Emma moved her gaze from Lewis, scanning the area for the white-haired medium. “I’m going to speak to a friend and see if he can help.”
“How’d he change anything?”
“He’s a man with inside information.”
Lewis gave her a befuddled look which was promptly interrupted by the back door to City Hall opening. Yolanda poked her head out and was relieved to see Lewis.
“There you are, Lewis! I need to talk to you about fixing my computer. No one else around here is that good with them, but you did a fine job with Travis’s last night.”
“Sure, Ms. Yolanda. Be right there. I’ll catch you later, Emma. I appreciate you being concerned about my aunt. If you can get her to come inside, that would be awesome.”
“I’ll do my best,” Emma promised.
Lewis gave her a brief nod and rushed back inside City Hall.
With fresh determination, Emma started her search for Rune.
10
The Inside Man
It took a few tries to find someone who knew where the white-haired medium was. The first people Emma approached were very friendly though they didn’t have an answer for her. That alleviated her shyness, making it easier to ask others for help. It was a good sign that she was gradually adapting to being around other people.
Finally, someone directed her to the garage where Rune was working on his bike. Eagerly, she took the wooden steps over the inner wall into the main entrance to the Fort. It was quieter today since the construction vehicles were stored elsewhere in the Fort and must exit another way. Out of the garage came the sound of tools being used and the hum of large industrial sized fans blowing warm air into the stuffy interior.
Voices from close by drew Emma to a spot on the far end of the building toward the last bay.
“…and tell him he’s an asshole for killing himself. I’m a pilot! This isn’t my gig!” a woman said testily.
“Patrick ain’t around,” Rune drawled. “I ain’t seen him since he took a header out his hotel window.”
Emma found the two people next to an impressive Harley Davidson. Rune was on his knees, attentively cleaning a part of the engine. A tall, thin woman with short, dark hair that curled around her ears and forehead grunted in response and placed her hands on her hips.
“It’s bad enough that I’m grounded, Rune, but now I have to run the damn garage because he was chicken shit.”
“You’ll be back in the air soon enough, Greta. This ain’t going to last forever.”
“It feels that way.”
Rune caught sight of Emma and waved her over. “Hey, Emma! Have you met Greta yet? She’s a kickass helicopter pilot and now runs the garage.”
Greta spun about, hand extending. She had a long, angular face with keen eyes that swiftly looked her over, as though evaluating her. “The fearless zombie killer. A pleasure.”
“For God’s sake, Rune. Have you told everyone?” Emma complained, but clasped the woman’s hand warmly. “I’m just Emma.”
“Rune actually didn’t tell me. Calhoun did. He’s excited about your arrival. He thinks you’re some sort of alien hybrid that will wipe out all the zombies for the Amazonian Queen.”
“Huh?”
“Calhoun thinks Nerit is an Amazonian Queen,” Rune explained.
Dropping her hand, Greta shot a grin at Rune. “Would you be surprised if she was?”
“Not one damn bit.”
“She is impressive,” Emma said. “Kinda scary too.”
“Rumor is she was Mossad. I’d believe that.”
Rune nodded. “I’d put money on that one.”
“Got any inside information on that?”
Rune sat back on his heels. “That’s the thing. She ain’t got no one haunting her since Ralph moved on. Maybe even the ghosts are too afraid to try to haunt her.”
There was a loud clatter nearby and furious cussing.
“I better go check on Carlos,” Greta huffed. “He’s trying to fix the Mustang that kid wrecked. Good thing I rebuilt one with my dad back in the day. I know exactly what to do. Catch you later, Emma.”
Brushing his hands off on his jeans, Rune scrutinized Emma’s face. “Hmmm,” he said, “you look like a woman with a purpose.”
“I need your help.”
Rune leaned back against a work bench. “I had a feelin.’”
Emma emulated his stance, resting her back against a pillar, instantly regretting it. It was grimy and left a swath of dirty grease on her clothes.
