Stephanie looked down, her hand automatically moving over her belly, and she shrugged. "I don't really know. Maybe six months, or so."
Meg's head tilted slightly to the side as she stepped forward to get a better look at Stephanie's belly. "That could be right. I'm no expert, but I have a few books if you'd like to take a look at them."
"Thank you." Stephanie said. "I'd like that."
Meg turned back to me. "Did you have any problem getting her over here?"
"No, but getting to the Palace might be a bit more difficult." I said and pointed to the bag of flares. "Joss found those. We were hoping it would be able to distract them so we could get her across."
Meg pulled open the top of the bag, then gave an appreciative nod. "You got a nice stash here. Gordon and I can help with the distractions. Once you're inside, you remember which way to go?"
"Up twenty-six flights of stairs." I grumbled.
"What?" Joss asked flatly. "You didn't mention that part."
Stephanie didn't comment, but her eyes went wide.
I said, "If we make it through those doors, twenty-six flights of stairs will be nothing."
"Where's the hamper?" Joss asked me, and I pointed back to where we'd entered the building. I hadn't bothered to unload it. "I should get to work on that. I don't think it'll take me long."
He gave Meg an awkward smile as he slipped past her, and she watched him go with a curious look on her face. She said, "Hamper?"
I chuckled. "We carried her over here in one of those big laundry bins. It was Joss's idea. I'm not sure what exactly he has planned now, but I trust him. I think."
Stephanie had slowly been creeping closer, and finally interjected, "Was it hard?"
Meg's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and she was obviously confused. Stephanie blushed and clarified. "I mean, having a baby alone?"
"Oh." Meg said. A thoughtful expression crossed her face. "I wasn't exactly alone."
Stephanie was stunned back to silence, but the revelation wasn't a surprise to me. Meg had already mentioned others. I was curious about what happened here, and I pressed the opportunity to get her to talk. I said, "What happened?"
Meg suddenly seemed anxious, and she reached up to tug on her ear lobe, fidgeting. Her voice was tight when she spoke. "Nothing about that time was good. I was in a bad place, even before all the bombings started. I don't like to think about it, but..."
When she trailed off, I cut in, suddenly feeling guilty. "You don't have to talk about it. We understand."
Meg's green eyes were on Stephanie's belly, but she seemed lost in thought. "No." She finally said. "It's all right. I've never had a chance to talk about it. This might be good."
Meg drifted to the chair, moving the bag of flares aside and sitting down. I motioned for Stephanie to take the other, and I leaned against a column, folding my arms across my chest. Meg gave Stephanie a shy smile as she sat. "I wasn't the only survivor here. There were a few others that helped me when Hope was born. It hurt like hell, though. I don't think there's going to be any help for that."
Stephanie's mouth twisted into a grimace, and she shrugged. "That's what I've been told."
"Well," Meg continued. "I was sick. I was only seven months along when they admitted me to the hospital to put me on bed rest. There were people evacuating the city by then, but my doctor didn't want to take any chances. He said he would have to take her via cesarean section, but he wanted to wait as long as possible.
"It was scary. I watched everyone else evacuating the city on the news, and I couldn't even get out of my hospital bed. I felt helpless. Some of the hospital staff disappeared, but a lot hung around."
Meg paused, struggling with her memories. "The day the bomb went off, it was... horrible. My nurse was chatting with me when this huge boom of thunder shook everything. There wasn't any way for us to know what it was, but I knew. I could see it in her eyes that she knew too. Whatever had happened to the other cities had just happened to us.
"She opened the curtains, and we both watched this red cloud explode over the city. It grew and spread across the sky before it fell. It only took a couple minutes. Maybe not even that long. It was so thick, we couldn't even see the lights from the casinos anymore. Even the sun was blocked out.
"My nurse ran out of the room, and that was the last time I saw her. I got up to look out the window, and I could see the people on the streets below. They'd all fallen down. I thought they were dead at first, but they were already sick.
