The Long Fall of Night: The Long Fall of Night Book 1 (20 page)

“Ask Russ how he feels about me being a hero,” he bit out and started to move away. Elliot cupped his jaw, stopping him.

“We’re all out of our element here. You’re the most prepared, but it’s okay if you’re afraid, Ash. It doesn’t make you less of a man if the end of the world as we know it scares the shit out of you. It makes you normal. Human, even.”

The razor wire eased, and he took a deep breath, the crisp, unpolluted air a balm to his lungs. Elliot hadn’t judged him when he’d tossed his cookies after learning the extent of the disaster, and he didn’t appear to be judging now. If anything, Ash was his own worst critic. As usual.

“Thanks,” he said softly, suddenly in no hurry to return to the group and the unpleasant task of deciding how to treat Russ’s remains. “You know, I wasn’t sure about asking you to come along. I was afraid you’d be a bigger pain in the ass than you’ve turned out to be.” He grinned to show he was half-teasing.

“Gee, thanks,” Elliot chuckled, solidly meeting Ash’s eyes.

“I’m sorry I underestimated you,” Ash finished, pushing aside his discomfort at the truthfulness. Like Elliot had said, if this wasn’t a situation in which to be real and honest, there wasn’t one. Ash was aware enough of how life turned on a dime that he didn’t want to waste time on the useless effort of his asshole armor. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me, too,” Elliot said, his voice suddenly husky. “And not just because I’d probably be worm food if I’d stayed in the city.” They stared at one another for a long moment, and Elliot looked away first. “We should see how Charlotte wants to handle this. If she’s up for deciding, that is.”

“Yeah,” Ash said, watching as Elliot began to walk back. He followed, blanket clutched against his chest, which wasn’t as empty as it had been moments before.

Charlotte had managed to compose herself and was standing near the campfire and looking up when he walked into the circle of light cast by the flames. He went to her and wrapped her in his arms, the blanket tossed unceremoniously on the picnic table bench. She allowed the hug long enough to convey her gratitude for his concern, then pulled away, staring absently at the fire.

“We can’t just leave him out here,” she said, voice clogged with emotion.

“No,” he agreed.

“So we get him into town. Take him to the hospital. Surely they’ve got other sick and injured people who didn’t make it, so they’ll know what to do. They can… put him with the rest, maybe.”

Ash cringed, not wanting to go near a hospital. That was why they had avoided it in the first place, since he figured the hospitals were either overrun or without power, the staff possibly absent but definitely overwhelmed if they were there. But in light of the situation, he didn’t argue. If it made Charlotte feel better to know Russ would be taken care of in this way, who was he to say no?

“Okay. Why don’t you take Riley somewhere so we can get Russ in the van? Elliot and Brian can stay behind while we go into town and see what we can do.”

“I don’t think we should split up again,” Brian said cautiously as Charlotte took Riley away from camp.

Ash’s shoulders hunched. “I don’t want to leave our stuff unattended. Someone has to stay back.”

“What happens if you’re caught up in a mob at the hospital?” Elliot asked worriedly.

“There’s no one here, Ash,” Brian said matter-of-factly. “Who’s going to steal anything?”

“No,” he said, putting his foot down. “One person stays back or none of us go.”

Elliot sighed. “I’ll stay. I’m not much use in a fight if things turn ugly. I’d have much better luck defending camp than fighting a crowd.”

Ash didn’t like it. He’d intended for Brian to stay behind but wasn’t sure how to say he’d rather have Elliot with him. Bigger man or not, Brian wasn’t the one Ash was more comfortable with.

“Can you shoot a gun?” he asked them.

Elliot gave a small shake of his head while Brian grunted in the affirmative.

“Then Elliot, you come with me, and Brian can hold down the fort here. Not just people in this forest to watch for.”

He knew the logic was solid, but he still tried to keep the relief from his face when they agreed. Brian did help him get Russ wrapped in the blanket and into the back of the van. Ash called for his sister and nephew then, and they climbed somberly into the van. Ash considered the wisdom of taking the boy, but ultimately, the kid deserved the chance to say goodbye. They could only shield him so much. Elliot offered Charlotte the front, but she shook her head and stayed close to her son, her expression dazed.

