Swinging his leg over the saddle, he gunned the engine and flipped on the headlight. The bright beam revealed countless zombies spilling into the valley.
“Shit!”
Rune raced the motorcycle away from the shambling dead. His heart was beating fast and the Glock felt slippery in his moist hand. Zombies reached for him as he zoomed past, but none were close enough to snag him.
The night was full of the moans and stench of the dead. Rune prayed hard as he drove—too slowly—along the rutted and nearly overgrown path. He was beginning to fear he was lost, when he saw Jenni standing near the path, light streaming through her as she pointed urgently to his left. That was not the way he’d originally come, but he obeyed. The new route led up a hill and was not easy going. Another rider might not have been able to traverse the terrain, but Rune managed to reach the top, breaking through a line of trees.
He paused to look back. The moonlight illuminated what looked like thousands of zombies filling the valley. If not for Jenni, he would have ridden straight into the teeming mass of the undead.
Yanking on his gloves and goggles, he looked around and saw a dirt path leading down to a country road. Both were clear of the undead.
Feeling like Paul Revere, he revved the engine and roared off toward the fort.
2.
The Long March into the West
It began when a handful of zombies ignored the unexpected feast in a military truck that had crashed while trying to break through Interstate 35 and instead pursued a second truck escaping up a hill. Fifteen zombies had followed the truck, stumbling and struggling over miles of fields and roads.
The moving pack attracted their fellow undead as they walked through the south side of Fort Worth, then headed west, past dead towns and farms. A few of the creatures fell by the wayside as the weeks passed. Some became caught in fences and languished there until crows plucked out their eyes and vultures ate their flesh. Others toppled off overpasses, cracking their heads open.
A tornado swirled into their ranks one dark night, sucking hundreds into the air, pulling them apart, and smashing them to earth again. Bits of the undead littered a mile-long swath of countryside.
The zombie horde took no note of its losses, but continued forward in pursuit of flesh.
Slowly, relentlessly, the undead wandered west, toward the fort.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
1.
The Dead Are Coming
The new road signs were the first surprise. They gave clear directions on how to safely approach the fort. Rune also noted some nasty-looking traps along the way.
When he finally reached the gated entrance, the guards recognized him and immediately let him in. Ken and Lenore checked him for bites. It was good to see so many familiar faces.
“Can you let the Big Boss and Nerit know I need to speak to them right away?” Rune asked Lenore.
“Sure thing,” she answered, and pulled out her walkie-talkie.
“Is Dale still around? And Maddie?”
“Yeah, they’re still here,” Ken answered, his smile brightening at the mention of Dale. “It’s been kinda rough since you left. A lot of people died. But a lot of new people came to join us.”
“Fort grew in other ways, too,” Rune said as an outgoing helicopter caught his eye.
“You have no idea,” Ken said.
“Go on in, Rune. They’ll meet you in Travis’s office,” Lenore instructed.
“Thanks. See you around.”
Rune easily found his way to the hotel. When Maddie spotted him, he got an enormous hug, then excused himself.
It was strange to be among the living after being around the dead for so long. What was even stranger was the disconcerting lack of ghosts. He’d noticed that in the deadlands also. Something had changed, and the spirits had begun moving on again. Rune didn’t know why.
Travis greeted him warmly when he entered the office. “Hey, Rune. Good to have you back.”
“Good to be here. Nerit, like your hair. Looks good.” He shook their hands. Nerit smiled at his compliment.
“What do you have to tell us, Rune? Lenore made it sound urgent.” Travis sat on the edge of his desk as Nerit took a chair.
Rune remained standing. “I’ve been riding since last night to get here. I need to warn you about something big.”
His smile fading, Travis said, “Go on.”
“Jenni woke me up last night before some zombies could get me. I know she’s dead, but ghosts talk to me.” When neither person interrupted him, he continued, “She asked me to warn you.”
“I believe you. The dead don’t seem to stay dead in this world,” Travis said, surprising Rune. “What’s the warning?”
Rune took a deep breath. “Last night I saw a whole mess of zombies. They’re heading straight for the fort. It will take them a while to get here ’cause they’re slow and they’re going over every hill and through every forest and pasture along the way. But they’re coming.”
“Thank you. We’ll look into it immediately,” Travis assured him. He offered Rune his hand again. “Welcome back, Rune.”
Despite the terror of the night before and the dangers he knew were coming, Rune was glad to be back at the fort. It was like coming home.
2.
Family Life
Juan wasn’t sure he could deal with this. He felt dizzy, his stomach was clenched in a tight little ball, and his heart didn’t seem to be beating right.
Slowly, he lowered the little pink panties into the dresser drawer, gently straightening one of the pink bows decorating the waistband.
Margie, Troy, and Holly were moving in. Peggy had done a good job, taking care of the children for the last two months. That was obvious from the collection of clothes and toys she had compiled for each child. But the three kids were part of Juan’s family now, and he was happy to bring them home.
Since Jenni’s death, the suite they’d shared had been a sad place. Not wanting to upset his adopted teenage son, Juan had delayed the decision to bring the three orphans into their home. He was pleased when Jason made an effort to get to know the children. The teenager had explained to Juan that Jason felt passionately that his mother wanted him to love the little ones she had given her life to save.
