“Uh,” was all I could come up with when he pulled his face away.
“Markin’ ya territory?” the Cajun man said to Ethan.
Ethan laughed. “Gotta make sure you keep those hands away from her, Byron.”
So the Cajun man had a name.
Byron put his hands up defensively. “I’d neva. I’m a true gentleman, you.”
“And who’s this?” Zoe cocked her head toward Roy and his daughter.
Damn Ethan. He threw me off with his welcoming. I unlatched myself from him and walked to Roy, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“This is Roy and his daughter Amanda. They’re friends from our previous survivor hideout.”
“Hi,” Roy said and Amanda stood slightly behind him, giving everyone a shy wave.
“Previous survivor hideout?” Zoe asked.
“Long story.”
“We all have one of those,” a new voice boomed through the small crowd.
People parted for the owner of the voice—a man with skin as dark as a starless midnight sky. He wore a green polo shirt and khakis and looked like he belonged in a country club. From the authority in his voice, I could only assume this was Wyatt, the man the other lady had been talking about. I was starting to think I had a problem with authority, because I was instantly wary of him. To be fair, my track record with people in charge hadn’t been “bring home to the parents” worthy since this all began—or even before that.
Maybe my teenage instinct had never really gone away, the instinct that told me no one could tell me what to do. I guess I had some more maturing to do, but I knew that already.
Roy stepped forward. “You got that right.” The man walked up to us and offered his hand. “Welcome to Hargrove, my fellow wanderers. I assume Crystal got your names?”
His accent was lightly southern, as if he’d moved here instead of being born in the South.
Crystal, the lady who’d stopped us, looked irritated. “I didn’t get a chance with all the excitement, Wyatt.”
“That’s fine. We can get them now.” He placed his hand on her shoulder, but she politely shrugged out from under his hand.
We breezed through another round of introductions as Crystal scribbled down our names in her notebook. I suppose it was wise to keep track of all the people coming in and out, but I didn’t like the idea of them cataloguing us.
Wyatt must’ve noticed my scrutinizing gaze, because he said, “We make sure we have everyone’s names when they enter to keep organized. This way, we have a means of accounting for everyone should something happen.”
“Smart,” Roy said, speaking for the both of us.
“They can stay with us, Wyatt. No need to assign ‘em a new house,” Ethan said.
“I had a feeling.” Wyatt smiled. “But I don’t think there’ll be enough beds. These condos are only two bedrooms each. Last thing I want is for someone to have to sleep on the floor. Why don’t you guys take number twenty-two? It’s ready to go.”
Ethan opened his mouth only to shut it.
“I’m stayin’ with my brother.” Chloe planted her feet and grabbed my hand. “And Bailey.”
“I wouldn’t dream of splitting you guys up. You can discuss living arrangements amongst yourselves. Just let Crystal know what you decide. Now, why don’t you go get settled in, and we’ll see you at supper. Hopefully we’ll get to hear that long story of yours.”
The crowd dispersed, returning to whatever they’d been doing before we arrived.
“I’m so glad to see you.” Zoe gave me another hug.
Ethan waved us on. “Come on. I’ll show you to the house he was talkin’ about.”
“What about the car? I’m not leaving it here to get scavenged,” I said.
“Follow behind me,” Ethan said.
I returned to the Mazda by myself, and at a painfully slow pace, followed them to our new condo. Chloe had latched onto Ethan’s hand, her mouth going a mile a minute. No doubt he will have heard our entire tale by the time we reached the house. Ethan couldn’t stop pulling Chloe in for hugs, as if he couldn’t believe she was really here. She happily hugged him back like her life depended on it. I was kind of envious, feeling like I’d been demoted.
Ethan pointed to our new abode, and I drove up the single-car driveway. Gold house numbers confirmed this was indeed house twenty-two. The cul-de-sac must have had at least forty small condos, not including the large clubhouse inside the entrance.
