But she was nervous for a different reason: she felt worry for the kid. She kept thinking about him and just couldn't reconcile the fact that he seemed nothing like the other boorish murderers from Zed's group that Noah had described; he was untrusting, but he seemed to harbor a quality that was foreign to that group, which she could only describe as good-heartedness. She had been thinking to herself for hours as she paced around camp, waiting for Noah to come out of the infirmary with news about Randy's condition, and she wanted to ask him if Randy could stay in the camp permanently. But she knew Noah would never agree to it, and she went over every scenario of conversation in her head that would convince him otherwise.
She spoke to Kathy, and she was the only one whom she told what was going on. She didn't particularly want to, but Kathy pried in, needing to know everything that was going on around camp. She was a firebrand with pale skin and frizzy red hair who mostly worked in the infirmary, and she was one of the more unpleasant people Sarah had met since coming to Noah's Ark. She often went to Noah with any dirt that she could dig up on others, and Sarah tried to keep her relationship with her to a friendly acquaintance at best. Kathy said that she would talk to Noah about it later, and then she left.
Finally, Sarah heard the door behind her creak open and she turned to see Noah emerge out into the night, looking flushed and exhausted. There was a little blood on him that she knew belonged to Randy, and she waited with bated breath.
He leaned against the railing next to her and let out a long breath. "He's fine," Noah said.
"He's going to make it?" she asked nervously.
"Yeah. We had to take off his leg, though. There was nothing left worth saving."
"But he'll recover?"
"He'll recover."
She looked him up and down, still trying to find the words to ask him if Randy could stay, but he didn't even notice that she was staring at him as he blankly looked off in the distance, his drained eyes starting to droop; he almost looked like he was going to nod off on the spot.
She relented and realized he was in no condition to have this conversation; and in fact, she could more than use the rest herself.
"Well, thanks for telling me," she said. "I think I'm going to head to bed now. You should get some sleep too... you look exhausted."
He slowly turned to her and nodded. "Yeah, I think I have a ratty old mattress calling my name."
They both walked inside, and Sarah went ahead and kept to herself as she headed down the hallway for her dormitory and left Noah to get some rest.
"Hey, hold on a minute," he said.
She turned around and he was standing just outside his office at the end of the hall.
"Will you join me for a minute?" he asked.
"Of course," she said, and they went inside. He shut the door and stared out the window for a moment at the peaceful camp outside. Pretty much the only people awake outside were a small handful of guards keeping watch at the top of the wall and the odd person or two who hadn't turned in for the night yet.
Noah closed the blinds and turned to her. He was tired, but there was still a small spark left in him that lit his face in a smile.
"What is it?" she asked, but even as she said the words, she knew exactly what was on his mind, because it was on hers too.
He came up to her and gently grabbed her arms, brushing his hands up and down them. "I just feel like we got interrupted earlier."
"Oh yeah?" she said, playing coy. "About what?"
"I don't know... something about you enjoying spending time with me, and me feeling the exact same way about you."
The way he was looking at her caught her off guard: even though his eyes were sleepy a few minutes before, they were sharp and forceful now. All pretense disappeared from her and she once again found her eyes tracing the features of his face. "I do like spending time with you," she said.
He reached up and placed a hand to the side of her face, tilting it up slightly. "I'm glad," he said. Their eyes mingled for one last time before he leaned in.
An electric chill ran down her spine as she waited with her eyes closed. The feeling was so intense and so pleasurable. But she only got to feel it for a moment.
"Get off me, you son of a bitch!" someone yelled from outside.
Noah paused in mid-kiss, his lips almost to hers, and waited, hoping whatever sudden disturbance was happening outside would go away.
"You're a goddamned thief! I saw what you did!"
Both Noah and Sarah let out a disappointed sigh as they slowly opened their eyes. They heard a sudden crash and they ran outside to see what the problem was.
She was shocked to see Mark and another man from camp in a fistfight, shoving each other into some lawn chairs around one of the campfires.
"Hey!" Noah yelled as he ran down the stairs. He looked up at the guards standing on the wall who were grouped around near the front of camp, watching the scuffle unfold. "Down here!" he ordered them. There were half a dozen of them standing around watching, and four of them descended the ladders down to the ground.
The two men were locked in a wrestling hold and shoving each other back and forth. Mark lost his balance and flew back into a stack of rice bags, sliding off the side and trying to get back to his feet. The other man lurched forward to descend upon him again and Noah jumped behind him and tried to wrap up his arms, but in the man's blinding fury, he bucked him off and inadvertently swung an elbow into Noah's face, sending him reeling back.
"Get off me, you psycho!" Mark yelled from the ground as the other man jumped on him. The guards from the wall ran up and pulled the man off and restrained him.
Someone helped Mark up to his feet, and Noah got up, patting his face, checking for blood, but he was fine. He shook his head, waiting for the stars to fade away, then he marched in front of the man, who was still writhing around under the grip of the guards, and he shoved a finger in his face.
"Knock it off, Hank!" Noah bellowed. "What the hell's gotten into you?"
"He was stealing food!" Hank yelled, twisting under the men's grip. "I saw him do it!"
