would happen. I barely remember the stories my grandparents told of the quakes and floods, but he remembers them. There are still some places that haven’t recovered from them or who are just now beginning to rebuild…or well, they were.”
I gave him a puzzled look, and said, “I didn’t think about that. I knew it, but I’ve barely been away from my home, so those places have just been an abstract thought to me. Something I knew, but couldn’t comprehend was real. Ashlyn bounced back so quickly that I couldn’t imagine other places not being able to do so.”
“We are part of the privileged many. Most people alive today are, but there are still pockets of tiny islands or cities all over this country that are living as if the quakes and floods just happened. My uncle saw those places and spoke to those people. He helped raise money for them while he raised money for Shore Haven. We built this place to sustain pretty much anything. It can be damaged, it can fall, but it would take a quake like the one that obliterated the west coast to do so, and seismologists didn’t think that could ever happen here. A tornado could rock this place, but it would take an F-4 or more likely an F-5 to level it. Yeah, a smaller one would destroy the gardens out there,” he pointed to the balcony, “and on the roofs, but not level it.”
“How do you know?”
“I helped build this place. We had a great team, full of brilliant people who spent years drawing up the plans and consulting as many experts as we could on all possible materials and problems. Jasper had most of the logistics figured out before he had the first dime raised to build it. He knew what he wanted. We just had to figure out how to create it for him.”
“It wouldn’t take much to fill this place,” I said, imagining what it would be like to rebuild our society here.
“I think it would. I fear there won’t be many of us left when this virus runs its course. And out of those who have survived, a few won’t want to abandon their homes.”
“You don’t think there are that many survivors out there?”
“I don’t. Not if the virus is killing every person it comes into contact with.”
“We aren’t dead.”
“We might be immune, or we might have just been lucky enough to have not come into contact with it. Until someone makes a vaccine or cure, we’re all at risk.”
I knew that of course. We’d had a version of that conversation already. The idea still sobered me, though. I went quiet for a while before deciding that Jason needed to get to bed so that he’d be rested for the following day.
To my surprise, he offered me his bed. He’d told me on our tour of the apartment that all of the sofas were pull out beds, and I’d assumed that was where I’d be sleeping. I tried to argue with him, but he wouldn’t budge. Sighing in resignation, I assisted him in putting sheets on the fold out and insisting that we didn’t need to change the sheets on his bed. He didn’t appear to be a dirty person, so I felt changing them was rather pointless. Besides, I like the way he smelled and enjoyed absorbing his scent in the bedclothes, not that I would tell him that.
While Jason and I had been touring the complex, someone had brought up a few articles of clothing for me, and not knowing where to put them, had dropped them off at Jason’s apartment where my other few belongings were. I showered quickly and put on a long gown.
Just as I was crawling into bed, Jason knocked on the door and asked if he could look at my wound before I went to sleep. I allowed him to do so, acutely aware of how far up my leg he had to move the gown to examine me. I held my breath and memorized the feel of his hands as he looked things over.
“It looks good,” he said. “I’ll change it again in the morning, so Kayla won’t have to worry about it. You won’t need the bandage much longer.”
“Thank you for everything,” I said, touching his hand lightly.
“You’re very welcome.” He stared at me for a long time, and I wanted desperately to know what he was thinking. Silently, I begged him to lean in and kiss me, but he didn’t. After a long moment, he smiled, said goodnight, and left the room.
Chapter 17
~~~Jason~~~
I slept fitfully that night on the sofa, having grown used to sleeping next to Samantha those few nights we were in quarantine. I kept waking up, thinking I needed to check on her, to make sure she was only sleeping and hadn’t fallen into a coma or something due to her head wound. The logical side of my brain reminded me that she was out of danger and that the head injury had all but healed, but that didn’t stop my worrying.
At one point, I did allow myself to creep into the bedroom to watch her sleep for a moment, making sure that she was sleeping soundly. My body ached to crawl in next to her, but I had enough self-control not to do it.
