Read Online Here We Stand (Book 1): Infected (Surviving The Evacuation) by Frank Tayell - Free Book Online Page B

grocery store. Two more stood guard to the west, with three, near him, to the east. Those five were all armed with long guns, though the weapons were held casually.
    One of the three walked over to the broken window and took the arm of a young woman carrying something outside. The woman looked down, and then gave a short laugh before heading back into the building. Tom was about to turn away and find another route when the man spotted him.
    “Hey!” he called. “Something moving!” The four sentries raised their weapons. Tom raised a hand. The guns were lowered. The sentries even seemed to relax. Curious, Tom stepped forward.
    “You shouldn’t be out here,” the leader said. “It’s not safe for anyone.”
    “I’m just passing through.”
    “No,” the man said. “You need to get inside and stay there. Where do you live?”
    “The Upper West Side,” Tom said, naming somewhere not far from the marina.
    The man shook his head. “Do you have food? Water? Enough supplies for at least two weeks?”
    Tom raised the tote bag.
    The man gave a rueful shake of his head. “You’re going to need more than that. What are you going to do when the water’s cut off?”
    “You think it will be?” Tom asked.
    “Don’t you know what’s going on?” the man asked.
    “You mean the… the zombies?”
    The man grimaced. “Yeah, everyone’s calling them that. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell them it isn’t true. But no, that’s not what I mean. I was talking about the police. Didn’t you hear?”
    “Hear what?”
    “Yeah, how could you? We were called back, told to leave Manhattan.”
    “You’re a cop?”
    “Detective. I live here. This is my city. There’s no way I’m going to leave on the say of some politician, but most did. All our support’s gone. Can’t get through to the chief. Hell, I can’t get through to anyone. They left us to ourselves, to fester and tear one another apart. You’ve got to go home or find somewhere safe. Fill every container with water. Start breaking your furniture for firewood. Speak to your neighbors. Work together. Secure the building, and the block. Together we can beat this. Alone we’ll die. There’s more food here than we can take. Get your neighbors, come back, take what you can. Or find somewhere else. Take anything that’ll go bad from any store unlikely to open tomorrow.”
    “Right, sure. Yeah, maybe I’ll come back,” Tom said. “Thanks. Good luck.”
    “And to you.”
    Tom threw an occasional glance at the group as he went past. It was somehow uplifting seeing people work together. On the other hand, the news that Manhattan had been left to fend for itself was contrary to everything Tom knew about Max. That was something else to think about when he was on the water, heading away from the island.
     

 
    Chapter 5 - Blockade
    The 79 th Street Boat Basin, New York
     
    The Seventy-Ninth Street Boat Basin wasn’t so much up and coming as came up and went. Where the boats had gone, he couldn’t guess, but only one was left. A thirty-foot yacht with a mast and motor, and reddish stains he knew were rust, but which he couldn’t help but think of as blood. Two lamps cast dim shadows on the boat, the jetty, and the small group of people. He should have thought this through. Of course the boats would be gone, and this last one was spoken for. Twice over, judging by the confrontational nature of the scene.
    A woman stood, legs braced, on the jetty. Ten feet from her were two men and two women, dressed in expensive outdoor clothing that looked too clean to have ever been worn outside a dressing room. In contrast, the boat-woman’s faded jeans and bulky jacket looked far more suitable to a life at sea. Tom stepped into the shadows, moving slowly and quietly, assessing his odds of getting to the yacht.
    “You can come with us, Helena,” one of the women in the group of four said.
    “No. I told you,” the boat-woman, presumably Helena, said. “This boat