After twenty minutes on the winding roads exiting the park with nothing but silence and the hum of the tires on the pavement, Elliot picked up his iPod and played soft piano music. Ash had to give him credit; the selections he made were respectful and low-key, and soothing in a way no words could ever be. Soon there were quiet sniffles in the back, and when he looked in the rearview mirror, he saw Riley had curled up in his mother’s lap after all. She petted him rhythmically and brushed the tears from his cheeks, kissing his forehead over and over.

Upon entering the town of Warren once more, Ash saw the blue road sign with the H on it and followed the arrow to Warren Township Hospital. He was encouraged to see a lone bulb lit in the covered drive to the emergency entrance, which meant the building’s generator was still working. Surprisingly, there was very little activity when they walked in. The electric doors didn’t whoosh open, but there were manually operated doors to the side they were able to enter through, and Ash was gobsmacked to see a lone figure sitting behind the check-in desk.

The middle-aged woman looked up at them, almost startled to see someone in the otherwise deserted entry. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat awkwardly. “My sister’s boyfriend… had an accident last night. He seemed okay for most of today, but he lay down for a nap and….” Ash wasn’t sure he could get the words out in front of Charlotte, but there wasn’t a choice. As much as he wanted to protect her from this situation, shielding her too much wasn’t going to make matters better either. Besides, it’s not like she didn’t know Russ was dead. “He didn’t wake up.”

The woman’s face compressed in sympathy. “One moment, dears,” she said, then picked up a two-way radio to call for assistance at the ER entrance. Two young guys in scrubs and white coats showed a few minutes later, wheeling a gurney.

“Lead the way, sir,” one of them said efficiently.

This is too normal,
he thought.
What’s the catch?

Numbly, Charlotte led them to the van, lifting the back door. Riley popped up to peer over the backrest with saddened, red eyes. The men paused, then got into position to transfer Russ’s form to the gurney, leaving his blanket shroud in place.

“What happened, ma’am?” the other one asked as they followed the gurney into the building, its air stagnant from lack of movement. The heavy oppressive smell of antiseptic was worse now that Ash realized the vents weren’t circulating. He half expected to see a layer of thick fog along the floor where the heavy aroma seemed to settle most.

“We were attacked last night,” Charlotte said, glaring at Ash. He looked at her intently, trying to warn her off the truth with his eyes, but she lifted her chin defiantly. “We had to leave my house afterward because the guy who broke in could have had friends nearby. So we got in the car and left. Russ seemed okay, if kind of tired, but it was the middle of the night. We drove as far away as we dared and then decided to stop and rest for the day.” She hesitated, and Ash was grateful when she left out where they’d stopped. “He lay down for a bit, still kind of out of it. A few hours later, I checked on him, and he didn’t have a pulse.”

“What happened to him in the attack?” the shorter of the two guys asked as the other one maneuvered the gurney into a curtained bay inside a totally empty ER.

“We figured out he was hit by a baseball bat,” she said, tearing up again. “At least, that’s what was on the floor by his side of the bed.”

“What happened then?”

Ash jumped in. “He was sitting up and talking and a little dazed but moving under his own power. Like she said, we were afraid the intruder wouldn’t be the only one, so we left.”

“Where are you from?”

Ash talked over the top of Charlotte. “Upstate New York.” That was all they needed to know. “Look, we can’t go back home, and we didn’t know what to do with him. It didn’t seem right to try to put him to rest ourselves, but we can’t exactly alert a coroner for this.”

While they’d talked, the two doctors—nurses?—had determined that yes, Russ was in fact gone.

“Time of death, twenty-one forty-three,” the tall one said, then turned to them. Doctors then, since nurses couldn’t officially call it. “We’re going to need you to fill out some papers, name and address, all of that. I’m very sorry about your friend, and we’ll take good care of him, but in the meantime, we’ll start a file and get your information. Okay?”

Ash balked. The man was dead, and there was no way something as mundane as insurance was going to be taken care of on his behalf. They hadn’t done anything medical other than call time of death, which was off by more than an hour. For what did they need his or Charlotte’s information? Beside him, Elliot shifted uneasily, and Riley looked up at his mother, picking up on the tension.

“Okay,” Ash agreed, voice raspy. The two men left the room after exchanging a glance. He had no intention of signing anything, but they’d be able to formulate a plan in the few minutes’ privacy they’d been given.

