On screen, a shark ravaged a small, island town.  Its hunger rivaled that of the walking dead, but Jack hardly paid attention to the movie.  Instead he thought of the group who’d followed them inside.  Had it been a chance encounter?  Had they been waiting for the show to start or had they gone in because of Jack and his friends?  He wondered if any of them had been in his dream like the guard who’d herded everyone out of the trailers.   He began to understand Sam’s paranoia.

            Jack turned to eye their stalkers in the back row when Helen hooked her arm around his neck and turned his face towards hers.  She kissed him on the lips and whispered: “stop looking back or they’ll know you’ve made them.”

            Erika jumped and gripped Ted’s arm with her good hand as the onscreen shark bit into a kid on a raft.  Helen pulled Jack’s attention back in her direction and kissed him on the cheek.

            “Let’s have a little fun with them,” she said.

            Helen gripped Jack’s hands and pulled him towards the aisle.  When they were clear of the seats, Jack put an arm around Helen and kissed her.  As they moved towards the doors, the ball players whispered amongst themselves.

            Helen giggled as they left the auditorium.  She pressed her lips against Jack’s ear and whispered: “They’d be stupid to follow us out here.”

            Just in case her assessment was wrong, Helen pulled Jack into a room marked “Ladies.”  When the door closed, she leaned against the sink, nibbling on her lower lip.  Jack glanced at the stalls, then at the door.

            “So what do you think?” he asked.

            With a disappointed look on her face, Helen said: “I don’t know.  They could just be pissed off that we’re here.”

            “But you think it’s something bigger.”

            “I don’t know.  Something just doesn’t feel right, and with their rules…”

            Jack thought of the curfew and the weapons ban.  Maybe Olmstead wanted to get a feel for his guests before he trusted them with weapons.  His society was one under attack.  Apparently the same group that destroyed Jack’s home had attacked Olmstead’s people.  They had been Olmstead’s people.  Maybe for them paranoia was necessary for survival.

            But what about the dream?

            “What are we going to do if it’s not just the five of them?”

            “I don’t know,” she said.  “Just keep and eye opened.  We’ll talk to Sam later.”

            Helen leaned against the sink and stared into her reflection’s eyes in the mirror.

            “I wonder if I’m cursed,” Helen said.

            Without taking his eyes off of the girl, Jack leaned against the bathroom door.

            “We were going to end up in this situation anyway.  I’m glad you’re with us.”

            “I’m glad I escaped when I did,” she said.  “If I hadn’t run I might have killed you.”

            Jack moved behind Helen and spun her around.  When their eyes locked, Jack took the girl in his arms and she pulled him closer.  They mashed their lips together, but this time their hands were more exploratory and their bodies rubbed together.  Fear and excitement surged through Jack’s body.  Truth be told, he was a virgin.  He knew what was happening, but had no idea what to do next.  Lips still stuck together, Helen pushed Jack into a toilet stall.  When he fell on the porcelain seat the girl startled his lap.  Of all the times Jack had fantasized about sex, he’d never imagined popping his cherry in a moldy women’s bathroom.  Without a though of what might be growing on the floor, Helen peeled her jacket off and tossed it aside.

            When Jack slid his hands under the back of her shirt, Helen’s face twisted and she yelped as she threw herself off of him.  In a panic, Helen pushed against the door three times before pulling I opened.  Before Jack could stand, he heard the stall next to his slam shut.  Looking down, Jack couldn’t see Helen’s legs, so he assumed she was curled on the toilet seat.

            As he began to move, Helen said “No, don’t.  Just give me a second,” in a hushed voice.

            “Are you alright?”

            “Yes… no.  I saw him.”

            “I’m sorry.  I guess it was just too soon,” Jack said.

            “Why can’t he leave me alone?”

            They sat in adjacent stalls for a few minutes.  The whole time, Jack tried to think of something comforting to say, but found nothing.  Finally, she lowed her feet and left the stall.  When she appeared in front of Jack’s door he saw that she’d been crying.

            Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, Helen said: “come on.  Let’s check on the others.”

            Jack nodded and stood.  He wanted to hold her, even just take her hand, but he wasn’t sure if the slightest touch would bring back her demon.

