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  As he walked back on board, someone pounded on the stairway door.

  “Hey! You gotta let me outta here!”

  “Pipe down,” Robert said.

  This only seemed to increase the man’s anxiety. Rapid-fire thuds, followed by, “You can’t leave me down here with him! Come on! Please! Let me out!”

  A sleepy-looking Pax came around the side of the toilets. “Our guests are awake, I take it?”

  “Jesus, man!” the guy behind the door yelled. “It’s inhuman! You can’t just leave me here! I don’t want to catch it! I don’t want to catch it!”

  Robert and Pax looked at each other.

  “What are you talking about?” Robert said.

  “It’s Aiden! He’s sick! I don’t want to be sick!”

  Robert looked back at Pax and whispered, “What do we do?”

  Pax moved up to the door. “Listen very carefully, Luke. We’ll let you out, but only if you promise to head straight off the boat and not touch anything. Do you understand?”

  “Come on, open the door! Come on! Come on!”

  “We are not opening anything until I know you will follow my directions.”

  “Sure, sure. Whatever. Just open it.”

  “Not good enough. What are you going to do?”

  “What? Uh, uh, walk off the boat.”

  “Without…?” Pax said.

  “Without what?” Luke asked.

  “Touching anything.”

  “Right. Without touching anything. I get off the boat without touching anything.”

  Pax turned to Robert, and said in a voice loud enough for Luke to hear, “Get the rifles.”

  “Hey, wait a minute!” Luke said. “What d’you need rifles for?”

  “To make sure you follow directions.”

  “I’ll follow them, dammit! Don’t shoot me.”

  Robert retrieved the rifles and gave one to Pax.

  “Tell me again what your instructions are,” Pax said

  “I, um, I go off the boat and don’t touch anything,” Luke said.

  “Okay. Now you’re going to hear some noise around the door, but you hold still until I tell you that you can open it. Got it?”

  “No problem.”

  From deeper in the hold they heard a muffled cough.

  Pax whispered to Robert, “You ready?”

  Robert pointed his weapon at the door and nodded. After setting his rifle down, Pax untied the rope holding the door closed and tossed it out of the way.

  As soon as he was rearmed, he said, “Open it. Slowly.”

  The handle turned and the door eased out, revealing a terrified Luke standing on the other side. More coughing echoed from below. Luke glanced over his shoulder as if the sound was a monster he could actually see, and then looked back at Robert and Pax, his eyes pleading for release.

  “Come on out,” Pax said.

  Luke stepped through the doorway. Robert and Pax adjusted their positions so they could keep several feet between them and Pax’s former kidnapper.

  “It’s a nice straight shot,” Pax said, nodding his head toward the dock. “Keep on going and everything will be fine.”

  As soon as the way was clear, Robert closed the staircase door.

  “I don’t want to be sick,” Luke said. “I don’t.”

  “Whether you are or not shouldn’t be what’s worrying you at the moment,” Pax said. “Keep moving.

  Luke walked across the deck as if his feet weighed a hundred pounds each. When he finally reached the edge of the ship, he stopped and looked back. “What am I supposed to do?” he asked.

  “Not our problem,” Pax said.

  “You can’t leave me here. You gotta help me.”

  “Nope,” Robert said. “We don’t.”

  Luke looked at Robert and then at Pax, panicked. “I’m sorry. About the boat, I mean. And…and pointing a gun at you. We were just trying to get home.”

  “Get. Off,” Pax said.

  Robert bobbed the end of his rifle to emphasize the point.

  “Where’s your compassion?” Luke asked.

  “I’m about three seconds from pulling this trigger,” Pax said.

  Luke used the first two to continue to stare before he finally scrambled onto the dock.

  “Don’t stop there,” Robert said, his rifle still aimed at the man.

  “I’m off, goddammit. That’s what you wanted.”

  “I said, don’t stop.”

  Luke clenched his jaw, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. “You can’t do this!”

  Pax adjusted the aim of his gun from Luke’s chest to the man’s head. “Move!”

  Luke huffed out a breath, whirled around, and started walking toward the street. He only made it about a dozen feet before he stopped, his head turned to the right, looking at something.

  Robert followed the man’s gaze, and then groaned under his breath.

  Kat was standing halfway between the storage building and the boat, cloth bags dangling in both hands. She had obviously been heading back to the Albino Mer, but had stopped when she saw Luke being escorted off.

  “Keep coming, Kat,” Robert yelled. “Don’t get anywhere near him!”

  Luke shot a quick glance back at the boat and adjusted his course toward Kat.

  “Don’t even think it!” Pax yelled. “Don’t you get anywhere near her!”

  Luke slowed but didn’t stop.

  “What’s going on?” Kat asked. She was frozen in confusion.

  “Aiden’s sick,” Robert told her. “Luke’s been exposed! You don’t want to get anywhere near him!”

  There was a second’s hesitation as the words sank in before Kat dropped her bags and began running toward the boat. Luke sped up, undoubtedly thinking he could use her as a bargaining chip to get back on the ferry.

