MAN EATERS

MAN EATERS

LINDA KAY SILVA

Man Eaters Summary

They prey only on human flesh, and as the virus spreads and the horde of man eaters grows, firefighter, Dallas Barkley struggles hourly to keep her little band of survivors from the grasp of killers who never tire, never sleep, and never quit longing to make a meal out of them. As martial law sweeps through the country, Dallas’s new family must fight off not only voracious man eaters and a deadly military containment procedure, but rogue survivors who obey no law of the land as they wantonly take from those they perceive as weaker.

But Dallas and her people are far from weak. With a cowgirl named Roper and a medic called Butcher, these three women must brave the darkest hours of the bloodiest days as they work together to create a safe haven in a world destroyed by a man made plague ravaging the country and threatening their lives. Only by placing their faith, loyalty, and love in each other’s hands can they hope to survive.

Only by forging bonds stronger than death can they hope to beat back the hordes of undead.

Man Eaters

Copyright © 2012 by Linda Kay Silva, All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-939062-00-0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business, events or locations is entirely coincidental.

Cover Concept: Billie Tzar

Editors: Lee Fitzsimmons and Lisa Boeving

Proofer: Lee Ann Norman

Cover & Interior Design: Sapphire Books Publishing

Sapphire Books

P.O. Box 8142

Salinas, CA 93912

www.sapphirebooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition – Oct. 2012

Acknowledgements

This one is dedicated to all of my students, past and present, who opened your minds long enough to let this crazy lady dance across the surface of your minds. I’m still dancing. Can you feel it?

Special thanks to: Sapphire Books, Chris, and Schileen...for giving me and my characters a place to call home. Thank you.

Dallas stood at the foot of the bed gazing on two people she had only recently met, but was now inexplicably willing to die for. Roper lay on her side with her back to Einstein, who, like most teenage boys, took up more space than he should. Turning from them, incapable of finding the peace they seemed to so easily crawl into and fall asleep with, Dallas stared out the window and into the penetrating darkness...the calm before the bloodshed.

They were out there.

Lurking.

Waiting.

Chomping their broken and rotting teeth in anticipation of a meal she would make sure they never tasted.

“Where are you?” Dallas whispered under her breath, her eyes scanning the dimly lit gravel road leading to a ranch house whose owners lay dead at the foot of the driveway, half-eaten by the once-human creatures roaming just outside the fence line.

Did they ever get sated or could they just eat and eat, endlessly tearing meat from the bones of the living?

She shook her head. She knew the answer. These...things...these undead carnivores would never stop. They would never rest. They would be relentless in their pursuit of the living. Like a machine needing no fuel, these undead would roam the countryside forever until they ran out of food. Food. Human meat.

Them.

It had become a daily battle to stay one step ahead of creatures that never tire. Dallas and her small gang of survivors would run then fight, fight then run, and struggle to win the daily, no, hourly mêlée to survive.

It was a war Dallas wasn’t certain they would win.

****

Two Weeks Ago

Dallas backed her 2003 Harley Ultra Glide out of the small garage beneath one of Berkeley’s infamous Victorians. The lavender and white-trimmed painted lady stood in stark contrast to the cherry red and white paint job of her beloved motorcycle with her name airbrushed across the tank in a stylized cursive.

“Going to the City?” Mrs. Horowitz asked, bending over to scoop up her cat, Vincent. “Vinny could sure use some of that organic catnip you brought him last time.”

Dallas fastened her helmet and nodded, feeling like a bobble-head doll as she did. “Absolutely, Mrs. H., but I might be late. I heard the traffic on the bridge is worse than usual.”

Stroking the gray and white cat, the older woman nodded. “No hurry, dear. We’ll be here when you get back.”

Straddling the low-slung saddle, Dallas started the engine, the loud Reinhart pipes roaring to life like an angry bear. Pulling out onto the street, she felt the stresses of the day slowly melt away as the warm wind caressed her face.

As days went, this one had sucked. Royally. It had started out with her girlfriend of three years handing her her pink slip. Her job had been outsourced to some other money-earner.

“We’re done,” Lisa had said as she carried two suitcases to the door. Funny thing about it was Dallas wondered if she was watching a show. Who really packed up suitcases when leaving their relationship and set them by the door? Who did that?

But Lisa wasn’t just leaving. She was peeling out. Burning rubber. Hitting the danger zone. She was...done. No discussion. No tears. No guilt or accusations. Not even an explanation. Just done.

“Did you feed the dog?” Was all Dallas could think to say.

Lisa whirled around, her eyes holding a mixture of anger and disbelief. “It’s so like you not to even fight for me, Dallas...for us.” Lisa shook her head sadly, all fight gone from her. “You never did know when to pull and when to push.”

And just like that, Lisa walked out of her house and out of her life.

Dallas doubted she would return. When Lisa was done, that was it. Whatever it was she’d wanted Dallas to fight for had died long before today.

So, it felt good to air it out on the short freeway ride to the Bay Bridge, even though the traffic was beginning to slow down to the inevitable bumper-to-bumper pace endemic to the Bay Area freeways after two-thirty in the afternoon.

Since splitting lanes is legal in California, Dallas slowed down just enough to be able to squeeze through the traffic clogging the lanes to the tollbooth.

Once through the toll area, the cool sea air reminded her of how cold it could get on the bridge, even in July. Only her face felt the sting of the salt air, as her flapping jacket and chaps kept her warm and dry. She loved her black leather Harley Davidson jacket. Lisa had given it to her last year for her twenty-fifth birthday, and they were inseparable. She went everywhere in that jacket. It would probably be the only thing from their failed relationship worth keeping.

It wasn’t Lisa’s fault, really. They’d grown apart over the last year or so—ever since Dallas had accepted her dream job as a firefighter...a job she’d trained hard for and dreamt about being ever since 9/11. She loved her job, loved helping people, and enjoyed the wonderful camaraderie of her fellow firefighters. The burly, handsome, and often practical joke-playing firemen accepted her right off, probably because she could cook, swear, and throw a mean curve ball. The guys were all right in her book and would be thrilled Lisa was out of the picture. They’d never really cared for the way Lisa spoke to them…as if being a man was a crime. Lisa never quite understood that disliking men in general made her as narrow-minded as those who did the same to them as lesbians.

The word narrow made Dallas realize the space between lanes closed up, so she came to a stop, firmly planting booted feet on the deck of the bridge. Nothing was moving. Leaning over, she knocked on the passenger window of a minivan. The blonde-haired teenage boy rolled down the window.

“Yeah?” He was wearing black-rimmed glasses and a yellow collared shirt.

“Excuse me. Is there anything on the radio about the traffic?”

The boy turned and said something to the driver before turning back. “Overturned truck or something. Gonna be a while.”

“Thanks.”

He looked down at her bike. “Nice ride.”

Dallas smiled proudly. “Big fun.”

After about ten minutes, a number of people turned off their cars and got out. Some chatted about what it could be, while others paced around, talking on their cell phones. Then, ever so slightly, the ground beneath her rumbled…a not uncommon occurrence in the earthquake-laden Bay Area. The rumble seemed to make everyone stop what they were doing and listen. The Loma Prieta ‘quake of ’89 had collapsed this bridge, so people’s nerves were heightened by the sound and ground movement.

“Did you feel that? She asked the teen, who was busy playing some game on his iPhone.

“Uh oh.”

Then the air became deathly, preternaturally still. Dallas looked at the boy. The boy lowered his phone and squinted through the windshield. Nothing moved. No sound could be heard—just that stillness.

“Oh shit.”

Dallas followed his gaze and watched as a mass of people came running toward them, screaming, and waving their arms in some sort of bizarre warning. A couple of people were bleeding, but most were just stampeding toward them, eyes wide with fear.

As people around her jumped back into their vehicles, Dallas stood on the seat of her Harley, unsure if what she was seeing was really what she was seeing: a wall of people flooded toward them, the once still air now filled with screams and panic.

Looking around for some place to go to escape the crowd and what they were running from, she looked up at the cables of the Bay Bridge and knew that up was her only option.

But before the fearful crowd reached her, Dallas quickly made her way to the side of the bridge. She could go over the edge and down, but there was no guarantee she’d survive the fall. No. Up was the way to go.

Once she got up on the gray cable, she looked over the clogged artery of cars at the pack of people stampeding across the width of the bridge. At first, she wasn’t at all sure her eyes were telling the truth. There were people chasing the fleeing mob. People with their arms outstretched.

When she was finally high enough on the cable, she watched in utter horror as the mob of people chasing the others tackled them and bit at their necks and arms like some rabid cannibals. They were ripping and tearing away at exposed flesh.

“Oh my god...” Dallas’s hand covered her mouth with her hand as the chaos beneath her turned the deck of the bridge blood red. Everywhere she looked, people were not just attacking other people, but tearing their skin and ripping chunks of flesh from their necks. Fountains of blood spewed into the frenetic air. Those who stayed in their cars found themselves surrounded by those whose mouths and hands were stained with the blood of their victims. The biters pounded on the windows while emitting this horrific moaning sound that grew louder the closer they got to other people.

“What the fuck—”

Dallas stared at a woman who had climbed to the roof of her SUV, only to be pulled down by a tall man in a grey business suit who repeatedly bit her…no, not bit. He was…he was eating her? Could that be what she was seeing? The woman crumpled to the ground and the mob pressed forward on her, tearing her flesh from the bones, biting her right through her clothes.

That was when Dallas saw a young woman with long brown hair climb up on the other side of the bridge. she was pulling herself up, one of the mob stood beneath her, staring up at her before moving on to an easier prey—a young girl who had not gotten into her car fast enough soon became their next meal as they converged on her and attacked her with teeth bloodied from their last victims.

As the chaos neared her Harley, Dallas studied as the blonde teenage boy in the driver’s seat jumped out of the SUV and ran toward Dallas. Three of the killers turned their attention to him and started moving after him, arms outstretched like he would be a great meal. The boy stopped to help an elderly woman to her feet before casting a worried glance back over his shoulder.

He wasn’t going to make it.

Scrambling carefully down the cable to where the kid was, Dallas reached down and grabbed his wrist. “Take my hand!” They were ten feet away when Dallas looked into their faces marred with blood and fleshy debris. “Come on!” she yelled, pulling the kid as hard as she could. At five feet eight, Dallas possessed a firefighter’s strong physique. Fueled by fear and adrenalin, she yanked the kid so hard she almost lost her balance on the cable. Grabbing the handrails, the kid backed away from the men and women reaching up for him with bloody fingertips.

That was the first time Dallas heard the moaning up close, and it froze the marrow of her bones. Each one of them was making the exact same sound; part moan, part grunt, all creepy. She felt like she had just fallen into a horror movie.

“Thank you,” the boy said, moving higher up the cable.

“Where you going?”

“Higher. They can’t climb. Climbing is a higher level brain function, and they’re dead.”

Dallas didn’t move. She could barely hear him above the wind that buffeted the screams, groans, and car horns. Did he say they were dead? “What do you mean, dead?”

“Come on. Trust me. Higher is safer. For now.”

Trust him? He was what? Fifteen? Sixteen? He believed this murderous attack was by a bunch of dead people? Too much Walking Dead.

Dallas stopped to look at the carnage below. Bodies and body parts were strewn all over the deck of the bridge and the attackers wandered about the blood, in search of the living. The way the attackers walked...the way they tore into human flesh...and that moaning. Could this kid be right? Was she looking at some sort of apocalypse?

“Holy shit on a rice cracker. Look at that!”

Torn away from the macabre scene below, Dallas followed his gaze high up on the bridge. “What in the world—”

The woman who had been on the other side of the bridge had actually scaled the cable until she came to the crossbeam and was walking across it like a tightrope walker.

“That’s insane.” Dallas said, amazed anyone could be courageous enough or crazy enough to walk across the steel beam several stories above the bridge deck.

“Oh man, I’d wet myself,” the teen said. “Heights make my palms sweat.”

“Maybe she’s coming to attack us.”

The kid turned to Dallas. He had light blue eyes and short blond hair that swept across his forehead. All he was missing to be a flashback to the seventies was a puka shell necklace, and she was pretty sure he had one at home. “Nah. She definitely isn’t one of them. I told you—”

“They can’t climb. Yeah. But how—”

“Come on. We need to get higher. As long as they can see us, they’ll try to get to us.” The kid moved up the cable, hanging on to the handrails as he moved.

The higher up they went, the less she could hear the screams of the victims but the more she could see the destruction and mayhem below. The dead were everywhere and the mob seemed to grow larger. Vehicles were blood-smeared, and those still inside were often surrounded by those beating on the windows on the Oakland side of the bridge. They were wreaking havoc and killing everyone in their path. Young and old, men and women, people of all races chased after those who ran for their lives.

One man caught Dallas’s eye as he weaved through and around cars until he stood trapped by three of the mob. They weren’t attacking him, though. They just stood there staring at him like they were unsure of what or who he was. Dallas hoped he would climb up on the cable, and he did...only to hurl himself off the side of the bridge and into the choppy bay waters below.

“What’s...what’s happening?” When Dallas turned to the boy, she saw him waving to the young woman.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling her over here. I told you, she’s not dead.” He moved up the cable and helped the woman down to where they stood. “That was amazing!” The boy said excitedly to the woman, who wasn’t even winded.

“Didn’t see as I had much choice. I didn’t really want to be alone up here.” She shrugged.

Dallas saw no fear in this woman’s clear eyes. She was stunningly beautiful, standing there in Wrangler jeans, Frye boots, and a brown leather bomber jacket that had seen better days. Attached to her belt was a ring of rope. Her hair color, up close, with the sun reflecting off it, was more auburn than brown, and she stood slightly taller than Dallas.

“What the hell is going on down there?” the woman asked, turning her gaze to the carnage below. “It’s like a bloody zombie flick.”

“Well, I know I’ll sound like a crazy kid, but you’re not too far off. I’m pretty sure those moaning people are dead.”

“I can see the dead ones on the deck, it’s the living I don’t—”

“That’s what I’m saying. They are all dead.”

The woman and Dallas quickly looked at each other.

“You mean...just like zombies?”

He nodded. “These people are a lot like the undead in a video game I’ve played called Man Eaters of the Living.”

Dallas looked more carefully at the victims who had been attacked. Most of them were no longer where they’d fallen, but had managed to stagger to their feet to join the crowd, torn and tattered flesh hanging from their bones.

“I know it’s hard to believe and you probably think I’m just some stupid gamer with an over-active imagination, but just watch. Those who have been attacked...they rise again, only to join the horde.”

“The horde?”

He shrugged. “Well, that’s what they’re called in the game.”

Dallas said nothing, but kept her gaze on the woman who had been attacked by the man in the gray suit. It didn’t take long for her to raise up, her throat half torn from her body, her cheek ripped open from multiple bites, to slowly stand, look around her and wander toward the horde.

“What else do you know?” The young woman asked.

“Well, they can’t climb because things like that and swimming are higher level activities and they are, for the most part, brain dead. See, look. That guy over there is missing his arms and yet, he’s walking around.”

Dallas shuddered. “So basically, you’re telling us those...things...are dead.”

“Or undead as they’re called in the gaming world. Just note, climbing to higher ground is usually the dumbest thing you can do because these things can out-wait us for weeks. They never get tired, never need to sleep, and will never give up. Don’t do whatever you’ve seen in the movies. No roofs, no trees no attics. We’re safe for now only because they can’t see us.”

“What are you, some Zombie Einstein?” The woman asked, smiling at him.

The boy shrugged. “I’ve been called worse.”

“Well, Einstein, what’s our next move?”

He scrunched up his face as he thought. “Obviously, they came from the City, so that’s out. We can’t stay up here very long, but we’ll need them to clear out first. We can’t afford to go down there as long as one is still there. Once you are bitten, you’re toast.”

Dallas wrapped her arms around herself, feeling both internal and external chills. The group of undead was moving toward the east bay. “Where are they going?”

“Wherever the living are. If they aren’t stopped before they get to Oakland—” He paused and shook his head.

“What? Then what?”

“Well, it’ll be like the plague, and a lot of people will die...or not die, as the case may be.” Einstein suddenly looked out toward the water, as if there was something he couldn’t bear to see.

“You okay?”      He blew out a breath. “That man eater down there in the jean jacket is...was...my friend. We were going to get tattoos today.”

“What happened?”

“We both decided to make a run for it. He...he didn’t make it.”

The woman put her arm around him. “I’m so sorry.”

Einstein slowly turned around. “We’ll all be sorry if we don’t get off the bridge soon. We’ll be trapped between those who’ll go toward the city and those who’ll go toward Oakland.”

“Surely, people must have called the police.”

“Or the news. Where are the news helicopters?” Both Dallas and the woman looked to Einstein, who shrugged.

“In the games and movies I’ve seen, the government shuts the press down because of the panic that could ensue.”

“You think that’s what is happening here?”

“You know people videotaped this with their cells, so yeah, I think someone shut them down.” He pulled his phone out. “They won’t want people to panic, so they’ll take over the news.” He looked at his phone. “Yeah, no signal. It happens fast. The shit is gonna hit the fan right quick.”

“Won’t we need to evacuate Oakland and Berkeley? If those things get into the East Bay—”

Before Dallas could finish her sentence, two Blackhawk helicopters appeared on the horizon.

“Get down!” Einstein cried, flattening himself onto the cable.

Dallas and the woman followed suit. “What the fuck? Aren’t they the good guys?”

“Thank God the military has arrived.” Dallas said, hugging the cable.

With snipers perched on the decks of the helicopters, the Blackhawks hovered above the blood-soaked bridge while the snipers put bullets into the heads of the man eaters. One-by-one, the zombie heads exploded as bullets ripped through their brains.

“I’ll be damned,” the woman said. “Einstein was right.”

As the undead fell—truly lifeless—to the ground, those living people still in their vehicles got out and waved at the snipers, who then promptly shot them in the head as well.

“What the fuck?” The woman said, mouth agape as the snipers shot anyone who moved. Even those who had remained in the safety of their cars were shot with high-powered bullets through the windshields and side windows.

“Keep your head down. They’re not taking any chances,” Einstein said. “They’ll kill everyone they see.”

Dallas watched as one of the Blackhawks peeled away. “Don’t you think the smartest thing to do would be to blow up the bridges leading to San Francisco?”

The woman and Einstein stared at her.

“Cut off the main arteries like we would do in a state emergency? I’m a firefighter. It’s what you do to contain any spreading.”

“You’re right. We need to get the hell out of here.” The woman rose just as the helicopter moved further down the bridge. “But we’ll never make it on foot.”

“We don’t have to.” Dallas replied. “We can take my Harley.”

“Your bike will never get through the mass,” she said, zipping her jacket up. She had these piercing eyes that reminded Dallas of a hawk’s eyes by the way they took everything in.

“Maybe not, but the snipers will have a much harder time of hitting us on the back of a motorcycle.” Einstein nodded. “I’m in, but we’d better get going.”

Dallas did not make a move as she stared down at the dead bodies of the hundred or more people the snipers’ bullets had found. “I’ll get to the Harley and get her started. Once I get the bike turned around, Einstein get on behind me and...” Dallas hesitated, looking at the woman.

“My friends call me Roper.”

“Roper, hop on behind him. It’ll be a tight squeeze, but you’ll need to give me room to shift and ride. Have either of you ever ridden on a bike?”

Roper nodded. “Rider and bitch.”

Einstein shook his head.

“Lean with me. If I lean left, so do you. If I lean right, so do you. If it looks like we are going to crash, stay with the bike. Don’t try to jump off. Stay. With. The. Bike.”

They both nodded and together all three moved as quickly as they could down the cable.

When they were low enough to be able to jump down, Dallas did, her Harley boots making a solid sound as she landed on the deck. Roper wasn’t far behind, and they both caught Einstein, who, like many gear-heads, wasn’t terribly agile or physically confident.

“Oh crap.” Einstein pointed in the direction of the city.

Shielding her eyes from the sun, Dallas saw three more helicopters in the distance. Throwing her leg over the saddle, she backed the Harley up and was almost completely turned around when the now familiar moaning came from behind her.

Without taking her hands off the handlebars, Dallas glanced over her shoulder. Walking toward her was an older man with half his face missing. It looked like he was grinning with only one side of his mouth.

“Get on!” Dallas ordered the others, starting the bike.

Einstein leapt on so fast and hard Dallas was barely able to keep from dumping the bike. As she pulled it back to center, she looked in the rearview mirror in awe as Roper drove a buck knife into the man’s eye socket and pulled it out, blood clinging to the knife.

The man eater crumpled to the ground and Roper hopped on behind Einstein as three more came toward the loud roaring of the motorcycle. “Go! Go! Go!”

Yarding on the throttle, Dallas had to swerve to miss one of the undead coming back toward them.

“Control, Dallas. Keep control,” she muttered to herself. Up ahead, she could see blocked lanes and hundreds of dead people, most of whom sported a bullet hole in their heads.

Torn between getting off the bridge before it exploded and zigzagging in and out of the stalled traffic, Dallas slowed down as she approached the now dispersing horde. If she crashed, they were dead anyway, either from a bullet, a bomb, or a bite from one of these hideous creatures.

“Wait. Slow down a sec!” Roper cried. “That cop car!”

Dallas had been focusing so much on the road she had almost missed it.

“We’re gonna need a weapon,” Roper said. “Or we’re sitting ducks.”

Dallas slowed to a stop, and Roper hopped off and carefully looked in, knife poised. “Damn. Shotgun is locked up.”

Dallas took her left hand off the grips and pointed. “The release is on the floor next to the brake. Just step on it.”

Roper did so and, after three unsuccessful attempts, heard the click as the shotgun holder released it. Just as she grabbed the rifle, a face popped up on the other side of the wire mesh.

“Oh my god! Thank god! Please. Get me out of here!”

Roper jumped, her breath leaving her body as she gazed at the wild-eyed man sitting in the back seat. He reeked of alcohol and stale body odor.

“You can’t leave me in here. Please. Please let me out.”

Leaping out of the car, Roper racked one into the chamber.

“Let him out,” Dallas said.

Roper shook her head. “Bad idea. We don’t know why he’s in there.”

“I’m with Roper,” Einstein said. “We don’t need the hassle.”

“Then I’ll do it. I can’t just walk away from this.”

“Wait. We gotta get out of here. Stay on the bike.” Five creatures were bearing down on them as Roper opened the rear door and backed away, pointing the shotgun at the prisoner. He had greasy black hair and a worn and dirty jean jacket.

“You’d just shoot me?” he asked incredulously.

“If I had to, yeah. Step away from the bike.”

“How am I gonna get out of here?”

“Not our problem.” Roper raised the rifle, keeping one eye on him and one on the slowly advancing corpses.

“Come on, Roper, get on.”

Just as Roper started to climb on, the man lunged for Dallas. “Give me the fucking bike!”

Fighting to keep the bike up, Dallas watched as the butt of the shotgun crunched into the side of his face. He staggered back, blood pouring from his nose and mouth, and he stood motionless for a moment before falling to his knees.

“Go, go, go!” Roper cried, getting back on the bike.

As Dallas pulled away, she looked in the rearview mirror and saw two man eaters bearing down on the guy. In a few minutes, he would become one of them...or be their dinner. She wasn’t sure which, and she no longer cared.

As she wove around the graveyard of bodies and cars, she realized the snipers had only been able to put down about half of the walking corpses. The other half were walking toward Oakland, creating more like them along the way.

Einstein was right. The only way to protect the rest of the population was to blow the bridges, and Dallas was pretty certain that’s what those helicopters were about to do.

Wrenching down on the throttle, she pushed herself and the bike as fast as she dared, narrowly missing the undead as they plodded along in search of more flesh. Twice, when Dallas thought they would surely collide with the corpses, Roper had fired the shotgun and knocked them out of the way. The blasts caused Dallas to be able to hear nothing but a slight ringing in her ears until she was sure the next sound was a huge explosion.

“Floor it!” Roper yelled, looking behind them.

All three helicopters released missiles that blew the bridge up at the end of Yerba Buena Island, the island connecting the western and eastern spans of the bridge. By leaving the main bridge alone, they could still effectively cut off San Francisco from the East Bay.

As this section of the bridge shook, Dallas gave her everything she had, the bike’s front tire lifting slightly as she did. She had to get them off the last stretch of the bridge or they would go tumbling into the bay, along with thousands of dead, undead, and dying.

Dallas felt as though she was racing against the falling sections quickly collapsing behind her. As she zoomed past immobile, slack-jawed creatures and around half-consumed corpses, she didn’t think they were going to make it.

Leaning low over the gas tank and beneath the windshield, Dallas knew she’d reached eighty-five miles an hour. She knew her bike well enough to know what she felt like at certain speeds and the vibration clearly indicated they were well on their way to ninety.

“Look out!” came Einstein’s voice as they neared the stretch of bridge that would turn into freeway.

Hovering directly above them were two more helicopters with snipers hanging off the sides, putting bullets into living and dead brains alike.

The moment the Harley was free from the collapsing bridge, Dallas zigged and zagged in and out of more stalled cars as bullets pinged all around her. One shattered her Plexiglas windshield, but she just kept pushing her limits until she could get off the freeway and into the more industrial areas of Oakland.

As Dallas flew down the freeway, she noted fewer and fewer cars in the gridlock, but only a dozen or so of the man eaters. Clearly, they had made their way off the bridge, which must have been why the helicopters turned back to the bridge to continue firing on those creatures that had made it off the bridge.

Way up ahead, she could see cop cars on their way, so she took the next exit into the warehouse district until Roper said, “Dallas, slow down. It’s okay. We’re not being followed. The choppers are busy elsewhere.”

Dallas was gripping the handlebars so tightly that slowing down took longer than normal. When she finally came to a stop and turned to look at her passengers, she realized Einstein had wet himself. He was incredibly pale and needed their help to dismount.

Roper had Einstein on one arm, the shotgun butt on her hip, and for the most part, she didn’t appear the least bit phased. “Easy, kid. It’s okay. We’re okay.”

“I’m...I’ve never...” He blushed, his cheeks coloring his shame.

“Don’t sweat it,” Dallas said. “I’ve seen grown men barf on their own shoes before. We’re all scared, Einstein. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Dallas walked around the bike inspecting it from every angle. She found two other bullet holes: one in the sissy bar, another in her saddlebag. “You guys didn’t get hit?”

“Hell no,” Roper said. “You were awesome. Mario Andretti has nothing on you, man. That was brilliant riding.”

Dallas knelt down to check the engine. There was something about the silence of the warehouse district that made her skin crawl.

“Did you guys see the man eaters off to the side of the road?” Einstein asked.

Roper nodded. Dallas was still examining the engine.

“Unless those cops and snipers can kill every one of those undead, our problems have just begun.”

“I saw at least three dozen once we got off the bridge,” Roper said, wiping off the blade of her enormous buck knife on a piece of newspaper that had fluttered by.

“Uh...you always carry a huge knife around?” Dallas asked over the gas tank.

She nodded and lifted the leg of her jeans up to reveal a sheath attached to her boots. “Never leave home without it.”

Dallas could only grin. “Well, it sure came in handy.”

Roper peeked around to the other side of the motorcycle at Dallas before tracing her fingertips over the personalized license plate. “Your name really Dallas?”

Dallas nodded, wiping her hands on her chaps. She’d found no more holes. “It is. My parents thought it was cute to name me for where I was conceived.”

Roper turned to Einstein. “And your name is?”

He smiled. “Einstein will do.”

Dallas tried her cell phone, but received a message that the circuits were all busy. “What are the chances that those things will spread in the East Bay?”

Einstein looked up in thought. “I saw a ton of them moving parallel to the freeway. I don’t think the snipers saw them all or could get them all. This got out of hand right from the getgo.”

“Well, at least a good number of them sank to the bottom of the bay.”

Einstein shook his head. “That’s just it. That won’t kill any of them.”

Roper and Dallas cut him a look. “What?”

“Look, everyone knows the only way to kill the undead is to shut down the control center...the brain. Now I’m not saying these things are zombies, but they sure as hell are man eaters. We all saw that.”

Roper shook her head. “Whoa. Wait. You’re saying they’ll what? Just up and walk out of the bay?”

“They don’t need oxygen. They’re dead. So water doesn’t really change anything for them.”

“So they’re going to just walk out and start attacking more people?”

Einstein dug the toe of his sneakers into the gravel before answering. “The mass of the horde grows exponentially with each populated area they pass through.”

“Oakland.”

“And Berkeley.”

“And Alameda.”

“Shit.” Roper paused a second to listen. “Do you hear that?”

The other two listened. “What? I don’t hear anything.”

She nodded. “Exactly. Where are the cars? Where are the sounds of life? We need to get out of here.”

“Wait. No cell phone use, but the news is reporting it.” Einstein held out his cell phone and started watching the local news. “This will probably be the last real newscast we get. In all of the zombie and virus movies I’ve seen, the government has to shut them down for fear of panic.”

All three crowded around the tiny device.

“Oh god...”

The disheveled newscaster was being force-fed paper after paper and she couldn’t keep up. Before she could read the first one, the emergency warning sounded and the red ticker tape crept across the bottom of the screen warning everyone to stay inside their homes.

“Terrorist attack?” Dallas asked as she read the tape’s explanation.

“Shh.”

The ticker tape warned everyone of a poisonous gas released on the bridge and that everyone—everyone—needed to stay indoors until further notice. If you were home, stay home, and only allow military medical personnel into your home. If you were not home, return home as soon as possible. It appeared that Marshall Law was going to be announced and go into effect at dusk.

The buzzer continued sounding for another ten seconds before returning the stage to the newscaster, who read the warnings:

“The United States is under attack in several major cities from a toxic gas leveled at them from an as-of-yet unknown terrorist cell. This bioweapon causes a violent reaction in those who breathe it in. If you come in contact with the infected, do not attempt to engage or help. The virus is transmitted through bites, much like rabies. Do not try to help or subdue the victims. Do not try to cure them or allow them into your homes.”

The ticker tape came across the bottom of the screen, naming the ten cities that had been infected. Before they could read the ten names, there was the sound of a chopper overhead.

“Come on!” Dallas pushed the Harley up against the building, and they all tried several doors before opening a service door. Once in, they closed the door and looked at each other.

Dallas walked over to them as the chopper sound was replaced by the now familiar sound of bullets hitting things. “Get down!”

All three dove for cover.

“They’re not shooting at us,” Roper said.

“No, but they’re shooting at something, and that’s never a good thing.”

Einstein scooted closer. “They don’t want to take any chances. They’ll kill everyone who is in the general vicinity. They’ll kill everyone who is outside. They have to.”

“Who?”

“The military. It will be their job to contain this...virus.” Einstein sounded dubious.

“Then how do we get out of here?” Roper asked.

“The Harley. I live in Berkeley.”

Roper’s eyebrows rose. “Going to Berkeley is a bad idea.”

Einstein nodded. “The infection, or whatever it is, is already on its way there. This stuff spreads like wildfire. Cities are the restaurants of the undead, to be avoided at all cost.”

Dallas rose and brushed off her chaps. She put her hands out to help Roper up. “Until we know otherwise, I say we consider Einstein an expert on all things zombie and let him take the lead.”

Roper brushed herself off and turned to him. “Agreed. I have to say, I’m just a cowgirl at heart. I don’t know jack about monsters or movies or man eaters. So, what now?”

Einstein rose and audibly gulped. “In the games, as well as in the movies, the biggest mistake people make is trying to go home to their loved ones, who are usually already infected or dead. Berkeley is definitely out and we need to get the hell out of here, so what about you, Roper? Where do you live?”

“In Livermore, on a forty-acre ranch.”

Einstein’s eyes brightened. “Perfect. Guns?”

She cocked her head. “I’m a cowgirl. What do you think?”

He smiled. “I say we head to your place. See what lies the media has spread and the government’s spin on this, and then we can go our own ways or figure out what our options are.”

Dallas cracked the door open and peeked out. “What are our options, Einstein? Really. What can we expect to see?”

He tapped his chin as he considered the answer. “By this time tomorrow, if the snipers didn’t kill every single one, you can safely assume that for every man eater alive tonight, there will be at least twenty more tomorrow.”

“Twenty new ones for each one who made it across the bridge?”

Roper shook her head. “And besides the three dozen or so we passed—”

“They’ll be coming out of the surf as well.”

“So basically, we’re fucked.”

Einstein shrugged. “At this point, it’s all about containment. They’ll have their hands full containing it to the city, but if they don’t stop them before they come through the tunnel or through Oakland...”

“What?” Roper asked anxiously “What will happen?”

Einstein shrugged again. “It will be apocalyptical...it could very well be our death knell.”

****

When they’d exited the warehouse, they slowly rolled by dozens of people shot in the head; none of them had the telltale blood on their mouths or wounds on their bodies that would indicate they had been man eaters. The military had just started shooting people. Uninfected people. It was insane.

A police blockade had been erected across the freeway, but they were too late to block the back roads Dallas was cruising on.

Dallas took the back roads and frontage roads toward Livermore—her gloved hands gripping the bars so hard it hurt. It was only a twenty-five mile stretch, but the back roads were full of tight twists and people scurrying here and there like rats on a sinking ship.

She couldn’t shake the scene they’d just left behind. The snipers had been busy shooting everyone who was out on the road, everyone out in the open...everyone. The whole thing was madness, and yet, she somehow understood why the military had reacted so swiftly. Time was no their friend. If Einstein’s calculations were correct, and this virus got out of control, it would make the Black Death look like a walk in the park.

She could feel the fear in the air, and by the time she hit the 680 freeway there were no moving cars on the road. Everything was blocked off, but not by police vehicles—by military units cruising past each vehicle and inspecting them.

Einstein had been right. They were in trouble. Whatever this was, it was something well beyond the government’s control. She knew when a government leaned too heavily on its military it was grasping at straws, and as much as she wanted to go home, she knew it wouldn’t be long before the infected entered Berkeley. She wanted to call Lisa, but the phone towers were always busy. She could only hope her family in Houston would be safe from whatever this was.

As she drove through the winding roads, passing cattle and sheep along the way, Dallas suddenly felt very cold. One minute, she was going to the city, the next, she was running for her life with two people she’d just met. It was as if she had lived her entire life in a snowglobe that someone decided to violently turn upside down and shake.

What else could happen?

She was about to find out as a line of four men stood in the middle of the road with four high powered rifles pointed at them. Roper was off the bike before it came to a complete stop, shotgun in hand.

“Whoa. Hang on there, little lady,” one of the men said as he shouldered his rifle.

Roper raised the shotgun as well, only she pointed it at what appeared to be the youngest of the four. “Unless you can kill me before I can pull this trigger, Bubba, I won’t go out of this life alone.”

Dallas put the kickstand down and hopped off the bike, hands in the air. “Easy, fellas. We just want to go home.”

The other man sporting a ZZ Top beard, stepped out, his rifle lowered to the ground. He wore a red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and Western cut jeans. “Haven’t you heard? No one is s’posed to be on the roads. It’s called Martian law.”

“You mean martial law? When did that happen?”

“Twenty-thirty minutes ago? You haven’t seen the news?”

Roper shook her head. “We haven’t. We just want to go home.”

The four men exchanged glances. “We’ll let you pass, but you gotta leave the bike.”

“Not gonna happen, Jethro,” Roper said, eyeing the sightings on the shotgun. “Now get the fuck out of our way.”

All four pointed their rifles at Roper, who didn’t flinch.

“Wait,” Dallas said, holding the keys up. “Fine. You can have the bike.”

“No they can’t.” This came from an older woman who stuck her head out the front door of a nearby house. “Clarence, you should be ashamed of yourself. It’s two girls and a boy. You four lunkheads get out the way and let them pass.”

“You heard the news, ma. They said to stop anyone who—”

“Don’t make me tell you twice, boy.” To Dallas she said, “My apologies, young lady, but the announcement has made my lunkheaded sons very nervous.”

Dallas put the keys in her pocket and moved next to Roper. “Lower the gun, Roper.”

“Not until they do.”

Reluctantly, they did, and Roper followed suit.

“Thank you.” To the older woman Dallas said, “Ma’am, if you don’t mind, can you tell us what the news said?”

“Certainly. Boys, get in the house. Now.”

The four men walked into the house and the woman came out to the deck. She leaned on the railing, her white hair framing her oval face. She had light grey eyes that said she had seen too much sadness in this life. “Those Iranians have bombed us with some sort of bioweapon. The military initially thought they could control the situation, but as is the way of our government, they lost any control they thought they possessed. Now, they’ve announced martial law. No one should be out of their houses at all.”

“We understand that. We’re just trying to get home.”

She nodded. “Three on a motorcycle should have told the boneheads that, but everyone’s afraid of this virus and what it does to folks. Before the news went off the air, the images we saw...well...it didn’t look possible.”

Dallas tilted her head to one side. “What do you mean the news went off the air?”

“The government’s shut everything down. We’ve only gotten news from the State Department now.”

Dallas glanced behind her at Einstein, who nodded.

“They know people would panic if they saw the truth of those things. This just means it’s worse than we realized. We gotta go.”

Dallas thanked the woman for not letting the men shoot them. She wished them luck and they were quickly on their way.

When they came to an intersection where large oak trees created a canopy above, Dallas turned the bike off and dismounted.

“You okay? Roper asked, also getting off, followed by Einstein.

Dallas shook her head. “One minute, our lives are just cruising along, and the next, we’re dealing with martial law and a lying government dictating our lives while zombies eat us.”

“You don’t know they’re lying.”

“Roper, they were shooting the living on that bridge! You saw it. I saw it. He saw it. Stay indoors? How many zombie movies have you seen?”

“I don’t watch T.V.”

“Exactly. Einstein’s right. This is already out of control or they wouldn’t be taking such extreme measures.”

“Containment,” Einstein said softly, “Requires the deaths of more than just the man eaters. There can be no second chances…no mistakes.”

Roper looked hard at him. “No mistakes? We’ve already seen dozens of mistakes.”

He nodded sadly. “Trust me. This is already gone rogue. Bad things are happening in Oakland and Berkeley, and it will spread. They will spread. I hate to say it, but those guys back there have the right idea. Kill or be killed is the state we live in now.”

Dallas looked at Roper. “We’ll get to your place and then figure out where to go and what to do from there.”

She nodded. “We’ll be safe there for a while at least.” She looked to Einstein, who confirmed.

“The undead don’t drive.”

There was a slight pause before they all started laughing. Their laughter was interrupted by the sound of an approaching helicopter.

Like an Indy 500 team, the three jumped into action, pushing the Harley over next to a tree before running across the street behind the other oak tree.

“How many cities did they say were hit?”

“Ten.”

Einstein peered around the tree. “That will seriously thin out our already skimpy military. We’ve got so many troops overseas, if they can’t contain it by tomorrow evening, we’re in trouble.”

Before the other two could respond, a voice bellowed from a megaphone. “Come out with your hands in the air! If you do not show yourselves, we will open fire. I repeat—”

Einstein flattened himself against the trunk. “Uh uh. Don’t go.”

Dallas and Roper followed suit. “We don’t stand a chance, kid. Even if we could take the damn thing out—”

The megaphone once again boomed, delivering the same orders.

“Make them come after us.” Dallas said. “If they zip line to the ground, we can take them out then.”

Einstein started at her. “Zip line?”

She nodded. “I really am a fire fighter.”

He nodded, “Cool.”

“I’m with you on that one Dal—” But before Roper finished her sentence, the rat-tat-tat of automatic weapons went off. Then silence. Then one more shot. Then the chopper took off.

When they could no longer hear the sound of the blades cutting through the air, they slowly peeked around the enormous trunk. Laying in the middle of the four-way stop was a woman, still clutching the hands of her children.

“Aw shit,” Roper said, moving out from behind the tree. “They weren’t talking to us.”

All three of them cautiously approached the dead trio: their blood and brains oozing out the back of their heads. They stood for a silent moment, just staring at the bodies, until Einstein finally whispered, “They’re killing kids, too. Not a good sign.”

Dallas shook her head, tears forming in her eyes.

“Martial law is martial law,” Roper said, almost too gruffly. “Let’s get the hell out of here before we end up just like them.”

They rode in silence for the next half hour, stopping once to look at the empty freeway—once a bumper-to-bumper car yard—now just a long slab of cement. The second time they stopped, it was to avoid a military vehicle about four hundred yards away, cruising slowly along a frontage road on the other side of the freeway from them.

If people were out and about, Dallas didn’t see them. Apparently, people got the memo about martial law and staying in their houses, heeding the scare tactics of what might happen if you disobeyed the military.

It was enough to frighten Dallas to death and there was already plenty of death to go around.

So far, they had ridden past over twenty dead bodies, none of which displayed signs of contagion. They were probably people just like them then, just trying to find a safe haven away from both enemy and ally.

When they reached Livermore, they pulled over and Einstein switched places with Roper so she could give directions. As Dallas drove, Roper scooted closer so she could be nearer Dallas’s ear.

“It’s a gravel road, so be careful.”

Dallas merely nodded.

“I know you’ve got to be tired, Dallas, but we’re almost there.”

Dallas nodded again, her body relaxing slightly between Roper’s legs.

“Left here and then follow the gravel road for a mile until you come to Lancaster Lane. Turn right for another half mile. Our house is at the end. Yellow and white rancher.”

It was almost dusk when the three riders got off the Harley, each stretching their legs. It had taken them over five hours to travel only twenty-five miles from the bridge to the rural hills of Livermore. Five hours of curves, back roads, danger, and death. They were physically and emotionally exhausted, not to mention starving.

Stretching her lower back, Dallas looked around at the old style house with its wagon wheel decor and deep wooden deck that wrapped around the front of the house. There were no other homes visible save a few whose landscape lights dotted the horizon.

“Nice place.”

“Thank you. I inherited it when my grandmother passed away.”

“Where’s your family again?”

“Houston. My parents are in Houston. I have a sister in Baton Rouge and a Brother in Nashville.”

Einstein cut a look to Dallas, but said nothing.

“We can get cleaned up, grab a bite to eat, and then figure out what we need to do next.” Unlocking the front door, Roper stood aside and let the others enter.

“Very homey,” Dallas said, her weary gaze taking in a great room with a cathedral ceiling and a massive stone fireplace. A brown leather sectional faced the fireplace, over which hung a large plasma screen television.

A television.

Reaching for the remote, Roper gently took it from her. “Uh uh. You need a moment of down time. Why don’t you go shower? I’ll get some sweats out for you.”

“But—”

“Come on, Dallas. Don’t fight me on this. I know I don’t know you from Adam, but you look exhausted. This can wait.”

“Roper’s right,” Einstein added. “You saved our lives today with a lot of great riding, but you look really tired. A shower will do you good.”

Roper smiled over at Einstein before looping her arm through Dallas’s. “Take your time. We’re safe for the time being.”

“Don’t watch the news without me, okay?”

“We won’t. Towels are in the linen closet. Everything you need is hanging on the shower caddy.”

“Thanks.”

Roper held Dallas by the shoulders. “No, Dallas. Thank you. Without you, the kid and I would be floating in the bay.”

Dallas shrugged off the compliment, trudged into the bathroom and closed the door. Looking in the mirror, Dallas wanted to cry. The person staring back at her was almost unrecognizable from the woman who had left Berkeley on the Harley. Her face was filthy with road grim and her green eyes were bloodshot and perched above the two dark circles she inherited from her father’s side. Her brown hair hung in a ponytail beneath a black and orange Harley Davidson cap that had seen better days.

In short, she looked like crap.

“Jesus, Dallas,” she said, leaning over to turn on the water in the shower. Her hands were weak and sore from grasping the throttle and clutch so hard, so it took her several tries to get the water going.

Once in the shower, she covered her face with her hands and wept. She wept for the living as well as the dead. She wept for the fear bunched up in her shoulders, for the life she knew she was leaving behind with every passing mile. Though she was only twenty-five miles from home, it might as well have been a million.

They were in trouble. That much was obvious. Just how bad this thing was, remained to be seen. If half of what Einstein believed came to fruition, it was only a matter of time before those creatures made their way to Livermore...and beyond.

A matter of time.

Quickly finishing her shower, Dallas threw on the black and red California State University East Bay sweats Roper had given her. They were snug against Dallas’s thicker frame, but that made them oddly more comforting. Bringing the sleeve to her face, she inhaled. It smelled like Roper.

Looking for her jacket and clothes, Dallas didn’t see them, so she headed out to the great room, where she found Einstein lounging on the couch in clean clothes and with wet hair.

“Roper’s in the spare bedroom shower.” Einstein chugged a Coke. He didn’t look like a kid who had just escaped the jaws of death.

Dallas went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She pulled out all kinds of dinner fixings and laid them on the counter in neat little rows. It angered her that a mundane chore of cooking dinner could mean so much and take her focus off the dangers threatening them now, but they had to eat and they needed to eat well. If there was one thing she had learned at the fire station was the importance of fueling one’s body.

Einstein cocked his head before jumping up and looking out the big picture window. He stayed there for a couple of minutes before Dallas said softly, “Relax, Einstein. It would take them at least ten hours to get here. We have a little time.”

“Still, I think we ought to sleep upstairs with someone guarding, switching every four hours.”

Dallas glanced up from her chopping. “Every four hours?”

He nodded. “The biggest mistake people make in zombie movies is to think they are safe.”   “And we’re not.”

He shook his head and returned to the couch. “We so are not.”

Dallas was almost finished with her salad when Roper came out, drying her hair with a blue towel. It was not the first time Dallas realized how pretty she was. She had that fresh face I-don’t-need-to-wear-makeup look. She had these piercing blue eyes on either side of a nose that looked like it had been broken a time or two. Dallas imagined roping cattle might make one susceptible to an occasional broken bone or two.

“What smells so good?” Roper asked, smiling at Dallas.

“Pasta with a white wine sauce, sun-dried tomatoes and asparagus.”

“Oh god, I didn’t realize I was so hungry. My mouth is actually watering. Look.” Roper opened her mouth for Dallas, who laughed and shoved her away. “You and your mouth can relax until it’s ready.”

“When will that be?”

“Well, dinner’ll be ready in about ten minutes. Why don’t we see what’s going on out there?” Dallas motioned for Einstein to sit on the sofa and waited for Roper to reach for the controls. When she did, she looked at Dallas and smiled. “The sweats are quite a departure for the Harley chick, but you look great.”

Dallas felt her cheeks flush. “Thank you. You’re quite a bit leaner than I am.”

“Lean, mean fighting machine, sista’.” Turning the television on, Roper finished drying her hair. The red ticker tape at the bottom of the screen reminded everyone to stay in their homes. The sound of the emergency warning system blared until Roper turned the volume down just enough so they could still hear that horrible sound, but it wasn’t deafening.

Every channel was the same.

“I guess we can eat first and wait for any news.”

Dallas had already set the table, so when Einstein and Roper sat down all she had to do was serve the pasta and salad, and they ate their meal in relative silence. Every now and then, Roper would look up and say, “This is so good.”

Finally, Dallas replied. “I cook a lot at the station...or I did.”

When the emergency warning system suddenly stopped, all three rose and stood in front of the television. There was no newsroom, no famous anchor. Instead, there was the national press secretary standing alone at a podium in a room devoid of reporters.

“Containing this epidemic is proving to be more difficult than initially expected. You must stay indoors. Do not go out. Do not allow anyone in. Consider everyone outside your home to be a danger. The military is currently working on a vaccine to ensure the safety of the uninfected population. Until that happens, all citizens must remain inside. Anyone not obeying the martial law order will be considered infected and destroyed. At the moment there is no known cure for this disease, so anyone not following the law will be shot on sight. We are working round the clock to find a vaccine, but you must follow these directives.” The secretary left the podium and the television returned to its regular snowy reception.

“He’s full of shit,” Einstein said, returning to the table to finish dinner.

“Because?”

“Unless our government knew beforehand about the virus, they can’t just whip up a vaccine. Something like that can take years.”

Dallas tapped her chin. “You’re right, but if that’s true, what’s their end game here?”

Einstein shrugged. “Hard to say. At this point, we’ve been operating on video game and movie lore.”

“So far, it’s kept us alive,” Roper replied, twisting pasta on her fork.

“But for how long?” Dallas asked to no one in particular.

It was a rhetorical question that neither answered. Instead, they finished their meal in eerie silence, and afterward, Einstein cleared the table.

“Okay,” Dallas started. “First thing’s first. At any time, if any of us wants to peel away or go on our own, we are free to do so. No guilt, no regrets. Just best wishes and good luck.”

Roper nodded, “Agreed. You get one weapon and our blessings, but anything collected along the way stays with the group.”

All three nodded.

“Okay. Next on the agenda. Are we gonna stay here or not?”

Roper and Dallas looked to Einstein, who shook his head. “Staying is a bad idea. It would be safer to get to a state that wasn’t attacked.” He slid a list onto the table. “These are the ten cities attacked.”

Roper pulled it to her and read them out loud. “San Fran, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, D.C., New York, Nashville, Little Rock, and Dallas.” She bowed her head, repeating the final city.

Dallas reached over and laid her hand on top of Roper’s. “My family is in Houston as well. There’s nothing we can do.”

Roper sighed heavily. “I know. That’s the hardest part, isn’t it? How do we just turn our backs on our loved ones?”

“The way to survive this, Roper, is to take care of yourself first. Always make sure you’re safe and never count on anyone jumping in to save the day. That’s how you help your family: you stay alive.”

Dallas gave Roper’s hand a quick squeeze. “Okay. So you think we need to get out of California?

Einstein paced across the room. “The farther we are from cities, the better our chances are. Cities are where they’ll find food, find each other, and multiply. So our best bet is to go somewhere without a dense population.”

Roper and Dallas both said, “The desert.”

This made Einstein’s face break into a grin. “See? Already you guys are thinking like gamers. Yeah. The desert is a good bet for the time being. Low population, hard for them to walk fast in sand, and we can see them coming for miles.”

