Last Hope, Book One: Onslaught by Drew Brown Page B

sound. Andy looked towards the noise and stood up. “Two’ll have to be enough. We need to hurry.”
     
     

25
    Budd listened as the others thrashed out a plan of action. Frank was to organize the group for the journey to the restaurant, while Andy and Sam would venture into the basement to find weapons and anything else of value. When they returned, the group would leave.
    Kneeling next to Juliette, Budd watched as Sam and Andy, accompanied by Frank and the doctor, walked around to the cargo-lift’s entrance on the other side of the bar. A few minutes later, following the whirring of a motor, Frank and the doctor came back alone.
    Budd tapped Juliette on the shoulder and when she turned to look at him he gave her a smile. “You okay?”
    Juliette nodded. She stood up, straightened her leather jacket, and then led Budd into the shadows, away from where she’d been helping to tend to the male honeymooner.
    “He told us that he saw his wife killed,” Juliette said once they were seated at a table on the fringe of the candlelight. “He said that those things bit and scratched her.”
    “Yeah, that jerk says the same thing,” Budd said, pointing at Chris.
    “What do you think they are?”
    “Zombies.”
    “Really?”
    “I don’t know,” Budd answered, his voice trailing away. There was a short silence between them where they could hear the hushed voices of others around the barroom.
    The beating of hands against the oak doors continued.
    “Do you have family, Monsieur Ashby?”
    Budd considered the question, guessing what the point to Juliette’s words would be. “None I’ll miss.”
    “No one?”
    Budd shrugged his shoulders. “My folks died a few years back, and I haven’t spoken to my brother since then. And who’d miss a string of money-grubbin’ ex-wives?”
    “A string? You must have loved them once, Monsieur Ashby.”
    “Yeah, but hell, when I was a kid, I even had a thing for Captain Kirk. Things change.”
     
    Luckily…
     
    “Do you have children?”
    Budd scratched at the stubble on his face. “Well, none that I know of.”
    Juliette’s hands came up onto the tabletop and she stroked one with the other. “I am worried about my family. I wish I could talk to them.”
    “Hey, sweetie, whatever’s happening here,” Budd said, reaching out to place his own hands on hers, “we don’t know for sure how far it goes. I mean, let me take a wild stab in the dark. Where’re your folks? France?”
    Juliette nodded. “Monaco.”
    “That’s a long way off, and, if you think about this place,” Budd said, waving his arm around the room, “things can’t get any worse.”
    “You are right, Monsieur Ashby. What should we do?”
    “Long term, I really haven’t a clue. Stick with these guys; wait till things sort themselves out. But short term, I’ve gotta take a nap. I’ve hardly slept.”
    “A nap? How can you sleep, Monsieur Ashby?”
    Budd took off his rucksack so that he could slouch in his chair. He pulled his Stetson down over his eyes. “Trust me, it ain’t gonna be a problem.”
     
    I felt bad for ending the conversation so swiftly. But I wasn’t lying; I really was tired.
    And somehow, despite what I’d said, part of me did worry ’bout what’d happened to my ex-wives. I mean, they’d been a hideous pack of bloodsuckers before this, but could they now be brain-eaters as well?
    That’d be too much to deal with, even for a laid-back guy like me…
     
    When Budd woke, it took him a few seconds to remember where he was and what was happening. He lifted the rim of his Stetson and looked around. Not much had changed, except that the group had spread further out, drifting away from the well-lit center to take refuge in the shadows. Sitting beside him, Juliette was still awake. She was sipping at a bottle of water and had placed a candle in the middle of the table.
    “How long did I doze?”
    “I am not sure, Monsieur Ashby. An hour, perhaps.”
    “Are Andy and Sam