The next morning, I woke too early and too
exhausted. The knowledge that our little group had a long journey ahead of us made the exhaustion worse, and there was no way I could bail. Russ and Tera might let me postpone the trip a day or so, but that would be it. I would feel like an ass if I did, though. We needed all of the information we could get on the zombies as soon as we could find it. I also didn’t want to change the schedule, because if I did, Samantha might heal enough to want to go home before we got back, and the selfish part of me wanted to lock her in Shore Haven for the rest of her life.
“I can sleep on the sofa from now on,” she said, giving my disheveled appearance a once over as she limped to the loveseat and took a seat.
I hadn’t heard her exit the bedroom and go to the bathroom, but the bathroom was where she emerged from. She looked as tired as I felt.
I was sitting on the side of the pull out bed, trying to force my body to get up and make some coffee.
“Why?” I asked, rubbing my face.
“Because you look like you didn’t get a bit of sleep last night. I’ve slept on worse things than a pullout mattress. When you get back, I’ll start sleeping in here.”
“It wasn’t the sofa. The mattress is actually pretty comfortable. I just tossed and turned all night. I guess my subconscious was worried about the journey. I haven’t been off the island in months. I’ll be honest. I’m scared of what I’ll find out there. I’m afraid that we’ll get to that C.D.C. lab and find nothing or some asshole playing around with the radio. I’m scared that we will find something, but that we won’t make it back to give it to anyone.”
Samantha didn’t say anything while I ranted, only stood up from the loveseat and came over to the bed to sit down next to me. She put her arm around my back and her head on my shoulder.
There wasn’t anything for her to say. Samantha couldn’t reassure me. She couldn’t promise me everything would be all right because the chances were too high that what we found wouldn’t be good.
I laid my hand on her uninjured knee and pulled her to me a bit, taking and hopefully, giving comfort. We stayed that way for a long moment. I felt myself start to doze in the uncomfortable position when someone knocked on the door.
Samantha jerked and sat up straight.
“It’s probably just Kayla summoning us to breakfast,” I told her, rubbing her knee in a soothing motion.
“Breakfast?” she asked, eyeing the kitchen, presumably wondering why we weren’t eating there.
“Tera and Russ share a love for cooking. They cook most of our meals. I’ve told them they didn’t have to, but since they do it anyway and their combined talents always make for a fabulous meal, I just go with it. Do you need help getting dressed? Do I need to change your bandage before we go?”
“No on both accounts. Do you need in your bedroom for anything?”
“Nothing that can’t wait,” I said, watching her go into my room before I opened the apartment door.
Kayla was, in fact, standing on the other side, looking slightly annoyed.
“Tera says breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes.”
“Good. Will you go see if Samantha needs any help dressing?” I asked, pointing to the bedroom.
She rolled her eyes but did as I asked. While they were in my bedroom, I showered, shaved, and brushed my teeth. By the time I was done, they were in the living room talking. I slipped from the bathroom and into my room to change.
Shortly after that, we were in Tera’s kitchen eating. We didn’t talk much while we ate. We were all thinking about what Russ, Tera, and I would be doing in a little over an hour or so. Everyone at the table was anxious about the trip, even those who weren’t going.
Jasper broke the silence by calling Tera’s intercom.
“Yes,” she said, hitting the button on the wall to switch on the system so that all of us could hear and partake in the conversation.
“Are you all together?” Jasper asked.
“We are,” the group said in unison.
“Good. Are you still planning to go today?” Jasper asked.
I’d tried to get a hold of him the night before to tell him our plans, but he hadn’t answered my call. I’d found it odd that he hadn’t, but hadn’t been concerned. I probably should have been with him up there by himself—anything could happen, and we wouldn’t know it, but he chose to lock himself away. We could run the place without him. We could find another way of communicating with the outside world without him. We would need that medical floor at some point, though, so even if he never left, we’d have to find a way to it sometime soon.
“Yep. We’ll be gearing up shortly. Any new news on where we’re going?”
“Nothing. I’m getting the same message. I’d say it was on a loop if the voice sounded the same every time I heard it and if the background noise wasn’t different as well.”
“Anything we should be worried about?”
“I don’t know. I don’t hear zombies, I don’t think. The background noise, at times, sounds almost like a television. Obviously, she has to be watching something pre-recorded if that’s what it is.”
