Quarantine Read Free Page B

they’re gone,” the older guy said, still by the doors; he let out a deep breath, then turned to me, offered his hand. “I’m Daniel.”
    â€œJesse,” I said, shaking his hand.
    â€œDon’t shoot us,” he said with a smile.
    I looked down at the pistol, the familiar unwelcome weight that could so easily carry with it a list of demands.
    â€œYeah, that was intense,” I said, reaching back and tucking it into the side pocket of my pack.
    â€œName’s Bob.” The guy with the shaved head, Bob, shook my hand; he filmed the exchange.
    â€œYou guys here getting supplies?” I asked, gesturing to some crates of canned and packaged food.
    â€œYep,” Daniel replied. “You?”
    â€œI’m on my way to—” Then I thought better of it. Play it cool, I decided. “Just passing through.” I knew it sounded weak, and it clearly wasn’t enough to satisfy.
    â€œWhere have you been based since the attack?”
    â€œMidtown, near Rockefeller Center,” I said. “Is all that food just for the two of you?”
    â€œThere’s about forty of us,” Daniel said.
    â€œForty?”
    â€œAnd counting,” Bob added. “Seems to grow by the day, and I usually get the short straw to be sent out on foraging trips.”
    â€œWhat about you?” Daniel asked.
    â€œJust me,” I said. His eyes searched mine and I looked to the floor. I didn’t want to tell these two guys about Rachel and Felicity, not yet. Bob kept the camera rolling and as I felt myself holding back from these guys its beady eye began to make me feel self-conscious. “I’m out here alone, aren’t I?”
    â€œWell,” Bob said, his face softened by a big grin, “you’re not alone anymore, little buddy.”
    Daniel clarified: “What he means, Jesse, is that you’re welcome to come by and see our setup: have something to eat, stay around if you like it.”
    Bob added, “It’s safe, and got everything you’d want or need.”
    â€œUp to you.”
    â€œThanks, guys,” I said, stalling. At that moment I was thinking of Caleb—the way he’d encouraged me to spend more time with him, not to race back to Rachel and the animals, and I’d listened to him, and . . . well, I made a good friend as a result, sure, but I’d lost time and we’d wasted . . . ah, hell.
    â€œWell, can’t hang around here forever,” Daniel said, hefting a crate off a bench. “Bob, let’s get this stuff home.” Big plastic bins of food that they’d ransacked from this place were packed and ready to go, a good several hundred pounds’ worth.
    â€œHow are you getting that back?” I asked.
    â€œPickup out front,” Daniel replied. “Bob, load the rest of those wine boxes, too.”
    â€œOn it,” Bob said. He was a hulk of a man but obedient to Daniel like a smart dog, or a UFC heavyweight on a tight leash. He handled those bins and boxes more easily than I could heft a bucket of water.
    â€œHere, I’ll help you,” I said, realizing I was reluctant to let go of these guys completely. I’d let Caleb go, just like Anna, Mini, and Dave, the friends I’d kept alive in my imagination for the first dozen days. I’d known them in life for only a couple of weeks, but when I saw them dead I decided to carry on with the living images in my head. I tried to do that with Caleb, but all I could see was his bloody mouth as he hovered over a dead or dying soldier.
    Had I lost Felicity and Rachel by leaving them at the zoo? Was it worth risking more loss by making new friends now? And why these people? Who knew who else would turn up on my way to Chelsea Piers? Maybe there were pockets of good survivors somewhere, groups who’d managed to hold it together, who were frightened but dealing with it.
    Daniel led the way outside. He took his time looking around and