“Will do. And thanks again, Anna. Me and Charlotte would still be cooped up in that hotel room if you hadn’t rescued us.”
“No problem.” She stepped out of the office and closed the door behind her. Mike was in the corridor and approached her as she headed back to the staffroom.
“Hey,” he said. “I was just coming to find you. Everything okay?”
Annaliese nodded. “As well as can be expected. I’ve left Clark to himself for a while. He’s not doing well, but I think he’ll be okay. He’s still talking and that’s the main thing, but he’s in a lot of pain right now.”
Mike nodded. “Not surprised. He’s what, twenty maybe? That’s pretty young to be stuck in a situation like this. Losing Charlotte probably left him feeling pretty alone. But, hey, what can you do?”
“Nothing, I guess. We’re all lucky just to be alive. I suppose we should try and find the positive in that.”
Mike held open the door to the staffroom and let Annaliese pass by in front of him. The pool table was now home to a modest collection of snack food and some bottled water.
“I’ve been checking around for rations,” Mike explained. “Found some odds and ends in people’s desks upstairs, but that’s pretty much it right there. We’ve got the vending machines in here to go through as well, so we should be good for a day or two.”
Shawcross entered the room. He was carrying a fan heater in his hands. “I found this in one of the offices upstairs. I’m thinking it might get pretty cold during the night so it might help to keep us all nice and snug.”
“Good idea,” she admitted. “But if things are as bad as they seemed on the news, then I figure it isn’t long before the power goes out.”
“Shit, I never thought of that,” said Mike. “How long do we have, you think?”
“There’s a backup generator,” said Shawcross. “They built it to keep the heated exhibits like the reptile house functioning even during a power cut. I don’t know how much juice they keep in the batteries, but I think we’ll get at least a couple days.”
“How do you know about that?” Annaliese asked him. “I didn’t think you had anything to do with the zoo.”
“I was here when they installed it. It’s buried in the woods behind the zoo where guests can’t see it. Thing makes a terrible racket up close, but thankfully it’s only been put to use once before.”
“Well, at least we have a little bit of additional grace if the electrical grid fails,” said Mike.
“Or we’ll be lit up like a beacon. The only place with power for miles.”
“A beacon to whom?” asked Shawcross.
Annaliese shrugged. “I don’t know. I just think our biggest asset right now is anonymity.”
“I think the opposite. The news said there are still rescue operations in place in some places. Tomorrow we should light a signal fire and let people know we’re here. Smoke from all the way up here would be seen for miles around. We have a better chance than anybody at being rescued.”
“I think that would be a totally dumb idea. We have something that everybody in the world will be looking for: a defensible position. The last thing we want to do is advertise what we have to a desperate population.”
“She’s right,” said Mike. “What if we light a fire and a hundred people turn up on this hill. What food we have left would be gone in an hour. And what if some of them are bitten on their way here? We could be crawling with infected before the day is through.”
Shawcross thought about things for a moment, but then shook his head adamantly. “If we still had access to Ripley Hall then I might be inclined to lay low, but we’re all doomed if we try to stay here indefinitely. We’re too exposed. Rescue is our only priority, and tomorrow that is what we must work towards.”