            After Jack opened the door for Helen they walked back into the movie theater side by side.

            On screen the shark attacked a fishing boat, but Jack and Helen were greeted by real action in the front rows of the auditorium.  Apparently the five baseball players had exploited Jack and Helen’s absence as an opportunity to move in on Erika.  One of the boys was seated behind the petrified girl, attempting to stroke her hair as Ted smacked his hand away.

            “Hey, little girl, you should see what a man can do,” one of the boys said.

            “Keep it up and I’ll show you,” Ted shouted back.

            “No, don’t Ted,” Erica said, her voice trembling.

            “I think she wants a piece.”

            Helen’s mouth hung opened.

            “Is there a problem?” Jack shouted as he moved forward.

            “You just turn around and take your girl back into the ladies room before we pig stick you,” Fox said.

            “You should leave her, we can run a train!  Choo-choo!”

            “Just try it,” Helen said.

            Before his comrades could stop him, the foulmouthed boy charged over the seats.  As the boy lunged for her, Helen and Jack sidestepped in different directions.  Jack tripped over a seat and tumbled backwards.  The boy’s attack missed and Helen pounced on his back, pounding his face into the floor.

            “You broke my fuckin' nose, bitch!” he shouted.  Helen got up and kicked him in the ribs.

            When he tried to get up, she kicked him again then stomped on his back.  To further drive the point home, Helen dug her heel into the small of his back.

            Fox took a step towards Helen, but one of his comrades yanked his shoulder back and whispered something in the boy’s ear.

            “You better keep your woman under control,” he shouted, pointing at Jack.

            When Helen took her foot off of the downed thug, he crawled for a few paces then climbed to his feet and sprinted as his gang rushed towards the front exit doors.

            “Son of a bitch!” Ted said, pointing at the screen.  “They made us miss the end of the movie.”

            Erica slugged him in the shoulder and stomped a foot on the ground.

            “You could have been killed.”

            Ted stood in silence with two fists clenched at his sides.  For once, words seemed to be a foreign concept to the boy.

            “I think our day out on the town has ended early,” Jack said.

            He wondered if the punks would be back armed and with greater numbers.  Sam had told Jack stories about groups of juvenile thugs.  Young, impulsive, and armed.  Until that moment, the concept was alien.  Jack had thought the stories were just those.  He could have never associated such a notion to the human race until recently.

            “Do you think they’ll be back?” Erika asked.

            Suddenly the concrete and wood sardine cans they’d inhabited for the past few days didn’t seem too claustrophobic.

*

            Sam paced on the porch outside of his hotel room, while Scott and Catherine sat in lawn furniture.  Nobody had seen Franklin all day.  He’d sent Frank and another officer out on a reconnaissance mission, pretending to be out on an afternoon jog.  Now he had to plan nightly guard shifts and a system of communication between the two hotels.  There was a possibility that they might even have to start hording and rationing food.

            “It doesn’t make sense,” Catherine said.  “If they’re hostile, why’d they bring us here?”

            “For right now, all I’m proposing is that we set up nightly watch shifts and learn the lay of the land,” Sam said.  “I’d rather be a little rude to our hosts than get caught with my pants down.”

            “I have to agree with Sam.  It’s my job to be paranoid.”

            “Let’s just keep it low profile,” Catherine said.  “After what we’ve been through I think most of our people could use a break.  If they thought our hosts were up to no good, it might cause a panic.”

            Below, several people walked through the streets, grateful for the walking space as they were for their individual beds.  The mood had changed from grim to jovial.  Even though their home was a temporary arrangement, they’d found out they weren’t alone.  Sure they knew others were out there, but the last contact they’d had with anyone else had been a radio broadcast from an outpost that was being overrun.  Shortly afterwards their only encounters with humanity hadn’t been friendly.  After his partially fabricated story of how the exploration mission went, Sam didn’t see a problem with keeping his suspicions secret for a while.

            “They’re home awfully early,” Catherine said.

            Sam looked back down towards the street and spotted the four teens as they moved through the crowd, casting backward glances.  They stalled at the first floor, outside of the girls’ hotel room.  They’d disappeared under the balcony for nearly a minute.  Had Sam not heard their voices, he would have thought they’d went inside.  After a while, Jack and Ted rushed up the stairs.