"I checked around outside my room, but there weren't a lot of patients left on my floor. Within hours, everyone else had come down with a fever, but I was the last one to get sick. I just got back into my bed and cried. I figured it was over. Some type of chemical warfare or something, and I was waiting for it to end.
"Then I woke up, and the fog was gone." She took a deep breath and rubbed at her eyes, wiping a few stray tears away. "That might have been the worst part. Nobody was normal anymore."
My hands squeezed into fists as I tried to imagine what it had been like for her. To wake up in a changed world, alone and pregnant. Her story was not unlike Walt's, but it seemed so much worse. I glanced at Stephanie and saw that she looked stricken.
"I hid." Meg said. I wasn't expecting her to continue, but she had composed herself. "I went back to my room and stayed there for days, maybe even over a week. I didn't know what else to do. Maybe someone would come save us, or maybe my pregnancy would kill me.
"But nothing happened." Her shoulders rose and fell, but her eyes stared off at nothing as if dazed. "Hope was kicking around, and I felt fine. I knew I couldn't stay there. I'd locked all the other infected patients in their rooms so I didn't have to see them anymore, but I didn't like knowing they were there.
"I finally left the hospital, and that's when I saw there was a fire on top of the Palace. I watched it burn for a day and a night before I got the courage to come investigate. That's when Gordon found me."
Meg smiled slightly. "He wasn't the one who started the fire, but he'd come to investigate. He was so old, barely able to get around, but he took to me quickly. Guess he thought he was my protector. We climbed all the way to the top of the Palace together, and that's where we found the other survivors."
Meg gave me a pointed look then. "In a city of nearly six hundred thousand people, only seventeen of us came to that fire."
I swallowed. I had never stopped to think about how many of us were out there, but that number seemed extremely low. Depressingly low, in fact.
"Eric was the guy's name that started the fire." Meg said. "He didn't stick around here for very long. There was an emergency call out on a shortwave radio for survivors to head north to that military base. I think they called it Dreamland, but it's Area 51.
"After Eric left, some of the others followed. They all didn't leave at once, but a few at a time. I always thought I would go up there too, once Hope was born, but... well, I guess you know.
"Over the weeks that followed, Gordon's health improved. It was a miracle. He'd had arthritis for decades, and one day it was gone. We were healing faster, and I realized that the problems with my pregnancy had probably healed too.
"Riley was the one who tested it. He put some pretty deep cuts into his arm, and we watched it heal up completely in a few days. It was crazy, but I knew that Hope would be okay. We had the top floor of the Palace cleared out by then, and I still didn't carry her full term, but she came out screaming and healthy.
"That's when we found out she wasn't like us. It happened instantly. All the infected below us went crazy trying to get to her, screaming and running around like mad. We had no idea they could get hostile since they weren't attacking us.
"I remembered seeing warnings on the news to stay away from the infected, but I didn't know why. I thought it was because they could spread their disease. I didn't know it was because they went bat-shit insane."
"They frenzy." I said. "So you've never actually seen someone get attacked?"
Meg shook her head. "No."
"It's horrible." I whispered, trying not to look at Stephanie.
"Every time we tried to take Hope out, they'd go crazy. There were too many of them. I wasn't about to risk taking her out while she was so young. The others worked on cleaning out the other floors of the Palace, but I don't let her leave the top floor. I know there are a few here and there in our tower, but at least the top floors are clear.
"The others always said they wanted to go, but they didn't want to leave Hope and me. That kept them here a little longer, but eventually they all left. Gordon won't leave us, though. In fact, if I ever left, I don't think he'd come with me." Meg chuckled softly at that.
I breathed a sigh of relief. This woman had managed to keep her child alive in an infested city. It gave me hope for Stephanie and her baby. Maybe she would want to stay here with them?
The sound of squeaky wheels interrupted us as Joss pushed the hamper down the corridor. Meg stood quickly, jumping to investigate the noise, even though Stephanie and I remained still. Meg was nervous. Talking about the past could do that to a person.