I got out and looked over the one-story home. The outside was painted light blue, and the trimmings were white to match the white picket fence—so suburban that it was creepy. It definitely looked out of place in an apocalypse. The people in the house to our right ran out to their porch and waved. I gave a stiff wave back. Yep, definitely creepy.
Roy whistled. “This is already better than the apartment.”
“And they didn’t confiscate my gun like you did,” I said.
“Hey, I was doing what I had to. You think they’ll want to know what weapons we have?”
“I’d bet on it, with the way they’re cataloguing people at the door.” I looked Roy in the eye. “Just don’t tell them about everything we have. Let’s keep some things to ourselves.”
Roy nodded just as Ethan approached us with a big smile on his face.
“I can’t believe you’re here! We just went back to John’s store yesterday to see if you’d gotten our present and directions.”
“Where is John?” I asked.
“He’s still out training some of the volunteers,” Zoe answered.
“Training volunteers for what?”
“How to shoot. You’d be surprised how few people can actually handle a gun.” Zoe smirked. “Kind of like you.”
“She’s gotten way better,” Chloe said, sticking up for me.
“I can vouch for that,” Roy added.
“Awe, you guys.” I pretended like I was tearing up.
“So how are we going to do this?” Zoe asked, a hand on her hip. “All four of us are staying in number seventeen.” She pointed across the street and down.
I didn’t feel right about abandoning Roy and Amanda, so I offered, “I’ll stay here with Roy and Amanda.”
“But, what ‘bout me?” Chloe asked, her eyes darting between Ethan and me.
Ethan looked down at her, surprised. “You’ll be with me, of course.”
“But—” Chloe looked up at me.
“I’ll be fine. Just down the road,” I assured her.
It was kind of nice she was worried about getting separated from me. Ethan gave me a look like he’d just realized this and glanced away guiltily. Chloe removed her hand from Ethan’s and ran to me. She hugged my middle. I messed up her hair, and she shrunk back to pat it back in place.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed, and he tugged at Chloe’s arm, seeing her wrappings for the first time. “What happened to your arm?”
“Got cut on a fence,” Chloe said, yanking her arm back. “I’m fine now. Bailey patched me up real well.”
She was putting on a brave face, but I still remembered her screaming when I’d had to hold her down to treat her wound.
Ethan looked at me, a question on his face.
“Remember when Darren stitched your arm? Well, I recalled him mentioning using superglue, so that’s what I did. The nurse at the apartment building we were staying at said Chloe’s arm was healing on track.”
“Maybe Oscar should give it a look, just to be safe,” Ethan said, and I frowned.
“Better unload some of our stuff,” Roy cut in before I could confront Ethan about him doubting my medical skills. In his defense I didn’t have any, but still, it was rude.
No one noticed the small gash on the back of my head thanks to my hair covering it. The last thing I needed was for Ethan to force me into an exam where the doctor would find out about my scratches and alleged immunity. I resisted the urge to run my fingers over the stitches.
We got to work grabbing what we could from the car and w
alked into the house. The front door was unlocked. According to Ethan, Wyatt had all the keys and claimed that since we couldn’t cut new ones, he would be holding on to the only copies. This raised a red flag, but then again, I could have been looking for reasons to not trust this place.
The smell of old lady perfume hit me. The small living room had two overstuffed couches and plenty of cat figurines—and cat blankets, and cat pillows, and even cat curtains.
“Totally your style.” Zoe grinned at me.
I chose to ignore her as I walked farther into our new home. A small kitchen with an island was off to the right of the living area, and a bathroom and two minuscule bedrooms occupied the back of the condo. The whole floor had to be no more than eight hundred square feet. I’d been in bachelor apartments bigger than this.
I dropped my backpack in the master bedroom, if you could even call it that. The only difference between the two rooms was that this one was large enough to hold a bed and dresser, whereas the other room could only fit a bed.
“These condos make the cabin look pretty big, huh?” Ethan said from the thin hallway.
