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"He’s right," Nick said

"Sure, okay He’s right, maybe But whatever they are, I bet they’ll be easier to see when the sun’s up Harder for thereed, but with an ulterior rab a cat nap All of us, if we can What are we going to do now, anyway? We’re stuck here and we’re , and they keep on coht not find ourselves in such a choice position for long I’ to make the hike back up to Becca’s place and turn in"

"What? No way," I argued, but he put out his hands and waved ht uphill from here, away from the water It’s dark, but it’s not too far and there are plenty of living, breathing, non-zombie people between here and there It’s fine I’ll be fine I’d be a selfish cad if I tried to score a spot here anyway"

He left us shortly thereafter, and I couldn’t blame him or stop him He was in better physical shape than the rest of us, or so I wanted to think Maybe he’d gotten ood enough to walk the distance to Becca’s place, which couldn’t have been reed that there was nothing else to agree on Christ fell asleep on the spot where he sat, and a paramedic said he’d keep an eye on him Nick and I were too tired to ask precisely what that , and it turned out to be the producer froain He wanted to know if the news SUV had ever made it back down to the Read House, and Nick didn’t know

"The hospital people said they’d leave it down at the shelter if they could get it here," he said

"Fat lot of good it would do us"

He rubbed at his eyes and then turned off his phone altogether "It’s got a pretty roo to find in the hotel And I’ve got the keys If we can find it, we can sleep in it If you want to," he added without any embarrassment or reproach

I looked up at the Read House, or what I could see of it fro, solid and sturdy looking, with the weight of history and expensive renovations holding it up and holding the masses safe inside It struck me as infinitely more secure than an SUV filled with video equipment parked haphazardly outside in the rain, where there were--let’s be honest--zombies

But at every hotelI saw people crushed and tangled, sleeping however they could crahts, televisions, and radios turned on and turned up in every roon of a river lapping its way up onto the ceh there were crashes, sirens, and far-flung wails of engines and alarht" I hardly had enough energy to squeeze the words out "If you can find it, I can sleep in it"

He dashed off into the rain and I waited Twenty minutes later he reappeared to lead e Up on the second floor, pinned and squished between a Hummer and a minivan, the Channel 3 SUV was less parked than abandoned

We wrung out our hair and our clothes

He reached inside and threw all the expensive equiper’s seats He unloaded the rear a piece at a tiet, he reclined the back seat until it lay flat and open

I crawled into it and stretched out beside hiuess ent to sleep

17

Picture Show at the Paper Plant

Nick was snoring beside me, which was a decidedly peculiar way to wake up

I caray and a city still heavy with rain The parking garage had become a temporary camp like every other near-dry place don People were sleeping and sitting in cars, around cars, on top of cars, and in some cases, underneath them--laid out flat like children do when they play under the bed

Inside the news SUV, the ere foggy and everything smelled like wet carpet My clothes reeked My hair had conspired with the ive me dreadlocks that would’ve done Medusa proud

The intrepid reporter was out cold, with one leg crooked up on the rear wheel well, and the other stretched out straight He was using a Channel 3 windbreaker for a pillow

I didn’t see any point in getting him up, so I didn’t I opened

the back door as quietly as I could He didn’t budge, or break his routine of soft snores

I closed the door behind s were quieter outside, in the shelter of the concrete parking garage Everyone was crowded together there, sure--but with the open air things didn’t seeh--I needed a bathrooe restroo into them would be a trick The elevators were per host to a fa I took them down to the valet level and then was pointed to a back way inside the old hotel, underneath the car garage