The racket at the front grew as more creatures joined the fray. Emily held her hands over her ears and tears ran down her cheeks. Soo picked her up but looked just as terrified as the little girl. Tre's face was stone. He stood with his rifle pointed at the floor, staring at the creatures. Ann stood close by.

They went to the back of the store. The racks of shelves blocked the view from the front and the creatures squealed even louder once they lost sight of their prey. A door in back led to a storage room which led to a large set of double doors.

Dave opened one door a crack and peered out into a dark hallway. He turned on his flashlight and looked in both directions. All of the stores in the building complex shared the common hallway and he hoped for a main exterior dock door somewhere. There had to be a place to accept deliveries for all the businesses. There was no sign of daylight which was good news for now.

They quietly hurried down the corridor. Howard held the gun in his right hand and Emily's hand in the other. It was dark and hot. He couldn't believe how much time he'd spent recently in dark oppressive environments, considering he was on a sunny tropical island.

Just as Dave expected, they reached a dock door at the end of the hall, next to a smaller man door. He carefully unlocked the deadbolt as quietly as possible and opened the door an inch or so. The alley behind the building was clear. He held up his index finger to his lips and motioned to the others to follow.

They barely got down the stairs and into the alley when they heard something overhead. One of the creatures on the roof jumped off onto the top of a truck and then to the pavement. Dave raised his rifle and fired a single shot right through its head. More of them arrived at the edge of the roof as the report from the rifle echoed though the empty streets.

n.o.body had to give the command to run. Ann was the first to go and everybody else followed. Howard scooped up Emily, the surge of adrenaline making her feel light as a feather. More shots rang out behind him as Dave picked off a few more. Howard glanced behind him to make sure the marine was still with them. Four of the creatures were now in the chase and gaining ground fast. Dave stopped running, dropped to one knee, and opened fire.

He dropped two of them immediately, grazed the third before aiming at the fourth, which he missed entirely. It leapt from ten feet away and landed on Dave, slamming him to the pavement. In the meantime, the third injured creature limped in his direction.

Howard handed Emily to Tre and ran back to help. Dave was pinned under the creature and held the rifle sideways, jammed into the beast's mouth as it thrashed about. Fortunately for Dave, the creature's deadly appendages, one clawed and one with the deadly stinger, were too long and ineffective at close range, but the sharp claws and hooves on the creature's other legs were doling out plenty of damage.

Howard stopped and raised the gun but couldn't fire. At that distance he was just as likely to hit Dave as the creature. Instead he turned to the injured one that had lost interest in Dave and was now coming for him. Howard pulled the trigger but it didn't budge. He fumbled for the safety and tried again, this time the trigger worked but the gun didn't fire. The creature was just feet away. He pulled back the slide, finally chambering a round, and yanked on the trigger again. The gun bucked in his hand, annihilating the alien's head and spraying Howard with blood. The body crashed into him and he pushed it aside.

He scrambled to his feet and got close enough to the alien on top of Dave to risk a shot. It took three rounds before it finally went limp. Howard helped Dave push it off of him.

The front of Dave's shirt was shredded from the alien's sharp claws, and soaked with blood from dozens of lacerations on his torso. Howard asked if he could walk and was answered with a weak nod. Dave took a few steps and stumbled. Soo ran up and gave Howard a hand as distant shrieks grew louder. More on the way. Dave's rifle was mangled and looked broken so Howard decided to leave it.

"Leave me here," Dave said. "I'll throw them off your path."

"Don't give me that macho bulls.h.i.t," Soo said. "We're not leaving anybody."

"We won't make it on foot, though." Howard looked back the length of the alley. "Not at this pace. We need to find another car."

They came to the end of the alley and onto a side street. Dave was sweating profusely, his face twisted in pain with every step they took. They sat him down on a sidewalk bench to rest. "Soo, stay here with Dave and the girls. Tre and I will try to find a car."

Soo removed the rifle strap from her shoulder. "Make it quick. I don't think we have much time."

"Gotcha. Emily, you stay here. We'll be right back, okay?"

She nodded and sat down next to Dave.

They ran down the street, going from car to car but not having any luck. There were plenty of vehicles to choose from, but all of them were parked with no keys in the ignition. Despite his criminal past, Howard had no idea how to hotwire a car and doubted it was even possible in real life.