“How do four of you sleep in this place?” I asked. There were only two queen-size beds.
“John and I take turns sleepin’ on the couch, while Zoe and Darren share the other room,” Ethan answered.
I walked back to the living room to question Zoe.
“Well no use hiding it now.” She sighed. “Yes, Darren and I are ‘together.’” She used air quotes when she said “together.”
Leave it to Zoe to ensnare a man in the apocalypse.
“Not that I didn’t see that coming a mile away,” I said, copying her words from when she’d spoken about Ethan and me.
She shot me a shameless grin.
“So where am I gonna sleep?” Chloe demanded.
“I’m sure I can convince John to take the couch permanently. Might have to bribe him though.” Ethan ran his hand through his hair, and I smiled. Being back with my old group was surreal.
“Well you better, ‘cause I’m not sleepin’ on the couch,” Chloe said.
Chapter 20
Once we were as settled in as we could get in this situation, Zoe practically shoved us out of the condo for our official tour. The good thing about the neighborhood was that it had its own integrated septic and water systems for the whole cul-de-sac, so the toilets and sinks worked. Their system ran off the nearby lake and streams and drained into swamp land a few miles away. The majority of it was solar powered, with the panels strategically placed on various front lawns and rooftops.
Roy was excited to find out how it worked, since he was the one who’d rigged the downstairs bathroom in the apartments. I’d asked what he did before the infection took over.
“A bit of everything,” he’d replied. I had assumed he was an engineer or something similar.
Chloe had introduced Ethan to Amanda and was telling her all about our life at the cabin.
“There are a few other kids here too. Some of the older ladies organized classes for ‘em,” Ethan mentioned, and Chloe’s face scrunched up.
“I am not goin’ to school.”
“That’s what you think,” Ethan said.
She crossed her arms. “That’s dumb. School is the last thing we need.” She looked up at me expectantly. “Bailey?”
I floundered for a second and fought the urge to say, “Listen to your brother.”
Instead, I went with, “You want to stay smart? Then you should definitely take those classes. Otherwise, I’ll have to dye your hair blonde.”
“You’re blonde,” Chloe retorted.
“Yes, but I’m the exception to the rule,” I said like I was the Queen of England.
Their laughter echoed around me.
“Hey!” I said defensively. “I’m smart. I just don’t make smart choices. There’s a difference, you know.”
“Well, I can testify to you not making smart choices,” Zoe said—pot calling the kettle black right there.
They were still laughing when we reached Ethan and Zoe’s condo. Ethan opened the door and quickly patrolled the space.
Chloe put down her pack on the kitchen island and scrutinized her new house. This condo was designed the exact same way, but lacked the accent pieces.
“I think I like the cat one better.”
“You won’t need to carry that around in here,” Zoe said when she spotted my gun.
I’d made sure to tuck my fully loaded Beretta into my waistband, since I didn’t know how secure this place was.
“Kind of a habit now. How exactly do they handle the weapon situation here?”
“If you need a weapon, they assign you one. They keep track of ‘em at the clubhouse and monitor who has what,” Ethan answered. “You have to hand over your weapons, but you can take ‘em out when needed if you pass their trainin’ course. Basically they want to make sure you can handle a weapon without hurting anyone. Most people feel better with less guns floatin’ around.”
I guess Wyatt would subject me to this training course soon, but I sure as hell wasn’t forfeiting my Beretta.
We left their condo and continued on with our tour. We passed one of the makeshift guard towers. A Filipino woman nodded at us from her perch atop the ladder platform, then returned to looking beyond the walls. She was decked out in camo and wielded a massive sniper rifle, and she looked like she took her job seriously.
Zoe and Ethan introduced Roy and I, along with the two little girls, to many wandering people, and I instantly forgot their names. There were five guard towers spread around the block in total. One for each wall, except for the front partition with the gate—that one had two watchtowers. A guard with a powerful sniper rifle manned each tower. Ethan explained that the guards took shifts during the day, and at night, they only had one person on duty as more of a lookout to sound the alarm should something happened. Any artificial light at night meant using more power, and the light would only draw in the infected.