“Tell me what you need, Emma.”
So she told him. Rune listened to Emma, his brow puckered. He grunted a few times, nodding in understanding.
When she finished, he exhaled long and hard. “I’ll go with ya to talk to this Macy, but I’m warnin’ you now, I will not lie to her. If we get over there and I can’t help, you’re gonna have to accept that. The dead don’t always haunt the livin’, though it is a helluva lot more common now. And sometimes, even when they’re hauntin’, they don’t talk.”
“I don’t want you to lie,” Emma assured him. “Even if her kid has moved on, knowing that might help her.”
“I think you’re being a bit too optimistic there.”
“Maybe.”
“What did it take to make you let go of the hope you had about your son?”
Emma scrunched up her face at the horrible memory of the moment she gave up. “I went into Stan’s house. The windows were shattered. There was blood everywhere. I thought I’d find Stan and Billy dead, but it was Stan’s new wife torn to pieces. Her eyes were pinned to one spot in the room. It was the changing table. I found her baby inside the hamper, barely alive.”
“Shit, Emma. I’m sorry.”
“He died within minutes of me arriving. When I killed what was left of her, she was staring at where her baby had been. Was she staring because she wanted to eat him? Or because she gave her life to save him? There was no way to know.” Emma shrugged. “Stan and Billy weren’t in the house. If Stan had been there, he would have done everything to save his family. It was then hope started to die inside me, bit by bit, every day, until I put Billy to rest. It was a process. A slow, agonizing process.”
“I betcha it’s the same for her, don’t ya think? What will make her give up that last bit of hope?”
Staring at him straight in the eye, Emma said, “You.”
“There’s no guarantee of that,” Rune replied. “I won’t lie. If her son’s ghost ain’t hangin’ around, I’m not pulling some fake ass John Edward’s shit.”
“I’m not asking that of you. I promise.”
Rune watched her, blue eyes pensive, mouth tight with apprehension. “Once I open myself up to the other side, I might get bombarded. Every ghost hanging around might swarm me, demanding I help them find peace. If that happens, I’ll have to head out for a while. Give them time to settle down.”
“For real?” Emma stared at him in disbelief. “You’d have to leave the Fort?”
“I’ve done it before. Things settled down a little when the horde came through. Ghosts got their peace and moved on, but that only cleared the way for weaker ones to start manifesting. So far, I’ve been able to ignore them, but doing this...” Rune lifted his hands in surrender.
Heart sinking, Emma sighed. “I apologize for asking. I didn’t know.”
“Well, it’s not like I told ya. I got the gift. I’m supposed to use it, right? Besides, I thought you were going to ask me if you’re haunted by your dead family. That’s what most people ask me.”
“I see the face of my grandfather and my ancestors every time I look in the mirror and see my reflection. I know they are with me, in my blood and flesh. I never doubt that. I also never doubted that once I put down the monster that took my son’s body that his soul would be at peace. I don’t need you to confirm it to me.”
“Lipan Apache, eh?”
Emma raised her eyebrows. “What?”
“The Native blood running in your veins. Lipan Ap
ache.”
“And a good dose of Texas redneck,” Emma answered, unsettled.
If Rune noticed her discomfort, he was ignoring it.
Bending at the waist, he leaned toward her, blue eyes piercing and disconcerting. “Your soul is Lipan Apache.”
“That’s what my grandfather always told me.”
Her gaze swept over her surroundings, almost expecting to see her grandfather standing nearby with an all-knowing grin on his face.
“But your grandmother hated it. She blamed him for your mother running off. Thought him sneaking her off to the reservation for what she called heathen rituals is what corrupted her and made her leave.”
“You’re getting personal,” Emma said, biting off the words.
“This is what I do. This is what you want me to do to that woman out there. It does sting a bit, huh?”
Closing her eyes, Emma took a moment to compose herself. “Who’s talking to you?”
“All of them.”
“My ancestors,” she whispered.