"Wait." Meg said, finally seeing the hamper for what it was. "That's your plan?"
"That's the same thing I said." I answered dryly as I came to stand beside her.
Joss had already fixed a board to the bottom of the hamper for Stephanie to sit on, and layered it with soft blankets. He eyed us both warily as he approached. "What?"
I sighed. "It should work if she's covered and doesn't make any noise. Especially if they're all distracted."
Meg looked unsure but nodded to me anyway. She glanced down at the flares. "I think Gordon and I can come up with something. How soon do you want to do this?"
"As soon as we can. There's no point waiting." I said, and Joss was nodding. Stephanie's eyes were wide with fear again, but she didn't argue.
"I'll need these." Meg said, reaching for the flares.
"Take them. We can always find more."
Meg gave Stephanie a reassuring smile before she left, turning sharply as she exited and quickly disappearing from view. I looked across to the Palace and held in my doubts. There were so many freaks between us, I knew they couldn't get them all distracted and herded off. I reached for my revolver, feeling reassured at the weight under my hand.
CHAPTER 8 – JOSS
I stood at the doors, nervously watching Meg and Gordon clear the freaks from our path. Gordon, an old, dark-skinned man bordering on ancient, wasn't what I expected. He had hair more white than gray, and his face was nothing but a mass of wrinkles, but his green eyes shone every time he glanced our way.
As I eyed the dead-brains, I reached down to the hatchet hanging at my side. I had managed to get a workable sling made for it by cinching two belts together. It wasn't fancy, but it worked. The haft was long enough to get tangled up in my legs if it got twisted, so I strapped it against my thigh. That piece needed work, but it would hold for now, and I was able to keep both my hands free.
Ali was back to pacing again, coming to stand at the door to watch for a few seconds before spinning around to walk deeper into the hotel. Stephanie was walking along the rows of slot machines, but her excitement was gone. She was nervous and afraid again.
Ali was pacing my way, and I waited until she was close before I spoke. "Should we go help them?"
After watching them do all this work for us, I felt useless. I wanted to do something more than stand and watch, but I was also reluctant to leave Stephanie. I had spent what seemed like hours making sure there were no surprises on the ground floor of this huge hotel, but there were so many doors and hallways, I could have easily missed something.
Ali paused beside me. "I think they have everything handled. That caution tape isn't going to help a damn thing if they frenzy."
I nodded in agreement, eyeing the strands of yellow tape they had wrapped around cars and poles to corral the dead-brains behind them. It might keep them back temporarily, but Ali was right.
"Are they just wasting their time?" I asked.
"No." Ali said, but she was hesitant. "It'll hold them back for a bit. Might take a few hours, or even a day or two for them to stumble through it on their own. Are you sure about this?"
No.
I wanted to shake my head, and it was difficult to stop the immediate reaction, but I managed to keep silent. I glanced at the top of the Palace tower, and I knew that's where I wanted to get Stephanie. It was safe, and we wouldn't have to constantly worry about protecting her while Ali worked on a truck to get us out of here.
"I'm sure." My voice was firmer than I felt.
"Well, looks like they're done." Ali said, tilting her head toward Gordon and Meg as they made their way to us. My eyes scanned the remaining dead-brains that loitered in our path, and I swallowed hard.
"They don't look done."
Ali followed my eyes and sighed. "It would take a long time to clear them all away, especially without killing them." She hesitated before she finished. "She can always stay here."
I shook my head, and we fell silent. Ali opened the door for Meg and Gordon, and the old man held his hand out to her as soon as he stepped inside. She blinked in surprise, slowly raising her hand to return the gesture. Gordon grasped her hand in his and gave it a good shake.
"Miss Ali, good to meet you. Good to meet you!" He said with a broad smile, exposing yellowed teeth. His eyes gleamed, shining brightly in his wrinkled face. He swung to me, and I was ready when he held out his hand. "And Joss. Good to meet you!
"Now," He said as he stepped deeper into this hotel. "Where is this Stephanie I've heard so much about?"
