Chapter 250: Chapter 250 - Safe
City Island was quieter than Long Island.
That was the first thing Iyisha noticed.
A few walkers moved along the road ahead, slow and scattered. One dragged itself between two parked cars. Farther down, another stumbled out from between two houses and hit a fence before it found its feet again.
"Let’s find somewhere safer for the night," Arnulf said, leading the group forward.
The place still looked like a fishing town under all the ruin. Cars sat dead along the curb. Front gates hung open. Trash moved in the wind. Nothing looked burned out the way Long Island had. It looked abandoned in a different way. Left behind. Sealed in time.
Iyisha took two more steps before her legs gave out.
Her knee buckled first.
Then the other.
She would have hit the road if Malcolm had not caught her.
"I got you," he said.
Before she could answer, he bent and lifted her into his arms. One arm went under her knees. The other held her back.
Usually, she would have said something.
She did not have enough breath.
Her head dropped against his shoulder. His shirt was still wet from the bay. Cold. Salt, sweat, and blood mixed together. His breathing was hard against her temple, but his grip stayed firm.
Arnulf was already moving ahead with his knife in hand. "That one."
Iyisha lifted her head enough to see where he was looking.
A brick house stood half a block ahead, three stories high, with a cement wall around the property. Not too high, but enough to give them cover. The metal gate hung half open. Weeds pushed through the cracks near the base. The front yard was narrow and paved. The windows were still intact.
"Clear the road," Malcolm said.
Harry moved first and buried his machete into the skull of the walker nearest the gate. Another turned from the sidewalk on the far side, but Chanse reached it before it got close and drove his knife into its temple.
Marybeth and Aljun dragged Lance between them while Arnulf checked over the wall.
"No movement inside," Arnulf said.
"That means nothing," Archie muttered.
They pushed through the gate anyway.
Arnulf went first. Malcolm followed with Iyisha still in his arms. Harry and Archie came behind them. Marybeth and Aljun hauled Lance through the gate, then leaned him against the inner wall for one second before moving again. Tilly came in last with Chanse at her side, still pale and half dead on her feet.
The front door was locked.
Arnulf smashed the small glass panel beside it with the butt of his knife, reached in, and opened it from the inside.
He did not wait.
They entered fast.
Arnulf took the left.
Malcolm took the right.
Harry and Archie split behind them.
"Check every room," Malcolm said. "Every floor."
He carried Iyisha into the front sitting room and lowered her beside Lance on a long couch near the wall.
Her knees almost folded again when her feet touched the floor, so she stayed down. Lance was slumped beside the armrest, soaked, shivering, eyes half open. His lips had gone pale.
"You still alive?" she asked.
Lance looked at her slowly. "Barely."
"That makes two of us."
Malcolm was already turning away.
Iyisha caught his wrist.
He looked down at her.
For one second, she thought about saying something else. About the baby. About his face back on the bank. About what he had not said.
Instead, she let go.
"Be careful."
His mouth tightened. "Stay here."
Then he was gone.
The house stayed quiet while they cleared it.
Lance cleared his throat.
Iyisha looked at him.
"So... You’re pregnant?"
Her eyes went to the stairs where Malcolm and the others had gone.
She was not sure.
Her body was not showing. She had no morning sickness. She had not noticed anything strange except the bleeding that had not come for almost two months.
Yet deep down, she knew.
She touched her stomach.
A life could be growing inside her.
The thought made her dread the future. It also made something hard and protective open in her chest, something she had never thought she wanted.
"I don’t know," she said.
Lance watched her hand.
"You know."
Iyisha looked at him.
"You know—" Lance tried to grin, but his face was too tired to hold it. "He looks a lot like our grandfather. Malcolm. His height. His build. Everything." His smile faded. "He used to say maybe he got everything from him."
Iyisha sat up a little.
She only knew pieces of their family. Enough to know the adults in their life had failed them at every step.
Lance looked toward the stairs. "He always said our blood should die with us."