“And we get there, how?” Einstein deferred to Roper with an open palm.

“Horses. Horses will take us off the grid. It will obviously be slower going, but with horses there’s no limit to where we can go that the soldiers can’t adequately patrol.” Roper rose and returned with a folded road atlas. Spreading it out on the table, she ironed the wrinkles out with her palm. “By navigating the hills and back roads, we stay away from soldiers and man eaters alike.”

Dallas studied the map. “It’s as sound a plan as any. We know we can’t stay on the Harley and we can’t stay here.”

“No, we can’t. If what we saw on the bridge and after rings true, they will travel in hordes, picking up strays along the way, killing more to add exponentially to their numbers.”

“If they travel in hordes, won’t they be easier to kill?”

Einstein shook his head. “Not necessarily. If you attack them like that, they’ll scatter...and then create little hordes we call packs in the games. Packs grow and—”

“Become hordes.”

“Exactly.”

“And you think packs are on their way?”

“Yes. Packs are happening as we speak.” Einstein pointed to the map. “Don’t confuse their slowness with immobility. They will walk all day and all night, never needing fuel or rest. Those which fell into the bay will walk right out and begin searching for human flesh.”

Dallas started doing the math in her head. “So they’ll make their way through Oakland and Berkeley, growing stronger.”

“Yes. And that’s why we’re relatively safe for tonight. There’s a whole lot of feeding to be had between here and there, but as they grow, so does the threat.”

“I’ll get the horses ready in the morning, but for now...” Roper left the room and returned five minutes later with an armful of rifles, handguns, and several large knives. Dallas reached for the Glock, but Einstein made no move toward a weapon other than the buck knife.

“Strap the knife around your thigh, and never be without it. My dad taught me a rifle runs out of bullets, but a knife is your friend forever. Just make sure you retrieve it.”

Dallas took the sheath and strapped it on.

“Okay, pull it out quickly and practice sticking it in,” Einstein said. “Cut off the head, stab the eye, or shove it into the frontal lobe of the brain, but never attack lower than the head. It won’t do any good. They aren’t vampires. The heart is already dead. You have to turn the only engine off it has and that’s the brain.

“And if we’re behind it?”

“At the base, right back here,” Einstein put his hand behind his head and showed them where.

“Where you wear the sheath is up to you, Dallas, but I’ve always preferred it on my weak side, so when I draw it, I can quickly slash, like so.” Roper pulled the knife out with her right hand and slashed across her body. “But it’s personal preference.”

Dallas untied her sheath and put it on her right thigh. “Left-handed,” she said.

Roper offered her a slight grin. “Good. Either of you ever shoot a gun?”

Einstein had not. Dallas had shot one of her colleagues’ once a couple of years ago.

“Tomorrow, I’ll set up some targets. We can practice before going.”

Einstein took his glasses off and cleaned them. “Running out of ammo is a huge factor in the games, so let’s make sure we don’t waste too much of it.”

Roper strapped on what looked like a gun from the Wild West.

“Does that thing work?” Dallas asked playfully.

“This?” Pulling out the four-inch barreled .357 Magnum, Roper aimed it out the window. “At this range, if I shot you in the stomach, it would cut you in half. I’m leaving the automatics for you guys since they take less skill and accuracy to fire.”

“And the rifles?”

“Stay with the horses for now.” Roper watched Einstein yawn. “I’ll take first watch. Why don’t you both get some rest?”

“I’ll take second,” Dallas offered. “Our little brainiac needs a good eight hours.”

“Good. We’ll leave at daybreak.”

Einstein started up the stairs, but stopped halfway up. “Thanks for letting me stay with you guys. I promise I’ll earn my keep.”

Dallas tilted her head as she looked at him. He was probably a geeky gamer who was friends with the brilliant Asian students and the pock-marked fat kid everyone teased.

“You already have, Einstein. You already have.”

****

When it came time for her watch, Dallas felt like she had just closed her eyes.

“Sorry,” Roper said, sitting on the edge of the guest bed. “I wish I could let you sleep longer, but my eyelids are disobeying orders.”

Dallas slowly sat up, feeling thickheaded and groggy. “No sorries, Roper. We’re all doing the best we can.”

“Well, it’s quiet out there, for the most part.”

Dallas was suddenly awake. “The most part?”

Roper rose and looked out the window. “Some of my neighbors have left under the cover of darkness. Others were starting generators, preparing, I suppose, for the worst. But no man eaters.”

“Not yet.” Dallas swung her legs around.

“No. Not yet.”

Dallas thought she heard something in Roper’s voice. “What is it?”

Kneeling in front of Dallas, Roper sighed heavily. “We’re putting a lot of faith in the active imagination of a teenage gamer.”

Dallas pulled on her steel-toed boots that looked ridiculous with her sweats. “Maybe, but he hasn’t been wrong yet.”

“No, he hasn’t, but that doesn’t mean he’ll always be right.”

“Duly noted.”

“Your clothes are in the dryer.”

Dallas smiled. It had been a long time since a woman had done her laundry. Lisa had always preferred they each did their own. “Thank you.” As she started for the door, she slowly turned. “We’re going to get out of this alive, Roper.”

Roper smiled softly. “I sure as hell hope so. I have plans for my life and they don’t include being anyone’s lunch.”

After changing back into her leather biker gear, Dallas tried her phone again. The towers had to be unmanned at this point, just as the newsrooms had been evacuated. That meant the towns had probably been plundered a la New Orleans during Katrina. They would need to frequent towns for supplies along the way for rations like bottled water and food, but they would do so only with care and trepidation.

Food.

Dallas started making a list of smart food choices. Foods high in vitamins and nutrients, but easy to carry and eat on the run. Trail mix, she thought. Nuts. Energy bars. Foods that needed no refrigeration. It was only a matter of time before the infrastructure collapsed in California. With no one at the wheel, the energy grid would fail. They would need to grab canned foods with a long shelf life, like Spam and sardines, and vitamins. A good multivitamin would at least keep them healthy while eating substandard foods. Beef jerky. That was a must. Lightweight, no storage issues. It would replace the meat that would go south when the electricity went down. How about—She stopped writing when she heard it. Something was near the front door. Grabbing the automatic, she checked the safety and racked one back like Roper had showed her.

Pressing her back against the wall, she considered going upstairs and barricading them all in, but then she remembered Einstein’s admonition about going up. Up was a death sentence. No, she would have to handle this on her own. Crouching on her knees on the other side of the door, Dallas decided lighting up the trespasser would be the best thing to do. With the Glock in her left hand, she turned the porch light on and flung the door open with her right before bringing it to the grip.

“Oh shit, whoa! Don’t shoot. I’m human!” A young man of twenty something stumbled back off the porch, hands in the air.

Dallas stepped out to the porch, gun aimed at him. Before she could say anything, Roper was by her side, the .357 out and pointed at his crotch.

“Jesus, Walter, what in the hell are you doing?”

As Walter rose, he brushed himself off. “I was leaving you a note letting you know where we’re going in case you wanted to join us later. I had no idea you were home.”

Roper reached down for the note poking out from an antique milk urn holding an asparagus fern. “Mexico?”

He nodded. “Country’s in a shit load of trouble, Roper. We’re heading south.”

“Past Los Angeles? Those things are there, too.”

He looked at the red camper idling just down the road a bit. “Etta’s folks are in Bakersfield. We’ve got to get them outta there. You can come with us, Roper.”

Roper shook her head. “Thank you, Walt, but we’ve got a plan as well and it doesn’t include going anywhere near Bakersfield or L.A. But thank you.”

“I wish you all the best, Rope. Oh...if you think of it, you might check on old Mrs. Dumfy. She may need some help before you go.”

“Will do. Good luck, Walt.”

When he disappeared into the red camper, Dallas turned to Roper, her heart rate only now returning to normal. “Mrs. Dumfy?”

Roper wiped her sweaty palms before holstering the gun. “She’s in a wheelchair. I’ll check on her before we go, make sure she can reach all her food and water.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s the least I can do.”

Dallas watched Roper trudge back up the stairs, her shoulders now heavy with the burden of leaving someone to an indescribable fate.

For the next hour, Dallas stood watch on the porch. A dog barked in the distance. How long would it be before they came this far inland? And how come the military hadn’t told the living how to protect themselves? Were they afraid the living would turn on each other, so instead, the military turned their weapons on the living? And at what point were they beyond the point of no return?

Sitting on the top stair, the Glock laying in her lap, Dallas wondered if she would have been safer solo on the Harley. She could travel during the night. She could reach the border to Nevada in an eighth of the time it would take on a horse. She could go a great deal faster with just herself and the bike.

But she could never live with herself if she left them here. It just wasn’t in her character to turn her back on someone who needed help. That was why being a firefighter had been the perfect job for her—and she’d loved every second of it. It never mattered to what job she was assigned, she attacked it with gusto. From breaking down doors to…

Dallas slowly rose. There were tools at a fire station that would come in handy. Making a mental note to stop at a fire station when they could so safely, Dallas stood watch until the television came to life once more.

“Good news for Californians! The military research team has developed a vaccine for this virus and they will be bringing it to your homes. That’s right. Help is on the way! Since they will only inject it into those who are inside their homes, it is imperative you wait there. Behind me, you can see the map of the Bay Area, from San Francisco to the Central Valley. Already, the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda are receiving the inoculation, with towns up and down 580 receiving treatment in order. To better facilitate this, the President is asking everyone to paint a number on their house, indicating how many people are inside. No number means no vaccine. If you just caught the tail end of this, it will be a looped recording for the next 24 hours. Should you come in contact with the infected, do not engage, but remove yourself to a safe place. Help will be there shortly.”

Dallas hit the mute button and almost wet herself when she turned and crashed into Einstein.

“They’re full of it,” Einstein said. “I don’t know what game they’re at, but they don’t have a vaccine and they sure as hell don’t have the manpower to go door-to-door administering it.”

Roper stood at the foot of the stairs. “I agree...it’s horse shit. For some reason, they want to keep tabs on the living and keep us indoors.”

“When they should be out killing the dead.” Dallas shook her head. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Who was able to sleep?”

Einstein raised his hand. “I can sleep next to railroad tracks.”

“Good to know. So, kid, what do you think of this?”

“Containment. Pure and simple. At this point, based on what we’ve seen so far, the military is every bit our enemy as the man eaters and everything they say and do is suspect.

Roper turned the television off. “I agree. We need to do the opposite of the bullshit on T.V.”

“Then I think we best get to packing our gear and be ready so at first light we can saddle the horses and get out of here.”

Roper studied the list on the table. “Smart. Every town we go near, we’ll grab whatever hasn’t been taken.” Slinging a battered Winchester rifle over her shoulder, Roper started for the front door. “I’m going to check on Mrs. Dumfy. I’ll be right back.”

“Wait,” Einstein said. “We should stay together.”

“We need to be on the move soon, kid. You said it yourself, they’re probably not here yet.”

Dallas grabbed a rifle. “I agree with Einstein on this. He can collect food from the pantry and get everything he thinks we’ll need. I’ll go with you.”

“But—”

“No buts, Roper. Let’s go.”

Taking off across the dark field, Dallas whispered, “Do you wonder about your family?”

Roper shook her head. “Nope. They wrote me off a long time ago. I’ve been undead to them since I was sixteen.”

“Wow. How come?”

“I’m...rebellious. I didn’t fit into their mold so they sent me here to live with my grandparents. It’s where I learned how to rope and wrangle since even before I could walk. My granddaddy taught me everything I know: how to box, shoot a rifle, wrangle cattle, barrel race. You name it.”

“Box?”

Roper chuckled. “He was a Golden Gloves boxer as a young guy. Taught every woman in the family because he believed the best defense was a strong...right hook.” She laughed and then clapped her hand over her mouth.

Dallas smiled softly. She liked her laugh. It sounded genuine, like warm honey drizzled on a latte.

“When my granddaddy died, he took a part of me with him but left a larger part of him with me. They were great people...the salt of the earth. Not a day goes by I don’t feel the loss.”

They came to a barbed wire fence that Roper put one foot on to lower, and raised the one above it to create an easy hole for Dallas to pass through.

“What do you think he’d tell you to do now?” Dallas returned the favor and helped Roper through the fence.

“You know, I asked him that last night. My granddaddy was not a fan of the American government or the press he was certain it controlled.

“Ah. Hence the ‘do the opposite’ comment.”

Roper stopped to look at Dallas and realized the deepest part of night was giving way to the light. “Do you disagree?”

“No, Rope, I don’t. I can’t get beyond the fact that they haven’t shared with us how to kill them. You’d think that would be the first step to eradication.”

Roper cocked her head. “Eradication? Maybe I should have called you Einstein.”

Dallas shrugged. “I read. A lot. There’s a lot of down time at the station. Or was. I wonder what the rest of the guys are doing.”

About ten minutes later, they made it to Mrs. Dumfy’s house; a small place that reminded Dallas of Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz. The splintered house was painted blue and half of the white gutters hung useless from the roof. The front porch was in similar disrepair, with only the wheelchair ramp appearing somewhat new.

“Shit,” Roper said, crouching behind the brick mailbox pillar. “Kitchen light is on.”

“You think she’s up?”

“I have no idea. Sometimes her son stops by for breakfast before he takes to the roads again.”

“He’s a trucker?”

“Not sure what he does, really. I just know he drives to Oakland, picks…something up and delivers it here in the Tri-Valley area.”

Dallas squinted through the semi-darkness. “In that a truck over there by the barn?”

Roper squinted in the semi-darkness. “Well, that explains the light. He must have come to stay with her. That’s the kind of son he is.”

“Then let’s go back.”

Roper turned to follow but that’s when they heard it: that low, creepy moaning of the undead.

Dallas immediately pressed her back against Roper’s and raised the rifle she’d never shot. “Where did that come from?”

“Shit. Shit. Shit. The barn?”

“We’re not going in there. Let’s check the house for your neighbor and get the hell out of here.”

The moaning grew louder now, and the first voice was joined by at least four others.

“There’s more than one.”

Roper picked up a rock and threw it near the truck. She could barely make out the taillights and bumper on it, but she knew it was the kind of truck that often carried hay. It had wooden slats about seven feet high and a gate-like hatch on the back. Mrs. Dumfy’s son, Neville, had always used it to take the free hay her granddaddy always gave them.

When the rock landed, the moaning got louder but didn’t seem mobile.

“Are they in the barn?” Dallas asked, straining to hear.

“I can’t tell.”

“How the hell did they get out here so fast?”

“No clue. Let’s just go around back and look in the windows. If she’s fine, we’ll do what we came to do.”

“And if she’s not?”

“Run like hell.” Moving to the back of the small house, Roper whispered, “I really gotta show you how to shoot that thing. Until then, I’ll take point.”

As they maneuvered down the side of the house, Dallas got a flash of something from the corner of her eye. It came from the bed of the truck, like it had reflected the light from the kitchen.

“I think there’s something in the back of the truck,” Dallas whispered.

“Okay. I’ll take one look into the house, and then we’re outta here.” Roper looked through the kitchen window and saw Mrs. Dumfy sitting in her wheelchair watching T.V., her back to the window.

“She’s in there...watching T.V.” Roper cupped her eyes and peered back in. “There’s her son. He’s...” Pushing herself away from the window so quickly, Roper fell backwards. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

Dallas didn’t need to look to know. Instead, she yanked Roper to her feet and pulled her back toward the field just as the remnants of darkness gave way to just enough light that she could see eight Hispanic man eaters banging on the sides of the truck from inside the bed.

“Run like hell!” She yelled, shoving Roper forward. They ran as fast as they could, crouching to slip between the barbed wire, until they reached Roper’s house.

Einstein was immediately at the bottom of the steps. “What happened?”

“They’re...they’re...here.”

“What? There’s no way. Not unless they can drive, and we know—” He stopped when he realized how heavily both were breathing.

Roper was bent over, hands on knees, trying desperately to slow down her breathing. “My neighbor...sometimes collects...immigrants...for yard work...” She held up her hand while she finally caught her breath. “One of them must have been bitten by a man eater when they were in the truck.”

Dallas swore under her breath. “My guess is he didn’t know he was carrying the infected until he got out to let them out. He must have been bitten before he could let them out.”

“So he went in search of the easiest prey—a woman in a wheelchair.” Roper stepped to the side and vomited in the rose bushes. “He...he was eating her face when we looked in.”

“Oh crap. Oh man, Roper. I am so sorry.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up taller. “We gotta go. Now. It’s only a matter of time before those things break out of the truck. Those slats aren’t that strong.” Roper moved with a sense of purpose now. “Dallas, help me with the horses. Einstein, bring all the food and weapons to the barn and anything else you collected.” Without waiting for a reply, Roper took off for the barn, followed closely behind by Dallas.

In the barn, they saddled up four horses, the fourth to use as a pack animal to carry their food and supplies.

Einstein had to make several trips back and forth before completing his task while Roper saddled each horse and checked each horse’s hooves. Dallas moved her Harley into the barn and went through her saddlebags to remove tools, sunglasses, gloves, bungee cords, and a first aid kit.

No one spoke as they each completed their task as quietly as they could. Every five minutes, Roper would glance in the direction of Mrs. Dumfy’s house before continuing with the horses. When she finished, the packhorse was ready and three other horses stood patiently waiting to ride.

“Let’s do some quick introductions. This beige beauty is Gwen. Einstein, you can ride her.”

Einstein walked up and gently patted the horse’s cheek. “So soft.”

Roper stared at him. “You’ve never pet a horse?”

He blushed as he shook his head. “I’m a city kid...at least, I was. Not quite sure what I am today, though.”

Handing Dallas reins to a dapple-grey mare, Roper said, “This is Morgana. She isn’t as calm as Gwen, but as long as you act like you’re the boss, she won’t give you fits.”

Dallas put her hands on the horse’s neck and smiled. “She’s gorgeous.”

“Yes she is and she knows it.” Roper tied the fourth horse behind Einstein and Gwen. The horse was white with a few patches of black here and there. “This is Lance. He’s one of the horses I use for roping. The black beauty over there is—”

“Merlin,” Dallas said. “You’ve named them after Arthurian folklore.”

Roper beamed. “Well done, Dallas. Yes, one of my all-time favorite books is Mists of Avalon. I named all my horses after characters.”

After a short briefing on how to ride a horse, Roper shoved two rifles on either side of each horse for a total of eight rifles. She kept one slung across her back, her rope attached to her belt, her Smith and Wesson, and her Buck knife. She reminded Dallas of a western Lara Croft.

Once astride their horses, Roper led them from the barn and up into the foothills just as the sunlight peeked over the hills. When they reached the first peak, about half a mile from Roper’s house, she turned her horse back for one last look.

What she saw froze her blood.

“They got out,” Dallas whispered, watching the man eaters half walking, half limping into the barbed wire fence they couldn’t figure out how to get through.

“That pretty much says all we need to know.”

Reaching over in the saddle, Dallas touched Roper’s elbow. “I’m so sorry.”

Turning Merlin’s head to the left, Roper waved her off. “Nothing we can do about it now. Our job is to stay alive, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Pulling up behind her, Dallas wondered just how hard it would be to accomplish that feat.”

****

They rode for an hour in silence until Einstein said he really had to go to the bathroom. When he came back, he saw a couple of soda cans and a bottle sitting on various branches of a small tree.

“Hold your breath, then slowly squeeze the trigger. Never jerk it. A slow, even stroke, but make sure the butt stays against this curvy part of your shoulder or the kick could really hurt.” Roper pressed the gun butt to Dallas’s shoulder. “Keep it here.”

Dallas missed the first one. Then narrowly missed the second one. The third ripped through the can.

“Well done. Now, you teach Einstein what I taught you and then we’ll go over handguns.”

For the next thirty minutes, they shot at cans and bottles until there was nothing left of either.

“Nice job, you two. We’ll pick up more ammo along the way. Folks out here all carry guns.”

“You gonna show us the rope?” Einstein asked.

“No. What I do took years to learn, and thousands of hours of practice.”

“Show us.” Einstein looked at Dallas, who smiled.

“Yeah. Show us.”

Roper unclipped the rope from her belt. “Fine. Take off.”

“What?”

“Start running.”

Einstein started running and Roper whirled the rope over her head...once, twice...three times around before she released it in the direction Einstein was running. The rope fell around his shoulders and she yanked her end of it, securing the rope around him. Another yank pulled him off his feet backwards.

“Whoa,” Dallas said, “That was awesome.”

Helping Einstein out of the rope, Roper blushed. “Thanks. I’ve had plenty of practice.”

“Well, you’re very good. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.

They rode on for another hour in single file, each quiet with their own thoughts. They kept at a walking pace until they came to a flat area about three quarters of a mile in diameter.

“We can go around or ride hard through,” Roper said.

“Let’s ride hard through,” replied Dallas regripping the reins. So far they’d tried to ride along the tree line to avoid being spotted by helicopters. There were none, but that didn’t mean they weren’t out there. They’d only crossed the freeway once and it was dotted with cars that had either stalled or had the driver shot in the head.

“I’m sorry you had to see that back there,” Dallas said as they made their way up to the plateau.

Roper turned. “Know what has always made me feel better? Riding. Come on!” With that, she took off across the plateau, Merlin’s hooves beating into the grass.

Dallas looked over at the wide-eyed Einstein. “Well...in for a penny, in for a pound. Come on!” Spurring Morgana on, Dallas rode as hard as she dared, feeling her fillings jar in her teeth as her butt slammed down into the saddle. Once she settled into the rhythm of the horse’s gait, it was a much smoother ride.

Not so for Einstein.

As he and Gwen’s uneasy alliance struggled across the field, gunshots rang out in the distance. Suddenly, Einstein had decided to allow Gwen full reign, and the horse took off like a shot, dumping Einstein onto the ground and into the tall, wheat-colored grass.

“Oh crap.” Roper said, turning Merlin back to the field.

“Wait.” Dallas cocked her head before pointing to the sky.

“Oh shit.”

Choppers.

Staying beneath the cover of the trees, Roper looked hard at Dallas. “I can get him.”

“I’m sure you could, but we’re not risking it.” Cupping her hands around her mouth, Dallas yelled, “Stay down!” to Einstein, who had just stood up and was dusting himself off. He dove back to the ground and began covering himself up with grass.

Hopping off Merlin, Roper quickly undid his saddle and started taking everything off.

“What are you doing?”

“Look at the grass we rode through.”

Dallas did and noticed three very distinct lines cut by the horses.

As Roper worked to remove the bridle, the helicopter came over the small hill like a gigantic dragonfly looking for food. As it passed over the field, Dallas held her breath. Then it slowly turned, and came back. Roper pulled a rifle out and aimed at the chopper.

“What are you doing?” Dallas asked.

“They kill the kid, we kill them. Quid pro quo.”

Dallas reached back and pulled her rifle out as well. “Where am I shooting?”

“The rudder. If we bring it down, we have a better chance of taking out the shooters.”

Placing the butt against her shoulder, Dallas waited as Roper slapped Merlin’s haunches and sent the horse back into the field.

As soon as the chopper turned toward the horse, the Blackhawk veered right and took off, destination unknown.

Lowering her rifle, Dallas said, “That was brilliant.”

“Nah. We just needed them to see what might have made those tracks.”

Five minutes later, they were all back in the saddle and heading southeast.

“You okay, kid?”

Einstein rubbed his butt. “Can you break your ass?”

Dallas and Roper both laughed.

As they rode parallel to the interstate and frontage road, they saw where Roper’s neighbors’ red camper had crashed into a gully.

“Oh…no—”

All the windows had been shot out.

“We need to check for survivors,” Dallas said. To her surprise, Roper shook her head.

“No. If anyone were alive in there, they’d have gotten out when the chopper left. They’re all dead or long gone. They took a chance and it didn’t pay off. Keep moving.”

Dallas couldn’t miss the harshness in Roper’s voice. In less than twelve hours, she’d seen her neighbors turned into those things, and others killed by a military that was supposed to protect them. The bitterness was tangible.

So, keep moving they did.

When they found a safe place to stop in a small patch of ancient oaks, they watered the horses before opening the trail mix and water for themselves.

“We’ll need to get on the other side of the aqueduct and then go into town,” Roper said before tossing some trail mix back in her mouth.

“I don’t like the idea of being that vulnerable crossing the aqueduct,” said Dallas.

“Agreed. It’s safer if we go on foot. We can leave the kid with the horses. We won’t be able to carry as much, but we’ll be safer in town on foot.”

Dallas turned to Einstein. “You okay with that?”

He nodded. “I don’t see that we have much choice. We need water and we ought to get it every chance we can.

“Good. We’ll ride to the nearest cover, leave you there, and set out on foot. It’s a small town and it’s possible it hasn’t experienced the kind of looting that’s probably happening in the cities.”

“Well, we know it’s very possible the man eaters have made it this far, so be on your toes.”

“Roger that.”

Twenty minutes later, Dallas and Roper made it to the small town of Wilsonville. It was so still and so deserted, Dallas half expected tumbleweeds to roll by.

“Ghost town,” she whispered to Roper.

The small, wild west-kitchy town did, indeed, appear unpopulated. There was no movement in the streets, no one working their businesses, nothing at all to indicate that this was once a thriving small town community.

“Don’t be fooled. There are eyes out there looking at us, sizing us up. Don’t forget the four Billy Bobs. We need to assume everyone is hostile until proven otherwise. It’s survival of the fittest now, Dallas.” Roper stopped and removed her sunglasses. “Look me in the eye and tell me the truth. Do you truly believe you can shoot another human being?”

Dallas thought for a moment. Her whole adult life had been about saving lives, not taking them. Did she have what it took to murder someone? “I’m not sure.”

Replacing her glasses, Roper nodded. “Good to know.”

“It’s not that I—”

“No need to explain. It is what it is and we are what we are. I’ve hunted with my granddaddy and killed some beautiful creatures that were no danger to me. Killing a man or woman who poses a threat? Piece of cake. If you can’t pull the trigger, I can, and you can take that to the bank.”

Dallas pulled the rifle around to the front. “Well, you may know I’m unsure, but they don’t.”

As they wound their way through the small streets, Dallas did, indeed, feel watched. It was incredibly disconcerting, like a bug on your back you can’t quite reach to flick off.

“They’re watching, huh?”

Roper cocked her head as she listened. “Yep. So look. We’ll have to do a bash and snatch of the mini-mart over there.”

“I can’t believe they haven’t been looted.”

“That’s the difference between country folk and everyone else. We’re not quite as ego-centric as others. We tend to take care of our own. Come on.”

Dallas followed her to the side of the mini-mart facing a parking lot. There was no movement to speak of—just an eerie silence that penetrated her leather jacket like a coastal fog.

After smashing the window and hearing the alarm go off, they went in, list in hand, and rifled through the goods to locate their necessities.

“Watch the windows,” Roper said as she filled her backpack with boxes of energy bars.

As Dallas stood guard, she saw movement. “They’re coming.”

“Man eaters?”

“I don’t think so. Townies, I think.”

When Roper’s backpack was full, she took Dallas’s and began filling it up as well.

“Yep. There are ten...fifteen, maybe, and they don’t look very happy about our presence.”

“Do they have weapons?”

“Yep. A couple of rifles, some baseball bats, even a pitchfork. You’d think we were Frankenstein or something.”

Roper stopped stuffing the backpack and stared at Dallas.

“Oh. Right. We may not be...but they’re certainly on their way.”

“Maybe we ought to be as well.”

Dallas looked both ways. “I count fourteen men, and they’re waiting for our exit.”

Roper rose and handed the heavy backpack to Dallas. “Got any good ideas?”

She shook her head. “Plumb out.”

“We’re not leaving without supplies and we can’t shoot our way out.”

Dallas stepped up to the front door and waved. No one waved back. “We can expect trouble, that’s for damn sure.”

Roper stood next to her. “I imagine we’re surrounded. Well, I’m not gonna be taken out by a bunch of town folk.” Roper headed toward the back of the store. “There are only four out here.”

“What are you suggesting? We try to make a run for it?”

“We could try telling them the truth...that the danger is on its way.”

Dallas shook her head. “If they don’t buy it, then what?”

Before Roper could answer, a beat up Chevy pick up gunned it into the side of the shop, sending glass and wall debris flying everywhere.

“Get in! Get in! Get in!” Einstein yelled as bullets pinged off the side of the truck. Roper and Dallas jumped into the bed of the truck without question and he backed up, whipped the truck around, and nearly ran over three of the townies as he sped out of town.

“Okay, okay, slow down!” Roper yelled through the busted out cab window.

When Einstein finally slowed to a stop, he turned, eyes wide, sweat dotting his upper lip. “I left the horses where you left me and wanted to keep an eye out...you know...just in case. When I saw these guys gathering at the other end of town I ran down and checked about a dozen parked cars before I found the keys in this one.”

“And that would be why your nickname is apropos.”

“They didn’t seem too keen on having us pillaging their shops.”

Roper mussed up his hair. “You done good. We were trying to figure out how to get out of there. Thanks.”

Einstein was beaming. “That was the bomb-diggiest thing I’ve ever done, man.”

Dallas smiled at him. She really liked this kid, with all of his nerdisms and gearhead ways about him he’d saved their bacon. “It really was great, Einstein. I’m proud of you. See? You do carry your weight.”

“Well, get back in, because there are a couple of Hummers cruising around the outskirts of town. I think they’re doing the vaccine thing because there are houses here with a red X next to the sprayed number.”

“The whole vaccine angle makes no sense. Let’s call this what it is. Somehow, someone turned our citizens into zombies and if we can’t get it stopped, we’re fucked.”

Roper rubbed the back of her neck. “That’s what I don’t get. If they don’t really have a vaccine…then what, exactly, are they shooting into people?”

All three stared at each other, answerless.

“I wish I knew, but we need to get back to the horses. Those Hummers will be here any minute.” Einstein drove as close as he could to the horses before stopping and helping Roper with the backpacks. “Damn, these are heavy. What all is in here?”

“Water, energy bars, vitamins...most of what was on our list.”

“We scored.”

Roper examined the horses’ hooves before loading Lancelot down with the supplies. “I’ve been thinking. I’m not so sure daytime is the safest time for us to travel. With the military patrolling the road, and the choppers in the air, we’re really vulnerable.”

Dallas opened one of Lance’s saddlebags and pulled out a bottle of water they all shared. “I was thinking that earlier. During the day, they can patrol land and air, but at night, just land, and we have the advantage of seeing headlights long before they get here. It’s not a bad idea.”

Taking a swig of water, Roper handed it to Einstein. “It’s a little riskier with horses, but it’s safer than travelling during daylight.”

Dallas looked at Einstein. “Your thoughts?”

Einstein studied the bottle a moment. “I’m pretty sure the reception you got in town will be replayed everywhere we go. One thing we know will happen for sure is survival of the fittest. Pretty soon, people will start wanting what we have. People will turn on each other, so we’ll not just be fighting the undead but the living as well. If they can’t see us, they don’t know what we have and can’t come after us.”

“It’s settled, then. Let’s find a place to lay low until sundown, and then we can hit the road at night.”

“It’ll be cooler then as well. The horses will need less water and fewer stops.” Leading the way, Roper and Merlin sauntered along as if they were out for a Sunday ride. When Dallas pulled up next to her, she said, “We got lucky back there.”

“Yeah. Yeah, we did. The kid’s all right though, isn’t he?”

“He’s also right about people degenerating. We’ve already seen that more than once. We’re going to need to be very careful in the future about all of our contact with other survivors.”

“Agreed. Assume the worst from everyone and every situation.” She pointed to a cluster of large rocks. “See that rock formation over there? That looks like as good a place as any to stay until dark.”

Dallas shaded her eyes with her hand on the bill of her Harley cap. “Perfect.”

“Dallas...I’ve been thinking. I need you to promise me something.” Roper turned to Dallas and took her hand in both of hers. “Promise me that no matter what happens, if I get bit or scratched or whatever, that you’ll shoot me right away. I don’t ever want to become one of those things.”

Dallas squeezed her hand. “Only if you’ll do the same.”

Roper turned her palm and shook Dallas’s hand. “Deal.”

When they reached the outcropping of rocks, they took everything off the horses and tied them to a nearby tree. The rocks formed a shallow cave, so they stowed all of their supplies in there and told Einstein to take a nap if he needed one.

He was out in ten seconds.

Sitting on the grass with the horses, Roper and Dallas weighed their options and decided the desert was still their best shot for now. Getting out of California was tantamount, and even if they had to inch along at night, anything was better than staying in the red zone.

“You know, I just want you to understand that if we’d had to shoot our way out of the mini-mart, I would have.” Dallas said.

Roper tossed a rock at bug sitting on a leaf. “I know you would have. I’m glad we didn’t have to, though. Once we start killing people, we’ll never be the same.”

Dallas felt tears sting her dry eyes as she managed to whisper, “We already aren’t.”

****

While it was slower going at night, it was much cooler and easier on the horses. There were no helicopters and the two times they saw Hummer lights, they were too far off in the distance to be a threat.

As they clopped along, the smell of hay lingered in the air, along with the sound of creek water as they made their way along the aqueduct and its tributaries.

Every now and then they would hear distant shots firing, but that could have been for anything. The rest of the time there was an eerie silence hanging in the air like L.A. smog—only the clip-clop of the hooves and creaking of leather saddles could be heard.

“I’m starving,” Einstein groaned, looking at his watch. It was a little after one in the morning.

“Me, too,” Roper said. “My stomach’s been growling for two hours.”

“What are those lights down there?” Dallas pointed in the semi-darkness surrounding them.

“By my guesstimate, that’s Rio Nuevo. It’s another smallish farming community.”

No one said anything, until Einstein whispered, “I really need to eat. I feel lightheaded and weak, my ass hurts, and I’m about to fall asleep on my trusty steed.”

Dallas laid her hand on her flat stomach. Hers had been growling for miles, but she and Roper had already spoken about the need to ration what they’d taken from the mini mart. “Fair enough. I think we can scare up something to eat down there.” Dallas pulled Morgana to a stop. She and the horse had become a nice unit in the hours they’d been riding. She was a good horse who seemed to understand the necessity of a consistent gait with a newbie rider. “I say we watch from the hill for a bit and see if there is any movement. If it looks clear, we’ll take the horses as close as we can and then see if we can’t—”

“Look.”

Roper and Dallas looked in the direction of Einstein’s voice.

At first, Dallas had no idea what she was looking at, but then, ever so slowly, she could see the lights in the valley slowly being extinguished, like someone turned down the electricity so slowly that the light dimmed just before dying.

“My god...” Roper murmured.

“It doesn’t take much for the infrastructure to collapse when no one is watching the pot boil,” Einstein said softly. “This is the beginning of the swan song ladies and gentlemen.”

“Are you saying—”

“The electrical grid cannot continuously run on its own,” Dallas dovetailed on Einstein’s analogy. “And if everyone does what the military has ordered us to do by staying inside, then no one is left to run the shop. So, yeah. Now we’re all in the dark, with no cell phone use, no electrical, and—”

“Uh uh.” Einstein stepped up to them and continued pointing.

Roper untied her ponytail and retied it. “Lotta rural folks have generators, especially if they have any kind of livestock. We’ll see more pop up here in a moment.”

“The darkness is our best friend at this point.” Dallas opened her backpack and pulled out two four-cell flashlights they’d swiped. “We should be able to get in and out this time without getting busted.”

“And then what, Dallas? We eat and get back on the horses? I don’t know about you, but my butt is numb, my back is sore, my balls hurt, and—” Then, as if realizing what he’d said, Einstein covered his mouth.

Roper and Dallas both laughed.

“We need to keep moving until dawn, kiddo, but maybe after you eat you’ll feel better.”

Twenty minutes later, after leaving the horses tied up, the three of them quietly and stealthily made their way into the small town of Rio Nuevo.

From about every eighth or ninth house, the hum of a generator could be heard—the low lights of the houses they were running became easier to see.

“Where to?”

“I say we—”

“Shh. Don’t move.”

Lights from a car slowly went by.

“It’s just a truck,” Roper whispered as they watched the vehicle slow down in front of every house. Three men in the back threw something out onto the porch of each house before slowly moving to the next one.

“Is that—”

“Food.” Roper said. “I’m thinking those people are taking care of each other. Keeping everyone fed and healthy. Or maybe they’re just communicating with each other.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Einstein started backing away. “Suddenly, I’m not very hungry. Or tired. Right. I’m not hungry or tired. Let’s go.”

Just as they turned to leave, there came a scream from one of the houses. Ducking beneath a hedge on the outside of the main road, the three froze.

“They kilt ‘em!” A woman screamed over and over. “They done kilt ‘em!”

The truck backed up quickly, the three men now aiming rifles at the woman.

“What are you talking about, Celeste? Keep your voice down.”

“Or what? I’ll wake the dead? I’m telling you, they’re already dead!”

“Who is?”

“John and Miguel! They were fine until those military men showed up! Come look! They just be layin’ there, side-by-side, like they sleepin’, but they ain’t! They. Are. Dead!” The woman’s hysterical tone rose above the cacophony of shouts from the men as they jumped from the truck and shined a light on the X mark on the side of the house. “You sure?”

“Dead as a doornail.”

Dallas watched in amazement as two of the men ran into the house, only to return shortly after. “She’s right. They’re dead.”

The men conferred with each other before hopping back into the truck and jumping out at the next house.

“Yep,” the tallest one said. “Dead. They’re all dead. That was no vaccine. They...they killed all those people.”

A ruckus broke out now, with everyone talking and no one listening.

Roper looked at Dallas. “The kid hasn’t been wrong once,” she whispered. “There is no vaccine.”

“We gotta get outta here. Far away from here.”

By the time they got back to the horses, they were frightened enough to be able to ride quite a distance before Dallas called a rest stop.

“Okay,” she said, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. “That was fucked up.”

“It’s just like I said. Containment is a scary thing in the games, and it looks like our government isn’t taking any chances.”

“But killing healthy people?”

“We don’t know they are healthy. Maybe they know something we don’t.”

“Regardless of what they thought or what we think we know,” Dallas said, “we need to grab some shuteye and regroup in the morning. I can’t talk about what we heard and saw until I have some time to process it, if you don’t mind.”

Roper shook her head. “Not at all. I’ll take care of the horses, you guys drink some water and try to get some rest.”

Dallas sat with the rifle between her legs as Einstein scrunched down in his sleeping bag. “You were right, Einstein. You’ve been right all along.”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?”

“This is an apocalypse, isn’t it?”

“It will be if they can’t stop it. Right now, as in any apocalypse scenario, there are three groups of the living. The first are those who do what they are told and stay inside. The second are those like us, who are making a run for it. It’s the third we have to worry about. Those are the people who take advantage of situations like these and prey on everyone else. Those are the ones we need to look out for. Those are the ones who can hurt us the most.”

Dallas thought about Katrina and how people turned so savage and so barbaric in an instant, that they stole things they didn’t even need. “Get some rest. I promise we’ll get you some real food tomorrow.”

When Einstein was asleep, Roper came over from the horses. “I need to get a shoe off of Lance. It’s got something stuck in it.”

“Is that bad?”

“Riding at night isn’t easy. He’s probably picked up a stone. I’m gonna need some tools, though.”

Dallas studied her profile in the darkness. Even in the darkness, it was easy to see how handsome Roper was. Handsome. Was that the right word? Dallas was too tired to find another. “You’re not thinking of going back there?”

“Not much choice. We need him. Besides, I can grab the kid something to eat. It’ll take a few days for food to go bad in this heat without refrigeration. I can grab some meat and eggs and be back before you know it.”

Dallas didn’t answer for a long time. She had become used to having Roper there, and the thought of her going into that town alone didn’t sit well with her. It made her anxious.

“When you going to go?”

“Just before dawn. It will be easier to get in and out more quickly if I can see what I’m doing. I’ll take Merlin and hitch him up where we left the horses last time. Should be easy getting in and out of a barn.”

“And the food?”

“Easy. I’m busting into that Burger King. Without electricity, there won’t be any alarms to sound. I’ll grab a stack of all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce—”

“That’s McDonald’s, you Goober.”

They both laughed.

When they stopped, Dallas leaned closer. “We’ve got a growing boy to take care of, and we’ve been pushing him pretty hard. I think we need to get some food in him, organize and plan our supplies, then just chill until dusk.”

Roper sat next to Dallas and gazed up at the stars. “Fine. I’ll grab us food and tools, get back and re-shoe Lance while you get a fire going. Can you cook outside?”

Dallas smiled. “I’m a firefighter, Roper. I can cook on the moon.”

****

Roper

Roper could only stare in disbelief as the townspeople carried out the dead and tossed them into an enormous pyre standing at least fifteen feet in diameter, with orange and blue flames nearly as high. The sickening smell of burning flesh and hair clung to her clothes and hung in the air—the last vestiges of lives once lived. The townspeople were somber about the horrific task, with hardly anyone speaking at all, except a grey-haired gentleman in Vietnam era fatigues, who quietly, but firmly, issued orders.

They were burning the dead for fear they might rise again. More importantly, they were casting a huge middle finger in the air at a government that had betrayed them.

The bright side was that people were busy focusing on the bonfire fueled by human bones, making it easier for her to get in and out of a barn with the exact tools she needed. All she had to do now was break into that Burger King and get the hell out of Dodge. Simple, really.

Having learned her lesson at the mini-mart, Roper made her way to the window farthest back. To her surprise, it was already broken, the glass cleared away. Someone had already been in here.

As she considered her options, she heard the engine of a vehicle, followed by what could only be described as a Gatlin gun. Round after round of machine gun fire blasted through the air followed by the screams of both the living and the dying. The ruckus that ensued sounded like homicidal mayhem, so Roper quickly crawled on her hands and knees through the window opening and then peeked out to see what was going on.

The soldiers in the Hummer had gunned down everyone at the bonfire and the vehicle was now perched in the center, leveling its anti-aircraft weapon at each and every building. Chunks of plaster blew up, glass shattered, two-by-fours splintered, and doors were cut in half by the relentless pounding of the powerful weapon.

“Jesus...” Roper muttered as the man behind the gun obliterated the tiny houses and businesses.

The noise was deafening, the dying cries extinguished beneath the roar of a gun made to kill our enemies. As the Hummer moved forward, bullets tore the plaster off the front of buildings and turned glass back into sand. The huge gun smoked as it pointed directly at the restaurant. Roper realized she was screwed. The weapon would tear the Burger King apart with her in it.

Just as the gun aimed in her direction, someone grabbed her by the back of her shirt and yanked her back into a walk-in freezer, still cold but no longer freezing.

“Stay down!”

Roper didn’t even have time to see who had barked orders at her; the freezer was pitch black inside. The sound of the freezer door being hit by bullets large enough to bring a plane down made Roper curl into a ball with her hands over her ears. How long she laid like that, she couldn’t tell. It could have been six minutes or sixty minutes, but she nearly fainted when a hand reached out and grabbed her again.

“You hit?” It was a woman’s voice.

“What?”

“Are. You. Hit? Injured? Are you sporting a bullet?”

Roper shook her head. “No. I’m fine. Thank you for—”

“Thank me later. We’re not out of the woods yet. Come on.”

“Wait. I came for food.”

“You and everyone else. There’s a couple boxes of patties to your left.” The woman shined a flashlight at the boxes, which were already opened. There were a dozen or so patties in it and Roper took them all.

“Okay, I’m good.”

The woman shined the flashlight up and down Roper’s body, stopping at her gun. “Can you shoot that thing?”

She put her hand on the grip. “Like you read about.”

“Excellent. Ready to blow this pop stand?”

“I was ready an hour ago.”

“We’ll go out the way you came in. Head for the back of the store. There’s a parking lot there. Stay low. We have to get out of this fucking town before people start losing it. It’s been compromised in some way.”

“Compro—? Are you a soldier?”

“Was. Ready?”

Before Roper could answer, the woman cracked open the door. Not only light streamed in, but smoke as well.

The restaurant was on fire.

****

Dallas

“If I’m not back by nine—”

“Don’t even go there. You’ll be back.”

Roper looked Dallas in the eyes, her gaze intent. “Shit happens.”

The conversation she’d had with Roper just before she left did laps in her mind. Now, as Einstein and Dallas stood watching the flames burn the town to the ground, those last two words echoed loudly.

“Why are we just standing here? We have to do something!” Einstein cried, turning to Dallas, fear etched on his face.

Dallas watched as his fear quickly transformed to panic. “Einstein, get a grip, okay? We don’t know if she’s even in all that. We can’t blindly run into a town burning to the ground. We have to have some faith in her.”

“She was going to Burger King! For me! She put her life on the line because I couldn’t just suck it up...and now—”

Taking him into her arms, Dallas held him as he sobbed. She wanted to cry as well, but she would have to put those tears in reserve in the event they didn’t get Roper back.

But Dallas was a long way from allowing those thoughts to plague her mind. Roper was smart. She was analytical. She could problem-solve with rapidity. Dallas wasn’t going to sign off a death certificate until she was certain Roper didn’t make it back to them.

“It’s not your fault, Einstein. We’re all hungry. She volunteered to go. Besides,” Dallas pulled away and brushed his hair off his forehead, “she’d be really pissed if she knew how easily you’d given up on her.”

“I...I didn’t mean—” he stood up a little straighter. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“No sorries. We are all doing our best. We need to keep that in mind. You keep the fire going. I’m going to keep watching the activities of the town, and together, we are going to go about as if we expect her back at any time.”

Any time dragged along, with every minute feeling like an hour. The town was almost completely engulfed in flames, and by the time the little black dot of the Hummer rolled out of sight, the town had been completely razed.

Dallas just stared at the black smoke rising from the many buildings caught in the conflagration. The idea that Roper was down in that somewhere hurt her heart. She’d never felt so helpless in her life and only staying calm for Einstein kept her from freaking out.

And she wanted to freak out. She wanted to scream, to rant, to curse the heavens. What could she do to help? How could she get down there to get Roper out?

As if reading her mind, Einstein’s fingers slowly found hers and he held her hand like a little boy. “Isn’t there anything we can do? Anything at all?”

“Our only option is to wait.”

“For how long?”

That was a question Dallas had asked herself over and over. If Roper was caught in that...if something horrible happened, what then? She couldn’t just leave without knowing what happened to her. She would not leave her behind, regardless of whether she was a...was...regardless.

“We wait until nightfall.”

Einstein’s eyes held fresh tears. “That’s a long time away.”

She didn’t know if that was good or bad. “Yes, it is, but we’ll just have to wait it out.”

“I wish I’d brought a book to read, or something to do. This waiting around is going to kill me.”

Dallas pulled her iPhone out. It had sixty one percent power left. “I’ve got a few books on here.”

Einstein stared at it. “You don’t have much power left.”

Dallas shrugged. “No cell service and no electricity, it’s already antiquated, right? Go on. Stay in the cover. Read. You read and then we can get the horses some water.”

Einstein backed up against a tree and quietly read while Dallas kept her eyes glued to the burning buildings, now barely visible beneath the black and gray towers of smoke. The military had burned the entire town to the ground.

“Come on, Roper. You have to be okay. You have to.” Dallas wished she believed in some higher power so she could pray to it, but she didn’t. All she could do was sit against the tree trunk and wait.

Instead of waiting, she fell asleep, and when her head jerked up, she blinked rapidly and turned to say something to Einstein, who wasn’t there.

Jumping to her feet, she checked her watch.

“It’s only been thirty minutes,” Einstein said from the shadow of the rocks. He was repacking the supplies. They didn’t need to be repacked, but it was something to do. “Nothing happened down there. The flames are still licking the sky. No sign of her. No sign of anyone.”

“Just the same—” Dallas didn’t bother finishing. They both knew that every hour that went by, they inched closer to never seeing Roper again.

Dallas couldn’t believe how that thought punched her in the stomach. “Come on, Roper. Come back, please.” She murmured, feeling her gut wrench.

Another hour dragged on by. Dallas was beginning to feel the pain of loss and had to struggle to keep it at bay. She would not give up on Roper. She was a smart woman, a capable woman. Surely she’d found some way of getting out of there.

“Dallas…what if—”

“Uh uh. No what ifs. No doing outcome. We stay until nightfall.” She checked her watch. It was nearing noon. “After that, we’ll see where we stand.”

As Einstein watched the town burn, he shaded his eyes. “Is that another Hummer?”

Pointing with his other hand, he located the vehicle on the outskirts of town.

Dallas squinted to see it. “It sure is. What is it doing?”

The answer came five minutes later when gunfire rang out.

“They’re shooting at someone.”

Einstein shook his head. “This is containment protocol. In the video games and movies, it’s too hard to contain larger cities, so the military destroys the food supply surrounding those infected cities so the eaters have no place to go and will stay within the city boundaries. That’s why they are taking out these small cities.”

“You know, that makes total sense, but what happens once they cut off the city from the small, dead towns?”

Einstein looked at her as though that should be obvious. “They nuke the city.”

Dallas felt the blood drain from her face. “You’re kidding me.”

“Nope. There’s no other way to completely eradicate them. The living and the dead must go. Survival by attrition. You know…the needs of the many and all that.”

“So, no evacuation.”

“Nope.”

“No isolation.”

“Nope. Complete obliteration. After a certain number of days, they will operate on that “needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” premise. If they can’t stop it here, they, if they haven’t already done so, try to control it at the borders.”

Dallas watched as the sun bounced off his red hair. She really liked this kid. Just the word kid made her long for Roper. She missed her more than she’d ever missed any girlfriend who’d been gone from her. How dumb was that? She didn’t even really know this woman.

Or did she?

Any woman who can walk across the center girder on the Bay Bridge was someone worth caring about and she cared about Roper. A lot. She was brave and smart, witty and resourceful. She seemed to have a good heart. What wasn’t to like about her?

“The Hummer is picking off anyone trying to escape.”

“But that’s impossible. They could just go out the other three directions. They need a helicopter.”

