Nick rolled his eyes and decided not to say anything more. There was no point getting caught up in the ceaseless bickering between the two men. Dave probably didn’t even care if Jan and Renee were released or not; he just liked undermining Shawcross at every corner.
Eve and Pauline were sitting at a table nearby, sharing a cup of lemonade between them. Eve rolled her eyes as Nick approached them. “We were supposed to be working out our defences,” she said, “but then they just started arguing.”
“Yeah,” said Pauline. “It’s been about twenty minutes so far.”
“Best to just let them get on with it.” Nick took a seat and started telling them about Lily. It seemed to get a positive reaction, just like he hoped it would.
“So, she’s just sitting there in the trees?” said Eve.
Nick nodded. “Go see for yourself. She seems friendly; even waved to Anna.”
“No shit? Soon as I’m done here, I’m heading straight to the zoo.”
“What’s this supply map, I’ve been hearing about then?” Nick asked.
“Dave’s idea,” replied Pauline. “We’re going to choose a few places around the park and drop off food and weapons, so that if something happens we can resupply. Good idea, I suppose. They’re just trying to work out whether or not to let Jan and Renee out to help. I think Shawcross has taken it far enough now. We should let those poor men out. Cassie told us about what they did to save you in the cable car.”
Nick nodded. “Would be dead if not for them. Hey, come to think of it, where is Cassie?”
The two women shrugged. “I haven’t seen her since this morning when we all woke up,” said Pauline.
“Me either,” said Eve.
Nick had a bad feeling. “I think maybe we should go find her. Nobody should be on their own.”
Both women nodded. Nick could tell they were getting the same bad feeling that he was. All three of them stood up and moved away from the table.
“Hey, you two,” Nick addressed both Shawcross and Dave. “We’re just going to go find Cassie and then we’ll be right back, okay?”
Both men were so busy arguing that they barely seemed to notice. Nick shrugged, and he and the women each crept through the window and passed back outside. They were careful not to step on any plates as they headed into the park.
“You don’t think she’d try to hurt herself do you?” Eve asked.
“I don’t know,” Nick admitted. “But after all that has happened, I wouldn’t blame anybody for wanting to take their own life.”
Nobody said anything for a while. The tense silence made it clear what they were all thinking.
Up ahead was the office building. Annaliese had explained that there were bodies inside one of the rooms. It was the unofficial morgue, and not somewhere to visit otherwise. Beside the offices was an open warehouse with a large truck parked outside. Alan and Michelle were both milling about inside.
“Hey,” Nick said to them as he entered the warehouse. He looked around at the various things piled up. Like Mike had said, there was a large stockpile of crated-up fireworks. There were also several cans of petrol, which seemed a little unsafe to be stored next to commercial explosives.
Alan noticed Nick staring at the fireworks and grinned. His greying moustache pointed up at the corners. “Quite the collection, isn’t it? And with all this petrol we might be able to get the generator juiced back up if we need it.”
“What were all these fireworks meant for?” Eve asked, picking up a blue and orange rocket and reading the label.
“I don’t know,” Alan said. “Shawcross said the park used to hold firework displays at Halloween, and New Year, et cetera. I guess they brought in bulk.”
“Makes sense, I guess,” said Nick. “I hear there’s been talk of using them as a signal if rescue arrives?”
Alan nodded. “That’s what I’m doing now. Michelle and I are going to set up a crate of rockets at the edge of the hill so we can set them off if we spot anyone in the villages. We’ll cover them up with some tarps I found to keep them dry.”