"I did no such thing!" Mark retorted, with a stunned look on his face.
"I saw him prowling around the greenhouse!" Hank said. "He was stealing a bunch of food for him and his rotten family. He pulled a bunch of it right out of the ground and hid it away in a basket!"
"Where?" Noah asked. He was surprisingly calm despite what was going on as Sarah stood next to the heated debate with a churning feeling in her gut.
"I don't know where!" Hank said, even more angered. "But he's doing it! I saw him! He stole some rice too!"
"You fucking prove it!" Mark yelled.
"Go check the greenhouse!" Hank said. "He tore up a bunch of stuff! I heard him talking about leaving camp too! Said he was gonna take as much stuff with him as he could!"
"You're lying out your fucking ass!" Mark said, his voice starting to shake.
"Who was he talking to?" Noah asked, still calm.
"I didn't see who, but he did!" Hank said.
Noah looked over at one of the guards and nodded toward the greenhouse. The man ran off and disappeared around the corner of the main building while Noah just stared the two men up and down. He stood near Mark who was clearly upset and shaking, but he didn't seem like much of a threat to lash out at Hank. Hank on the other hand was still squirming around under the grip of the two guards behind him, his eyes like fire.
The guard came back from the greenhouse a moment later and just nodded at Noah.
"Food was taken?" Noah asked.
"Yes boss, there's a fair bit of stuff dug up in there," the guard said. "He's right."
Mark's eyes went wide. "No..." he said. "I didn't."
"I told you!" Hank shrieked. "I told you he's a lying sonnuvabitch!"
"I didn't!" Mark yelled, but his voice was getting shakier. He looked around from one person to the next with pleading eyes, as if asking them if they believed him.
"I heard him talki
ng about trying to get into the bunker and stealing weapons too!" Hank said.
"What?!" Mark cried, bewildered. "I... I didn't. I didn't." He was astonished and didn't know how to respond to the accusations anymore.
Noah considered Mark for a long moment, not sure what to think. He seemed genuinely confused about all of this, and he always knew Mark to be a good guy, but the circumstances were certainly suspicious.
The churning, nasty feeling in Sarah's gut intensified and she couldn't stay quiet anymore. "Don't do this, Noah!" she said. "Mark would never do this!"
"Thank you, Sarah," Mark sputtered. "Listen to her!"
"Noah, please," she pleaded, holding onto his arm.
He simply turned his head to her and said, "Not now, Sarah."
She was stunned and felt almost as if he just slapped her. She knew he didn't mean anything by it, but the fact that he couldn't even see that this was all bullshit against Mark was astounding. She knew Mark was innocent and would never do anything like this.
She took a few awkward steps away from Noah as he turned his attention back to the two men, then she spun and hurried away, feeling like she couldn't breathe; she had to get away from all of it and clear her head.
There were two guards still standing at the top of the wall by the front, watching the confrontation, and Sarah climbed the ladder and walked past them along the outer catwalk toward the side of the camp.
A fresh breeze came over the wall and brushed across her face, and the panic that was swelling in her chest eased a bit. She felt herself cool down as she walked and the voices behind her quieted. She gazed out into the city of Durham and watched its quiet stillness, where there was no trouble. She wanted it all to go away, but she was afraid that Mark was in serious trouble.
She walked all the way to the back of the camp and leaned on top of the wall. The grassy field extended out in front of her and she stared at the line of buildings marking the edge of the downtown area off in the distance. She was beat from everything that happened that day and was beyond exhausted, and the last thing she wanted to do was have to be involved in a mess like that. Her neck was sore and she closed her eyes and leaned her head down over the wall, massaging the back of it. The tension relieved a little, and she slowly opened her eyes.
Something was moving at the bottom of the wall. She strained her eyes to try and see what it was, at first thinking that it was just a large patch of grass that was swaying in the wind. As she stared down, what she was seeing came into focus, and she put a hand to her mouth to muffle a startled cry.
Two men were huddled at the bottom of the wall, dressed all in black. They were fiddling with something on the wall, but she couldn't make out what it was. A moment later, they nodded to each other then turned and ran across the grassy field toward the buildings in the distance.
Sarah looked down at the wall and saw something attached to it. It was small and almost looked like a tiny box, but it was hard to make out in the darkness. And there was something else to it, too... she didn't know if her mind was playing tricks on her or not, but she thought she saw a little red flash.
She leaned down as far as she could go without actually toppling over the wall and concentrated. She saw the flashing again; it was a tiny red light blinking in a slow and steady rhythm. Then she finally realized what it was.
She instinctively stepped back from the edge of the wall, nearly throwing herself over the railing at the edge of the catwalk and falling to the ground. She steadied herself and ran to the nearest guard post, snatching up a pair of binoculars. She held them to her eyes and peered out across the field at the two fleeing men. They had reached the end of the field and crossed the road to the buildings.
There was a small hotel at the edge of one of the streets that was taller than all the other buildings around it—about four stories high. The entrance was almost out of sight, blocked by another row of buildings across from it, but she saw the men flee through the front door and disappear.