A shiver ran visibly through his body. “Well, they’re definitely not ghosts that are stuck here. They’re something different, connected to the very cosmos. Voices whispering out of the stars.”
“Sometimes I hear them when I’m afraid.”
“I know you want to save this woman, but you’re asking a lot of me. I need you to be sure that this is the right move. We could go out there only to discover she doesn’t want to hear the truth. Or if she accepts the truth, it could be the end of her.”
Rocking back on her heels, Emma lifted her eyes to the stars. She couldn’t save Billy or the woman’s son, but she could try to save the mother. Jenni had saved her when she’d been so close to eating a bullet.
“I need to do this. I will go find her and try to convince her with or without you. I know I am asking a lot of you. If it is too much, I will accept you saying no without complaint. I didn’t realize just how much I was asking of you.”
“Jenni was a loud one, but she’s not here anymore. Last thing she did was pop into one of my dreams to tell me to help Emma. ‘Who the fuck is Emma?’ I said when I woke up. And then you arrived. So I’ll help ya.”
“Why do you think she brought me here?” Emma dared to ask the question she hadn’t even wanted to ask.
“Well, Jenni liked to save people to make up for not saving her kids. That burden weighed heavily on her. She gave her life to save another woman’s children. A way of balancing the scales. If I were to guess, I’d say Jenni saved you so you could continue her work. Just like you want to do with Macy.”
With a sharp inhalation, Emma accepted his words as truth. It sounded right somehow.
“You two would’ve been friends, I think. Though Jenni would have driven you fuckin’ crazy. It was hard to tell what was goin’ on in her mind one second to the next. Honestly, the only person who could actually handle her was Katie. They had a bond born out of loss and the struggle to survive. But you would have gotten along with her once Jenni figured out you weren’t a threat.”
“To her and Juan?” Emma arched an eyebrow.
“Nah, to her and Katie. Katie was her family. Mom, sister, best friend, everything.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because if you’re going to pick up the mantle Jenni left for you, you should know a bit about her and who she cared about. I have a feeling Jenni probably also summoned you here to watch over Katie.”
“Does she need watching over?”
“Nope. But Jenni would’ve kept on worrying about her. Besides, once Katie is back from maternity leave, you’ll be dealing with her a lot. Travis is mayor, but Katie is the power behind the throne. Trust me on that.”
“Is she like Nerit?”
“Scary? Nah. Katie is cool as a cucumber, that one. She doesn’t get riled easily.”
Despite Rune’s reassurance, Emma was intimidated by the thought of meeting Katie. Jenni had definitely sent her to the Fort, but Emma wasn’t sure she was comfortable with picking up any mantle. At the very least, she shared a mission to help others with Jenni.
“So when do we go find Macy?” Rune asked.
“You’re going to find Macy?”
Emma whirled about to face Juan. He was flushed from the heat and wiping the back of his neck with a kerchief. Beyond the garage, a teenager was guiding a horse toward the stable. Rune altered his position so he could stare past Emma and Juan as though looking for something unseen.
“I want to try to get her to come inside the walls,” Emma explained.
“There’s no sign of her out there. I took a look around,” Juan replied. “I’m worried about her. She’s really messed up over there not being a cure.”
“I just got a lead on where she might be,” Rune said in a nonchalant manner.
“Oh?” Emma and Juan said at the same time.
“Someone just showed up who wants a final word with her. It looks like we’re all on the same mission,” Rune explained, one long finger pointing to an empty spot near the garage doors.
“Her son?” Emma whispered.
“Nope. Her husband.”
11
Hiding Places
The big red truck slowly rolled down the red-brick streets of Ashley Oaks. Juan drove while Rune sat shotgun. Seated on the bench in the back of the cab, Emma craned her head this way and that to study the facades of the buildings, peer down alleyways, and scrutinize the wild tangle of foliage in empty lots. Rune joining her mission increased the odds of a positive outcome, or at least that was what she was hoping. Unfortunately, they hadn’t spotted any signs of Macy yet.
