The minute the words left Jenni’s lips, the atmosphere in the room changed significantly. Peggy could feel much of the tension drain away. The accusation against Curtis suddenly felt impotent. Juan put his arms around Jenni. She spun around and clung to him, crying violently.
“Curtis, go to your room. Clean up. Rest up. We’ll talk later,” Bill ordered. Katarina and Felix both sighed as Bill shooed them off as well. He looked at Katie as she went up to Jenni and Juan.
Katie smoothed Jenni’s hair back from her face as Juan whispered in her ear.
“Can you two take care of her?”
Juan nodded, and he and Katie led Jenni away.
“What do you think?” Travis asked Bill.
“Shit happens out there. People die. And it ain’t easy,” Bill answered.
“Can’t disagree with ya there.” Slowly, Travis turned back to Nerit, who had returned to studying the map. “C’mon, Peggy. We got work to do.”
Peggy looked back at Curtis one more time before the elevator doors shut. She felt bad for the poor kid. He was such a sweetheart, it hurt her to see him so devastated. Her stomach clutched tightly. Her nerves were getting the best of her. It was a fucked-up world and she hated it. But at least Bill and Travis were there to make it better. Trying to hide the trembling of her hands, she followed after Travis back to the front desk.
“What’s the plan?” Travis asked Nerit, leaning on his elbows on the counter.
“I heard there was a disturbance! I fully intend to reveal the truth behind the matter to all who will listen! I will not allow the truth of the conspiracies of this illegal fort to go unreported to the—” Calhoun burst into the lobby with his video camera.
“I’ll get rid of him,” Peggy said with a sigh.
“Actually,” Nerit said with a wicked little smile, “we’re going to need him for our plan.”
Peggy looked at the smelly old man who refused to bathe and then at Nerit. “Him?” She was incredulous.
Travis said, “You sure?”
“Oh, yes,” Nerit said. “I’m sure.”
Calhoun headed toward them, his foil hat looking like it was about to fly off his head.
“Just the man I am looking for,” Nerit said as he neared the front desk.
Calhoun looked shocked, then a little afraid. “I will not assist you in your nefarious plans, Amazonian Queen!”
“Yes, you will” Nerit smiled at him confidently. “Because it will help defeat the marauding aliens attempting land grabs and abductions.”
Calhoun looked at her suspiciously from beneath his scraggly eyebrows, then slowly tilted his head. “Okay. I’m listening.”
As Peggy listened to Nerit’s plan slowly unfurl, she felt her fear subside. Perhaps it would all work out okay after all.
3.
When Nothing Is Clear
Travis handed Katie a beer and slid into the chair next to her. She was sitting with her feet hooked up on the balcony rail, her lean legs looking tan and fit in the waning sunlight. Dinner was sitting, nice and filling, in their bellies. Sitting out on the balcony seemed like the right way to end an evening.
Travis stretched his legs in front of him and stared at his bare feet. They ached, just like the rest of him.
Katie tapped her beer against his and took a swig. “Jenni’s okay now. I called Juan while you were in the shower.”
He looked toward her. “She took it hard, huh?”
Katie pulled on her shorts a little, still trying to get comfortable. “Yeah. Once she saw Jason, it was better.”
“She’s still not talking about her other sons, huh?”
“Sometimes I wonder if she ever will. I feel so bad for her. She says she sees Lloyd every day now, out of the corner of her eye, or standing in the shadows. She’s ignoring the visions, which is kinda good, but she’s not dealing with what happened to her kids.”
“We’re all fucked in the head right now,” Travis said. “I’ve been hearing a few things around the fort.”
“Like what?”
“People seeing ghosts, for one. Or hearing their voices.”
Katie nodded. “I guess I have my own ghost.”
“You dream of Lydia.”
“I miss Lydia,” Katie reminded him, then shrugged. “But I do have to admit that, sometimes, in my dreams, I feel her presence. Or at least I think I do. Most of my dreams about her are like flashes of memory, but sometimes, when I dream about her, she feels … real.”
