Twenty-Four
Asia
Once I processed the sound, I was too pissed to be scared.
I glanced at Jack. “This shit is getting old,” I whispered.
“Get ready,” was his only answer.
He stared intently toward the sound, his jaw ticking, which told me he clenched his teeth and ready for whatever would come. Two glass doors led to a short hallway that led to another set.
It sounded like one of the doors was broken.
I heard muffled steps outside, and I tried to figure out if it was more of those things. I didn’t know which would be worse—and didn’t bother to try to figure it out.
Instead, I stood, ready like Jack ordered, mind empty, heart racing as I listened.
Realized it was people.
The sounds were too purposeful, not clumsy, unthinking like those things had been so far. I also thought I heard faint whispers, but that could have been my imagination.
I looked at Jack again.
Saw the worry in his expression before he pushed it down and nodded toward the side door.
Silently, we took position.
He was out front, clearly visible to whoever might walk in—but that was intentional.
He would distract them, and of course, attack.
I would come in from behind and help neutralize the threat.
The sun had risen, but the restaurant’s entrance faced west, so the lobby was filled with ominous shadows. My mind didn’t have to stretch to imagine the monsters that could be hiding there .
By now, I’d seen so many, I didn’t need help.
One of the shadows moved. Hesitant at first and then increasingly confident.
I realized it tried to open the door without completely destroying it.
So whoever it was, they were looking for someplace to hide.
That might be a good sign.
People just searching for safety, like Jack and I, meant we might not have to fight off people looking to take.
But I still gripped my gun as I watched, unwilling to take chances.
The shadow, a man I determined judging by the fingers, quietly tapped on the door.
Then he waited, and the moment stretched, the silence in those tense seconds so thick, I was breathing it.
“There’s no one in here,” the man whispered.
So he wasn’t alone.
I glanced at Jack, trying to decide what to do.
He nodded, then gestured toward the door, moving his fingers up and down—telling me without words to talk.
I swallowed, my throat dry, then said in as firm a voice as I could muster,
“Leave now, or I will kill you where you stand.”
All sounds, faint as they were, ceased instantly.
“We just need to get off the street.” This was a new voice, a woman, and a desperate one from the sounds of it.
Something I understood completely.
I glanced at Jack, who glared at me—practically daring me to let my soft heart get in the way.
I wouldn’t.
I couldn’t.
“Not my problem. Walk away or die.”
I was pretty freaking impressed with myself. I wouldn’t want to mess with the voice that issued that threat.
“Seriously—”
The man. I cut him off.
“Don’t make me repeat myself. Get the hell away from this door and don’t come back. ”
I yelled this time, hoping I wouldn’t alert any of those things—or other people—lurking.
“Asia?”
A different woman’s voice this time.
I blinked, shocked.
Who the fuck was calling me?
I whipped around to face Jack and saw his thoughts as clearly as I would if he’d spoken.
He thought it was a ruse.
He was probably right.
But I needed to know.
He huffed, undoubtedly pissed, but he didn’t stop me as I unlocked the closest door and was greeted with the muzzle of a handgun.
I stepped back quickly, but then heard that voice again.
“Asia, is it you?”
I looked toward the voice and trembled with relief.
“Bridget!”
The older woman was flanked by two other figures.
I glanced at one quickly—a man. Maybe fifty, in decent shape, bald head.
Then I looked to the other .
A devastatingly beautiful brunette in a wrinkled charcoal gray pantsuit.
“Caitlin?”
“Are you going to let us in, Asia?” she asked, attitude radiating from her every word.
But her hands trembled. She glanced over her shoulder twice, her throat bobbing with each hard swallow. For just a second, her eyes met mine with a naked, terrified question. Then she blinked, set her jaw, and her old attitude was back.
Yeah. Definitely Caitlin.
I stepped aside and ushered them in.
“Miss Newman?”