“Oh, believe me. It’s coming. I imagine our troops are spread pretty thin by now. One chopper out here will have to cover a lot of the smaller towns, but it’ll be here.”

And again, he was correct.

Fifteen minutes later, the Hummer pulled out and the chopper hovered, snipers on either side, picking off those who were fleeing on foot. Two trucks tried peeling out, but they, too, were fired upon and blown to bits. It was hard to watch.

Even harder to think of Roper being down there.

“This is awful. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

Einstein pointed to the small alcove. “I’ve moved our stuff into the shade of that tree and gave the horses three bottles of our water. I know it’s a precious resource, but without them, we’re pretty much screwed.”

Another hour went by, and Dallas felt her hope waning. It wasn’t until the chopper took off that she could look at something else.

“It’s not looking good,” Einstein said softly.

“No...it isn’t.” Tears sprang to her eyes before she could stop them. “We aren’t leaving until dark. We’ll saddle up then and go get Merlin, if he’s still alive.”

Einstein stood next to her and looked around for any signs of movement. “You got attached,” he said quietly.

“Excuse me?”

“Attached. Bonded. The first rule of survival in any zombie apocalypse movie is to never bond with other survivors. The ones who make it are those whose lives they deem are more important than everyone else’s. You got attached to her.”

Dallas shook her head. “I guess you didn’t read The Hunger Games.”

Einstein shook his head. “Saw the movie. This isn’t that, Dallas. You bonded with her and that puts your life more at risk. It’s simple arithmetic.”

She chuffed. “More at risk? It couldn’t be any more at risk. Besides, saving people is what I do…what I did for a living.” She turned to him. “I’ve bonded with you, too, ya know?”

He looked down and shook his head. “That means you’re twice as willing to take unnecessary risks...like Roper did for us.”

“It wasn’t unnecessary. We need to eat.”

He said nothing else for a long, long time, and as dusk slowly crept in around them, neither felt the need to state the obvious.

Roper was dead.

****

They spoke very little as they sadly saddled the horses and cleared up the camp area. Einstein ate an energy bar along with some vitamins. Dallas couldn’t find her appetite and didn’t want to waste food.

When they were both astride the horses, Dallas quietly took the lead toward town. “Come on.”

“Where are you going?”

“To get Merlin. I told you. I’m not leaving her horse to starve.”

As per their agreement, Roper was supposed to leave Merlin in the same place they’d left the horses the first time—only when they got there, Merlin was not there.

“Damn it,” Dallas growled, flicking the switch in her flashlight. It had taken them longer to reach town than she realized and it was getting dark now. “She must have left him someplace else.” Dallas looked all around the immediate area. There was no sign of the horse. “God. Damn. It!”

“Are you trying to flag the bad guys over to us or is that your Luke Skywalker light saber?” came Roper’s voice from the shadows.

Whirling around, Dallas shined the light on a face...that wasn’t Roper’s.

“Roper?”

Roper stepped out of the darkness, a big smile lighting up her face.

“Thank God!” Running to her, Dallas threw her arms around her and hugged her so tightly Roper’s breath was squeezed from her. “We thought—we waited—”

Roper held Dallas to her for a long time before easing away. “I know and I’m so sorry for worrying you. If I could have gotten out of there sooner, I—we—would have.”

Einstein quietly joined them, hugging Roper to him and trying, unsuccessfully, not to cry. The three of them stood in a group hug for several moments.

“You’re alive,” Einstein said softly. “You’re really alive. She said you were, but I didn’t believe her.”

Roper pulled away and ran her hand over his hair. “I am and you can thank Butcher over there. She saved my life.”

Dallas turned in the direction of the woman, who walked into the waning light. Although it was difficult to tell for sure, Dallas thought she was a forty-something woman with salt and pepper hair, about Dallas’s height but with a thicker frame.

“You saved her? Thank you. Thank you so much.” Dallas shook Butcher’s hand. “I’m Dallas. This is Einstein.”

“Butcher, and trust me, she repaid the favor.”

Dallas turned her attention back to Roper. “Are you okay? We saw the flames. Heard the gunfire. A whole lotta bad shit went on down here.”

“I’m fine. A little singed around the edges is all.” Roper kept her arm around Einstein’s shoulders. “I apologize for scaring you. There were several men who—”

Dallas waved her off. “It’s not important. What’s important is you’re safe. You’re safe.”

Roper locked eyes with Dallas as if trying to read between her words before walking over to Merlin, who was virtually impossible to see in the darkness. Pulling a package from the saddlebag, she handed it to Dallas. “How about we move back into the hills, make ourselves a fire, and barbecue up some burgers?”

Dallas was too stunned to reply, but Einstein wasn’t.

“No way. You actually got patties?”

Roper laughed. “Way. Come on. Let’s make us something to eat and I’ll tell you all about it.”

After Butcher hopped on behind Roper, the four took to the hills, where they made a fire and cooked the hamburgers using a stretch of foil. As everyone ate, Roper told the story of their escape.

“So we realized we were better off staying in the freezer until the flames died down in the restaurant.”

Einstein was riveted. “Oh man, weren’t you scared?”

“To death, but we knew running through the flames might kill us anyway and even if we’d made it, we might have run right into gunfire. So, we took a chance that the building would burn down before the heat became too unbearable. As it was, we waited just long enough, so when the fire was burning itself out, we made a run for it.”

“Where did you go?”

Butcher replied, “Underground.”

“Underground?”

She repeated her single word answer. “Underground.”

Dallas could see by the fire she was Hispanic-looking and probably younger than she had originally thought, though the salt and pepper bob made her appear older.

“I served as a medic in Iraq and Afghanistan. When a city was being flattened, the safest place to go was down. Flames and smoke rise.”

“Butcher shoved me down a manhole moments before the place really caught fire. I was afraid they were going to bomb it, so we stayed underground until it looked safe to come out.”

Dallas leaned closer to Butcher. “Thank you for taking care of Roper. We’ve become… rather fond of her.”

“Like I said, it went both ways. If I hadn’t pulled her to the freezer, I’d have taken a risk that would have gotten my ass shot up.”

“How come you go by Butcher?” Einstein asked.

Butcher finished her burger before answering. “I flunked out of med school because...well...let’s just say some of my cadavers looked like they’d been butchered when I got through with them. I have the mind and heart of a surgeon, but the hands of a platypus. Quoted by one of my instructors who gave me the nom de plume.”

Einstein busted out laughing. “That’s a good one.”

“Let’s just say it’s better than my real name.”

They all waited. The fire crackled and spit in the silent darkness.

“Magenta.”

“Magenta? Like the color?”

She nodded her head in disgust. “Yeah. Like the color. And I hate the name Maggie, or Mags, or Genta. No, I was thrilled when some jerk-off professor ridiculed me in front of an entire class by calling me Butcher. It stuck. I was glad.”

“As nicknames will do.”

They each shared the origins of their names, but when Einstein shared that Dallas and Roper had given it to him, Butcher leaned forward and locked eyes with him. “So you think you know what the hell is going on?”

“He hasn’t been wrong yet,” Roper said softly.

“I only know scenarios I’ve seen in the movies and in video games,” Einstein explained. “So I just have more educated guesses than these two.”

Butcher leaned back. “I suppose your guess is as good as any right now, but I can honestly tell you all this: I’ve seen the US military do this action once before in the middle east and that was when they were trying to contain the Taliban. We killed civilians and Taliban alike.”

Einstein sat up a little straighter. “See? Containment knows no sides. You have to wipe the slate clean.”

“It’s SOP in many parts of the world. You can’t afford to let people live.” Butcher finished her burger and sucked the juice form her fingers. “Damn, that burger was good. Thank you.”

“It was the least we could do for your save of our Roper. Really. We appreciate it so much.”

“No man left behind, you know?” Rising, Butcher stood up and excused herself.

“In gaming we just say bio…for biological break.”

All three women stared at him before he nodded. “Bio break it is.”

Roper suddenly reached out and laid her hand on Dallas’s thigh. “I don’t want to put you two on the spot, but I was hoping we could offer Butcher a place with us.”

“You mean she wants to ride with us?” Einstein asked.

Roper nodded, but she was looking at Dallas.

“I don’t see why not,” Einstein said, oblivious to whatever look the two women were sharing.

Roper was still looking at Dallas, who placed her hand over hers. “I could never turn away someone who saved your life. She is more than welcome to come with us.”

Roper gently squeezed Dallas’s thigh. “Thank you. It couldn’t hurt to have a doctor around—even one whose nickname is Butcher.”

Dallas looked at Einstein, her hand still on top of Roper’s. “Would you mind getting Lance ready for a rider? Just make sure his saddle is tight enough for a rider and then we’ll need to distribute the supplies evenly.”

“Sure thing.”

When Einstein left, Dallas turned back to Roper and held her hand between both of hers. “You scared the crap out of me.” Her voice was soft as she ran her thumb across Roper’s palm.

Roper blew out a deep breath. “You and me both. It was touch and go there for a while, Dallas, and I wasn’t at all sure we were going to make it back. I’m sorry to have worried you but we were afraid of being followed, afraid the military would come back. Hell, we were just plain afraid. We might have stayed underground too long, but at least we knew we were safe from any bombings. I knew you’d come after Merlin, so we just waited in the shadows for you to collect.”

Dallas did not release her hand. “Well, I hope your wait was easier than ours.” Dallas hesitated. “He cried.”

Roper put her hand over her heart. “Aw. The kid likes me.”

Dallas gently squeezed Roper’s hand before letting go. “He’s not the only one. You know, he said that people who care about others don’t live through his zombie movies, but I need you to know that I do care and I’ll never leave you hanging. I’ll never just disappear. We just need a better plan in the event we get separated again.”

Roper let her fingers travel across Dallas’s eyebrow. “I’d rather die caring about someone than live alone in this mess, Dallas. And yeah, you’re right. We need a better plan. We need to have some contingency plans. We’ll look at the map during daylight and devise the best possible route and what we should do if we have to deviate from it.”

Dallas held Roper’s hand once more. “Good. Because I don’t want to spend another day like today.”

Roper grinned. “I understand…and…I care about you, too. Both of you. Thanks for taking Butcher in with us. Her military and medical training will come in handy.”

“It already has.”

****

They rode until two in the morning, and when Einstein nearly fell off his horse as he dozed off, they all decided rest was needed.

“We’re minus one sleeping bag,” Einstein said groggily. “Butcher can have mine.”

“No, no, I couldn’t.”

Dallas tossed hers on the ground. “Take mine. Roper and I can bunk together, right Rope?”

Roper smiled. “Absolutely.”

“Everyone needs to be rested up because tomorrow, we need to travel a little during the day in order to get a better look at the lay of the land.”

Butcher kicked off her shoes and slid into the nylon sleeping bag. “Good idea. Unless we are spotted by a helicopter, we should be safe up here in the hills.”

Roper scrunched down in the sleeping bag and held it open for Dallas, who crawled in after her.

“Butcher, you said you’ve seen this before. What can we expect next?”

Propping up on her elbows, Butcher replied. “In Afghanistan, we took out a lot of innocent people under the premise that just because they were innocent now didn’t mean they would remain that way.”

“Culling the herd,” Roper said softly.

Butcher nodded. “Precisely. In a survival scenario, make no mistake that it’s the military who wins. Everyone else, and I do mean everyone, is expendable.”

Dallas couldn’t believe how warm the inside of the sleeping bag was with two people in it. It was so comforting, she relaxed so much, her eyelids felt like they weighed five pounds. She wanted to put her head down and go to sleep, but they still needed to make plans. They still needed to discuss safety issues and supplies and…

As if reading her mind, Roper reached over to her backpack and pulled out her road atlas and flashlight.

“Okay.” Roper said, flattening the paper. “Here’s the deal. Horses can travel between twenty and thirty miles a day. It’s approximately five hundred miles to Death Valley, but that’s going around Bakersfield, and that’s a bad plan.”

Einstein cleared his throat. “Big city only means more man eaters.”

Butcher leaned over and now all of their heads were above the map.

“The last news clip I saw said Los Angeles was under siege. By the time we get to Bakersfield, those things could easily have reached it.”

“I’d count on that,” Roper said. “Remember, even limping along in that gross way they do, they can cover two miles in an hour. In a twenty-four hour period, that’s almost fifty miles.”

“Damn.”

They all quietly looked at the map.

“I say we need to go through the Sequoia National Park. There will be less population there. The going will be slower, but safer. There will be a lot of cover from the helicopters. It will possibly eliminate both enemies for the time being.”

Dallas studied the map. “I like it.”

“But?”

Dallas looked up at Roper, their faces inches apart. Something hung between them for a fleeting moment and then was gone. “But we’re going to need more food before we head on our way, especially through the park.”

Butcher considered this. “Agreed. With the infrastructure down, we’ll only be able to scavenge for another day or so. After that, the only meat we should eat is live caught.”

Roper concurred. “That won’t be hard. We’ll have cows and sheep for most of the way. We should be fine.”

“What about medical supplies?” Butcher asked.

“We only have the basics.”

“We need more than the basics.”

Roper looked at the map and put her finger on a town, Mesa Verde. “Here. There’s a strip mall right off the freeway.”

The other two women looked at her and Einstein made a derisive noise.

“You obviously don’t watch horror movies. Never go to the mall. Kiss of death.”

Roper gathered the map and flashlight and put them back in her bag. “This isn’t a movie and there’s ammo and a few other choice items we can pick up at the mall. It’s been a long day and I’m going to crash in two seconds.”

With the lights out and with only the moon shining down on them, the crickets serenaded them almost to sleep.

Almost.

Dallas rolled over and was front to back with Roper. “It would be more comfortable if—”

“We spooned?”

Dallas swallowed hard wondering if letting Roper know she was gay would make a difference. Would it weird her out? Change things between them, as it so often had in Dallas’s life? Coming out was always a risk. Always.

She decided she’d save it for later. Right now, she needed a warm body. Well, not just a warm body—Roper’s warm body. She’d come to depend on her, and the thought that she might have been dead...it ripped through her, surprising herself that she cared as much as she did.

“You have no idea how glad I am you’re alive,” Dallas whispered, tentatively sliding her arm around Roper’s waist.

Taking Dallas’s arm, Roper pulled her closer. “Me, too.”

“Let’s not do that again.”

“Agreed.”

As darkness swept over them only Dallas’s eyes remained open as she thought about Einstein’s words regarding caring for others. She decided that in the end, if she bought the farm because she cared about someone, she would be just fine with that.

It sure as hell beat dying alone.

****

No one was more surprised than Dallas when she rolled over and looked at her watch to see that it was eight o’clock in the morning and everyone but Butcher was still sleeping. Slowly extricating herself from Roper, Dallas joined Butcher at the horses. “Morning.”

“It is certainly that.”

“I just wanted to thank you again for saving her.”

Butcher looked over at the sleeping Roper. “Is she your lover?”

“No! I mean, no. I think she’s straight. It’s not really a conversation we’ve had, you know?” Dallas felt like the words were just tumbling uncontrollably out of her mouth.

Butcher nodded. “You know, during war everyone gets so tight, it’s like being lovers with your whole troop. No one apologizes for a little intimacy. Combat passion happens to a lot of soldiers.” She shrugged. “It is what it is. No guilt. No worries.”

“Is that what this is, a war?”

“Hell yeah. When every day is a struggle to survive, it’s a war. When we turn to others sharing the same gruesome sights, it bonds us in a way nothing else can. Believe me. I’ve seen people do things to each other you can’t even imagine.”

“Ever seen them eat each other?”

“Not like this. This is...” She shook her head. “Madness.”

“What about the way our government is handling it? How the military is no better than the man eaters?”

“It’s typical military precautions. Isolate. Neutralize. Destroy. Only our government has chosen to just destroy people and the smaller towns as a means to keep whatever the fuck this is from spreading. They won’t decimate big cities because it would be way too expensive to rebuild. We’ve done this in so many other countries, we’re pros at it by now.”

“But to kill our own citizens?”

“From what I’ve seen, Dallas, we’re fighting an enemy who feels no pain, can out-wait us, outlast us, and double its numbers every day. We don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell if we can’t contain it here in California. Whoever attacked us chose brilliant locations. The coastal ghouls will move normal and south.”

“We call them man eaters.”

This made Butcher grin. “Oh, I like that.”

“It’s true. They only bite us and eat us.”

Butcher cocked her head. “I never realized that. Interesting.”

Looking over Butcher’s shoulder at the other two who were lightly snoring, Dallas said, “We need to get them up. At twenty miles a day, it’s gonna take us two weeks to get out of here.”

An hour later, they were following a tree-lined mountain pass. Although they knew travel by day was risky, they also knew they had little choice but to take that chance. Moving around at night was an incredibly slow endeavor. They needed to make up some of that time by letting the horses out on a full gallop. To be safe, they would run the horses from one grouping of trees to the next and so on. By mid-afternoon, they were nearly to Century City.

As the horses crested a large hill, Dallas pulled Morgana to a halt.

“What is it?” Roper asked, pulling alongside her.

“Over there. On the frontage road. Is that a Hummer?”

Everyone shielded their eyes as they looked.

“It is,” Einstein said, “and it looks like...are those eaters around it?”

No one answered right away.

“I think so,” Butcher said quietly. “They don’t seem to be leaving it. We need to get closer.”

Riding down the hill and east to a smaller knoll, the riders were able to get a better look.

Standing all around the Hummer were a dozen man eaters moaning and beating on the windows with shredded fingertips and bloody stumps.

“Oh shit.”

“Is there someone in there?”

Einstein replied first. “Must be. Otherwise, they’d have no interest.”

“Well, I sure do,” Dallas said.

Everyone stared at her.

“If we had a Hummer, we could travel much more quickly during the day. We could get out of here in a day.”

“Until we came upon other Hummers. Then what?”

“When is the last time we’ve even seen two of them in the same area? Einstein said it himself our military is stretched too thin to adequately cover a disaster of this magnitude.”

“He’s right,” Butcher replied. “This is all a stop gap measure while they find a way to secure the borders, but Dallas has a good point. We could move much more quickly with a vehicle that is allowed to travel the roads.”

“Are you all suggesting we actually go down there and kill those things?” Roper asked.

Dallas and Butcher looked at each other before nodding.

“I think it’s a bad idea to leave the horses. It’s only a matter of time till you won’t be able to get gas and we’re safer off the streets.” Roper said.

Dallas turned in the saddle. “You aren’t down with this at all?”

“I didn’t say that. I just think the horses are still our safest bet. They may not be the fastest, but they don’t require fuel and they keep us out of sight.”

Dallas considered this a moment. “The Hummer wasn’t worth splitting up from Roper and she had a good point about the horses. They would need them to get over through the mountain pass.

“The two ideas aren’t mutually exclusive.” Dallas explained. “But we can carry more in the Hummer, and it will give us a safe place to be when reconning an area.”

Roper jutted her chin out at the Hummer. “Didn’t work that way for that guy.”

They all stared at the man eaters banging bloody stumps on the Hummer windows.

“Why don’t we get the Hummer and take it to the next town over for supplies? You can meet us there with the horses. We can keep leap-frogging until the Hummer is no good to us anymore,” said Dallas.

Roper considered this. “I can work with that.”

“Splitting up is a bad plan,” Butcher added. “A lot can happen from one place to the next.”

Dallas looked over at Roper and gave her a quick smile. “Roper won’t leave the horses and I won’t leave Roper.”

Einstein pulled Gwen up to the rest. “So, you’re all saying we’re going to go down there where it’s clearly infested and kill those man eaters like we were some sorta super heroes?”

All three nodded.

He grinned. “Oh hell yeah! Count me in!”

Butcher looked to Dallas, who said, “It’s his own personal video game come to life.”

****

“Head shots only, people.” Einstein said as he hefted a rifle to his shoulder. “Don’t waste ammo shooting at anything else. It won’t stop them.”

They had tied the horses under a cluster of oak trees before hiking down to the frontage road. The closer they got, the louder came the hideous moans of the once human beings pounding their now bloody fingertips on the windows. While they would never break the Hummer windows, they would also never stop trying to get to the meat inside.

“Ah, I see what happened,” Butcher said, pointing to three of the man eaters wearing military uniforms. “The Hummer’s stuck in that ditch. My guess is those three got out to push and were attacked.”

“So the infestation has reached inland faster than we realized.”

“So it would seem.”

Roper leveled her sights at the eater nearest her, which was a good fifty yards away still. “We can use the horses to pull it from the ditch.”

Dallas agreed. “Perfect. Well then, are we ready to do this?”

Everyone gave her thumbs up.

“They will come at us,” Einstein said, “so let’s each take two who will be our responsibility to shoot.”

Butcher flashed him a smile. “Those video games have paid off. That is exactly how we ought to do it.”

As they moved closer, Dallas’s heart felt like it was trying to burst out of her chest.

“Stop,” Einstein said. “This has to be close enough. Once they see us—”

As if on cue, the man eaters stopped pounding and slowly turned toward the foursome. Instantly, two man eaters’ heads were blown to bits as Roper and Butcher nailed their first targets. It took Dallas three tries before she downed hers, and Einstein four for his first but only two for his second. As the remaining man eaters lumbered toward them, moaning that awful sound, Butcher and Roper finished them off.

“Einstein and I will check out the Hummer. You two stand watch on either side.” Dallas handed her rifle to Roper, who, in turn, gave her the .357.

“Armed at all times.”

Taking it from her, Dallas said, “Gotcha, but what’s wrong with my Glock?”

Roper looked at Butcher for confirmation. “They can jam. That baby? Not once.”

As Dallas and Einstein cautiously approached the Hummer, Einstein aimed his rifle at the driver’s door while Dallas stood about five feet away and peered in. The soldier at the wheel looked half-crazed with fear and thirst. His lips were slightly cracked, and his eyes would not settle.

“Come on out. You’re safe now.”

He hesitated a moment before unlocking the door. “They’re all dead?”

Dallas motioned for him to get out. “Yeah. Come on out. We can help you get this out of the ditch.”

Looking all around, the soldier, who couldn’t have been more than twenty-one, opened the door and slowly got out, his eyes scanning the area in front and around the car. Pit stains blossomed from under his arms and around his neck. He stunk of sweat and fear.

“Keep your hands up,” Dallas ordered.

The soldier held his hands up and laced them behind his head. “We have to get out of here. Those things are everywhere.”

“Yes, they are. My question is why didn’t you radio for help?”

“I did, but there aren’t that many choppers in this area and—” He stopped, remembering his duty.

“And?”

“And that’s all, ma’am. My unit will be here shortly.”

“Then we’d better get a move on,” Dallas said. “You go over there and kneel down.”

The soldier blinked. “What?”

“We’re commandeering your vehicle.”

He let out a bark of a laugh. “Right. A girl and a boy?”

Einstein pushed him into the field. “Dude. She’s a woman and I’m a boy with a gun, and yeah, we’re taking the Hummer.”

“As you can see, it’s in a ditch, and those things are everywhere.” He knelt on the ground and Einstein relieved him of his sidearm.

“There are two rifles pointed at your head. If you so much as make one move of aggression, you’re a dead man.”

He shook his head. “Ma’am, that’s the oldest trick in the book.”

“There’s no trick, soldier, save the one the military is playing on us.” From behind the soldier came Roper, all four horses in tow. Dallas threw the Hummer into neutral.

The soldier stared at the horses as Roper attached them to the front bumper and coaxed them forward. The Hummer didn’t budge for a moment before slowly rolling out of the ditch.

“Look out!” The soldier yelled, pointing in the direction of a man eater walking toward them. Half its face was gone, its clothes were torn and dirty, and it wore no shoes. Butcher dropped it with one shot, causing the soldier to whip his head around.

“See? No trick.”

When the Hummer was out of the ditch, Dallas poked her head in to take inventory. She retrieved two pairs of binoculars and a grenade she tossed over to Einstein, who caught it with nonchalance. Pulling the binoculars out, she turned to the soldier. “What can you tell me about this vehicle?”

“Ma’am, I have no intention of telling you anything.”

Einstein shook his head. “We don’t need him. Butcher will know.”

On cue, Butcher came down the hill, her rifle in both hands against her chest. “Well done.”

“Butcher, what can you tell me about this vehicle before Einstein and I take off?”

Butcher looked into the vehicle quickly. “About twenty-five miles per gallon, with a top distance of three hundred. It will sit four of us comfortably. This baby is an M1165, which is used as a command and control vehicle, but this one has extra space and the carrier on top. Power steering and air con, you two will ride in style.

Dallas glanced over at Butcher “It doesn’t feel right leaving you guys, especially with man eaters walking around.”

“You know Roper better than I do. Do you think you could talk her into leaving the horses?”

Dallas shook her head. “Not a chance.”

“There you go.”

“You won’t get very far in that,” the soldier said. “They’ll blow you to bits.”

“What if we bring you with us?”

Suddenly, his eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped.

“Oh, I see. You thought you were coming all along.”

“You can’t leave me here! Those things are everywhere.”

“Yes they are.”

Once Roper had untied the horses, she and Butcher saddled up.

“Go on, Dallas. Once you both are on the road, we’ll meet you at Waterford, at the last exit off the freeway. “That will give you plenty of time to get gas and check out the food situation.”

Dallas nodded, but walked up to Roper on the horse and handed her the binoculars. “Take these. We have two sets.”

Taking the binoculars, Roper looked down at Dallas. “We’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I’ll keep this one.”

“Stop!” came Einstein’s voice. “Look out! He’s going for the—”

When the other three looked up, they saw the soldier making a beeline for the Hummer.

Butcher swung her rifle to her shoulder and dropped him where he stood. He wasn’t dead, but he soon would be.

As they both stood over him, he managed to roll over on his back, a gaping exit wound in his abdomen.

“Damn it,” Dallas said, kneeling down. “Why couldn’t you have just stayed there?”

With blood trickling out of the sides of his mouth he said, “Ma’am, please don’t leave me here for them.”

Dallas looked over to Butcher, who shook her head before taking his hand. “I’m so sorry.”

“You gotta shoot me in the head, ma’am or they’ll eat me. Dead or alive...they’ll eat me.”

Dallas handed the magnum, grip first, to Butcher.

“Ma’am? It’s all fucked up. What we’re doing here isn’t right.”

“Can you give us some clue, Corporal Lewis?”

He coughed and sputtered like a dying engine. “Closing the border and killing everyone trying to get out. Everyone. Total containment.”

“By borders, you mean the Mexico and Oregon borders?”

“All of it. We’re pulling out soon to contain at the border. This thing...it’s gotten outta hand.” More blood oozed from his mouth. “Ma’am...please.”

Butcher lightly touched Dallas’s shoulder and rose. “Thank you, corporal.”

“Would you...could you take my dog tags?”

Dallas leaned over, her heart heavy, and slipped them off from around his neck to put them around her own.

“Go on, Dallas. You and Einstein get a move on. Roper and I will finish up here.”

Dallas looked to Roper, whose eyes held a deep-seated sadness. “We’ll catch you in Waterford. Have the barbie on.”

Dallas forced a grin she did not feel and got into the Hummer. It felt more like a tank. “Don’t make me come back for you.”

“We’ll be fine. And kid? Take good care of her.”

Einstein saluted. “Ten-four.”

As Dallas pulled onto the frontage road, she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw Butcher shoot the soldier in the head.

She suddenly realized, this would not be the last time they would have to kill one of the living.

****

Dallas

The streets were eerily devoid of cars...at least moving cars. There were plenty that had been abandoned or shot to shit from the choppers. She decided to stay off the freeways, since it would be so much easier for a helicopter to spot them. Once Einstein figured out the radio, they listened to the military chatter about movement and hostiles.

“You think hostiles means all of us?”

Einstein shook his head. “They refer to us as civilians.”

Dallas was somewhat surprised by how easily the Hummer handled for such a big vehicle. “Okay, what do we have?”

“A flare gun, four automatic rifles of some kind, a first aid kit, some freeze-dried food.” He stopped. “Freeze dried food. That’s what we need. It’s lightweight, easy to fix, and has some nutritional value”

“We can check out a sporting goods store when we come across one.”

Einstein’s eyes grew wide. “Bad idea. In the movies, they’re always hanging around those stores. We might actually have better luck in a warehouse of some sort.”

Dallas barely nodded, and for the next few minutes they drove in silence while Einstein fiddled with the on-board computer system. “Cool. This has a GPS system so we can—”

“A what? Damn it. Can you figure out how to disable it?”

“Disable it? Oh. Yeah. Right. Well, usually, you can just pull a fuse. There’s also a thing called GPS Tracker Defense. It will jam the frequency transmitted from the satellite.”

“Where can we get one of those?”

“Any good electronics store will have them, but that would require us to actually go into a town and that’s a bad idea.”

“Worse than getting blown to bits by a chopper? If they radio Corporal Lewis and he doesn’t answer, they can send someone after us, if they can find us. Let’s make sure they can’t.”

Einstein sighed heavily as he worked the micro-computer. “Then let’s kill two birds and head to Santa Rita.”

“What’s in Santa Rita?”

Einstein pointed to the GPS system that now displayed a map with a red pin on it. “It’s called the Ready to Go Store. It’s like REI, and will have the freeze-dried food we want unless it’s been pillaged.”

“My guess is as long as it doesn’t have weapons, we might catch a break.”

As they drove through desolate areas that were more than abandoned—haunted was more like it—Dallas spotted man eaters here and there, just walking around on shoes worn by the shuffling movement of their feet.

“How did they get here so quickly?” she asked quietly.

“You’d be surprised the damage just one can do. That’s why it’s so hard to control. All it takes is for one family to try to save a loved one. They fail, and now all of them are undead. And if you want numbers, how’s this: Let’s say one man eater can turn twenty people in one day. The next day, those twenty turn twenty, so in two days, four hundred of them are created. From four hundred in two days to eight thousand in three, to one hundred and sixty thousand. Four days from the original man eater is the potential of one hundred and sixty thousand more of them. That’s why containment is critical early on, and they didn’t contain it. We’re well beyond the hundred and sixty thousand number.

“I understand that, though I hadn’t realized the numbers increased exponentially. What I meant was how did they get here so fast?”

Einstein shrugged. “Like I said, there’s always that one person who thinks they can save their bitten loved ones until there’s a cure found. They can’t, of course, and their eater ends up killing them.”

Dallas thought about the immigrants in the truck, and when she focused back on the road, she saw a man carrying a stick of some sort as he ran down the street

“What’s he doing?” Einstein asked, leaning forward in his seat.

Dallas slowed to a stop about fifty yards away. “Pull your gun on him.”

“What?”

“Pull your gun on him. Tell him to stop.”

Einstein did as he was told and the man stopped and raised his hands.

Dallas also pulled her gun and together they looked like a bad version of Starsky and Hutch.

“Don’t come any closer,” Dallas demanded

The man responded by raising his hands. He looked to be in his mid-fifties, slightly balding, with sideburns reminiscent of Elvis in his older days. He held some kind of dowel in his hands.

“You...you’re not military,” he said.

“What are you doing out here?” Dallas asked.

“Running from those things. My car broke down about five miles back and they’ve been dogging me ever since.”

“Your car?”

He nodded, his eyes scanned the area behind the Hummer. “I got tired of those asswipes calling all the shots. Who do they think they are, anyway?”

“Yet you were surrendering to us, thinking—”

“Thinking I’d rather be shot than eaten alive.”

Suddenly, over the crest of the road, came five man eaters plodding toward them.

The man looked over his shoulder at them. “If you’re not gonna help me, then just shoot me. I can’t run anymore.”

Einstein looked at Dallas. “We can’t leave him out here.”

Dallas shook her head. “I suppose not. Ditch the stick and come on. Get in.”

He lowered his arms but did not release the stick. “If I have to part with it, just shoot me.”

Dallas watched as the eaters closed in. They had about thirty yards to go before they’d be on top of him.

“You’d rather die than give up your stick?”     He shrugged. “Without a weapon, I’m a dead man anyway.”

“Fine. You and your stick get in. Hurry!”

He scrambled into the Hummer just as the man eaters got within ten yards.

Dallas locked the doors and turned to Einstein. “Keep the gun on him until we get to where we’re going.”

Einstein turned the gun toward the back seat. “We don’t mean to be rude—”

“My friends call me Cue.”

“Q?”

“Cue. C-U-E. It’s short for Cue-Ball.” He held his stick out and when Dallas flinched, he withdrew it. It was a pool cue stick.

“It’s a pool stick,” Einstein explained. “Get it? Cue-Ball. Pool stick?”

“I get it.” Dallas ran over one of the man eaters as she pulled away. “I’m Dallas. This is Einstein.”

“Nice meeting you folks. I appreciate the save.” Cue-Ball looked around the interior of the Hummer with eyes that had spent too much time in smoke-filed bars and pool halls. “You two commandeered this beauty?” Einstein kept the gun trained on him. “We need to get out of California before they burn it out. So we took it.”

“Good for you guys. Finally, someone got one over on the damn military. The bastards.”

“Well, we had to do something. They’re killing us all.” Dallas slowed down as she came to the town sign. “What have you heard?”

“Not much. People tried to leave across the border, but were shot. All main arteries in and out of L.A. have been destroyed. Freeways, bridges, causeways, you name it.” He shrugged. “But who knows what to believe anymore?”

“Too true. Do you happen to know if there’s a Ready To Go Store in the next town?”

“I have no idea. I’m not from around here. I was coming to San Francisco for a tournament. I’m a professional pool player.”

“Ah. And that’s why the pool stick.”

“This baby has saved my life more times than I can count, both in the pool hall and out. Made from teak in Central America. I’ve already killed my fair share of zombies with it, not to mention eight tournaments.”

“Ah, and that’s why you couldn’t leave it.”

“Right. Them damn zombies can’t have it, either.”

“We call them man eaters, because they don’t seem interested in any other flesh but human.” Einstein lowered his sidearm. “I’m kind of an expert.”

Cue grinned. “I’ll just bet you are.”

About five minutes later, they came to the main street entrance. Newspapers blew across the street even as there was an eerie stillness in the air. The storefronts were faux, like some Wild West stores. There was even a carved Native American in front of a smoke shop.

It had probably been a quaint little town at its heyday, but now, it was void of life and filled with just too much death. Blood splatters along one wall told the tale of a recent fight and there were what looked like guts strewn on the once pristine sidewalks. The doors were bolted shut, but that didn’t keep the iron scent of death from abating. This town, like so many others she was afraid they’d see along the way, was now utterly lifeless.

“There’s the store. Here’s what we’re going to do. Einstein, you and Cue go in and grab as much freeze-dried food as you can. Take both our backpacks and anything else you can carry it in.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll watch your back and the Hummer. You have five minutes. Don’t get distracted, don’t look at anything else. Focus in and get food supplies.” She turned to Cue. “Nothing extraneous. We need food. Lightweight, easy to carry food.”

Einstein and Cue both nodded.

When Dallas stopped in front of the store, she unlocked the doors. “Five minutes.”

As Cue started out, Dallas grabbed his arm. “You come out without that boy, you’re a dead man. You understand me? I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

Cue looked her right in the eye. “Then you better start your timer.”

The store had already been broken into. All the glass cases were smashed and empty, the aisles strewn with crap nobody wanted or found use for.

“Clock is ticking, fellas. Get moving.” Dallas held her rifle against her shoulder and scanned the empty street. Time fell like one grain of sand at a time. Sweat slowly dripped down the sides of her face and spine. She could hear someone rattling around in a garage across the street. She wondered if it was a human or a dead person banging around, trying to get out. It didn’t matter either way. She wasn’t going to check.

As she waited for the longest five minutes in the world to end, Dallas wondered if picking up Cue was a wise move. What were her obligations to other people? Did she collect people along the way, making it harder to move as fast, or did they just say when enough was enough?

It wasn’t in her make-up to walk away from those in need. She was a firefighter, after all. Helping others was what she did for a living. So, what did she do now? Now that life’s rules were so very different, what was in the best interest of the group? Could they protect each other if they got bigger. Was bigger safer?

So many questions, so few answers.

The sound in the garage stopped. Dallas pivoted to look down the street and that was when she saw them. A whole cluster of man eaters was walking toward them. She counted ten at the very least. They weren’t stopping to look anywhere else. They were not meandering. They were coming right toward the Hummer.

“Get in the Hummer! Now!” She yelled.

Without hesitation, Cue and Einstein grabbed their backpacks and two duffel bags filled with freeze-dried food and bumped into each other trying to get out the front door.

When Dallas jumped in, they were far enough away that she could get in, buckle up, and make a U-turn without hitting any of them.

“We need gas.” Dallas said as she looked in the rearview mirror at the man eaters, who were now small in the mirror.

“We don’t wanna go into town for it,” Einstein said, opening his backpack. He withdrew a wand-like device to show Dallas. “Bonus! This is a Steri-Pen. It’s used by campers to sterilize water.”

Dallas shot him a look.

“It’s only a matter of time, Dallas, when getting our hands on filtered, clean water may prove difficult. The only downside is that it runs on batteries, and most were gone. I did manage a pack of lithiums, though.”

“Among other things,” Cue said under his breath.

“Never mind him, Dallas. Everything I grabbed was essential. We got freeze-dried eggs, spaghetti, stroganoff, chicken breasts, risotto, and an assortment of vegetables and beans, so we can spice it up.”

“Excellent job, Einstein.”

“But wait! There’s more.” He pulled out what looked like two keys. “It’s a Swedish Firestart for starting fires. It’s only good in a dry climate, but you can’t get any drier than the desert, right?”

She smiled over at him. “Were you a Boy Scout?”

He made a face. “Too nerdy even for me. No, I’ve read the book How to Survive a Zombie Outbreak and Take Over the World.”

Of course he had.

He opened the big duffel bag at his feet. “A collapsible saw, a can opener, a compass, fishing hooks with reels of line, two canteens, a tarp, and a small tent. The rest is food. Oh, wait...and these.” He held up utensils. “No need to eat like barbarians just because the world is coming to an end.”

Dallas smacked him in the thigh. “Don’t say that!”

Einstein laughed and scooted away.

“You two brother and sister?” Cue asked.

Before Dallas could answer, Einstein barked out, “Yes. Yes we are.”

Cutting her eyes over to him, she remained silent. If that was how he wanted to play it, she would go along. He was a smart enough kid to know what he was doing.

“Where to now?” Cue asked.

“You’ll see. Why? Is there some place you need to go?”

Cue leaned back in his seat. “Nope. Wherever you two are headed works just fine with me.”

As Dallas drove through the deserted streets, she wondered what Roper was doing, what she was thinking, and how she would react when she found out their team had a new member.

****

Dallas

“We need to find some place to lay low tonight,” Dallas said, looking down at the gas gauge.

“Already? It’s early.”

“I know, but I’m beat, hungry, and we are in desperate need of gas. What do you suggest?”

“A garage.”

Dallas frowned.

“You know, a mechanic’s garage. There are multiple ways to get out and they’re single story. It will also be easier and safer to keep the car close by and out of sight.”

Cue leaned forward. “Sounds like you’ve done this before.”

Einstein shrugged his boney shoulders. “I’m a gamer. I’ve also seen a ton of zombie flicks, which is why, to be perfectly honest, I don’t really trust you.”

“Einstein!”

This brought a chuckle from Cue. “That’s okay, ma’am. He has a point. You don’t know me from Adam. The boy’s smart.”

Dallas said nothing, her mind lingering on the fact that it would be a long wait for Roper and the horses. Should she have tried to talk her out of them? Should they have made a better plan? What, exactly, was the best course of action? How could she keep everyone safe and alive?

“You have a plan, there, Dallas, or are you just driving around in an old military vehicle?”

Dallas gripped the wheel a little tighter. “In fact, we do. We’re meeting more people.”

Cue leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “As long as I’m sitting back here and not being some dead guy’s lunch, I’m good.”

Dallas drove a little ways, allowing her mind to dance across the thoughts of holding Roper so close to her the night before. She had felt so warm…so right laying there in the curve of Dallas’s body. It felt like she belonged there.

Dallas suddenly shook her head. What in the hell was she doing? “Er, uh, what have you seen, Cue? Obviously, Santa Rita was overcome with man eaters. I mean, they were chasing you down the street.”

“I saw more dead than alive there, that’s for sure. This thing…it got away from them fast.”

“Where were you headed?”

“After the breakout? To the coast. I figured I could steal a boat and sail to Hawaii, or some other island.”

Dallas cut her eyes over to Einstein, who raised his eyebrows. “Hawaii, huh?”

“They gotta be safer than here, right?”

“I’m thinking anywhere is safer than here.”

As Dallas drove, she considered his words. Maybe an island was a better option than the desert. It was certainly something to think about.

“Troops in Hawaii would have blown your boat to bits before you could get close,” Einstein explained. “Keeping the islands free of the virus might be the only hope we have.”

“Virus? You so sure it’s a virus?”

“I have no idea what it is, but the fact that it hits the bloodstream from a bite and you have virtually minutes before you are one of them suggests that, yeah, it’s a virus.”

When they arrived in Patterson, Dallas took it slowly. There were a couple of man eaters walking around, but they ignored the Hummer.

“I thought zombies were attracted to noise,” Dallas said.

Einstein tilted his head at her. “Dallas, zombies aren’t real, so any preconceived notions you may have about them…well…is just pure conjecture.”

“But so far, you—”

He shook his head. “That’s just it. I’m guessing. We don’t really know jack about what those things are, but clearly, the sound of the Hummer doesn’t phase them. I’m thinking they are drawn by something other than sight or smell or sound. They seem to be reacting to something other than whatever their dead senses perceive.”

“If you say taste, I am going to puke,” Cue said from the back.

Einstein shook his head once more. “No, not that, either, but there’s something that drives them to us. I just don’t know what that is yet.” He stopped and pointed to garage. “Oh, over there.”

Dallas followed his finger point and looked at a sign that read Uncle Billie’s Garage and 24 Hour Tow.

The garage sat at the end of a tiny main street that had recently updated its façade to look more like Spanish Adobe. It was cute in its light orange paint and festive flags, but it, too, had been overrun.

“Everyone stay locked and loaded. We don’t want any unwanted surprises to catch us off guard.”

Fifteen minutes later, they’d broken into a car garage and secured the Hummer, checked out the area, and made sure there was no way in but plenty of ways out.

“So we’re staying here until...?”

“Until it’s time to meet up with our people. Until then, we all need to take a break. I’ll take the first watch. You two grab a bite to eat and save your energy.” Grabbing the rifle, Dallas slung it over her shoulder and climbed a nearby ladder. She pulled herself up through the open beams to perch in front of the windows that sat twenty feet above the floor of the two-bay garage. One of the bays had a red Camaro in it, while the other housed the Hummer. Both doors slid up, so they could get out from either side. Then there was the office door, and windows above gave them more security than any house would. There were also plenty of tools that would make fine weapons.

They would be fine here, temporarily.

Temporarily.

Seemed everything was temporary these days. Was that what Einstein meant about bonding with Roper? About two hours into her watch, Dallas thought she heard a car. No...two cars, at least.

Einstein heard it, too, and was on his feet in two seconds, his rifle by his side.

“Someone’s coming,” he whispered.

By the light of a nearly full moon, Dallas saw a Ford Mustang kicking up dust as it barreled down the road toward the main street, a black Hummer on its tail.

“What do you see?”

She told him.

“We gonna help?”

Dallas watched as the Mustang careened around the corner, fish-tailing this way and that. “They’ll kill them if we don’t.”

Cue stood next to Einstein. “I can help. I know how to shoot.” He held his hand out as if she should just give him a weapon.

Dallas shook her head. “I’m sure you do, but I’m not comfortable giving you one right now.”

Cue held up his cue stick. “No worries. I’ve got this.”

Dallas looked down at Einstein. “Do you know where that grenade is?”

He pulled it out of his bag. “Right here. What do you want me to do with it?”

Dallas climbed down and took it from him. “Cue. You open the garage door. Einstein, you cover me. Shoot anything that moves. I’ll see if I can take out the Hummer with the grenade. On my go.”

They waited.

“Go!”

When the garage door opened, Dallas held the grenade in her left hand and watched as the Mustang took to the air a few feet before landing, skidding sideways, and smashing into a utility pole. The black Hummer was airborne for a split second, then landed before coming to a halt directly in front of the Mustang, engine revving like some wild beast.

Chucking the grenade, she watched as it bounced once before stopping near the right front tire of the Hummer.

When both doors of the Hummer opened, one booted leg hit the ground next to the grenade.

That was the last movement the owner of the leg would ever make. When the grenade blew up, it lifted the Hummer into the air, shattered the windshield, blew off one door, and threw pieces of Hummer debris all over the road. There was a horrific sound of metal grinding metal as the Hummer was slammed back into the ground. For a long, protracted moment no one moved.

“Think they’re dead?” Einstein asked.

“Oh, they’re dead all right. It’s the living we need to worry about.” Cue took his pool stick and made his way to the Mustang just as half a dozen man eaters came out of nowhere and converged on the Hummer.

Dallas swung her rifle to cover Cue, who was helping a young man and woman from the car.

“I’ll go help,” Einstein offered, running out to help Cue get the woman into the garage. Dallas picked off a couple more man eaters before backing into the garage, where she quickly closed the bay door.

The younger man was probably in his early twenties and sported a Justin Bieber haircut that swooshed to the side. He was tall and lanky, with hands too large for his slight frame and eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot. The slight odor of alcohol wafted from him when he spoke.

“You guys sure saved our bacon.”

“What were you doing out there?” Dallas asked, handing the young woman a bottle of water.

“Those things are eating through whole neighborhoods. Them soldiers told us to stay in our houses and the next thing you know, you’re one a them.” His chest was heaving and his hand shook as he took the water. “We were just trying to get out.” His eyes suddenly saw the Hummer. “What...how the hell did you get that?”

“Long story.” Dallas knelt next to the woman, wishing Butcher was there. Suddenly, she felt very vulnerable that she and Einstein were outnumbered. She needed to rethink her firefighter’s mentality. “I’m Dallas. That’s Cue and Einstein.”

She nodded and smiled, a small gash on her forearm bled slightly. “Coco. He’s Tate. Thank you.”

Dallas gently turned Coco’s head to look at a second cut on her forehead. “I think I have just the thing.” Rifling through the tools, Dallas found some super glue and glued the cut together. “Tate, come and hold this closed, but be careful not to get any on your fingers.” Dallas motioned for Tate to tend to his friend.

“You’re going to be okay.”

Coco laid her hand on her belly. “The baby.”

Dallas, Einstein, and Cue all whipped around. “You’re pregnant?”

Coco and Tate both nodded.

“Okay. Okay. One of our group is a doctor. We don’t need to assume the worst. Einstein, will you lay a blanket on that couch in the break room? Coco, you can lay down here for a bit. Keep your feet up.”

“Can I go with her?” Tate asked.

“Yes, of course.”

When Tate took Coco’s arm and helped her to the break room, Einstein grabbed his rifle and climbed up to the perch vacated by Dallas, who followed him up there.

“Something on your mind?” she asked him.

Einstein looked out the window at the flaming Hummer and seven or eight man eaters moaning around it. “Moving more than the four of us is going to be really hard. If we keep getting larger, we’re more at risk.”

Dallas looked down and saw Cue asleep in a chair. She could only see Coco’s feet on the couch in the lounge. “I’ve had the same thoughts, but what are you really worried about?”

He turned to Dallas, his eyes somehow wizened overnight. “Dying? Dragging a pregnant woman across the mountains to the desert? Sleeping with one eye open to make sure some guy with a pool stick doesn’t beat us up so he can get the Hummer? Pick one. Any one.” Einstein turned back to the flaming Hummer. “We can’t keep collecting people, Dallas,” he said softly. “It’s dangerous.”

Dallas stared out at the man eaters gnawing on the bones of the dead soldiers. “I know, and I’m working on that, kid, I really am. But at the end of the day, I’m still a firefighter, Einstein. I don’t know how to turn my back on people who need help.”

“I’m just saying: It’s dangerous. And hard. We had enough food to stretch a week. Now, with three new people, that’s cut in half.” He shrugged. “As food and fresh water becomes scarce, the larger we are, the more difficult it’s going to be.”

“We’ll manage.” Dallas stared out at the man eaters, feeling the weight of his words and knowing how right he was.

They sat in silence for a few minutes just watching the man eaters picking the charred bones clean when Dallas said softly, “Know what I never understood? How come they eat?”

Einstein looked over. “What?”

“The man eaters. Why do they eat? And why don’t they eat each other?”

Einstein thought for a moment. “There’s a thought that it’s a parasitic way to spread the virus, but I really don’t know. I mean, up until now, it was just a dumb Hollywood thing, right? Unreal. Impossible.”

“Did you ever watch The Jetsons?”

“The what?”

Dallas chuckled. “Not important. Anyway, there was this cartoon my dad used to love watching called The Jetsons. They had a robot maid, a microwave, big screen television, and so many other futuristic toys that, at that time, were nothing but fantasy. Now, most of the cool stuff they had has come true.”

“Your point being this is no different?”

“Well, it appears someone was watching those films enough to make a real virus, right? Someone thought that eating Americans was preferable to bombing us or attacking us in conventional warfare, right?”

There was a long, pregnant pause before he replied. “I think we have to face some facts here. It doesn’t really matter who created the virus. What matters is where our government goes from here. The military is clearly losing this battle. If the military can’t stop them—and it’s pretty obvious they can’t—then they’ll have to nuke the hell out of all major infected cities and then work their way outward. Pockets of resistance will crop up all over the place. This hasn’t even begun to get worse, Dallas.”

Dallas pondered this a moment. “So you think they’ll have to start bombing the cities as opposed to what they are doing now by trying to cut off the food supply?”

“Right. They tried a conservative approach. Now, they have to go for broke, or we’re screwed. As for not eating each other—it’s not a hunger like we get. It’s something different. I don’t know what, but whatever it is, it drives them. It fuels them.”