            “You okay?” Sam asked.

            “Just fine,” Ted replied.  “We got jumped by some hooligans, but I had the situation under control.”

            “You should have seen Helen in action,” Jack said.

            The boys told Sam about their trip to the movie theater and the small baseball team that followed them inside.  Before boasting about how lucky the thugs were that Helen had scared them off before he’d been able to spring into action, Ted looked over his shoulder as if expecting Erica to show up at any moment to administer a chastising glare.

            Things just went from bad to worse, Sam thought.

*

            “I’m going to get that bitch,” Sammy Radcliff wheezed through his broken nose.  “I’m gonna cut her throat while I’m fucking her!”

            “Keep you cousin under control, Briggs,” Fox snarled.

            “Look,” Vince said, “if you guys blow your lid it may ruin everything.  That bitch has an appointment with Mr. Truax.”

            Briggs shuddered when he thought of the old man and his workshop.  It was rumored that his father had fled to the US after the fall of the Third Reich in Germany and changed his name.  Continuing in the family trade, Truax had specialized in extracting information for whoever was willing to pay for his services.  It was rumored that Truax had worked for the CIA until the government collapsed.

            For fear of assassination or worse, Truax was a recluse, living in secure buildings and protected by armed guards.  Not only would a rebellious portion of the population want him dead, but several vengeful parents had him fixed in their sights.  Every few years a child ranging from six to twelve years old would be found dead.  Usually, the eye lids, finger nails, and toe nails were missing.  The bodies always suffered burn marks, sometimes around the eyes or inside of the mouth.  Even more frequently, children would disappear altogether.  There were no official suspects in the cases, but there were also no investigations.  Between gossip and some leaked information, Briggs came to the conclusion that the children were part of the price Truax demanded for his service.  Although he was eight years too old for the elderly man’s attention, Briggs still tried to avoid him.

            “If you kill her before the interrogation, Olmstead is going to be displeased,” Vince said.

            “We have to take care of some business,” Fox said.  “If any of you disobey us, you won’t have to worry about what Olmstead will do because I’ll blast all three of you in the stomach.”

            To punctuate his statement, Fox made a gun out of his forefinger and thumb and pretended to shoot Briggs, Radcliff, and Dan Peppers who’d been silent through the entire conversation.  After making his point, Fox nodded at Vince and they strolled away.

            When he was sure they were out of earshot, Radcliff said, “Fuck them.”

            “They said the bitch was off limits, but they didn’t say anything about the redhead with the broken arm,” Peppers said, licking his lips.

            Briggs had to admit he liked the idea.  It had been a while since they’d had a chance to rough up a girl and the visitors would be marked for death sooner or later anyway.  Why not have a little fun?  That’s what separated guys like Briggs and his gang from Truax.  None of the bodies they’d recovered showed signs of sexual molestation.  Briggs would have been able to understand if it was some base biological need, but what the old man did was unnatural.

            “I say we kick down her door tonight,” Peppers said.

            “Fuckin’ A,” Radcliff agreed.

            “She’s not rooming alone, remember,” Briggs said.  “And bursting in there is going to make a lot of noise.”

            Both boys looked as though Briggs had swung a baseball bat at their stomachs instead of critiquing their plan.  He sighed.

            “Look, she has to leave the hotel some time.  We’ll keep and eye out and snag her when we get a chance.”

            Although neither of his comrades looks satisfied, Briggs was reasonably certain that he’d obverted catastrophe.  Chances were that the red head would stay inside during her curfew, but it was just as likely that something else would distract the boys from their lust.  Maybe after an hour or two of waiting, they would get bored and want to sneak out of the compound.

            Security was tight around the gates, but it had laxed on areas of the perimeter where the undead hadn’t gathered in years.  Although ghouls mobbed the south side of the complex around the clock, the north side had been cleared out years ago.  The neighborhoods a mile up the street still held some spoils like jewelry as well as some trapped and lingering undead, both ingredients for adventure.

            Even without an encounter with their girl, Briggs looked forward to nightfall.

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