  “Luke! Stop!” Pax yelled.

  The man was no longer listening.

  “Stay away from me!” Kat yelled.

  Jumping off the boat, Pax shouted, “Stop now! Last warning!”

  Luke was thirty feet away from Kat and showed no intention of stopping. Robert could see Kat was not going to outrun him.

  The boom of Pax’s rifle echoed across the water.

  Luke thrust forward, as if trying to dive the rest of the way to Kat, and smacked into the ground.

  With his rifle still tucked tight against his shoulder, Pax rushed over to the downed man, Robert following right behind.

  “Get on the boat,” Pax told Kat.

  She had halted in terror when Luke fell. “Is he…is he…”

  “Get on the boat,” Robert said.

  She looked at Robert.

  “Now,” he said. “Or stay here. But make the choice.”

  With a tentative nod, she headed for the ferry.

  Pax knelt down next to Luke.

  “Is he dead?” Robert asked.

  Pax scanned the body without touching it, and then stood back up. “He was dead the moment the virus entered his system.” A flash of anger touched his face as he looked at Luke. Without another word, he headed back to the boat.

  Robert glanced at the body one last time. The area around Luke’s eyes had started to darken, a sure sign the man was getting sick. A part of Robert wished Pax’s bullet hadn’t killed the man. A suffering death was exactly what Luke deserved.

  Another part of his mind tried to protest these thoughts, tried to point out how inhumane they were, that this wasn’t the kind of person Robert was, but it faded fast. That may not have been the way Robert was in the Before, but it was clear he couldn’t be that Robert anymore.

  As he lifted his gaze, he spotted the bags Kat had dropped. Several items had rolled out. Fruit, they looked like.

  He jogged over. Papaya and caimitos and even some rambutans. As he put them back into the bags, he discovered Kat had found more than just fruit. She’d also scored two larger packages of cookies, a box of Corn Flakes, and several bags of gummi bears.

  Pax was already untying o
ne of the ropes from the pier when Robert returned.

  “I take it you fueled us up,” Pax said.

  “I did,” Robert replied as he set the bags down.

  Kat was on one of the benches, her arms wrapped tight across her chest. Robert knew he should probably go talk to her, but it would have to wait. He met Pax at the front of the ferry, where a final line was all that was holding them to shore.

  “Wait,” Robert said as Pax started to release the rope. “What about Aiden?”

  “Nothing we can do for him.”

  “I realize that, but shouldn’t we get him off the boat?”

  Pax glanced at the door to the down staircase. “I don’t have any desire to go down there and carry him out, do you?”

  “No,” Robert admitted.

  “Better if we leave him there, then. There’s enough room on this deck and on top for everyone. We don’t need the below.”

  Robert was relieved. While he didn’t exactly like the idea of having someone with Sage Flu coughing under their feet, the idea of going down there and helping the man off the ferry was even less appealing.

  He took over untying them from the dock so Pax could head up to the wheelhouse. Even though Robert had more experience piloting boats, Pax had become the resident expert of the Albino Mer.

  Moments later, the engines fired up and the ferry pulled from the dock. Robert watched the expanse of water between shore and boat grow for a few moments before sitting down next to Kat.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “No,” she said after a moment. “No, no, no. I’m not all right.”

  He put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, take it easy. It’s over.”

  She looked at him as if he were crazy. “It’s not over. It’ll never be over. Everyone’s gone. They’re all dead.” Her voice trailing off, she said again, “They’re all dead.”

  He put his arm around her and pulled her close as she began to cry. He tried to think of something to tell her, to make her feel better.

  In the end, he said nothing.

  __________

  THE JOURNEY BACK to Isabella Island took a little over two and a half hours. As they came out of the channel and into the bay, Robert blasted the ship’s horn while Pax guided them toward the dock.

  “See anyone?” Pax asked.

  Robert was watching the hotel, but had so far seen no movement. He sounded the horn again, his gaze glued to the resort’s upper deck right outside the restaurant where they had left the others.

  “There!” he shouted as two people ran out onto the deck.

  The Albino Mer was still too far from shore for him to identify them, but he saw them disappear into the stairwell that would take them down to the bottom of the hotel.

  “I’ll get the ropes,” he said, and headed to the main deck.

  He grabbed the line attached to the bow and jumped up on the gunwale, steadying himself against a post to keep from falling into the water. He felt an odd mix of excitement and dread as he watched the dock approach. This island had been his home for a while now and he always enjoyed returning to it. But all the other times he’d come back, there had been people on the beach, Jet Skis on the bay, vacationers on the bar deck. Now the Isabella Island Resort looked deserted. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think everyone had died.

  Something else added to the eeriness, too. The morning sun glistened off the sheen from the virus solution that had been sprayed over the island, and was still clinging to many of the plants and parts of the building. If it weren’t for the death it represented, the sheen would have looked beautiful. Robert wondered how much rain it would take to restore the island to the paradise it once was.