“Just so you know, I heard you about our growing numbers. I get that. By now, we’re talking about at least a million infected, probably more.”

He shrugged. “Like I said, something to think about.”

They stared out the window until the man eaters dispersed.

“The others should be coming any time now.”

Dallas checked her watch.

“You know, you gotta get her to give up those horses. It’s too slow.”

“I’ve thought about that, but I seriously doubt Roper would be willing to do that just yet.”

Einstein sighed and shook his head. “It’s a new world, Dallas. Not a brave one, to be sure, but a new one. I’ll go round everyone up. We need gas soon and that station across the street from the freeway might have a generator.”

Dallas messed up his hair. “And that, my friend, is why keeping the horses is a smart idea.”

“It was smart when there were four of us.” Climbing off the beam, Einstein gathered the others as Dallas continued to stare out onto a world as foreign to her as the surface of Mars.

When she climbed back down, she said, “Einstein, I need you riding shotgun. The rest of you can get into the back of the Hummer once we’re free of the garage.” Dallas looked through the windshield and nodded to Einstein, who pulled open the garage door.

Three feet away stood two man eaters. Both lunged at Einstein before he could get his rifle up. Tate and Coca ran screaming to the back of the garage.

“Shit!” Einstein cried, as one eater grabbed his shirt. “No!”

Before Dallas could get to her rifle, Cue-Ball stepped up and shoved his pool stick through the first zombie’s eye. Pulling it free, he whirled around and crushed the skull of the second one with the handle.

“Get in, get in!” Dallas yelled.

Everyone dove into the Hummer, and Dallas peeled out, running over one zombie’s head before straightening the steering wheel and laying heavy on the gas.

“Jeez, that was close,” Einstein said, laying his hand on his heaving chest. “They came outta nowhere.”

Dallas looked in the rearview mirror and saw over two-dozen more stumbling after them. “Let’s just grab some fuel, meet up with the others and put some distance between us and them.”

“Who we meeting?” Tate asked.

“Friends. One is the doctor, and she can probably help Coco out a little.”

“Good. All the stress isn’t good for the baby.”

When they reached the gas station, Cue and Einstein located a generator and Dallas was able to fill up the Hummer and even top off the gas can attached to the tailgate.

“That can was jerry-rigged up there,” Einstein said, handing it to her. “So be careful putting it back. Cue and Coco are gonna see if there’s anything useful in the mini mart. I’ll stand guard.”

Dallas nodded as she finished pumping the gas. “Hey. That was too close back there.”

“I know.”

“You’ve got to be more careful. You should have had that rifle up and ready to shoot.”

“I know.”

“We’d be lost without you, Einstein.”

He grinned slightly. “I know.”

That was when they heard it: A vehicle was bearing down on them quickly and when a blue Lexus whipped into the station, four men all jumped out so quickly, Einstein had no time to react. In an instant, one of the men snatched the rifle from him before grabbing him around the neck in a chokehold.

Dallas froze, her hand still on the nozzle.

“Well, lookie here. Somebody fought back and got themselves a Humvee.”

Carefully placing the nozzle back on the pump, Dallas couldn’t risk slinging her rifle off her back. If she was very careful, they might not know she was packing. It was the only advantage she had at the moment.

The third man pushed Cue out of the office, holding a sidearm between Cue’s shoulders, while a fourth stood silently by. He was huge. The muscle.

“I found this one hiding out,” number three said.

The leader, a tall guy in his early to mid-thirties, wearing a red plaid flannel shirt cut off at the sleeves sauntered over to Dallas. His hair looked like he’d fallen into a vat of car oil and his skin was scarred from teenage acne. His front teeth overlapped in the front, giving him a bit of a bucktooth appearance. “Here’s the dealio. We’re gonna take your weapons, your Humvee, and anything else you have.” His eyebrows rose when he said the word anything. “And you’re not gonna fight us or give us any problems onna counta we have no problem putting a slug through your heads.”

“No you’re not, onna counta we aren’t going to let you,” Dallas said more powerfully than she felt. “You’ve got wheels and weapons. You don’t need ours.”

The leader stood toe-to-toe with her. “That’s not how it’s gonna go down, babe. We want the Hummer, and if you noticed, there’s no one around to come to your rescue. So hand the rifle over.”

Dallas shook her head. “Fuck you.”

“Fuck me? Fuck me?” He tried to backhand her, but Dallas blocked it and brought her steel-toed boot down on the instep of his Nikes. He crumpled to the ground like a stepped on tin can.

“Jesus Christ, mother fucking bitch!”

Dallas tried to swing her rifle around, but the fourth man slammed his shoulder into her so hard, he lifted her off the ground and crushed her against the Hummer. All the air whooshed out of her as she sent an elbow to his temple. He staggered slightly, but kept Dallas pinned to the car with a meaty forearm.

“Fucking bitch! I’m gonna take more than your shit,” the first one growled as he rose and hobbled over to the Hummer. “Fucking stomp on me, you cunt.”

Dallas fought and scratched, punched and kicked, but they were both bigger and stronger, and finally managed to turn her around and shove her head to the hood using a forearm to her neck.

“Get off me, you fucking Billy Bob!”

Reaching around her, the first fumbled with her belt. “Watch and learn, boy. You can’t let a little pussy talk to you that way. You gotta give it to ‘em hard. Show ‘em who’s boss.”

Even pinned to the hood of the car, Dallas struggled to free herself. He was pressed up against her so hard, the rifle dug into her back.

“Let her go!” Einstein yelled. “Let her go, you ignorant piece of hillbilly shit!”

“You’re gonna wish you’d just given me the keys, bitch.”

As Dallas fought back, she looked up into the second floor window and saw Tate just standing there, watching.

“Hold her still, goddamnit!” Reaching around her, he grabbed her breast and squeezed it. “And trust me, boy, you just take it. The more they fight, the more they want it.” He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. “And you want it, don’t you, you fu—”

Before he could finish his sentence, half his head was blown all over the hood of the Hummer, and as his body did the funky chicken to the ground, Dallas pushed herself away from the hood and swung her rifle around her shoulder, into her hands, and rammed the butt into the face of the shocked guy who had once been holding her down. As he crumpled to the ground holding his broken and bloodied nose, she bashed his skull again, sending him to the ground a bloody pulp. Wheeling around, she fired a shot above the head of the guy holding Einstein.

“Let him go this second you piece of shit or you’ll wind up like your dickhead buddy over there.”

The guy hesitated two seconds and ended up face down on the pavement next to his friend, a bullet shearing off the top of his head as promised. Dallas hadn’t even fired her weapon, but knew who had.

When she turned around, she saw Roper and Butcher both lowering their rifles.

“Are you okay?” Einstein asked, grabbing his rifle off the ground as he ran to Dallas.

“I’m fine,” she answered, feeling anything but. “I’m fine.” Dallas walked, rifle high, toward Cue and handed him the Glock. “Keep this on him. If he flinches, kill him.”

His man raised his hands in the air. “Don’t...don’t shoot.”

Dallas turned her rifle to the Lexus and shot out the two left tires.

“What the fuck?”

Dallas motioned with the rifle for him to get on his knees. “Your friends are dead. You have a car with two tires, and if you move or say anything, you’ll make this a hat trick. Understand?”

He nodded.

Roper and Butcher galloped over and Roper was off her horse even before he stopped. “Dallas?”

Dallas ran to her and hugged her tightly.

“Are you all right?” Roper stepped back and examined her. “Did he hurt you?”

“I’m fine. You guys got here in the nick of time.” Dallas winced slightly.

“What?”

“It’s nothing, really. Let’s just finish this and get the hell out of here.”

Butcher joined them, keeping her eyes and her gun trained on Cue. “Who the hell is he?”

“He’s with us,” Dallas said, rotating her shoulder.

“I think she’s hurt,” Roper said to Butcher, who peeked under Dallas’s shirt. “Yeah, she’s got a few deep cuts. I can take care of these later. What the hell was that all about?” Dallas shook her head. “Not here. Not now. We gotta get out of here.”

Roper gently rubbed the muzzle of her horse. “The horses are beat, Dallas. They can’t go much further today.”

“There’s an empty farmhouse about five miles outside of town,” Butcher added. “Follow us.”

Dallas returned her gaze to the kneeling man. “I’m going to let you live because I don’t believe we ought to be going around killing each other.”

“God bless y—”

“He’s got nothing to do with this. If I ever see you again, my face will be the last thing you see. Do we understand each other?”

“P-please take me with you.”

“You’re kidding, right? That ship has sailed, my friend. I leave you to deal with these creatures alone.” With that, Dallas and the rest climbed into the Hummer and set out for the farmhouse down the road.

The farmhouse was situated about a mile off the frontage road, and when Dallas pulled into the long, narrow gravel driveway, she was certain someone must have used this house in a horror movie. It was a typical California rancher, only it had a second story added on that made the house look like the Munsters lived there. Two dormer windows stared sadly out at the dying cornfields on either side of the road, and the grey shake siding gave the house its creepy, horror filmesque appearance.

To the right and behind was the barn, faded and peeling red, a shadow of its once former glory, its two large doors open like the mouth of a baby bird waiting to be fed.

When Dallas stopped the Hummer, she told Cue and Tate to check the barn, inside and out, and Coco and Einstein to walk the perimeter. “All of us will check the house for man eaters once we know the perimeter is secure.

When Tate reached for a rifle, Dallas grabbed his wrist. “Uh uh. Until we get to know you all better, the weapons stay locked up.” Holding her hand out, she waited for Cue to give her back the Glock.

“Still don’t trust me?” He asked, handing the gun over.

She shook her head. “At this point, Cue, I barely trust myself.”

Tate slowly withdrew his hand. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. You’ve got weapons to help us protect ourselves and you aren’t gonna hand them out?”

Dallas shook her head. “Please keep in mind that you’re a guest with us right now and, as such, you’ll either do things our way or you are on your own. What we have we worked really hard to get and while we’ll share some of that with you, we are under no obligation to share it all. Are we on the same page here?”

Tate and Coco looked askance at each other before nodding. Cue merely grabbed his stick and followed Einstein out of the car.

“How did you know the ranch was empty?” Dallas asked Roper as she unsaddled Merlin.

“We came up over those hills. Rode in, hollered, even fired off a shot. Nada.” Roper straightened up and looked Dallas in the eye. “What’s their story?”

Dallas filled Roper and Butcher in on the newbies, as well as sharing with them Einstein’s concerns about their growing numbers.

“The kid has a point,” Roper said, pulling the saddle off the sweaty horse. “We don’t know squat about them. Keeping them away from the weapons was smart, Dallas.”

“They can use knives or machetes, but until we know we can trust them, the weapons stay in the Hummer or with us.”

Once the house and farm were cleared, Dallas rolled the Hummer into the barn with the horses and closed the doors. Then they all met in the large kitchen and sat together at a round table that seated eight and had a lazy Susan in the middle.

After all the introductions were made, Dallas folded her hands together and proceeded. “We all saw what happened in town.” She leveled her gaze at Tate, who looked away. “And I’m sure Einstein can catch us up on anything we don’t already know, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that other survivors pose as big a threat to us as the man eaters. Einstein?”

“We already know that Hummer is a magnet for—”

“Excuse me, Tate,” Roper said coolly. “Dallas gave Einstein the floor. It’s time to listen.” Tate looked to Coco for support and received an eye roll that did not go unnoticed by the others.

Butcher leaned into Coco’s personal space and growled, “You can either fall in line here or get the fuck out of our way, but you will treat the rest of our party with a modicum of respect.”

“She didn’t mean noth—”

“Enough,” Dallas said. “Go ahead, Einstein. Tell us what we need to know.”

Einstein nodded, leaning forward. “In any sort of apocalyptic tale, there’s always the outlaws—people who prey on everyone else. They take survival of the fittest to the next level, preferring to be the only fit ones. They are just as dangerous to us as the military or the man eaters, possibly more so because they have no rules or laws to obey. Because of this, they revert to a more barbaric state.”

“Dude, I’ve seen movies, too, and sometimes, them guys are the ones w—”

“Tate, if you can’t listen, perhaps you’d like to take your girlfriend upstairs and prop her feet up for her until Butcher can come take a look at her.” Roper squinted as she glared at him.

“I can listen.”

“It wasn’t really a suggestion.”

The table was tense as Tate and Coco pushed their chairs away and headed upstairs like two petulant teenagers.

“This will never work,” Einstein said. “We need to cut them loose now.”

Roper and Butcher nodded in unison, while Dallas and Cue merely looked at each other.

“Tate may be right about the Hummer, though. It could be more of a problem than a solution.” Einstein reached for the rooster saltshaker and pulled it toward him. “There is one thing that’s been bothering me. In town, there weren’t very many man eaters and not many carcasses. My question is—where were the people?”

“The people? You mean the living?”

He nodded. “We should be either overrun with man eaters or see none at all, yet there were only a dozen or so in town. Where were the living people?”

Roper got up and started looking through the cupboards. “The kid asks a really good question. Are they on the roads? Did they see something on the TV that we didn’t?”

“It’s just something for us to be aware of. If we see a situation like that, we need to assume the living are in hiding somewhere.”

“We’ll need to make sure we have someone on watch all the time. Day or night,” Butcher said, rising. “I’ll go check on her, Dallas, and when I get back, I want to take a look at your back.”

Cue stood, stick in hand. “If you don’t mind, I’d like the first watch. I need to figure out in my mind if this is something I can do.”

Dallas tilted her head. “This?”

“Yeah. You know. Follow a group of people I had no hand in selecting.”

“Do you mean people or women?” Roper asked, stepping back into the room.

“I’m sixty years old and I’m not sure I can follow along quietly in a group where a boy—no offense, kid—is in charge of telling us all he’s learned from movies and video games. I sure as hell don’t want to put my life in the hands of a group that lives in a fantasy world.”

Roper raised an eyebrow in question. “There’s the door, Cue-Ball. No one is keeping you here.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “Whoa, chief. I’m not bailing. I just think we ought to try applying a little reason and logic to this situation.”

“Reason and logic? There are things that have managed to resurrect out there eating people for no apparent reason. We’ve been lead to believe it’s a bioweapon gone wrong. Where in all that do you see reason or logic?” Roper was right in his face, and Dallas had to lightly touch her shoulder to get her to back off.

“I meant no disrespect, ma’am. I just operate on a different set of principles.”

Dallas shook her head at Roper, who had a vein rising from off her forehead. “While I can appreciate that, Dallas is calling the shots, and you can follow with us or carve your own path, but whatever you decide to do, do it respectfully and soon.”

Cue-Ball started to reply, but shook his head and walked to the front porch.

When Butcher came downstairs, she took another look at Dallas’s back. “There are some Band-aids in the medicine cabinet. I’ll grab them and be back in a flash.”

When Butcher ran back up the stairs, Einstein picked up his rifle and headed for the back porch. “We can’t watch this place with just one set of eyes. I’ll take the back porch until dark.”

Dallas stopped him. “Don’t let him get to you, Einstein.”

He bowed his head “It’s no different than when I was in high school. I just don’t want you guys to think I’m just a nerdy kid.”

Roper put her arm around his shoulders. “That’s never going to happen. I promise. You’re one of us and I will always listen to what you have to say. Always.”

When Einstein was gone, Roper started opening up boxes of crackers, bags of chips, and a few boxes of raisins. “We might have a problem, Dallas.”

Dallas pulled out some bowls and pushed them over to Roper, who filled them with five different carbohydrate goodies. “I know. I’ve been thinking that, myself. I’ve also been struggling with something else Einstein is worried about.” Dallas grabbed a handful or chips and slowly ate them one at a time.

“Is that issue? What to do with these people we come across?”

Dallas nodded.

“I gotta say I never really gave it much thought. I mean, Butcher fit right in, but these three?” Roper lowered her voice. “You were wise not to give them guns. Not until we can trust them.”

“Them?” It was Butcher. She was drying her hands on a towel as she entered the kitchen. “That trust will be a long time in coming. They are young, scared, and not entirely honest about their situation.” Walking over to Dallas, she gently lifted Dallas’s bloodstained shirt. “I found some Neosporin, too. If you’ll just lean over, I can get these covered.”

As Dallas leaned over, Roper looked at the scratches, and said to Butcher, “I think we’re all on the same wavelength where that’s concerned. Dallas, Einstein and I are wondering about the wisdom of collecting people as we move along. What are your thoughts?”

Butcher hesitated answering as she applied the ointment. “Well, we’ve got a possible pregnant woman up there, her stoner boyfriend, and—”

Dallas rose up. “Wait. What do you mean, possible?”

Butcher shrugged as she gently turned Dallas back around. “She says she’s eight weeks pregnant but I can’t see that. That doesn’t mean she isn’t...it just means I couldn’t see it. We got her feet up and she’s relaxing, but…I don’t know. Something’s not kosher there.”

Dallas considered this information a moment. “And Tate?”

“Laying with her. I smelled weed when I went into the guest bathroom. Not that it matters.”

“It does,” Roper said. “We’re trying to survive. The last thing we need is someone we can’t count on because they’re too fucking stoned. We need to always be aware of our weakest link.”

“Well, it looks like we found him.”

Butcher gently rubbed the Neosporin on the scratches. “Can I ask something? I’m just curious, but how did you three decide that you were going to lead?”

Dallas looked up at Roper as if she had the answer. “Do I? Am I?”

Roper shook her head. “It happened organically. We didn’t formally decide anything. She stepped up, Einstein and I step with her. Why?”

Butcher covered the cut with a large piece of gauze. “Mob rule never works and it puts us in danger. If Dallas is leading, then it’s up to the three of us to carry out and support the plans. To that end, I think this is like the game of Survivor. Once the numbers exceed the four of us, we could be in trouble. I think we’re okay for now, but a pregnant woman will sidetrack us eventually, as will her jacked up boyfriend.”

Pulling her Harley jacket back on, Dallas studied Butcher. She looked tired. “Why don’t you get some rest? We’ll put you and Roper on watch after this first watch. We’ll have dinner around six.”

“Dinner?”

Dallas smiled. “I saw a barbecue out back. I’m going to see if there are any veggies left on the farm. I was thinking of scaring up some zucchini, maybe some summer squash, some corn. It’ll be well worth the wait.”

Butcher sighed. “That sounds delicious. I’ll lay down for a little while and then come down to help out.”

“No hurry. We’re not going anywhere.”

Once they were alone, Dallas pinched the bridge of her nose. Her back was stinging and throbbing slightly.

“You okay?”

Locking eyes with Roper, Dallas stepped closer. “Thank you for saving us—me—back there. I had no idea how I was going to get out of that.”

Roper surprised her by bridging the gap. “You’d have done the same for me. It’s what we do now, right? We’re in it for the long haul, huh?”

Dallas nodded, her eyes tearing up. Her defenses finally down, she felt the complete gravity of the situation she’d just escaped and it hit her hard. “I’ve never been so scared. How dumb is that? There are things out there that want to eat me and I’m more afraid of being raped by a no-neck Jethro.”

Roper pulled Dallas to her and gently held her as she cried. “Nothing wrong with that, love. It’s a fucked up world we live in now. But you’re safe as long as I live and breathe. On that, you have my word.”

When Roper released her, they stepped away and looked at each other for a long, quiet moment as unspoken words flowed between them. “I trust you, Dallas. Einstein trusts you. Trust that you’re doing the right things for us all.”

As Dallas trudged out the back stairs toward the garden, she wasn’t so sure about that.

****

For dinner, Dallas wanted to barbecue a variety of vegetables she’d gleaned from the fields as perhaps their last healthy meal. As she placed squash and tomatoes in a basket, Cue-Ball stood watch with his cue stick over his shoulder.

“You’re gonna need to hand those rifles out sooner or later, Dallas. If we were overrun by a bunch of them, you’d be the only one capable of protecting us.”

Dallas kept pulling zucchini out of the dirt and brushing them off. “Ammo will be scarce some day, Cue. We all need to learn how to fight without using guns.”

“That’s just crazy talk, girl. The closer they get, the more dangerous they are.”

“I understand that, but rifles need bullets to be effective. We may need to hunt for our food once we’re in the mountains. We need to be smart about our ammo use.”

“I’m just saying—”

Dallas rose up. “Look. I know what you’re saying and we’re just going to have to agree to disagree. For better or worse, I’m in charge, and that’s how this is going to play out. Now, I want to dump these off in the house and go check out the barn for weapons or tools we might have missed.”

“The barn?”

She started at him. “Yeah. The barn. You were supposed to make sure it was clear. It is clear, right?”

Cue licked his lips and gazed over at the faded red, run down building. “I don’t think so.”

“You what?”

“Get that kid to go in with you. I’ll watch the house, but I’m not going anywhere without a gun, especially a fucking creepy-ass barn. Do it yourself.” Picking up the basket, he walked away.

As Dallas watched him trudge back to the house, she began to understand Einstein’s fear. This type of discord would break the group apart. People would question every call made and questioning people made for a poor team.

She didn’t ask for this.

Slinging her gun around, Dallas started for the barn and was interrupted when Butcher met her at the barn door.

“You’re not thinking about going in there alone, are you?”

Dallas stopped, realizing the huge mistake she’d almost made. “Damn that was stupid. I suppose it would be good for us to function on the buddy system.”

Dallas opened the barn door and they stood there, scanning the barn carefully. “We’re looking for weapons for the others.”

Butcher studied Dallas a moment. “You sound worried. Anything I can do?”

Nodding, Dallas walked over to a workbench and found a machete, a baseball bat, a couple three-foot lengths of rebar, a pitchfork, and a crowbar.

“Pretty good haul,” Butcher said, hefting the crowbar.

As she started back to the house, a man eater dressed in a light blue dress and apron lunged for Butcher.

“Butcher!”

Swinging the crowbar around her head, Butcher crushed the temple of the dead woman with a bone-crunching impact that sounded like a watermelon being run over. The man eater sprawled on the ground, her head bashed in, her neck at an impossible angle.

Butcher stood over the woman and drove the straight end of the crowbar through her brain. Dallas shouldered her rifle and looked all around the exterior of the barn before returning to the body.

“You made that look so easy.”

“I was a soldier once, remember? You see a lot of death in war. You cause a lot of death in war.”

“I thought you were a medic?”

“I was. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have to shoot our way in or out of hostile places. I’ve killed my fair share of bad guys. These things? Like wiping dog doo off my shoe.”

Dallas nodded, staring down at the dead woman. “I think she might have lived here.”

“Well, where one is, others are sure to follow.”

“Right. I really want to feed everyone before we head out, so let’s clear out any we find and fix something delicious.”

After a quiet dinner of barbecue vegetable and chicken, Dallas went over the game plan for the next days of travel. Twice, when Tate interrupted, Roper or Butcher put him in his place. There was a tension in the air Dallas had a hard time ignoring. She didn’t want to waste energy worrying about the mounting dissension of the ranks. They needed a solid plan even though everyone was itching to leave after finding out about the dead woman in the barn.

“We’ll finish up here. Everyone grab a weapon, and no, not everyone gets a gun. We’re not going to waste ammunition by shooting the undead. We may need it to hunt for food later, so please don’t bust my balls over getting a rifle or a handgun.” She leveled her gaze at Cue, who shook his head slowly.

“Food?” Coca griped. “What good will food do us if we’re dead?”

“Nobody is dying,” Einstein grumbled. “Unless you don’t listen to us.”

“Us? Tate asked. “Isn’t this us all of us?”

Dallas shook her head. “Sorry to inform you, Tate, but this isn’t a democracy. Everyone has input, but only one of us is making the decisions. If you want to make your own, then there’s the door.”

Roper, Butcher, and Einstein all nodded.

Tate shook his head. “Whatever. Fine.” He grabbed the crow bar and pushed away from the table. “But I agree with Coco. There will always be food along the way.” With that, Tate left the kitchen.

Coco sighed. “Tate is an asset, you know? He has a lot of skills and talents you’re missing out on because—”

“I’m sure he does, but pushing back on everything we’re trying to do doesn’t really show he’s a team player. Right now, we just need to get our ducks in a row as a unified group. Tate keeps making that more difficult. We don’t need difficult. We need teamwork.” Dallas looked around the room. “Are there any questions? Cue?”

“I suppose you’re the only one who can drive as well.”

Dallas cocked her head. “Is everything going to be a pissing contest with—”

A sudden banging on the door made everyone jump.

“I’ll get it,” Roper said as she jumped up with Butcher right on her heels. Two seconds later, a shot rang out. Five seconds later, Roper and Butcher came running back down the hall.

“We gotta get the horses and Hummer and get the hell out of here.”

“What is it?”

“Come see.”

When everyone ran to the front door, they looked out and saw a group of nearly three dozen man eaters plodding down the driveway, two hundred yards away.

“We can take ‘em,” Roper said.

Dallas shook her head. “Let’s not risk it nor waste ammo. Grab your gear. Einstein, help Roper saddle up. Butcher, you stand watch at the barn. The rest of you grab your weapons and get to the Hummer.”

Roper, Einstein, and Butcher bolted to the barn.

“Give me the keys so I can get everyone in,” Cue-Ball said.

Dallas shook her head. “On the horses this time is you, Roper, and Tate.”

“I’m not splitting up from Coco,” Tate whined.

Dallas sighed. “Fine. I’ll send Butcher.”

Surveying the area, Dallas did not see much, if anything, to take, except a Costco size box of matches. By the time the horses were ready, the man eaters were less than a hundred yards away and closing.

“Las Positas, then?” Roper asked.

Dallas nodded. “First freeway exit. I’ll steal a page from the military and will spray paint a big D on a house nearest the off ramp to let you know we’ve arrived. Meet you there when?”

“Tomorrow afternoon. Around two. We’ll head out at six in the morning and it’ll take all day. Traveling at night on the horses is just too slow and too risky.” Roper looked at the man eaters, now only fifty yards away. “We better get moving. Keep your wits about you, Dallas. I—we need you.”

“Got it. Stay safe. See you tomorrow.” Dallas reached out and held Roper’s hand for a brief moment. “Don’t stand me up.”

Roper barely grinned. “Not a chance.”

Roper, Butcher, and Cue-Ball left the barn just as the man eaters hit the driveway.

Calmly starting the Hummer, Dallas drove around the walking undead, thankful she could not hear their desperate moaning or dragging feet.

Glancing over at Einstein, Dallas saw his furrowed brow. “What is it?”

He bit the side of his mouth as he collected his thoughts. “We were a good mile, mile and a half off the main road.”

“And?”

Slowly shaking his head, he said, “I don’t know. Something about it just isn’t right. They couldn’t see us or hear us. So what brought them to us?”

Dallas gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Einstein, just say what it is you’re thinking.”

Looking in the back at the others before leaning over to Dallas, he said softly, “They weren’t just walking around mindlessly, Dallas. They were looking for us.” He paused and gave a slight shake of his head. “No, not looking.”

“No?”

“No.” He hesitated. “Those man eaters were hunting us.”

****

Roper

They rode for about an hour and a half before dusk turned darker and they agreed to settle for the night on top of the highest hill of the surrounding area. It was so strange to look out for miles into vast darkness. There wasn’t a light to be seen anywhere.

“You telling me we have to have our asses in a saddle for eight hours again tomorrow?” Cue-Ball said, sliding off Gwen and rubbing his butt with both hands.

“Everyone will have a turn riding,” Roper said, sliding off Merlin before securing all four horses to a sturdy oak tree. She had chosen this place because she could see in three hundred sixty degrees and the large tree would keep most of the morning dew off them.

“Well, are we at least making a fire?” he asked sardonically.

Butcher grabbed her rifle from her horse and shook her head. “No need. It’s not that cold. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow, so we all need some rest.”

Cue-Ball paced back and forth. “Who can rest with those things after us? I mean do we even have a plan? Where are we going? Why not have a fire? How come—”

“Dude. Sit down, and be quiet,” Roper ordered. “You’re giving me a headache.”

Cue-Ball remained standing. “I’m sorry. I just...I’ve never been so afraid in my life, and for my life to be in the hands of a bunch of women…well, quite frankly, it’s unnerving. ”

“Oh. I get it. You’d feel better if you were being led by someone with a dick?” Roper paused, looking over at Butcher, who shook her head in disgust. “Well, we’re all you’ve got, pal, so if you are going to keep whining about it, do us all a favor and be gone in the morning.”

“That’s not—”

“Oh, I get what you meant. All right. Well, let me tell you something. Dallas will keep us all alive a helluva lot longer than some macho guy who thinks he can outwit the brain dead. So if you don’t like the fact that this is a testosterone-free leadership, then take a hike.”

“I didn’t say I hated it. I just said I am not used to it. I’m from a generation of—”

“Sexists and bigots? I know. My father was just like you. So forgive me if I find your ways too archaic for my liking. Get used to it or get out.”

Butcher put her hands up. “Both of you need to ease up. As long as we don’t panic and stay on the same page we’ll be fine. That page, Cue-Ball, is written by Dallas. It’s not really up for discussion.”

Cue-Ball sat down, resting his stick in his lap. “But there is a plan, right?”

Roper sat across from them and explained about getting to the desert and going through the national park. When she finished, Cue-Ball continued voicing his concerns.

“By way of the Sequoia National Forest? Are you crazy?”

“That ranch back there should have demonstrated to you that being anywhere people are or have been is dangerous. Going through the forest on horseback will also keep us off the main roads...where the military will be. They’ll be shooting everyone who tries to cross the border, everyone who tries moving in the daylight, everyone who tries to get out of the country.”

“But that’s impossible. They can’t just keep killing us.”

“Apparently they can. If Einstein is right, the military will have to either find a way of shutting these things down or they’ll have to send wave after wave of planes over to shoot everything that moves.” Butcher heard a sound and rose, rifle at the ready.

“It was just Lance,” Roper explained.

Cue-Ball shook his head. “I still can’t believe you all are listening to a boy—a teenager who likens what we’re going through to movies and video games.”

“That kid hasn’t been wrong yet and who is as valuable to us as Dallas is.”

They sat in silence a minute before Butcher said she would take the first watch, leaving Roper and Cue-Ball sitting in a darkness touched by moonlight.

“I’m just not used to it. That’s all I’m saying. My wife…well…she’s the kinda lady who never had a job in her life. I always took good care of her and my boys.”

“So, you have a family.”

He nodded. “Wife and two boys back in Atlanta. I haven’t heard from them.”

“Is that your plan, then? To return to Atlanta?”

He looked down and nodded his head. “I know they were hit, too, but I have to see if they’re alive. I’ll go as far east as ya’ll take me but then I need to part ways and find my family.”

“We’re going to the desert. How are you planning to get further east?”

“Once I find a car, I’ll just take that and car-hop until I can get to Georgia.”

Roper leaned her back against the tree. He would never make it. The military would get him first, but she saw no need to disillusion him.

“What about you?” Cue asked.

“I’m gonna stay with Dallas and the kid indefinitely.”

“No family?”

“I do. In Houston, but I think it’s best to just stay alive and so far, those two have done a remarkable job at it.”

“You don’t care about your family?”

She shrugged. “More like the other way around. No, I’m staying with those two.”

“So they’re your family now?”

Roper stared down at her hands and nodded. “I guess they are, yes.”

Butcher came back from her rounds. “You guys, I don’t think that sound I’m hearing is coming from the horses.”

Roper grabbed her rifle and leapt to her feet to join Butcher. “What are you hearing?”            Butcher listened again. “I’m not sure. Something walking, breaking twigs. It’s probably just a deer, but—”

“You two go on. I’ll watch the horses.” Cue said.

The two women looked at each other through the darkness. “Stay with the horses then.”

Grabbing her flashlight, Roper handed it to Butcher, who cautiously walked across a small, dried up creek bed. “It’s coming from behind those rocks,” she whispered to Roper.

“I’ll go around that side,” Roper whispered, moving to the right side of an outcropping of rocks.

A low, guttural growl came from behind the rocks, stopping Roper cold. Rifle at the ready, she slowly started around the rock, when the growling resumed. Roper saw Butcher come around to the other side. The growling stopped.

“Easy boy,” Butcher said, shining the light on a Rottweiler.

“Don’t shoot him! He’s a good dog!”

Roper lowered her rifle at the sound of a little girl’s voice.

Kneeling down, Roper waited until Butcher shined the light on the child.

There stood a little blonde haired girl half hidden by a tree trunk. She could have been no more than eight or nine and was wearing filthy clothes and torn Ugg boots turned over on the top.

“Hi there,” Roper said softly, keeping her hand on the hilt of her Buck knife in case the dog attacked. “What’s your name?”

“Annie, but my family calls me Peanut.”

“And your dog?”

“Zeus.” She laid her little hand on the dog’s enormous head. “He’s my best friend.”

“Well, that’s quite a nice name.”

“Are you hurt or injured?” Butcher asked, also kneeling down.

Peanut shook her head. “Not really. My daddy sent me up here when those people started coming to the house.”

Zeus did not move, but stood with his big barrel chest protectively next to Peanut.

“How long have you been here?”

“Three days. Daddy said if no one came to get me after four days, I was supposed to find one of those big black cars and ask for help. Are you guys from those big black cars?”

“No, we’re—”

“Yes,” Roper interrupted Butcher. “But we’re on horses for now until we can get back to the...big black car.”

“Horses? We had horses. Daddy let them go.”

“Is your house nearby?”

She pointed. “It’s that way. Daddy told me to come to the Three Stooges. That’s what he calls these rocks.”

“Are you hungry? Thirsty?”

“I’m a little thirsty. I finished my water yesterday.” She pointed to an enormous military backpack. “Daddy packed my bag for me. He told me to make it last.”

“And you did, didn’t you?” Roper forced a smile she did not feel.

Peanut blushed slightly. “I tried, but I had to share it with Zeus. He’s always hungry.”

“Well, you want to come with us now?”

She thought about it for a second. “I better not. He told me to wait here.”

Roper looked at Butcher for help.

“Maybe we should take you someplace nicer where your dad might find you. Would you like that?”

She blinked. “Zeus is very hungry. I’ve shared my food, but I think he wants his dog food.”

Roper rose and dusted off her pants. “Peanut, do you...do you know what is happening?”

“Well…those people are monsters. Daddy said something was making people into monsters. But you’re not, right? You don’t act like those other monsters.”

“No, hon, we’re not, but I...we think you might want to come with us.”

“Home?”

Roper glanced over at Butcher and could see her shaking her head.

“If we leave a note here for your daddy to find you, you could come with us. Is Zeus friendly with horses?”

“He loves them! So do I!”

“What do you say then? Come with us?”

Peanut reached for her backpack. “Yes, please. I...” Then the false bravado evaporated and she erupted into tears.

Roper hugged her as she cried with Zeus right at her side. “Come with us, hon. You’re okay now. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”

After leaving a note scribbled on the back of one of Peanut’s coloring pages, telling her father they were heading to Nevada, they returned to the horses to find Cue fast asleep.

“Gee, glad we didn’t worry him.” Butcher said, shining the light in his face before kicking him with her boot. “Wake up.”

Roper set her sleeping bag down and patted it. Zeus plopped down right in the middle of it. “You can ride with us tomorrow, Peanut, but for now, why don’t you crawl into this sleeping bag and get some rest?”

She and Zeus were quietly snoring two minutes later.

When Roper went to check on the horses, Butcher was right behind her.

“We made the right choice, you know? We can’t become so hard-hearted we’d leave a child behind.”

“Poor thing. She must have been scared to death up here all alone.”

“That beast of a dog would protect her.”

Roper pulled a brush out of the saddlebag and began brushing Merlin. “I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her up here…waiting.”

“Well, the good news is we found her. She’s safe.”

Petting Merlin’s soft muzzle, Roper looked up at the moon. “Still...the kid’s right about numbers. It’s just going to be harder to move this many people. We need more horses, more bedding...”

“We can get some along the way.” Butcher moved closer and pet Merlin’s flank.

“And food?”

Butcher leaned closer and whispered, “What’s really bothering you? It can’t be that we just saved a little girl and her dog. That should make you feel way better. So, what’s going on?”

Roper hesitated a moment before whispering, “I don’t trust him. I don’t trust Tate or Coco. They’re all out for themselves and that could be problematic down the road. I’d lay my life down for you three and I trust you’d do the same. But those others? I don’t trust. Without trust, we’re in trouble.”

Putting an arm around Roper and pulling her into a hug, Butcher whispered. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, honey, but we’re already in trouble.”

****

Dallas

There was only one exit for Las Positas, so when Dallas saw it, she stopped, spray painted a big “D” on it, and drove into town...or what may have once passed for a town. It had a gas station, a country store, a diner, three bars, and several churches all in need of repairs and a new paint job. It was one of those little towns where people either spent the majority of their time in church or at the bar, sometimes both.

The main street, all one hundred yards of it, looked like a battle zone. Dead, half-eaten bodies littered the bloody pavement. Windows of most of the bar fronts were broken out or shot out and several farm animals freely roamed the sidewalks in search of food.

“Jesus Christ, what happened here?” Tate asked no one in particular.

“I imagine the same thing that’s happening all across the country,” Einstein replied caustically. There was no love lost between the geek and the weed smoker.

“Where are we staying?” Tate asked, a slight panic to his question. “We can’t stay here. You know them things are everywhere.”

“Not here. I just want to see if we can gas up here.”

“Gas? Again? We haven’t gone that far. I vote we skip it and move on.”

Einstein looked over his shoulder. “This is an older model Hummer that probably has a twenty-five gallon tank. If we get ten miles to the gallon, we only go about two-thirty before we get into trouble.”

“And I don’t care to get into trouble,” Dallas added.

“How far have we gone tonight?”

Dallas looked down at her odometer. “Fifty-two. It took longer than I thought, but Roper and them will cut that in half since they will be riding in a straight line.” Turning around and heading back to the freeway, Dallas explained, “I don’t want to pump gas in the dark, if they even have any.”

Coco made a derisive puffing sound. “We’re sardines back here.”

“Then I ask again, where are we staying?” Tate held Coco’s hand.

“We’ll just have to sleep in the car tonight. It’s a helluva lot safer than trying to find a safe place at night.”

“Seriously?” This came from Coco. “Feels like we’ve been in this all damn day.”

Dallas cut her eyes over to Einstein, who rolled his. “Yeah. Seriously. Remember, every day there will be thousands more of those monsters. Avoiding towns at all cost is the best strategy.”

Dallas slowed down, looking closely at another ranch style house on the frontage road that had a horseshoe driveway and a carport in the middle. The house’s exterior had seen better days and it looked as though it might have been abandoned before the outbreak, when the housing crisis rolled over the country. There was no sign of life…or death.

“Wouldn’t we be safer just parking on the freeway?” Tate asked.

“We would until a chopper saw the Hummer and tried to communicate with us.” Dallas looked around the car interior. “Einstein will take the first watch. We’ll go three hours each. You see or hear anything, wake me up and I’ll DD outta here, no questions asked. We do not want either the living or the dead all up on us, so please stay awake during your watch.”

After verbally handing out a watch schedule, Dallas closed her eyes. She hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since this whole thing started. If only she could just sleep for a—

That’s when she heard it: The familiar sound of a shotgun being racked.

“Don’t do anything,” Einstein whispered. “They’ve got five rifles aimed at us.”

Suddenly, a huge spotlight shined on the Hummer, illuminating the five figures standing with rifles raised and pointed directly at Dallas.

“Put your hands on the roof or you’re dead,” a man’s voice ordered.

Dallas looked at the keys, then at Einstein, and knew she could never take that risk. Einstein would be dead before she could mow them over.

Slowly, Dallas raised her hands to the roof. The others followed suit.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I told you this was a shitty place to park!” cried Tate. “Now what?”

“Shut up, Tate.”

“Maybe you could try listening to one of us once in a while instead of—”

“I said, Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”

The five strangers moved in closer now, and when the large bearded face lowered to her window, it immediately appeared surprised.

“It’s two women and a god darned kid,” the beard said.

“What? You sure? This is one ‘na them military vehicles.” He pronounced it vee-hicles.

The bearded face appeared in the window once more. “I’m gonna need you to come out slowly, ma’am, with your hands behind your head. Same thing with the boy.”

Dallas turned to Einstein. “It’s going to be all right. Trust me.”

“You got any infected with you? Anyone bitten? Scratched?”

She shook her head. “You?”

He cocked his head at her. “You’re either plum stupid or bat shit crazy, lady. No, we don’t have none of them with us.”

“Be cool,” she said through unmoving lips. “I think they were expecting military and are a little surprised. Just let me do the talking.” Turning to the window she said in a loud voice, “No one here is infected.”

Beard motioned with his rifle. “Come on out then.”

Dallas slowly opened the door with one hand while keeping the other in the air. When all four were out, the tall bearded one lowered his rifle and approached her. He stood about six feet six, wore OshKosh overalls and had teeth that looked more like yellow corn than teeth. She could both see and smell the mint chew tucked between his cheek and gum.

“Never expected four civilians, ma’am. I apologize if we scared you, but things being as they are, I’m sure you can understand. Nobody’s safe out here no more.”

Feeling slightly less nervous about these people, Dallas made the introductions.

“I’m Pete, and that’s Randy, Frank, Isabella, and Crosby.” He looked around. “Come on in before any of those things get a whiff of us.”

“A whiff?” Dallas shot a quick look to Einstein, who shook his head.

“Yeah. They smell you and come runnin’. We’ve managed to stay safe by living down here.”

Dallas and the others looked through double basement doors into a stairwell leading to a full basement that was lit with candles and Coleman lanterns, which cast eerie shadows on the walls.

The basement consisted of a spacious guest room with a red leather circular sofa and several animal print chairs. There was a small dining table with four chairs around it. Adjacent to the kitchen area was where they kept all their clothes, shoes, and jackets. The air smelled slightly of mildew and wax.

“Nice,” Einstein said, plopping down on the couch. There were crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and half completed word jumble books on the coffee table.

“We have our own food,” Dallas said to Isabella.

She deferred to Pete.

“Good to know, but we don’t mind sharing. Please, have a seat. Take a load off. We ain’t seen other living folks for a coupla days now.”

All four sat down on the red sofa. Pete and Isabella sat across from them while Crosby poured crackers in a bowl and sliced some cheese.

“Cheese?”

“It’s the last of the good stuff. Our generator gave out this morning. Go ahead, have some. Lord knows we can’t eat it all before tomarra.”

Einstein and Tate dove in, while Coco showed slightly more self-restraint. As they ate, Dallas caught Pete staring at her.

“You want to know how we came by the Hummer, huh?”

Pete and Isabella exchanged looks. “Actually, yeah. We’ve seen ‘em race past here and we’ve heard the tales, but—”

“What tales are those?”

“Word on the street has it the military is collectin’ people. Scoopin’ them up and takin’ them to makeshift facilities. Those taken never return.”

“The street?”

Isabella leaned forward, her silver crucifix dangling from her neck. With her bun and cat-eye glasses, she looked like a librarian from the 1950’s. “We are not without means to obtain information,” she said softly. “Our son, Jeff, is in the military, and he got word to us shortly after it all started. He doesn’t know what they’re looking for, but he says these roundups are happening all over the state.”

Pete shook his head sadly. “Last we heard, they’re only keepin’ the collection facilities open a little while longer because they gotta shut the state down. Their think tanks can’t figure out how to stop it, and the folks they collectin’ don’t seem to be helpin’ none.”

Dallas felt Einstein scoot a little closer to her.

“They can’t stop it,” Einstein said softly. “It’s too late for that.”

Pete and Isabella reached for each other’s hands. “That’s what our boy says. He says pretty soon, they’ll outnumber us and we all need to find a safe place to ride it out until someone else can figure out what to do.”

Dallas knew what was coming. “I see. You want the Hummer.”

They both nodded. “I’m afraid we do.” Pete held his hand out for the keys. “We’ve got a pickup you can have, but we all know it’s hard to get anywhere these days unless you’re on foot. A Hummer? Not so hard. Blends in with the other movin’ cars.” Pete kept his hand out and Dallas dropped the keys into his large palm.

Isabella leaned forward. “Our son tells us we need to find a way out of the country. He says this is a wild fire out of control and no one is safe.”

“You seem like reasonable people, Pete. Would it be too much to ask for you to leave our weapons and gear?”

Pete started to shake his head when Isabella laid her hand on his knee and said, “Of course not. Crosby, go with the boy and help them retrieve their things.”

Einstein rose and looked at Dallas.

“It’s okay. Get the gear you think is most important. I trust you.”

“And that’s the problem!” Tate said loudly. “She keeps listening to the wild imagination of a teenager! Our lives are always in danger because—”

“Because terrorists dropped this contagion on us, son,” Pete said. “You don’t need a wild imagination to know we’re screwed and I apologize for taking it out from under you, but I have to take care of my family. I’m sure you understand.”

Dallas nodded and watched as Crosby and Einstein went up the stairs.

“Pete, can we speak to you for a moment?” Tate and Coco rose, shooting Dallas a look she disregarded. “Privately?”

Pete glanced at Dallas, then answered, “Come on back to the bedroom.”

When the three of them were gone Isabella sighed loudly. “If it’s any consolation, we’ve only had to shoot five of those things. Our son says they’ll move toward cities, or anywhere where there’s living human meat.”

“Oh really? Has he seen this for himself?” Dallas thought about Einstein’s hunting comment.

“He said they seem to gather together and move as a unit. No one knows why. They just do. That’s why we’ve not had to deal with them very much. People cleared out and the things left as well, as if following them.”

Tate and Coco came out of the bedroom with somber faces.

“So, I take it Pete doesn’t have room for you.” Dallas said this without the venom she felt.

“That’s not what we talked about. Anyway, we’re gonna lay down here and try to get some shut eye,” Tate said, lying down on one of the sofas.

Isabella rose and addressed Dallas. “You should, too, hon. You’ll be safe down here tonight.” She opened a closet and pulled out several blankets of varying colors.

Taking one, Dallas held it to her. “Thank you.”

When Einstein came back downstairs with his hands full of weapons, Pete locked them in a trunk in the second bedroom. “I’ll leave the key under the mat, so after we leave you can get to them.”

Dallas thanked them for the food and watched the family disappear into the bedrooms. The resulting silence was deafening and Dallas let Tate stew in his own disloyal juices.

“Meet me in the kitchenette area,” Dallas whispered softly to Einstein, who immediately made his move to the small kitchen area.

Once there, she whispered, “You get everything?”

He nodded. “Grabbed everything I could get my hands on. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

He made a face like the answer was obvious. “They’re taking our Hummer.”

Dallas shrugged. “Nothing we can do about it except get the first good night’s sleep in a week.”

“We’re not gonna fight for it?”

She looked at him and the slight panic in his eyes, and realized she sometimes forgot he was just a kid. “That’s not a fight we can win, Einstein. Those people could have just as easily shot us all. Instead, they fed us, let us sleep here, and have been kind enough to share information. So no, we’re not going to fight them for it. In the morning, we’ll make our way to the sign and wait for Roper, unless you have a better idea. At this point, I’m all ears.”

Einstein cast a glance over his shoulder. “Do we have to take them?”

She didn’t need to follow his gaze. “They, like everyone else, are in survival mode. Don’t take it personally. I don’t.”

“Exactly. And looking out for number one and two means to hell with the best interests of the group. They’re dangerous. I say we leave them”

“I just can’t kick a pregnant woman to the curb.”

He looked into her eyes. “Then could you just kick her?”

Dallas chuckled. “What’s the number one rule in those games you play?”

“Don’t panic.”

She smiled. “Will you let me know when it’s time to panic?”

He laughed. “Never?”

“Exactly.”

****

Roper

Roper, Butcher, Cue-Ball, and Peanut were back in the saddles at daybreak. Peanut had fallen in love with Gwen, so Cue-Ball got on Lance and, single file, they rode quietly through the crisp morning air with Zeus trailing along behind.

Roper wasn’t sure of the wisdom of bringing a dog with them, but seriously doubted they would have been able to talk Peanut into coming with them without her massive canine companion. And he was huge. He had the broadest chest of any Rottweiler she’d ever seen, with an enormous head like a Mastiff. She wondered if maybe he was part Mastiff, since his body type was so thick.

She also wondered what Dallas and Einstein would say. Yes, it was becoming harder to move as a single unit, but what kind of people would they be if they walked away from a child in need of help? Cultural mores no longer applied in this apocalyptic world. That much they had seen. Maybe a bigger group was a stronger one and they should start thinking like the Neanderthals who ran amok, raping, pillaging, and plundering in order to sate their own desires. Once humans turned on humans, survival became that much harder. You can’t bring a pocket knife to a gun fight, her granddaddy always said. At some point, they would have to fight back with the same type of force.

“How you doing back there?” Roper asked Peanut, who had proven to be a superior rider to poor Cue-Ball, who needed a break every half hour.

“I’m good. I love this horse! So does Zeus!”

Peanut had slept with Butcher the night before, with Zeus practically on top of them. The dog and girl were inseparable and even though they had a long way to go today, she knew that dog would run with them even on bloody stumps.

Butcher rode up alongside Roper. “You tired?” She asked Butcher.

“A little. It’s not every day a hundred and fifty pound dog sleeps on top of me.”

“I know. I’m a little worried about that.”

Butcher glanced back and knew they were far enough away from the others to talk. “We have no choice, do we? Besides, that thing’s a weapon. I’ll back you on this, but I don’t think Dallas will mind, and who gives a crap what those two yahoos think?”

Roper grinned. “Yeah. We’re carrying some dead weight here. I think when we all get together again we need to formulate some guidelines for survival as a group.”

“Ah yes, a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting.”

This made Roper laugh. “Something like that.”

They rode for most of the day along the ridgeline, traveling up and over hills turned brown by the early California sun. They passed cattle Roper knew would soon die. When she could, she would open gates to give the domesticated ranch animals a chance at survival, much to the grumbling of Cue-Ball, who felt this was just wasting precious time. The dog showed no signs of tiring, and every time they stopped, Peanut would jump off her horse and love up the massive dog.

