“That’s brilliant,” she said, feeling almost giddy with excitement. They would be able to zip up to Manhattan in no time with a nice speed boat. “Now, we just have to figure out where to find a boat and where to dock on the island. This is going to shave off so much time, though, and it’ll be the safest way to travel as long as the weather’s good.”
“Thank you,” Crash said, winking. “I bet we’ll have our choice of amazing boats at any marina along the coast.”
“Do any of you kids know how to navigate a boat?” Tank asked. “Not exactly as tricky as a helicopter, but it’s still going to take some skill to get up to New York if none of you have ever captained a boat.”
“Karmen’s family has a boat,” Parrish said. “They used to take us skiing on the lake in the summer when I was little. I’ve seen Karmen drive it before. She knows what to do.”
That little nugget of information seemed to surprise Tank, and a little hint of admiration crossed Crash’s features, too. Parrish was pretty sure there was more going on between Crash and Karmen than either of them had let on just yet, and she loved it. Karmen needed a guy like Crash to keep her grounded.
And it was obvious Crash had a huge crush on her.
Parrish smiled. Maybe someday this whole thing would be over and the four of them could double-date. Stranger things had happened, right? Besides, she had to hold onto some type of hope that things could eventually go back to normal.
Otherwise, what were they doing all of this for, anyway?
“Then, water it is,” Tank said. “I agree that’s your best bet. The safest route to the water is avoiding the highway and taking all the backroads toward the coast. If I were you, I’d head out toward someplace like Brick Township or Toms River.”
“What about this place?” Crash asked, pointing to a spot on the map labeled Windward Beach Park. “Have you ever been there?”
“A couple times with my brother,” Tank said. “You’ll definitely find a good selection of boats to choose from up there, and you’ll have an easy trip up to Manhattan from there. I think it’s a good spot to aim for.”
“How long to get there, you think?” Parrish asked.
“In normal circumstances, it would take about an hour and a half to drive over there,” Tank said. “With this mess and all the detours and possible dangers along the way, I'd say maybe six hours? And that’s possibly underestimating. If you take the Humvee, maybe days if you end up stuck and having to walk part of the way.”
Hope stirred in her heart. If they could find some bikes, they could be there by dark if they left soon.
“And from there, how long of a boat ride up to the city?”
Tank cleared his throat. “I’ve never made that trip, myself, but if I had to guess from eyeballing it, I’d say an hour tops.”
She nearly cried out in excitement. Seven hours to get to Manhattan on a bad day? This was a dream. They could leave in an hour or two, find a place along the coast for the night, and then make their way into Manhattan at first light.
If they could find a place to dock somewhat close to the Four Seasons, they might even make it to Zoe before nightfall. Her sister had to be hiding somewhere nearby.
Parrish still had no real idea how they were going to get through massive throngs of rotters in the city, not to mention whatever super zombies Lily and the Dark One had waiting for them, but they would take it one step at a time.
Plus, they still had the rest of the trip today to work through some ideas. Crash seemed to be pretty good at coming up with battle plans, and they could talk or think while they rode out to the coast.
It was just too bad they couldn’t take the Humvee and the machine guns into the city with them, but maybe they could find similar weapons once they were there. Tank had said there was a strong military presence in New York in the beginning before things got overrun, which made sense being the most populated city in the US. Maybe there were still some tanks around the city they could get their hands on.
Even without fuel, Crash could probably get them running with his power.
Of course, she would take every last rotter down with her sword if she had to. She wouldn’t stop until Zoe was safe at her side.
“Okay, so we have the beginning of a plan,” she said, following the route to the coast with her fingertip.
“What’s next?” Crash asked.
Parrish looked to Tank, an eyebrow raised.
“Got any maps of Manhattan?”
Five
Noah
Noah Vincent smiled at everyone he passed in the hallway on his way back to his room, but when they tried to stop and chat about what had happened at the hospital, he waved them away and made an excuse about wanting to get cleaned up.
The truth was, he was barely keeping it together.
With every second that passed, he felt worse and worse.
By the time he reached his room, he guessed his fever was over a hundred and three. His whole body shivered, and he had started to sweat. He prayed Karmen wasn’t in there, because he didn’t want to explain what he was feeling to anyone else until he’d worked out just how bad it really was.
Luckily, the room the four of them shared was empty except for their bags and belongings.
He locked the door and quickly stripped down to his underwear. The smell of blood on his clothes made him queasy. But the instant he was half-naked, he could no longer control his shivering.
He crawled into bed and pulled the blanket up to his chin.
Within minutes, he was so hot, his forehead dripped with sweat.
Damn. He never should have tried to
