I ignored him, as we all did. “Now what?” I said.

“Get ready to hold him. Chase, remove the towel,” she said, so I did.

She poured some water from the jug over the wound. The hole didn’t look so bad with all the blood gone. I almost smiled.

From the bowl of alcohol, she removed what looked like scissors. “What’s that?” Jason said.

“Hemostat,” she said. “Now shh!”

Outside the room, I heard Allison and Charlene sobbing.

“Good chance he’s going to stir, wake up,” she said.

“It’s going to hurt?” I said.

“Immensely.” She chose  something that was long and slender. It looked like a pick a dentist used to scrape at plaque build-up, but was thicker all around. She stuck it into the gaping hole.

Cash didn’t just stir. He woke the fuck up. His eyes went wide, darting left and right and then stopped on me. His mouth was in a giant “O.” He looked like he wanted to scream, but the sound was trapped inside his lungs.

“I’m searching for the bullet. I’m flicking the probe,” she said. “I’ll hear a click when I’ve found it.”

Cash found his voice. He screamed. His body shook.

I held his arm down with both hands, but just barely. Jason had both of his legs and he was practically laying out over them, his chest weighing them down. Jeremy had the other arm, and sat with his back to the bed, holding on as best he could.

“Hang in there, buddy. We’re almost done,” I said. “You’re doing great. Great. She’s almost done.”

“Think I found it,” Erway said.

Blood spilled from the round hole. I didn’t want to think about the possibility of internal injuries from the bullet.

Erway moved the probe around, as if she was trying to hook the bullet and hoist it out. When she stopped, she used the other hand with the hemostat, and opened the tongs slightly. She dipped them into the wound with the probe and Cash thrashed.

“You have to hold him still,” she said.

“We’re trying,” Jason said.

“Try harder,” she said.

“Cash? Cash, buddy, we’re almost done. It’s almost over,” I said. There was little more I could say. He wasn’t talking or responding. He was just screaming.

Then he stopped screaming. His body stopped writhing. “Erway,” I said.

“He passed out.”

“He what?” I said.

“The pain. He passed out,” she said. That tone again. “I want to get the bullet now, while he’s out. Should be a little easier.”

Easier. I almost laughed.

Then she flicked a little more with the probe, as if guiding the bullet up toward the tongs of the hemostat. She clipped and cursed, then clipped again. “Shit,” she said. “Jeremy, pour some more water over the entry point, there.”

Jeremy looked reluctant to let go of Cash’s arm. He tentatively let go with one hand and stared for a moment – like he was afraid that my son’s arm would snap out and latch onto his throat.

“Jeremy, water!”

He picked up the jug and poured out water. “That enough?”

“More,” she said.

The blood thinned when mixed with water and rolled off his skin. “Okay, that’s good.”

I didn’t think I’d be able to watch anymore. With Cash out of it, it was a little easier.

Erway’s mouth opened. She looked at me. “Got it.”

With a steady hand, she slowly withdrew the hemostat, which had a flattened slug in its grip. “That all of it?” I said.

“Not sure yet.” She dropped it into a glass on the nightstand. “Looks like a .22. I was able to pull it straight out. That’s good.”

The bedroom door opened and Dave popped his head in. “Chase, we got zombies in the yard. A lot of zombies.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Erway assured me she could finish up on Cash without us.

“I’ve got guns,” Jason said. “Come with me.”

I stopped at the doorway, “You’re good?”

“We’re going to be fine,” Erway said. She even smiled. That made me the most apprehensive. All along, it had been the tone that bothered me. The tone, that was honest. I knew where she stood. She wasn’t feeding me bullshit. The smile, that fucked with me. A mental fuck at that.

The whole downstairs of the cabin had shutters over the windows. The shutters were on the inside. I liked it. Zombies, if they could, had to first break the glass, and then figure out a way through the wood shutters. Door was solid and locked. Place was like a fortress. “Guns?” I said.

“Here,” Jason said.

Hall closet. Jeremy pulled open the door.

“How is he, Dad?” Charlene asked.

“Erway got the bullet. I think he’s going to be okay,” I said.

Charlene’s lower lip quivered. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I got mad at the captain and I shot him. I shot him and then his crew started shooting at us. But they were going to leave. He was going to leave you and everyone else stranded out there.”

“It’s okay, honey. I’m not mad,” I said. It wasn’t going to be enough. I needed to give her more. She needed more. “I’m proud of you. You stood up for me. You did the right thing.”

Vitale had tried to station Spencer by the boat to prevent just such a thing from happening. Where had he been? What had gone wrong there?

She hugged me.

I looked at the closet, but clearly, it was no closet. Dave disappeared inside, with Sues behind him, Palmeri and Crystal. It must lead to another room. The cabin didn’t look that big when we came up on it. I’ll admit I’d been preoccupied with Cash. With everything. Feeling overwhelmed was becoming the norm, and I didn’t like it.

“Come on,” I said. I took Charlene’s hand and led her to the doorway. I went in first and emerged into a room that looked like something out of a movie. AK-47s lined one wall. Gun safe doors stood open showcasing a variety of rifles and shotguns. Another wall held both compound and recurve bows over a work table where it looked like feather fletching were homemade and affixed to arrow shafts. The floor was stockpiled with pallets and boxes of ammunition, and there was no shortage of swords, hatchets and machetes.

After using guns the last day and a half, many might disagree, but I prefer the machetes and swords. You didn’t run out of steel the way you did ammo. You could only carry so many rounds with you. I’d take a gun or two, stuff my pockets with ammo, but I wanted to get my hands on the machetes and swords, and strap them around my waist, and to my back. That’s what I was thinking.

“Seen this coming?” Palmeri said. She slowly spun in circles, as if trying to take it all in. I had to agree that it was a lot to process.

“Yes,” Jeremy said. “Not zombies, but something. Fall of the government. Got democrats and bleeding heart liberals running things. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Not zombies.”

“You said that, not zombies,” Jason said. “We believe there is nothing wrong with stockpiling a little peace of mind. This room, everything inside here, it’s our peace of mind.”

Jeremy bounced up and down. “Got another room, twice the size of this room with all kinds of food, and water, and sup—”

“Enough, Jeremy,” Jason said.

Jason was the big brother. That much was evident. And the smart one. He didn’t like his little brother giving away too much. After all, we were strangers.

“Take what you think you’ll need. Got bars on the outside of the windows upstairs. No shutters. Be a perfect place to hit targets out on the lawn,” Jason said.

I couldn’t agree more. We grabbed what we thought we would need. I fit a belt around my waist, and affixed both a broadsword on one side, and a twelve inch blade recurve hunting knife on the other. I slung a machete in a leather sheath over my neck and shoulder. The blade had to have been twenty-five inches long.

Charlene stood beside me and I looked at her. “What are you doing?” I said.