She adjusted several dials and then listened. After a moment, she pressed up the volume.
“Barcelona . . . Spain?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No,” she said and then listened, “they are saying Barcelona Lighthouse in Westfield, New York. They are on Lake Erie,” she replied, listening. “They have a looping distress call running.”
I heard the static of a walkie-talkie again.
“Yeah, I’ll get it. It’s just over in New York. I forget the name.” The woman was returning.
Kiki pulled off the headphones. I dropped the paper and pushed open the window. “Jump,” I told Kiki. Following behind her, I bounced out of the window. For the second time, I landed on the roof of the porch. I did not like that this was becoming a trend. Motioning to Kiki, we ran down the porch roof against the side of the building. I waited breathlessly for the woman to shout but heard nothing. When we were a good distance from the window, I motioned to Kiki. We went to the side of the porch and carefully climbed down a flower lattice. We dropped onto the porch, surprising two older women who had been sitting there half-sleeping.
“Nice day today,” I said, and grabbing Kiki’s hand, we ran down the porch toward the front of the hotel.
“Oh my god, it’s like they are rounding people up,” Kiki said.
“Not anymore. What do we need to do to take that radio out?”
“We can pull down the antenna—that will hurt them. If I can get back into that room, I can kill the radio for good.”
“That’s what we need to do then,” I replied. “I guess we’ll need a distraction.”
“Set something on fire. That always works in the movies,” Kiki replied.
Kiki and I reached the front of the hotel. We scanned for Jamie and Buddie and for the right diversion.
“There,” Kiki said.
I followed her gaze. There was a small building sitting near the end of the hotel.
“Looks like a lawn shed or something,” Kiki added.
“Perfect, gasoline to keep it interesting and located in exactly the opposite direction of the antenna. You’re good,” I told Kiki.
She laughed. “Well, we Hamletville girls are hardy stock.”
A moment later Ethel and Summer came up on the porch, croquet wickets in hand. They were both smiling. I wished then that our escape to the HarpWind had been just that, an escape. How different things would be now.
“Layla, honey, that lady told you to leave off your guns,” Ethel said.
“I was going hunting,” I replied.
“Okay, honey, just be careful,” she said, patting my arm as she passed by.
“You be careful,” I told her. “Both of you,” I added, giving Summer a knowing glance.
She nodded and followed her mother inside.
Moments later Jamie and Buddie joined us.
“We got shooed off,” Jamie said. “Had to play dumb.”
“We know. We heard,” I replied, and then Kiki and I told what we had discovered. We decided then to head back to Jamie and my room to hatch out a plan somewhere less public. After some discussion, we decided we needed help. That is where Will and Dusty came in. After briefing them on the full story, and watching their jaws drop, we convinced them to help. An hour later, we were ready. It was already getting late so we knew we had to hurry.
“All I get to do is yell ‘fire?’ That’s no fun,” Will said. “Let me blow something up.”
“Maybe next time,” I replied with a laugh.
We kept it light, but all of us knew that if anyone was caught, there would be hell to pay.
Though Dusty still seemed unclear as to why we were destroying property, he agreed to come along to cover Buddie. His eyes were wide as he’d listened to Jamie tell how they’d tried to take me out and kidnap the girls, but I could see he still was not sure what to think. I didn’t blame him.
Jamie headed out to set the shed on fire while Dusty and Buddie, Buddie’s bow in tow, headed to the side of the building closest to the antenna. Lucky for us, there was a stand of trees on the antenna end of the hotel. From there, Buddie could make a shot. He’d secured a metal line to one of his arrows and had a small winch he was going to use as a make-shift pulley to bring the antenna down.
“I only get one shot,” Buddie said as he showed us his creation.
“I’m not worried. You’ll be accurate,” I smiled encouragingly.
Kiki and I headed to the employee stairwell again. To our luck, no one was around. We jotted down the same hallway to our hiding spot in the laundry room without detection.
Then, we waited. After awhile we heard yelling. Will.
Static on the walkie blared. “Front desk, what’s all that noise?” we heard a man ask.
“The god damned shed is on fire,” someone replied through static.
“Fuck,” I heard the man swear.
“Better get on it. She’ll be up soon,” a woman replied.
A moment later we saw a man storm down the hallway.
“Complication,” I whispered to Kiki and motioned for her to stay hidden.
I slid out of the room and snuck a look into the office. The woman we had seen earlier was sitting there looking at some papers. Her back was toward me. There was only one option. Moving quickly, I rushed the room, grabbed the woman by the back of the head and slammed her head on the desk. Knocked unconscious, she fell to the floor.
I motioned Kiki. We ran into the radio room.
“Let me cut power,” Kiki said and then, with a knife and screwdriver in hand, Kiki slid under the table. A moment later, the lights on the radio went dim. She then started pulling wires and breaking something that sounded like glass. She slid back out from under the table and looked the radio over. She grinned. “Kill the antenna,” she told me.
Unsheathing the shashka, I cut the wire. Kiki then pulled a couple of small electrical components out of the radio, sticking them in her pocket, and smiled at me. “Done,” she said.
“That was easy,” I answered.
