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KATE
“Mom.” Carter pounds twice on my bedroom door before barging in. “Mom, get up.”
The urgency in his voice has me bolting upright. “What is it?”
“There are people outside.”
Alarm spikes through me. “What kind of people?” I jam my feet into my shoes. The last time people found us, they stole our food and threatened to kill us.
“Families.”
The word stops me cold. “Families?”
Carter’s lips are tight. “Yeah.”
I snag my jacket off the floor and pull it on over my T-shirt. Jenna is waiting for us in the hall.
“Caleb was on watch and spotted them,” she says. “They got here just before sunrise. Caleb has his rifle trained on them.”
We hustle into the stairwell, up to the third floor, and then climb the ladder to the roof.
We’ve been busy the past few days, having completed our ring of cars around the compound as an extra line of defense. The only thing we have left to do is place the rebar poles to impale zombies, and there’s a pile in the parking lot waiting for us.
Caleb, Ben, and Ash are all crouched on the edge of Creekside, rifles to their shoulders. The sky is a murky blue, the rising sun staining the horizon a blotchy yellow.
I hurry to the edge of the roof, following the line of the rifles to a spot on the ground.
Between securing our compound and capturing the alpha zom, I’ve been feeling like we’re on top of the madness the world has thrown at us. That feeling goes out the window as I peer between Laurel and Fern dorms.
Standing just beyond the cars and fencing is a man, hands raised above his head.
“How many?” I take the binoculars Jenna passes to me.
“I counted seven,” Caleb replies. “Five adults and two kids. Though there could be others out of eye sight.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“Other than to tell them to halt or risk being shot, no,” Caleb replies.
“They need to turn their asses around and leave,” Ben growls.
I focus the binoculars on a man with a scraggly beard and a scuffed brown leather jacket who stands at the forefront of the group. Even in the half-light, I see the gaunt hollows of his cheeks and neck. I recognize the desperate look in his ragged eyes
I shift the binoculars to the cluster of people behind the lead guy. They look as gaunt and desperate as the man. I see the forms of the kids, but they’re hidden between the adults and I can’t make out their faces.
“Did they say what they want?” I lower the binoculars, passing them to Carter. The rest of the group has arrived on the rooftop, all of us surveying the newcomers.
“He asked for help,” Caleb replies grimly, never taking his eyes off the people at the far end of his rifle.
Help. They look like they need help.
“I’ll talk to them.” I turn, heading for the ladder.
“Mom, no.” Carter grabs my arm. “It might not be safe. You remember what happened with Johnson and his crew.”
How can I forget? Even so, I can’t write off the newcomers without meeting them first.
“Human beings are few and far between. We can use friends more than we can use enemies,” I reply, repeating something Alvarez once said to me. “I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
“I’ll go with you.” Ben steps up to my side, eyes narrowed and lips compressed.
“But—” Carter begins.
“We have three options,” I reply. “We can shoot them. We can tell them to go away. Or I can talk to them.” The sun has crept up over the last few minutes, making it easier for me to see the ragged group of people on the other side of our car barrier. “I’m going to talk to them.”
No one tries to stop me as I make my way to the ladder. Ben is on my heels.
I want to believe there are good survivors out there, like us. People who don’t see the apocalypse as an excuse to indulge the darker side of human nature. Ash, Caleb, and Ben are all examples of that. Susan and Gary, too. We’re a stronger group since they joined us.
Before we exit Creekside, Ben puts a hand on my arm. “We need a way to signal each other if something goes wrong.”
I frown. “Like a code word?”
“Exactly.”
I think for a moment. “How about Five Leaf?” That was the name of the brewery we holed up in the night we rescued Susan and Gary. I think of that night more often than I should.
Ben nods, mouth set in a firm line. “Five Leaf. I’ll stay two steps to the right of your five at all times. You do the talking. You see anything off—and I mean anything, Kate—say the word.”
Taking a deep breath, I head toward the perimeter fencing. The morning is crisp, the asphalt damp from last night’s rain. The air smells fresh, cleansed of the dust and debris that’s hung in the air ever since we blew up College Creek and the library.
Ben keeps his rifle raised, barely making a sound as he dogs my footsteps. I stop when I’m ten feet away from the newly erected fence, grateful to have it between me and the strangers.
The man in the battered leather jacket stares at me, hands still raised. I don’t have to turn around to know Caleb and Ash still have rifles trained on him from the rooftop.
“My name is Kate.” I raise my voice to carry over the line of cars that separates us. I’ve become so accustomed to the quiet—of being quiet—that raising my voice automatically makes me glance around for zombies.
