This Would Be Paradise (Book 2) (16 page)

When we approached the gate at Hargrove, the guards did their duty and cleared the road of shambling infected. Grant was the first one out of the truck, enlisting Mark to help move Sheri. The gate hadn’t even closed behind us when they removed her from the backseat.

Sheri had paled considerably, but blood loss tended to do that to a person. Her breathing was labored from the pain of the drive jostling her around. We’d turned the hour we had left to go into thirty minutes, thanks to my speedy driving. Driving that fast would have been fun under different circumstances.

People swarmed us immediately.

“What happened?” Wyatt demanded from the forefront of the crowd.

“Friendly fire incident. Where’s Oscar?” Grant asked, wasting no time.

If I remembered correctly from my day of introductions, Oscar was a surgeon and the resident medical doctor at Hargrove.

“I think he’s in his condo. Get Sheri to the doctor’s office and prep her for surgery. We’ll find him.” Wyatt patted Grant on the back and took off down the street.

Ethan joined us in time to see Grant and Mark cart Sheri away.

“What happened to her? She get bit?” I didn’t care for the blatant concern in his voice.

“No. Mark accidentally shot her,” I replied tersely.

Ethan turned to John. “And what happened to you? Jeez, what went on out there?”

“Had a little bit of a disagreement with the sergeant, that’s all,” John said.

“You should get some treatment for those cuts.” I pointed to his face.

“No use botherin’ ‘em. Sheri needs their attention more. Hope the poor girl is all right.”

“How did Mark accidentally shoot her?” Ethan asked.

“He’s not so good with a gun.”

“I’m gonna go help find Oscar.” Ethan bowed out and I couldn’t help feeling irked.

It wasn’t like Ethan and I were dating, but we’d been through an awful lot together. It wasn’t just the Sheri thing either; he’d adjusted too easily to this place, leaving me in the dust. I wanted to smack him upside the head.

“Jealous, are we?” John cracked a grin despite the pain his face must have been in.

I crossed my arms. “Shouldn’t you go ice your face or something?”

“I’ll go see if the kitchen staff can spare any.”

I watched him walk away, unsure what to do with myself. The rest of our training crew had taken the weapons back and the trucks were already gone. I decided to head to my condo and wait to hear any news.

When I opened the front door, I found Chloe and Amanda on the living room floor, coloring away. Roy was seated at the island, going over some papers. The scene was very domestic, and I fought the urge to yell, “Honey, I’m home!”

“Bailey!” Chloe hopped up and tackled me with a hug.

I patted her head. “How was school?”

She scrunched her face. “Borin’. But they gave us some markers and colorin’ books to keep.”

Roy set his papers down. “I was starting to get worried. You were gone a long time for a shooting lesson.”

“They took us two hours away from here so the noise wouldn’t attract any infected toward the community.”

“Jesus, that’s a long trip.”

“Wait till you hear what happened.” I plunked myself on a stool beside Roy.

When Chloe and Amanda returned to their “homework,” I recounted the afternoon to Roy in a hushed voice.

“Will she live?” Roy asked about Sheri.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “She didn’t die on the way back, so I’d take that as a good sign.”

“Actually, I was talking to Oscar today for a while. I can’t remember what it’s called, but he specializes in surgery on specific organs. A resident had a ruptured spleen a while ago, and thanks to his skills and the medical equipment they have here, he was able to save him. Apparently they have a fully functional operation room in one of the condos at the front that they outfitted as a doctor’s office.”

“Wow, that’s lucky.”

“Nowadays it sure is. By the way, we had them make up a plate for you for supper.” Roy picked up and passed me a plate wrapped in tinfoil. My stomach growled at the sight. We must have
just
missed the food being served. Gun training was an all-day event with the travel and practice time—not to mention Grant demanding he evaluate each would-be gun user himself. I took the dish from Roy, wasting no time in tearing off the tinfoil.

“Thank you,” I said around the first bite I shoved into my mouth with a fork.

It was some kind of noodle recipe and it tasted delicious—even if it was cold. There were also some cooked vegetables to go with it.

“And guess what else we brought you back?” Chloe said from the floor.

“More food?” I said hopefully.

Roy shoved a small slice of chocolate cake in front of me.

“Oh. My. God. You guys are the best!”

The cake was divine. It tasted like one of those boxed, powder mix ones, but any cake was better than no cake.

“Amanda shoved her slice in her mouth all at once!” Chloe exclaimed.

Amanda turned red. “I did not!”

“Well, at this rate, I’ll gain some of that weight back,” I said after all but licking the plate.

“You just missed Ethan and the others,” Roy said.

“Yeah, I saw Ethan when we drove in. He went to hunt down Oscar. Didn’t see Zoe or Darren though.”

“You might want to talk to Darren. He said he’s doing a run soon and was wondering if you wanted to go with him.”

I thought about it. “Do you know when he’s planning to go?”

“He didn’t say. He just said soon.”

I definitely preferred not staying cooped up. We’d spent too much time like that at the cabin, and the thought of being trapped behind these walls made me itch. I could see myself joining the scavenging team. Maybe that could be my “job” here. I could have a cool nickname like “The Runner.” But I was getting ahead of myself.

“I’ll have to talk to him. Sounds like the job for me.”

“I figured.” Roy smiled, but it faltered. He leaned in closer so the girls wouldn’t hear. “I heard some things about Darren from the people here.”

Thanks to John, I knew exactly what Roy was talking about.

“That they’re all stupid and think Darren killed a girl?”

“I take it you heard it too, then?”

