by Sarra Cannon
Tank’s eyes widened.
“Are you kidding me?” he asked, voiced raised.
He stood up and paced the floor behind his desk.
“It’s a death trap. You think that hospital was bad? Whatever you guys faced there is going to be nothing—and I mean child’s play—compared to what you’ll find in Manhattan, if you could even hope to step foot on that island in the first place. The government quarantined that area, shut off all the bridges and access roads early on. No one in or out, which means a hell of a lot of people dead in a very small area. Any survivors might have been able to hold out for a few days or even weeks with enough supplies and a strong barricade, but there’s no hope for anyone stuck on that island, because there’s no way for them to get out. That whole area is lost for good.”
“There are survivors,” Parrish said, having to almost force a lump out of her throat to say it. She’d pretty much given up on ever seeing her sister again, but Lily had given her hope.
The vision they’d had early this morning had made it real. Zoe was alive and hiding out somewhere on or near the island of Manhattan.
“Not anyone you’re going to be able to help,” Tank said, glancing over at Crash, as if he expected his friend to talk some sense into her. “Maybe if you could get hold of a helicopter or something, you could have a chance of landing on one of the buildings up there and rescuing someone, but trying to make your way through the city by foot? It’s impossible. We’re talking about thousands of undead. Maybe even millions. You’ll never survive it.”
Parrish swallowed back her fear, a wave of nausea coming over her. She wanted to steady her voice before she responded. Luckily, Crash stepped in before she had to.
“Then, where can we get a helicopter?” Crash asked, as if it was no big deal to find one and learn how to fly it.
Parrish smiled.
At least he was all in on going with her to rescue Zoe, but at this point, I think they all realized there was more to NYC than just Zoe. If she really had somehow hooked up with the fifth, everyone’s fate depended on them reuniting as soon as possible.
Destiny had been leading them with a heavy hand since the very beginning. They were in this now, one way or the other, no matter the danger.
“Look, I know how crazy this sounds, but we’re going to New York City,” Parrish said, scooting her chair forward so she could get a better look at the large map spread across the table. “My sister is there, and we know she’s alive. We know the risks, but we have to at least try to get to her. She’s only ten years old, and she’s managed to survive this long. I know we can get her out of there if we’re smart about it, but we need to figure out the best and fastest way into Manhattan. If you have any ideas, we’d love to hear them, but we don’t have time for you to try to talk us out of it.”
“And we’re going to need to take some of your firepower with us, if we can,” Crash said. “Or get your help on where we can pick up some more of our own on the way up there. We have a decent amount of supplies, but we’re going to need more.”
Tank studied them each in turn, as if trying to tell, once and for all, whether they were playing some kind of joke on him.
“I can’t believe you’re really thinking of doing this, but if you insist on trying, I’ll do what I can to help,” he said, finally, sitting back down in his chair. “It’s the least I can do after what you’ve done for us. I hate now that I asked you to do something so dangerous for us right after you got here, and now you’re going to leave again, but you have to understand that we didn’t have anyone else who could go out there.”
“Don’t feel bad about it. It’s not like you forced us to go,” Parrish said. “We did it because we wanted to help. Now, help us get to Manhattan.”
He took a deep breath and ran a hand over his bald head as he studied the map.
“Well, you aren’t going to get there driving,” he said. “Like I told you, all the bridges are blocked off by military barricades with no one left to let you through. Not that you could get to the bridges in that Hummer anyway.”
“Why not?” Crash asked.
“I-95 is a parking lot of dead cars and pileups,” he said. “We had a few guys try to make it up that way to retrieve some family, but once they got about five miles outside of Philly, they said the roads were impassable. They had to switch to back roads, and even then, most of those were clogged up and useless. There are fires, pileups, traffic jams everywhere. Just too many damn people. Trying to get a Humvee through that mess would be impossible.”
“Did they get to their family okay?” Parrish asked.
For a moment, nausea nearly overwhelmed her, but she managed to hold it at bay. She was just exhausted.
“They did, and they got everyone, including a few young kids, back here safely, but it took them over a week. They had to take most of it on foot,” he said. “If it’s that bad around here, it’s going to be a nightmare up through New York. The toll roads and tunnels? You’ll never make it.”
“Walking all the way from here to New York would take us days,” Crash said. “And that’s only if we could walk ten hours a day without stopping.”
“That’s not an option, either,” Parrish said, her heart racing. “We need to get up there tomorrow. What else can we do? Do you think we could really find a helicopter around here? How hard would it be to learn to fly that?”
Tank laughed.
“I was joking about a helicopter. Even if you could find a helo nearby, it would take one of you weeks to learn how to fly,” he said. “But the real hardship would be figuring out how and where to land that beast. It’s not going to be easy, especially if half the rooftops of the city are filled with rotters, which is a good possibility. You have no idea what you’re going to find when you get up there, and it’s not like it’ll be easy to refuel.”