Travis’s brow puckered. “I can’t say I believe in ghosts, exactly. But considering that we’ve got the living dead running around, I can’t really discount this stuff entirely. Maybe Jenni’s asshole husband really is haunting her, trying to finish what he started. I don’t know. But I do know that until she deals with what happened to Mikey and Benji, he’s gonna be able to get to her, ghost or not.”
Katie ran a hand over her blond curls and sighed. “I agree. Do you see ghosts? Dream them?”
Travis shook his head. “No, but I haven’t been that close to anyone in a long time. I’m an only child and my parents died in a car crash a few years back. My fiancée and I had ended things. Coming to Ashley Oaks to help with the restoration was my new beginning in life. Juan was the one who got me out here. He was the one person in my life giving me any sort of grounding, I guess you could say.”
“You’re kinda like Jenni that way. The zombies gave you a new lease on life, too.”
“They gave me you,” Travis answered, taking her hand and gazing into her eyes. Life was never easy at the fort. There was always hard work to be done and problems to sort out. His days were spent planning the fort expansion with Eric and Juan, working with Nerit on defenses, and establishing the internal workings of the fort with Peggy and Bill. Travis wasn’t officially mayor yet, but everyone was acting like he was. Some nights he was so exhausted, all he wanted to do was lie in Katie’s arms and listen to her breathe.
“Travis, did you know that today is the first day of August?”
“No. No, I didn’t. Hell, we missed the Fourth of July, didn’t we?”
“Uh-huh.” Katie looked toward the Texas flag waving in the wind, most likely over the library. There was a huge one that flew over city hall. “Texas is still here. That’s a good feeling. I guess we could celebrate Texas Independence Day next March.”
“We can’t skip holidays. That’s not right,” Travis decided. He held her hand as he lifted his beer with his other.
“Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s. Once we handle the bandits, maybe we can start looking forward to those.”
“We should have enough food to get through the winter and beyond. The hunters are bringing in plenty of venison and beef right now. We got that garden planted. Things should be okay. The well is good, we got generators ready for backup, firewood in case of power outages—”
“Travis?” Katie interrupted softly.
“Huh?”
“Stop.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Stop. It’s okay. It’s just us here. Let go. Relax.” She motioned at the hills and the approaching night. “Enjoy the view, enjoy the moment. You’ve done all you can for today.”
Travis closed his eyes and tried to shove the day’s tensions away. It took about a minute for his pulse rate to drop and his body to relax. When he opened his eyes, he saw the first stars appearing. The sky was beautiful.
“What would I do without you?”
“Let’s not find out.”
Katie slid out of her chair and snuggled onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and relaxed even more as she stretched her legs over his and got comfortable. Travis kissed her brow and relished the feel of her in his arms. All he wanted to do was protect her and their home, but he had to remember that he needed to just relax and enjoy the fact that she was safe.
I’m going to marry you, he thought. And he knew that would be the happiest moment of his life.
All they had to do was get through the next
few days, defeat the bandits, and buckle down for the coming fall and winter.
“Stop thinking about work,” she chided.
“What?”
“You got all tense again.”
“Damnit,” Travis muttered.
“Okay. There is only one thing that will get your mind off work. I’m going to have to get naked,” Katie said, and slid off his lap and went into their bedroom.
Travis scrambled after her, grinning.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
1.
The Countdown Begins
The next morning, Nerit and Peggy were waiting for Travis and Katie in the hotel lobby. Holding hands, the couple looked pensive.
“We’re ready, Nerit,” Travis said.
The older woman nodded. “You have the vault combination?”
“Yeah. I have it,” he assured her, patting his back pocket. He started to say something, then thought better of it.