Stephanie timidly stepped from the shadows, and Gordon cackled before he spoke. "Well, look at you! You gonna give us a little one soon, aren't you? You mark my words on that. Don't you worry yourself."
He stepped close to Stephanie to pat her shoulder. "I'm gonna help take care of you, just like I did Miss Megan with baby Hope. We made a safe home here. Ain't nothing gonna get you in the Palace."
Stephanie was nodding and smiling nervously as Gordon's sweet-talking continued, and Ali made a strangled sound in her throat that only I heard. She caught me looking her way and grimaced. Ali leaned close to Meg, who was smiling almost apologetically, and whispered. "Are we ready?"
"I think so." Meg said, turning back to the window. "Gordon and I will lead with the flares and draw the rest of them away. They probably won't even notice you."
Ali crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window at the dead-brains. Moments passed, and Gordon continued to chat with Stephanie behind us. Finally, Ali said. "Let's do this."
Stephanie's face went white as soon as I walked to the hamper. I pushed it close to her, but she seemed rooted to the ground and unwilling to move. Gordon put another reassuring hand on her shoulder and didn't seem to notice when she winced away from him.
He tried to bolster her confidence. "You're gonna take a pleasant ride, and leave all the rest of it to us. We'll get you there, safe and sound. You'll see!"
Stephanie nodded to him, but she remained tense. Her eyes were fixed on the hamper as I reached out a hand to pull her over. She leaned on me heavily as I helped her in, and it was only when she got herself situated on the board did she look back at me.
"This is better." She whispered when she discovered she could sit comfortably.
"Good." I said, wrapping a thick comforter around her shoulders. "This should help block your smell, just in case. Let's make sure you're covered up all the way."
Stephanie gathered the blanket around her, and I piled more sheets, towels and blankets in between her and the canvas wall. Soon she was nothing but a dark blonde head of hair in a mass of white linens.
"Comfortable?"
"Yes." Her face was tilted down as she adjusted herself, and her voice came back somewhat muffled. Then she raised her head and smiled at me.
"See you soon." I smiled back and pulled a thick blanket over the top of t
he hamper.
Gordon and Meg had left to gather the flares while I got Stephanie settled, and Ali was inspecting the extra cylinder of her revolver. She dropped it into her belt pouch when I caught her eye.
"You think we'll need that?" I asked and was surprised when I felt my mouth go dry.
"I think we better be safe than sorry." She answered as she came to stand at her end of the hamper. She raised the blanket, directing her comment to Stephanie. "Remember. Be quiet."
There was no answer, but she dropped the blanket back into place, seeming satisfied. "Let's go."
We lifted the hamper, testing the weight of Stephanie inside. It hadn't been difficult to carry her across the plaza, but we would have to go over three times that distance now. Ali caught my frown as we began to move her to the door, and her eyebrow rose questioningly.
She was asking again if I was sure.
I nodded.
Ali opened the doors, and we carried the hamper through, only to halt on the other side as we waited for Meg and Gordon to get into position. It wasn't a long wait. They both had flares lit in less than a minute of us stepping outside. The dead-brains close to them turned curiously and began to follow. Our path was being cleared.
Ali and I shared a look. She was as nervous as I was, I could see it in her eyes, but I was ready. With a nod, we began to carry the hamper to the Palace.
~ ~ ~ ~
We moved slowly, giving Meg and Gordon time to do their work ahead of us. The dread that had started to build up was beginning to fade away now that I was able to see how well our plan was working. The dead-brains easily followed the distracting flares and continued to be fascinated by them, even after they were lying on the pavement. Then Meg or Gordon would light another flare, and go fishing for more. It was effective.
We moved the hamper through the obstacles, carefully avoiding the cars that were sitting on the street. I tried not to look at the rotting bodies inside, but battling my morbid curiosity was difficult. I succeeded for a while, and we were almost across the street when a sudden glare caught my attention. My head swung before I could stop it, searching for danger before I realized it was only the sunlight reflecting off a windshield.
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