A taxi van down the block looked promising. Unlike the parked cars, it had obviously veered off the road with somebody behind the wheel before crashing into a storefront. Howard could make out a body slumped over the wheel. The old van had been made back in the day when cars were still mostly steel, not plastic and aluminum. It barely looked scratched after smashing into the brick wall.

They could smell the bodies even before getting close. The driver was still strapped in and badly decomposed. A woman in back sprawled across the rear seat, covered in flies. Tre gagged and lifted his shirt over his nose. "Na, mon. Let's find anoter."

"There's no time! Besides, any car with keys around here is gonna have a body to go with it." Howard held his breath and reached over the man's lap to unlatch the seat belt. He grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled the body out onto the street. The keys in the ignition glistened in the sunlight.

Tre slid open the side door and made retching sounds under his shirt. Howard grabbed the woman's ankles and yanked, doing nothing more than pulling the skin off her legs. That was enough for Tre, who bent over and vomited. Gunshots from down the street rang out.

Howard cursed and grabbed the woman's shoes this time, succeeding in sliding her off the seat and onto the street. "Come on, we need to hurry," he yelled at Tre.

Tre wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and hopped in, slamming the side door behind him. "Sorry," he said from under his T-shirt.

Howard jumped into the driver seat and closed the door. "Don't worry about it. Trust me, it's a miracle I'm not yacking right along with you." He grabbed the keys and stomped the clutch to the floor. "Cross your fingers."

He turned the key; the van sputtered but didn't start. More gunshots from down the street. "Come on!" Howard pumped the gas twice and tried again, this time the engine roared to life. Thick black smoke belched out the back as he revved the gas. "Yes! Hold on, here we go."

The gear lever was on the steering columna "three on a tree" as his dad used to say, referring to the three-speed transmission. Howard's father had an old '64 Ford van he bought from a buddy when Howard was a kid. Once when Howard was twelve years old and they were on a weekend camping trip, his dad taught him the basics of driving stick, through the fields, in that van. It was one of his best childhood memories. Who would have thought those skills would come in handy twenty years later in a postapocalyptic Montego Bay?

Despite his three-on-a-tree experience, Howard ground through the gears, trying to find reverse, before finally slipping it into gear. He gunned it and backed the van out of the wreckage, unintentionally running over the driver's body with a sick crunch.

Howard sped down the road the couple of blocks to the others and screeched to a halt. Tre slid open the side door before the van stopped and jumped out. Soo pointed her rifle down the alley but Howard didn't see any of the creatures. They helped Dave into the back.

"s.h.i.t, here they come." Howard saw two of them sprinting down the alley.

Now that Soo's gun no longer posed a threat, they were going for it. The side door finally slammed home as everybody made it inside and Howard floored it. The creatures flew out of the alley and kept pace with the van for half a block before finally losing ground and giving up.

"I didn't hit any but they kept their distance after I fired a couple of shots," Soo said. "I think, after they saw their friends get killed by Dave, they might finally be learning about guns."

"Well, that's something, I guess." Howard weaved between a few stalled cars in the middle of the road and checked the rear view mirrors. No signs of any followers. "How's he doing?"

"Stop talking about me like I'm already dead, dammit," Dave mumbled. "I'll be fine. Just try to keep it on the G.o.dd.a.m.ned road."

Howard chuckled then starting to laugh. The intense mixture of stress, adrenaline, and relief boiled over and caused him to laugh like a lunatic. He had chalked it up years ago as some kind of internal defense mechanism. Most of the time when he fought with Gina he'd end up laughing, which used to p.i.s.s her off even more.

Laughter, even in the darkest times of times and in rickety old vans reeking of death, is contagious. Pretty soon everybody was joining in. Howard turned onto the main road and headed east while the Oswald Regional Hospital grew smaller in the rearview mirror.

Seven.

The van broke down on the A-1 about fifteen miles east of the city. Once it got up to highway speed Howard noticed a very unhealthy vibration coming from the steering wheel. That was accompanied by a temperature gauge in the red and a burning odor filling the cabin.

It was a shame, because once they got onto the open road Howard was actually starting to enjoy himself. It felt like forever since he'd driven anything, and after his long trek through the jungle the easy speed of tires on pavement was satisfying. Despite having to occasionally weave through or around pileups of corpse-filled cars, burned out buildings, and rotting bodies on the side of the road, Howard almost felt like he was on a road trip with friends.

