“What makes you so sure?”
“I’m not. But she reminds me...” He pauses and shakes his head. “I just trust her more than I do anyone else here. She’s different from them. That’s why they pushed her out here all alone. Everywhere else has shifts and she’s the only one working this desk.”
And of course that makes me feel worse for being a dick to her. They have her working this motel to help orient the newcomers, and they probably have her map out their routes on scouting trips. And now I want to know what happens to her when she’s outlived her usefulness. But that’s Fort Caroline’s problem. My only concern is what we’re going to find once we get where we’re going. And what we do after.
If Henri’s daughter is dead, then we just pissed off the largest settlement we’ve seen for no reason. And we didn’t go back to the cabin because we wanted to find more people, but maybe everyone is to an extreme like this now. Even if Henri’s daughter is alive, she might be with a similar settlement.
“Come on,” Andrew says. “We should see about getting our stuff back.”
“Hold on.” I go back into the office. “Cara? Sorry to bother you.” Her shoulders go up but she doesn’t look at us. “I was hoping to give you another project to work on after that. If you think you can get it done by eight tonight.”
“What project?” She still doesn’t look up.
“May I?” I point to the atlas and it looks like she’s not going to give it up, but then she steps back from the desk. Andrew joins us, watching me with suspicion. I flip a few pages back and show her apage displaying the lower eastern portion of Pennsylvania. “Can you plot a route to this area?” I point to an area northwest of Philadelphia.
“What town?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just the area.” Her brow furrows as she scans the atlas page and doesn’t answer.
“Any town?” She’s still looking around the page, her eyes darting like she’s trying to follow an annoying fly.
“Uh.” Andrew pushes past me and points at random. “This one here.”
Her eyes focus on that one spot and she nods. “From here or the Keys?”
“The Keys, please,” I say.
She nods.
“Thank you very much.” Andrew gives a lopsided smile when I glance at him. “You okay with that?”
“I’m very okay with that.” He turns back to Cara, his smile disappearing. “Oh, Cara? When you route from the Keys, can you... try to avoid this place as much as possible?”
I watch as she stops writing. At first, she doesn’t say anything, then her eyes dart up and lock onto Andrew’s, then mine. There’s something in that look, but I don’t know enough about her to know what it is. Maybe she’s suspicious or maybe she’s angry. Either way, it doesn’t do much to comfort me. She turns her head away from us again.
“Yes.”
“Thank you, Cara.”
“You’re welcome.”
Andrew
WE REALLY SHOULDN’T BE SPLITTING UP. Imean, forgive Jamie, he’s pop-culture blind, so he has no idea how when people split up in horror movies they always die. But I have no excuse. By the time we’ve got a plan formed it’s almost three, which leaves us five hours to get everything together.
Barring any hiccups.
Jamie goes to the sheriff’s station to register our weapons so he can hopefully get some of our ammo back. I already asked what happens if they don’t give him any and he said we’ll have to just check every sporting goods store along the route until we get some.
God bless America.
I’m heading for the supply warehouse using Cara’s directions.
God bless Cara.
The supply warehouse isn’t a warehouse at all. In fact, it’s a strip mall of chain restaurants with a massive—empty—parking lot out front. There’s a loud chugging sound happening behind the building, like a generator.
The signs have been pulled from the front but the architecture is unmistakable. I see you, Olive Garden. I see you, Cheesecake Factory. I see you... Red Lobster maybe? Or is it a Bob Evans?
