I nodded. I knew that, but circumstances change at the drop of a dime. No one was safe, no matter how capable you were. I didn’t relax until I saw Luis climb back out of the tank, and they were both headed back to the deli. When they came back in, Luis held up the handheld Army radio he had retrieved.
“Hopefully, this will tell us what we need to know,” he said as he switched on the radio.
As soon as the radio was turned on, it started playing a message.
All evacuation points have been closed. Military personnel are advised to evacuate Manhattan and the surrounding areas.
Fuck. Not the news we were hoping to hear.
“Now what?” I asked.
“We’ll have to find our way out of the city on our own,” Nico replied.
“We have options, I’m just not sure which would be the best,” Papi said.
“Based on the direction we’ve been heading, the Holland Tunnel is closest,” Miguel commented. “I don’t know how I feel about going into a tunnel, but it’s the closest way to get to the mainland and out of New York.”
“It isn’t ideal,” Mr. Higgins agreed. “My suggestion would be to stop by a store and grab any light source we can find. The tunnel is going to be dark, and the last thing we want is to go stumbling around in the dark ninety feet below the surface.”
“He has a point,” I commented.
“Then let’s get moving,” Mami said. “The sooner we get this over with, the happier I will be. I never liked those tunnels.”
I rubbed Mami’s back comfortingly as we left the deli. If we ever had to travel to New Jersey, which was rare, we never took the tunnels. Ever. Even if there were delays on the bridges, the tunnels were never an option. “It’s gonna be ok, Mami.”
“I know, Pequenino. I know.”
We’d made it a block when we had to detour down a narrow alley to get around another blockade. As we stepped into the alley, a man appeared from the shadows of a doorway. He raised a gun and pointed it at Nico, who was in the lead.
“Give me all your bags, and nobody gets hurt.”
Chapter fifteen
Nico
Iglared at the idiot pointing a gun at me. He had absolutely no idea who the fuck he was messing with. Or the grave mistake he made by putting Emery and her parents’ lives in danger. I glanced over my shoulder to see Miguel slowly step in front of Emery while Luis blocked Felix and Camila. They both gave me tight nods without taking their eyes off the dead man in front of me.
They were ready.
I shifted to the side to cover Mr. Higgins as my eyes returned to the gunman. I noted the slight tremor in his hand as he held the gun and the waxy look of his skin. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was sweating more than he should be. The fucking tweaker was either on something or coming off a high and starting to go through withdrawal. He shouldn’t be a threat, but in his current condition, he could be unpredictable.
“Are you deaf?!” he yelled. “I said, give me all of your shit! Now!”
I crossed my arms and laughed. “And if we don’t?”
“I’ll shoot you! I don’t want to, but I will if you don’t stop fucking around and do what I say!”
“I bet you don’t even have any bullets in that gun,” I scoffed. It was a risky move, but I was willing to bet the idiot was more concerned with proving himself than keeping control over us.
“Oh, no?” he laughed. He raised the gun to shoot it in the air and prove he had bullets. As soon as I was clear from the line of sight, Miguel and Luis fired. Both bullets went through the druggie’s head before he even knew what was coming.
“We need to move, fast!” I yelled as I ran forward and took the gun from the man’s dead hand. I had no idea if this guy worked alone or if there were more druggies inside the building, but I did know for a fact that any zombie within hearing distance would be making a beeline for us right now. We needed to be out of this tight alley before they got here. I ran for the other end of the alley, trusting Miguel and Luis to get the group moving and watch our backs.
As I neared the mouth of the alley, a zombie stumbled into view. I aimed the would-be robber’s gun at it and pulled the trigger.
Click.
That fucking moron. I threw the gun at the zombie’s head and swung my crowbar at it. The zombie fell to the ground, and I quickly stabbed the end of the crowbar into its eye socket, the impact of steel against asphalt reverberating up my arm. I looked up and down the street and saw that, while our path forward was clear for now, a small group was approaching from the other direction.