Peggy marveled at Nerit’s matter-of-fact way of dealing with things. After Ralph was murdered by the bandits, Nerit had hidden most of the hunting store’s guns and ammunition in a safe that dated back to when the building had been a bank. Once the vault was sealed, Nerit had gathered a few possessions and her dog and set out for the fort. In her shoes, Peggy knew she would have just run, terrified. Nerit’s straight thinking in the midst of her personal tragedy had made things a little safer for them all.
Nerit looked down for a long moment, then finally said, “Please don’t disturb him.”
“We won’t,” Katie promised, and kissed Nerit’s cheek.
Nerit gave her a small smile that quickly slipped away. “Thank you,” she said.
“We’ll see you when we get back,” Travis said before he and Katie walked off, once again hand in hand.
Peggy sighed wistfully and Nerit raised an eyebrow.
“I can’t help it. Young love!” Peggy blushed and pretended to scrutinize her map.
“And soon a baby.”
“She’s pregnant?” Peggy blinked rapidly with surprise.
“I don’t think she knows yet.” Nerit leaned over the map and studied it.
“Really?” Peggy thought about how long it took her to realize her own pregnancy. Cody had sneaked up on her. “She has the glow, huh?”
Nerit gave a curt nod.
“But she shouldn’t be going out if—”
“We all take risks. All of us,” Nerit answered coolly. “Even living here is a risk. We never know what tomorrow may bring, or the next hour or minute.”
Peggy started to protest, then looked at the bricked-up windows and doors. Nerit was right. Nothing was really safe. In the beginning, Peggy had really thought that the army would come and save everyone, that big trucks would drive up and everyone would be taken to some top secret underground fortress. But that had never happened. She remembered how silly she had believed their truck perimeter was in the beginning and how she had rolled her eyes at the thought of building the wall. The army will come soon, she had thought over and over again in those first days. Now she realized the wisdom of them defending themselves and making it safe for everyone taking refuge in the construction site.
“Contact the survivor groups and let them know we are coming today,” Nerit ordered.
Peggy chewed on her bottom lip, her nervousness growing. It was always hard for her when their people traveled out into the deadlands. It was horrible to have to wait and see if they all made it back and, if not, to learn who hadn’t made it. Dylan wasn’t their only loss in the last few months. Nerit slid a paper across the counter to Peggy. “Here are the details.”
Looking over it, Peggy scratched behind one ear. “Okay, I’m on it.”
Nerit gave her a nod, then walked off slowly, slightly favoring one leg. If she knew Peggy noticed, she’d probably be annoyed.
Peggy hurried to the communication center.
2.
The Countdown Continues
Katie watched the outer gates glide open, her stomach knotting. The inner gates were already closed behind the Hummer and the souped-up minivan. As the gates parted, Katie saw two zombies lurch in their direction, but the fort’s snipers took them down with eerie, near-simultaneous efficiency. Nerit had meticulously trained the most gifted of the fort’s sharpshooters in her art, and Katie heard that Katarina had risen to be her star pupil.
Katie pushed down on the Hummer’s accelerator and started down the road. Glancing into the review mirror, she saw the minivan following closely. Felix was driving and a new guy, Bob, was sitting beside him. She hoped the new people would be able to handle the stress of entering the deadlands.
“This is pretty nice,” Katie stated. “Drives real nice.”
“Should be for how much it costs,” Travis answered. “Blanche used it to go shopping.”
“Amazing. And to think I felt guilt over the convertible Lydia gave me.”
“You would look cute in a convertible,” Travis decided.
“Yeah, but I think I have a fetish for big four-by-four trucks now.” Katie winked. “They smash zombies better.”
“Oh, you better watch yourself. You’re starting to sound like a redneck, not a big, bad, prosecuting attorney,” Travis teased.
“Oh, I am still a big, bad, prosecuting attorney,” Katie assured him. She gave him her coldest courtroom glare.
“Damn,” he laughed. “I hope I never get that look for real.”
“Just watch yourself and you’ll be okay. Otherwise, you’re screwed.”
“Ruthless, huh?”
“And I still am.”
