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figure stumbled inside and shut the door behind her.
    Ethan caught Alicia’s shoulder and made the woman face him. “What the hell is going on?” he demanded. “I know you didn’t come up here beating on my fucking door like that just to see me.”
    “The infected,” Alicia said. She pulled a spare gun from the waistband of her jeans and pressed it into his hand. Ethan recognized the familiar look and feel of his Glock 17. He’d thought it was long gone after his fight in the alley the month before. “They’re attacking en masse, trying to get into the building,” she continued. “I don’t think they’ve succeeded yet, but we’ve got to put them down long before they get that far.”
    Ethan turned his focus from the weapon to Alicia’s pale face. “How many are out there?” he asked.
    “Twenty, maybe thirty,” she said. “Could be more by now. We need everyone who has experience fighting the infected.”
    Ethan blew out a breath and checked to make sure the pistol was loaded. “Where do you need me, then?”
    “I want you with me,” Alicia replied. She wrenched the door open and led the way into the hall. Ethan followed her obediently, almost unthinkingly. “I want to see how well you handle that weapon. That’ll help me decide when it’s a good idea to let you roll out on supply trips with the rest of us.”
    Ethan’s mood lifted, despite the presence of infected on the street far below them. The possibility, the very idea, of getting out of the hotel was too amazing to contemplate. He’d begun to feel like a prisoner, and the suggestion that he actually was one niggled at the back of his mind. He shook the suspicion aside and caught up to Alicia.
    “Let’s go,” Ethan said, his mood uplifted by the chance to shoot something. “I’m sick of sitting around doing nothing. I’m ready for some action.”
    “So I see,” Alicia said in amusement. She led the way to the stairwell, pulling a flashlight from her pocket and turning it on as she stepped through the door. Ethan blinked rapidly as the darkness was broken. Far below them, gunshots echoed. “I personally hope there isn’t more than a quick mop-up left when we get there. I don’t want to risk the infected getting inside.”
    Ethan nodded understandingly, and they began a quick descent of the stairs. She pushed the stairwell door open on the fourth floor. The short hallway beyond was a beehive of activity. People Ethan had never seen before rushed about with pistols in their hands or shotguns and rifles strapped to their backs, looking harried and overworked. Tables were shoved against the walls between conference room doors. Ethan glanced at one table as he passed and spotted a map of Atlanta taped securely to half of the table’s surface. A wrinkled map of Georgia was similarly fastened beside it. On the city map, the metro area had been gridded off, and several of the squares were colored in. It seemed the suppliers for this small community were systematically searching for the necessary supplies to keep the building’s occupants alive. Ethan found the level of organization impressive.
    As Ethan contemplated the state map, trying to decide why it looked so familiar, a blond woman brushed past him with a hunting rifle gripped in her hands. Alicia caught the woman’s upper arm to stop her and demanded, “Where’s Dominic?”
    “He went to the street level,” the woman told Alicia. “He said something about checking the reinforcements in the parking garage to make sure the infected couldn’t get past the gates.” The woman’s eyes flicked past Alicia to Ethan, blatantly looking him up and down. Ethan nearly fidgeted under the woman’s scrutiny.
    “Is there any risk of that happening?” Alicia demanded. Her voice brought the woman’s attention back to her. “Any sign of the infected getting in through there whatsoever?”
    “Not that I’m aware of, but—”
    “ Get down there and get aware,” Alicia ordered. She