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Kyle opened a third kitchen cabinet. And when he pointed the flashlight inside, he knew at once why everyone on the island had left.
Twilight settled over the water and chilled the air. Soon Parker would have to go below deck.
The light had been strange that evening. A slight bluish hue washed over everything and bathed the island and inlet with a surreality that he’d found unnerving. It wasn’t a portent or anything, but it didn’t make him feel any better.
He did, however, feel a bit better when nothing happened after the others went ashore. The town really was empty. The people were gone. Those things were gone if they were ever even there. He had overreacted when he refused to go with them, and now he felt more alone than he ever had in his life.
The light continued to wane. Twilight faded to dusk. He could see the dark outlines of houses and trees, but the details had faded to black. The boat bounced and rocked as tiny waves kissed the sides. All was silent. His fear settled in the gloaming and went down with the light. If night wasn’t falling, he’d be tempted to swim ashore.
But only tempted. He didn’t dare tell the others, but he refused to swim in the ocean. The only reason he didn’t refuse to swim in this inlet was because it wasn’t really the ocean. It was filled with seawater, sure, but it looked like a lake. He’d do his best to pretend it was a lake and try to act fearless when it came time to jump in.
He was not going to do it in the dark, though. Not a chance. Swimming in the dark when he couldn’t see land might be even more terrifying than swimming in the open ocean. But if nothing dramatic happened that night, he’d join his friends in the morning and pray they did not see the fear on his face.
His friends. He actually thought of them as his friends now. Before they were simply companions. And they were annoying companions. Necessary, but annoying, especially Kyle. But Kyle had done good with this island. There was no getting around it now. Sailing up to Orcas was brilliant.
It could have gone another way. The island could have been infected, crowded, or hostile, but instead it was empty. The universe had finally taken mercy and provided a respite for him and his friends.
One of his friends was a woman. Their little group was made up of five, but only one was female. She might as well be the last woman on earth. Has Annie stopped to think about the implications of that?
Parker knew he had no chance with her. Kyle was her age and seemed more her style, especially now that he’d scored so big with this island. They wouldn’t share Annie. She’d never go for it. Nor would they fight for her. They certainly were not going to rape her. At least Parker wouldn’t. That was for damn sure. Hughes would take his head off. Hell, Parker would take somebody’s head off for raping a woman.
There had to be other survivors. More people could show up any second. More probably would show up eventually. It just made sense. There had to be thousands of boats in the Puget Sound area, and there were dozens of islands. He imagined a micro-civilization of hardscrabble survivalists arising in the Pacific Northwest’s archipelago and slowly, gingerly, moving back to the mainland once those things had died off.
They had to die off eventually. For God’s sake, they’d been reduced to mindless psychotics. They had no civilization. They couldn’t build things or grow things. They could only destroy things until they themselves were destroyed or killed off by starvation, bullets, hammers, and weather.
He felt lonely on the boat, but he’d still feel lonely even if he was onshore with the others. He’d isolated himself with his atrocious behavior. That had to change. The others might even forget he’d been a jerk if he could be nice for a while. After a couple of weeks they could chalk it up to stress under pressure. That was understandable and forgivable. Wasn’t it?
Kyle knew why everyone left the island. “Look.” He stepped back from the cabinet while keeping the flashlight pointed inside. The others peered in. “It’s practically empty.”
Inside was a half-bag of rice, three cans of vegetable soup, half a packet of instant oatmeal, and that was it.
“So?” Frank said.
“So think about it. When was the last time you saw a food cupboard this empty?”
“I’ve never seen one this empty.”
“Neither have I,” Hughes said in a knowing tone. He had also figured it out.
“How much do you want to bet,” Kyle said, “that the shelves in this town’s only grocery store are also practically empty?”
“They left because they ran out of food,” Annie said.
“Exactly,” Kyle said.
“That means they had somewhere to go,” Annie said.
“Or they thought they did,” Hughes said.
“Where do you suppose they went?” Annie said.
“Friday Harbor,” Kyle said. “They must have gone to Friday Harbor.” He didn’t know that for sure, but it made sense.
“What’s Friday Harbor?” Hughes said.
“Biggest city on the San Juan Islands,” Kyle said. “It’s the seat of San Juan County. And it’s on a different island. You guys remember when the government tried to set up shelters and food-distribution centers?”
“Sure,” Hughes said.
“No, but okay,” Frank said.
“It didn’t last long,” Kyle said. “Only a couple of days, really, until the state’s trucking and distribution system collapsed along with everything else. At least one shelter and food-distribution center was supposed to be set up in each county. That means Friday Harbor for this area. The government couldn’t set one up for each tiny island, so everyone who lived here just went over there. They took the ferry. And they drove. That’s why there are no cars here.”
“Let’s go there!” Annie said.
“To the ferry terminal?” Kyle said.
“To Friday Harbor,” she said.
No, Kyle thought. That was not going to happen. Why on earth would she want to go there? “Best-case scenario is it’s full of thousands of refugees. We won’t have a house or even hotel rooms to sleep in.”
“We’d be sleeping outside,” Hughes said.
“We’d be sleeping outside,” Kyle said.
“But there will be food,” Frank said. “At the distribution center.”
“Frank,” Kyle said. “The distribution system collapsed. So did the ferry service. So did everything else. The people in Friday Harbor ran out of food a long time ago.”
“But there will be others,” Annie said.
“Others?” Kyle said.
“Other people,” she said.
“Of course,” Kyle said. “That’s the problem.”
But Annie said it like she wanted to find other people.
That would not do. No, it would not do at all.
Night fell early this time of year, so they contented themselves with cold vegetable soup for dinner and retired early. They needed rest and could explore the town in the morning when they could see.
Hughes took the couch, his rifle across his chest with his finger next to the trigger guard. His body was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep. All he could do was stare upward toward the dark ceiling with his ears tuned to hypersensitivity like a rabbit’s.
He sensed the others were awake, too, even though no one was moving or talking. At last they had some peace, some privacy, some comfort, and the time and space to think their own thoughts.
Hughes wondered what the others were thinking and how they were feeling. They seemed to think they were safe. They were not.
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