In the end, it was Jason who had suggested that the kids move in.
Now their home was filled with laughter and loud, young voices. Jason was smiling from beneath his thick bangs as Margie talked his head off while he helped her unpack. Holly was conversing with her toys as she stuffed them onto the shelf in the side table.
The ever-faithful Jack lay on the bed between Jason and the trash bags full of clothes and toys Juan was unpacking. The dog was edging toward a stuffed bear, doing his best innocent look.
“My bear,” Juan’s new son said to the German shepherd, and grabbed the teddy bear. Jack whined and looked as pathetic as possible.
“Bad dog,” the little boy said.
“Troy, don’t be mean to Jack,” Margie scolded.
Troy pressed his forehead to Jack’s brow and received a sloppy lick in response. The boy laughed, crawled onto the bed, and tackled the dog. The tussle that ensued had Juan half-annoyed, half-amused as he tried to get the clothes tucked away.
A knock on the door of the suite’s main room startled them. Holly yelled, “I’ll get it!” and ran out of the bedroom.
A minute later, Travis walked in behind Holly, looking confused.
“Uh, you have little ones. Not just a surly teenager, but munchkins,” Travis said, eyeing his old friend thoughtfully.
“I took over custody from Peggy,” Juan said with a sheepish yet proud grin.
“Daddy One,” Troy said. He was cuddling his teddy bear and using Jack as a pillow.
Travis chuckled and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Well, fatherhood suits you. You sure beat me to the punch.”
“Hey, don’t I count?” Jason frowned from across the room. His relationship with Juan since Jenni’s death
had grown much closer, and Juan beamed happily at his son’s words.
“Travis is just a little slow,” Juan said with a grin in his friend’s direction. Noting his friend’s distracted air, he said, “You have that look. Something’s up.”
Travis sighed. “We need you at a meeting in a few minutes. I hate to bug you in the middle of a major life change, but this is urgent.”
“About the stinky people?” Holly asked. Leaning against the bed, she was playing with a battered Barbie and studiously not looking at the adults.
“Yeah, about the stinky people,” Travis answered.
“I don’t like them,” Troy said softly.
“They killed our mom and dad,” Margie added.
“They killed a lot of people,” Travis said gently. “But we need Daddy One to help us make plans to get rid of them.”
Margie was frowning. Juan already knew she was the chief worrier. He kissed the top of her head and said, “It’s okay. I’ll be back soon. Jason, can you watch them?”
“Sure,” Jason answered with a smirk, “I can do that … Daddy One.”
“Make sure they eat dinner and that they don’t feed Jack too many cookies.” He couldn’t believe how much he sounded like a father.
Jack gave him a reproachful look.
“Dog farts in the middle of the night are no fun, Jack,” Juan informed the dog, who whined a little in response.
Kneeling, Juan was engulfed by little arms. He kissed the kids one by one, feeling his throat tighten with emotion.
When he stood, Jason got up, too, and gave him a quick, light hug before flopping onto the bed next to Jack. “Don’t worry about the kiddies. I got it covered, Dad.”
As he had so many times in recent weeks, Juan felt tears in his eyes—but now they were of joy, not sadness.
He and Travis headed out for the meeting.
“Daddy One, eh?” Travis said.
“I blame Jenni.”
Travis grinned. “Ornery even beyond the grave, ain’t she?”
Juan laughed as they headed down the hall. “That’s our Loca.”
3.
Facing the Truth
“We are looking at around fifteen thousand zombies heading our way,” Nerit said as the aerial photos were passed around the table in the conference room that was now the fort’s command center.
“Possibly twenty thousand,” Kevin added.
Travis frowned. “Where did they all come from?”
Greta lifted a shoulder. “Who knows? Does it matter? They’re there and moving straight toward us. Rune was right.”
Curtis and Bill studied the photos gravely. Katarina looked ill.
Dressed in a white shirt and navy trousers—as casual as he ever got—Eric went pale. “Could they be from the National Guard rescue center? Wouldn’t that be from the right direction?”
“It was completely empty when we went there,” Greta noted. “If so, what got them headed our way?”
“We haven’t heard anything about the senator’s crew for some time,” Nerit said. “But that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there somewhere. They could have stirred up the zombies.”
“Where the zombies come from doesn’t really matter, does it?” Katie said tersely. “We all know that once they get started in a direction, they keep going until they find human flesh.”
“Will the walls keep them out?” Bill asked abruptly.
Juan fidgeted in his chair, then finally rolled his shoulders. “I can’t say.”
“That’s not very reassuring,” Curtis snapped.
“Yeah, well, we’ve been building pretty damn fast, without calculating how much stress the walls could take. Up until now, we only had to hold off a couple hundred of those things at a time.”
Eric nodded. “We haven’t done any stress tests—”
“Well, we better hurry the hell up and do some!” Curtis shouted, smacking his hand down on the table. “’Cause they’re fucking coming.”
“We could always fall back to the inner areas,” Kevin suggested.
“Less to protect,” Nerit agreed. “And the walls are thicker around the hotel and entry lock.”
