Emma thought this was a definite possibility if word of the Fort had spread as far as Atlanta. “What if there are?”
Perplexed, Juan lifted his shoulders, hands splayed. “Hell, I don’t know. We got resources for the people we got now in the Fort. Those will last us for a while. We don’t mind taking in people, but...” With a sigh, Juan fell silent.
“You can’t save everyone.”
“Maybe we can. I don’t fuckin’ know. We might be the best chance for people out there.”
“We have to save ourselves in the end. You can’t feel responsible for everyone stuck out there.”
“You’re probably right, Em.”
“Juan, I kept waiting for the military to swoop in and rescue me, or show up with a cure. Of course, that never happened. I eventually realized I had to save myself. Hell, the U.S. government probably isn’t even around anymore.”
Juan glanced off to one side as though measuring his next words. “Did you know that what’s left of the federal government is in Galveston, Texas?”
“No shit?”
“The vice president, who is now president, is holed up on the island with what remains of the cabinet and some surviving military higher ups. They blew the bridges up and secured the island.”
For a moment hope erupted in Emma’s chest. Maybe somehow the United States government could yet come through for the citizens of the country. Those thoughts were quashed by Juan’s downcast expression. It wasn’t comforting.
Noticing her questioning look, Juan continued. “We heard through the apocalypse grapevine that they’re dependent on survivor encampments on the coast for supplies. .”
As quickly as she’d felt hopeful, Emma was despondent. “We really are on our own then. Which proves my point.”
Juan grinned.
Emma arched an eyebrow. “What?”
“You said ‘we.’ I take it you’re starting to feel at home here.”
Despite her trauma and weariness, she grinned back at him. “Well, I haven’t been here too long. I’ve already had to kill a bunch of zombies, which is normal for me. So I guess I do fit in here.”
Juan nudged her shoulder with his fist. “I told you that you did. By the way, Nerit wants me to show you around before you head up to your room. She feels you’re a valuable resource and that you should get a lay of the land. That okay? You up for a tour?”
Though she was exhausted, Emma nodded. She would be more comfortable after learning the ins and outs of the Fort. It would be good to know the layout of her environment, especially where to hide if things went south.
6
Tours & News
The sun and humidity created a sweltering heat inside the garage where the Fort’s vehicles were housed and maintained. It was hotter than hell and reeked of grease, mold, and gasoline. Emma’s nose wrinkled at the stench. The walls were covered in old newspapers yellowed by time. The name of the extinct daily newspaper was painted over the garage entrance and an old punch clock hung by a door leading deeper into the building.
Juan was obviously proud of the cordoned off area where the Fort’s vehicles were stored, which was a center of activity as the crews from outside returned. While he chatted with a woman named Greta, who ran the garage, Emma drifted over to a hand-drawn map of the Fort. The people of the town had used available resources to quickly create a safe haven for themselves utilizing the arrangement of the buildings. The central hub was the big area blocked off by the ten-story-tall hotel and the newspaper building. Since those two buildings touched corners, the construction crew had only had to wall in two sides of the large space. The City Hall building was also included in the perimeter. Emma had noticed the bottom floor windows and doors were covered in burglar bars providing a barrier to the outside.
“Checking out the layout?” Juan asked, joining her.
“It’s pretty impressive. I take it you built this wall first?” She pointed to a place on the map.
“Yeah, but we used semi-trucks and sandbags to close off the area while we built it,” Juan replied.
Emma raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised the city officials let you do that. Doesn’t that type of thing have to go through a committee? Even in the zombie apocalypse?” Though her tone was joking, she was curious. Small town politics could get nasty.
“When the city leaders see people torn apart in front of City Hall, it makes it a little easier to convince them to build a wall. But I gotta admit:, they put up a fuss. I argued at the time we could always tear it down later. I’m not going to lie. It was fuckin’ hard as hell to get the city manager to sign off on it. The mayor ignored him and gave us the go ahead. The city manager-”
“Tobias,” Emma said, remembering the picture on the wall in City Hall. There had been a label under it. “Yolanda’s husband, right?”
“How did you figure that out?”
Emma explained about the photo.
Juan nodded sadly. “Tobias couldn’t deal with what was happening. His kids and grandkids all died at the school where people had been told to go for shelter. He convinced himself they were just sick. In need of help. He had a breakdown and tried to save them. You know how that went.”
“Poor Yolanda.”
“I honestly don’t know how she does it, Em. Lost everyone, but she’s a godsend. Peggy and her...” Juan faltered, tears welling in his eyes. Setting his hat on his head, he sucked in a deep breath, then explosively let it out. “Damn. I keep forgetting she’s gone.”
“Yolanda and you both get this look that says her death wasn’t expected. She took her life, didn’t she?”
“And her boy’s. Cody. That kid was skittish about everything.” Juan sighed. “You couldn’t even say ‘boo!’ to the kid without him losing it. I always thought it was weird that such a strong woman had a kid like that, but now I see she was just hiding her own fears. She kept askin’ for reassurances that the Fort wouldn’t fall when the horde came through. We were all scared. We had contingencies, escape plans, and all that. She was a part of all the planning, but it must have been too much for her. She poisoned her kid and did herself in.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Emma said and meant it.
