“I think you’re right, Curtis.” Travis rubbed his tense brow. “Peggy, I need to talk to Mike and Juan right away. Can you find them?”
“Sure, but why?”
“We’re going into the hotel.” Travis said, “It’s time to take the risk.”
“You got it,” Peggy said, then pounded down the stairs.
“I better get back,” Curtis headed toward the door. “Maybe they got lucky and I’ll hear from them.”
“Keep me updated,” Travis said.
With a nod, Curtis hurried away.
“Are you sure about this?” Katie asked.
Travis nodded sadly. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Why now? Because of the tornado?”
“Yep,” Travis answered honestly.
“I don’t get it.”
“I just realized that no matter how well you plan, how hard you try to make sure every condition is perfect, in the end, you can’t predict everything. We can’t possibly know when a tornado is going to set down and wipe out all our hard work. I keep waiting for it all to be perfect, but that just won’t happen. Will it?” Travis raised his eyes to stare directly into hers.
Katie averted her gaze and avoided his question. It suddenly felt far too personal.
“That’s what I thought,” Travis breathed, and walked down the stairs.
Katie turned to watch him leave, wishing she could follow. Once more, she resolved to stay away from him. She wasn’t ready to move on. Not yet.
Letting out a sigh, she continued to her room.
CHAPTER FOUR
1.
Plans
Travis admired the new wall as Mike and Juan beamed with pride. “It looks really solid.”
“No zombies are coming through this wall. Everything is just like I told you it would be,” Mike assured him.
“And we’re done a little early,” Juan pointed out.
Grinning, Travis said, “Yeah. Great timing. Now we can get the crews in here to clean up the store and get it ready.”
“So we’re definitely going into the hotel?” Mike lifted his eyebrows.
“Yeah. I’ve made up my mind. We can’t keep second-guessing ourselves. Besides, with the hot weather coming and the storms picking up, we need to get people inside. The Dollar Store is not going to house everyone, and the rest of the stores need too much work to make them livable. So … yeah … the hotel.” Travis folded his arms across his chest and felt his resolve deepen.
Somewhere beyond the walls, out of view, zombies keened and moaned. The sounds sent a shiver down his spine.
Juan pushed his cowboy hat up on his forehead and lit a cigarette. “Okay, so how is this going down?”
“Just like we planned. Evacuate everyone not participating in the hotel operation to the store. Set up guards along the perimeter and then do our magic.”
Mike chuckled. “Oh, we’re going to need magic if our zombie estimates are off.”
“Leave it to zombies not to cooperate,” Juan groused.
“Travis, you’re not doing this because of the Manns, are you?” Mike jerked his head back toward the construction site. “They’re talking a lot of shit, but people know what’s what around here.”
Shaking his head, Travis answered, “No. No. It was the tornado wiping out the group near San Angelo.”
“Curtis told me about that. Damn, that really sucks.” Juan took another drag on his cigarette. “Mother Nature is a real whore.”
“Well, it made me realize that I was waiting for the perfect moment, and that that’s not going to happen.” Travis rubbed the back of his neck, trying to work out the big knot that never seemed to quite go away. He felt it tightening as he spoke. “So, it’s time.”
“My teams are as ready as they’ll ever be,” Mike said.
Travis cast a look over his shoulder, scrutinizing the new section of the fort. The street was empty and the doors to the Dollar General were propped open. The cleanup crew was hard at work, and soon others would start boxing up the merchandise.
“Back on that first day, I never dreamed that we would end up building a fort,” Travis mused.
“So much for revitalizing Ashley Oaks, huh?” Juan smirked.
“Oh, we revitalized it, all right—zombie-survival-style,” Mike corrected, high-fiving Juan.
Travis chuckled, shaking his head.
Juan took a long drag on his cigarette, then said, “I know it’s hard to believe, but things are looking a lot better than they were back then. My cousin Monica made it here, all the way from El Paso.”
Travis felt a little embarrassed that he hadn’t known that. “That’s great!” He clapped Juan on the back.