“You’re talking like we’re going to get overrun,” Bill commented softly.
The tension in the room was growing. Katie laced her fingers through Travis’s.
“That’s always been a possibility,” Eric said calmly.
“Why are you such a gawd damn Vulcan?” Curtis yelled. He jumped to his feet and backed away from the table, eyes wide and terrified.
“Curtis, calm down,” Bill ordered in a soothing tone, holding out one hand to the younger man, who was perspiring heavily. “Just calm down.”
Curtis backed into a corner of the room, shaking his head. “We’re going to get overrun. I knew it, I knew this would happen when we brought in all those people from the mall.”
“This has nothing to do with the mall,” Nerit said sharply. “These zombies most likely came from the National Guard base or from Fort Worth or Dallas.”
“It doesn’t do any good to panic,” Eric said.
“But people are gonna panic,” Peggy said in a quivering voice. “Fuck, I’m panicking right now! That’s a damn lot of zombies.”
“Should we evacuate?” Eric wondered.
“Absolutely not. We worked hard to build this fort,” Travis said vehemently.
“We figure out how to defend ourselves, then tell everyone,” Nerit said.
“Yeah, well, how fucking long do we have, Nerit? How long before they’re at our fucking walls, moaning and screaming for our guts? Huh? How gawdamn, fucking long!”
“End of the month,” Greta said calmly, every inch the professional soldier.
“How do you know that?” The hysterical note in Curtis’s voice was sharp. Bill stepped toward his fellow officer. Curtis avoided him and glared at Greta.
“Number of miles divided by a rough estimate of their walking speed, which is very, very slow,” Greta said, regarding him coolly.
“So today we plan,” Travis said.
Eric nodded. “Agreed. Before we terrify people.”
“They’re going to be terrified anyway,” Peggy scoffed.
“Let’s try to give them less to be terrified of, then,” Kevin said with a small smile in her direction.
Juan shook his head. “It’s not going to be easy to get rid of that many zombies. We’re talking a total siege.”
Nerit said sternly, “We have no other options.”
Katie’s fingers were trembling in Travis’s grasp. He leaned over and kissed her cheek.
Juan said, “We gotta do this. We can’t afford to lose all we’ve fucking gained.”
Eric rolled out the schematic of the fort, and the council began to plan. Unnoticed by the rest, Curtis left. He started to run and did not stop until he reached the roof of city hall, where he sobbed until he collapsed.
No one came to soothe him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
1.
Judgment Day
Travis had never been so scared in his life. He had faced many chilling events in the last year, but this had to be the worst. He had to explain the dire situation they were now facing to the fort’s residents. His heart was pounding. Though he’d been mayor for half a year, he still hated public speaking.
The hotel’s ballroom was packed. People’s voices blended into a loud rumble. In one corner, a small pack of dogs encircled Calhoun. Travis tapped the microphone lightly, and the booming sound that filled the room made everyone focus their attention on him.
He swallowed hard and glanced at Katie, seated in the front row, who favored him with a slight, encouraging smile. The tension in her face made him want to hug her, but he had a job to do.
“Okay, let’s get started,” he said, the volume of his amplified voice startling him. He cleared his throat again and took a deep breath before continuing. “I want to start by thanking everyone for their hard work on construction and in the gardens, the fie
lds, and on the farm and ranch. And, oh yeah, thanks to the grub patrol. Last night’s cobbler was awesome.”
There was a smattering of applause as people settled down to pay attention.
“I’m going to be straight with you. Things have taken a turn for the worse,” Travis said.
“And it ain’t the toilet paper supply running low again,” Peggy drawled, folding her arms grumpily across her chest.
This drew a bit of laughter and broke a little of the tension.
Travis continued, “There’s a large group of zombies heading this way. And not just a few hundred, like we’ve seen before. It’s around fifteen to twenty thousand.”
It felt as if no one in the room drew a breath for a few seconds; then everyone began talking at once. The cacophony frightened the children and sent Calhoun’s dogs into a barking fit. Travis held up his hands. “Please, calm down! Calm down! We are not defenseless. We have a plan!” Despite the microphone, he felt as if his voice were inaudible in the midst of the panic.
“Please, listen up! Please!” Travis heard his voice getting hard and angry. “I need you to fuckin’ listen!”
“Language! There are children here,” a woman snapped.
“We got zombies out there and you’re worried about swearing?” Lenore scoffed.
“Please listen to the man,” Reverend Thomas called out. “Please, listen, before you let fear overwhelm you.”
There was much grumbling, but the din slowly lowered in volume.
Travis gripped the podium with both hands and plunged back into his speech. “The task before us is daunting. We need to get the horde moving away from us. We’ve sent the helicopters to buzz them, to try to get some of them to peel off, but it’s not working. So we’re going to use the six Durangos we confiscated a few weeks ago.”
The uneasy gathering was silent now, listening intently to his every word.
“Each truck will carry two people—the driver and one passenger. They will try to lure as many zombies as possible off track. We’re going to try to divert as many as we can before they reach the fort. We have plans to defend the fort from however many of the dead reach us, and we’ll be moving people to safety inside the original wall.”
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 88