It had taken a half hour to get their little excursion approved and a vehicle assigned to their mission. It was peculiar to Emma just how organized the Fort was despite the apocalypse, but it made sense for such a huge operation.
“See your ghost?” Juan asked.
He’d asked the question multiple times since departing the Fort.
“Nope. He just told me to head northwest,” Rune replied. “Then he vanished.”
“You gotta ask for details, man. I keep telling you that.”
“And I keep telling you that the dead aren’t like us. They got their own priorities.”
Juan swore under his breath in Spanish.
“You can’t blame them, Juan,” Emma said. “They don’t have to worry about the shit we do. They’ve already had the worst possible thing happen to them. They’re dead.”
“Emma’s right. They’re setting things right, getting revenge, or figuring out that they’re dead,” Rune agreed.
Juan made a scornful noise. “How could you not know you’re dead?”
“Denial is a powerful thing, man,” Rune said. “How many people died those first days because they couldn’t believe Night of the Living Dead was suddenly a real thing?”
“You mean the Dawn of the Dead remake. That’s when the zombies got fast,” Juan said with nerdish authority. “Which I still think is bullshit. Zombies should be slow.”
Rune grunted. “Fine. Whatever. My point remains the same.”
Peering out the windows, Emma said, “I wish they started off slow. Maybe it wouldn’t have gotten this bad.”
Juan turned the pickup down another road. “Whoever made them broke the zombie rules. I’d like a harsh word with them, but they probably got eaten when the zombies broke out of the lab.”
“You think they were made?”
“Yeah, Em, I do. Someone watched too many Romero films and thought it was a great idea because they’re pendejo.”
“Rune, got any inside info on how we got zombies?”
“Nope, can’t say that I do. And it don’t matter no how. Where they came from doesn’t change that they’re here.”
The medium had a point.
The conversation lapsed for a while as they all watched for any sign of Macy.
The town had once been beautiful. Parts of it still were, but time had destroyed some of the quaint beauty
of the Texas boomtown. The old railroad station told a story Emma knew was a common and sad part of the history of the region. Towns had popped up alongside the railroad, bursting with new commerce and migration to the area. Once new lines were laid down, bypassing old stops, a lot of towns had faced a hard economic downturn. Ashley Oaks appeared to be one of those towns. The pickup rolled past what had once been a dance hall. It was crumbling, the interior filled with a bramble of trees and wild grass.
“Wait! I just saw him. Doorway of that building over yonder.” Rune pointed toward an old three-story brick apartment building. The windows were covered in newspaper and a few others were broken and boarded over. The windows on the higher floors were intact.
Juan pulled up to a buckled and broken sidewalk, wild grass and weeds poking up between the crisscrossing cracks. Peering up at the building, he tapped his fingers against the steering wheel.
“You sure, man? This place looks hardcore abandoned.”
“I’m sure.”
“The dirt in front of the entrance is disturbed. You can see where the door swung outward.” Emma leaned forward and pointed to the deep grooves in the accumulation of dirt and leaves. “Someone is in there.”
Juan killed the engine and reached for the shotgun tucked between his seat and the console. “Okay. Then we go in and Rune does his magic.”
“Ain’t magic.”
“Whatever. You talk to the fuckin’ dead, man. Sounds like magic to me.”
There was anger in Juan’s tone, and Emma wondered why. There had been some strain between Rune and Juan since they’d climbed into the truck. Rune gave Juan a long, hard look, his hand resting on the door latch. He appeared confused too, but shrugged off the tension and exited. Emma squeezed out behind him, scrutinizing their surroundings. There hadn’t been any sign of zombies in this part of town, but that didn’t mean they weren’t lurking about. The sound of the pickup might have caught their attention, so it was best to stay on alert. Emma slid her pistol out of its holster and trailed behind Rune as he skirted around the front of the pickup with a Glock in his hand.
As The World Dies | Book 4 | After Siege Page 9