Year One (Chronicles of The One #1)(52)

He latched the shed, turned, and smiled, as he’d heard pleasure and not alarm in her voice.

“Eddie’s awake. And he’s hungry! No fever, no infection.”

“I’ll be right there.”

He offered up more thanks. They’d leave in the morning, and drive the rest of the way to where Eric waited.

They’d find their place, he thought again.

They’d make one.





SURVIVAL

Friends who set forth at our side,

Falter, are lost in the storm.

We, we only, are left!

—Matthew Arnold





CHAPTER ELEVEN

Jonah Vorhies worked nearly around the clock, using the predawn hours to slip onto the Marine Basin Marina and onto his dead partner’s boat.

It made him a little sick to break into what had been Patti’s, to see pieces of her scattered around the old cruiser she’d loved. But it gave him hope, and it gave him purpose.

He stowed extra blankets, medical supplies, food.

He planned for a short, direct trip across the Narrows and up the Hudson, but prepared for complications. On board he would have newborns and a woman who’d just given birth to twins. A doctor, too.

Rachel.

She, too, had given him hope when he’d believed all hope was lost. She hadn’t hesitated to do all she could to ensure the health and safety of Katie and her babies.

He wondered if those new lives in the middle of so much death had also given Rachel hope and purpose.

Had made her willing, as he was, to take risks.

They’d be taking newborns, barely two days old, across a river in the dead of winter. Out of New York and the increasing violence, away from potential detainment.

But to what? None of them could be sure.

Still, when he walked through the hospital for what he knew would be the last time, he understood they had no choice.

He could see death, his curse, in so many he passed. And there were fewer staff, fewer patients than even the day before.

More of them in the morgue.

But when he stepped into Katie’s room, and she looked at him with absolute trust, he knew he’d get them to safety.

Whatever the cost.

“Rachel?”

“She went to try to scavenge more supplies.”

Dressed in clothes he’d brought her, with the bag he’d packed at her feet, she stood. “Jonah, there’s only one baby left in the nursery. Her mother—she was getting an emergency C-section when you delivered the twins—she died. And the nurse … she’s sick. But the baby’s healthy. Rachel examined her. It’s been two days. She’d probably show symptoms by now if she had the virus.”

“You want to take her.”

“She doesn’t have anyone.”

“Okay.”

Katie closed her eyes, opened them as a tear spilled. “Rachel said you’d say that. She’s getting some supplements, but I can nurse her. I have plenty of milk.”

“Does she have a name?”

“Her mother’s name was Hannah. I think she should be Hannah.”

“Pretty.” He smiled, ignoring the fear of now having three infants to save. “How are these two?”

He moved to the rolling crib where the swaddled twins slept.

“I just fed them about a half hour ago. Rachel said they’re really healthy—as healthy as full-termers.”

“Let’s get them bundled up. You, too.”

Jonah worked Duncan’s arms into the gift-shop sweater while Katie dressed Antonia. The baby’s skin, so pink and white against his fingers, seemed impossibly soft. He’d rarely worked on infants as a paramedic, but he had the training and re-swaddled Duncan in one of the blankets he’d gotten from Katie’s apartment.

When he heard Rachel’s footsteps—he knew her stride—the knots in his stomach released. She came in, a med bag over one arm, an infant in the other.

“Room for one more?”

“Sure. Get your coats. I’ve got the big guy.”

He picked up Katie’s bag and took the med bag as Rachel got her own bag out of the closet.

“There’s some trouble out on the streets, but it’s not as bad as it’s been. It won’t take long to get to the marina. We’re going straight out, straight into the ambulance. Both of you and the babies in the back.”

“We went on emergency power twice today,” Rachel told him. “I don’t know how much longer that’s going to hold. And since that news report, there’s barely any staff. I never asked you where we’re going. I think I never actually believed we’d have to get out by boat.”

“Only way. Even if we could get over a bridge to Manhattan—and they’re blocked—we’d have to get over another to New Jersey. Patti kept her boat year-round in the Marine Basin Marina. Lived on it since her divorce, about eight years ago. Said it was cheaper than an apartment. And she loved it.”

“I went to school with a girl who lived on a houseboat.” Katie swayed with Antonia. “I went to a party on it once.”

“Straight out,” Jonah reminded them when they got to the main floor. “Straight out, straight in. A couple of those baby slings back there, best I could find. Didn’t know we’d have Hannah the Hitchhiker.”