It was definitely easy to understand the disappointment and anger in Juan’s expression, but a part of her sympathized and understood why Peggy had made her decision. If Billy had been alive with her the last year, the choices Emma made would’ve probably been quite different. She was furious with her ex-husband, Stan, for not somehow saving Billy, or giving him a better exit from the world. Tears welled in her eyes at the memory of the horrific wounds that had covered her son’s body. What would she have done to spare her son that death?
“This isn’t an easy world to live in sometimes,” Juan muttered. “But you know that.”
“All survivors know that.” Needing a change of topic before she started to cry, Emma said, “So you said you used semi-trucks as a barrier first?”
“And the construction trucks. We also had chain-link panels as a barrier inside the truck line. Anything we could use to put a barrier between the zombies and us, we used. Added rebar spikes later on. The next section we built was this area we’re in now, so we could go in and out with our vehicles without risking zombies getting into the main area.”
“I like the double paddock.”
“That was my idea,” Juan said, puffing his chest a little. “We had to build fast and anticipate what might be coming our way.”
“What I said earlier about us saving ourselves, I can see clearly you did that. I like how you didn’t just wait around for someone to save you. You just kept building what you needed.”
Looking surprisingly bashful, Juan shrugged. “We couldn’t wait for the Army or FEMA or whoever to show up. The town survivors were all crammed inside the walls and ready to fight for their lives. Then the city folk started arriving and we needed more room. Taking over the hotel was one of our first victories.”
“You should be proud of what you
accomplished here.”
“We are. I am. It’s just…we did what we had to.”
“I understand.”
“I know you do.”
They shared an awkward moment where neither one knew what to say next. It was Juan who pointed to the buildings across from the garage. Horses drank from a trough set near a stable while several teenagers put up some saddles. “We added that recently. When we found the horses, we needed to make them a stable. So we renovated those old abandoned buildings. It’s temporary until we can take another block and build them a proper stable.”
“Isn’t walling in more areas risky? More to defend.”
“Yeah, to a degree. We got the people to guard the walls. We also needed barriers between the main area and the zombies or banditos.”
“Fallback positions.”
“Yeah. It’s designed like an old medieval fortress for a reason.”
Staring at the map, Emma recognized the similarity. “Whose idea?”
“Me and Travis.’”
“The mayor, right?”
Juan nodded. “The new mayor. Architect in his old life. Leader in this one.”
“And you?”
“Construction worker in the old life. Same in this one,” he replied.
“I think you’re more than that here.”
“I just help get shit done.”
“And you’re the father of four adopted kids.”
His smile widening, Juan cocked an eyebrow at her. “That I am. And I’m good at it too. Which was surprising to me. What about you?”
“Mom and student in my old life. Fearless zombie killer in this one.”
“Shit, Em. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s okay. We all got our burdens to carry.”
“I’m sorry about your kid.”
“Me too.”
Juan hesitated. “The mom with the boy in the mask must have shaken you up a little.”
Emma was a little surprised by how intense his gaze was, as if he was trying to read her inner workings. “I can’t help but think about what I would have done for Billy. I would’ve traveled a thousand miles on foot if I thought I could somehow bring him back. But I couldn’t. That’s reality.”
In the beginning, she had wondered if one day there would be a cure for the zombies. That maybe somewhere out in the world in a secret lab there was a miraculous remedy. During her darkest days, when she had come to accept that Billy was one of the undead, she’d hoped that this was the truth. It was only after months of culling zombies that she had accepted that there was nothing left of their human selves inside their slowly decaying bodies. After the apocalypse started, her grandfather had instilled in her the belief that the purpose of her survival was to deliver peace to the dead.
Juan's expression altered from curious to despondent. “It’s hard to accept reality when you lose someone you love. I still struggle with it.”
“That makes you human.”
“I suppose.”
“I’ll be honest. I didn’t want to live after I put Billy to rest. I came here because a ghost told me to in a dream.” She giggled at the outrageousness of that statement. “That sounds ridiculous.”
“Nah. Not after what I’ve seen. Trust me. Around here, we’ve all seen our share of ghosts.” Leaning against the wall near the map, Juan folded his arms across his chest. “This is a good place to make a new life, Em.”
Emma glanced out the garage door toward the sunlit courtyard. Nerit was out there talking to Kevin. The woman embodied strength that Emma envied, and hoped she could discover inside herself.
“Em?”
“I wasn’t even sure this place existed, but I’m here now and it feels right.”
Juan nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it does.”
A Hispanic woman, dressed similarly to Emma, approached them with a welcoming smile on her face. Her dark hair was in a tight French braid under a cowboy hat and she had a passing resemblance to Juan. When he spotted the newcomer, he swept her up into a tight hug and she grinned up at him.
“You’re back! And in one piece!”
“Lucky for me! Those damn runners had us trapped on the roof of that old gas station.”
“We took care of them for ya.”