Zoe said Darren sometimes took guard duty, but today, he’d decided to go out with one of the scouting crews. Obviously, he hadn’t been with Byron’s crew and still hadn’t returned. It seemed like everyone had a job to do, and I wondered where I would fit in. I had no desire to farm or care for the livestock.
Zoe mentioned that many of the women tended to various backyard gardens. There wasn’t enough space in the cul-de-sac to plant a large, proper garden, so they utilized most of the backyards to grow small crops. My mouth was already salivating at the thought of fresh vegetables. They also had a small chicken coop that provided eggs and meat, and they even had cows and a bull. I was thankful our condo wasn’t the one with the livestock in the back, which would stink.
Hargrove was fairly well put together, considering the circumstances. The rest of the people volunteered for scavenging trips to gather more supplies. That was the thing about communities: more people meant more mouths to feed. Large groups were great, until you had to think about the logistics. Zoe had mentioned that the official population of Hargrove was eighty-three with us here.
“What exactly do you do here?” I asked Zoe.
“Well, I teach the kids’ classes and take care of some of the gardens.”
I gawked at her.
“I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Yeah, well, the arts degree was just because my parents said I had to go to university. I wasn’t particularly interested in it.”
“You never mentioned that before.”
“Never really wanted to think about my future before, so I had no idea what was out there.”
“Fair enough.” I hadn’t thought past graduation before all this either.
“My job’s a lot less exciting than Ethan’s.” Zoe nodded toward Ethan.
Ethan waved her words off. “Naw, it’s not excitin’. I help out Wyatt with anythin’ that needs gettin’ done.”
“So you’re kind of in the inner circle then?” I asked. That could come in handy.
Ethan looked at his feet. “I dunno ‘bout that. I do a bit of everythin’ instead of just one job.”
“If you’re looking for an in, Byron and the sergeant are Wyatt’s right-hand men,” Zoe added.
“That’s not what I meant, but I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Is Wyatt the one doing the broadcasts?” Roy asked.
Ethan nodded.
“How come he never gives directions to Hargrove?”
I wanted to know that as well.
Zoe answered, “He did at first, but then too many people showed up at once, so he stopped giving directions to avoid overcrowding. This place is designed great, but the space is limited.”
Just as Roy had speculated back at the apartments.
“What kind of job do you think I should take?” I asked, redirecting the conversation.
“Do they still need a handyman?” Roy asked.
“You guys don’t have to worry about that right now. Wyatt prefers that people get adjusted before they start contributing,” Zoe said.
“You guys can’t have been here that long, two weeks at most, but you’re already doing jobs,” I pointed out. “How did you guys all end up here anyway? The cabin was in chaos when I got back.”
Zoe and Ethan shared a look.
Chloe tore away from her conversation with Amanda to butt in. “Yeah, let’s hear!”
“Darren and I arrived here first,” Zoe said, her voice thick. “When we realized infected had overrun the cabin, Ethan ran out to find Chloe. He was gone for a long time before Darren demanded we leave, so we took the truck and hoped we would run into you on our way out. There were so many infected, and we had no idea what else to do. And once we got in the truck, we couldn’t spot any of you, so we left.”
She bowed her head, and Ethan placed a hand on her shoulder. “There’s nothin’ you guys could’ve done against that many infected, especially with us scattered ‘round like we were.”
Zoe looked at me, her eyes pleading. “I didn’t want to leave you, but we had no choice.”
“Zoe, I left when I didn’t see you guys too, so I’d say we’re even.” I gave her an awkward one-armed hug—my go-to comforting gesture.
“We’re together now,” Chloe said. “That’s what matters.”
This Would Be Paradise (Book 2) Page 11