“Trust me, Darren’s innocent. I admit I was … wary of him when we first met, but we shared a cabin with him for over three months. If he was a killer, he would have knocked one of us off then.”

Roy tapped one of his fingers on the counter. “I believe you. And from what I’ve seen of him, he seems okay enough to have won over your friend Zoe.”

“I think it’s a conspiracy within Wyatt’s group. Like they’re covering it up.”

“You sound like the alien guy from the History Channel,” Roy teased. “You don’t like this place, do you?”

“It’s not a matter of liking it here; it’s a matter of trusting the people who run it.”

“We’ve all got secrets to hide,” Roy said darkly.

He wasn’t kidding.

We sat around chatting to kill time while we waited for news of Sheri’s surgery. After two hours of no updates, I jumped down from the island stool and announced, “I’m going to return these dishes and see if I can hear anything about Sheri.”

“It’s almost surreal to be able to walk down the street again without fear of the sick ones,” Roy said.

“Now we have to worry about other things going bump in the night,” I muttered.

“Do I have to go, too?” Chloe asked.

“You can come with me to find Ethan. It’s getting late.”

I pulled back the curtains to reveal the darkening neighborhood. If we waited any longer, we’d need flashlights to navigate the streets.

“Can I leave these here for tomorrow?” Chloe pointed to her coloring supplies.

“Of course.”

Chloe said her goodnights and we headed outside. She slipped her hand into mine as we crossed the street.

“Are you goin’ to be gone all the time?” Chloe asked, her head down as if she were talking to her feet.

“Depends on what kind of
employment
I can get here,” I answered.

“Do you like it here?” Chloe looked up at me.

I hesitated. “Sure, we have walls and food.”

“You don’t sound like you like it.” The little stinker must have been listening in on mine and Roy’s conversation.

She wasn’t one to be fooled. Distracted perhaps, but not fooled.

“I think I just need some time to adjust.”

“Ethan said this place is exactly what we could have hoped for.”

So Ethan was spewing their propaganda for them? Seemed like he needed something harder than a smack upside the head.

“We’ll see.”

We entered the clubhouse that served as the cafeteria, and I deposited my dirty plates in the kitchen sink. One of the cooks was still inside, prepping for tomorrow, I assumed.

“Excuse me, but can you point us toward the doctor’s office?” I asked the lady.

She explained how it was only two condos down and around the corner from here. I thanked her, and Chloe and I headed off to see if Sheri had made it. People were standing all over the front porch and grass. I had to worm my way through the crowd. Some people were even holding lit candles as some sort of vigil. Once we finally got inside, I searched for Ethan.

I shuffled out of the way as Crystal, the lady who’d taken down our names on arrival, rushed past me with tear-stained cheeks. Sheri really had an important place in this community. I ignored the spike of unwarranted jealousy surging through me; now was not the time for that.

The living room had been turned into a waiting room, fitted with various chairs. The wall that created the hallway separating the living area and bedrooms had been knocked down to allow for more room and easier access. A sign on the bedroom door informed us it was the operating room.

Chloe tugged on my hand. “There’s Ethan.”

She led me over to him. He was talking to Grant and Byron.

“Dis some tough shit, yeah?” I was still having a hard time with Byron’s Cajun accent and wasn’t sure if that was an actual question or just a statement.

“So what’s the verdict?” I asked Grant.

He still had his green scrubs on and was removing his latex gloves.

“As I was just tellin’ these two, Sheri is goin’ to live. The bullet punctured her left kidney, but Oscar was able to save it. It won’t ever run at a hundred percent again, so it’s a good thing you can live with just one.”

The sergeant wiped his sweaty forehead. He had a nice shiner under his right eye.

“That’s good news.” Ethan let out a sigh. “Is she still out?”

“The anesthetic will keep her under for another hour or so, and then the morphine will help keep her doped up, so she’ll probably fall back asleep.”

“Dat means no visitors?” Byron asked Grant, and this time I was sure it was a question.

“Not till Oscar gives the go-ahead, which I assume will be in a couple of hours.”

Grant left and we hunkered down in the uncomfortable plastic chairs. My mind wondered toward my Beretta. No one had mentioned that I’d pulled it out during our excursion, and Grant knew I had it on me. What was he waiting for? Had he forgotten about it because he’d been too preoccupied with keeping Sheri alive? Or had he unilaterally decided that I was good enough at handling a handgun to carry it around? Ugh, all these questions were hurting my head. In case they did come a knockin’, I decided I’d hand over the plain black handgun we had stashed at the condo and hope they bought that it was the only weapon we had.

We waited for another hour before Ethan and I took Chloe back to their condo. The streets were dark, making the trek harder than it should have been. When we entered the condo, John was lying on the couch in the living room with a bag of ice on his face.

“How’s the face?” I asked.

“Fine, thanks to some Advil and ice.” He lifted the bag to reveal his bruised face. At least the swelling had gone down.

Zoe and Darren were sitting at the island.

“Hear anything about Sheri?” Zoe asked.

While Ethan parroted what Grant had told us, Darren walked over to me. “So how’d you feel about going on a run with me?”

“I prefer the elliptical.” I couldn’t help myself.

Darren shot me a droll look. “You know what I mean.”

“Depends. Do I have to qualify or something?”

“Nope, this job is purely based on who volunteers.”

I shrugged. “Beats babysitting all day.”

Zoe was too busy talking to Ethan about Sheri to hear my jab about babysitting.

Even though I said that, part of me missed it being just Chloe and me—although it was a relief to no longer be
solely
responsible for her well-being.

“Good, because looks like I’ll be going out again at the end of the week, and I already volunteered you.”