Parrish groaned. She hadn’t thought about all that. She had no doubt Crash could learn to fly it in seconds, but unless they could land directly on the roof of the Four Seasons, they’d end up having to fight their way through a crowded, dark skyscraper and through the streets, anyway.
Of course, Zoe might not be at the Four Seasons, anymore. How, exactly, were they going to find her if she’d left and gone somewhere else?
A helicopter wasn’t going to work, but there had to be a solution.
“Not our best option, then,” she said. “What else could we do that would be fast and relatively safe?”
She stared at the map, trying to figure out what they could do that wouldn’t take them days on foot. Lily had a head start for sure, and she also had abilities none of them fully understood. There was no doubt in Parrish’s mind that Lily was already in New York.
Somehow, though, Zoe had gotten away just in time. She couldn’t still be at the hotel, then. The fifth would have taken her somewhere safe, and how far could two small children get on their own, anyway?
She racked her mind for any solution, trying to think outside the box. They would keep working on their attempt to recreate the vision they’d had. Maybe, if they could strengthen it enough, they might even be able to talk to Zoe or the fifth. Warn them about what was coming or find out exactly where they were inside the city.
They couldn’t rely on that, though.
For now, they had to assume they’d be able to sense their connection once they were all inside the city together.
They just had to get there, first.
The roads were packed too much for a Humvee to get through, but what about something smaller?
“Motorcycles,” she said, sitting up. She didn’t know if it was the dumbest idea she’d had, or the smartest. “What if we could find some motorcycles and weave around the cars and pileups? Do you think that would get us through the traffic jams?”
Tank raised an eyebrow and considered it. “That could work. You might opt for dirt bikes or something that can go off-road. Something small but powerful,” he said. “That will definitely get you there faster than walking. Wi
th a small enough bike, you should be able to maneuver through a lot of the traffic, but what’s going to stop you is those tunnels.”
He pointed to a location on the map.
“Those could be packed all the way through from one side to the other with no idea how many rotters are trapped inside. It’s risky. You’d have to get out and walk from there.”
It was a start. She leaned over the map, wondering where they could get their hands on four dirt bikes when Crash stood up and shouted.
“I’ve got it,” he said. “I feel stupid for not seeing it sooner, but it makes complete sense.”
“What?” she asked, hoping he really did have a brilliant idea in that head of his.
“Water,” he said, sitting back down and pointing to the swath of blue on the map. “We go east to the water, then we can take a boat all the way to Manhattan. It is an island, after all, and there aren’t going to be any zombies or fifty car pileups on the water.”
She wanted to stand up and dance for joy.
Yes!
Why hadn’t that occurred to her sooner? She’d been so wrapped up in thinking about the roads that the idea of taking a boat had never entered her mind.
“That’s brilliant,” she said, feeling almost giddy with excitement. They would be able to zip up to Manhattan in no time with a nice speed boat. “Now, we just have to figure out where to find a boat and where to dock on the island. This is going to shave off so much time, though, and it’ll be the safest way to travel as long as the weather’s good.”
“Thank you,” Crash said, winking. “I bet we’ll have our choice of amazing boats at any marina along the coast.”
“Do any of you kids know how to navigate a boat?” Tank asked. “Not exactly as tricky as a helicopter, but it’s still going to take some skill to get up to New York if none of you have ever captained a boat.”
“Karmen’s family has a boat,” Parrish said. “They used to take us skiing on the lake in the summer when I was little. I’ve seen Karmen drive it before. She knows what to do.”
That little nugget of information seemed to surprise Tank, and a little hint of admiration crossed Crash’s features, too. Parrish was pretty sure there was more going on between Crash and Karmen than either of them had let on just yet, and she loved it. Karmen needed a guy like Crash to keep her grounded.
And it was obvious Crash had a huge crush on her.
Parrish smiled. Maybe someday this whole thing would be over and the four of them could double-date. Stranger things had happened, right? Besides, she had to hold onto some type of hope that things could eventually go back to normal.
Otherwise, what were they doing all of this for, anyway?
“Then, water it is,” Tank said. “I agree that’s your best bet. The safest route to the water is avoiding the highway and taking all the backroads toward the coast. If I were you, I’d head out toward someplace like Brick Township or Toms River.”
“What about this place?” Crash asked, pointing to a spot on the map labeled Windward Beach Park. “Have you ever been there?”
“A couple times with my brother,” Tank said. “You’ll definitely find a good selection of boats to choose from up there, and you’ll have an easy trip up to Manhattan from there. I think it’s a good spot to aim for.”
“How long to get there, you think?” Parrish asked.
“In normal circumstances, it would take about an hour and a half to drive over there,” Tank said. “With this mess and all the detours and possible dangers along the way, I'd say maybe six hours? And that’s possibly underestimating. If you take the Humvee, maybe days if you end up stuck and having to walk part of the way.”