  As the boat neared shore, Robert focused on the dock, ready to jump the moment it was within range. When they had closed to no more than fifty feet, he saw Renee and Estella running down the stairs that connected the bar deck to the beach. Though it had been only a day, it seemed he hadn’t seen them in forever.

  The Albino Mer slowed to a crawl, inching forward at a pace Robert suddenly found excruciating.

  Come on, come on.

  “Robert!” Estella yelled as she and Renee ran across the sand toward the dock.

  He waved back and checked the dock again. Close enough.

  He leapt over the water and landed with a few inches to spare at the very end of the dock. He moved forward with the boat as it came alongside and tied the line to one of the clamps. As he rose to his feet, Estella raced past Renee and jumped into his arms, hugging him tight.

  “When you did not come back last night, I thought…I thought something had happened,” she whispered in his ear.

  “Well, something did happen, but we also came back.”

  She pulled back far enough so she could look at him. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  She stared for a moment longer before pressing her lips against his.

  “So, um, there’s a stern line that needs to be tied off, too,” Pax called down from the open window of the pilothouse. “That is, if you don’t mind.”

  Robert reluctantly pulled from Estella’s embrace. “We can pick this up in a bit.”

  “Yes, we can,” she told him.

  He set her down and took care of the rear mooring line. As he returned to where the bow was tied off, Pax exited the boat.

  “It’s good to see you two,” Renee said.

  She hesitated a moment, and then gave Robert a hug.

  “Forgive me if I don’t put my tongue down your throat,” she told him as she pulled away.

  As Estella turned beet red, Robert said, “Forgiven.”

  Renee gave Pax a hug also.

  “Glad to be back,” he said.

  “Have we missed the plane?” she asked. “It was coming last night, wasn’t it?”

  “It’s waiting for us,” Pax said. “Which means we should—”

  “Who is that?” Renee asked, looking past them at the ferry.

  Robert turned and saw that Kat had come to the front of the boat.

  “That’s Kat,” he said. “It’s a long story. One I’ll be happy to tell you once we’re headed to the mainland. Is everybody ready?”

  Renee and Estella exchanged a concerned look.

  “Most everyone,” Renee said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Three people came down sick last night,” Renee said. “And another this morning. We’ve isolated them, but…”

  Robert turned to Pax. “Everyone was vaccinated. Why would anyone be sick?”

  “It happens on occasion, a reaction to the vaccine,” Pax said. “Same thing happens with all types of inoculations.” He looked at Renee. “I need to see them.”

  “That may be a bit difficult,” she told him.

  “Why?” Robert asked.

  “When they started getting sick, a few people began to wonder if Pax might have been lying about the shot. That maybe he wanted everyone to get sick.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Robert said. “Everyone saw the spray. If Pax wanted us dead, he would have let us go outside.”

  “I know that. I also know he wouldn’t have come back here until we were all dead if that was his plan.” With a gesture back at the hotel, she said, “But there’s a vocal minority in there that isn’t seeing things the same way.” She focused on Pax. “You go back in there, you’re liable not to come back out.”

  “I’ll talk to them,” Robert said.

  “They’re not particularly pleased with you, either. You did, after all, ‘run off’ with the enemy.”

  “All right, enough,” Pax said. “We need to get everyone off the island, and we need to do it fast. There’s no telling when Project Eden might return.”

  “I have a feeling some of them aren’t going to want to go,” Renee said.

  “And what?” Robert asked. “They’re going to stay here on the island?”

  “I’m just telling you what I think, that’s all.”

  “Then the
y can stay,” Pax said.

  They all turned to him, surprised.

  “Look, every life is important now. And yes, I want everyone on the ferry. But if we have to force some of them to join us, and they end up causing a problem later that might cost others their lives, then it’s better if they stay.”

  “What about the sick?” Robert asked.

  “Bring them.”

  “But they might infect the rest of us,” Estella said.

  Pax looked out at the island. “So might exposing yourself to all the virus the two of you just ran through.” He let his words sink in for a moment, then said, “Round everyone up and bring them down here. We’ll give people the choice. But no matter what, this boat leaves this dock in an hour.”

  11

  LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

  6:40 AM PST

  BEN HAD REACHED the northern edge of Los Angeles right before dark the night before. Knowing it would be easier to find the survival station in the daylight, he’d broken into a diner in Sunland, stretched out in the large corner booth in the back, and fallen fast asleep.

  Not long after eleven p.m., he snapped awake to the sound of shattering glass. At first he had thought it was one of the restaurant’s windows, but a quick check revealed they were all intact.

  Okay, not his building. But one close by.

  He made his way to the front of the diner. He was ten feet from the window, buried deep in shadows, when a second crash slashed through the otherwise silent night.

  He froze. That had been even closer. A building or two away, at most.

  As alarming as the sound was, what followed was truly terrifying.

  Laughter. Loud, obnoxious laughter.

  And then a second laugh, a different tenor than the first, but no less creepy.

  “That one there,” a male voice said, his words echoing along the street.

  “Easy,” another male voice scoffed.

  A few seconds of quiet ended with another window shattering and another gale of laughter.