They’d heard chopper blades cutting through the air periodically, and would race to the nearest cover to prevent detection. So far, they hadn’t made any visual contact with the helicopters, which was just fine by Roper.

Other than releasing the gates, they rode five hours without stopping until they finally came to a small hill overlooking the frontage road.

Pulling out her binoculars, Roper scanned the freeway dotted with abandoned cars. There, on the sign, she saw the big D with the circle around it.

“They made it,” she said, handing the binoculars to Butcher, who surveyed their surroundings.

“Of course they made it. They’ve got a goddamned vehicle,” Cue-Ball groused under his breath as he hopped off his horse and rubbed his rear. He had been complaining for the last two hours about his ass being sore.

Roper checked her watch. They’d made great time. “Come on. We’ll wait for them under those eucalyptus trees.”

They’d heard those distant sounds of choppers earlier in the morning, so seeking cover was still vital to their safety. They had been waiting for almost an hour when they saw the Hummer driving down a frontage road and taking off, away from them.

“What the hell?” Roper muttered.

“They’re leaving us?” Cue-Ball asked incredulously. “I knew it was only a matter of time! They ditched us! They fucking ditched us!”

“Shut up,” Butcher commanded. “Dallas must have her reasons. Maybe she’s going for gas.”

Roper barely nodded, her heart in her throat. “She wouldn’t leave us. I know she wouldn’t. Something must—”

And before the Hummer was out of sight, a Blackhawk flew over the hills and hovered over the road in front of the black jeep.

“Oh no. Oh shit. No-no-no.”

“What’s happening?” Cue-Ball asked.

“It’s the chopper. It’s probably asking for confirmation...checking to see if there are—”

The chopper fired a small Hellfire missile at the Hummer, lifting the armored vehicle into the air before it exploded into thousands of pieces.

“No!” Roper screamed, starting for the saddle.

Butcher threw her arms around her to prevent her from mounting Merlin. “It’s too late, Roper. We can’t help them. They’re…they’re gone.”

Roper struggled to turn in Butcher’s grasp, tears in her eyes as she reached for the binoculars.

“No. No, I need to make sure...make sure no one survived that. Maybe one of them—”

Gently taking the binoculars from her, Butcher shook her head. “Trust me, babe. That missile destroyed everything and everyone in it. They’re…they’re really gone.”

“They’re gone…no…I can’t accept that. I can’t.”

Just as Butcher released Roper, Cue-Ball said, “Well, now we’re screwed.”

Butcher whirled around and punched him in the mouth so hard he fell back against the tree trunk. “Shut. Your. Fucking. Mouth!”

Roper wiped her tears and glared at him. “Show some respect here. Our friends…our friends have been blown to bits and all you can worry about is how that impacts us?”

Slowly rising while rubbing his jaw, Cue dusted himself off. “No disrespect, ladies, but we can’t help them. We have to worry about our own lives now. We’ve got no—”

“You son-of-a-bitch!” Roper was all over him, swinging away, hitting Cue’s head, shoulders and neck with fists that felt no pain. “Shut your fucking mouth, god damn you!”

Cue-Ball covered his face with his arms but Roper kept punching away, tears falling, anger swirling around her like a dust cloud.

“Stop fighting! Please stop fighting!” came Peanut’s tiny voice.

Roper would have continued had Butcher not put both arms around her and pulled her back. “That’s enough, Roper. Save your strength. He’s just an asshole.”

Cue-Ball uncovered his face and took a step toward them, but Zeus’ low, guttural growling stopped him in his tracks.

“Zeus doesn’t like you,” Peanut said, matter-of-factly.

“Easy boy. Good dog.” Cue backed slowly away, hands in the air. “Call off your dog, kid.”

Peanut frowned. “My name is Peanut.”

“And your name is asshole,” Roper yelled at him. “You better stay the fuck away from me, Cue!”

Butcher held her tighter. “Take it down a notch, Roper. There really isn’t anything we can do and this isn’t helping. Pull it together.”

Roper glared at Cue-Ball, but stopped struggling against Butcher’s grasp. “Fine. I’m fine. Let me go.” She straightened her clothes and returned to her horse, tears already falling. The sense of loss creating a ball of grief she was unprepared for.

Butcher stepped up to Cue-Ball and whispered something to him before returning to Roper and helping her with the saddles. “I need you to hold on,” Butcher said softly. “That little girl is counting on us to keep it together. I know this is hard. I know this hurts, but you have to hold it in until you’re alone.”

Impatiently wiping her eyes, Roper countered. “Keep it together? Why? So our own military can blow us to bits?” Roper whirled around. “So they can do that to us?”

“I know this is hard on you, Rope—”

“No, Butcher, you really don’t. As pathetic as this may sound, Dallas and Einstein were as close to family as I’ve had in a really long time. I lost more than survival buddies just now. I lost people I truly cared about…and for what? To what end?”

Butcher bowed her head. “I am so sorry.”

Hoisting herself onto the saddle, Roper grabbed the horn and stared straight head, letting the tears fall freely down her face. “She promised,” she whispered softly. “Now what am I going to do?”

****

They rode in silence for hours. Every now and then, Roper would sniffle and wipe her nose with the back of her hand. It all felt so futile now. She hadn’t allowed herself to wonder what it might be like to lose Dallas and the boy. She’d not let herself do any sort of outcome around that possibility. Part of her just wanted to give up, to just say fuck it and strike out on her own, but she couldn’t. And, quite suddenly, she felt the pressure Dallas must have experienced as leader of their little tribe.

Suddenly, she felt an enormous weight on her shoulders.

“Roper, we’ve been riding for hours. We’re all hungry and the horses need water. We really ought to stop.” Butcher cast a glance over her shoulder at Peanut. “And that poor little girl is about to slide right off her saddle.”

Roper didn’t look back. She didn’t need to. She knew the horses needed watering. She knew everyone was hungry. She knew she was driving them too hard, and she knew she couldn’t muster up enough energy to give a damn.

“Pull yourself together,” Butcher growled at her. “That little girl didn’t ask to be in this predicament. I know it hurts. I know you’re sad beyond measure, but we have a responsibility to that little girl to do the right thing.”

When Roper didn’t reply, Butcher said, “Fine. We’re riding parallel to the freeway and stopping at the first diner or McDonald’s we come to. There has to be something to eat somewhere.” Turning to Cue and Peanut she said, “As soon as we come to a diner or restaurant, we’ll stop and rest.”

“There is a God,” Cue-Ball grumbled. “Not that my ass would know.” His left cheek and jaw were puffy and discolored from his earlier pummeling by Roper.

An hour later, they came upon a diner with cars still in the parking lot. Bloody handprints and drag marks painted the macabre scene below them as they surveyed the area.

“That doesn’t look good,” Cue-Ball said, glancing around to see if the coast was clear. “I vote no. No, I vote oh hell no.”

“Look around you. There’s no one here for miles. I say we go see if there’s any food or water.” Butcher didn’t wait for a reply from Roper and rode down the short hill to the entrance of the drive-in before withdrawing her rifle from its holder and climbing off the horse.

“We gonna just let her handle this on her own?” Cue-Ball asked, spurring his horse down the hill.

Roper slowly followed, trailed by Peanut. By the time she reached the driveway, Butcher had checked inside four autos before jumping back from the fifth.

“Oh shit!”

Cue-Ball joined her, covering his mouth and stumbling backwards. “Jesus H!”

When Roper got to them, she peered in and saw a baby, still in its carrier...only it wasn’t just a baby. It was a zombie baby, straining at the straps and snapping its jaws. The low, growling hum emanating from its torn open throat was ghoulish.

“Gimme that thing,” Cue said, grabbing Roper’s gun. Stepping back, he raised the rifle and blew the baby’s head off. “We need to get out of here. This is a bad idea. A really bad idea.”

Butcher looked at Roper, who shrugged. “Horses need to rest. If all we have to worry about is a baby man eater, I say we give it a shot. I’m hungry. Anyone else?”

Butcher shook her head in disgust as she helped Peanut off the large horse. “Whattya say, Peanut?”

The little girl immediately ran over to Zeus and threw her arms around his neck. “I think Zeus is tired and needs a rest.”

“Then it’s settled. We’ll clear it all out and see if there’s anything left to eat.”

Clearing it out consisted of shooting a man eater that had managed to get its foot wedged in a hole in the cement, and shooting another that was still strapped into the passenger seat of its car in the parking lot.

Once inside, everyone carefully checked for any more man eaters. When there were none to be found, Butcher showed everyone the exit possibilities in the event someone came upon them, living or dead. Roper made sure the horses were under the overhang so no choppers could see them.

As she gently patted Merlin’s nose, Roper closed her eyes and let her grief wash over her, restrained tears tasting saltier and more bitter—and she was bitter. Bitter, angry, and so far beyond sad, she wasn’t sure how to recover. “I wish I knew what to do,” she said, leaning her head against the horse’s and sobbing. “I feel so…lost.”

“We got food inside,” Peanut said, tugging on Roper’s jacket. “Come in and eat.” Slipping her hand into Roper’s, Peanut pulled her inside.

“Is that—” Roper stopped and smelled the air. “Butter?”

Butcher nodded and pointed to the counter. “Have a seat. I’m making pancakes.”

“Pancakes? How?”

“Gas stove. Even with the infrastructure down, it’ll take a while for the gas to run out of the pipes.” She nodded with her head. “Sit. Sit. There are no eaters around here. Hell, there aren’t even many other dead bodies.”

With the three of them sitting at the counter while Butcher cooked, they watched her in silence until the bells on the front door clanged.

Whipping around, Roper had her hands on her rifle in half a second and pointed it directly at Dallas’s chest.

Dallas?

Roper blinked, unsure she was truly seeing who was standing at the door no one had thought to lock.

“Smells like breakfast,” Dallas said, smiling at the stunned group. “Hope you haven’t started without us.”

Letting her rifle fall from her hands, Roper ran to and crushed Dallas in a bear hug. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! We thought—” Then the floodgates opened and Roper wept, her face buried in Dallas’s neck. “I thought…I thought—”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, Roper,” Dallas said, gently easing out of Roper’s vise-like grip and gently tipping her chin up. “We’re all fine. It’s all good. No one got hurt. Well…none of us. Can’t say the same for the poor folks who took our Hummer.”

“I can’t believe you’re really here.”

When Dallas reached out to wipe Roper’s face, she understood the fear and sadness Roper must have been feeling. She’d been there once before and it sucked. Big time.

“It’s all good, love. Everyone is fine.”

“We saw the Hummer explode,” Butcher said, wiping her hands on a towel and embracing Dallas quickly. “We’ve been devastated.” She cut her eyes over to Roper, indicating the real we.

Dallas suddenly saw Peanut and Zeus sitting at the counter. “Well, who do we have here?”

Peanut excitedly launched into the tale of how they met and what fun it was to ride the horses. Dallas listened patiently, feeling Roper standing right next to her, nearly on top of her.

“Well that sure does sound like fun, but you better eat those up before I do.”

Once Tate and Coco joined them, Dallas explained the whole Hummer debacle while Butcher continued churning out pancakes, which were quickly devoured by the ravenous group. “Luckily, we saw the horses,” Dallas said, shoving a forkful of pancake into her mouth.

Einstein shook his head. “Luck had nothing to do with it. When you guys didn’t show, we waited and waited until Dallas figured out you probably saw or heard the Hummer go up and thought the worst. We’ve been driving up and down the frontage road and freeway all day looking for you guys.”

Roper tilted her head in a question. “Driving?”

“Yeah. They left us a Tacoma pickup, and you know what we discovered? Most of the abandoned cars on the freeway had been shot at. I always thought the man eaters got to them, but not this time. It was just like the bridge. The military has been busy.”

Roper squinted at Dallas. “Big risk to be out there during the day.”

Dallas shrugged. “You’re worth it. We were going to find you—”

“Or die trying,” Coco said. “As if any of us had a choice.”

Dallas ignored her “We figured that after blowing up the Hummer, the chopper folks wouldn’t expect to see anyone else on the road and took off for greener pastures. It was a hedged bet.”

“It was an insane risk!” Tate added.

“What do you think happened? Why did they take the Hummer out?” Cue asked.

“I think they came across the Hummer by accident, saw non-military people in it, and blew it to bits.”

“I’d take that bet,” Butcher said as she flipped a pancake onto Peanuts’ plate. “It could have been you guys this time, but it wasn’t, so in the future, we need military gear, at least for Dallas and Einstein.”

The room was quiet a moment.

“Future?” two of them echoed.

Butcher flipped another pancake onto a plate and moved it over to Tate. “We’re too big to move on foot. We only have four horses, so logic says we need another Hummer if we’re going to get out of California before the bombings begin.”

A tense silence hung in the room.

“Butcher’s right,” Dallas said. “We need transportation and we still need the horses.” She then addressed Cue-Ball, “Unless any of you would like to part ways now.”

Roper followed Dallas’s lead and turned to Tate. “Any of you wishing to go on your own can take the truck.”

“You trying to get rid of us?” Coco asked, fork in mid-air.

Dallas shook her head. “Not at all, but I think we need to have better ground rules before we go on. We can’t operate well as a group if people continually second-guess our decisions. If any of you think you can make better choices for yourselves, then here are the keys.” She tossed the truck keys on a table. “Knock yourselves out, but Roper, Butcher, Einstein, and I have a plan and a way of getting us out of here. If you have a better one, share it now. Otherwise, let’s reduce the tension by keeping Monday morning quarterbacking to a minimum.” She looked hard at Cue-Ball and Tate as she said this. “The rest of you are guests among the four of us and I’d appreciate it if you’d comport yourselves accordingly. If you want to do things differently, no one is holding you here.”

Roper nodded, though Tate and Coco just exchanged glances.

Dallas stood directly in front of Tate, her pupils pinpricks. “And then next time one of us needs help and any of you just stand there watching, you best just walk away. Better yet, run like the wind because if that ever happens, I’ll shoot you myself. Is that understood?”

“Why you looking at—”

“Is that understood?”

Tate closed his mouth and barely nodded.

“Good. So now that we’ve cleared the air, does anyone have anything to add?”

Peanut raised her little hand. “Can I go to the bathroom?”

Everyone chuckled and Butcher stopped pouring batter long enough to take her to the restroom.

“Where’d you find her?” Dallas asked Roper, standing closer to her and trying to ignore the bloodshot eyes and red nose.

“In the hills. I know the dog is a bad idea, but she wouldn’t have come without him and we couldn’t very well leave her there.”

“A dog’s not a bad thing unless it barks at man eaters.” This came from Einstein. “If we were ever in a situation where we needed silence, a barking dog could be a detriment.”

Dallas knelt down and patted the big dog. “Hi, big guy. He’s beautiful. My only fear with him is keeping him fed. Pretty soon, food is going to be an issue.”

Einstein nodded and pushed his plate away. “Once everything spoils, canned food is our next option, but even that has a shelf life. Food and potable drinking water will become a huge hurdle for everyone still living.”

“Which is why the desert is a stupid plan,” Cue-Ball added.

All heads turned to him.

“Look, I’m sorry for being the voice of reason here, but the desert is a temporary measure. You can’t grow the food you need. You can’t get water. Yes, it’s safe, but it doesn’t have the ecosystem you need to live longer than a few months, tops.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Boats.”

“Boats?”

He nodded. “I have a boat in New Orleans. Once I get my family, we’re heading down there and getting on it and leaving this hellhole. Think about it. We can fish. We can sleep at night unafraid of those things. Maybe we’ll just head to Jamaica, I don’t know. What I do know, though, is you can’t survive very long in the desert without food and water.” He shrugged. “It’s something to think about.”

Coco leaned in to the conversation. “Oh wow, yeah. Think of the monster yachts we could take. It would be like a floating palace. I’m all in for a yacht.”

“And we could do crops off the coast where it is sunny and have access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Tate added. “I think it’s a great idea. I vote for boats.”

Roper and Dallas waited for Einstein to weigh in, and when he didn’t, they excused themselves to go outside and tore him away from his pancakes.

“What do you think?” Dallas asked him.

Einstein pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “He has a good point. Being on the water would definitely be safer, but the notion of coming to land for fruits and vegetables? Remember, those things will always, always outwait us. He’s also forgetting that the military is shutting down all transportation. It’s a solid plan for much later, but not for now. He’ll get blown out of the water the moment that boat starts up. Right now, we need to lay low in a place few humans are. We can’t think end game right now. Right now, we just have to get out of harm’s way. Where there are few humans, there are fewer man eaters and hardly any military.” Einstein stopped when he saw Roper grinning at him. “What?”

“I’m just so damn glad you’re alive.” Roper hugged him tightly. “I would have sure missed all this.”

Dallas paced away and then came back. “You make a good point. It’s one thing to contain this in the states, but it truly will be an apocalypse if one of them gets out of the country.”

“Exactly. What do you think the rest of the world is doing right now? My guess is, they are helping keep this inside our borders. Getting out or even thinking about getting out, comes later. Let’s keep to our plan for now and wait to see what the military decides to do. If they can’t contain it in the states—”

“Which they can’t.”

“Right. Then they’ll need to retreat and try to create a safe place to begin again.”

“Where would that place be, kid?”

“Well, two places: Hawaii, for obvious reasons, and Maine.”

They waited for an explanation.

“It has a Canadian border to one side, water to the other, and a relatively short border with New Hampshire. Landlocked states are out. Michigan would be a choice as well, because it is surrounded by water, but the borders are problematic. No, if the military pulls back to a defensive posture, Maine is the best choice.”

“After Hawaii.”

He nodded. “Hawaii would be the wisest choice to rebuild a population, but that would mean giving up on the remaining living here, and that’s not how it usually pans out. Also, any supplies would have to come from the mainland. By establishing a safe zone in the states they can give survivors a chance to keep the country.”

“And make no mistake,” came Butcher’s voice from the doorway, “if we can’t keep the country, any number of our allies or enemies would love to pry it from our zombified hands.” She stepped all the way outside to join them. “And trust me, that’s what it will come down to. Our government will have to find a way to hold on to a nation overrun by man eaters. Once they realize they can’t contain it, they will do exactly what Einstein suggests. In war, when you are getting your ass kicked, you have to retreat and create a stronghold of defense. My guess is they are already doing so.” She grinned over at Einstein. “As usual, you are right on the money. We’ll probably be seeing less and less of our friends in the military as the days go on. But, that doesn’t mean we can be any less careful.”

Einstein kicked a stone across the parking lot. “Too bad being right doesn’t make me feel any better. It just makes sense. They can’t contain it statewide, so they’ll need to do it across land borders. If this gets into Mexico or Canada—”

They all shook their heads at the thought.

“How are we moving everyone?” Roper asked.

“We’ll have to walk the hills until we can grab another Hummer.”

Roper ran her hand over her face. “I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

“You guys have a better plan?”

“We could use that truck at night, but who of us would want to be in the bed of the truck at night with those things out here?”

Butcher’s eyes scanned the parking lot. “Then Hummer it is.”

Dallas looked up at the sun. It was getting hotter and hotter every day. “We can do this, can’t we?”

Butcher shrugged. “Doesn’t look like we have much of a choice.”

Inside the diner, everyone finished eating and sat in silence in the faded pink booths collecting themselves for another day of survival.

“Everyone ready?” Dallas asked, rising. “We’ve got a few more hours of daylight left. I say we make our way southeast across the hills until nightfall.”

“We’re...walking?” Tate asked. “Coco can’t walk very far.”

“She can ride most of the—”

“No,” Butcher said. “She can walk like the rest of us. The exercise will do her good.”

“What? You’ve got to be—”

Butcher was in Tate’s face in one long stride. “Not up for debate. She’s pregnant, not handicapped. She’ll walk or you two can find some other plan that works for you.”

The room was silent.

“Good. Now get your shit. We’re leaving in five minutes.”

As they started up the hill, Roper stopped to take a look back at the diner and what she saw chilled her to the bone and rendered her nearly speechless.

Walking toward the diner, about one hundred yards away and coming from several different directions, came at least a hundred man eaters.

“Umm…guys?”

There came a collective gasp as everyone turned to see what she was looking at.

“I told you,” Einstein said. “They’re after us. The only reason we’re safe in the hills is that they don’t know what to do with fences. They’ll just keep pounding on them or walking into them indefinitely. The barbed wire will fend them off until…well…until it doesn’t. We should be safe as long as we don’t stay in one place long, but make no mistake, they are hunting us.”

“What does that mean? Will they keep coming?”

Einstein shrugged. “I have no idea. For safety sake, we ought to assume they’ll keep coming unless they find someone else to go after.”

“That gives me an idea.” Roper turned back. “Dallas, look.”

Everyone watched in silence as the various groups of man eaters converging on the diner like ants on a cough drop.

“I’ll take Merlin through them and to the other side of the hills. That will at least make them move in the opposite direction from us.”

“No way.”

Butcher intervened. “Wait, Dallas. She’s got a good idea. If they see her and follow her, we can sleep a little easier tonight. We are going to need the space or we’ll just have to keep moving.”

“No. Not Roper.”

Roper stood as close to Dallas as she could, their faces inches apart. “If you think, for one second that anyone else can do this, you’re crazy. I can do this and I’ll be back before you know it. I promise.” Her fingers touched Dallas’s. “And it will be the last time we separate, okay?”

Before Dallas could reply, Butcher interjected, “You need a shooter, Roper...just in case they get too close.”

Roper leapt up into the saddle and waited for Butcher to join her on Merlin, rifle in hand. “We’ll be right back. I promise. Keep everyone moving southeast along the ridgeline. We’ll be with you in no time.” With that, Roper and Butcher took off on Merlin back toward the diner and into the gaping jaws of the horde.

Fighting off the overwhelming sense of dread as she watched the women ride toward the middle of the mob, Dallas grabbed Einstein’s hand and squeezed tightly.

“She’s fearless, you know?”

Dallas barely nodded. “That’s what worries me.”

They watched in silent admiration as Merlin leapt over the first fence, then the second, and finally cleared a third barbed wire fence by three feet.

“She’s very good,” Einstein murmured. “The way she handles that big beast...putty in her hands.”

Dallas looked down at her booted feet, thinking that the horse wasn’t the only one.

****

Dallas

As they continued walking up and over the hill, Dallas kept turning around and looking at the group of man eaters as they altered their course in response to the riders’ presence. Once they changed their direction, they mindlessly trudged away from Dallas’s group and after Merlin’s riders. Some walked right into the barbed wire and just kept moving their feet as if doing so would make the fence eventually give way. Others moved around it, falling over anything getting in their way. It creeped Dallas out watching them and their single-minded pursuit of human flesh.

“Let’s pick it up, people.”

It was almost an hour later when Dallas heard the familiar hoof beats approaching. Only then did she allow her shoulders to relax.

“Keep going,” she said, waving everyone on.

When Roper pulled Merlin up, Butcher hopped off and excused herself to join the rest of the group, leaving Roper and Dallas alone.

“You’re bat shit crazy, you know that, right?” Dallas stood there wanting to draw her into an embrace she had no idea would be greeted with acceptance, so instead, she just stood there feeling like a middle school girl.

Roper slid off the saddle in front of her and for a moment neither said a word. The energy between them palpable, the emotions like a thunderstorm of activity around them.

Ever so slowly, Dallas reached out and tentatively touched her fingertips to Roper’s cheek. She half-expected Roper to back away. When she didn’t, Dallas laid her palm on Roper’s face and stared into her eyes. “I’ve never said this to another human being...probably because I never meant it…but...I need you. I know you’re fearless, and I know you carry the burden of protecting all of us, but—”

“Not us. Not all of us. You. I came across that beam for you, Dallas, and once we started on this path, I knew I’d die before I let anything happen to you. You or the kid. You two are my priority.”

Dallas nodded, her palm still on Roper’s cheek, her heart banging in her chest, her legs like liquid jello. “I know.”

“When I saw that Hummer explode...” Roper’s eyes filled with tears. “I was...my heart broke.” She wiped her eyes. “Never had my heart broken by a woman before—ever.”

Dallas slowly lowered her hand. She didn’t want to make what was a touching moment awkward or uncomfortable. That sentence told Dallas all she needed to know and though it smarted, at least she knew which team Roper played for. “I’m so sorry you thought I...we were killed in that blast.”

“I couldn’t believe that was you coming through the door back there. I thought my grief had made me lose my mind.”

“You should have locked it.”

Roper blushed. “I know. My bad.”

Dallas put her arm around Roper’s shoulder and they walked back to the group.

“You guys okay?” Einstein asked.

They both nodded.

“Never been better,” Dallas said, grinning. “But now, let’s put as much distance between them and us as we can.”

That distance lengthened for the next hour and a half, until the sun disappeared and dusk crept around the day’s edges. They made camp, created a watch schedule, ate a few handfuls of trail mix, and settled in for the night.

“We need more sleeping bags,” Einstein said, burrowing down into his bag with Cue-Ball. Butcher took Peanut, Tate and Coco shared the last one. Dallas and Roper scooted down into their bag.

Dallas felt the heat from Roper’s body filling their sleeping bag almost instantly. Their bodies pressed together in the tight space. “We’ll need to go into a town before we get to Sequoia. We can grab supplies then.” Pulling up the bag, Dallas lay on her side and stared up at the stars. When Roper slid her arm around her waist, Dallas inhaled quickly.

“One more thing,” Roper whispered. “Promise me you won’t risk your life to save me. One of us needs to get these people to safety.”

Dallas was silent for a long time before whispering, “No can do. If you’re in trouble, I’d never turn my back on you. Ever. Please don’t ask me to.”

Fine. Just remember, I count on you. I don’t want to do this alone. I really don’t.”

“You won’t. We’re in this together...the whole way.” Backing slightly into Roper, Dallas sighed contentedly.

“Thank you.”

“Back atcha.”

When Dallas woke up, it was still dark. Checking her watch, she realized she should have been woken up two hours ago for her turn to guard.

“Shit.”

Crawling out of the sleeping bag, Dallas crept silently through the dark to the rock they’d established as a good lookout tower.

Cue-Ball was sound asleep, lying curled up on the rock.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Dallas yelled, smacking him on the thigh. “Wake up!”

“Huh? What?”

“You fell asleep? All our lives depend on you watching over us and you fall asleep?”

“I can’t help it. You don’t—”

“Get out of my sight. I can’t believe you’re laying here asleep.”

Cue ball climbed off the rock. “No harm done.”

“This time. I can’t believe you, Cue. You’re a grown man yet there are times you act like a petulant little boy. Try shouldering some responsibility.”

“Responsibility? You put me on guard duty with nothing but a crow bar? What do I have to do to earn your trust?”

“Try staying awake when our lives depend on it!” Dallas climbed up onto the rock and hefted her rifle to her shoulder to check her sights in the dark.

Taking a few deep breaths, she realized what she would need to do—it was time to cut him from the pack. She didn’t trust him to do what was right. The only problem she had was reconciling how right it was to send someone off into the wilds of zombieville alone. She supposed she could give him a rifle and some food. She’d have to talk it over with Roper and Butcher to see what they thought. It didn’t sit well with her, but she knew she had to take care of the group’s best interests first.

Maybe she could just have a talk with him.

As Dallas stood on the rock peering through the darkness, she fought off the twin feelings of fear and hopelessness that seemed to visit her during her watch. Were they ever going to make it out of this alive, or was their death a foregone conclusion?

Lowering her rifle, she kept her ears keen to the silence, but there would be no answers for her this night, only dozens of unanswered questions.

****

After walking for half the day, they all agreed getting another Hummer was crucial to their survival. They had to get out of California.

And Einstein was sure they were coming.

“We need a car to smoke them out with,” Butcher said as they came to a field overlooking a drive-in theater that appeared more like a battlefield than a parking lot. Body parts were strewn all over, blood that had long since dried on the vehicles looked more like red candle wax, and several cars were still occupied by undead, who had stopped thrashing about but were moving nonetheless. A dozen or so others shuffled around, moaning, incapable of figuring a way out and into the cow pastures on either side of the drive-in.

“Oh hell no,” Tate said. “We ain’t goin’ down there.”

“Who knew these still existed?” Roper asked aloud.

Dallas looked at Butcher, who was gazing at a tow truck. A slow grin crept across her face. “The fastest car down there will be the Porsche. Let’s take out the eaters wandering around and grab the Porsche.”

“And then what?”

“Then we get a Hummer to give chase. If I can lure them back here, we have a chance. Here’s what I think we ought to do.”

Once Butcher had laid out her plan, she ran down to the drive-in and shot two man eaters before jumping into the Porsche and taking off.

“You realize that if a Blackhawk sees her first, she’s toast,” Roper said.

“I know, but it’s the only chance we have.”

Nodding, Roper jumped in the saddle and headed for the two dozen cattle standing around the empty feeder a stone’s throw from the big screen. Rounding up cattle was child’s play to her and she had the majority of the cows moved to the entrance of the drive-in before Dallas could even miss her.

As Roper herded the final cows into place, Dallas and Einstein dispatched the rest of the walking man eaters and then moved almost as many cars into position as cows. With the drive-in ready, all they could do was wait.

“We still keeping the horses?” Einstein asked.

“We are. When we get closer to the park, we’ll have to see about getting a couple more so everyone rides solo.”

Einstein tapped his chin as he thought out loud. “Good. We’ll have to start siphoning gas and eventually the gas left in cars will evaporate. Horses are probably going to be our more reliable rides as this thing goes on.” He eyed the small opening they’d left for the Porsche. “You didn’t give her much room to navigate. I sure hope she’s a good driver.”

An hour later, they were about to find out, as the Porsche peeled around a corner, caught air, landed, fishtailed, and then resumed its trajectory to the drive-in, a black Hummer in close pursuit.

“There she is! Everyone ready!”

The Porsche came roaring into the parking area of the drive-in before zipping through the small opening created by lining up eight cars about seven feet from the hillside. When the Hummer entered the drive-in in hot pursuit, Roper released the cows in behind it, virtually pinning it between the wall of cars and the cattle, which were too deep for the Hummer to merely back over. With the Porsche out of sight, the Hummer was sufficiently trapped.

Backing the tow truck up to the cows, Cue-Ball released the hook. Roper slid off Merlin, grabbed the hook, and made her way through the herd until she got close enough to attach the hook to the back axle of the Hummer.

As the cows engulfed the Hummer, the passenger door opened and an arm stuck a gun out and tried to shoot the beasts.

Dallas took a shot at the vehicle and the arm quickly withdrew and the door closed, just as the tow truck winch began churning, pulling the Hummer slowly through the cows, which were reluctant to move.

Einstein peered through the binoculars. “It’s working. They’re panicking inside.”

The Hummer had no place to go. Forward meant crashing into the cars, and backward was where it was moving, with or without them.

The driver of the Hummer tried to pull against the tow truck, kicking up dust and rocks that pelted the cows and made them meander away. That was when Cue-Ball turned on the juice, lifting the Hummer’s back wheels off the ground.

Once the hummer was off the ground, Dallas, Roper, Butcher and Einstein surrounded it from three sides, each behind a car acting as a shield.

“Get out of the vehicle,” Dallas ordered above the din of the mooing herd and spinning tires.

They waited for the driver to turn off the engine. When he did, Dallas repeated her command. “Toss your weapons out and come out with your hands behind your heads!”

For a long time, nothing happened as the four men in the Hummer tried to figure out what they were going to do. Dallas knew they had one of two choices: to do as she said, or to come out shooting. She wasn’t surprised that they chose the latter. They were military, after all.

Suddenly, all four doors flew open and the men inside jumped out, rifles blazing.

Butcher killed the driver with her third shot. Roper riddled her man with bullets and Dallas wounded, but did not kill hers, who fell beneath the hooves of the now frantic cattle and was crushed.

The fourth man held his hands in the air in surrender and climbed onto the running board to avoid the cows.

“Don’t shoot! Please. Don’t shoot me!”

“Why? You would have shot us.” Dallas rose, but kept her rifle poised at his midsection.

Everyone else aimed at the soldier, who held onto the Hummer with one hand while raising the other. “I was just following orders.”

“That’s what the Nazis said at Auschwitz.” Dallas didn’t move, but waited as Roper moved the cattle out of the main area, where they took off in several different directions.

The dead soldier on the ground was a bloody pulp, his skull caved in and blood oozed all over his uniform.

As the cows streamed out, Butcher and Einstein approached from two different sides. The look on the soldier’s face did not go unnoticed.

“What? You’re surprised you got taken down by a few women and a teenager?”

He slowly shook his head. “Ma’am, nothing can surprise me anymore.”

Dallas lowered her weapon. She stood fifteen feet away from him. “I’m sure. Now step to the ground and lay down with your hands behind your back.”

“Ma’am, I swear I won’t give you any problems.”

“I know you won’t. Do what I ask. Please.”

He did, and Roper came around behind him and tied his hands behind his back before pulling him to his feet. “Make no mistake here, soldier...Kennedy. We’ll blow your brains out if you even think about turning on us. As you can see, killing the living is becoming as easy to accomplish as killing the undead. Don’t add yourself to that list.”

Private Kennedy nodded and stepped forward toward Dallas, each arm in the grasp of Roper and Butcher.

“Go ahead!” Dallas yelled to Cue-Ball, who lowered the Hummer to the ground and got out to release the hook.

“Let’s get to higher ground,” Dallas said. “Butcher, would you please bring the Hummer around to the back gate over there?”

Butcher stepped over one of the dead soldiers and hopped into the driver’s side. Cue-Ball got in as well, and they drove out of the drive-in to a gravel road surrounding the theater area.

To Private Kennedy, Dallas said, “Here’s how this is going to go down. We want information about what is really happening now. We know a great deal from the last Hummer we hijacked, so if you lie, you’re dead. If you omit anything, you’re dead.”

“And if you really piss us off,” Einstein added. “You’ll be tied to a post down there and left for one of those things to have you for lunch.”

Private Kennedy nodded. “I understand.”

When they all were back together, Dallas started in. “We understand containment. We also know you’re losing that battle. So, now what? What’s the military’s next move?”

Private Kennedy inhaled deeply.

“The truth, Private, and nothing short of it, is the key to you keeping your life.”

Finally, he swallowed hard and said softly, “We are getting ready to pull out of the state so we can bomb every major city from Sacramento to Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego, and two more up north.”

“When?”

“They haven’t given a specific date. Soon, I would imagine.”

“What then?”

“After the bombings, we’re returning to kill every living human and undead we can find.”

“Is it true other cities in the country are infected?”

“Yes.”

“We’re screwed, aren’t we?”

Slight hesitation. “Yes...unless—”

“Unless what?”

“Unless we can create a vaccine, but time is running out for that.”

“A vaccine. The military is sticking with that lame-ass story?”

He shrugged and Dallas realized he was handsome in a Dudley Do-Right sort of way with a deeply clefted chin that looked like it hurt and eyes that said he’s seen too much death in his young life. “We’re desperate. I only know what I’ve heard passed down the line from soldier to soldier. If we can create a vaccine—” his voice trailed off.

“Then you can stop murdering survivors?”

“It isn’t murder.”

“The hell it isn’t. You followed the Porsche because you wanted to party?”

He looked down and said nothing.

“Exactly.”

“What do you know about these collection centers?”

He finally looked up at Dallas. “Ma’am, I only know what I need to know.”

“What have you heard?” This came from Butcher, who squatted in front of him. She rattled of her company and platoon and waited for him to acknowledge they were kindred military spirits.

“Ma’am, if you were military, you understand need to know basis.”

“I’m not asking what you know, Private. I am asking what you’ve heard.”

His eyes traveled from face to face, and in that moment something within him broke as tears clouded his vision. “I’ve just heard we are testing humans. I don’t know what for and I don’t know the reasoning behind it. This isn’t what I signed up for, and the whole thing sickens me, but what can I do?”

Rising, Dallas and Butcher stepped away from him and over to the rest of the group. “We are not killing this man. I suggest we bring him a little ways with us. If we find a safer place to leave him, we will.”

“I disagree with that idea,” Tate said. “Leave him here. He would have killed us if he could have. I say we give him what he would have given us.”

“Tate’s right,” Coco added. “We don’t owe him any favors. Leave him here. I say we vote on it.”

“We’re not voting.”

“Why not? No one appointed you Queen Bee.”

Roper got right in Coco’s face. “Back off.”

“Coco’s right. We should put it to a vote.” Tate puffed his skinny chest out in support of his girlfriend.

“Stop it. All of you. I am not leaving him here and since this seems to be an issue with a few of you, I’ll take two of the horses and—”

“Me,” Roper said, “and Einstein.”

“And Roper and Einstein. Until we feel comfortable enough to leave him some place, we’ll take him on the horses. Butcher, you’ll drive the Hummer. The rest of you are to act in support.”

“With what? Rocks and sticks?” Cue-Ball again.

Dallas sighed. “Butcher can you meet us outside of the TA Truck Stop off Highway 40 about forty miles or so from here?”

Butcher calculated the distance. “That’ll put you guys in the saddle long after sundown.”

“We’ll meet you there in the late morning then.”

Roper pulled Butcher aside. “Keep your wits about you, and don’t trust Cue-Ball. The guy’s a douche bag.” Roper handed her the magnum. “Don’t be afraid to use it in close quarters.”

Butcher looked down at the gun. “I’ll be fine. Really. You sure you want us to go that far?”

Dallas nodded. “I have a few things I want you to look for on your way.” As Dallas walked Butcher to the Hummer, Roper and Einstein struggled to get Private Kennedy up onto Gwen. Roper then retied his hands in front so he could hold the horn.

“See that dog?” Roper said, tossing her leg over the saddle. “I’ll let him tear you apart if you try to leave.”

Private Kennedy cut a look over at Zeus. “Ma’am, I’m separated from my unit, my buddies are dead, and you are my only hope of remaining alive. You won’t have any problem with me.” He reminded Dallas of a younger Tom Hanks with curly brown hair and that chiseled chin. He stood a little over six feet tall with broad shoulders that tapered to a flat stomach. She wouldn’t call him handsome, but she was certain he would be in the straight world.

After making sure everyone was on the same page, Dallas mounted Morgana and watched as Einstein pulled Peanut up with him. “She stays with us,” he said in the most commanding voice she’d heard from him since they’d met.

Roper leaned over to Dallas. “He had a little sister.”

Dallas nodded once, gently tapping Morgana’s haunches.

“You’re really not going to kill me?” Private Kennedy asked quietly.

“Don’t you think there’s been too much of that already? Unless you give us a reason, we’ll let you go the first safe place we come to.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“I’m no ma’am. Call me Dallas. That’s Roper, Einstein, and Peanut.”

“Then would you mind calling me Luke? It feels like forever since anyone called me by my name.”

“Luke it is.”

They rode together for a while, sharing a few sentences here and there. The more they spoke, the more Luke loosened up.

“The brass is hoping to manage the city perimeters before the cleansing.” He paused. “That’s what the non-coms call it, anyway. I’m sure some knucklehead general has a fancier name for it.”

“This cleansing, means what? Surely they can’t really nuke the cities. It would make them uninhabitable.”

“So do zombies,” Luke said, “or whatever the hell they are. Rumor has it the bombs they’re going to drop destroy soft tissue only—it’s non-radioactive. It’ll kill everything with a skin but leave the farmland and water free of contamination.”

“Sounds like a weapon we’ve been sitting on.”

“It is. I think our scientists were trying to narrow it down more, to save animals, but so far it would be a Hiroshima-type blast, killing soft tissue while leaving the buildings and soil intact.”

“So people are expendable but infrastructure is not?”

“I don’t make the rules, ma’—Dallas.”

Roper glanced at Dallas. “How much time do we have?”

“Not long. A couple of days, maybe. We’ve not gotten the withdrawal message yet. As you probably know, sending intel back and forth is like the Pony Express now.”

“How do you do it?”

“We have campsites set up. A lotta the Hummers you see are used strictly for transmitting intel from one captain to the next. We had communications for the first few days, but then they reprogrammed all satellites for D.C. and the East Coast.” He shrugged. “The President and all.”

Roper and Dallas stared at each other, Butcher’s words about retreat hovered between them.

“So, the President is alive?” Einstein asked.

“To be honest, I don’t know who’s alive. I just know we’ve been trying to contain this thing and we’re losing that battle. We do what we’re told because the military is the safest place to be right now. We have food, water, weapons, and transportation. We’ve seen firsthand what it’s like out here for the rest of you folks. That makes it easier to follow hard-to-follow directives.”

“Have you lost many men?”

“Not too many. At first, when we were going door-to-door, a bunch of us from my squad were ambushed by those things but, truth to tell, more of us have been killed by the living than by the zombies.”

“We call them man eaters,” Einstein said. “Because they don’t seem to eat anything else.”

Luke thought about this a moment. “You know...you’re right. I’ve seen them stand right next to a cow and do nothing. Odd.”

Einstein said softly. “Maybe I am missing something, but the bombs you say they’re going to drop won’t work if the intent is to destroy soft living tissue: Their tissue is dead. That’s why they don’t eat each other. Something in them drives them to living human flesh. Live human flesh.”

This gave everyone pause for a moment before Luke continued, “Look, I’m only telling you folks what I heard. I have no reason to lie. I’m just trying to stay alive here, same as you.

“By killing citizens you’re supposed to protect?”

He gazed down and shrugged. “Trust me. You don’t want to hear the ‘needs of the many’ speech coming from the Capitol.”

Dallas was pretty certain she didn’t.

****

As they walked along the ridgeline, Roper pointed to a truck rambling down the road. It was a military transport vehicle obviously carrying a load by the way it maneuvered slowly around the curves. “What’s that?” she asked Luke.

“You don’t want to know,” Luke muttered.

Roper looked through the binoculars before handing them to Dallas.

When the truck was past them, she saw stacks of bodies crammed into it. It looked like something from the Holocaust.

“Oh...my. That’s...were those?”

“Corpses, yeah. They’re taking them to a burn site.”

Dallas slowly turned to him. “Burn site?”

“Yeah.”

“Like...during the many plagues and genocides in days gone by?”

He nodded solemnly. “Yeah. Human guinea pig corpses are what they are. Those are the folks who have been tested.”

Roper asked. “Wait. Guinea pigs? Are you saying they’re injecting humans with the vaccine in order to—”

Everyone waited for Luke to finish her sentence for her.

“No. Not the vaccine. They—” he shook his head and inhaled deeply. “What I’ve heard is…they’re...bitten.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

“You have got to be kidding. You’re letting those things bite people?”

“Not me. The med crew. They say it’s the only way to test if the vaccine works. First they inject them with the vaccine. Then they let someone get bitten. If the person transforms then they administer the vaccine at various stages to see if they can catch it. Or stop it. ”

No one said a word for a very long time as they digested this new and equally gruesome information.

Finally, Dallas said softly, “By the looks of it, it doesn’t.” She shook her head in disgust. “I can’t believe this shit.”

“Desperate times, desperate measures. I have no excuses, Dallas. The med team is working overtime trying to save the rest of the living.”

“That would be easier to do if you guys weren’t out here killing us!”

“I know. I know how it looks, but if we don’t catch this thing soon…” Luke’s voice trailed off. “There are rumors of people who have been bitten and never transformed. Those poor folks are living in a human petri dish.”

“Where is this med unit?”

“Honestly? I can’t tell from these hills. Somewhere in that direction.” He waved his bound hands to the southeast; the same direction they were headed.

“So there are two facilities nearby? A med unit and a burning site?”

He nodded. “Somewhere in that direction. You’ll want to stay far away from there.”

“So that’s why there are so many Hummers and choppers in this area and why some of these towns have no one in them. They were collected, weren’t they?”

He nodded again. “We’ve done some huge sweeps out in the valley. Stay in the hills and you’ll be fine. We don’t go off roads in the Hummers. Only the chopper can spot you, so be careful there.”

Roper gave Dallas a ‘don’t be fooled’ look.

“So tell me, Luke, if you were us, what would you do with you?”

He let out a loud, deep breath. “Well, if I suspected you would send troops after me, I’d kill you and be done with it. But if I felt you were a person of your word, I’d leave you tied to a tree in the hills with a knife so you could at least get free and find your way back. No one’s coming after you. They are getting ready to shut down the collection center because so far, there have been no viable results.”

Roper agreed. “So, what’s your word worth, Private?”

“My word is all I have, ma’am. So yeah, I give my word I won’t tell anyone about you guys or how you got the Hummer. I swear. I can tell you’re good people just trying to stay alive like the rest of us.”

Dallas shook her head. “Oh, Luke, you are so not like the rest of us. You are fed, clothed, and sleep well at night. Us? We’re being hunted by the walking dead, sleep with one eye open, and view trail mix as a major food group.”

Luke bowed his head. “I’m sorry.”

“We don’t have time to be sorry, Luke. We have barely enough time to catch our breath before we have to move on to our next rest stop. If there’s anything you can tell us that will be of benefit, we’d be much obliged.”

Luke’s eyes rested on Butcher’s face as he answered. “If I think of anything, I’ll let you know, but I am as confused and frightened by this as you all are.”

They rode along for a little while longer before Roper and Dallas pulled far enough ahead to talk privately.

“You’re not going to kill him, are you?” Roper asked.

Dallas shook her head. “No. I refuse to become a Neanderthal. He poses no threat.”

“Not right now he doesn’t, but you’re being awfully naïve if you think he won’t tell his commanding officer what happened to his buddies and the Hummer.”

Dallas slowed her horse. “I didn’t say I trusted him. He doesn’t know of our plans or what we’ve got going on. By the time he gets loose, we’ll be long gone from here. He seems sincere enough. I want to let him go. Do you have an issue with that?”

Roper shook her head slowly. “I figured as much. You may be a good leader, Dallas, but you’re no natural born killer. I say let’s wait until we get to a place that hides him from choppers and make sure we tie him up really well. We don’t need any of those on our tail”

“You got it.”

“And Dallas? I understand why you can’t kill him.”

Dallas looked down at her hands resting on the horn if the saddle. “You know, a small part of me wishes I could, but I can’t. I just don’t have it in me to kill someone who poses no immediate threat to me.”

“And there’s nothing wrong with that…unless they come after us. If that happens, there will be hell to pay with the others.”

“We’ll cross that bloody bridge when we get there.”

An hour later they came to a small grove of oak trees in a valley between two hills.

“There. That’s perfect. We can leave him down there.” said Dallas, pointing to the small ravine.

After telling Einstein and Peanut to stay on the hill beneath a tree, Roper and Dallas rode with Luke to the grove. Roper tied his hands behind his back. “The knife will be left at the base of that tree up there, along with a bottle of water.”

Luke nodded. “Thank you, ladies, for not killing me. I swear I’ll not say a word about you guys to anyone.”

“We’d really appreciate that, Luke. Best of luck to you getting back to your men.”

Mounting their horses, Roper and Dallas rode back up the hill, gathered Einstein and Peanut, and continued southeast in the afternoon sun, hoping like hell Luke was really a man of his word.

****

After about the first two hours back on the trail, they saw a reflection of some sort in the distance. It looked like someone was signaling with a mirror, but they were still too far away to see anything but the reflection with their binoculars.

“I say we steer clear of that,” Roper said.

Before anyone could reply, the sound of rotors beating the air could be heard.

“Fuck that soldier!” Roper yelled as they raced, kicking up dirt toward a group of trees. “God damn son-of-a-bitch, he burned us!” Just as they made cover, the chopper came up, hovered a moment and then cut away toward the reflection.

As they sat astride their puffing horses, they saw the muzzle flashes from the bay openings on the chopper.

“Did you see that?” She handed the binoculars to Roper.

Roper held the binoculars to her face and sucked in air. “Someone’s actually shooting at the chopper.” She handed the glasses back and yanked on the reins.

Five seconds later, the helicopter began smoking and corkscrewed to the ground.

Dallas kept the binoculars to her face. “Someone took that thing down. The question is, do we go around it or see if anyone needs help?”

Einstein shook his head. “We don’t need the hassle. I doubt they have anything we need, and if people are hurt, we don’t have the supplies to spare.”

Roper didn’t have to look at Dallas to know she’d already made up her mind.

“Oh Jesus Christ on a raft. Sally Softheart wants to go see if anyone needs help.”

Dallas shook her head. “I’d like to grab their weapons if we can. Those are some high-powered rifles with a lot of ammo. Einstein?”

He shrugged. “More ammo is never a bad thing, and their weapons would be superior to ours.”

As they came over the hill, they saw what could only be described as a gunfight between three soldiers and five civilians.

“Uh uh,” Roper said softly, gently pulling on Merlin’s reins. “Not our business. Let’s get the hell out of here before they bring their friends.”

Just as they turned to leave, two Hummers came barreling over the ridge.

They’d been spotted.

“Scatter!” Roper cried, spurring Merlin on. “Ride hard!”

Dallas pointed to Einstein to head south. “And don’t stop!”

Once Einstein and Peanut took off, Dallas urged Morgana on toward one of the Hummers coming right at them. Roper rode hard, managing to stay ahead of the Hummer, which lost traction on the ground, but she knew it was only a matter of time. Even leaping over a fence wouldn’t save her from the Hummer.

When the Hummer got closer, Roper grabbed her rope and whirled it over her head as she neared a tree with a low overhanging branch broken near the trunk.

As her rope whirled around and around, Roper knew she had but one chance. Letting it fly from her hand, she watched the lasso hit its target and, as Merlin rode under it, she was lifted up and off the saddle in an arc just high enough that she flew above the Hummer and swung back just as it passed beneath her. On the backswing, she released, landed hard on her feet, and rolled over twice before getting up and running parallel to Merlin, who had made a U-Turn until she could mount him on the run. It was a trick she’d practiced her whole life as a way of showing up boys, and that trick had suddenly been needed to save her life.