“I’m Leo.” The bushy man’s eyes dart from Ben to my people on the roof. “This—I—we saw the explosions. We—we came from—” He swallows. Even from twenty feet away, I sense the grief roiling off him.
My breath catches in my throat. I suddenly know exactly where this ratty band is from. Cold sweat beads my spine.
“You came from Eureka.”
He flinches, as though I’ve ferreted out a truth he was trying to hide. “Yes.”
A low growl of fury rumbles up from Ben.
“You led that horde straight to us.” Fury washes through me, making it difficult to breathe. I see my knife blade as it slams through Jesus’s temple. I see Lila fall.
I have a very strong urge to wrap my hands around Leo and strangle him.
“We didn’t mean to,” Leo whispers. “We were desperate. We’ve been living in in a condo complex in Eureka ever since the outbreak. We’ve been surviving, but we weren’t prepared for—for the zombies getting smart.” His voice is strained. “There were forty-seven people in our community before they hit us. We had no choice but to try and outrun them.”
Forty-seven.
Only seven people stand outside our home.
The thought makes me sick. A pang goes through my heart.
It’s an effort to keep my face impassive. “We’ve seen it, too. The zombies are evolving.”
“They’ve become goddamn hunting packs.” Leo’s voice twists with agony.
“You were in cars. You painted a big target on your backs with all that noise. Hell, we heard you from miles away.”
“They were everywhere,” Leo replies. “Our complex was overrun. The vehicles were our only options.”
“You got some of our people killed,” Ben snarls. “When you roared past campus, you brought them right down on us.”
Leo’s face ripples with anguish. “We didn’t do it on purpose. We didn’t know what else to do.”
“That doesn’t change the outcome.” Ben’s lips are pressed into a tight line.
What would I have done, had I been in Leo’s position? Zombies behind us, an impassible car maze in front ... I close my eyes and shake my head. Leo took the only road open to him. I would have done the same thing had I been in his position.
I stare at the other man, meeting his gaze. He licks his lips, looking back at me with hope.
“We saw the explosions and hoped to find other survivors on campus,” Leo continues. “It took us over a week to figure how to get here after we ran out of gas ... zombies are everywhere.” This last part trails off in a whisper. I have no doubt he lost people after they ran out of gas.
“What is it you want?” I need to hear him spell it out.
Leo stares at me. Seconds tick by.
“We want to live,” he says finally. “We came here looking for other people. We’ve lost everything ...”
He looks so lost and so tired it makes my heart ache. I know that look. There have been times when I’ve felt just how he looks. No one can fake that.
I can’t turn my back on it. Even if these people did inadvertently bring about the deaths of Jesus and Lila. Or maybe it’s because of their loss that I find myself wanting to help. As if doing the right thing can bring us all redemption.
I glance at Ben, my mind made up. He gives me a tight look.
“No one comes in without first getting checked for bites,” he says in a voice pitched loud enough for only me to hear. “And they surrender all their weapons.”
I nod, turning back to Leo. “We’ll be having breakfast soon. You can come in and share a meal with us if you agree to a few conditions.”
I don’t know what I expected his response to be. A smile of relief, maybe. A heartfelt thanks.
What I don’t expect is for Leo’s shoulders to slump, as if a giant weight has just slid off them. He puts a hand over his eyes, a quiver running through his body.
Ben stiffens, bringing the rifle up.
“Don’t.” I put out a hand, pressing on his shoulder. “Don’t. It’s okay.”
A single sob breaks out of Leo’s throat. It’s a sound of mingled sorrow and relief. He wipes his eyes and turns, beckoning to his tiny group of fellow survivors.
“Name your terms,” he says in a quavering voice.
“Everyone surrenders their weapons and agrees to a full inspection for bites. No one comes in here with a bite.”
“Or anything that looks like a bite,” Ben mutters.
“Or anything that looks like a bite,” I amend.
Leo is nodding before I even finish. “Yes, okay. Whatever you say.”
I don’t even think he’s listening to me. I could probably ask for his right foot and he’d hand it over.
“Come on,” Leo calls to his people. “It’s all right. They’re going to help us.”
His people creep forward. They’re filthy and hollow-eyed. They look like they’ve barely eaten. Their clothing is torn and caked with grime.
When they look at me, my throat tightens. I may have failed Jesus, and I may have failed Lila. Hell, in some ways, I even failed Frederico.
Maybe, just maybe, I can begin to make up for it by helping these people. There’s room in Creekside for new family members.