The Living

Shy wakes to find Shoeshine kneeling over him. Addison explains that Shoeshine saw the flares and found their lifeboat in time to bring them back to the safety of Jones Island. Claiming that he is giving them “vitamins you’re gonna need on the island” (233), Shoeshine gives them both a shot from the collection of needles in the duffel bag Shy found, then makes them promise not to tell anyone. As they make their way onto the island, Shy sees a ship big enough to bring all the survivors home, as well as a helicopter and a badly damaged sailboat. Shoeshine explains that the ship belongs to a team of researchers who have promised to help take the survivors home. Shy gives Shoeshine the duffel bag and the gun. Before they exit the boat, however, Shoeshine warns them that some of the survivors are sick and have been quarantined elsewhere on the island. Shoeshine is clearly holding something else back, but Shy isn’t sure what.

Shy and Addison swim to shore and feel reinvigorated to be on dry land. Addison is conflicted about her father; she wants him to be alive but doesn’t know how she’ll go about confronting him if he is. Shy can think of nothing but Carmen, holding onto the “lucky” engagement ring in his pocket as he prays for her to be waiting on the island. Shoeshine hides the duffel bag of medicine in the bushes. They make their way to the hotel where the survivors are staying; just as he was on the cruise ship, Shy is struck by the sheer opulence of the building. Addie and Shy meet Christian again, as well as two men who claim to have been sent to the island to research the tsunamis’ effects on marine life. As they talk, Addison faints and is taken to a hotel room to rest. As survivors crowd around Addison, Shy finally catches a glimpse of Carmen. He slips out of the room and goes looking for her, following her to a gazebo where they can have their reunion in private. As they hold each other, Shy feels that “being with Carmen again made it sink in that he’d made it to the other side. That he had a second chance” (248).

Carmen leads Shy to a freshwater pool where he can take a bath, and the two catch each other up on the events of the last five days. Carmen explains that one of the scientists gave most of the survivors vaccinations against the unknown virus, then disappeared with the rest of the medicine. Shy tells Carmen about the two dead scientists and the duffel bag of medicine that he found on the motorboat, and the two decide that Shoeshine can probably be trusted despite his strange behavior. Carmen then tells Shy that Rodney is one of the people quarantined in the penthouse and that they aren’t allowed to visit him. Marcus is also alive and well, but Kevin never made it to the island. When Shy goes to sleep that night, he dwells on Kevin’s death: “Why should he live and Kevin die? What made him any more worthy? Nothing” (256).

Carmen wakes Shy three hours later and asks him to introduce her to Addison, saying, “I decided me and her are gonna be friends” (257). Shy brings her to Addison’s room but is uncomfortable with the idea of them talking without him. Shy eats at the hotel restaurant while he waits and notices Bill across the room. After the two girls return, one of the researchers stands up to give a speech, praising “the resilience of the American people” (260). One of the passengers suggests that everyone say one thing they’re thankful for; while everyone is speaking, Addison tells Shy that she meant it when she said she might have loved him, then kisses him on the cheek and leaves. Bill announces to the room that he is thankful for Shy saving his life. Shy realizes that Bill was likely involved with the two dead scientists he found on the motorboat, which means that Addison’s father must have also been involved in the murders.

Shy and Carmen head to the penthouse on the 12th floor of the hotel where the sick survivors are being quarantined, hoping to visit Rodney. There are two guards at the door, but Carmen and Shy shove past them and burst into the penthouse. There, they see “fifteen or twenty people laying on their backs on temporary cots. Their arms and legs tied down” (268). Several of the restrained people are unconscious or dead, and all of the living patients are in great pain. When they finally find Rodney, he is already dead, and Shy sees that his eyes have turned red. He realizes: “Everyone in the penthouse was infected with Romero Disease. And some, like Rodney, were already dead. And they’d been left there to rot” (269).