Iyisha nodded once.
Of course Malcolm would say that.
Of course she understood why.
She did.
Still, her heart sank at the thought of him hating what was inside her. Hating her. Hating a child who had not asked to exist in a world like this.
"Give him time," Lance said.
She looked at him.
His voice was still weak, but his eyes were clearer now.
"He’ll warm up to it." His mouth twitched. "Especially with you."
"Cringe," Marybeth said.
Iyisha turned.
Marybeth slumped onto the other end of the couch like her body had finally stopped obeying her. She pointed weakly toward the back of the house.
"Kitchen is clear. Bathroom too."
The house was big and spacious. It had aged, but it had not been wrecked.
Someone had cared about how it looked.
Cream walls. Dark wood trim. A glass cabinet against one wall with dusty dishes still standing inside. Framed pictures hung straight, faded by time until the people in them were only faint shapes. Maybe a family. Maybe children.
That made Iyisha look away.
A long beige couch faced a low table with old magazines stacked neatly underneath. Dried flowers sat in a vase on a side table. Dust covered everything in a fine gray layer, thickest near the corners. The curtains were still tied back. The air smelled stale and shut in, but not rotten.
It looked like someone had meant to come back.
Malcolm returned first.
"Clear."
Arnulf followed him in, wiping his knife on his pants. "Three floors. No infected. Back door locked. Roof access through the third."
Harry checked the windows. Archie slid the bolt on the front door. Chanse moved back outside long enough to shut the gate, then came in again. Marybeth helped Aljun get Lance deeper onto the couch. Tilly reached the nearest chair and dropped into it without a word, her eyes already closing.
"No sleeping yet," Marybeth said.
Tilly did not answer.
Chanse crouched beside her. "Just a minute."
Marybeth looked like she wanted to argue, then saw Tilly’s face and stopped.
Iyisha leaned back and let her head rest against the couch.
Every part of her hurt now that they were no longer moving. Her scraped arm burned. Her shoulders were dead. Her legs felt hollow. The salt drying on her skin made everything tight.
Her hand went to her stomach before she could stop it.
Malcolm saw.
He had taken off his wet shirt and was wringing water from it near the doorway. He stopped for half a second. His eyes dropped to her hand.
Then he looked away and pulled the shirt back on.
Arnulf paced once through the room, then stopped by the front window and looked through the curtain.
"Only a few outside," he said. "Nothing close yet."
"How many?" Harry asked.
"Three on this side. Maybe two more down the block."
Harry sat down on the floor by the wall and dropped his head back against it. "I’ll take three."
"You’ll take a nap," Arnulf said, sitting beside him because he looked just as bad.
Malcolm looked at Harry before he said anything.
Harry noticed.
He groaned and forced himself up. "Yeah. Yeah. I’ll lock myself in the top room."
Archie lifted his face from his hands. "I’ll come with you."
Harry paused and turned.
For a second, Iyisha thought they would start another fight.
Harry only sighed. "Boy, I’m tired of you watching my every move."
Archie lowered his head. "Sorry."
Harry clicked his tongue. "You better be."
He started toward the stairs, one hand pressed to his bandaged arm.
"I’m gonna rest," he said. "If I don’t turn by then, we talk about going back to the lab."
No one answered.
Harry went up.
Malcolm turned back to the room. "We stay for the night. Then we find what can still be used."
"Pantry is full enough." Marybeth looked toward the kitchen. "Food and water won’t be the first problem." She looked at Malcolm. "We have no guns."
The room went quiet.
Arnulf looked down at the knife in his hand.
Archie looked toward the stairs, where Harry had gone.
Marybeth said what they all knew.
"We can’t go back there with only blades."
Iyisha forced herself to stand.
Her legs shook under her, but she stayed upright.
"We need to rest first."
Malcolm looked at her.
She held his stare, even with her hand still close to her stomach.
"Just for tonight," she said.
Outside, one walker hit the gate with a dull metal thud.
No one moved.
