“We gotta get out of here, Bill.” Just looking at him made her even more afraid. She loved him so much that she was terrified of what could happen to him. Yes, she was scared of dying in the snapping, tearing jaws of the undead, but Bill … She touched his shoulder lovingly. His fingers covered hers.
“We’ll be out of here soon enough, darling.”
“Bill, we need to leave now!” Her voice cracked as she shouted.
As the Durango went around a curve, Katarina spotted an overturned semi in the road.
“Shit,” Bill grumbled as he saw it, then swore again as he slowed down to edge around the crashed vehicle. He grabbed the CB mic. “There’s an obstruction in the road. We’re going around.”
There was loud static; then a voice said, “We’re moving up to rendezvous.”
Katarina faced front, unable to look at the undead horde drawing closer as the Durango crept around the overturned semi.
“Bill,” she whispered, “I’m so afraid.”
“Darling, you’re going to be okay.”
“But if anything happens to you, I won’t be able to bear it.”
“Kit-Kat, we’re going to be okay. We’ll get around this truck, then we’ll be fine.” Bill took one hand off the steering wheel so he could kiss Katarina’s hand.
Darting out from behind the truck, a zombie struck the window with a wrench. Reacting on pure impulse, Bill jerked the wheel and the Durango clipped the guardrail, then bounced off and hit the edge of the back of the semi. Fighting to gain control, Bill swore violently. The Durango plowed into a station wagon directly behind the truck. Bill and Katarina were tossed about inside the SUV as it flipped over and slid down the street.
“Get out! Get out!” Bill shouted, fumbling with his seat belt.
Katarina unbuckled her seat belt, shoved the door open, and climbed out. Tumbling onto the road, she dared to turn back and saw the zombie mob coming around the semi. Bill climbed out of the Durango. His forehead was gashed and bleeding.
“Bill!” she gasped, pointing at the wreck.
The accident had freed the undead family from the car, and they were scrambling out of the wreckage, badly decayed and fiercely hungry.
“Kit-Kat, run!”
She raced away on aching legs, Bill at her back. From the corner of her eye, Katarina glimpsed Bill trying to pull his gun from his holster. The zombies pursued them, and though the family and the truck driver weren’t runners, they were fast enough.
Katarina saw something lurch up at the side of the road. She ducked away as Bill launched himself at the zombie. They crashed into the brush, the thing under Bill growling and snapping at him.
Katarina lunged toward the wrestling figures, but Bill yelled at her to keep running.
“Keep going!” Bill shouted.
The helicopter slowly descended in front of her like some great bird. She sucked air into burning lungs through bruised lips and headed for it. With relief, she heard a gunshot behind her.
“Keep running, honey!” Bill called as more gunshots sounded.
The helicopter hung over the road. Katarina jumped, then collapsed into Kevin’s arms. He swung her into the safety of the chopper. Turning, she saw that Bill was not running for safety; instead he was standing still and firing steadily into the quickly advancing zombie crowd.
“Bill! Run, Bill!”
“He’s bit,” Kevin said brokenly.
“No! No! Bill, run!”
Bill turned and smiled at her in that special way that made her heart beat faster. Giving a short wave with a badly mangled hand, he turned back to slaying the undead.
Katarina felt her heart throb as she was gently pulled away from the door.
“No! No! We’re getting married! No!” She fought to get away, but Monica and Curtis held her. As the helicopter rose, Ed stepped to the doorway and aimed his rifle.
“Ed, please, don’t! We’re getting married! Bill just fell! We had an accident! He’s not bit!”
Ed fired.
Everyone averted their eyes as Ed lowered the gun and the helicopter swung about.
“No,” Katarina said again. “No. We’re getting married.”
* * *
In the landing area of the fort, Kevin leaped out of the helicopter, followed by Ed and Katarina. Monica and Ed helped Bette down. Charlotte had brought a wheelchair—Bette was eased into it and Charlotte rolled her away, heading for the clinic. Reverend Thomas, who had come to meet them, whispered a soft prayer of thanks as he greeted each person. He took Katarina in his arms and wept with her.