“Yeah, one of our teams found her at a fuel station. She escaped El Paso and crossed the freakin’ desert to get here. She’s a tough chica,” Juan said proudly.
“Too bad her cousin is a pussy,” Mike joked, elbowing Juan.
“Dude, she could kick your ass,” Juan declared.
A call of “Hey, guys!” broke up the good-natured tussle. The men looked over to see Belinda climbing down a ladder. Mike’s girlfriend had a tote bag slung over one shoulder. Her long hair billowed around her face as Mike rushed over to lift her down the last few rungs. Laughing as her boyfriend carried her over to Travis and Juan, Belinda waved.
“Rosie sent you guys some lunch,” Belinda said, holding out the tote bag.
“Tacos!” Juan gasped with delight. “I love her tacos! Mom makes the best!”
Travis snagged a couple of the foil-wrapped tacos before Mike and Belinda walked off to eat together in the shade of the new wall. “Oh, the tacos are still hot.”
Shoving half a taco in his mouth, Juan savored the flavor. “I love my mom.”
Unwrapping one, Travis took a big bite. “Delicious. And I am glad to hear about your cousin, Juan.”
“After losing Sergio ’cause of that asshole Ritchie, it’s good to know his sister is okay. We lived right next door to each other growing up. They were like my brother and sister. It makes me feel good to have more family here.” As he chewed, Juan glanced at Belinda, his unrequited love since grade school. “She looks happy.”
“I think she is,” Travis agreed. “But so are you.”
“I wouldn’t trade my loca for the world,” Juan said swiftly. “I’m over Belinda for good.” He looked sharply at Travis. “How are things with Katie?”
Travis shrugged.
Juan shook his head. “You and the unobtainable woman. It’s your disease, man.”
“I’m not that bad,” Travis declared. “Besides, I’m okay with just being friends.”
“Right. I don’t believe that for a second.” Juan shoved more taco in his mouth. “Tomorrow is going to be a bitch.”
“Let’s just get through today,” Travis requested. “We’ll worry about tomorrow when it gets here.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Juan said. “But tomorrow is still going to be a bitch.”
On the other side of the wall, the zombies continued to moan.
2.
Facing Reality
Peggy swore for the third time in as many minutes as she double-checked her inventory lists.
“My brain has gone to shit,” she muttered. The stack of requests on her desk was getting thicker. Some people needed very specific medications; others were hoping for a small indulgence. Peggy kept two lists for the salvage teams: one was necessities; the other, luxuries, to be acquired only if circumstances permitted. She had forgotten to add feminine napkins to the list of necessities for the second time in a week. Hopefully the Dollar Store would be a good source of necessities and luxuries, even if she wasn’t looking forward to inventorying all that merchandise.
Beside her, Cody played quietly with his toys. He was a sensitive child, and it had taken weeks for him to start playing with the other children in the fort. Peggy considered that a tremendous breakthrough, but since he’d overheard some chatter about the hotel and the zombie threat, he’d beco
me fearful again and was refusing to leave her side.
“Peggy, do you mind if we talk?”
Forcing her gaze from her work, Peggy was surprised to see Yolanda Roccaforte, the widow of the former city manager, standing beside her. After Tobias Roccaforte’s death, Yolanda hadn’t risen from her bed except to eat. The days of weeping showed on her face. The fine skin around her brown eyes was swollen. Her dark skin looked unusually sallow, making the light smattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks more pronounced. Though she was nearing fifty, Yolanda still had a girlish way about her, from her slim figure to her tousled, chin-length hair.
“Sure. How can I help you?” Peggy tried not to sound gruff, but there was a little bit of bad blood between them.
Yolanda sank down into the chair across from Peggy. “I know I haven’t been much help around here since Tobias died, and I would like to change that.”
Peggy raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”
“I know that when we came to town, there was some tension between you and my husband.”
Peggy snorted despite herself. “That’s putting it lightly.”