Hope stirred in her heart. If they could find some bikes, they could be there by dark if they left soon.
“And from there, how long of a boat ride up to the city?”
Tank cleared his throat. “I’ve never made that trip, myself, but if I had to guess from eyeballing it, I’d say an hour tops.”
She nearly cried out in excitement. Seven hours to get to Manhattan on a bad day? This was a dream. They could leave in an hour or two, find a place along the coast for the night, and then make their way into Manhattan at first light.
If they could find a place to dock somewhat close to the Four Seasons, they might even make it to Zoe before nightfall. Her sister had to be hiding somewhere nearby.
Parrish still had no real idea how they were going to get through massive throngs of rotters in the city, not to mention whatever super zombies Lily and the Dark One had waiting for them, but they would take it one step at a time.
Plus, they still had the rest of the trip today to work through some ideas. Crash seemed to be pretty good at coming up with battle plans, and they could talk or think while they rode out to the coast.
It was just too bad they couldn’t take the Humvee and the machine guns into the city with them, but maybe they could find similar weapons once they were there. Tank had said there was a strong military presence in New York in the beginning before things got overrun, which made sense being the most populated city in the US. Maybe there were still some tanks around the city they could get their hands on.
Even without fuel, Crash could probably get them running with his power.
Of course, she would take every last rotter down with her sword if she had to. She wouldn’t stop until Zoe was safe at her side.
“Okay, so we have the beginning of a plan,” she said, following the route to the coast with her fingertip.
“What’s next?” Crash asked.
Parrish looked to Tank, an eyebrow raised.
“Got any maps of Manhattan?”
Five
Noah
Noah Vincent smiled at everyone he passed in the hallway on his way back to his room, but when they tried to stop and chat about what had happened at the hospital, he waved them away and made an excuse about wanting to get cleaned up.
The truth was, he was barely keeping it together.
With every second that passed, he felt worse and worse.
By the time he reached his room, he guessed his fever was over a hundred and three. His whole body shivered, and he had started to sweat. He prayed Karmen wasn’t in there, because he didn’t want to explain what he was feeling to anyone else until he’d worked out just how bad it really was.
Luckily, the room the four of them shared was empty except for their bags and belongings.
He locked the door and quickly stripped down to his underwear. The smell of blood on his clothes made him queasy. But the instant he was half-naked, he could no longer control his shivering.
He crawled into bed and pulled the blanket up to his chin.
Within minutes, he was so hot, his forehead dripped with sweat.
Damn. He never should have tried to heal that guy, Stephen. He’d known something was wrong when he started using his magic on the illness. It felt different from the times he’d healed a small wound.
With this, it was almost like he’d been pulling the sickness and infection out of the guy’s body...and into his own.
Without Noah’s magic, though, Stephen would have been dead by nightfall. The infection had gotten so bad even the strongest antibiotics couldn’t save him. Noah had known that much the second he touched him.
Maybe that was why he kept going, even though he’d felt the sickness oozing into him. If Stephen died after all they’d been through to bring these meds back to him, it would just make everything feel so pointless.
What were they fighting for, anyway, if not for families like Stephen’s to go on and rebuild this world, someday?
No one knew at this point just how many had died across the globe, but based on the number of survivors they’d seen since they first left their homes, Noah had a feeling more than half the world’s population was gone.
And that was being optimistic.
How many more would have to die because he and his friends didn’t know what the hell they were doing?
&nbs
p; If they had been sent here to protect this world in case the Dark One awakened someday, why hadn’t they been able to remember everything? Why couldn’t they figure out how to stop her?
What if they never did? Would all of humanity be lost?
Noah pulled the thin blanket tighter around his trembling body. Damn. His mind was spinning. If he didn’t pull himself together, his thoughts would only get darker.
As much as he wanted to just lie here and try to get some rest, he had a feeling that the more he gave into it, the more the sickness would take over.
Just how much of it had he taken on?
Reluctantly, he peeled the blanket off his moist skin and sat up, clutching the edge of the mattress until the room stopped spinning around him.
He laughed to keep from crying.
And he’d thought he was invincible.
Noah made it about three steps toward the door before he collapsed in a heap on the floor.
Six
Karmen
Karmen stood on the rooftop of the compound, staring out over the neighboring houses and wondering if things could ever go back to normal.
She groaned and shook her head. That was the dumbest thing she could think, though, wasn't it? The greater part of the world’s population was walking around trying to eat people.
That wasn't exactly the kind of thing the world was likely to ever recover from.
Even if they did manage to put an end to this witch person who started the virus in the first place, they would have to kill every rotter and clean up the world before they were all safe again. And how many people would be left at that point?
Enough to start over?
And after what they’d already seen from Lily, what were the chances they could survive the Dark One, much less actually defeat her and her army of rotters?
It was impossible.
Parrish had said they’d made a choice a long time ago, in another life, to come to this world and protect them from the Dark One in case she ever went free.