As she and Merlin rode hard toward a ravine, she felt something impact her right shoulder, nearly pushing her off the horse. “Jesus!” she cried, gritting her teeth as she spurred Merlin on. The ground beneath her began shimmering and the edges of darkness crept around her vision.

They’d shot her.

Urging Merlin on, Roper felt light-headed and woozy, and she knew it was just a matter of a few seconds before she could no longer stay in the saddle.

As if sensing this, Merlin slowed to a trot, then to a gait, then to a walk until Roper slowly slid off the saddle into the dirt, landing on her back. The last thing she heard was, “Did you fucking see that?”

****

Roper

When she opened her eyes, Roper found herself cable-tied to a hospital bed in a makeshift field hospital ward, her shoulder feeling like it was on fire. Things being what they were, she was surprised she’d woken up at all.

“Where the fuck am I?” Roper yelled. She had a feeling she knew, and it was difficult not to let panic set in.

But she was panicking. Her heart banged in her chest, her palms were sweaty, she was weak from loss of blood, and she knew she was in deep shit trouble.

“Pipe down,” growled a doctor or nurse who walked in, clipboard in hand. “Oh, we can gag you. Trust me. It isn’t very pleasant and makes this process harder.”

Roper looked at the cable ties on her wrist, confident she could get out of them. When she leaned forward, she felt the burn in her shoulder where she had been shot.

“We patched you up. It went clean through. You’re a lucky gal.”

Roper looked around for her weapons. While they’d taken her rifle and magnum, they’d let her keep her boots on. That was their first mistake.

“They want to vaccinate me only to let one of those things bite me?”

The fact that she knew the truth made the doctor look up from the clipboard. “Oh.” His eyes peered out over a facemask.

“Yeah. I know the fucked up shit you’re doing here. And I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I’ll be your lab rat quietly and without problem if you can only tell me whether or not a woman named Dallas is here.”

“I’m afraid I wouldn’t know. There are hundreds of you here.”

“Could you find out? Please?”

The doctor shook his head. “I’m sorry. We really don’t have time for that.” The doctor wrote a few things on his clipboard, checked Roper’s vitals, jotted them down and left the room.

She had to get out of here before they shot her with some dead cells of a vaccine that probably had little to no viability.

A young girl in the bed next to her cried softly and, although Roper couldn’t see the girl through the curtain separating their beds, she knew by the sound that it was a female.

“It’s all right. Everything is going to be all right.”

“They gave me a shot to calm me down, but I’m not calm. I’m scared to death.”

“Can you tell me everything that has happened to you since you came in here?”

The girl took some shallow breaths before answering. “They asked me a lot of questions. Told me I was getting vaccinated and if I didn’t show any bad effects after twenty-four hours, they are going to take me to a safe compound where there are no zombies.”

“So you’ve been here how long?”

“Two days. I’m at the last step, but I’m so afraid I won’t pass.”

“Pass?”

“Oh yes. You have to be in good health to get to the safe compound. I am so tired of being tired, of being scared, of being hungry. They say the compound is built all with cement, has hot showers and plenty of food.”

Roper understood that desperate people were likely to believe anything, and clearly, this poor girl was willing to believe in the government’s nonexistent Shangri-La. “Have you wondered why we’re chained to the beds?”

“They said in case we have a violent reaction to the serum. They also don’t want people roaming around. It was the first thing I asked when I got here.”

“You came here willingly?”

“Sure. Who wouldn’t?”

“Then why were you crying?”

“They separated me from my family. Until you got here, I’ve not had anyone to talk to.”

For the next ten minutes, Roper casually grilled the girl about what she’d seen when she first arrived—the layout of the facility, the sounds and space in between buildings, and whether there were armed soldiers inside the facility.

When she was armed with enough information, Roper started to plan her escape.

****

Dallas

Dallas rode as hard as she dared, and when Morgana kicked into high gear, Dallas nearly fell off. She’d never ridden so hard or so fast, and as she leaned into the horse, the wind whipped by her face and ears. She had no idea where the Hummer was and was too afraid to look behind her.

When Morgana eventually slowed, Dallas finally turned around to see...nothing. The Hummer must have peeled off because it was nowhere in sight. Turning Morgana back, Dallas trotted her higher up the hill so she could get a good look at the area. To her horror, she watched as they dragged a lifeless Roper into the Hummer. Merlin backed away. Dallas had no idea where the others had gone or how far away, but Roper was alone and being carted away.

When she reached the summit, she didn’t see the Hummer, Butcher, Einstein, or Peanut. Pulling out the binoculars, she scanned the hillside, trying not to freak out.

She decided staying put on the crow’s nest was the better option than running around looking for the kids. She could not panic now.

Keeping the binoculars on her eyes, she scanned the grounds below her for fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes. Nothing. Then she saw Zeus. Lowering the binoculars, Dallas rode quickly to the dog, which raised his hackles and growled when she rode up.

“Peanut?”

Dallas jumped off the saddle and knelt down, five feet from the dog. “Easy, Zeus. It’s me.”

The dog sat down and stopped growling but the hackles remained up.

“Peanut!” Dallas called out. She slowly rose when she saw the dirt and cut grass move a foot behind the huge beast.

Uncovering herself, Peanut brushed off her camouflage and ran to Dallas, who hugged her tightly. “You okay?”

Peanut nodded. “My daddy taught me that trick when we would play hide and seek.”

“Where’s Einstein?” she asked the little girl.

“He made me get off and told me to hide.”

“What happened to him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I got off the horse and ran like he told me to. Is he okay? Where’s Roper?”

“I don’t know, honey, but we’re going to find out.”

****

Roper

Roper answered all of the doctor’s medical questions without giving him any information he could use against her. Whenever she tried asking questions, he shut her down, explaining the same pat line he’d repeated to Stephanie, her roommate. It was the same tired line over and over: Only the select few would be allowed to transfer to the compound. If Roper cooperated and showed no ill effects from the vaccine, she could be transferred in the next day or two, blah, blah, blah. Roper tuned him out.

Instead, she spent her time sizing him up. She knew she could take him, but getting out alive would be a bit trickier.

Stephanie had told her all she could about the security and size of the facility. She estimated about three hundred beds, a dozen or so doctors, and closer to fifty armed soldiers, all through the perpetually closed linen screen.

Roper had her work cut out for her if she was going to get out of here before they sent her to the “compound.”

What a crock. This whole place was reminiscent of Mengele’s torture camps. She was nothing more than a lab rat...only she had no intention of eating their cheese or drinking their Kool-Aid.

“They said I’ll be able to leave here around noon tomorrow when a new transport truck leaves.” Stephanie had perked up a great deal over the last few hours, and had talked nonstop whenever they were alone, which was most of the time.

“Did they tell you how far away it is?” Roper asked.

“Yes. The truck ride is about ten minutes, to what they call the bus station. From there, it’s another eight hours or so to the compound.”

“Which is where, exactly?”

“They won’t say. I guess its top secret or something. If everyone knew where it was, it would get over-crowded.”

The prolonged fabrication made Roper’s mouth taste sour. They would be taking her to her death only after subjecting her to...to what? Roper couldn’t imagine the military housing any of the man eaters to actually bite people. That would be far too dangerous and gross. More than likely, they had managed to create or recreate the same virus the terrorists had dropped. The other alternative was simply too frightening to consider.

“If you have a hard time sleeping tonight, they’ll give you a sedative.”

Roper nodded. She had no intention of sleeping. What she had to do was figure out a way to get out of there, and sleep would not do it.

“Will the doctors come around often tonight?”

“Oh no. Once lights are out, it gets pitch dark in here. They won’t be back until breakfast, unless you start screaming and making noise. Then they’ll sedate you. A security guard comes around once every hour, but he doesn’t peek into the cubicles. He just walks to the back of the room and out again.”

A germ of an escape plan started in Roper’s mind. The only real issue was whether or not she should attempt her escape during the night. It might actually be safer to get out during the daylight when she could see where she was going and who was after her.

It was a coin toss.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Stephanie said softly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you worried you won’t make it to the compound? You sound pretty healthy to me.”

Healthy was a relative term that had no bearing on this situation. This was a disgustingly desperate move by a government that had already lost the first few battles in an all-or-nothing war.

“Just tired, that’s all. I’m not fond of being tied to a bed.”

“It’s for your safety, that’s all.”

When Stephanie finally quieted down, darkness crept into the medical facility on the inside, while enormous lights run by generators shone all around the exterior of the camp. Roper knew there weren’t too many nights left for generator use. This was probably the government’s last-ditch effort at a vaccine.

Roper counted the seconds in between rounds of the searchlight. It only varied by twenty seconds, at the most, but as much as she wanted to get out there, running around blindly in the night didn’t seem like the best-laid plan. Besides, she reckoned the soldiers had more people to report back to than doctors, so if she was going to get out of here alive, she’d have to do so during the day.

And that was the beginning of her plan.

****

Dallas

It took Dallas less than fifteen minutes to track down Einstein. She’d spent enough time with him that she knew he would go back to the last safe place they’d been and, sure enough, there he was, pacing back and forth. When he saw them riding up, he ran toward them, but stopped when he saw Zeus.

Peanut jumped off the horse and ran to him. Dallas threw her leg off the saddle and nearly collapsed when she landed. Her ass hurt so much she could barely stand.

After picking up Peanut and hugging her, Einstein threw his arms around Dallas. “Thank God you’re okay, but...” He looked into Dallas’s eyes. “Where is she?”

Dallas shook her head. “They got her.”

Einstein’s face fell. “You don’t...she’s not—”

“No, no, I don’t think so. They wouldn’t have taken her otherwise. They’d have just left her body there.”

“They took her? You mean, to that med facility?”

Dallas nodded. “We need to get Merlin and go after her.”

“After her? Dallas, we have no idea where they’ve taken her.”

“We don’t, but we know who does. Saddle up, kids. We’re going after Luke.”

As they rode toward the frontage road, Einstein said, “This is awfully dangerous, Dallas.”

“I don’t care. We’re in this together, and if those mother fu...if those asswipes are taking her to that medical facility—” She turned to Einstein, tears in her eyes. “I made a promise to her. I plan on keeping that.”

Thirty minutes later, they rode up on him walking along the freeway.

When Luke heard the horse’s hooves, he raised his hands in the air. “I figured it was too good to be true. You decided to kill me after all.”

Dallas shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s Roper. They got her.”

“They? The zombies?”

“Your people.”

He blinked. “Oh.”

“It’ll be the same thing unless we can get her out of there.” This came from Einstein.

“You’re thinking of breaking her out of a medical facility manned by armed military?”

Both Dallas and Einstein nodded.

He shook his head. “Do you have any idea how impossible that is?”

“Look, I’m not asking for your help. I’m asking for you to take us there. That’s it.”

“Take you there, and then what? Stand by while you bust her out?”

“I’ll go after her. Einstein and Peanut can stay with you, gun trained at you should you decide—”

He held up his hands. “No need for all that, Dallas. I won’t get in your way. I just think it’s a suicide mission is all.”

“Maybe so, but I’m not going to stand by while they turn Roper into a man eater. I made a promise and I’m going to keep it. Now hop on.” Dallas held her hand out and Luke grabbed her wrist and jumped on the back of the horse.

“This is crazy, Dallas. You know that, right?”

Urging Morgana on, Dallas replied, “I’m getting pretty used to crazy.”

****

Roper

Roper fell asleep somewhere around four o’clock. When she woke up, she was being wheeled to another room. She barely had time to glance over her shoulder to see Stephanie’s bed empty.

“Where you taking me?” Her heart was pounding now and she considered using her Buck knife she’d spent half the night getting from her boot to beneath her thigh. It had been a tedious, laborious process, but eventually she got it to a place where, if she raised her hips from the bed and came down hard on the flat of the blade, the handle would lift just enough that she could grab it.

“We’re just going to draw some blood and run a few tests. You’ll be back in no time.”

“What about Stephanie? Where is she?”

“She’s on her way to the compound. Isn’t that exciting?” The voice was flat and devoid of emotion.

Roper felt her heart banging beneath her chest. If she died slashing and hacking her way out of here, it would be a far better death than whatever these living ghouls had in mind.

When they reached the next room, Roper was surprised to see a large black man quadruple-tied to the bed, his massive legs tied at the ankles with dozens of cable ties. Sweat beaded across his forehead, and pit stains under his armpits looked days old.

“The doctor will be in shortly.”

When the nurse left, Roper cleared her throat, causing the man to open his eyes. “Another one? I thought I was the only one.”

“Only one what?”

He held up his bandaged wrist. “To get bit and live to tell about it. They’re pretty fascinated with me. I’m practically a movie star.”

“You...you were bitten?” Roper felt like she was jumping out of her skin, she wanted away from this man.

He held his wrist up for her to see. “Coupla days ago. I reached in to help a friend get away from three of them and as it went for his neck, it accidentally bit me.”

“And you lived? Wow. You’re like a man eater rock star.”

He chuckled. “So did you.”

Roper cocked her head. “I’ve never been bitten.”

“No? What’s that?” He nodded with his head to the scar on her upper arm.

“That? I was bitten by a horse a couple of weeks ago. This isn’t—”

“Shh. Don’t let them know that. The only reason we’re still alive is because they think we’ve got something that will help them.”

The light went on in Roper’s mind. “Oh. I get it now. They think we have the key to finding a vaccine.”

“Maybe we do, but as long as they think we’re special, we might just make it through this alive. Name’s Jeff, but my buddies call me Safety. That was my position on the football team. Safety.”

She smiled. “My friends call me Roper.”

“Well, Roper, I’m glad I’m not going to die alone.”

“If I have my druthers, we won’t die here at all.”

Safety narrowed his eyes at her. “You got a gun?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. A gun won’t get us out of here, but I think I know what will.”

****

When they were finally alone, Roper cut herself free.

“You gotta...a knife?”

“And a plan.” As soon as she was free, Roper cut Safety loose, all the while telling him to be silent.

“I ain’t gonna argue with a lady who carries a Buck knife that size in her boot.”

Roper shushed him more. “You start turning, and I’ll bury this hilt deep in your eyeball, understand?”

He nodded as he slid his trunk-like legs around to the side of the bed.

“Uh uh. I need you to stay up there. When the doctor comes in, I am going to call him to me. When I do, I need you to take him out.”

“Kill him?”

“Kill him, knock him out, it’s all the same to me. Just make sure he doesn’t cry out.”

“Then what?”

Roper heard footsteps. “You’re about to find out.” Grabbing her ponytail, Roper took the Buck knife and sawed it off, then stuffed it under her pillow. Jumping back on the bed, she put her hands back up on the railing and looked over at Safety before nodding once.

When the doctor walked in, clipboard in hand, Roper moaned. “You have to get me some water. I need water.”

The doctor walked over. “You don’t need any—”

With speed that belied his enormous size, Safety leapt from his bed and without breaking stride, took the doctor’s head in his hands and snapped his neck.

Just like that.

Roper grabbed the doctor before he slid to the ground. “Quick! Get him on the bed.”

Safety lifted him up as if he were but a doll. Roper pulled off his scrub shirt, his glasses, his face mask, and his skull cap. When she had them on, she turned to Safety, who stared.

“How does it look?”

“You need the pants.”

“He shit them, can’t you smell it?”

Safety tugged them off. The doctor was wearing stained tighty whities. “Just pull them over your jeans. Then you’ll look perfect.”

Roper did so, ignoring the stench. Then she adjusted her mask, palmed her knife, and turned to Safety, who was far more enormous standing upright than he’d appeared in the bed.

“Jesus, you’re huge.”

“That’s what she said. What now?”

“We’re going to walk out of here, walk to the transport vehicle, and put you in the back.”

“Oh hell no.”

“Then I’ll walk to the driver, stick a knife in his throat, and commandeer the transport vehicle out of here, but that way is riskier.”

“We’ll never make it that far together. The doctors hand off the patients to the soldiers at the transport.”

Roper put her hands on his biceps. They were rock hard. “You’re going to have to trust me.”

Safety looked into her eyes and nodded. “Don’t see as I have much a choice.” He put his hands behind him as if they were handcuffed. “Give it your best shot, girl.”

Pulling the covers over the dead doctor so it looked as if he was asleep, Roper took hold of Safety’s wrist and pushed him along the makeshift hallway until they came to the soldiers at the main entry.

Her heart was pounding so fast, she was afraid they would see it.

The soldier didn’t even look at her when he took Safety’s arm. For his part, Safety looked over his shoulder at Roper, who averted her eyes from the second soldier, who was staring at her. She wasn’t going to let Safety get hauled away without at least attempting to save him. Besides, that transport vehicle was all she had to get them out of there.

As she watched Safety being checked in by a soldier waiting at the back of the truck, Roper made her move and swept past the soldier at the door. As she strode toward the transport, she kept waiting to hear the soldier’s voice call her back.

When he didn’t, she blew by Safety and walked up to the driver’s window.

“I need some air. Would you guys mind taking me a mile or so out?”

They exchanged glances and Roper had a split second to decide what to do. In a flash, she had the large Buck knife against the throat of the driver. “Either of you move or yell out and I’ll cut his fucking head off. We clear?”

Both nodded.

“Good. Passenger, your weapons...slowly...on the floor.” Roper pressed the knife deeper for emphasis. “Now you, hand me your sidearm. Be smart here, fellas. I’m a dead woman walking. Killing you makes no difference one way or the other.”

Just as the soldier handed her his gun, Roper felt the barrel of a gun in her ribs. “Drop the knife.”

She did.

“Move and I’ll kill you where you stand.”

Both soldiers in the cab of the transport hurriedly picked up their weapons.

“Son of a bitch, Hal, how’d you let her escape?”

“Look at her! She looks like a fucking doctor.”

The driver threw open the door, her Buck knife clattering to the ground. “Pull a knife on me? You fucking bitch!” And he backhanded her so hard, she fell into the soldier behind her.

“Put her in the fucking van, Hal. She’s going straight to the ghouls. And next time, do your fucking job.”

When they opened the transport doors, Safety’s face fell. Once Hal cable-tied Roper’s hands in the front, he shoved her into the truck.

“I’m so sorry,” Roper said after they pushed her in and closed the doors.

“Don’t be sorry,” a young boy said. “We are going to the compound.”

Sitting on a bench next to Safety, Roper wiped the blood off her lip with her shoulder.

“No need to apologize. I’da been in the truck sooner than later.” Safety reached over and held her hands in his huge mitt. “Wanna go out in a blaze of glory?”

Roper nodded. Anything was better than being bitten and turned.

Safety leaned over and spoke quietly to her. “The minute those doors open, I’ll knock them over like the little white bowling pins they are.”

“Gotcha. I’ll go for a weapon and just start shooting. The drivers are armed. I imagine there are soldiers everywhere.” Roper said.

Safety locked eyes with her. “Take out as many as you can. Blaze of glory means just that. Take the motherfuckers out.”

“I think our best bet is to make another play for the transport driver. If we go last, there will be more confusion and chaos.”

He rubbed his hands together. “Then I’ll take out those who open the door, make a U-turn and go straight for the driver. It’s gonna take a lot to stop me. I useta be pretty damn good.”

The truck was stuffy and smelled slightly of urine and something unsuccessfully trying to cover it up. It wasn’t dark, but there was a grey pallor hanging in the air. There were at least ten other people crowded in the back and the smell of fear permeated everything.

The others in the transport began questioning and muttering until Safety glared at them and told them to shut the fuck up, or when they opened that door, there would be nothing but dead people inside.

The truck became very quiet.

“We don’t have much time. Give me your hands.”

Safety turned his back to Roper, who used the edge of her championship belt buckle to slowly cut through the first two cable ties. She was only halfway through the third when the transport started to slow down.

“Why are you doing this?” An elderly woman asked. “We’re going to a better place.”

“There is no compound. There is no safe place. It’s all a lie...like in Auschwitz when they got there and saw the sign that said Work Makes You Free. It’s all an elaborate lie to get you all to cooperate. This here is us not cooperating.”

The old woman looked from Roper to Safety and back. “Auschwitz? Indeed. Arbeit Macht Frei is what it said in German.” She smiled. “I was a history teacher.”

“Then you should see this ruse for what it is.”

The woman scooted closer along the bench and leaned over to Roper. “They’re taking us to our death, aren’t they?”

Roper stared into her hazel eyes and nodded. Her gray hair was cut stylishly around her oval face. Her wrinkles belied her age, but it was the sparkle in her eye that made Roper like her. “A fate worse than, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh. My. Now that you so eloquently compared it to Auschwitz, everything is falling into place. If you’ll allow me to lead the way. No one would expect an old lady to take off running.”

“They’ll shoot you,” Roper said softly.

“Honey, I’ve lived a great life. The best way to top that off is with a great death.”

The transport came to a stop and the woman rose. “It’s Lillian,” she said, smiling. “Remember me to your children.” Straightening her scrubs, she nodded to Safety. “Ready when you are young man.”

When the doors opened, Safety lowered his shoulder and bowled over the first five men. When people started out of the transport, Lillian looked at Roper, winked, and darted from the back of the truck yelling, “Arbeit Macht Frei!”

As she ran and dodged the first three soldiers, who were almost too stunned to shoot or even react, Safety leapt from the back, snapped the remaining cable tie, lowered his shoulder and hit the next soldier so hard it lifted him off his feet with a woof sound. He landed on his back, his rifle falling from his hands.

Safety kept going as if he was gunning for a running back.

Roper jumped to the ground next to the first downed soldier, picked up his rifle, cracked his head with the butt of it, and whirled around in time to shoot the passenger soldier in the chest. Safety hit the next soldier so hard, Roper heard his ribs crack. When a fourth soldier raised his gun at Lillian, Safety lowered his shoulder again and barreled into his back. The gun fired but hit no one. The soldier bent in two and bones snapped as Safety crushed him.

Everyone was running and screaming in every direction. A guard who came running from another makeshift building threw his arms around Lillian, who screamed out something about Nazis.

Roper wheeled toward Lillian. She was struggling in the arms of a soldier who had lifted her off the ground and was carrying her toward a large white tent probably once used for a wedding reception. “Lillian!”

That hesitation cost Roper, as the truck driver peeled out, kicking up dirt and dust.

Slowly raising her rifle, Roper got the soldier’s face in her sights, blew out a breath and lightly stroked the trigger just like her grandfather had shown her all those years ago.

His face exploded and he released Lillian, who fell to the ground on top of him.

With the transport gone, Roper looked around for an escape route. Unfortunately, the only one she saw was suddenly filled with a second transport headed her way.

“Safety, get her!”

The large man broke the neck of another soldier as he made his way to Lillian, who he threw over his shoulder and started back toward Roper. When he was running back, a soldier from behind him shot at him. If he hit Safety, Roper couldn’t tell, because she was too busy firing at the soldiers now streaming out of the tent and trying to lock and load on them.

As Roper lay down cover for the mountain of a man, she knew this was their last stand. The soldiers coming out began shooting everyone not wearing a uniform.

“Make a run for it, Safety. I’ll try to cover you!”

Safety shook his head as he made it to the transport coming toward them. “Naw, Roper. We’re screwed.” Safety suddenly threw his arms around Roper and covered her, waiting for the impact of the transport barreling toward them.

Instead of hitting them, the vehicle veered around them and ran over nearly every soldier standing in front of the tent. Men went down with bone crunching sounds as the heavy transport mowed them over—others were sent flying as the transport smashed into them. Then it did a one-eighty and ran over three more. When the passenger window came down and a rifle came out, Safety yelled, “Run!”

As Roper turned to run, she saw Dallas’s face behind the rifle’s scope.

“Get in the truck!” Roper yelled, dropping to one knee and picking off two soldiers who swung their rifles around toward Dallas’s transport. She shot one, but missed the other, who got off a few rounds, smashing the driver’s side window and headlight. Glass rained down around her.

“Come on!” Dallas yelled to Roper, who rose and helped Safety lay Lillian in the back of the transport. As they did, bullets pinged around them. Roper turned and shot cover fire as Safety pulled himself up.

“Come on, girl! Get your ass in here!”

Roper fired off a few more rounds before grabbing hold of Safety’s thick wrist and was lifted off her feet as he yanked her up and into the bed of the transport.

“Go, go, go!”

The transport took off and four-wheeled over a pile of sandbags before landing heavily with its back wheels in a ditch.

“Shit.” Roper looked back to the tents, expecting to see soldiers coming after them, but she saw they were now involved in a battle of another sort. Apparently, in all the confusion, the man eaters had broken free from wherever they’d been kept. The five that managed to escape began attacking everyone—civilians, doctors, and soldiers alike.

“Holy mother of God,” Safety murmured, watching the chaos.

Roper realized the wheels were spinning in the ditch and they were going nowhere. Before she could stop him, Safety jumped out and put his shoulder to the back of the truck.

Jumping out, Roper ran to the passenger side of the truck where Dallas was leaning out the window.

“Damn, am I glad to see you. He’s going to rock it. Don’t spin the wheels.”

Running back to Safety, Roper froze.

The five man eaters had quickly tripled to fifteen, as they scratched, bit and clawed at the living who were feverishly trying to get away.

And they were fleeing in the direction of their transport...with the eaters right on their heels.

“Come on, Safety, you got this,” Roper urged, shooting at the man eaters coming toward them. They were less than a hundred yards away and gaining momentum as they bit those incapable of staying on their feet, ripping flesh from their bones. Some stopped to gorge themselves on those who had fallen while others seemingly moved with a greater purpose.

“Eighty yards,” Roper said, shooting at the horde, taking foreheads off and shooting man eaters through the eyes.

Suddenly, in the back of the truck with her was Dallas. She, too, began picking off man eaters shuffling toward them.

“How’d you find us?” Roper asked, blowing the head off a zombie soldier.

“Luke. He’s the driver.”

Roper paused to look at her. “The soldier? No kidding.”

“It’s a long story.”

Roper squeezed off another round. “Save it for later.”

“They ain’t gonna be a later if we can’t get this truck outta the ditch,” Safety said, straining to get the truck to rock back and forth.

“Cover us,” Roper said, jumping into the ditch with Safety and taking the opposite side.

“Seventy,” Dallas announced, hitting her target one in four times she shot. The truck rocking lowered her percentages. “Fifty yards.”

Roper looked up to see Dallas firing away.

“Blow out slowly. Take your time,” she growled to Dallas, heaving with her shoulder along with Safety.

“Forty. Come on, guys. We either have to get out or start running!”

Roper looked at Safety. Beads of sweat dotted his brow, his enormous biceps bulged as he put more effort into it.

Dallas picked off three more, but she estimated there were still at least twenty in this first wave.

“Twenty-five.” She could see the whites of those who still had eyes. “And there are more behind them.”

Roper jumped up into the transport and quickly took out three more, but she knew they were done in ten more yards. There were simply too many of them.

The moaning was the worst of it. That low, pitiful sound like a sad cow was worse than creepy and in unison, it settled in the marrow of your bones telling you you’d either be moaning soon or be someone’s dinner.

With ten yards to go, the truck suddenly lurched ahead, leaving Safety face first on the ground. That was when Roper saw the blood on his back. He’d been shot. As he slowly tried to get up, she knew he didn’t have anything left in him. Leaping to the ground, she ran to him and grabbed his arm to help him get to his feet, but he was enormous…and heavy. As the eaters closed in, their moaning now changed to that scratchy growling sound they make while feeding. Dallas joined her and together they struggled to get Safety to his feet.

“Jesus, Roper, did you have to make friends with the biggest man on the planet?”

As they pushed and pulled the huge football player into the back of the transport, Roper turned back around just in time to smash the butt of her rifle into an eater’s face. “Go!”

“Come on!” Dallas urged, shooting the three more zombies.

Scrambling into the transport, Roper raised her rifle once more and then froze. “Fuck.”

“What is it?”

Slowly taking aim, Roper inhaled deeply and squeezed off three rounds. The third one hit Stephanie’s forehead, sending her against a tree trunk. “Just someone I knew.”

As the transport took off, it felt as if they hit every bump in the road. Roper and Dallas were barely able to grab the sides before hurling out the back. When they were far enough away, and clearly out of the danger zone, Roper turned Safety around so she could see his shoulder wound. It was bleeding heavily.

“Do you know you’ve been shot?”

He shook his head. “Never felt nothin’.” He looked down at Lillian. “I’m fine. Help her.”

Kneeling next to Lillian, Roper realized she, too, had been shot and, judging by the location of the exit wound, she was shot by the same bullet that was now lodged somewhere in Safety’s shoulder.

“Lillian? Can you hear me?”

The old woman’s eyes fluttered open a moment before closing again. “We make it?”

Roper’s eyes filled with tears as she held the cold, bony hand in hers. “We sure did and we couldn’t have done it without you.” Roper knew there was nothing they could do for this brave woman except stay with her while her life slowly ebbed away.

Lillian smiled and said, “Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. Live on, brave girl. Do my death justice.”

When Lillian exhaled her final breath, Roper sobbed. She cried out of a depth of sadness for a woman she didn’t know. She cried out of fear poisoning her system and making her feel weakened. She wept for the utter helplessness of not being able to save such a courageous spirit. She sobbed because she could no longer keep it all in.

“I’m so sorry,” Roper whispered.

When she felt a hand on her shoulder, she expected it to be Dallas’s, but it belonged to Safety.

“The old gal knew exactly what she was doing,” he said softly. “She went out on her own terms. You gotta respect and admire someone with the will to do that. May she rest in peace.”

Rising, Roper nodded and wiped her face before making introductions.

“Thank you for saving Roper,” Dallas said, shaking his huge hand. “Apparently, it takes a village.”

Roper forced a grin and shook her head.

“Oh no, Dallas, she saved me,” he countered. “She’s got brass balls, fo’ sho.”

Dallas smiled over at Roper before folding her up in her arms. “You’ve got to stop scaring me like this.”

Roper buried her face in Dallas’s neck and clung to her, knees weak and feeling emotionally drained. She wasn’t sure how many more near misses she had in her.

“Come. Sit. We’re safe for now.” Dallas pulled the scrub shirt off Roper and used it to press into Safety’s wound. “We’ll have to wait and have Butcher take a look at it. How are you feeling, big guy?”

“Safe. Scart. A little nauseous.”

“We’ll have you patched up in no time. Just close your eyes and rest.”

As the transport rattled along the hills, Roper asked, “Where’s he taking us?”

“Back to the horses. To Einstein.”

“You think Butcher’s still waiting for us?”

Dallas nodded. “I do. I trust her. Don’t you?”

“It’s not her I’m worried about. I’ve had plenty of time to think while I was tied to that fucking bed, and we have to cut the others loose, Dallas. It’s not a match and you need to come to terms with that. We are not responsible for their safety, and you can’t save everyone.”

“Not trying to.”

“It’s just not safe with them. We need to know we have each other’s backs and aside from the three of you, I can’t say that about anyone else.”

Sitting on the bench next to Roper, Dallas held her hand with her free hand while the other applied pressure to Safety’s shoulder. “You look exhausted. When you feel up to it, I want to hear all about it. Right now, take a deep breath and stop worrying about everyone else. You’re safe. That’s all that matters.”

When the truck suddenly stopped, Luke came around to the back and popped his head in. “How we doing back here?”

Rising, Roper jumped out of the truck and extended her hand to him. “I can’t thank you enough, Private Kennedy.”

Luke shook her hand and smiled. “It’s just Luke now, ma’am. You ladies could have killed me, but you didn’t. We’re even.” When his eyes caught Lillian’s body, he looked at Dallas, who shook her head.

“Well, after getting stuck in a ditch, to lose only one of you is pretty damn good. I wasn’t so sure we were going to get out of here.”

“We have Safety to thank for it.”

Safety gave him a thumb up. “Safety.”

“Luke.”

“Are we near the horses yet?” Dallas asked.

“Another ten miles or so. Anyone want to sit up front?”

Dallas and Roper both said, “Safety.”

Helping Safety to the passenger side, Roper wadded the scrub shirt up and placed it between him and his shoulder. All he needed to do was lean back for the direct pressure he needed.

“How you doin’?” Roper asked, seeing the heavy perspiration on his face.

Safety forced a grin she was sure he didn’t feel. “I’m alive. That’s something.”

Roper looked over at Luke. “Thank you. Again.”

He waved her off. “No need. We’re square. Your friend here needs a doctor, though.”

“Oh hell no. No mo’ doctors for me.”

Roper ignored Safety. “We’ve got someone on our team who can help with that.”

Nodding, Luke started the truck. “Get in then. I’ll take us all back to Butcher.”

“You ain’t seriously gone take me to a doctor who goes by the name of Butcher are you?”

“She’s a war medic, Safety. You’re in good hands. I promise.”

Roper hustled to the back of the transport and hopped in, avoiding Lillian’s body. “How in the hell did you find me?”

“First, I found Luke. Then he found a transport. We had just driven up when we saw you make your play for that transport. We would have been right behind you, but one of the soldiers stopped us. Are you okay?”

“Barely. Einstein’s been right all along. He—” Roper looked suddenly panicked.

“Relax. He and Peanut are fine. So are the horses. Those kids follow directions well. Peanut even buried herself in the grass to hide. They’ll sure be glad to see you.” Dallas glanced down at Lillian. “Friend of yours?”

“We picked her up seconds before we busted from the transport. She...is one of the bravest people I barely met.”

Dallas threaded her fingers through Roper’s. “If you keep scaring me like this, I’ll never make it to the Promised Land.”

“Yeah. We need to do something about that.” Roper inhaled a deep breath before asking the question she had been avoiding asking. “Do you want me to cut the horses loose?”

“No. No. Not at all. Not yet. I mean…we’re going to have to sooner or later, but right now, they are still a vital part of our group. That being said, I do think we need to stick together better. I can’t lose you, Rope. The thought scares me to death, and yet we keep letting ourselves be separated. It…scares the shit out of me.”

Roper turned to her, their knees touching. “I know that feeling and I totally agree. We have to start relying on the others to do some of the heavy lifting. We can’t do it all. We’ve become a family but we’re not the parents. We have to spread the workload.”

Dallas held her hand tighter. “You’re right and it looks like we’re adding one more to the pack, aren’t we?” Reaching out with her free hand, she touched Roper’s short hair. “Love the new ‘do. When did you have time to get your hair done?”

“Oh this? It was nothing. Didn’t have time for a manicure, however.”

Dallas’s eyes softened as she looked at Roper, her short hair making her appear much younger. “It looks great, really.”

Roper self-consciously touched her hair. “Think maybe you can trim it up when we have time? I’m sure I look like a boy now.”

“You look beautiful to me.”

Roper blushed and laid her other hand on top of Dallas’s “Thank you. So we’re good with keeping Safety, right? I mean, the guy pushed a truck out of a ditch while bleeding from a gunshot wound. I’d say he’s earned his way.”

“Absolutely. Seems we keep collecting people who save your ass.”

Roper grinned. “Too true.”

They rode in silence for a little ways before Dallas said quietly, “I can’t do this without you, Roper. I honest to god can’t.”

Roper squeezed her hand tightly. “Hopefully, you won’t have to.”

****

When they finally returned to the horses, Einstein and Peanut were beside themselves. Both of them cried—out of sheer terror of being left alone. Einstein tried to be strong, but the moment he saw Roper, the floodgates opened.

“Oh man, I thought—”

“I’m a helluva lot harder to kill than that, kid. Have some faith.” Roper mussed up his hair and grinned at him.

“You guys are a long way from the rest of your group, right?” Luke asked. “I was thinking if we could find a way to get the horses in here.” He patted the transport.

Dallas placed her hand on his shoulder. “Only two would fit and I think we’re done separating. That’s not working very well for us. I appreciate the idea, though.”

Luke ran his hand through his hair and nodded. “It’s crazy what’s happening. I was trained to protect American liberty and now I’ve been ordered to kill on sight those I was protecting a couple of weeks ago. It’s insane.”

“Yes, it is. You know, you are welcome to come with us if you’d like.”

Luke’s face fell. “You know, I’ve thought about it. I mean, a lot of guys and gals have bolted, refusing to carry out orders, but I’m a military guy. It’s all I know. Besides, I keep hoping maybe I can do some good.”

Dallas squeezed his shoulder before letting go. “You already have. Thank you.”

“I wish there was more I could do.”

“Actually, can I ask one more favor? Can you take Peanut and Safety to Butcher and let her know that we’re okay and on our way? He needs to get that gunshot taken care of.”

“Sure can.” His eyes lit up a little and Dallas wondered if it was at the sound of Butcher’s name. She’d noticed how his eyes never left her. “Any ideas where they could be?”

After giving Luke some pointers about where he might find them, everyone said their goodbyes. Roper hugged him for a long time and thanked him for crashing the party. She kissed Safety’s forehead and told him to hang in and that Butcher would sew him up in no time.

Peanut looked like a rag doll sitting next to Safety. She seemed paler than usual, but Dallas chalked that up to her sitting next to a black man. Zeus was none to happy to have to be in the back of the transport, but when they were all ready to go, Dallas saluted them and stood watching as they pulled away.

“He’s a good man,” Dallas said softly.

“Let’s just hope he finds Butcher sooner than later. Safety’s not looking so good.”

“Neither is Peanut. She’s awfully pale.”

“Living in fear is taking its toll on the kids. We need to remember to give them some down time. They’re not like the rest of us.”

When the three of them were back in the saddle, they walked along while Roper told them everything that had happened, how she’d come upon Safety and how he had been bitten but never turned.

“Don’t be alarmed. I told him if he started turning, he was as good as dead.”

“I’ve never heard of someone surviving being bitten. Do you think it’s because he’s black?” Dallas asked.

Einstein made a chuffing sound. “We’ve seen plenty of black man eaters.”

“Hmm. I wonder why then.”

“That’s what the military wanted to know. And they thought this horse bite on my arm was from an eater and so they were going to perform different experiments on the two of us.” Roper shuddered. “Speaking of ghoulish.”

“No shit. Still…I want to keep an eye on him. We don’t need him turning while we’re sleeping.”

Einstein nodded. “In some movies, people turn as soon as they are bitten while others takes a day or so.”

“It’s been longer than a day, kid. I think he’s survived it.”

“Strange. Well, we could use some muscle, but…” Einstein’s voice trailed off.

“But what?”

He shrugged. “We need to cut those other three loose. They’re bad news, only out for themselves. People like Tate and Coco get other people hurt. It’s time to cut the cord.”

Roper nodded, but said nothing.

“So, what do you suggest?”

“Simple. Tell them it’s not working out and we wish them the best of luck. See ya.”

Roper laughed. “Subtle.”

“We don’t really have time for subtlety, Rope. Would it make it easier if I told you Tate saw what was going down with Dallas out by the Hummer before you came along? He just stood at a window, watching.”

Roper glared over at Dallas. “Watching?”

Dallas shrugged. “Like it’s a surprise the guy’s a coward?”

“Are you sure, kid?”

“Roper, I saw him just standing there. He was never going to help her. Never. Asshole.” Einstein shook his head. “We need to be able to rely on each other, and I wouldn’t trust him to care for a bag of turds.”

“Tell us how you really feel,” Dallas said, feeling Roper’s fiery eyes still locked onto hers.

“You knew.” Roper said to Dallas. “You knew and still we’re carrying that…bag of turds.”

Dallas shrugged it off. “What could he have done? More than likely, he’d have gotten us all killed. It’s not like the guy has two brain cells to rub together.”

“That’s it, Dallas. I’m behind Einstein on this one hundred percent. Those three can find themselves another bus ride. I…we won’t let your need to help every Tom, Dick, and Harry put our lives in danger.”

“Now wait a—”

“I’m with Roper.” Einstein looked at Dallas intently. “You’re outvoted.”

“I see that. Fine then. We kick them to the curb the first chance we get.”

They rode until sundown, until Roper was too tired to go on. After taking care of the horses, she came back to a meal of spam, an energy bar, a bottle of water and, to her delight, oranges.

“Where did you get oranges?”

“There was a cottage a few miles east of here. Peanut and I found a tree full of them.”

“Bless you.” Roper said, holding the leathery fruit to her nose and inhaling deeply. “God, that smells wonderful. Like a little piece of heaven.”

“I’m gonna wipe the horses down,” Einstein said, winking at Dallas.

When he was gone, Roper asked, “I saw that. What was that about?”

“You know, I have no clue. I think he wants to give us adult time and space.”

“Cool kid.”

“Absolutely.”

Tearing open the orange, Roper savored the first juicy section. “We’re gonna miss food like this if this thing goes south.”

“Don’t you think it already has?”

Sticking the second section in her mouth, Roper nodded. “It can always go…souther. We have to get moving, Dallas. This pace is far too slow.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Well, I had plenty of time to think about that when I was cable tied to a god damned hospital bed, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I say we trailer the horses at night and take our chances during the day. We’re just not covering enough ground this way.”

Dallas nodded as she laid the sleeping bags on the ground and tried to ignore the sucking sounds Roper was making with the orange. “I hesitate letting the horses go, Roper. We need them for getting over the mountain pass faster, but trailering the horses is a really sound idea.” Scrunching into her sleeping bag, Dallas looked at Roper’s silhouette in the growing darkness. “When we get back, we’ll take Butcher, Safety, Peanut and Zeus and continue on our way.”

Sucking her juice fingers, Roper nodded. “Something tells me it won’t be so easy.”

****

When they reached the rest of the group, Roper’s instincts had been spot on.

Luke, Butcher, Peanut, and Zeus were on watch duty outside of town at a masonry facility just off the frontage road. They would probably have ridden right on by if Butcher hadn’t been leaning against the stone wall in the shade, a rifle across her lap chatting Luke up. Peanut and Zeus were playing fetch with a slobbery tennis ball. The others were nowhere to be seen. Dallas wasn’t at all surprised to find Luke still there. She thought he was a little smitten with the good doctor.

“Luke! Still here, I see.” Dallas slid off the saddle and shook his hand warmly.

Butcher grabbed up Roper in a massive bear hug and lifted her off her feet. “Damn, it’s good to see you!”

Roper yelped. “My wound, my wound.”

Butcher set her down gently. “Damn. Sorry. It’s just…I never thought I’d see you again. You had us worried.”

Rotating her shoulder, Roper replied, “It’s all good. We’re back and we’re keeping it this way. No more separating. It’s all good.”

Butcher shook her head. “I wish that were true.”

Luke joined them.

“Why? What happened?”

“Tate and Coco took off with the transport last night.”

Roper looked at Dallas with an “I told you so” grimace. “Damn them.”

“Yeah, well, nothing we could do. It was bound to happen sooner than later. Good riddance, I say.”

Butcher’s eyes softened as she looked over at Luke. “I think we need to get Luke back to his unit. We were waiting for you guys before we take him back.”

“I’m so sorry, Luke.”

Jamming his hands in his pockets, he shrugged. “No worries. It’s not like it was mine. If you guys wouldn’t mind giving me a lift, though, I’d be grateful.”

“Not at all. Glad to oblige. As far as those other two being gone, there’s one less problem to deal with.”

“We were going to ditch them soon anyway. Did they take anything else?” Roper asked.

“Couple rifles, some food. Not bad. Quite frankly, the rest of us are thrilled.”

Dallas looked into the masonry for Cue-Ball and Safety “Everything else okay? How is Safety?”

“You mean the Giant? My god, he’s huge. He’s still sleeping. He was exhausted when Luke helped him from the transport, so I pulled out the slug and put him to bed.”

“He saved my life. Our lives. He’s staying.”

“Good. I’m glad we have a gentle giant on board. I’ll change his dressing when he gets up and give him something to eat, but…well…there’s no delicate way to put this. You guys know he’s been bitten?”

Dallas and Roper looked at each other before Roper answered. “We know. If he hasn’t turned yet, we’re going to assume he isn’t going to.” She held up a hand. “I know it’s a risk, but I’d be dead if it weren’t for him.”

Butcher tilted her head as she thought. “He seems fine to me. Lost a lot of blood, but he’s in great shape. He’ll heal fast.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys. “Those things are scattered about. Luke told us what happened to you guys and we figure some of them made it this far.”

“Where’s Cue?”

“Sleeping it off in the shade. He found some beer and drank it all. He’s paying the price for it now.”

“Luke warm beer? Ugh. I wonder why he didn’t go with the other two.”

“He said they asked him to. He replied that he was safer with people who have two brain cells to rub together. They were too stupid to realize he was dissing them.”

Dallas smiled as she examined the masonry grounds. The place had a stone wall of various flagstones ringing it and an iron gate that swung inward. It was like a little fortress. “Stone fence all around is safe. Smart choice. Let’s get Luke back to his people and then we’ll have a meeting and see what our next step is going to be.”

Butcher and Luke looked at each other, and something passed between them that did not go unnoticed by Roper or Dallas.

When they gathered around the Hummer, Dallas started to work out who would go with the Hummer, but Roper stepped up and shook her head. “Uh uh. We said no more separating.”

“The horses?” Einstein asked.

Roper hesitated, and Einstein picked right up on it.

“I’ll stay. The horses need to be watered, fed, and combed. Peanut and I will take care of them while you’re gone. She loves combing them.”

Roper messed up his hair and gave him a little shove. “Thank you. Bring Cue-Ball out to post watch. I don’t want you guys out here without a guard.”

“And make sure he stays awake,” Dallas ordered.

“Ten-four. You guys take Luke home. We’ll tidy up the horses…maybe even make dinner.”

When they came to a place safe enough to drop Luke off, everyone said their goodbyes—Butcher’s was the longest and their hug was far more intimate than two people who had just spent the evening chatting.

“I think they’re smitten,” Dallas said as she watched Butcher hugging Luke goodbye.

“He’s a good guy. My heart hurts for her if she’s fallen in love with a military guy.”

“Fallen in love? That’s a little premature, don’t you think?”

Roper shook her head. “His eyes never leave her. They have that military connection you and I can’t begin to understand. Trust me on this. She’s smitten.”

When Butcher returned to the car, they both sensed something off—something deeper than just a sad goodbye.

Butcher looked at them through red-rimmed eyes and said, “Luke told me that getting out of California isn’t enough.”

Dallas blinked. “What does that mean?”

Butcher rubbed her face with her hands. “He said the other states have lost their battles and they’ll be pulling out in a couple of days. The whole country has gone to shit.”

Roper faced her in the back of the Hummer. “So, the desert?”

Butcher shook her head. “It’s out. He thinks it would just be a band-aid for us and we’d have to be on the move again.”

“Mexico?”

Another shake. “The Federales, local police, and people from all over Mexico have flooded the borders, guns in hand, to keep us in. Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua have also sent troops to help stabilize the border between us and Mexico.”

“You mean to keep us out.”

Butcher shook her head. “In. Canada and Mexico are scared shitless we’ll bring this to them so they are doing everything they can to keep us in. Both countries are shooting first and asking questions later. He said the California-Mexico border looks like a war zone. Dead bodies scattered everywhere, baking and rotting in the heat.”

“Canada would be easier to slip into,” Roper said. “Maybe we’re heading the wrong way.”

Butcher reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. “Luke thinks the easiest way to get out of here is through the Gulf of Mexico.”

“Texas?”

She shook her head. “Louisiana. The bayou makes it nearly impossible for the eaters to maneuver, and its way too hard to keep any sort of patrol there. It’s a virtual maze of waterways. He thinks we could hunker down out there until we got enough provisions for a boat. Even then, he thinks staying hidden in the bayou is preferable to being blown to bits by some battleship.” She handed Dallas the address of the dock.

“A boat. You want us to get on a boat.”

Butcher shrugged. “Cue brought it up once and we sorta let it go, but if you think about it, it’s a decent plan. We could sleep without being on watch, and we could try to make it to one of the Caribbean islands after everything settles down.”

Dallas looked to Roper, who shrugged. “Always wanted to go to Jamaica.”

“Luke said he and his buddies only know part of what is really going on, but one thing was certain: The borders are killing zones and the body count is stacking up.”

“What about help from other countries? Have our allies completely deserted us?”

“That’s why he says he only knows so much. Our allies are aiding Mexico and Canada to keep us from spreading the virus. That’s hearsay, by the way. He’s not certain.”

As Dallas started back to the masonry plant, Butcher continued. “So, he thought a good plan was for us to get to Louisiana, take the largest ship with a sail, stock it, and get out on the water before the entire country is overrun. We keep the boat hidden in the bayou for a few months until we can ascertain just what the hell is really going on.”

“What will he do?”

“Just like Einstein said. They are cutting off northern New England and using that as a government base until our scientists can figure something out.” She shook her head. “That kid amazes me with his zombie lore. Retreat is the only way the military can hope to keep people alive.”

Dallas gripped the wheel tighter. “And the rest of us?”

“Are fucked. He says the government is loath to bomb because they aren’t keen to destroy the infrastructure. They want to fix this scientifically if they can, but to do so, they are going to have to…how did he put it? Cull the herd.”

Roper shook her head and cursed beneath her breath. “What will they do once people know that safety lies in New England?” She held up her hand. “Don’t say it. I know the answer.”

“The military has over two million soldiers. They don’t need the rest of us to restart the country. We’ve all become collateral damage.”

“Collateral my ass. I say we take Luke’s advice and get the hell out of Dodge.”

Dallas looked down at the slip in her hand. It felt so much heavier than a piece of paper. “Looks like we’re headed to the Gulf then. You guys all right with that?”

Both women nodded.

“We need to up the odds in our favor, Dallas, and I trust Luke. He wouldn’t steer us wrong. If he thinks the Gulf is safest, then I believe him.”

Dallas looked at Roper who was slightly nodding. “Then so do I.”

When they returned to the masonry plant, Safety was burning up and his wound was infected.

“We need to go into town and get better medical supplies,” Butcher said, washing her hands in a bucket of water. “I need peroxide, some bigger gauze, butterfly bandages, and a buttload of Superglue.”

“Town is a bad idea,” Einstein said, “but he is burning up.”

“Penicillin at the very least,” Butcher said. “The kids can stay here with Safety and keep him cool with cold rags.”

Dallas agreed. “What about Cue?”