Yolanda bristled. “I know Tobias wasn’t too nice to you at times, but he was worried about losing his job. We lost everything in Hurricane Rita, and moving from Beaumont to Ashley Oaks was rough on both of us. We were blessed that our children followed us here, but it wasn’t easy at first, being among strangers.”
Peggy settled back in her chair and shrugged lightly. “It wasn’t easy for anyone.”
“Well, Ashley Oaks going from a town with hardly any African-Americans to us nearly taking up twenty-five percent must have thrown y’all quite a bit.” Yolanda’s gaze was steady.
“We ain’t racist in this town,” Peggy answered defensively. “We weren’t used to y’all’s ways. And I don’t mean because you’re black, but because you’re a bunch of East Texans.”
Yolanda laughed briefly. “I know how much the rest of Texas looks down on us for being Southern hicks.”
“Well, you are almost the same as Louisianans,” Peggy said, smiling for real. “Anyway, most of the people in this town don’t really give a rat’s ass about skin color as long as you’re not a dumb-ass. It’s a ‘live and let live’ kinda thing. Tobias and I didn’t get along, because when the city council hired him, we both know they were catering to the evacuees to make y’all feel at home—but it still meant that my job was on the line. I was sure that the city council would ask why they had both a city secretary and a city manager. So, no, I didn’t look too kindly at Tobias at that time, but it wasn’t ’cause his skin was darker than mine.”
“Plainly spoken and the truth,” Yolanda said. “But Tobias just wanted to fit in here. Same as me. We just wanted a new start. We missed Beaumont something fierce, but Rita took away more than our home. It killed our jobs and left us with barely any choices. Tobias getting the job here was our new beginning, and it was good until …” Tears sprang to the other woman’s eyes and she dabbed at them with a well-used tissue.
Peggy felt all her belligerence slide away as the other woman tried not to weep. Grabbing a fresh tissue from her desk drawer, she thrust it at Yolanda. “I’m so sorry. I was mad as hell at him, but I didn’t want him to die.”
Gratefully, Yolanda took Peggy’s offering and wiped away her tears. “I miss him so much. He just couldn’t believe our whole family was dead and gone. I struggle with their loss, too. I miss them, too. Sometimes I even think I see Tobias out of the corner of my eye … .” She sighed. “But I have to move on.” She sat up and faced Peggy squarely. “I know Rosie is handling food distribution and you do just about everything else. I want to help. I was an office manager back home, and I know a thing or two about organization.”
The thought of someone helping her was thrilling, but at the same time, Peggy felt a little panicked. She had her systems and was set in her ways. Her fingers played with the edges of the legal pad in front of her as she pondered Yolanda’s words. Slowly, she realized she couldn’t say no. Exhaustion and overwork were making her careless—and the survivors in the fort couldn’t afford for her to make any more mistakes.
“I think we can work something out,” she answered. “You could start with this. It’s the supply list. I’m having trouble keeping track of all the requests.”
Yolanda grinned, relief sweeping the tension from her features. “Oh, that sounds good. I’d like that.”
“We’re also going to have to inventory the merchandise coming out of the Dollar Store. I’ll need help with that.”
“Sounds good.” Yolanda suddenly reached across the desk and grabbed Peggy’s hand. Her palm was damp and her fingers a little cold, but Peggy didn’t draw away. “Thank you, Peggy. You’ve done good work here, and I just want to help. I have to start doing something or I’m going to lose my mind.”
Squeezing Yolanda’s hand, Peggy felt tears spring to her eyes. “Then I’ll keep you so busy, you’re gonna wish you hadn’t volunteered.”
“Can we be friends, Ms. Peggy?”
“Yes, we can, Ms. Yolanda,” Peggy answered, and meant it.
3.
Packing Up and Moving On
“It still smells like zombie in here,” Stacey muttered under her breath. The too-slim younger woman made a face and rubbed her pert nose.
“Zombie and bleach,” Katie amended with a wry grin.