Travis clasped Kevin’s hand tightly before the two men walked on together.
“How does it look?” Kevin finally asked.
“You guys peeled off at least half of the undead. The rest have slowed down slightly, and some of them are also changing direction, following the others into the west. I think we confused them.”
“Dale and Ken?”
Travis shook his head, a bleak expression in his eyes.
“Shit.” Kevin sighed.
Travis regarded Katarina sadly. “Losing Bill is one of the hardest hits this fort has taken. Everyone is important, but Bill…”
“I know what you’re saying,” Kevin responded with another weary sigh, thinking of Valerie. “Damn. It’s good to know a good portion of the zombies were diverted, but losing Bill and the others doesn’t make it feel like much of a victory.”
As they walked through the gates into the old construction site, the two men realized that people on the street were avoiding them. Word had spread quickly about the deaths in the world beyond the walls.
“We made some tough calls,” Travis stated morosely. “And people died.”
Kevin patted Travis’s shoulder lightly. “It’s what we have to do.”
In Juan’s memorial garden, Katie sat on a bench with Lenore, who was crying silently, clutching a bright pink teddy bear. Peggy sat nearby, dabbing at her eyes and rocking her son. Maddie sat beside Rune, eyes closed, tears staining her face. Rune had one arm around Maddie’s shoulders, grief etched into his posture.
“This is just the beginning,” Kevin said somberly.
“I know,” Travis answered.
The men hesitated at the edge of the garden, feeling as if they were about to enter sacred ground. “We did the right thing,” Travis said finally. “We’ve diverted half of them.”
“Doesn’t make it feel any better though, does it?”
“No. No, it doesn’t, Kevin,” Travis agreed.
“Let’s get to work,” Kevin said.
The two men walked into the hotel.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
1.
The Fine Line
The room was dark except for a small SpongeBob night-light tucked into a wall socket. Kevin sat beside Nerit, his hand tucked under hers. The Israeli woman’s strong features were not what most would call beautiful, but some would dub them elegant. Kevin wondered what she had looked like as a young woman.
It was nearly midnight and the fort was very quiet. Dale, Ken, and Bill had left an impression on the whole community. Reverend Thomas’s impromptu memorial service had been standing room only.
Juan’s recon mission showed that the SUVs had sent the majority of the zombies off toward West Texas. That had been the good news.
Juan’s team had also seen a swarm of zombies milling around Ken and Dale’s overturned Durango. Others, apparently splintered off from that group, were drifting off to the west. But a third, large group was heading toward the fort. That was the bad news.
“It’s too risky to try that stunt with the SUVs again,” Travis had said before he and Kevin parted for the night. “We’re going to have to fight them on the outskirts of town. We cannot allow them to reach the walls.”
Their plans would take a lot of hard work to pull off, and how effective they would be was yet to be seen. But their choices were limited.
“I need you back,” Kevin said, his voice breaking. Tears filled his
eyes. “I need you, Nerit. You make me feel less alone. Less afraid. When I stand next to you, I feel strong. I don’t know if we can do this without you.”
Nerit slept on.
2.
The Winds of War
For two days, heavily armed contingents had been raiding every supply store, farm, ranch, and auto shop within a hundred miles, steering well clear of the zombie horde. The fort seemed to be bursting at the seams with stacks of wood, tanks of gasoline, bags of cement, rolls of razor wire, and other materials.
Katie leaned against the rail of the catwalk that stretched along the interior of the wall. The fresh air felt good against her warm face. She was eight months pregnant and her stomach was enormous. The baby was much more active now, and she sometimes felt as if her child were treating her ribs like a treadmill.
“Here you are,” Travis said, joining her.
“I’m watching the crews working,” she said. “I got tired of not doing anything, so I thought I’d come out here. I’m getting accustomed to the view—I’ve been assigned to this position as a spotter for the big battle.”