“A television? Why have that playing?” Kayla asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, thinking. “Maybe as a sign for those who are listening. The television indicates utilities and represents normality…a world that was safe from zombies. Nearly all of the country is without electricity. A lot of people will head her way for that alone.”
“Shouldn’t the radio represent that as well?” she asked.
“Not really. Those can run off batteries. The fact that the woman is talking on a radio and watching a television sends a particular message to her listeners. It says, ‘I’m safe. You can be too. I live comfortably. So can you.’ Couple that with the fact that she might have a vaccine, and people will be flooding to her.”
“Won’t the people who are hearing her have electricity as well,” she asked, confused by how some of the technology works.
“Again, batteries. For that matter, the woman might have that television plugged into a battery. And some people will realize that, but most will be too desperate to care.”
“So you think this is a setup?” She went from confused to scared.
“I don’t know. It’s a possibility, but like most people listening to her, we’ll have to chance it. We need the vaccine. We need a cure.”
Kayla nodded.
“Have you talked to this doctor?” I asked my uncle.
“No. I’ve only listened to her. If something isn’t right about the situation, I didn’t want her to know we were coming or to give her an idea where we were. We can’t vet everyone who comes here, but we can do our best to get to know as many people as possible before we allow them access to Shore Haven.”
I had to agree with him.
“Are all of you going?” Jasper asked.
“No,” Samantha said, speaking up for the first time since we sat down to eat. “I’m staying behind. I’m not walking well enough yet.”
“And I’m staying with her,” Kayla said. She didn’t sound bitter about it, but anyone who knew her would know she wasn’t happy about the fact.
“Good,” Jasper said, and I knew he meant that he was glad that Kayla wouldn’t be going with us.
“I trust Jason showed you all of Shore Haven?” Jasper asked Samantha, sounding a bit concerned by the fact that I had given her a tour.
“Not all of it, no. It doesn’t matter, though. I’ll be confined to just a few places, due to my limited mobility. So you won’t have to worry about me wandering around your home unsupervised while they are gone.”
I smiled at the bite in her tone.
Jasper didn’t say anything for a long moment, then said, “If you two need anything while the rest are gone, please let me know,” before closing the line.
“I trust Kayla knows how to dial him,” Samantha said, “as I don’t know how to use the communications system of this place.”
“She does, and I can show you before I leave,” I told her.
>
Samantha nodded, then went back to eating her breakfast.
We all ate the rest of our meal in silence. Kayla and Samantha promised to come back to Tera’s apartment after we were gone to clean up so that they could follow us down to the main room to watch us leave.
Among the many other things Kayla, Tera, and Russ had done the day before while I’d showed Samantha around, they had busied themselves with preparing packs for our journey. I examined my bag, nodded my head to Tera in thanks and moved to the jumpsuit on the wall. It was black and gray but bore no emblem. I had asked Jasper why that was. Most places put their logo or at least their name on such items, but these didn’t have anything like that on them. He said he hadn’t thought they needed anything that would signal to the world where the people wearing them had come from if they had to wear them outside of the compound. The suit was a mixture of military grade and NASA space suit when it came to thickness, durability, and capacity to house as many weapons as I wanted to carry. The cooling vests that we would don first would keep us from burning up under the summer sun inside them.
Samantha and Kayla watched us as we readied for the trip without saying a word. I hoped I felt Samantha’s eyes studying me intently when I removed my shirt to put on the vest, but I didn’t chance a look at her to see if she had actually been watching me.
Once we were ready, the group made its way to the main doors of the side of the building in which we were staying. While the others left the room, I started to circle behind Samantha, who’d made a move to wheel herself out with them.
Before I could get behind her, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to a stop. I looked down to see her staring up at me. A million words ran through her eyes, but all she said was, “Thank you for saving me. For taking care of me.”
I cupped her cheek for a second, wishing I could kiss her, then said, “Anytime.” On impulse, I leaned down, kissed her forehead, and whispered, “I’ll come home.”
She grabbed the hand I had on her cheek and squeezed, before letting go and taking a deep, steadying breath.
Shore Haven Page 15