“He’ll go with us.” To Einstein she said, “Can you handle being alone?”

Standing up a little straighter, he nodded. “Yeah. I got this. This place is pretty damn secure, what with the whole thing surrounded by a rock wall.”

“I’ll want you to build a solid structure behind the gate when we leave so they can’t push it in.”

“All over it. I’ll move one of those semis up to it. We’ll be fine. Just get him what he needs and hurry back.”

“Let’s roll, then. We have to get in and out quickly. Straight to the hospital. Butcher and Roper, you guys will find the meds. I’ll stay with the Hummer. Cue will watch the hospital door at the base of the stairs and shoot anyone who comes near. Any questions?”

“What if I don’t necessarily want to risk my life for a boy I don’t know?” Cue asked.

“First off, he’s a man. Secondly, if you don’t want to be part of our group, you can get along little doggie, but you need to make that decision right now. It’s your call. What’ll it be?”

Cue-Ball folded his arms. “I’m not doing anything without a rifle. No rifle, no help.”

Dallas tossed him one, which he caught with two hands. “Point that at anything other than the undead and you’ll join them.”

“Where’s the love?” Cue said under his breath as he climbed into the Hummer.

“I don’t like that guy,” Roper growled. “Can’t we leave him here? He’s as useless as tits on a boar.”

Dallas sighed. “He just wanted a rifle and now he has one. He’ll settle down now.”

They drove through a ghost town where nearly every building was one story and almost all of the windows had been busted out. At one time, it had been an old gold mining town, but now, it was just another place for meth heads to escape to and undead to limp through.

There were a couple of man eaters roaming around, but no other signs of life. The eaters never even looked up or noticed the Hummer as they drove through the deserted streets. The going was slow, and sometimes they had to get out to push cars out of the way. Abandoned cars littered the metered parking stalls and paper, lots of paper, blew across the lonely streets like tiny tumbleweeds.

“This is seriously creepy,” Butcher said as she gazed out the window. “Where are all the people?”

“Dead or hiding. We’ll be lucky if they don’t start shooting at us. I’m beginning to wonder if the Hummer is worth keeping.”

“If Luke is right, it won’t matter anymore and we won’t have to hide. We can trailer the horses, and make a push to get to the Sequoia in less time than you can shake a stick.”

Butcher watched a man eater repeatedly walk into a pole. “Trailering the horses is a good idea. I’m all for getting the hell out of here as quickly as we can. We’ll patch Safety up and get a move on whenever he’s ready to move.”

“We’ll head out in the morning. I want Safety to rest as much as you do, but we have to get the lead out. Let’s bring his fever down and sleep tonight. We can get a fresh start in the morning.” Dallas’s eyes continually scanned the streets for the living.

“Hospital up on the right,” Roper said, pointing. Eaters roamed around either side of the hospital, and Roper estimated there were ten to twelve man eaters near the door.

Dallas handed Roper her Buck knife. “Think you can make it without firing?”

Taking the knife, Roper nodded. “You two ready?”

Butcher replied, “I’ll start up the stairs first. Roper, you watch my back. Cue, you make sure no one and nothing comes up behind us.”

“Like those things can walk upstairs,” Cue muttered.

Roper slowly turned. “Can you handle the job or not?”

The atmosphere in the Hummer became thick with tension.

“I can handle it,” he groused.

Roper turned to Dallas. “Watch your backside.”

“Hurry back.”

When the doors opened, Butcher, Roper, and Cue-Ball jumped from the Hummer and ran to the hospital entrance. Butcher entered without incident, but Roper had to slash one eater in the neck before getting inside safely.

Cue-ball bashed a second eater in the face before closing the glass doors and turning the lock. Three eaters started pounding on the glass door, Cue-Ball went up a few steps so they couldn’t see him.

Still, they pounded.

It was only a matter of time before they broke the glass.

****

Roper

Roper could barely keep up with Butcher, who took the steps two at a time. When they hit the third floor, two eaters came out of side rooms and attacked them. Butcher pushed the first one down the stairs and Roper shot it through the forehead before swinging the rifle around and blowing the head off of man eater number two.

“Damn, these military rifles are so much smoother than mine.”

“Don’t get your ladywood out of whack.”

Roper chuffed. “I bet my ladywood is bigger than yours.”

Butcher chuckled as she found the room she was looking for and stood back to stare at the chaos. The whole room looked like it had been tossed. “Cover me. This is going to take a little longer than I thought.”

Roper nodded. “And what did you mean out of whack?”

Butcher started opening drawers and rifling through cabinets. “I can’t believe you don’t see it.”

“See what?” Roper’s head moved from side-to-side as she surveyed the room and kept her eyes on the hallway.

Butcher shook her head. “Boy are you clueless. Dallas. Haven’t you even noticed how she looks at you? How in the hell can you not see it?”

The rifle suddenly felt heavier and her palms sweatier. “I’m a little busy trying to stay alive.”

“Well, when you have a moment, pay attention to how she is around you. Jesus, Roper, the woman’s got it bad.”

“Bad? But I—”

“Got it!” Butcher held up a bottle of pills and dropped them into her backpack. Then she found a bottle of peroxide and that, too, went into the backpack. “Gauze, gauze. Where is the damned gauze?”

Roper thought she heard something so she put her rifle to her shoulder. “How does she look at me?”

Butcher stopped searching and shook her head again. “Like she doesn’t see anyone else.”

****

Dallas

Dallas scooted way down in the Hummer so the man eaters couldn’t see her. The moment her friends were out of sight, she began timing them. She didn’t like this one bit. She wanted to be out of this town, away from this state. She wanted to feel as if they were making some progress….hell…any progress would be great. She wanted to take her people to safety...if only she knew where that was. She needed to tell Roper…

Suddenly, a car came screeching around the corner. Popping her head up, Dallas watched as a truck filled with young guys slammed on its brakes as it skidded by the Hummer before slowly backing up.

“Shit.”

Four young guys in their twenties hopped out and surrounded the Hummer trying all four doors while one stayed in the back of the truck with his rifle poised. Reaching for her sidearm, Dallas sat up.

“Oh fuck, man,” one said, jumping back as if bitten. “There’s someone in here!”

Just then, the three eaters at the hospital door started for them and were picked off by the guy in the back of the truck, who seemed to view killing them as a sport. The others high fived and hooted and hollered each time one went down. As the third man eater was killed, several others came to the street from alleys, stores, and parking lots. They streamed out like rats to cheese.

“Get out of the Hummer, lady.” One guy said, pulling his rifle out and leveling it at Dallas’s head.

Dallas leaned away from the window and set the muzzle of her Glock against the glass. “I don’t think so.”

“You fucking kidding me?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding?”

That was when she saw it. A tiny red dot appeared on his chest a second before he was blown backwards into the street, blood erupting from his chest cavity.

“What the fuck?” one of the others yelled. “Shooter!”

The other three backed away from the Hummer, looking in the direction of the gunshot, scrambling to get back into the bed of the truck. A second shot picked off the guy who’d killed the three zombies, and as he fell from the truck, it took off, stranding three on the street.

“What the fuck? Get back here you sumbitch!” A camouflage-wearing blond yelled, waving his arms.

Already, two man eaters were feasting on their two dead friends as more closed in. They seemed to be coming from every direction. The three men pumped bullets into the surrounding man eaters, breaking windows and glass doors with erratic gunfire.

One of those doors was to the hospital.

Before Dallas could get out of the Hummer, three zombies limped in through the open hospital door. Dallas watched with interest as two of the men headed across the street to an antique store, the third turned, eyes full of fear, and said to Dallas, “A mob a them things is comin’, lady. Either get moving or get the hell out of the damn car!” Then he, too, ran for cover in the shop.

Dallas frowned. A mob? Where had they come from?

Glancing toward the north part of Main Street, she saw exactly what he was talking about.

****

Roper

At the sound of gunfire, Butcher stopped shoving meds into her backpack and glanced over at Roper, who was already making her way to the stairs. “Where you going?”

“The roof. There were shots fired and we need to see what the hell is going on out there. Dallas might need our help.”

Roper felt Butcher right behind her as she opened the emergency exit to the roof. They were only three stories up, but it was high enough for them to see everything on the street, and it didn’t look good.

Four men had surrounded the Hummer and one had his rifle pointed at the driver’s window.

“Oh shit,” Roper said, bringing her military issue M16 with laser to her shoulder and aiming it at the guy by Dallas’s door. Looking through the scope and seeing the red dot on his chest, she calmly squeezed the trigger, blowing him six feet away from the car and killing him instantly.

Butcher stroked her trigger moments later when another Neanderthal swung his rifle in their direction. “Jesus, Roper, what in the hell is going on down there?”

A sound behind them made them both whirl around, hot muzzles pointing directly at Cue.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s just me.” Cue-Ball quickly slammed the door behind him. “They’re in the hospital making their way slowly up the stairs! Help me bar the door! Hurry!”

Roper and Butcher exchanged glances.

“I’ll cover Dallas,” Butcher said. “You get the door.”

Roper ran to the door and looked around for things to put in front of it. Since it opened outward, it would be easier to block as long as what they used was heavy.

There wasn’t much on the roof, so Cue-Ball ran over to the air conditioning unit and examined it.

“Too heavy for us,” Roper said.

“Not looking to move it.” He reached up and started pulling on a bar. When it finally snapped off, he jammed the top part of the T-section under the door handle and drove the other end into the roof as hard as he could.

“That’ll hold ‘em for a while. Maybe they’ll lose interest.”

“Maybe the moon will fall out of the sky, too,” said Roper.

“Holy...shit...” Butcher murmured. “Umm...guys?”

Roper and Cue-Ball quickly rejoined Butcher at the edge of the roof, just in time to see the truck pull away, leaving three of their friends stranded in the middle of the road.

“We taking them out?” Roper said, shouldering her rifle. Just before she looked through her scope, she saw what Butcher had seen.

Streaming over from the frontage road were hundreds of man eaters. Maybe even thousands.

“Oh my God,” Roper whispered, lowering her rifle. “Look at all of them.”

When the three guys ran across the street and into the antique store, Roper yelled down, “Dallas, go! Go! Go! Get out of here!”

Butcher started capping any zombies near Dallas’s door. “She won’t leave without you.”

“Goddammit, Dallas, go! They’re coming!” Roper popped a few more, but the wave that was coming wouldn’t be stopped with the ammo they had.

“Make a path for her,” Roper said, firing into the man eaters wandering around the Hummer.

“To?”

“Not the antique store. How about that card shop over there?”

Roper nodded. They had to do something fast. The horde was closing in on the town, and once they got in, Dallas would be trapped. They would never be able to kill that many hovering around the Hummer.

“Dallas!” Roper called down. “Dallas, get out of the Hummer!”

When the driver’s door opened, Dallas pulled her rifle with her and shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up. The nearest man eater was only ten feet away. It wasn’t coming at her, but just stood there long enough for Butcher to take care of her with a single shot.

“Over here!” Roper waved her arms. “Get to the card store! We’ll create a path!”

Dallas nodded and saw Butcher pointing behind her. When Dallas turned, she understood what horde meant.

Like a wall of water in a flooded street, an army of zombies hobbled into town. There had to be hundreds of them. She realized this slight hesitation had cost her a few steps but, suddenly, heads began exploding all around her as Butcher and Roper covered for her.

Taking off running, Dallas made it to the card shop and immediately started barricading the double glass doors, throwing everything she could in front of the doors. As she did, she could hear gunshots and knew Roper and Dallas were buying her just enough time to get her door barricaded.

Heart racing, Dallas pushed furniture, filing cabinets and display cases against the door. Once the door was blocked, she peered out a small crack and watched as a few initial zombies wandered around moaning, but strangely, not one had followed her.

Not one.

Instead, they bumped into each other while a dozen or so made their way to the antique store.

The gunfire stopped suddenly, and when Dallas looked out the little slit, she saw the beginning of the horde fan out as they took over the street.

As she peered through the opening, she couldn’t figure out what was bothering her, and as she watched, she had the strangest feeling…the oddest thought that…that the zombies were actually looking for something.

****

Roper

“That’s enough,” Butcher said, lightly laying her hand on Roper’s shoulder. “She’s safe inside.”

As Roper lowered her rifle, she stared in disbelief as the horde plodded into the city, moaning, wandering, and bumping into each other and anything in their path.

“What the hell?” Cue-Ball stared at them as they moved like an amorphous blob. “What the fuck are they doing?”

Butcher cocked her head this way and that as she studied the slow moving horde. She watched in muted silence as her medic’s brain kicked into gear, putting together pieces of a puzzle that had been gnawing at the back of her brain for days. When at last she figured it out, she quietly murmured. “I’ll be damned.”

Roper joined her just as the pounding on the rooftop door began. “What do you see?”

“Jesus,” Cue-Ball said. “What are they looking for? Us?”

Butcher slowly, hesitatingly shook her head as the last piece fell into place. “You know, I would have said yes a few days ago, but look at their numbers. They’ve managed to coalesce—to grow bigger. They seem to be collecting others along the way, but I don’t think they’re looking for us.”

“Not us, but humans?” asked Roper.

Butcher shook her head again as the pounding on the door continued. “All this time, we’ve been thinking that they’re driven by some sort of bizarre hunger, that they are consumed by the drive to eat human flesh…but I think we’ve been off base. I think there’s more to it than that.”

“How so?” Cue asked, backing away from the door and the loud thumping from behind it. “Better make it quick.”

“We’ve been told this is a virus, right? But the virus doesn’t see itself that way. I’ve been struggling with something for a couple of days now…the way they act seemed so familiar to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. The horde is acting like while blood cells. I knew their actions looked familiar, but not until I saw them today, from up here did I figure them out.” She shook her head. “Like I was looking through a microscope.”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Me, too.”

Butcher looked over Cue’s shoulder. The door remained closed. “White blood cells circulate in the blood so they can go to an infection and battle it. Neutrophils kill bacteria by actually ingesting them. By eating them.” She paused for emphasis.

“Oh shit.”

“I still don’t follow,” Cue said.

Butcher checked the door once more. “The zombies don’t see themselves as a virus—”

“They see us as the virus.” Roper interjected.

Butcher ran her hand through her hair. “The way they collect other zombies is what happens when immature neutrophils sense an infection is present. They are attracted by certain chemicals and then kill the bacteria by a process called phagocytosis, in which they completely surround the bacteria and digest them. Sound familiar?”

“Let me get this straight. You’re saying those things think we’re the bacteria? And that’s why they eat us?”

Butcher nodded. “That explains why they’re gathering together and why they eat only human flesh. Whatever turned them into zombies initially, programmed them to act like white blood cells.”

“Jesus Christ on a cracker, Butcher. What do we do with that information?” asked Roper.

Before Butcher could answer her, a scraping sound caught everyone’s attention. The door behind them had actually pushed open six inches as the T-bar bent against the constant strain against the door.

“Shit.”

“We gotta get out of here,” Cue-Ball said, as the T-bar bent a little more.

Running to the edge of the roof, he looked over it. “We’re screwed. A jump this far will break bones.”

Roper took her rope off her belt. “One elevator coming up.”

“Are you crazy? We’ll never make it. It’s way worse down there.”

“We won’t make it up here, either.” Roper tied the rope to a four-inch copper pipe and turned to Butcher. “Go to the bakery next to the card shop. Make contact with Dallas and figure out how to get back to the Hummer to get us out of here.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you.” Roper looked to at Cue-Ball. “You coming?”

“Like I have a choice.”

“You go after Butcher. Follow her to the bakery.” Roper grabbed his arm. “Follow. Her.”

“I heard you.”

“We’ll cover you from the bakery then,” Butcher said.

As Roper tested the rope, she looked over at the card shop. No eaters were hanging around it, which she thought odd since a food source had entered it. As she looked at the door, she realized Dallas had removed most of the barricade.

“Change of plans. Dallas has removed the barricade from the door. We need to stay together if at all possible, so head to the card shop.”

“That’s better. When she sees us coming, she can help cover.” Butcher agreed.

Tossing the rope over the side, and seeing that the drop would now only be two stories, Roper looked into Butcher’s face. “See you on the ground.”

“You sure as shit better.”

Together, Roper and Cue-Ball cleared a landing for Butcher, who rappelled quickly down the rope, landed, and took off running for the card store, bashing the head in of any zombie in her way.

Those man eaters aware of her presence were quickly put down by Roper, and as she reached the card shop, Dallas opened the door, pulled her in, and closed it again.

“She made that look easy,” Cue-Ball said.

The moaning from behind them was louder now. The door was open enough that they could put their arms through.

“Go!”

Cue-Ball was much slower getting down the rope and as Roper covered him, the door behind her burst open.

The first three eaters fell on their already mangled faces, allowing Roper to fire at the next two fighting to get over the three struggling to get up. She could hear Dallas and Butcher’s weapons as they covered Cue-Ball, but she knew she probably was not going to make it this time.

When the first three finally got out of the way, Roper knew she had to make a run for it or they would be on her before she could get to the rope.

Flinging her rifle over her shoulder, Roper grabbed the rope and started lowering herself. Hand over hand, she made it to the middle of the rope before man eater bodies began falling all around her.

“Oh fuck,” she muttered, hanging on tightly as a zombie brushed by her shoulder. Like sheep off a cliff, the zombies walked off the edge of the roof, and in horror, Roper knew it was only a matter of time before one of them fell and took her with them.

That time came sooner than she wanted.

****

Dallas

The moment she saw the rope go over the edge, Dallas started taking the barricade away from one of the glass doors. The zombies that had walked by the doors were no longer hanging around, but there were still at least three dozen or more wandering around the streets. She would need to cover them if they were going to come down the rope. The rope only went to the bottom of the middle of the second floor. They’d still have a good twenty-foot drop after that.

Dallas could only imagine what was happening on the roof that made Roper choose to go down the side of the building, but it must be bad for them to lower themselves into the crowd of man eaters.

Once the door was cleared, Dallas shouldered her rifle and waited.

Butcher was the first to rappel down the rope, and she did so quickly, the man eaters had no time to react. She hit the ground in a crouched position, sprang up and bolted toward Dallas, who stepped back into the card shop with Butcher in her grasp just as Roper shot two zombies in the head.

“What the hell is going on up there?” Dallas asked.

“They came up the stairs and are just about through the barricade. We had no choice.” Butcher looked over Dallas’s shoulder and saw Cue-Ball struggling down the rope.

Opening the door, Dallas and Butcher cleared the area around him, and when he fell, he landed on two dead zombies. Butcher dispatched two more, who had reached for him, but it was obvious to her he wouldn’t make it to the card shop.

As Cue-Ball rose and got his bearings, he, too, realized he wouldn’t make it, so he turned his rifle around and began smashing faces as he made his way to the Hummer. Just as he flung open the passenger door, a zombie bit at his arm, narrowly missing it, and received a smashed in face for his efforts. Once in the Hummer, Cue-Ball locked the doors as the horde surrounded it, banging on the windows and moaning.

“There she is,” Dallas said, opening the door just as Roper started down the rope.

Butcher leveled her rifle at the few who were under the rope, but did not fire. All of the creatures were now moving toward the Hummer.

“Cue must be crapping his pants right about now.”

“Oh god.” Dallas lowered her rifle as she watched the first three zombies walk right off the roof and splat on the ground below. “Oh, Christ, no.”

“What are they doing?” Butcher asked incredulously.

“They have no depth perception or sense of fear,” Dallas replied, thinking back through the ever-growing zombie file Einstein filled in her mind.

Just then, one of the man eaters struck Roper’s shoulder as it plummeted to the ground, but Roper managed to hang on.

“Oh no. No, no, no,” Dallas let her rifle fall to her side as she took five steps toward the street.

“Dallas, get back here.”

Looking down the street at the approaching horde, Dallas knew there was not enough time. Not unless…and then it happened.

One of the falling zombies smashed right into Roper, knocking her off the rope. She plummeted down, landing with a thud on top of one of the jumpers, breaking her fall, a loud whooshing sound escaped her mouth as all air left her.

Dallas took one look to her left and knew it was over for Roper. There just wasn’t enough time to get to her and get her to safety.

Turning to Butcher, she said, “Take care of Einstein for me, will you?”

“You can’t help her, Dallas. She’s done. Get back in here.”

Shrugging, Dallas said, “Everyone dies sometime, right? I read a book once. The main character said I’d rather die with her than live without her. Once they get to us, end it. Please.” Dallas bolted out to the street, zig-zagging around the walking dead until she came to Roper, who was just getting to her feet and trying to suck in air.

“What…the hell…are you…doing?” Roper panted.

“Keeping a promise.” Dallas looked to her left, then her right. There was no place for them to go. There were hundreds on either side, all making their way to the Hummer where a trapped Cue-Ball lay in a ball

“Dallas, no.”

Dallas smiled softly. “Too late. We’re hosed, but at least we’re together.” Putting her arms around Roper’s neck, Dallas pulled her close and whispered, “Close your eyes and think about one of the greatest places in the world you’d like to take me.”

Dallas felt Roper clutching her back as the two women stood in the middle of the street surrounded by the moaning, fetid man eaters swaying back and forth as they ambled toward them and the Hummer.

Ten feet.

Eight feet.

Five feet.

That moaning was so incredibly loud, Dallas could barely hear Roper when she said, “If I didn’t know we were gonna die, I’d kill you for this.”

Dallas’s entire body trembled at what she knew was coming: Being eaten alive as the man eaters tore out her intestines and ripped her muscles off her bones. How long did the pain last? Did you feel every bite, every claw scratch? Did you just finally bleed out and die? When you think about how you might die, being eaten by another human being probably didn’t make the list, and Dallas clenched her eyes, hoping it went quickly—waiting for Butcher’s bullet to end this fear.

It didn’t come.

The shuffling of their feet stopped, and even the moaning seemed quieter, and as Dallas opened her eyes, she saw hundreds of lifeless ones staring back at her.

“Roper?” she whispered through unmoving lips, as if hearing her might trigger their aggression.

“I see it,” she said, still clutching Dallas. “What are they waiting for?” Roper pulled slightly away and carefully looked around them. They were completely surrounded by the undead, who stood there cocking their maggot-ridden heads from side-to-side, as if confused.

“I don’t know, but don’t move.”

“Seriously?”

“Shhh.” Dallas swallowed hard and tried to control her trembling. It was more than unnerving being so close to the undead, with empty eye sockets, torn flesh, and putrid stench. It was petrifying. “Let’s just wait.”

Then, as if on cue, they all slowly continued walking toward the Hummer, completely ignoring the clutching duo. As they plodded by, some actually brushed up against them, but not one zombie even cast so much as a single glance at them or tried to take a tiny nibble.

It was as if they weren’t even there.

“What the fuck?”

“They want Cue-Ball,” Dallas said.

“Oh my god, Dallas, I think…I think we’re going to live.”

When the last zombie wandered by, completely uninterested in them, Dallas looked over at the card shop. Butcher, who should have shot them both by now, was nowhere to be seen.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.” Roper said.

Before Dallas could answer, the door to the antique store opened and the three guys took off running in the opposite direction of the Hummer.

Immediately, the horde turned and started after them. Dallas and Roper, still grasping onto each other, closed their eyes as the zombies trudged after the men sprinting out of town.

When the horde was completely away from the Hummer, Dallas and Roper bolted for it, jumped in, pushed Cue-Ball to the back seat and started the engine.

“What the fuck was that?” Cue asked. “They just…ignored you!”

Dallas ignored him. “Where is she?” She asked Roper.

“There!” Roper pointed to the antique store, and standing out front, watching the man eaters amble after the men, stood Butcher, rifle on her hip.

Dallas pulled up to the door, Roper flung hers open, Butcher dove in, and they peeled out in the opposite direction of the horde, leaving hundreds of zombies chasing after the men going.

The Hummer was silent for the first five minutes.

Dallas gripped the wheel so tightly her knuckles were white. Roper stared straight ahead, and Cue-Ball just breathed hard.

“What the hell just happened?” Butcher asked. “What the fuck happened back there?”

“I wish I knew, Butcher,” Dallas said. “I wish I knew.”

****

Once Safety’s dressing had been changed and everyone had eaten, they surveyed the surrounding wall to make sure it was safe for the night. No one was ready to discuss what had or as in this case, hadn’t happened back in town. By Butcher’s reckoning, if the horde moved at one mile an hour, and they were a good fourteen miles from the other side of town, they could get some much needed rest in the before heading off in the morning.

Not everyone was happy about the idea of staying so close to the town, but Roper’s ribs were bruised from her fall, Safety was sore and drugged, and everyone was emotionally drained. It just wasn’t the time to pack up and move everyone out. Dallas simply didn’t have it in her.

“I want a fire,” Roper said bluntly. “And I don’t give a shit who might see it.”

“Excuse me?”

“A fire. A campfire. I don’t care about choppers or the military. I want a goddamn fire.”

“I’m with Roper,” Butcher said. “I think we all need some comfort...some warmth.”

Dallas looked at Einstein, who shrugged. “Well then, make yourselves a fire.”

Fifteen minutes later, a roaring fire was blazing in the middle of the quarry. After they laid their sleeping bags down and everyone sat around the fire, it was Cue-Ball who finally asked the question on everyone’s minds. “Is anyone going to explain what the hell happened back there? Why they just walked on by? They should have attacked you for God’s sake.”

Roper and Dallas exchanged the same questioning gaze.

“It was the damndest thing,” Cue-Ball continued, slowly shaking his head. “There you were, smack dab in the middle of ‘em. Hundreds, maybe, and yet, not one, not one, even came close enough to biting you?”

Einstein frowned. “What? Are you kidding me? You guys were in the middle of a horde and survived? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Dallas nodded and inhaled a deep, tired-sounding breath. “They just stood there staring at us, as if they couldn’t figure out what we were. They didn’t moan, they didn’t lunge, they didn’t do jackshit except stare through those vacant eyes. It was…surreal.”

Roper reached for Dallas’s hand, which was warm from the fire. “Like bugs under a microscope. It was so creepy, waiting to be eaten one second, being stared at the next, being completely ignored after that. My heartbeat hasn’t returned to normal. Not sure it ever will.”

“And I’ll never get that stench of death out of my nostrils.” Dallas looked at Roper. The flames cast eerie flickering shadows off her face. “They stink of rotting flesh, ammonia, blood, and death. Their teeth are all loose in their heads and those eyes—” she shook her head in disbelief. “Those eyes are the worst—looking but not looking at us.” She shivered. “Gross.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Peanut was asleep with Zeus next to her, Einstein fed the fire, and Butcher drew in the dirt with a stick.

“So they went after those three guys, but left you two alone?” Einstein kept shaking his head. “That doesn’t make any sense in the zombie world at all. I’ve never heard of zombies passing up easy flesh before. It had to have been something you were wearing or ate, something those guys didn’t have.”

“A vagina?” Roper said softly.

No one laughed.

“Whatever it was,” Butcher said, looking up, you both possess it or they would have attacked at least one of you.”

Roper rose. “I need to do a perimeter check. I’m sorry, guys, but I’m just not ready to analyze everything that happened back there. I want to heave and cry at the same time.”

“Take Zeus with you. He’ll go as long as Peanut is asleep.” She knelt down and pulled the covers up around Peanut’s chin.

When Roper was gone, Butcher continued. “We may be sitting on something that could turn this epidemic around. We just need to figure out what you and Roper have in common.”

Dallas nodded, leaning against a square stone. She hadn’t yet calmed down. Her hands, when not holding Roper’s hand, trembled and were clammy. She had to hold her own hand to keep them from shaking. “Okay. Let’s see if we can narrow it down.”

Butcher studied the fire for a moment. “Whatever it is...it’s different than what the majority of the world is or has. It could be anything from a childhood disease to a vaccination, to a pheromone you emit. When Roper returns, I’ll start with the questions. Einstein, will you keep track of their answers and toss in any ideas you might have?”

“You bet, but Butcher, I can’t imagine anything that could have prevented those man eaters from attacking them. I mean, really, what are the odds they didn’t attack either of them? Very, very low.”

“You didn’t see them, Einstein. They were completely surrounded. Completely. Not one eater attempted to attack them. Not one.”

“Then I guess we have to assume they both have or don’t have something the rest of us have or don’t have.” Einstein reached into his backpack and pulled out a pen. “Let’s figure out what that is.”

Cue-Ball cracked his knuckles and leaned toward Dallas. “So, sweetheart, how are you different from the rest of the population?”

Dallas thought about her childhood illnesses, the medications she took, anything she did, wore, or at that would be different enough to avoid being bitten or eaten, but those weren’t what stood out most in her mind.

“Well...I am gay. That’s different. I don’t know that it—”

Butcher shook her head. “Yes, but Roper’s not, right? We’re looking for something you both have in common.”

No one seemed to know the answer.

“I’m not what?” Roper asked, coming out of the shadows with Zeus by her side.

Einstein was first on the trigger. “Gay. We’re trying to figure out what you two have in common, and Dallas started with gay. If I remember correctly, you told me your boyfriend’s name was Chris.”

Sitting next to Dallas, Roper shook her head. “I said my other half’s name was Chris—short for Christina.”

Everyone stared at her.

“So—you’re gay?”

Roper nodded. “Last time I checked, yeah. Why?”

Now everyone turned to Butcher, who was scribbling in the dirt again. “Okay...okay, hear me out. It’s a long shot, and I could be way off base here, but it’s just as viable a scenario as anything else.”

Einstein tossed another log on the fire and checked on Peanut. She had fallen right to sleep next to Safety and she threw one arm over his thick neck. The way the light hit her little arm made him look more carefully at something on her upper arm. Leaning over, Einstein gently pulled her short sleeve back. Closing his eyes, he shook his head and pulled the sleeve back down. He stood for a long time just staring down at her. So much like his little sister. So vulnerable and sweet. It hurt his heart to think of her turning into one of them. Glancing over at Butcher and the others, Einstein sighed. Staying alive was getting harder and harder.

So was making smart choices.

“I’ve been thinking about this from a purely scientific point of view,” Butcher continued. “This virus was man-made, right? That means someone has programmed it to seek out flesh...human flesh.” Butcher let that sink in. “That’s why they don’t go after other animals or each other.”

“Right. We’ve established that so far.”

Butcher held up her hand. “The germ of that idea, yes, but not the entire picture. Whoever designed this virus had to use a trigger that pushes the eaters toward humans, right?”

Everyone nodded.

“And to do that, they would have to have programmed in DNA. Well, here’s what we know: They don’t eat other flesh, they don’t attack each other, and they left these two alone.”

The only sound was the fire crackling in the air.

“But what you’re suggesting is they can tell the difference between gays and straights. That’s impossible.”

“Is it? What I’m suggesting...well...this is much more scientific, but, in a nutshell, I believe these two ladies may just have proven that homosexuality is genetic.”

“Come again?”

“Yeah, what the fuck kind of nonsense is that? Cue demanded. “This is rubbish.”

Butcher held her hand up. “Hey, I said it was a long shot, but the more I think about it, the greater the possibility this is.”

Dallas waved everyone off. “Everyone please let her finish.”

“You know, back in the eighties and nineties when they discovered how obesity and addictive behaviors, along with high intelligence and creativity, had genetic markers?”

Dallas nodded. “That’s about when everyone began examining DNA for the cause of everything.”

“Not the cause, Dallas, the construct. Once scientists discovered the exact substance holding our genetic makeup, they began DNA sequencing to be able to read that information.”

“Like the Rosetta Stone is to hieroglyphics,” Einstein added.

“Exactly. We know genes are responsible for dozens of attributes as well as hereditary conditions. For years, people have debated about the so-called gay gene, but no one has really looked for it or the marker, for obvious reasons.”

Dallas and Roper looked at each other before Roper said, “Because what will the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religions have to say if science discovers we really are born this way?”

Butcher tossed her stick into the fire. “Exactly. They can’t hate you if you’re born that way, and apparently, they need someone to throw stones at, so no one is in a hurry to discover the truth. If someone created a virus to attack a specific genetic code and gays aren’t on that code—”

“No fucking way.” Cue-Ball muttered. “That’s crazy talk. It’s a god damn choice and those things...maybe they wanted more meat on their bones. Maybe it was their perfume or what they ate, but passing them because they’re homos? That’s just bullshit.”

Butcher shook her head. “Look. There’s a reason those things only eat humans. That’s fact number one. Number two, two lesbians were surrounded but not eaten or attacked. Fact number three—”

“Wait.” Roper crawled over to Safety and gently uncovered his arm, showing the bite mark. “Safety was bitten, but he said they weren’t after him. His arm got in the way.”

Cue-Ball immediately scrambled away. “What the fuck?”

“Safety was bitten, but he never turned.”

Cue-Ball did not come back. “Don’t tell me you think that football player is...gay?”

“One way to find out.”

“Wait,” Butcher said. “If they bit him and he is gay, then that shoots my theory to hell.”

Roper shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. They weren’t after him when they bit him. It was an accident.” Gently nudging Safety awake, Roper leaned over and whispered, “Sorry to wake you, big guy, but we really need to know something. It’s important.”

“Sure,” he said groggily.

“Are you gay?”

Her question was met with thick silence.

“It’s okay, pal. Me and Dallas are. We think it might be why you didn’t turn after you were bitten.”

Safety’s reply was a white-toothed grin. “And here I thought it was ‘cause I’m black.”

“Black yes, but are you gay?”

More silence, followed by a slight nod. “Guess this black cat is outta the bag. Yeah, Roper, I am.”

No one said a word.

“Thank you. Go back to sleep.”

“Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. Go back to sleep.”

After a few more minutes of silence, Cue-Ball grumbled. “Coincidence. Plain and simple.”

Butcher rose and stretched. “Maybe. And maybe the zombies only go after a specific genetic code. I think maybe we all ought to think about that and we can discuss it when everyone’s not so edgy.”

“That’s hogwash.” Cue-Ball got in his sleeping bag. “Wake me when it’s my turn to watch. Whatever hypotheses you all come up with, keep them to yourselves. I’m not interested.”

Butcher grabbed her rifle. “I’ve got first watch. Look, I don’t know if I’m grasping at straws or what, and maybe I’m way off base, but there’s a reason why those things didn’t attack you. Figuring out why could very well save our lives.”

When Butcher left, Einstein moved closer to Roper and Dallas. “It’s plausible, you know? Butcher’s scenario. All three of you escaped harm and you’re all gay.”

“If it’s true, then someone’s government created an army of undead that…” Dallas’s voice trailed off.

“Attacks only the straight human population,” Roper finished for her. “Unintentionally, they will have missed our people entirely.”

Einstein nodded, “If that’s the case, it’s brilliant to create creatures that only eat humans.”

Dallas and Roper’s heads whipped around.

“Think about it. If you want to take a country over without having to rebuild infrastructure or deal with rebellions after the takeover, you destroy only the human population. This saves the water supply, roads, buildings, agriculture, cows, sheep. Everything. Only potential rebels are removed.”

“But how do they conquer the zombies then?”

Einstein shrugged before burrowing down in his sleeping bag. “Who’s to say they don’t have some sort of remedy? Something that shuts the dead down? Then, all they have to do is come in, clean up, and take over. Brilliant, really.”

Dallas watched Roper’s expression change in the firelight. “Except they didn’t count on one thing.”

Dallas nodded. “Us.”

****

Dallas had only been on watch for ten minutes when Roper joined her, sitting so close their thighs touched. They sat in silence for nearly fifteen minutes before Roper finally spoke.

“I’ve replayed today over and over in my mind and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what the hell you were thinking jumping into that mess of decay.”

Dallas chuckled. “When I ran into the center of the man eaters with reckless abandon?”

Roper faced her. “Yeah. What the hell? And don’t tell me you were keeping a promise.”

Staring down at her hands, Dallas sighed loudly. “I guess I don’t see the point of doing all of this without you.”

Roper stared up at the moon for a few moments, Butcher’s words beating at the door of her heart. “Oh. I...I think I’m finally getting it.”

Dallas made a chuffing sound. “Slow learner.” Facing her so that their knees were touching, Dallas held Roper’s hands. “Just what is it you think you get?”

Roper gently tucked some hair behind Dallas’s ear and smiled warmly. “You like me.”

This made Dallas laugh. “Or something.”

“I’ve been afraid to care about you ever since that one day...” Roper’s voice trailed off. “I still can’t believe you raced into the fray to...to what? Die with me?” Roper blinked back tears that had been waiting patiently to fall. “You did, didn’t you? You weren’t going to let me die alone.”

“Watching you die wasn’t on my agenda. I’m sorry, Rope. I just couldn’t do it.”

“You realize it was a stupid thing to do, right?”

“Au contraire. Now we have begged the question, why weren’t we eaten? I think we might have inadvertently stumbled onto something that could very well change the course of this whole fucked up thing.”

“I’m pretty sure it was my B.O. I reek.”

Dallas smiled as she took Roper’s face in her hands. “You smell alive and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you that way.”

As the moonlight bathed them in muted light, Dallas pulled Roper into a kiss that felt as though they had done so a million times. Her hands left Roper’s face and as her fingers found their way through her cropped off hair, her tongue gently made its way through parted, welcoming lips. They kissed without parting for several minutes before Dallas leaned back and studied Roper’s shadowy face, her heart banging against her chest. “I’ve been waiting forever to kiss you.”

Roper leaned her forehead against Dallas’s. “All you had to do was ask.”

“I thought you were straight.”

Roper chuckled. “Then you weren’t looking carefully enough, but who could blame you? It’s not like we’ve had time to do anything but survive.”

Dallas closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “I meant what I said, Roper. I don’t want to do this without you. I’ve become rather fond of you and your quirky ways.”

Roper pulled back and grinned. “Quirky?”

“You carry a rope around with you and a bad ass knife in your boot.”

“And it saved our lives.”

“That it did.”

Roper brought Dallas’s hands to her lips and kissed them. “Thank you, for wanting to die with me. As sweet as it is, I want you to promise me—”

Dallas gently placed two fingers over Roper’s lips. “I can’t and won’t promise that. We’re in this together and ever since you walked across that bridge beam like some crazy thrill-seeker, I knew that wherever you go, so do I. Life, death, here, there, you’re stuck with me.”

Roper pulled Dallas into a tight embrace and felt the rest of her lower region stir with a yearning she hadn’t felt with Chris in years. She might have allowed it to take fruition had she not heard the sound of a rock being kicked. Instantly pulling away, she immediately went for her rifle.

“It’s just me,” Einstein whispered, climbing on top of the rock pile. “Looks like you two finally figured it out, though you cost me my red licorice.”

“Cost you your—”

“Me and Butcher had a bet. I thought you guys would figure it out long before now. Butcher said people caught in survival mode don’t always feel their emotions. She won. You two have been like watching lame horses run the Kentucky Derby.”

“Oh hush,” Roper said, playfully punching him. “Surely you didn’t get out of bed to bust our chops over red licorice.”

Einstein shook his head. In the soft moonlight, he looked ten years old. “I’m worried about Safety. Ever since you said he was bitten, I’ve wondered if his fever and reaction is to the gunshot wound or if it is just a slow reaction to the virus.”

“He woke up out of a fever to admit he’s gay. I think he’s safe.”

“But we don’t know the gay thing is certain.”

Dallas looked over at Roper and nodded. “He has a point.”

“I’ll watch over him, Dallas, but I am not tying him up. Been there and let me tell you, it sucks.”

Einstein glanced over at the group sleeping around the fire. “I’ll share the duty with you, Rope.” Sliding off the rock pile, Einstein said, “You know, it’s nice to know that even in an apocalyptic epidemic, people can still find love.”

As he sauntered back to the fire, Roper cocked her head at Dallas. “Did he say love?”

Dallas chuckled. “He certainly did.”

****

Roper

They were awakened by that ghoulish moaning just outside the walls. Roper was out of her bag with rifle in hand immediately, and one look at the rock pile confirmed her suspicions.

Cue-Ball had fallen asleep yet again on his watch.

Gently nudging everyone awake, Roper did a quick perimeter search to make certain the wall hadn’t been breached. Then, she climbed up the rock pile and slapped Cue across the face.

“Wake up, god damn you!”

Cue-Ball’s first instinct was to reach for the rifle Roper was standing on.

“Get up!”

Slowly getting to his feet, Cue-Ball rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “I’ve only been asleep a little—”

“Are you fucking out of your mind? Do you hear them? Get your shit together. We leave in five minutes.”

Climbing off the pile, Roper returned to the now dying fire to find everyone else, including Safety, already packed and ready to go.

“What do you want to do about the horses?”

Roper bit her bottom lip as she thought. “We need a trailer. I mean, we could always use someone else’s horses, but everyone here except me is a novice rider and I know mine are trained.”

“Then let’s get a trailer and make a beeline for the National Park and hope we don’t get blown to bits along the way.” Dallas addressed Roper. “It’s time we put the pedal to the metal.”

When everyone was ready, Safety thanked everyone for taking care of him.

“Feeling better?”

He nodded. “Much. Shoulder still hurts like hell, but I’m over the worst of it.”

Roper handed him a rifle. “You need a tutorial?”

“Point and click, right?”

Roper laughed. “Keep it to your shoulder or it will kick like a motherfucker.”

In Safety’s hand, it looked like a little kid’s gun.

“It’s going to be a tight squeeze. Peanut, you sit on Einstein’s lap. Butcher, you and Roper share the front, the three guys in the back.”

The moaning grew louder.

“That...that’s not the horde, is it?” Cue-Ball asked.

Butcher shook her head. “Not unless they’ve learned to run. These are just eaters from another mother.”

“Zombies we should have been warned about,” Roper said, glaring at Cue-Ball. “Thank god there were no breaches in the fence or we’d all be zombie chow.”

“Not all of us,” Cue-Ball muttered. “Just the normal ones would be ea—”

Roper had her forearm against Cue-Ball’s throat so fast and hard, it knocked his hat off when she pinned him against the Hummer. “We wouldn’t have to DD out of here, if you hadn’t fallen asleep on the job.”

“Roper—”

“No, Dallas, I’m sick of his shit. He is irresponsible and—” Before she could finish, Cue-Ball landed a right hook to her temple, knocking her backwards.

“Get your goddamned hands offa—”

Cue-Ball’s last word was caught in a throat now being squeezed by Safety’s large hand.

“You ever raise your hands to any one of these women again, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do. You feel me?”

Cue-Ball tried to nod, but Safety’s hand was in the way

“I mean it, asshole. I may be the new kid on the block, but I’ll use you as bait for the zombies next time you touch one of these girls. Got it?”

Cue-Ball managed to move his head slightly.

“Now get your sorry ass in the car.” Safety growled, releasing his grip on Cue’s throat. Turning to Roper, Safety asked her if she was okay.

“Thank you. I’m fine.”

“A man who hits a woman is a low life sumbitch and I won’t have it. Sorry if that cramps anyone’s style.”

“No one’s style is cramped, Safety, but please get in the Hummer.”

The moaning grew louder as everyone crammed into the car.

“The horses?” Dallas asked over the hood of the Hummer.

“I’ll open the gate, you drive out. I’ll close it behind me.”

Dallas stared at her.

“Look, if those things didn’t kill me in town, maybe they’ll never attack me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t know that.”

“Dallas, I can’t just let my horses roam the hills. I have to lock them up in here. If you have a better suggestion—”

“I do.” Dallas leaned over and said something to Safety, who got out and pulled Cue-Ball fighting, kicking and cussing out of the Hummer.

“You’re responsible for this mess, Cue, and you’re going to protect those horses with your life.”

“Like hell I am.”

“Like hell you are and here’s how this is going to go down.”

****

Dallas motioned to Roper, who swung the metal gate open. A dozen zombies near the gate all started toward the opening. The Hummer cruised over half a dozen before Cue-Ball, perched on top of the Hummer, yelled,” Come and get it, assholes!”

When the man eaters turned around to follow the meat on top of the Hummer, Roper swung the gate closed and latched it. When she turned back around, there stood three stragglers, looking at her through decaying eyes. She could easily make a run for it, but they were doing nothing more than standing there—not even moaning—just standing there, swaying slightly like they had done in town.

“I’ll be damned.”

Easing her way around the three eaters, Roper walked backwards, keeping an eye on the man eaters as she also watched the Hummer turn right, then right again on its way back to her.

The three zombies did not move even as Roper ran a ways to give herself enough room to get into the Hummer, which she did before it could come to a complete stop.

Cue-Ball scrambled off the roof, spewing curses and shoving everyone out of the way as he crushed into the jeep. “Never again,” he growled. “Next time, use some other chump as human bait. I’m not doing that again. Ever.”

No one replied as the Hummer left the zombies in the dust.

When Dallas hit the frontage road, she slowed down. “They didn’t come after you again, huh?”

“Nope. Just stood there looking at me like they were trying to figure out who I am. It’s creepy.”

“Creepy is asking someone to be human bait,” Cue mumbled from the back seat.

“Can it,” Safety snapped. “We’re all safe. That’s all that matters.”

“That and getting a trailer.”

“I’ll know the road when I see it,” Roper said, trying to get comfortable in Butcher’s lap.

They weren’t three miles down the road when Roper had them take a side road. It led to a gravel road that opened to three different farmhouses.

“The one at the end of this road,” Roper said, pointing to a light blue ranch-style farmhouse perched on a small knoll at the end of the gravel road.

“How can you be so sure?” Cue-Ball asked.

“There’s a horse on the mailbox, the fence is a horse fence, there’s hay out on the grounds, and,” as they pulled in, Roper grinned and finished, “you can see the equestrian ring.”

Everyone looked up the hill.

As they drove up the driveway, it forked and Dallas took the driveway away from the house. “We don’t need the house right now. We need the barn and trailer. We’re looking for a four-horse trailer or some kind of trailer large enough for four.”

“They might have a hay trailer,” Roper said. “Whatever we find, we’ll use. We don’t have all day to look for one.”

“Oh, look!” Peanut said, pointing. “A pond! Can I go play? Please?”

Dallas looked out at a large pond, half the size of a football field. There was even a small dock.

“I’ll take her,” Butcher offered. “The kid has to have some fun, Dallas.”

Roper nodded. “The rest of us can check out the barn, horse paddocks, and that riding facility up on the hill. Einstein, you want to swim or work?”

Einstein thought for a moment. “Work. Not a fan of water.”

Dallas handed Safety the binoculars. “You’re not at a hundred percent, so why don’t you survey the area. Holler if you see anything. Anything at all.

After dropping off Butcher and Peanut, Dallas pulled up to the barn. “Be on your toes and remember, the living are as dangerous as the dead. Be careful.”

After spilling out of the Hummer, Safety stood watch over the road with a pair of binoculars to his face while Cue-Ball guarded the other side of the barn. Only Dallas, Roper, and Einstein went in. They left Zeus in the car in case he began barking at the livestock roaming freely.

When they opened the barn doors, the putrid stench of decaying flesh assaulted them, as did thousands of flies that swarmed out as soon as the daylight pierced through.

“Ugh. That’s awful.” Einstein covered half his face with his forearm.

What they found were several dead sheep and a rotting pig, which had apparently tried to eat its way out of the wooden stall.

Roper cut her eyes to Dallas. “You know what this means, right?”

Dallas nodded. “The owners were turned so quickly, they had no time to free all of the animals.”

“That could mean they’re still on the property.”

Dallas ran to the other end of the barn and told Cue-Ball what they thought. “Keep your peepers open, Cue. The owners may still be lurking around as the undead.”

“Gotcha.”

When there was nothing to salvage in the barn, they drove up to the horse arena, where they were excited to find a four-horse trailer, a two-horse trailer, and a flatbed truck.

“Oh man,” Einstein said. “A flatbed would be the perfect vehicle for carrying our stuff. We could load it up with a lot of goods.”

Roper shook her head. “Nice idea, but it’s hard enough getting gas for the Hummer.”

“Besides, we’ll be ditching both when we get to the state park.”

As Dallas started backing up the Hummer to the first trailer, a gunshot rang out. Everyone scrambled for rifles.

“Got one,” Cue-Ball said, lowering his rifle. “Looks like the family wandered up this way after being bit.”

As Roper started attaching the trailer, Safety lowered the binoculars. “We got company.”

Roper leapt up and ran to his side. She didn’t need the binoculars to see the same yellow truck that had pulled up next to Dallas in the last town. “Shit.”

Dallas was immediately out of the Hummer. “What is it?”

“Those thugs are back.”

Safety handed the binoculars to Dallas, and as she looked through them, she just barely saw the bed of the truck as it headed toward the pond, which was completely obscured by a small hill that sat between the riding ring and the barn.

“They must be following us,” she said.

“Or they heard the gunshot.”

Dallas started back for the Hummer, but Roper stopped her.

“Bad plan, Dallas.”

“Butcher and Peanut—”

“Are on their own right now. We can’t run in there guns blazing. We might do more hard than good. We can better help them by closing off the main road to the house.”

Safety nodded. “I agree. We don’t need a shoot out.”

Dallas hesitated.

“You know I’m right. Come on. Everyone grab a gun. We’ll leave the Hummer here and walk down along that path over there. No one is shooting. No one will let those thugs know we’re here. Understand?”

Everyone nodded.

As they quickly made their way down the path, Dallas feared for Butcher and Peanut, and she cursed herself for not leaving someone to guard them.

“Not your fault,” Roper whispered. “I didn’t think of it either.”

Dallas looked over her shoulder. “How did you know?”

“I pay attention.”

Dallas kept moving forward. “I guess you do.”

Before they could get to the gravel road, three gunshots echoed in the air.

“Shit!” Dallas started to take off, when Safety wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground. “No you don’t. You’ll get us all killed.”

“Let. Me. Go!”

“Keep your voice down, Dallas. Safety, put her down,” Roper demanded. “No one is going off half-cocked.”

When Safety set Dallas down, they continued to the mouth of the driveway. “Cue-Ball, you and Einstein stay here. If they come out—”

Everyone waited.

