Chapter 435: The Boardwalk’s Screamer [7]

After the curing sex was over, Carmen and I both pulled back from each other.

Neither of us spoke right away.

There was an unspoken understanding that we could not simply stand up and walk out like nothing had happened. We needed a moment. Just enough time to breathe, to let our heads catch up with what our bodies had just done.

Carmen grabbed a change of clothes from the small dresser near the wall and walked into the bathroom without looking at me.

I understood why.

Whatever had taken hold of her during the cure had faded now, and her own sense of shame had come rushing back in its place. She had not been herself in that moment, not completely, but she would still remember every second of it.

As for me, I had grown almost numb to the guilt that came afterward.

Almost.

Some of it still lingered, sitting heavy in my chest no matter how many times I told myself the cure had been necessary.

Maribel.

Now Carmen.

Not even a week apart.

I did not know whether to laugh at the absurdity of my own life or feel sick over how quickly this kept happening. I had told myself after Maribel that it would be a long time before I needed to cure anyone else.

I had been wrong.

I moved toward the bedroom door and pressed my ear against it, listening.

The Infected were still there.

Their nails scraped against the wood in uneven bursts, and every few seconds, something slammed against the frame hard enough to make it shudder. They could sense Dullahan. The Symbiote’s presence pulled them toward this room like moths toward a flame, and no amount of silence from us would change that.

I stayed by the door, keeping watch, until Carmen finally stepped out of the bathroom two or three minutes later.

She had changed into a plain shirt and pants, her hair pulled back and damp near the front where she must have splashed water on her face.

"We can go," she said.

I looked at her for a moment. Whatever shame had gripped her earlier seemed to have settled somewhere she had already decided not to show me. Maybe she had buried it. Maybe she had simply made peace with it faster than I expected.

She was an adult. She had survived worse than this already.

I nodded and moved toward the window.

Carmen picked up a small bag she must have packed while I kept watch, holding what looked like a few photographs and a folded piece of fabric. I did not ask what was inside. If it mattered enough for her to bring it through a house full of Infected, it was not my business to question.

"I’m going to lift you now," I said.

She nodded again, more quietly this time.

I swept one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back.

"Haah!"

The sound left her mouth the moment I lifted her off the ground.

I stiffened immediately.

It came out far too close to something else entirely, and the second the sound hit the air, Carmen froze in my arms. Even in the dark, I could see her face turning a deep shade of red.

I decided the safest thing to do was pretend I had not noticed.

I turned toward the window and jumped down without a word.

The landing came easily. I lowered Carmen onto the garden path, and she straightened her clothes quickly, avoiding my eyes as we crossed the yard toward the cabin.

I knocked twice.

"Maribel, it’s me."

The lock clicked, and the door opened.

"Mom!"

Shannon shot forward the second she saw Carmen, wrapping both arms around her waist and burying her face against her stomach.

Carmen let out a shaky breath and held her daughter close, running a hand slowly through her hair.

"I’m fine," she said softly. "I’m right here."

Tears slipped down Carmen’s cheeks as she spoke, though her voice stayed calm for Shannon’s sake. Relief, not pain. The kind that came only after believing, even for a moment, that she might never get to hold her daughter again.

I stepped into the cabin behind them and pulled the door shut.

The lock clicked into place.

It did not block out the Screamer’s noise completely. The mechanical buzz still seeped through the thin walls, mixing with distant gunfire, Infected snarls, and the occasional crash from Carmen’s house.

But inside the cabin, at least, we had a few seconds to think.

"What do we do now?" Maribel asked.

She stood close to the door with the Beretta held at her side, looking from me to the small window on the far wall.

"T...That sound..." Shannon said.

She pressed both hands against her ears, but it did not help. The noise was too deep and constant. It seemed to come through the ground as much as the air.

"Why is it still ringing?"

Carmen held Shannon closer.

"Are they everywhere?" She asked.

Her face was still pale. She had reunited with Shannon, but the relief had not lasted long once she heard what was happening beyond the cabin.

"Yeah," I said. "They got through the barricades."

Shannon’s expression crumpled.

Carmen looked down at her daughter, then back at me.

The reality of it settled over all of us. The Boardwalk was supposed to be safe. It had guards. Walls. People who watched the streets and knew how to fight.

But the Screamer had turned all of that into almost nothing.

The Infected had not simply wandered toward the settlement.

They had been drawn here.

Driven here.

"I think you three should stay in this cabin until there’s at least some order outside," I said.

Maribel looked at me immediately.

"I’m not hiding in here while other people need help."

"I know," I replied. "You can come with me."

Her expression softened slightly. She nodded, though the fear in her eyes did not disappear.

"W...Wait," Carmen said. "Are we actually safe here?"

Shannon looked up at me too.

I looked around the cabin.

The walls were made from old but sturdy planks. There were no broken windows, only one small window near the back, and the door had a solid lock. The Infected might reach the garden eventually, especially if the Screamer kept pulling them through the Boardwalk.

I could not promise they would not.

But moving Carmen and Shannon through the streets would be worse.

"Getting you out of here right now would be very dangerous," I said. "This is safer than the road."

"We’ll be safe with you, Ryan," Shannon cried.

The words hit me harder than I expected.

"Shannon, I can’t protect every part of the Boardwalk by myself," I said gently. "There are Infected everywhere, and people are trapped out there. I need to help them. I need to find the devices making that sound and stop them."

Her shoulders sank.

"But..."

"I’m not leaving you for long."

I placed a hand over her hair.

"Maribel and I will clear the Infected around the house and the garden as much as we can. You and Carmen stay inside with the door locked. Don’t open it for anyone unless you hear my voice and I tell you it’s safe."

Carmen nodded, holding Shannon against her side.

"How long?" she asked.

"An hour," I said. "Maybe two at most. I’ll come back after I check the area and help destroy the Screamer devices."

"You promise?" Shannon asked.

I looked her in the eyes.

"Yeah," I said. "I promise."

Shannon watched me for another second.

Then she nodded.

Carmen gave me a small smile, though worry still showed in her face.

"Be careful," she said.

"I will."

I stood and looked at Maribel.

She had already checked the Beretta again, making sure she still had bullets. When she noticed me looking at her, she nodded once.

"I’m ready," she said.

I opened the cabin door.

The noise outside crashed over us again.

The Screamer buzzed somewhere deeper in the Boardwalk. Infected growled beyond the fence, and distant shots echoed between the buildings.

"Keep the door closed," I told Carmen and Shannon.

Carmen nodded.

"I will."

I stepped outside with Maribel and shut the cabin door behind us.

For a moment, I looked back through the small gap before it closed. Shannon stood close to Carmen, and Carmen had one arm around her shoulders.

Then the lock clicked.

I gripped the handle of my axe.

"Ready?" I asked Maribel.

"Yeah," she said.

We rushed away from the cabin together, heading back into the dark streets of the Boardwalk.