“Took you long enough,” the woman cracked, poking his chest.
“Hey, Em, this is my cousin Monica,” Juan said. “Monica, Emma. She’s new.”
The woman’s handshake was firm and quick. “Nice to meet you. You’re already the hot gossip in the hotel. News travels super-fast here.”
Emma widened her eyes, not sure what to say.
Monica set a hand on her hip and cocked her head to regard Emma. “Don’t worry. It’s all good. Rune says you’re some sort of kick-ass zombie killer that took out an entire town of them. You’re already a legend.”
“I-I just did what I h-had to,” Emma stuttered, embarrassed to be exalted for a task that was sacred and necessary.
“My cuz is right about the gossip, Em. Wildfire.”
“It’s those old biddies who hang out when the hair salon is open. They see everything. I’d barely kissed my girlfriend when they’d already told everyone Bette and I were a thing.”
Emma absorbed this information with surprise. “Girlfriend? Things are a little more progressive here than in my town.”
“Trust me. We’ve had our share of homophobia.” Monica’s expression darkened. “Had a whole group of Baptists leave because our sinnin’ was going to bring hell down on the Fort.”
“Damn.” Emma regarded the dour expressions on the faces of the cousins and realized things weren’t as idyllic as she’d assumed. “That was recent, wasn’t it?”
“The approaching horde did bring out the worst in people,” Juan admitted.
Monica pointed at Emma and then herself. “We’re cool, right?”
“I am all for people lovin’ whoever they want. Back home folks called the only lesbians in town the spinster sisters to keep the scandal from delicate ears. Frankly, the spinster sisters gave the impression of being a lot happier than most of the married couples in my old church.”
Monica’s shoulders relaxed. “I knew you looked like a cool chick.”
“She’s going to fit right in. I feel it,” Juan said with an approving look in Emma’s direction.
Tilting her head, Monica regarded him thoughtfully. “Oh really?”
Leaning toward his cousin, a defiant look in his eye, Juan said, “Yeah. Really.”
“I see.”
Emma could see the wheels spinning about in Monica’s head. Matchmaking was apparently alive and well even in the zombie apocalypse.
Emma directed her gaze away from the cousins, watching the activity outside the garage. Again, she was struck by the bustle of the Fort inhabitants. Everyone was always on the move, hurrying to some task. The SILENCE flags were gone and the hum of activity permeated the humid afternoon air. There was a long line of people outside the portable building that served as a medical center. Emma had been cleared through there when she’d first arrived. It was disconcerting to realize how many people had been stuck outside the gates.
“Everyone gets checked in when they come from outside.” Monica wiped her face with a Harley-Davidson bandana. “It’s annoying, but it prevents anyone with a zombie bite from entering the main area of the Fort.”
“I thought people who got bitten turned right away,” Emma said, her gaze flicking to Juan. “How could someone get in with a bite?
Monica gave Emma a befuddled look. “Seriously?”
Juan shuffled his weight from one foot to the other, a little uncomfortable with the topic. “Haven’t you noticed that not everyone turns the same way, Em?”
“Honestly, no. I lived on the outskirts of town. I was busy taking care of my grandparents when the outbreak happened. I’ve never seen someone turn.”
“That explains it,” Monica said.
“Shit. You’ve been lucky then, Em.”
“It’s
obvious I’ve got a lot to learn yet about what happened to the world outside my town. We were cut off immediately when the cable went out. I did piece together what happened to the townsfolk in the months after the outbreak.”
“When you were killing them off?”
“Yeah. When I was giving them peace.”
As Emma had systematically put down the zombies the town residents had become, she’d seen clues about their demise. She suspected that people attempting to flee the outbreak in the larger cities had only managed to bring it to rural Texas. A car with out-of-state plates had crashed into a gas station and had been slathered inside with blood. She’d bet all her worthless money that car was the start of the death of her town. The bits and pieces of news she’d heard through the snowy reception on her grandfather’s old black-and-white television before the stations had gone silent reported that it was a fast-spreading virus wiping out the citizens of America bite by bite.
Stepping slightly in front of her cousin, Monica said, “I can tell you what I know about the zombies, Emma. Some turn faster than others. It depends on several factors: like how healthy you are, your immune system, genetics, that sort of thing. At least that’s what Bette says. She was a medic in the Army.” Monica pointed to a young woman with short, cropped blonde hair slowly working her way down the line with two somber looking armed young men behind her. It appeared that in order to speed things up, Bette was performing examinations on the spot.
“So if someone’s been bitten, then what happens?”
“They have a choice to do themselves in, or have someone do it for them.” Again, there was a hint of guilt in Juan’s tone. “Usually a loved one. If they’re around.”
He started out of the building and gestured for the women to follow. Emma fell into step with Monica.
“Once in a while the bitten ask to be put outside the gates so they can turn.” Monica scowled with disgust. “That third option is one I don’t understand. Why anyone would choose to turn zombie confuses the hell out of me. I don’t ever want to be one of those things. I’d rather eat a bullet.”
As The World Dies | Book 4 | After Siege Page 5