“Why does that feel so weird?” Elliot asked, going to the door of the ER to watch them walk down a corridor lit by emergency light only. One of them pulled a hand-held radio from his lab coat pocket.

“What the fuck, Char?” Ash hissed, trying to keep his voice down. “Learn to take a cue, man. When I said he had an accident, you saying he was attacked only raised red flags. Do you
want
them to arrest me for his murder because our stories don’t match?”

“We
could
have brought him here for treatment, you bastard,” she snarled, her voice carrying more venom than he’d ever heard. “We had
no reason
to believe this place would be chaos except you said so, and now Russ is dead because we didn’t get him to a doctor in time.”

“I don’t think we should stay here,” Elliot said uncertainly, but Ash and Charlotte ignored him as Riley shrank behind his mother.

“I didn’t hit him over the head, Charlotte. That fucker from prison did, which wouldn’t have
happened
if
you
hadn’t insisted on waiting out this whole fucking mess at home, so don’t start pointing fingers at me.”

“Guys,” Elliot said again. Riley whimpered.

“So what you’re saying is if I don’t listen to you, people get hurt, but if I do listen to you, people will get killed,” she shot back, visibly vibrating with anger.

“You know what happens if you don’t listen to me? We will
never make it
,” Ash gritted through his teeth, fighting to keep his volume down and his temper in check. “If we’d left even a day earlier, everything would be fine, we’d be on a camping trip, and our only problem would be fewer amenities. We wouldn’t be standing in this room having to fill out goddamned paperwork—”

“What was Russ’s last name?” Elliot asked hurriedly, taking a piece of paper with a checklist of pain symptoms on one side and blank on the other from one of the drawers in a nearby cabinet. There was also a stash of pens.

The question stopped both Charlotte and Ash in their tracks. “Wallace. Russell Wallace,” she answered, surprised.

Elliot scribbled the name on the paper, then left it on Russ’s chest. “Say your goodbyes right now. Quick.”

“Why?” Ash gaped, not sure who this assertive person was who looked like his lab partner but acted nothing like him.

“Because it’s not paperwork they’re looking for,” Elliot said with certainty, antsy and peering down the hall again from his position by the door. “I just saw two security guards talking with one of those doctors, and I have a bad feeling about this. So we have to leave.”

Charlotte began to protest, but Ash pushed her toward the gurney. “Listen to him.”

She picked up Russ’s hand and kissed his knuckles, then whispered something in his ear. Riley stood awkwardly by his mother’s side and murmured the word goodbye. Ash was sorry to rush them, but as soon as she let go, he herded them toward Elliot, who motioned them to follow. They walked at a fast clip toward the ER entrance, Ash looking over his shoulder in time to see security round the corner at the other end of the hall.

“Hey!” one of them shouted, taking up chase.

“Go!” Ash ordered, and they broke into a run. The check-in woman gave a token protest, but they didn’t wait to hear it, scrambling outside and into the van. Ash peeled out of the loading lane and away from the hospital as the sound of sirens reached their ears. He killed the headlights, driving by the light of the moon and parking in someone’s driveway a block away.

“What are you doing?” Charlotte asked in a shrill voice.

“Trust me,” he muttered. A minute later, the sirens wailed louder as two cop cars sped down the street, one riding the other’s bumper. Once they’d barreled into the hospital parking lot and stopped at the overhang protecting the ER entrance, Ash calmly backed the van from the driveway and drove away, leaving the lights off but otherwise not speeding, not calling attention to themselves in any way.

“What the hell?” Charlotte asked breathlessly, keeping the cop cars in sight as long as she could. Ash got back on the highway and flicked on his lights.

“Your honesty with those doctors made them think we were the ones who killed Russ,” Ash said flatly. “Our story was suspicious because the reason Russ was dead changed. The paperwork thing was a way to keep us there while they summoned the police. It appears law and order in this town is still alive and well, despite no power.”

“What does that mean?” Riley asked from the backseat, clearly frightened.

“It means we can’t stick around. I don’t want to be driving at night, but we have to get back to camp, pack up all but the essentials, and get ready to move out at first light. Keep out your tents and sleeping bags only, got it?”