She put the binoculars down and ran as fast as she could to the front of camp, screaming Noah's name.
Everyone was still standing around Mark and Hank, trying to figure out what was going on, and now they had all stopped and looked up at her.
"Noah! I saw two men outside the wall!" she said, trying to make the rushing string of words flying out of her mouth coherent. "I think they planted a bomb!"
His eyes went wide for just a moment before he flew into action. He grabbed the nearest guard by the shoulder and said, "Wake up Wayne and Kenny and get them out here now!" then he looked back at Sarah and asked, "Where did you see them?" before he bolted for the nearest ladder and climbed up to the catwalk to join her.
Sarah led Noah and the two guards at the top of the wall over to the point where she saw them, and she gave him the binoculars and pointed out the bomb and the hotel where the two men in black fled.
He considered each thing for just a few moments and took a quick survey of the field around camp before he took off and ran back to the front, the two guards following him. She ran after them, terror clutching her chest. She had no idea who was attacking them or when the bomb would detonate, but she feared that it would go off any second and almost the entire sleeping camp wouldn't even realize what was going on until it was too late.
Wayne and Kenny stumbled out of the building, rubbing their eyes and looking around frantically in every direction.
"What's going on?" Wayne yelled.
Noah slid down the ladder and started barking out orders. "Kenny, go and get every man you can, gear up and keep them on full alert for an imminent attack! Wayne, grab your tools, we've got a bomb on the outside wall at the back!"
In just an instant, the tiredness from each man's eyes disappeared and they sprung into their respective actions.
In less than ten minutes, Kenny had every man he could muster in full tactical gear, ready and waiting in the camp, with the top of the wall staffed with twice the amount of men as usual.
Wayne, Noah, and a small squad of men stood outside the wall around the bomb.
"Everyone get away from me," Wayne said, hunched down in front of it. "If this thing blows, there's no sense in everybody dying." Noah and the men backed off a little more, and the people stationed on the wall spread out away from the area. Sarah stood next to the men on the wall and leaned over the edge, trying to get a good view.
After a few extremely tense minutes, Wayne simply turned and said, "Done." He removed the bomb from the wall and tossed it to Noah, who inspected it.
"Definitely Zed's handiwork," Noah said. He turned and looked around at the field, but still saw no forces lying in wait. He gave a final glance at the hotel that stood in quiet darkness, then he told everyone to get back in camp.
He ordered Wayne to keep watch for the first half of the night with a smaller contingent of men, and then to relieve themselves and let Kenny and the rest of the men take over the second half of the night. He also told Mark and Hank to go back to bed, and they would deal with it in the morning, and, unknown to anyone else, he told two guards to keep an eye on Mark for the night.
Sarah and Noah returned to the second floor of the building and headed for bed. He stood outside of his office once again and stopped Sarah just as she was about to turn into her dormitory.
"Thanks Sarah," he said, then he disappeared in his office and shut the door.
She stumbled through the dormitory like a zombie and flopped onto her bed after drawing the curtain shut. There was so much on her mind, but her train of thought was cut off almost instantly as soon as her head hit the pillow and she drifted into a very deep sleep that no amount of warfare could wake her from.
8
BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS
Sarah's eyes snapped open.
Noah stood over her, but she was stuck in that fragile state between a dream and reality where the mind can't decide what's real and what's not. She had been dreaming of something, but she couldn't remember what it was. She remembered
something about being by a waterfall and lush greenery and she desperately wanted to say that her son was there with her, but she couldn't be sure; it was too nebulous and far away now.
Her eyes shifted to Noah and she realized that she was in the ladies' dormitory as memories of the previous night came back to her. She slid up in her bed and rubbed her tired eyes. "What time is it?" she asked.
"Early," Noah said. "Almost six."
"What is it? Is something wrong?"
"No," he assured her. "But I need you to come with me right now. Get dressed and meet me out front in five minutes." And with that, he turned and left.
She was still on the fringes of a dream and she couldn't quite understand what was going on, but she took his word for it and trusted him. It sounded like she didn't have time to freshen up, but whatever he wanted her to do seemed important.
She got out of bed and changed out of her nightgown, put on a bra and slipped into a pair of jeans and a tank top and wrapped herself in a light coat. She left the dormitory and walked down the hallway toward the catwalk.
Noah, Wayne and Kenny waited by the front gates of the camp. She looked around as she made her way to them, seeing if anyone else was curious as to what was going on, like they were all in on a joke that she wasn't.
But there was hardly anyone around, and the three men in front of her didn't look like they were in a joking mood; they were all in vests and loaded with automatic rifles and pistols. Wayne handed her an extra vest and she put it on without asking questions.
"Okay, let's go," Noah said. He nodded up at the two men standing on top of the wall on either side of the gates as Kenny and Wayne pulled open the wide metal doors. The two men climbed down from the wall and closed the gates behind them.
Noah surveyed the field.
The morning was decidedly cold, but the sun gave an edge of warmth that made it pleasant. Not a creature was stirring that anyone could see, and Noah pointed the way forward.
Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 2): A Rising Tide Page 7