“I can’t believe Kevin let you wrangle yourself onto the front lines.” Travis bestowed a slightly frustrated but amused look upon her.
“The front line is out there,” she said, waving a hand toward the city limits. “If our plan works, none of us will be in any danger.”
“Fine, fine, Lady Prosecutor. So, how is it going?”
“Take a look. The barricade is almost finished.”
In the distance, bulldozers were shoving wrecked houses and downed trees into a barrier between the hotel and the oncoming zombies. The ground on either side of the obstacle had been cleared and plowed for a hundred yards. Small Bobcat construction vehicles were clearing away the last of the brush that had grown up around the exterior walls in the last year. Inside the fort, the sound of chain saws, mowers, and axes resounded as volunteers cleared away any foliage near the interior walls.
“It’s coming along impressively,” Travis agreed. When he took her hand, his palm was damp with perspiration, probably from nerves, Katie thought.
“Where were you earlier? I looked for you after lunch.” Katie watched a crew toss bags of dry grass and firewood onto the barricade.
“I was meeting with the new volunteer fire department.”
“We have one of those now?” Katie arched her brows, amused.
Returning her smile, Travis answered, “Why, yes, ma’am, we do. We now have four fire engines and, luckily, we found enough people with previous experience to form several crews.”
The fire trucks and firefighters had become essential when, during a long and emotionally exhausting meeting, it had been decided that the most effective weapon against the zombies was fire. The undead had consistently shown an innate fear of fire, and given the large number approaching, it was the best way to try to keep them away from the fort. The trick was not to burn the place down in the process.
“That lets me breathe a little easier,” Katie said, relieved.
“I’m sure the fire crews will do a good job.” Travis craned his head to watch a bulldozer digging into the earth near the center of the barricade. Massive tanks sat on the back of a nearby truck, waiting to be lowered into the ground. “When the barricade goes up in flames, it’s going to be damn impressive.”
“And terrifying.” Katie glanced over her shoulder at one of the trucks dropping off crews to work on the defenses. There was a narrow alley that led to the hotel loading dock, and the entrance to it was going to be heavily booby-trapped in case the zombies did breach the fire line. “Do you think we’ve thought of everything?”
Travis lifted his shoulders. “We’ve ransacked our brains for every contingency. I wish Nerit was awake. She’d spot any flaws in our plans, but I’m not sure what we might have missed. We’ve created firebreaks to protect the fort, done controlled burns to try to prevent the fire from jumping, and have fire crews ready to go. We have fire traps, razor wire traps, and any other trap we could think of. Hell, we’re lucky none of the workers have set off any traps.
“We have catapults and we have our crossbows and spears. If the zombies get past the fire line and we have to deal with them up against the walls, that’s when we’ll be in real danger.” He took a breath, then finished, “We’ll stop them out there because we have to.”
Katie had let him rattle on, knowing that his speech was as much for his nerves as for her own. She rubbed his arm lovingly and gave him a sweet smile. She knew he was driving himself harder than anyone else to make their plans work. Even though she was afraid, she had confidence in his ability to anticipate every eventuality.
Travis wrapped an arm around her shoulders and rested his hand on her stomach. He loved feeling their baby move and often tried to guess if it was a foot, elbow, knee, or small hand reaching out to the world beyond the womb.
Kevin joined them on the catwalk, clipboard in hand. Dressed in fatigues and wearing sunglasses, he was an impressive sight. “Looks like we’re making good progress.”
“Barricade should be ready soon,” Katie agreed.
“I meant the baby. Girl, you’re bigger than you were yesterday. I’m telling you, you’re getting close.” Kevin grinned.
“I think I’m at the start of my ninth month,” Katie said, “so not that close.”
“Closer than you think,” Kevin said. Sorrow darkened his expression for a moment. “I had three kids. I know how it goes.”
“I guess we’ll see.” Katie heard several shots ring out. Most likely a few zombies had strayed too close to the workers.