Just then, we heard a loud crashing sound coming from outside. There was a tug on the wire running through the window. Moments later, the wire zipped away.
“Let’s go,” I whispered.
We ran down the hallway toward the employee stairwell. When we opened it, however, we heard noise coming up from below. We closed the door and headed down the hall in the other direction but voices rose coming toward us.
“Try the doors,” I whispered to her, but they were all locked.
At the last moment, I spotted the dumbwaiter in the wall. I grabbed Kiki. If either Kiki or I had weighed a pound more, we would not have fit into the commercial sized dumbwaiter. I pulled the door closed. At once we could feel we were dropping.
“Our weigh is pulling us down,” Kiki whispered.
The dumbwaiter lowered us gently to the first floor. I pushed open the door just enough to look out. We were in the kitchen adjacent to the ballroom. A number of people, including the odd looking hotel staff, were moving around preparing dishes.
I motioned to Kiki. There was a serving cart near us.
“You get under,” she whispered and then pointed to a chef’s jacket lying on top of the cart. “I’ll push.”
Moving quickly, we slid out of the waiter. Pushing the curtains on the cart aside, I hid under the cart. Kiki ducked low, pulled the jacket on, and then stood up and began to roll the cart from the room. I heard her set dishes on top.
We were near the exit when I saw feet approach Kiki.
“Where do you think you’re going?” a man asked her.
“Step off. I need to take this upstairs. Now.”
“For what?”
“For what? What do you think? She asked it be sent up. Why don’t you go ask her,” Kiki replied in her bitchiest tone.
“Leave the cart downstairs. You can take the tray up,” the main replied.
“And you can fix my broken back. I’ll push it to the stairs and bring the cart back when I’m
done. Now move,” Kiki said and with a shove of the cart, set off out of the kitchen.
She pushed the cart down a series of winding halls and after a few moments, she stopped. She pushed the curtains aside. “Come on,” she whispered.
She’d pushed the cart into a closet. She pulled off the jacket and put it and the wine decanter and glasses she’d set on top of the cart into the trash.
We then walked, as nonchalantly as possible, across the main foyer and back up to my and Jamie’s room. Jamie and Will were already waiting inside. Jamie and I shared a glance, both relieved the other was safe.
“It’s done,” Kiki said.
Then we waited.
“Maybe I should have brought the wine,” Kiki said. Moments later Buddie and Dusty arrived.
“No problems,” Buddie said. “It just made a hell of a noise coming down.”
“They came running, but no one spotted us,” Dusty added.
“But they will suspect us—you,” Buddie said to me.
“Yeah, but it was worth it. God knows how many others we just saved.”
“Maybe you should have just blown up the boat,” Dusty said.
“I’m not planning on swimming home,” Will told him.
Jamie and I exchanged a glance but said nothing. After more than an hour passed and we heard nothing, the others went back to their rooms and Jamie and I headed downstairs to check on Ian.
It was now dark out. They were awake and moving around. Their piercing eyes bore into me.
“Maybe we should have stayed back,” Jamie whispered.
“Doesn’t matter. They’d know where to find me.”
We found Ian sitting up in bed, the IV still attached to him.
“Ahh, here is the happy couple,” he said when we entered, startling both of us. Ian looked much better. His skin was looking less thin, his eyes less sunk in, the dark rings around them gone. “I thought you had forgotten me,” he added.
Jamie shook his head. “Never, little brother. How are you feeling?”
“They have been pumping me full of shit all day,” Ian said, looking down at the IV. “I don’t even know what all they got going into me, but I’m feeling good. Christ, Layla, what happened to your head? Rough sex?”
I had removed the bandage earlier, but the fresh stitches were still evident on my forehead. .
“Hey brother, no need for that kind of talk,” Jamie told Ian. Jamie looked as perplexed as I felt.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. They ever feed anyone around here?” Ian asked.
“Let me go see if I can get you something,” Jamie said and then left the room.
I sat down beside Ian and reached into my vest pocket where I had hidden the last piece of the chocolate bar Jamie had given me. I handed it to him.
Ian laughed sardonically but ate all the same. “Geez, Layla, you’re so generous,” he said.
“You saw the doctor today?”
“Yeah, they’ve got me on all kinds of meds. Rostov was just here. Creepy dude.”
I nodded.
“Hey Layla, when did you decide to go after Jamie? Before or after you spent all winter toying with me?”
“I never toyed with you. We are friends.”
“Be my friend but fuck my brother, that’s nice.”
“Almost as nice as you did me, right Ian?”
Ian looked down at his hands and played with the candy wrapper. “Yeah, you’re right about that,” he muttered.
Jamie returned. “They are bringing you dinner, brother,” he said and then spotted the chocolate wrapper. “You need anything else?” Jamie asked.
Ian looked piercingly at me. “I guess not,” he said bitterly.
Jamie picked up on the tone. “We’ll check back in later. Why don’t you get some rest,” he said. Jamie took my hand, and we made our way out of the room.
“Going back to your room, eh? Yeah, you two go ahead,” Ian called after us then laughed harshly.