I looked at the other members of the group and took in the young Mexican woman and the lanky teenager next to her.
“Lourdes!”
I hugged the young woman quickly and looked at her brother, Miles.
“Where’s Esteban?”
I knew how stupid the question was the moment the words were out of my mouth.
Lourdes’s expression crumbled, and Miles blinked and looked away, clearly holding back tears .
“He didn’t make it out of the courthouse,” Lourdes finally said.
“Let’s save the niceties. Get in here,” Jack muttered.
He stepped from behind the door and ushered the others in.
I realized why.
We were practically having this conversation outside—and that wasn’t safe.
I stepped aside so everyone could enter.
I hugged Lourdes, then Miles. They both smelled of smoke and sweat.
Then I hugged Bridget.
“What happened?” I said.
Bridget sniffled. “I spotted Caitlin and we chatted on the way out of the courthouse. Then everything went to hell. In all the chaos, we stumbled across Miles and Lourdes. And Elliot.”
She trailed off as she looked at Miles and Lourdes, and I guessed she left out details about Esteban.
“We made our way back to Judge Hanlon’s chambers and just hunkered down and waited. ”
Bridget swiped at her face, smearing some of the dirt on her cheek.
This was the first time I’d seen her as anything less than perfectly dressed.
Her close-cropped hair was unkempt, and she wasn’t wearing make up. The pocket on her silk button-down shirt was ripped and hung like a wrinkled tissue.
She didn’t look like the meticulous, vivacious sixty-five-old I’d become fast friends with.
She looked like the hell we’d all been through.
So did Caitlin.
Her pants were ripped at the knee and her white blouse was so dirty, it looked beige.
“We decided to make a run for it. We made it back home, but Irv…”
Bridget dabbed her eyes but didn’t allow a tear to fall.
“And who are you?” Caitlin said, her already husky voice just an octave lower, and her gaze firmly on Jack.
“Jackson Thorne,” Jack said.
Caitlin swiveled to look at me. “Where’d you find him? ”
I grit my teeth, trying to keep my annoyance at bay.
It was Caitlin. She was guaranteed to climb all over every nerve I had.
But now wasn’t the time or place for that bullshit from the past, so I vowed to keep myself in check.
“He actually found me. Well—sorta. Anyway, we got stuck in the elevator. Did the same thing as you. Hunkered down and then went to Judge Hanlon’s…”
Caitlin was also one of the judge’s clerks, and at the mention of his name, she perked up.
“I should have thought of that,” she said.
“Yeah. He didn’t make it,” I said.
Bridget dabbed her eyes again. She was Judge Hanlon’s court reporter for close to twenty years, and was very close with his late wife.
It wasn’t at all uncommon for her and Irv to grab a bite of dinner with the judge after work.
They were friends.
“It was quick,” I said, trying to give her what reassurance I could.
“Good for him. Irv didn’t get so lucky,” she said morosely. “He was there…but it wasn’t re ally him. It looked like Irv. It even wore that ridiculous smoking jacket. But then I saw the eyes…”
Bridget wiped her brow, then moved.
“It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. He looked at me—but he didn’t look at me, you know?”
“I do.”
I felt that way about Jorge but couldn’t imagine how it felt for Bridget.
Jorge was a nice man and work friend. Bridget and Irv had been together pushing forty years.
“It was him. My Irv. But it wasn’t him,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said.
“He was dead, Asia,” Bridget said.
“I know.”
She looked at me, surprised.
“You do?” she said.
“Yeah. They’re dead. I know that.”
“This is ridiculous,” Caitlin hissed. She shifted where she stood, arms hugging her ribs, her eyes wide. Haunted. Then she shook herself out of it, rolling her eyes hard.
“And what exactly is ‘this’?” I asked .
“We’re sitting here making a grieving widow feel better by pretending that ghosts or zombies or whatever are real,” Caitlin said.
“Caitlin, open your eyes. Have you seen what’s been happening?”