“Do you have a minute for me, Travis? I want to show you the new contingency plans.”
“More plans?” Katie asked.
“Yeah, for if they reach the walls. We’ll have to deal with bodies piling up and creating ramps for the zombies,” Kevin answered, his smile vanishing. “I talked to Juan, and some of his people are modifying two of the bulldozers so they can be used to clear away the bodies if we wind up under siege.”
Katie didn’t want to think about that. Maybe he saw the expression on her face or maybe Travis wasn’t ready to think about it either, because Travis put his hand on Kevin’s arm and said, “Let’s discuss this in my office.”
“Okay,” Kevin said, tucking his clipboard under his arm. He took off his glasses and leaned toward Katie. “I promise you that your baby will be born into a safe world. We will win this battle.”
Katie smiled. Kevin kissed her hand; then he and Travis headed for the hotel.
Alone on the catwalk, she watched the people below busily preparing to defend their home. Fear swept through her. What if their defenses weren’t enough? What if the undead made it past the barricade? How many zombies would get through?
“Oh, Jenni,” Katie whispered. “I wish you were here. Then maybe I wouldn’t feel so afraid.”
* * *
As they walked, Travis and Kevin spoke quietly to each other.
“What did Greta report?” Travis asked.
“The zombies are still on the way. They’ll arrive within two days.” Kevin sighed. “I know the timing isn’t good, but we’re running low on fuel for the helicopters, so we have to ground one of them now. We need to have as much fuel as possible for Greta’s bird on the day they arrive and in case we have to evacuate.”
“How do we evacuate more than four hundred people with two helicopters? And where would we go?”
“We can evacuate only sixteen people at a time. … As for where…” Kevin shook his head. “We have to concentrate on winning. We can’t afford to lose the fort.”
The weariness in Travis’s shoulders reflected Kevin’s own exhaustion. “Okay, so we outfit the bulldozers to protect the drivers and plan to use them should the zombies hit the walls.”
“Hope for the best,” Kevin said.
“Plan for the worst,” Travis finished.
Together, they walked into the hotel.
CHAPTER TWENTY
-NINE
1.
Between Two Worlds
“I always loved to watch you sleep,” Lydia whispered.
Katie stirred slightly, her eyelashes fluttering.
Lydia’s ghost moved into the circle of light cast by the lamp on the bed stand. Her sad expression was full of love as she sat down on the edge of the bed, folding her long hands on her lap.
“The veil is so thin now, I can almost touch you.” Her hand glided over Katie’s stomach. “I miss touching you so much.”
Katie remained still and peaceful in her sleep.
“I love seeing you this way.” Lydia smiled tenderly. “All that has happened has been a curse, yet a gift. I miss you, Katie; I love you and I want you to be happy. But I fear for you. I’ve done all I can to help you and yours. And now…” Lydia sighed. “Now there is nothing more I can do. It’s time for us to move on, we who are lingering between the worlds. We’ve done what we can. It’s time for us to leave you to do what you must.”
Tears in her eyes, Lydia pressed a hand to her slim throat, composing herself. “You are standing on the brink of a new world. Whether the dead or the living rule will be decided. I know you think of yourselves just as survivors, but you are more than that. You are the new Eden. You are the new beginning. There are other enclaves of survivors, but this is the place that was chosen to give birth to a new world. The choices you make tomorrow have ramifications far beyond what you can understand or see.”
Lydia kissed Katie’s hand and pressed it to her cheek. “We lived in a world where reality was sharp and clear. We were unaware of how deep and wondrous, how frightening, the roots of our world truly are. But now I know. I’ve stood in the center of the veil. I’ve seen many possible futures and many possible pasts. And tomorrow is the one point in time that can change everything.”
Standing, Lydia straightened her long skirt, then tucked her hair back behind her delicate ears. Sorrowfully, she leaned over Katie one last time.
“I pray that you live. But if not…” Lydia gently touched Katie’s cheek. “I will be waiting for you.”
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 92