That fleeting fantasy came crashing to a halt when the van shimmied to a stop, let out a pitiful groan, and died. Howard tried the ignition a few times but it only stuttered and wouldn't turn over.

He turned around to face the others. "Looks like we're on foot from here." He nodded at Dave and asked Soo, "How's he doing?" Dave's head was tilted back with his mouth open and his chest was a b.l.o.o.d.y mess.

"I gave him a few painkillers but I really need to clean these cuts. Who knows what kind of nasty bugs those things are carrying around." She wiped off Dave's sweaty forehead with a handkerchief. "The last thing we need is an infection."

"Nasty bugs?" Ann asked. "That's a good description for those f.u.c.king things in general."

Howard wanted to tell Ann to watch her language in front of Emily, especially since she was a minor herself, but kept his mouth shut. They were reluctantly living in an R-rated world where he had just pulled the skin off a dead woman's legs. A little harsh language was the last thing he needed to worry about.

"f.u.c.king A," he said, immediately feeling old and uncool. He looked out the window. "We could have broken down in worse places though. Check it out."

A brick driveway behind an elaborate gateway across the highway looked welcoming. A sign above the gate read "Royal Gardens Beach Club and Spa Resort." It was a typical sight on the coastal highway: multimillion-dollar resorts within walking distance of concrete peasant shacks that had no gla.s.s in the windows.

"We should check it out." Howard looked up and down the road and squinted in the harsh midday sun. There were no signs of any other cars or people. More importantly, no signs of Ann's nasty bugs. "Might be a safe place to hole up for a few days and let Dave heal. Not to mention me."

"Let's go," Ann said. "I'm getting antsy sitting out here in the middle of the road."

"I can't even see the building from here." Soo craned her neck out the window. "I think it's probably too far for Dave to walk right now."

"Hold on." Howard rubbed his hands together. "Maybe I can get a few hundred yards out of this baby yet."

He put his hand on the key and said a silent prayer before turning it. The starter motor whined for a second before the engine sputtered to life. Everybody in the van cheered. Howard quickly shoved it into first and popped the clutch. The van lurched forward and he cranked hard on the wheel, heading right for the driveway. The iron gate was partially open, probably mechanized but not locked. The van easily crashed through and headed up the driveway, spewing black smoke along the way. Howard tried for second gear but that seemed to be officially out of the game.

The hotel came into view as they came around a bend. It was a pristine white three-story building surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens. A shuttle bus and a few construction trucks were parked in front. The van made it to fifty feet from the main entrance and officially bought the farm for good. Black smoke poured out of the front and flames started licking through the gaps in the hood.

"Oh, s.h.i.t. Everybody out!"

Howard scrambled out of his seat. The smoke quickly found its way into the van as they all tumbled out. They grabbed their packs and meager possessions and watched as the van went up in flames.

Dave stood on unsteady legs and scowled at the blaze. "What the holy h.e.l.l just happened?"

"Little car trouble," Howard quipped. "Give it a break. It really got us out of a tight jam."

"Good," Ann added. "It stank anyway."

Howard watched the thick cloud of black smoke rise and spoil the clear blue sky overhead. "Well, so much for being inconspicuous. This will give us away for miles."

"s.h.i.t's been burning in every corner of this island for weeks," Dave said. "Don't worry about it." He winced as Soo took his arm to steady him.

Howard glanced around. "Hey! Where's Emily?" He caught a glimpse of her near the corner of the building just before she slipped out of sight. He ran after her and was relieved to find her standing on tiptoe against a gate overlooking a swimming pool.

"Wow!" She turned her head and grinned at Howard with excitement. "Can we go swimming? Pleeease?"

"Hey, you can't go running off like that, okay? You scared me. We have to stick together until we know this place is safe."

Her gaze dropped to the ground. "Sorry."

He lifted her up so she could get a better look. "It is a pretty nice pool though, huh?"

Pretty nice was an understatement. It was an infinity pool, creating a seamless visual edge between the crystal clear pool water and the sparkling Caribbean Sea beyond. Comfortable lounge chairs circled the pool and a swim-up bar under a thatched tiki-style roof filled one end. An elaborate artificial rock waterfall would have emptied into the pool. With no electric pumps running, the falls were dry of course, but it didn't take much imagination to picture the peaceful setting. The others approached them from behind.

"d.a.m.n, this beats dat grocery. Good job." Tre slapped Howard on the back.