A zombie staggered out into the road. Katie didn’t flinch and drove straight into it, flinging the creature off the road. The van behind them didn’t even have to swerve to avoid its flying body.
“See? Ruthless.” Katie grinned.
“Ummmm … I noticed.” Travis gave her a wry smile, settling into his seat.
The zombie threat in town had been greatly reduced over time by the fort’s snipers and the scavenging teams. Most of the time, the streets were refreshingly zombie free. The fort’s leaders had discussed systematically clearing the whole town, but decided that without a way to keep more zombies from invading the streets, it would be a waste of time and firepower.
What would happen to the town outside the fort that they would no longer use was still up for debate, but Katie knew that Travis had plans for their little fortress.
“Do you think Nerit is right?” Travis asked after a stretch of silence.
Katie was so wrapped up in watching the road and her own thoughts that his voice startled her. “Probably.”
“She does have a lot more experience with this type of thing, I guess,” Travis said thoughtfully.
“And she has trained and briefed all of us.” Katie’s gaze swept over the road in front of them.
No zombies.
No bandits.
So far, so good.
“She’s done a very good job since we lost Mike.” Travis sighed, remembering his lost friend. He looked back at the minivan, then returned his gaze to the scenery quickly flying by the windows. The scorching heat of the late summer had crisped the trees leaves, and the grass was dry and brown. “Having to deal with bandits on top of zombies is such bullshit. Why didn’t they try to help people instead of … you know … killing, raping, stealing?”
Katie slightly shrugged. “Trust me, I’ve pondered that many times during my career. The only thing I can think of is that it’s human nature to try to survive. And some people have a twisted nature and a twisted way of surviving.”
They rounded a bend and saw three zombies standing in the road. Katie hit them straight on. One managed to cling to the deer guard on the front of the Hummer for a few seconds, then slid off and bounced down the road. Like most of the zombies they’d seen recently, these didn’t look like people anymore. Their shrunken features and mottled bodies didn’t seem quite so terrifyingly human as they had been in the first days. It was easier to see them just as
monsters, not as the people they once had been.
Travis reached out and rested his hand on her thigh. “You be careful, okay?”
Katie ran her hand over his. “And you be careful, too.”
Jenni sat in the front seat of the short bus behind Ed, who was driving. Bill sat across from her, looking grim and anxious. There were four more people in the bus and almost no conversation. Behind them, a large moving truck carried another team. Jenni’s team would pick up any survivors; the other team would look for supplies.
The bus was even more tricked out than before. Now it had heavy mesh over all the windows and a heavy deer guard in the front. Jenni thought it was almost like being in a prison bus. They were bringing the last of the survivors in their area today. It was a big moment for the fort.
Running her hand over her rifle, she sighed. She was very hot and the air conditioner was barely working. The world was brown and dead. Occasionally, they would see a zombie wobbling down the road or through a field. It didn’t take much imagination to believe that the cities were crammed with the creatures, but out here, they seemed increasingly sparse. Jenni recognized she shouldn’t get too comfortable with that thought.
She had come a long way since that first day. It was as if her life before that morning was just a dim memory of another world. In contrast, her days on the road with Katie seemed stark and vivid in her mind. The crazed sense of liberation, the fear, the adrenaline, the passionate desire to live; she had felt stripped of all her boundaries and free to be herself—whatever that was—at last.
Despite all that she had lost, she was happy: happy to have Katie and Jason as her family, to love and be loved by Juan, to be the psycho zombie killer. She still had nightmares about her children. She missed Benji and Mikey horribly. Sometimes she wept uncontrollably when no one else was around. It hurt to think of them out there, decaying slowly as they prowled for flesh.
Benji’s tiny fingers still reached for her in her nightmares. Lloyd’s damn ghost lingered in the corners of her life. She ignored his taunts and tried not to listen to him. His words only stirred her guilt at surviving. He reminded her of that other time, that other life, that other home.
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 60