She shook her head. “You don’t know what I’ve seen, Asia. But dead people are not walking. I’m sure the authorities are working on it.”
Jack scoffed, earning him a frown, but Caitlin quickly turned the expression into a flirty smile that seemed positively grotesque given the circumstances.
“What makes you think there are still authorities?” Jack asked.
“We heard something on the radio, but I don’t think…” Miles trailed off and then looked at Caitlin, who frowned again.
“What did you hear?” Jack asked.
Miles shifted from foot to foot. Then, after he cleared his throat, he started.
“It said, ‘This is not a test. No one’s coming,’” the boy said—with a maturity and finality that was far too great for someone as young as him.
“That’s BS,” Caitlin said. “We just have to stay in one place long enough for them to get things back to normal.”
“And that’s why you were looking for a restaurant?” I said.
“Yeah. Supplies. Food and water are important. I thought it would be a good place to stay for a while. So this was my idea.”
Caitlin stared at me, trying to gauge my reaction.
I paid Caitlin no mind on the best of days. And these were far from that.
I didn’t react. I just nodded.
“We probably heard the same message then. It said no help was coming,” I said.
“You believe everything you hear on the radio, Asia?”
“No, Caitlin. But I believe what my eyes show me. And they show me that there’s no help,” I said.
“Help or not—we still gotta survive,” Caitlin said.
Jack stepped in, cutting off the conversation. “Find a seat,” he said, looking at the others. Then he looked at me. “Asia, I need to speak with you. ”
His words were not a request—or even a suggestion.
It was an order.
And I didn’t dare disobey it.
I followed him to the back of the restaurant and into the surprisingly large storeroom.
We briefly considered setting up here, but wanted to make sure we had a way in and out.
Jack looked at me, and I spoke before he could.
“Are you about to chastise me for helping people?” I said.
“I don’t need to say it, because you already know. But give me the read here.”
“Lourdes and Miles are brother and sister. Lourdes finalized his adoption after their parents passed away. She’s a good person.”
“The others?”
“Don’t know the guy but he seems harmless. Bridget’s good. Kind and sweet. And Caitlin…She can be…trying. But I can handle her,” I said.
“You’d better be able to. Or I will,” he said before switching gears. “What about the plan?”
“I don’t think it changes. We still need to get to Uncle Levi’s. Maybe help would be useful. Two hands are better than one and all that.”
“You think your uncle would take them in?”
“I don’t know if my uncle will take me in. In fact, he might take them in before he takes me in. But we can see,” I said.
“Then let’s go tell them about it,” he said.
We emerged less than two minutes later, having made the decision.
“I hope your private chat resulted in a plan,” Caitlin said.
“We’re going to Asia’s uncle at the Tennessee–Arkansas border,” Jack said.
“What? I don’t want to?—”
Jack cut Caitlin off with a hard look.
“Nobody asked you to,” he said.
“I just mean doesn’t it make sense to stay in a bigger city? When they figure things out, we’ll be close to the supplies.” Her voice was high and hopeful. I almost tasted how badly she wanted someone to tell her she was right.
Jack’s jaw ticked and I saw that flicker in his gaze. Maybe Caitlin would get to Jack before she got to me .
“Arkansas–Tennessee border’s not a walk in the park,” Elliot said.
“No, it is not. But it’s the way,” Jack said.
“But what about the?—”
Caitlin’s voice caught for a heartbeat, and I heard an unfamiliar fragility. Then she squared her shoulders, like she was physically shoving that sign of weakness down.
“Caitlin, what aren’t you getting? There’s no help coming. We have to take care of ourselves,” Bridget said.
She didn’t raise her voice.
I don’t think I ever heard her raise it—but her consternation, her fear, got even Caitlin’s attention.
“Fine. But…”
I shook my head, and Caitlin finally trailed off.
“So what’s next?” Lourdes said.
Every eye in the room turned to me.