"Don't congratulate me yet. Let's see if we can find a way inside. You doing okay, Dave?"

"I think this one," he pointed at Soo, "gave me enough painkillers to make a horse high. I can walk but I ain't operating any heavy equipment."

The main front doors to the resort were locked, so they went through the pool area to the back. A large stone patio, dotted with more rows of lounge chairs, overlooked the beach. Six sets of French doors led from the patio to the hotel but those were all locked too.

"There's something weird about this place," Ann said.

"I know what you mean." Soo shielded her eyes from the sun and looked up at the bedroom balconies above. "There are no signs of anybody around. No bodies, nothing broken or looted. That's all we've seen lately."

"It was probably closed." Howard pointed to the far side of the building. "Look, those windows are boarded up and they were starting to set up scaffolding. I'll bet they were shut down for renovations when the plague hit."

One of the doors at the end was replaced by a flimsy sheet of plywood. Howard gave it a few tugs and pulled it away from the doorframe. He stepped inside to find a ballroom in the early stages of demolition.

He poked his head out and smiled. "Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we're ready to check in for the evening."

Eight.

It didn't take long for everyone to agree on Howard's closed resort theory. They explored most of the main floor and it was one of the few places any of them had seen lately where there were no bodies and no stench of decay. Other than the construction mess walled off by a layer of plastic, the building was clean and orderly.

They decided to stay at least one night so Dave could rest and heal from his wounds. The guest room locks were battery powered, but without activating a card with the front desk computer, the stack of plastic room keys was useless. Tre found a master key after digging through the drawers and they suddenly had their pick of 187 guest rooms.

They helped Dave into a room close to the lobby. Soo cleaned and dressed his wounds the best she could before letting him go to sleep. It was still early in the day so the others explored the rest of the hotel.

The first thing Howard did was scrounge up a hammer and nails to properly seal up the makeshift door they had used to enter the building. After double-checking that the rest of the ground floor doors were locked, they all felt more secure. The smoke from the charred mess of burned-out van had died down, and despite what Dave had said earlier Howard was glad it was no longer broadcasting their position.

The resort had one main kitchen serving three restaurants. The food in the ma.s.sive walk-in fridge was either spoiled or close to it, so that didn't do much good. Although the freezer was useless due to the country's dead power grid, the food in there fared much better. A lot of the larger items, like frozen poultry, weren't entirely thawed, and smaller items that had were still cool to the touch. They would be able to cook a lot of it for at least a few days before things started to turn.

The freezer was merely icing on the cake because the pantry is what really saved them. Shelves of canned and nonperishable food lined the walls and could keep them fed for months, if needed. As long as they could find fresh water to drink and come up with a decent method for cooking, they were set for a while.

Howard and Tre searched the bas.e.m.e.nt with flashlights, finding the hotel's laundry facilities and storerooms. Taking up almost half the building was a ma.s.sive room containing the water boilers and HVAC system. At the far end of the room were two large machines.

"No way," Howard said.

"What?" Tre pointed his flashlight beam to where Howard was looking.

"Is it just me or do those look like generators?"

"Just you. I don't know no-ting 'bout what no generator looks like."

"I'm no expert either but that big GEN-E-ROCK logo on the side is a pretty big clue."

They went closer and looked them over. Each was the size of a large refrigerator turned on its side. An exhaust pipe connected to both machines ran up the side of the wall and up into the ceiling. A large fuel tank sat between them. Howard opened the access panel and studied the control panel, which he was relieved to find was surprisingly simple. Two levers, one marked "Auto-Engage" and the other "Manual," were both set in the off position. Howard flipped the manual lever and pressed the red b.u.t.ton marked "Ignition." They jumped as the generators roared to life and filled the room with the noise of running motors. The light fixtures overhead flickered and turned on.

Ann entered the room, a surprised expression on her face. "Holy c.r.a.p. Let there be light!" she shouted over the noise.

Soo and Emily followed.

Howard couldn't believe it. These ma.s.sive generators had to have been designed to keep the whole building running in the event of a hurricane or something. Lucky for them, maintenance must have shut them down when the hotel closed for renovations. Otherwise they would have kicked in automatically when the power to the building went down. He checked the fuel tank, which read full. It was big, but he had no idea how long it would last so he powered down the generators, sending them back into darkness.

"We can use this, but only if we need to. I have no idea if that's enough fuel for a couple of days or if it could last us a lot longer. I don't want to chance it."