Resurrection: A Zombie Novel, - [ereader manga .TXT] 📗

Thick forest surrounded the town. If you headed in the right direction, you could walk through the trees in a straight line for hours before hitting water. And you could walk up. A mountain rose to the east. Kyle remembered driving to the top and seeing Canada’s Vancouver Island to the west, skyscraping Vancouver city far to the north; Bellingham, Washington, to the east; and the magnificent San Juan archipelago far below to the south. It must have taken an hour to drive up there from Eastsound. Walking would take a whole day.

So a horde of those things wouldn’t be up there. It took far too much time and effort to walk to the top, and there was nothing but fir cones to eat up there.

Theoretically another part of the island could be infected, perhaps the villages of Orcas or Deer Harbor, but Kyle was certain they’d be just as empty as Eastsound. If the infection had hit those towns, the residents would have fled to Eastsound. And there was no one in Eastsound.

Hughes was just being paranoid. Prudent, but paranoid.

“Let’s just give it another hour,” Kyle said.

“We give it four more at least,” Hughes said.

Kyle flinched. Four? Paradise was in view right in front of them, and Hughes wanted to stay on the boat another four hours? They had already been sitting there for at least two.

“I’m not even going in four,” Parker said. “I’m sleeping on the boat tonight.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. Parker wasn’t being prudent or paranoid. He was a drama queen with a beard and a belly who couldn’t admit that Kyle had saved his ass. Parker wouldn’t even be there if Kyle hadn’t practically forced him. He owed Kyle everything. Everyone on that boat owed Kyle everything.

If Parker wanted to sleep there, fine. The rest of them would spend the night in the hotel. And if Eastsound’s residents didn’t return after a week, they could move into one of the houses. Maybe they’d wait a month just to be decent, but that was it. Those houses would deteriorate if they weren’t maintained and lived in. If the owners come back in, say, a year, they’d be glad to discover someone had taken care of the property for them.

He wondered if there was any food left in the town grocery store. That would depend on how long the residents stayed after the plague struck. What if the shelves were empty? What if everyone’s cupboards were empty? If they weren’t empty already, they would be eventually.

Eastsound was luxurious, but their new lives would still be a challenge. They’d have to fish and farm and trap and hunt. They’d have to chop wood. They’d live like pioneers and homesteaders, though without hostile Indians and with better sofas and beds. By next year, enough of those things would likely starve to death on the mainland that Kyle and the others could pry solar panels off houses in Vancouver and Bellingham and install them in Eastsound. They would not live like royalty, but they’d have enough to be comfortable and enough adversity and hardship to make them appreciate those comforts far more than they did before the outbreak.

It was going to be great. Kyle could never have designed such a perfect life for himself in the old world.

And what about Annie? How much time would have to pass before they moved in together? He knew it would happen eventually, and he was pretty sure she knew it too. She wouldn’t live out her days by herself. Not at her age. She wasn’t going to shack up with Frank. The very idea was ludicrous. Parker? Not a chance. And Hughes? Hughes was a bodyguard, not a man to bare your soul to and cuddle up with in bed.

No, Annie would eventually move in with Kyle. Even if they did not fall in love—though love was a distinct possibility—they were an obvious pair.

He’d take his time and go slowly, for they had all the time in the world.

Hours passed in languid silence and Hughes began to think Kyle was right. No one was going to stumble out of a house and wave hello if they sat on the boat another hour, nor would one of those things only now finally notice their presence.

The smart plan would be to sail around the island while making a whole lotta racket to see if anything moved in the trees, but more than three hours had passed since he fired his rifle and nothing had happened. Eastsound looked empty, sounded empty, and just as important, it felt empty. The town and its immediate environs were clear. And that hotel was sure looking comfortable. They could recon the island tomorrow. Nothing would bother them in the meantime.

“Let’s move ashore,” he said.

“You sure you’re okay with that?” Kyle said. Hughes could tell Kyle wasn’t actually interested if Hughes was okay with it. He was just being polite.

“I’m still not going,” Parker said.

Kyle huffed and said, “Christ, you’re impossible.”

“Parker,” Hughes said. “My man. I’m as cautious as you are.”

“No, you’re not,” Parker said.

“I’m as cautious as you are,” Hughes said again. “But now you’re just being stubborn. Come on. We’ll hole up in that hotel over there and be quiet.”

“You want my advice?” Parker said.

“Not really, no,” Kyle said.

Annie placed her hand on his arm.

“What’s your advice?” Hughes said.

“We stay on this boat for three days,” Parker said, “and make as much goddamn noise as we can. Then we get off if everything’s clear.”

Hughes understood where Parker was coming from. That would, indeed, be the safest possible way to proceed, especially if they sailed around the island once or twice just to be sure. But there is a point where caution becomes excessive, where fear turns into phobia, and Parker had crossed it.

“I’ve seen you act with incredible bravery,” Hughes said to Parker. “Just two days ago you chased an armed man down in the street, killed dozens of those things single-handedly, and set your own house on fire. Stepping onto the beach after all that is nothing.”

“I had to do those things,” Parker said. “But I don’t have to rush off this boat. We have comfortable beds and enough food for days. But I hear what you’re saying, so I’ll join you tomorrow if you’re all still okay.”

So, Hughes thought, the island is Parker’s