I led Jamie outside, and we sat on a bench on the porch. The moon cast white light on the dark lake waves. The air was cool but smelled clean. The sweet scent of spring flowers and new growth perfumed the air. When you weren’t fighting for your life or performing demolition, the view was actually rather peaceful. Jamie was quiet. Only a few of the lanterns on the porch had been lit. In the shadow, I could see Jamie was upset.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have shared your gift with him,” I said.
“No, no,” Jamie said, picking up my hand and kissing my fingers, “bless your kind heart. It’s just . . .”
“It’s not him talking, you know that, it’s the medications and the illness. He’s not himself.”
“I’m sorry he spoke to you like that.”
I had to laugh. “He has spoken much worse to me, believe me.”
“It’s not right.”
“Well, it is what it is.”
We sat there for a long time, the moon climbing high in the sky. I could sense Jamie was feeling ashamed about going back to the room we shared together. I understood, so we sat and took in the moonlight even though all of my senses were on edge. The feel of danger was all around me. After a while, we decided to go look at the water. We found a quiet spot and sat watching the moonlight reflecting on the waves. A distance away from the hotel, I felt better. The view was beautiful.
Late into the night, we decided to head back. We were crossing the lawn to the hotel when we heard the yacht’s horn sound. We turned to see the boat headed toward the hotel. It pulled into the pier then sounded the horn twice more. From our view we could see a flurry of activity on board.
“Did they bring more survivors after all?” Jamie asked, straining to get a look.
“I don’t know, but something’s up,” I replied, regretting I’d left my binoculars in the room.
One of the crewman bounced out of the boat before the plank had been lowered and ran, quickly, across the hotel lawn.
Concerned, Jamie and I headed toward the pier. They were dropping the plank for a small group of about five or six very normal but war-torn looking survivors. Behind them two men rushed the body of a female back toward the HarpWind.
Jamie and I had just reached the end of the pier as they passed us. The woman they carried was bleeding profusely from a wound on her side. From her appearance, I knew her to be a vampire. Now I was confused.
“She’s not going to make it,” one of the men said.
They stopped and laid the woman on the ground. Then they both just stood over her. No one did anything. The new arrivals watched in horror as the woman lay on the ground, jerking and bleeding, seemingly dying.
“Isn’t someone going to do something?” one of them whispered.
“Do something,” Jamie told the two men.
They looked blankly back at him.
“What happened?” I asked the survivors.
“We aren’t exactly sure. We think one of our people who got sick grabbed her. We didn’t see it happen,” a man told me.
“Christ,” Jamie swore and pulled some medical gloves from his pocket. He started pulling them on.
“She’s one of them. You know that, right?” I whispered to him.
He nodded and bent down to look at the woman.
“Don’t do that,” one of the men said, but no one moved to stop him.
Jamie ripped the woman’s shirt away to reveal a nasty wound on her side. It was clear she had been bitten. As Jamie cleaned the wound, I kneeled down beside him. The woman breathed hard, blood sputtering from her lips. Her body twisted.
Jamie took the woman’s hand. He felt her wrist. “No pulse,” he whispered to me, but the woman was clearly moving.
We both looked at the injury. I remembered how it looked when April turned. This was not the same thing. I didn’t know what I was seeing. It was almost as if her body as trying to heal itself, and at the same time, the infection fought her. The battle seemed to have been going on for a while. Moments later, we watched as the wound finally sealed itself
closed. Then, something strange happened. The woman’s moon-like white skin started to regain color. Her pale skin took on a rosy, healthy glow. We watched as it spread across her stomach and up her neck to her face. Her lips turned pink, and the blush of life came to her cheeks. Her eyes closed. A moment later, she opened them again. They were now hazel colored. She lifted her hand and wiped the blood away from her mouth, grimacing at the taste.
Jamie took her arm again, his fingers pressed against her wrist.
The next moment I felt a tug on the back of my pants, and then, startling all of us, heard a gunshot.
The woman jerked.
I jumped up and turned to find Rumor standing there with my gun in her hand. She was wearing a long, golden ball-gown, the trimming barely hiding her breasts. The gun in her hand made for a stark contrast.
Jamie and I looked at the injured woman; the shades of life momentarily back in her face were now frozen in the grimace of death. Rumor had shot her between the eyes.
“I guess it is a good thing you ignored me after all,” she said, handing me back my gun. “You’re very useful to have around. Why would I ever let you go home,” she motioned to the others to take the woman away.
“Welcome, all,” she said to the newcomers. “Where have you come from?”
“New York, Westfield area,” a woman said.
“Go inside. You’re safe here,” she said and motioned the newcomers to the hotel. She then motioned for Jamie and me to follow her.
We walked behind her. A crewman walked at her side. “What happened?” she asked, switching to dialect.
“She bit into one of the infected. She didn’t know. Then it attacked her,” he replied in the same.
“I told you all to be careful.”
“We’re sorry.”
“You’re sorry, but I was the one who had to shoot her. Let’s not be sorry next time.”
“Da,” he replied abashed.
“Of course, maybe there will be no more survivors now that someone has taken out the radio,” she said, switching back to English. She did not look back at us, but I knew where her comment was directed.
The Harvesting Page 16