“Sounds like a drink almost.” Stacey laughed and puffed air up at her flyaway bangs. She was packing the contents of a shelf: boxed dinners and cans of soup. The store bustled with activity as the shelves were emptied into boxes.
“Yeah, in some freaky bar down on Sixth Street in good ol’ Austin, Texas.” Katie grinned at the thought and continued clearing the shelf. Sweat was trickling down her back and beaded on her forehead. Katie had no idea when the Dollar Store’s air-conditioning had failed, but it had been long enough ago that the store was stifling. A couple of the men on the recovery team had discovered that the breaker had been tripped. They’d flipped it back, and now the air conditioner was humming loudly, but it would take some time to cool the store down to a comfortable temperature.
Stacey sighed ruefully. “The good ol’ days.”
Katie’s smile faded. “Yeah. The days of yore.”
“In the B.Z.”
“Before Zombie?” Katie arched an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Stacey answered. She taped the box shut and scrounged around for the black marker they were using to mark the contents of the boxes on the outside flap.
“I can’t wait for the A.Z., then,” Katie said.
It was nearly two in the afternoon and they had been working for hours. Katie’s legs were aching and her arms felt bruised.
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel real. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday I was a coach at an elementary school, refereeing dodge-ball and hoping the bullies didn’t kill the nerds,” Stacey said in a sentimental tone.
“I know the feeling,” Katie replied as she taped her box closed. “It just … changed so fast. One second the world was normal, and the next it was all wrong.”
“One second people you loved were alive, and the next …” Stacey shook her head, as if to shake the bad thoughts from her mind. “At least here we’re safe, or as safe as it gets.”
Katie shoved her box onto the pallet behind her, stretching her back. Stacey glanced toward Eric and Travis as they walked by. The men were talking earnestly and gesturing around them. Stacey shot Katie a bemused look and Katie quirked her eyebrow upward.
“When they talk engineering and architecture, I have no idea what they are saying,” Stacey confessed.
“You and me both.” Katie wiped more sweat from her face. She was wearing gloves to prevent cutting her hands. They felt obscenely warm.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad Eric is involved with fort business, but sometimes I just wish—” She let out long sigh. “—you know, sometimes I wish we could just relax. But it’s always about scrambling to be safer, scr
ambling to survive, scrambling to anticipate every little thing that could go wrong.”
“I’ve been thinking about that lately,” Katie confessed, “that maybe we’ll never know real peace ever again. You know, that feeling that the world is safe and sane, that there will be food on the table, a job to go to, a loved one to curl up with at night.” Lydia and their beautiful home once again filled her mind.
“I guess if that’s true, then we should hold tight to any little bit of happiness we find,” Stacey said, glancing at Eric once more. Katie knew from what Stacey had told her that they had fallen slowly in love with each other as they struggled to survive. “I guess, maybe, just being here with him is enough.”
Katie found herself watching Travis. “Maybe,” she said at last. “Maybe.” She quickly filled the next box, stacking cans neatly inside.
Stacey lifted her now-sealed box onto the pallet behind them and reached for a new empty box from a stack nearby.
“Hey,” Travis said as he joined them. “You two have been in here long enough. Why don’t you finish up those boxes and take a break?”
“Thanks, Travis.” Stacey swept the remaining casserole boxes into the box with one stroke of her arm. “Done!”
Travis laughed and helped her tape up the box and heave it onto the pallet.
“See you on the next shift. I’m going to go sunbathe,” Stacey said to Katie, then jogged out of the store into the bright sunlight.
Hurrying to stack cans, Katie expected Travis to move on, but instead he squatted down next to her and helped her pack the box. She didn’t know what to say, but it felt awkward not to talk to him. She searched for words, but the ones that filled her mind were not ones she was ready to say.
“It looks like we’ll be able to get this area secure by tonight,” he said, “so we can go into the hotel tomorrow or the following day.”
“I’m looking forward to having my own room. I adore Nerit, but I need my own space,” Katie confessed.
“It is hard to find actual alone time around here, isn’t it? But it’s kinda lonely at the same time.”
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 36