Dallas shrugged. “Shoot the engine. Shoot low for the tires. Assume they have one if not both of our girls.” She took off with Roper and Safety right behind her.

“Take it easy,” Roper said from behind. “Don’t go charging in until we know what we’re up against.”

When they rounded the corner to the pond, the truck was gone.

So were Butcher and Peanut.

“No.” Dallas said. “No, no, no.”

“Butcher!” Safety yelled. “Peanut!”

No one moved while they waited for an answer.

When none came, they ran to the pond. There was no sign of a struggle, no blood, nothing to indicate anything bad had happened. They were just gone.

“Oh god,” Dallas uttered, turning to go back to the Hummer.

She’d gotten eight steps away when Roper called her back. “Dallas.”

“No, Roper. I’m going after them.”

“But they’re right here.”

Dallas whipped around just in time to see Butcher and Peanut coming out of the pond, reeds sticking out of their mouths.

Butcher grinned, holding the reed out. “Looks like all those war movies I watched growing up saved our bacon.”

No one said a word until Peanut spoke up, “That was fun!”

Roper threw Einstein a look, which he caught, and he took Peanut and Butcher back to the Hummer so she could dry off.

“That was way too close for comfort,” Butcher said, wringing the water from her shirt. “I heard them coming before I saw them. I think they stopped at the fork long enough for me to get Peanut into the water.”

“But how?”

Butcher grinned. “I asked her if she wanted to be like the Little Mermaid.” She shrugged. “My niece loves the Little Mermaid. It was all I could think of.”

“It probably saved your lives.”

Butcher looked out over the road. “Those boys might not be looking for us, but if they found us, it wouldn’t be pretty.”

Dallas visibly shuddered. “Let’s get the trailer and get the hell out of here.”

As they walked back up the hill, Roper pulled Dallas aside. “It’s not a coincidence they chose this driveway, Dallas. You know that, right? They are either trailing the Hummer or want something…different from us.”

“What do you want me to do, Roper? Just start killing everyone we run across?”

They walked in silence for a few more steps before Roper answered softly, “No, but I want you to be ready to do just that when the time comes.” Taking Dallas’s hand in hers, she held it as they walked back up the hill. “For better or worse, this is our family now and we need to protect them at any cost.”

“At any cost?”

Roper nodded “At any cost.”

****

When they returned for the horses, the man eaters had dispersed and only a dozen or so were wandering around the frontage road. They managed to get the horses without incident and cram back into the Hummer for a ride that lasted a little over two hours before Dallas started eying the gas gauge.

Everyone in the back was asleep, except for Einstein, whose eyes scanned the countryside in search of possible danger.

Facing him, Roper asked, “What’s on your mind, kid?”

Roper’s butt cheek had fallen asleep several miles ago as she shared the front seat with Butcher.

“Too coincidental them finding us.”

“You think they’re after us, too, don’tcha?”

He shrugged. “They probably want the Hummer and our weapons. We have military grade weapons. They had Billy Bob and Jethro guns.”

Butcher did not open her eyes as she said, “He’s right. Shotguns, squirrel guns, single shot action rifles. They want our stuff.”

“Stuff is free anywhere. They just have to go into any town and get it.”

“Too risky. Besides, Einstein’s right. They’ve wanted the Hummer since way back when. The question is how is it they seem to know where we’re headed?”

Einstein stared out the window at the golden hills that seemingly stretched on forever. “I don’t know, but they do, and we’re going to have to deal with them sooner than later.”

Roper turned back around and made eye contact with Butcher, who was nodding. “The kid’s right, Dallas. We have enough to worry about without our own kind hunting us down. We have to be ready to fight—ready to kill them if need be. You can’t afford to be soft on this one, Dallas. They’d kill us in a nano. We need to be ready to do the same.”

When Dallas didn’t respond, Butcher did. “She’s right. We’re already looking over our shoulders for the undead and the military. Adding those assholes to the mix is exhausting and dangerous.”

“We’re not killers,” Dallas said softly.

“Dallas, we live in a kill or be killed world now. This is no time for you to pander to your morals.”

“I understand that, Butcher, I really do. But we’re not going to go out of our way to hunt them down because they’re dangerous. When and if they become a danger to us, we’ll do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves, but going after them makes us no better than they are.”

Einstein shook his head. “That could be a mistake, Dallas. They’ve come up on us a couple of times now.”

They all waited for Dallas to respond and when she didn’t, Butcher closed her eyes and went back to sleep. Only Einstein and Roper stayed awake, looking out the windows at the yellow hills that made up the mid California summer; hills dotted with both dead and living farm animals.

Roper knew the stench of death was nothing compared to what it would be in another week. The daily temperatures were beginning to climb and soon domestic dogs would form into wild packs, killing the farm animals still living. If this wasn’t the apocalypse, she didn’t know what was.

“Roper?”

Roper rolled her window down and stuck her head out.

She’d heard it, too—the faint sound of a chopper in the distance. “Go! Go! Go!”

Dallas shook her head. There was no “go” with four horses and a trailer hitched to the back of the Hummer.

“Then we get out and fight.” Butcher sat up so quickly, Roper hit her head on the windshield.

“I’m with Butcher. If we’re gonna go out, I’d rather go out in a blaze of gunfire.”

Dallas quickly veered off right there in the middle of the street, the horses trailer rocking back and forth as she did. “Safety, Einstein, Cue-Ball, and Butcher over on that side of the road. The rest with me. Let’s not make this easy on them.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Cue-Ball said. “You really think you can take out the chopper? All it’s gonna do is blow up the Hummer and the horses, and leave us here to be eaten. There has to be—”

No one heard what had to be as they all piled out and took off to take cover among the trees.

Roper and Dallas ran behind a huge oak tree and readied their weapons.

“Think this is it?” Roper asked, spotting the chopper as it came over the crest of the road.

“It’s not looking good, but if we go, we are taking them with us.”

Dallas blinked several times as she steadied her aim on it. The helicopter looked like it was hovering in the distance. Dallas felt her stomach drop. Would they really deploy missiles against civilians?

She’d already seen the answer to that question.

“In another life, I’d have fallen madly in love with you,” Dallas said softly, putting slightly more pressure on the trigger as she looked through the scope.

“Who are you trying to fool? You are madly in love with me in this life. Why else would you have been willing to be eaten alive with me?” Roper watched with interest as the chopper started to land a good hundred and fifty yards away. “Tres romantic being eaten with the one you love. Quite a good first impression”

“Yeah, well don’t get a big head over it. Maybe I’m willing to get eaten for good friends, too.”

Roper smiled and kept her sight fixed on the pilot. “I’ve got the pilot. Let’s hope Butcher does, too.”

“I’m sure she does. You know, it’s okay to say you love me back.” Dallas adjusted the rifle butt on her shoulder. “Because I know you do. You like me, like me.”

Roper chuckled softly. “You know, in fifty thousand dreams I’ve had of finding the right woman and telling her I think she hung the moon, I never envisioned I’d be holding a rifle while having this discussion.”

“Is that a yes?” Dallas glanced over from her rifle and saw Roper looking at her.

“That’s a big, fat yes. I think you hung the moon, and I would follow you to hell and back if you asked me to.”

“I must have asked in my sleep because I think we’re already there.”

When they both returned to their sights, they watched as the chopper sat like an enormous dragonfly, waiting. Suddenly, the sound of a megaphone whined on.

“Dallas or Roper, it’s Luke. I’m not here to hurt you,” came a voice through the chopper’s PA system.

Roper and Dallas exchanged glances.

“Luke?”

Suddenly, Butcher yelled out, “Hold your fire! It’s Luke!”

Roper did not lower her rifle. “What do you want to do?”

“Let him come to us!” Dallas shouted at Butcher, “Stay put! Let him come to us!”

“I’m coming out unarmed. I need a word with Butcher, too.”

Dallas looked across the way at Butcher, whose face pleaded to be released from hiding.

Dallas shook her head. “She wants to go to him. Too risky.”

When Luke exited the chopper, he held his hands in the air. “I’m unarmed!” Luke yelled. “Please don’t shoot!”

“Let her go,” Roper said softly. “Please.”

Dallas yelled over to Butcher, “Wait until he is half way, then bring him back here.”

As Luke neared, Dallas kept the rifle trailed on him. “Think he came back for her?”

“How sweet would that be?”

Dallas lowered her rifle and tilted her head at Roper. “Sweeter than being willing to be zombie chow?”

“Oh, nothing on earth will ever trump that move, Dallas. That will go down in the lesbian annals as the single most romantic maneuver of all time.” Roper eased up on the trigger. “Anyway, why else would he land? It would be easier to kill us from up there.”

“Well, we’re about to find out.”

Dallas kept her rifle trained on Luke as he neared. When Butcher walked out to him, Dallas held her breath until they walked back to the safety of the oak where Dallas and Roper waited.

Dallas lowered her rifle, but Roper did not.

“Luke? What are you doing here?”

He sported a five o’clock shadow and dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. He looked like a man on the verge of doing something he would regret forever. “There’s not much time. We’re pulling out and there are some things I wanted you all to know before we left the area for good.”

“How did you find us?”

“Not important. Look...” He turned to Butcher. “This whole mess is sliding south on us in a hurry. A number of forts have been overrun, and the President and Congress have decided to accept collateral damage by bombing San Francisco, L.A., San Diego, Bakersfield, Sacramento and Redding tomorrow. You guys have to get a move on because whatever it is they’re planning on dropping is some kind of untested and untried bioweapon.”

“Wait. They’ve figured out how to kill them?”

He shrugged. “Not clear on the details. I just know we’re DD’ing out of the state before morning. All troops are pulling back and out of the area. Actually, all troops are pulling out, period. We hear other states will face similar bombings, but that’s just rumor.”

“How much time do we have?” Dallas asked.

“Twenty-four hours, more or less. Word has it the army base at Barstow had some...issues.”

“Issues?”

“They were overrun not long ago. Apparently, there are two strains of the virus. One turns people right away. The second turns them later. Could be hours, could be days. A soldier down there was bitten and told no one. He turned at night and...well...you can imagine. It spread before they could stop it.”

Roper slowly lowered her rifle. “So the zombies have overtaken Barstow. Why are you telling us this?”

“Because you need another Hummer and if you can get down there, you can get your hands on one and then book to the Gulf. No more overland pass through the parks. No more slow days on the horses. You guys need good wheels and you need to get to the bayou. Don’t grab anything that doesn’t have the armor and four-wheel capabilities of the Hummer. Be sure to grab as many weapons, including grenades and ammo, you can. The ammo is really vital. You should also think about—”

Butcher walked up to him and laid her hand on his chest. “Luke, take a breath. We’ll be fine, really. We appreciate you finding us and bringing us news. It was...sweet of you.”

Luke blinked. “Butcher, you guys are walking the razor’s edge here. No one will be alive in those cities once those bombs are detonated. No one.”

“Where is everyone else? Those of us who are alive?”

Luke looked away. “Honestly? Trying to get out of the country. You wouldn’t want to see the bodies lining the Mexican border. Everyone is moving south...well...those who are unbitten and alive anyway. The coast is littered with death as well. Those who weren’t turned originally are migrating, like you all, but we...let’s just say...the army has killed as many as the zombies. We ran into very few living people on our way here. If there are living around, they are not within miles of here.” Luke looked over his shoulder at the chopper. “I’d better get going. My buddy swore himself to secrecy and I trust him, but I’d better go.”

“I’ll walk you part of the way,” Butcher said.

“Thank you, Luke. Your concern is touching and the intel much appreciated,” Roper added.

“You guys are good people. I...well, most of us, didn’t sign up for this shit. It’s really taken its toll on morale. That’s how I got my buddy to make an unscheduled stop. Makes him feel like he is helping.”

Roper looked over at Dallas before casting her eyes in Butcher’s direction. Dallas picked up on the hint.

“Why don’t you two say your goodbyes here before walking to the chopper? We’ll go round everyone else up.”

As they walked across the road to the other oak tree, Roper held Dallas’s hand. “Prepare yourself.”

Dallas nodded. “Did you see her eyes light up?”

“His, too. He can make it sound like altruism is why he landed that chopper all he wants, but the truth was written all over his face. He has a woody for our doctor.”

Dallas laughed. “Oh my god, it’s so obvious.”

“What’s so obvious?” Einstein asked as they came up to the rest of the group.

“Luke’s crushin’ on Butcher.”

“Oh that. Yeah. Big time.” Einstein smiled, and as his eyes watched Butcher and Luke walk hand-in-hand to the chopper, the smile slowly began to fade. “Is she…she’s not leaving us, is she?”

Dallas shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m guessing she’s what he really came for.”

As they all watched and waited in silence, Roper squeezed Dallas’s hand tighter as they watched the scene unfold.

Luke held both of Butcher’s hands as they talked, and then he pulled her into an embrace that lasted a long time. Finally, when Butcher pulled back, she shook her head, laid her hand on his chest and kissed him gently.

“Uh oh. She’s not coming back.”

Then, Butcher turned from Luke and walked away.

“She’s coming back,” Einstein.

“That doesn’t mean a thing, kid. She could just be coming back here to say adios.”

But before Butcher got back to them, the chopper lifted off.

Roper and Dallas stared at each other and when it finally took off, it left behind an eerie silence.

“Don’t look so shocked,” Butcher said, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Even if I was military, which I’m not anymore, I would never leave you guys.” Butcher hugged Peanut to her with one arm. “That would be the crappiest thing in the world.”

Dallas hugged her. “Thank you, but you didn’t have to. We would have understood.”

Leaning back, Butcher slowly shook her head. “What kind of person would I be to bail on you for the first hunka burnin’ love that came my way?”

With that question, everyone laughed, the tension breaking like glass around them.

“Oh my god, you schmoes really thought I was leaving, didn’t you? Thanks for the faith.”

They all bobbed their heads.

“You guys suck.” Butcher messed up Einstein’s hair and pushed him toward the Hummer. “The rest of you pile in. The three of us need to talk.”

When everyone was out of earshot, Butcher put her head down and lowered her voice. “I won’t say it doesn’t hurt to watch him leave, because it does. Another time, another place, and things might have been different.”

Roper and Dallas nodded, but neither responded.

“Luke practically begged me to convince you both to go to Barstow, grab a Hummer, and get out of California as quickly as possible. He really believed the bayou is the safest place to go.”

“The base must be crawling with zombies.”

“It probably is, but he said there isn’t much time. We need to ditch the horses and get another set of wheels that can get us to and through the desert and to the Gulf.”

Dallas considered this a moment. Finally, she looked up at Roper, who was nodding.

“We have to trust someone sometime, Dallas. The guy risked getting in hot water to find us.”

“But...they’re your horses.”

“I know...and it’s gonna fuckin’ suck to send them out into the wild, but I trust the guy. If he thinks we need to giddy up, then we better do just that. We can’t risk it because of my love for my horses. They’ll…be fine.”

Dallas thought for another moment. “Did he allude to anything else?”

“No allusions at all. He was very blunt: Stay away from borders and shorelines. He still advises us to find a place to hunker down in the bayou, and that the longer we can stay there, the easier it will be to sail to one of the Caribbean islands. We could survive on catfish and crawdads, maybe even a ‘gator or two. We’d have the protein we’d need, fresh food, and relative safety from the eaters. After a couple of months, we can either see if the country is safe to live in or if we need to find a more permanent arrangement away from it, but it’s time to hightail it out of here.”

“Butcher’s right, Dallas. We need to be self-sufficient. We need to be able to feed ourselves. Out there, we can hunt, fish, build fires and feel somewhat safer.”

“No, I get that. What I don’t understand is why we don’t just get a boat like we planned and get the hell out of Dodge. There’s no way our military can police both borders and all coastlines.”

Butcher closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, they were cold...almost hard. “He isn’t sure what is rumor and what is truth, but Luke heard...” her voice trailed off.

“What? He heard what?”

Slowly shaking her head, Butcher steeled herself. “This is the kicker. Remember when he said there was a rumor that the Central American countries had come to the Mexico border to assist? Well, that’s no longer a rumor. Our military isn’t the only military guarding the perimeter.” Butcher sighed heavily. “According to Luke, we are being held prisoners here in the United States...by the rest of the world.”

A stunned silence followed.

“Umm...what?”

“Yeah, that was my reaction as well. It’s what he told me on the way back to the chopper. He wanted me to come with him and was hoping that my ex-military background would give me a pass.”

“You should have taken it,” Dallas said softly.

“Nah. It was a heavy gamble I’m not willing to take and besides, you’d miss me.” She grinned. “I’ve sorta gotten used to you all, too.”

Roper hadn’t stopped shaking her head. “It makes total sense. If even one man eater escapes—”

“Then it truly will be global Armageddon.”

“Exactly. Luke said NATO called on their forces and that a special global task force was created to quarantine us.”

“Quarantine us? Is that even possible with a country our size?”

Dallas nodded. “The Canadians have the Brits, Aussies, French, and New Zealanders who have probably come to their aid. Mexico will call on all of Central and South America. With today’s technology, it’s probably very possible for the remaining industrialized nations to quarantine us using satellites and other technologies.”

“Not only possible, but imperative. Our military’s goal is to withdraw back to the New England states—”

“The rest of us are on our own.”

Butcher nodded. “Exactly. Collateral damage.”

“Why not Hawaii? That would be safest, wouldn’t it?”

“Unless it was infested.”

“It must be, otherwise our government would have set up there. What about Alaska?”

Butcher shrugged. “Luke told me all he knew. In an effort to stem the flow, our guys are going to try some sort of neurotoxin that incapacitates all brain function.”

“All brain function?”

Butcher nodded. “In essence, this would render us all collateral damage. The living and the undead alike would have their plugs pulled, but the infrastructure would remain intact.”

Roper rubbed her face with both hands. “Jesus, why not just go with a flesh eating virus?”

“The government is trying to save our resources. Cows, sheep, pigs, would all be affected by something like that, I suppose.

“So they see us as expendable.”

Butcher shook her head. “No. They see us as dangerous. They see the man eaters as growing daily. They are doing exactly what Einstein said they’d do. So, like it or not, we are really and truly on our own out here and the sooner we can find some place to land, the safer we will be.”

“This is the second time he’s mentioned it, so my guess is he knows what he’s talking about.

“Ever since Katrina, the neighborhoods leading up to it are already desolate. If there were any man eaters there, they would already have migrated to the cities, where the living are. The Ninth Ward would now be a sort of buffer zone for us.”

Roper tilted her head toward Dallas. “I think we should go for it. We can’t keep running. At some point, we need to be able to hunt, fish, and grow food. We need to find a place to set this out for the long haul.”

Butcher slowly nodded. “The war is over, ladies, and the best we can hope for is to survive the aftermath.” Taking Dallas’s hand in hers, she squeezed it. “Denial won’t help anyone. Let’s go tell the others we’re letting the horses go, grabbing a second Hummer, and making for the Gulf.”

Dallas slowly acquiesced. “A global task force to quarantine an entire nation, huh? How scary is that?”

“Everyone’s survival depends on keeping us contained. Luke said if there’s more to the story, he’s not privy to it. He just wanted to give us a heads up. We have to get the fuck gone.”

Dallas continued walking toward the others. “I say we just tell everyone our plan and if anyone would rather do something else, they can take the horses.”

Fifteen minutes later, the group was speechless as Dallas, now free to weave in and out of traffic, finally took the Hummer over forty miles per hour.

“They won’t be able to stop it if it leaves the borders,” Einstein said softly. “And they can’t afford to let any of us live, really. Quarantining us makes perfect sense.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cue-Ball grumbled. “Our government will get us out of this. They have to. I’m sure they have a solid plan that doesn’t include killing its citizens. I can’t believe you guys are taking one man’s word about all of this. It’s ludicrous.”

“Think about it, Cue-Ball. We are a threat to the entire world. They can’t allow us to escape.”

“Or live,” Einstein said softly. “There’s a much bigger picture. Think of how many countries depend on what we trade with them in order to survive. Those countries can’t afford for us to be obliterated by being nuked. They need to preserve what we have. The most expendable asset?”

“Humans.”

“Exactly. I think Luke knows exactly what he’s talking about.”

Dallas glanced down at the gas gauge. “Well, right now, we need gas for one last push, then I say we head south to Barstow, grab another vehicle and put the pedal down.”

“We can siphon,” Safety said. “It’s pretty much how my mother got gas while I was growing up. I’m pretty decent...well...um...sucking from a hose.”

No one said a word…then everyone burst out laughing.

“Oh my god, oh my god, that was the funniest thing I’ve heard since this stuff started! No, I take that back. It was the funniest ever!” Einstein laughed harder.

After everyone had a good laugh, including Safety, Roper nudged Dallas. “The horses could use a good stretch as well. And I need to start looking for the best place to let them go.”

Dallas knew by Roper’s tone that it crushed her to have to leave them. “I wish we could bring them, Roper, I really do.”

“It’s a new world now. No use keeping things that won’t help us stay alive.” This came from Cue-Ball as he tried to get comfortable beneath the weight of the dog. “Like the dog. I don’t see why—”

“Can it,” Roper growled curtly.

Peanut threw her arms around Zeus. “I’m not leaving my dog anywhere!”

“And you won’t have to,” Butcher said softly, though her eyes were glaring at Cue-Ball.

“There are a bunch of cars up ahead,” Einstein said, pointing to an odd assembly of cars on the freeway.

“Wonder what happened here?”

While the freeway remained, for the most part, uncluttered, this looked like a traffic jam.

“Careful, Dallas. Something shitty went down here.”

“I think we should stop,” Einstein said, leaning into the space between Dallas, Roper, and Butcher.

Dallas stopped the Hummer. Everyone looked and listened. It was eerily silent—the kind of silence before a roaring sound of thunder jolts your senses. They all felt it before. They all knew what it meant.

Trouble.

“We’re going to need to push some of these cars out of the way,” Butcher said.

“Or we can just turn the hell around and get off this damn road.” Cue-Ball swore under his breath.

“We need the gas,” Dallas said. “And this may be the only chance for gas for miles. We’re not turning around.”

“Well, if you two lesbians are so certain you aren’t on the menu, why don’t you clear the area first? I mean, they won’t eat you, right?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Butcher said, opening the door. “Dallas, Roper, and I will clear the area. You and Einstein watch the Hummer. Peanut, you stay inside. We’ll take Zeus with us, okay?”

“Promise to bring him back?”

She nodded. “Scout’s honor. Safety? You sure about this?”

He nodded. “I’ll have that can filled before you can tie both your shoes.”

As everyone tumbled out of the Hummer, Butcher, Roper, and Dallas checked their ammo.

“We need to get to the front of the mess first to see what we could be dealing with.”

“Then let’s take one side of the freeway so we only have to watch one side. I’ll take the flank,” Butcher said. “You two stay in single file a good ten feet apart. Always give yourself space to swing the rifle all the way around.”

Dallas and Roper nodded.

“You should be between us,” Roper said. “You know, in case they really won’t bite us.”

Butcher thought for a second before agreeing. “What about Safety?”

Safety held up the can. “Gonna look fo’ a Lexus and something to syphon. I’ll be fine. You find a path outta here while I get us enough gas to get us to the next station.”

With their plan laid out, the three women and the dog moved past a cemetery of dead cars. More than half a dozen were filled with man eaters still buckled in and pounding with gnarled, blackened stumps at the windows of the cars.

Every now and then, when the wind shifted, the stench of decay filled the air like a noxious gas, so strong it made their eyes water.

“Look at that guy. A convertible? Really? Don’t you listen to the news?”

Dallas noted that the zombies only thrashed about once they saw Butcher. To test their gay theory, she whispered, “Stay back, Butcher. I want to see something.”

Walking cautiously up to the passenger side of the convertible, Dallas stood there until the zombie turned her way. He looked at her maybe two seconds before turning away, uninterested.

“Jesus. Looks like it’s true,” Butcher said, walking up to the car.

At the sound of her voice, the driver turned and lunged for her, tearing flesh off the side of his throat when he hit the seatbelt stretching for her. Raising her rifle, Butcher blew half his head off. “Don’t need him accidentally breaking free.”

“It’s so weird they can’t problem-solve or even think,” Roper said as they continued on.

“And yet now they rule the country. Like Republicans. It totally sucks.”

Roper held her hand up. “Shh. Can you hear that?”

Butcher and Dallas listened.

“Sounds like a drum beating.”

“There’s something on the other side of that RV.”

“Let’s clear it out to there and then get back to the Hummer. I don’t like the feel of this.”

Slowly, they made their way toward the front of the older RV that was blocking most of the freeway. As they came up to the large glass window on the back of the RV, three creatures lunged toward it and began pawing at it.

“Damn. I was thinking an RV would be a nice addition to the cramped Hummer.”

Dallas shook her head. “Too slow and uses too much gas.”

“But it might have been nice for a night or—”

“What in the hell?” Roper said, staring at something in front of the RV.

When Dallas came up behind her, she covered her mouth.

Stopped perpendicular to the traffic was a school bus.

“A school bus? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does if your community didn’t believe the news reports. It’s not like our country has ever experienced Martial Law be—”

Just as Butcher was about to finish, a dozen childlike zombie faces appeared in the bus windows snarling and spewing and clawing at the closed windows for Butcher. All dead eyes were focused solely on her.

“Holy fuck,” Butcher said, taking a step backward. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The three women simply stared as the zombie children moaned and banged on the glass.

“How are they...are they locked in there?”

Roper maneuvered around the last few cars and looked into the door. Lying on the step was the bus driver’s half-eaten body. His remains prevented the door from collapsing in, thus trapping the mindless zombie children inside.

Returning to Dallas and Butcher, Roper shook her head. “Dead body is blocking the door. I guess we’ll never know if he was trying to escape or prevent the kids from escaping.”

Butcher looked behind her. “Looks like he wasn’t successful either way.”

“Yeah. Someone got to these drivers.”

“Can you even imagine? Kids foaming at the mouth wanting you to open your car door. How could you not?”

“Well, it was the last thing these folks did.”

Suddenly, a gunshot came from behind them in the direction of the Hummer. As they turned to run, three zombie children moved toward them from between two cars. Zeus growled low, his hackles standing up.

“Hold tight,” Butcher said. “They want me. Let them come at me.”

When all three little girls were clear from the vehicles, Dallas and Roper shot all three in the head.

“Come on!” Dallas said, running back to the Hummer. “We are outta here.”

As soon as the Hummer was in view, they all stopped, knowing this was it. Parked behind the trailer was the yellow pickup.

Butcher grabbed Zeus’ collar and ordered him to sit. Roper and Dallas slowly raised their rifles in the air at the outlaws.

Three outlaws in the back of the truck had their weapons trained on the women. The leader, their driver, stood with his sidearm pointed at Einstein’s head.

“You ladies are a tough buncha bitches to pin down, so instead of following your trail, we decided to head you off at the pass.”

Dallas took a step forward, her eyes cutting over to Cue-Ball who neither held his weapon nor had one pointed at him.

“Your boy here managed to get off a shot. You oughtta teach him how to shoot, you know? Shoots like a pussy.”

“We’re not responsible for your guys dying back in that town,” Dallas said. “We’ve got no beef with you.”

“Oh, I know. They were stupid, but they were just following my orders. We want the Hummer. Plain and simple. This time, you’re giving it to us or shit’s goin’ down.”

“You guys could have any car you wanted. Why bust our balls for this one?”

“We’ve taken some cool cars, too, but none of them tell us the whereabouts of those mass murdering dickhead soldiers.”

“There is no radio comm.—”

“Bullshit. You just don’t know the right frequency. What can you expect from a bunch of dykes?”

Butcher commanded Zeus to stay before stepping next to Dallas. “Let them have it, Dallas. It’s more of a hassle than it’s worth.”

“Listen to her...Dallas. Give us the keys and we won’t pop your boy here.”

Einstein barely shook his head, his eyes darting over to Cue-Ball.

“What about the horses?”

“We were thinking they’d make a good meal.”

Suddenly, Roper whipped her rifle around and had it pointed at the leader. She began walking slowly toward him.

Butcher and Dallas had theirs trained on the three shooters so fast, no one had time to think.

“You touch those horses or harm them in any way, you’re a dead man.” Roper moved forward. “You can shoot the boy or shoot me, but either way, you won’t live to tell about it.

“Hey, whoa, now hold on.” The leader grabbed Einstein as a human shield and pressed the muzzle to his temple. “I’ll kill him. I really will. Don’t fuck with me.”

Roper stopped, aimed, and said, “Then you are a dead man standing right now.”

“Shoot her!” he ordered, but Butcher and Dallas moved closer to the truck, rifles aimed at three young men whose attention was now divided.

“Put your weapons down, fellas, and you can walk away from this. I’ll give you to the count of three. One.”

“I’ll kill him! I really will shoot this kid in the head. Do you want to be responsible for that?”

“Two.”

“Okay, okay. I can see you’re not kidding around,” the leader said. “What if we let your horses go? The horses for the keys.”

“The horses and the boy for the keys.”

“You gals ride a tough bargain. We’ll let the horses out, you toss the keys on the ground, and I let the kid go.”

Roper shook her head. “Uh uh. You let the horses and the kid go. We’ll toss the keys and let you live.”

He laughed. “You ladies just don’t know who you’re fucking with, you know? In college, they called me Crazy Callaghan because I’d do anything for a buck. I’m crazy enough to just blow his brains out and let my guys take you three out.”

The number three did not go unnoticed by the three of them. It made Dallas smile.

“I let the horses go. You toss keys. The kid will get them and start the Hummer. Once it starts, he’s free to return to the bosom of the mommy clan. Final deal.”

Roper saw Dallas nod. “Fine.”

Butcher did not move her mouth when she whispered, “Peanut’s in the Hummer.”

“What’s it gonna be, ladies?”

Dallas leveled her gaze at Einstein, hoping beyond hope the teen would read what she wanted him to do. “This could be a bloodbath, Callaghan. Is that what you want?”

“What I want is the Hummer.”

“All guns on Callaghan,” Butcher ordered, and without question, all three aimed at him.

“The horses first. Then the keys. Then the kid walks away. You do anything but retreat into the Hummer and you’re the first collateral damage. Are we clear?”

Callaghan laughed a sound that came out slightly maniacal. “I love Jack! His ‘Here’s Johnny’ is one of the best lines ever. Right up with Clint’s ‘Do you feel lucky?’ Well, do ya punk? Tell me...do you feel lucky?”

“Just let the horses go.”

With a pivot jerk of his head, one of Callaghan’s men opened the trailer gate and let the horses out. All four horses scattered, with three making a beeline for the hills.

“Now, the keys.”

Dallas kept her rifle pointed at him while she reached into her pants pocket for the keys. She tossed them about ten feet away, or nearly equidistance from Callaghan, who shoved Einstein toward the keys, still pointing his revolver at the teen.

“Don’t be a hero, kid. Just start the Hummer and then back away.”

When the Hummer started, Einstein walked back to Dallas’s side, as if unphased by the handgun pointed at him.

“Smart boy. Okay fellas, Delray, you and the Noob come with me.” Keeping his gun trained on Einstein, Callaghan backed away toward the Hummer. “I’da killed that kid. You know that, right?”

Dallas didn’t offer so much as a nod as all three women tracked him with their rifles. When Cue-Ball started after Callaghan, Dallas frowned and said. “Where the hell are you going?”

Cue-Ball smiled. “I’m the Noob. I’m going with these guys. You people just don’t have a god damned clue and I can’t take it any more.”

Before Dallas could say another word, Einstein said softly, “He’s the one who got the drop on me.”

“You spineless motherfucker,” Butcher growled. “You sold us out? For what?”

“Survival. Thanks for the ride. I’ll be sure to take good care of her.”

Butcher dropped her weapon and started for him, when bullets pinged all around her feet, causing her to stop.

“So long, girls.” When Cue-Ball got in the Hummer, Callaghan signaled to the guy in the truck, who honked three times.

“In case you had a stupid idea of coming after us, I’ve left you with...well...with a full plate.” Laughing like Batman’s Joker, Callaghan backed the Hummer up and sped off, followed by the guys in the pickup.

“I’m gonna kill that motherfucker myself,” Butcher said.

“I’ll get the horses,” said Roper.

“We are going after her, aren’t we?” Einstein asked.

“Of course we are, but first, we gotta find Safety, get the horses, and—”

The moaning arrived seconds before they did.

“What the hell?” Roper turned as the kids from the bus barreled toward them. She put two down before Butcher and Dallas even knew what was happening.

“Get behind us!” Roper yelled at Einstein as she blew open the head of a little blonde girl with blood all over her chin.

“Start backing up,” Dallas ordered.

“I had no idea there were so many.”

Because of their smaller stature, some of the kids made it around bumpers of the dead vehicles before anyone could see them.

“Run, Einstein! Stay on the road but get the hell out of here!”

“But—”

“Go!”

Dallas looked at Butcher. “You, too. Get out of here. Stay with him. We’ll find you.”

Butcher hesitated until she saw a boy hobbling after Einstein. She put him down with two shots before taking off after Einstein.

“Follow me.” Dallas made a run for the RV, knocking zombie children back with the butt of her rifle as she went. None were reaching for her nor did they follow her.

Climbing on top of the RV, she started picking off the kids as they cleared the traffic jam. With Roper next to her, they kept shooting at the two dozen or so kids and several adults following after Butcher and Einstein.

The more they shot, the more that came, and Roper knew the two of them weren’t fast enough to get them all. The child zombies moved faster and jerkier than their adult counterparts.

Butcher knew this as well, and she stopped to make her final stand.

“Keep going, kid!” Butcher shouted.

Einstein hesitated. “There’s too many,” he said, before going back for Butcher.

They were coming from every side...kids, and a couple of adult drivers, walking right for them...moaning and shuffling, reaching out with those hideous fingers where bone showed through shredded flesh.

“Come on, Butcher! Run for it!” Einstein tugged on Butcher’s sleeve.

“Behind you!” Dallas called out.

Butcher wheeled around, barely in time to blast a zombie’s face off.

“They’re boxing us in. Come on!” Einstein turned to run, but a zombie lunged for him, knocking him to the ground and clacking its teeth at him as it fell on top of him.

Einstein kicked and punched until Butcher crushed the zombie’s skull with the butt of her gun, but it was too little too late. They were everywhere.

They were surrounded.

Pulling him to his feet, Butcher knew it was too late to run. There were simply too many of them.

For their part, Roper and Dallas kept plugging away, but the children continued to move more swiftly than the adults, making them use more ammo, take more time.

“B-Butcher!” Einstein cried.

As Butcher turned to crush the skull of the male zombie that had tackled Einstein, its teeth chomping near his face, a streak of black caught the corner of her eye, and she watched in stunned silence as Safety came up and over the guard rail, lowered his shoulder, and barreled into the zombie on top of Einstein. Safety hit the creature so hard, its head popped off. In speed belying his size, Safety rose and smashed his meaty fist into the next nearest zombie face.

Butcher swung her rifle around, connecting with two man eaters and creating a large enough space for Dallas and Roper to safely pick off the remaining zombies circling around them.

“Run!” Butcher yelled to Safety, who pulled Einstein to his feet and pushed him in the direction the horses had run.

“Get to the hills!” Safety cried, stopping to deck two stragglers who’d been shot but not incapacitated. As Einstein took off into the hills, Safety turned back to Butcher, who was backing away as she shot.

“Gimme the rifle,” Safety demanded. “Go after Einstein.”

Butcher hesitated, then handed Safety her rifle before sprinting off after Einstein and into the hills.

It took another five minutes for them to dispel the remaining eaters. When Safety’s rifle ran out of ammo, he used it like a bat and busted skull after skull until there was nothing but a pile of dead man eating children at his feet.

With the freeway littered with bodies, Dallas and Roper joined Safety on the road.

“Fuckers.”

“Was Einstein—”

“Don’t think so. Couldn’t hardly tell.”

For a moment, the three of them caught their breath.

“Those hillbillies ambushed us and set those eaters free.” Safety shook his head. “I managed to get our gas can filled, though. I left it back there once I heard the shooting.”

“Grab it and let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Where we going?”

“Where else? We’re going after Peanut.”

****

They retrieved all of the horses and started after the Hummer in less than fifteen minutes.

“They didn’t have much gas,” Dallas said. “And I’m guessing they’ll head for the nearest group of cars. They’ll need to siphon just like we did.”

“Taking the horses is a smart move, Dallas,” Butcher said as they trotted along the crest line of the hills running parallel to the road. “They won’t hear us coming.”

“Maybe not, but they’ll hear us when we get there.” Roper’s voice was hard and cold. “And don’t even think about using diplomacy, Dallas. We need to go in there and end this once and for all. Once. And. For. All.”

“I have to agree with Roper on this one, Dallas. The line in the sand was drawn. They crossed it. Time to wipe them and the line from the sand.”

Dallas looked over at Einstein. “You feel the same way?”

He nodded. “Cue-Ball pulled his rifle on me. He wanted to go with them at any cost. Had he not been a traitor, we might have been able to at least get Peanut from the Hummer. As it is, I managed to cover her up with a blanket on the passenger seat floor. I don’t think their leader ever even saw her.”

“Was she scared?”

“I’m not sure. When I brushed up against her, though, she was really warm and sleeping soundly.”

“We should never have left her in the car. She must have overheated.”

“Why wouldn’t Cue-Ball tell them she was in there? What do they have to gain in keeping Peanut?”

“Leverage,” Butcher remarked. “If we go after them, like we are, all they have to do is threaten to kill her.”

Dallas tried to keep Merlin at a slow trot since Zeus was picking up the rear. “If they stayed on the main road, and didn’t stop to get gas, they should be up here shortly.”

Roper put the binoculars to her eyes and surveyed the area. “Bingo. One Hummer in the middle of the freeway about six hundred yards ahead.”

“Any signs of the truck?”

“Negative. I’m guessing that they sent it on to get gas. I see one guy pacing back and forth outside the Hummer. No sign of Peanut.”

“Okay then. We need to approach cautiously from four different locations in order to make it difficult for them to pin us down with two rifles.”

“Looks like the guy out on the freeway is...Cue-Ball.”

“Armed?”

“Uh uh.”

Dallas held her hand out for the binoculars. “That’s odd. Why would he be outside the vehicle without a weapon? Is he guarding it?” Dallas took the binoculars and looked through them. “He’s pacing like a maniac.”

“Where are the others?”

Dallas could not see anything through the small rectangular back window of the Hummer. “Can’t tell.”

“Then I suggest we send two down to the Hummer while the other two watch for the truck. And by watch, I mean shoot at. And by shoot at it I mean kill every mother fucker in it.”

Dallas stared at Butcher.

“This is war, Dallas. It’s time we put a stop to them hassling us, and all people like them understand is violence. Hardcore, in your face, violence. I am not asking permission to kill them, Dallas.”

“You’re outvoted on this, babe,” Roper said, taking the binoculars back. “And we’re burning daylight talking. It’s agreed: Those boys must die and Cue-Ball with them.”

Everyone but Dallas nodded.

“They’re no different from the zombies. For all we know, they could have kicked Peanut to the curb, and then what? No, no mercy this time. This time, we’re lowering the boom.”

Realizing she was outvoted, Dallas sighed. “Fine. We secure the Hummer, get Peanut, and then finish the hillbillies off once and for all. Roper and I will ride down to the Hummer, approaching from north and south. Butcher, you watch the northbound freeway, Einstein and Safety the south. You see that yellow pickup, fire off two quick rounds to let us know they’re on the way.”

“And then?”

“Then empty your rifles into the truck a la Bonnie and Clyde. Don’t stop shooting until that truck comes to a halt.”

“Now you’re talkin’!” Butcher said, hefting her rifle. “Everyone be safe. Dallas, we’ll meet you at the Hummer once it’s secure.”

After Butcher, Safety, and Einstein took off, Dallas glanced over at Roper. “I wish there was another way.”

“There isn’t. You know how people started looting after Katrina hit? There will always be those people who will use human suffering to their advantage. There will always be those who couldn’t care less about society. Those assholes fit the bill. If you think for one second he wouldn’t have shot the kid, you’re a fool.”

Dallas stopped Merlin just as they came to a deer trail that headed right for the freeway. “I do know that. I just...don’t want to lose my own humanity.”

“Your humanity won’t do you any good if you’re dead.” Roper scanned the area in front of them. “Here’s what I think we oughtta do. You bring Morgana up behind the Hummer on that path. Merlin and I are going to make a kick ass entrance over there by jumping the guard rail and landing smack dab in front of the Hummer and nearly on top of Cue-Ball. That oughtta get his attention.”

Dallas nodded. “Don’t kill him until we find out where Peanut is.”

“Roger that.” Turning her horse on a dime, Roper rode hard and fast toward the Hummer. As she got closer, she leaned into the large horse and whispered, “One last ride for old times, dear friend.” And up and over the guard rail they went, gliding on air, sweat glistening in the late afternoon sun. The horse was magic in motion as he landed with as much grace as his take off and in five long strides, Roper towered over Cue-Ball.

“Oh my god! Thank god, thank god!” Cue-Ball exclaimed, holding his head in his hands. “Please. Help me. You have to help me.”

Ignoring him, Roper aimed her rifle at the Hummer. What she saw turned her skin inside out.

“What. The. Fuck?”

“She turned! Right there in the Hummer! One second, she was sleeping under a blanket, the next she was all over Callaghan, biting his neck and shoulders. When he turned to fight her off, I shoved the door open and jumped out just as she lunged for me. She would have…would have attacked me, too!”

Lowering her rifle, Roper watched with a churning stomach as Peanut ripped large chunks of meat from Callaghan’s body and stuffed them in her small mouth. She was joined at dinner by Delray, whom she had apparently bitten as well and had already turned.

“Jesus...” Roper pushed the bile back down her throat. Waving Dallas to come, Roper leveled her rifle at Cue-Ball. “You’re the cause of this, you sorry ass motherfucker.”

“Look...I know it must seem like—”

“Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear it. Save it for someone who gives a shit about you, because I sure as shit don’t.”

As Dallas’s horse clipped by the Hummer, she had her rifle aimed just as Roper had, only when she saw the activity going on inside, she leaned over the side of Morgana and vomited.

“Where’s the truck?” Roper asked Cue.

“Went for gas. There’s a mini-mart off the road back there and they went for gas cans and gas.”

When she was done vomiting, Dallas rode over to Roper and Cue-Ball.

“They went back to that mini-mart for gas and a gas can since Safety had taken ours with him,” Roper explained to her.

Dallas nodded. “Let’s release the horses and hide behind the Hummer. If they get this far, we should be able to easily pick them off or, at the very least, incapacitate the truck.”

“What about him?” Roper jabbed her rifle toward Cue-Ball.

“We’ll deal with him later. Get behind the Hummer.”

Both women dismounted, and Roper sent them toward a small hill.

Cue-Ball did not move. “I...I can’t go near that. What if the door accidentally opens?”

“Then you’ll get what’s coming to you. Now get behind the goddamned Hummer.” Roper slammed him between the shoulder blades, pushing him forward.

When they came around the back, Peanut whirled around and started beating on the back window leaving fresh bloody handprints all over the glass as she snarled at Cue-Ball.

That was when Zeus saw her.

Roper and Dallas just watched as the dog stood on the bumper with his front paws and whined. Peanut didn’t give the dog a second glance, but growled like a trapped animal at Cue-Ball.

“She hates you almost as much as we do,” Roper said, pulling Zeus back down. “Down, boy. She’s not who you think she is.”

Suddenly, two shots rang out, followed by a cacophony of gunfire.

“That’s Butcher. They’re returning fire.” Roper looked down her sights, just waiting for the truck to come barreling down the road right toward them.

Roper sent her first shot into the windshield, causing the driver to veer away from the Hummer and onto the cement center divider, catapulting the Jethro in the bed of the truck over the cab and into the oleander bushes lining the freeway.

Roper, Dallas, and Zeus surrounded the truck. The driver was slumped over the wheel, blood running down the side of his face.

“Get out of the truck!” Roper ordered the passenger, who raised his hands in the air in surrender.

“Don’t shoot. Please.”

“Get out and shut up.”

When the passenger got out, Dallas opened the driver’s door and pulled him to the ground.

Moaning came from the side of the road; the ejected passenger slowly coming back to life.

Reaching in, Dallas took the keys.

“What...what happened? Where’s Callaghan?”

“Dead. In the Hummer.”

“You killed him?”

Dallas shook her head. “No. We didn’t. Now, step away from the truck.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Well, we are going to get in our Hummer and get the hell out of here. What you assholes do is none of our concern.”

“You’re not gonna just leave us here.”

“Actually, we are. Get in the back of the truck.”

The guy looked over at his friend, who was trying to get to his feet without realizing his leg, from the knee down, was shattered and bloody.

“Get your buddy, then get in the bed of the truck. Move from there and that woman on the horse will put you down. Understand?”

He nodded as he leapt over the divider to help his friend to the truck.

Just as Butcher rode up on one side, Safety and Einstein rode up on the other.

Roper reached for Einstein as he leapt from the horse. “Where’s Peanut?” He asked, looking around.

Putting her arm around his shoulders, Roper walked away from the group with him. “There’s no easy way to say this, kid. Peanut turned.”

He managed a stoic countenance for a split second before wrapping his arms around her and sobbing. “No, no, no. Not her. Not her.”

“I know,” she soothed. “I know.” Tears sprang to Roper’s eyes as she stood there holding him.

Stepping away, Einstein wiped his eyes and drew himself taller. “Where is she?”

“Still in the Hummer.”

“I want to see.”

“No, buddy. That’s a bad idea.”

He started for the Hummer. Roper let him go.

“Butcher,” Dallas said. “If these assholes move, kill them both.”

“Roger that.”

“You shouldn’t have let him go,” Dallas said softly.

“We can’t treat him like a child, Dallas. He made up his mind. He’ll have to live with the consequences.”

“So, what are we gonna do with her?”

“We’re going to send the rest back down the road on horseback. Then we’re going to open the door and—” Roper looked down. “And kill her.”

Dallas swallowed more bile. “Yes. And kill her.”

“You want me to do it?”

A thick, sad silence hung between them. “Would you?”

“I reckon I’ve killed far more farm animals than you ever have. Sometimes, you just have to put a thing out of its misery. If I look at it like that, it’s not so bad.”

Dallas’s eyes welled with tears as she held Roper’s hand. “Thank you.”

“You get everyone out of here. I’ll take care of Peanut and Callaghan. It’ll be gross in the Hummer until we can clean it out, though. Come back after you hear the shots.”

“I’m staying with you,” Butcher said.

Roper nodded. “As long as you’re far enough away when I open the door.”

“I’ve got your back, Rope. What about these dickheads?”

Roper sent a disparaging glance at them. “Fuck ‘em.”

This made Butcher grin. “Good answer.”

“Wh-what about me?”

Roper cut her eyes over at Dallas and shook her head. “You screwed us, Cue-Ball, but you also inadvertently saved our lives. There’s a bizarre irony in that.”

“Please take me back, take me with you, I swear I can do this I didn’t mean what” his pleas tumbled out without pause and on deaf ears.

Butcher and Roper simultaneously said, “Hell no.”

“You made your choice. You get to live with it now.”

When Dallas, Safety, and Einstein were nearly out of sight, Butcher turned to Roper. “Let’s do this.”

“Get in the truck bed,” Roper ordered Cue-Ball, who continued to beg as he climbed into the back.

“Stay in the back.”

All three men nodded as they stood in the bed of the truck.

“How you want to do this?” Butcher asked.

Roper glanced down at Zeus, who had not left the Hummer since he’d seen Peanut inside. “I’ll open the door and run to that oil spot there. She’ll come right at you. When she does, I’ll take her out.”

Butcher swallowed hard. “If you can’t pull the trigger in the first five steps, I will.”

“You won’t have to. I know this is for the best.”

After walking back over the entire plan, Roper stood at the passenger side of the Hummer and waited for the nod from Butcher before yanking open the door and running to an oil spot twenty feet away.

As soon as Peanut emerged from the Hummer, Zeus began backing away, whimpering.

He knew.

In that instant, Roper put Peanut in her sights, blew out a breath, and said, “Forgive me, Peanut,” before popping her in the side of the head. She crumpled to a heap on the hot pavement.

Next, Roper ran over to the driver’s side and pulled open that door. Through the Hummer’s open doors, she could see Zeus tentatively approaching his owner.

“Okay, fellas, easy does it.”

Pulling out her knife, Roper kept it at the ready in case they were wrong about the genetic component to their blood lust. Carefully and slowly reaching over, she grabbed Callaghan’s bloody shirt and pulled him from the vehicle, where he landed at her feet with a loud splat. To be on the safe side, she put a bullet between what was left of his eyes. As she stared down at the mutilated and partially eaten body of a man who’d probably deserved his nickname, Roper felt no remorse. In that instant, she understood Dallas’s fear of them becoming as soul-less as the undead. She understood because she felt that way at this very instant. She was glad he was dead—glad he died a horrible, frightening death at the hands of someone he would have tossed away as someone too weak to concern himself about.

But this truly was about survival of the fittest, and the fit sometimes had to show no mercy. Mercy was a luxury they could no longer afford, and though Dallas had given Cue-Ball and the last two standing a free pass, Roper wasn’t so sure that was the best thing to do.

“You okay?” Butcher asked, lowering her rifle slightly.

“Yeah. Just thinking is all.”

Raising her rifle, she blew off half the passenger’s head. Checking the back, she said, “We’re clear.”

As Roper and Butcher pulled the body from the Hummer, Zeus laid down by Peanut and whined.

“Want me to get him?” Butcher asked.

Roper shook her head. “Leave him. It’s how it should be.” To the thugs she said, “Do you have a blanket to cover her up?”

“You want to cover up a fucking dead zombie?”

Roper walked over to the truck. “That fucking zombie was one of ours, Jethro. Show some respect.”

“Fuck you.”

Before Roper could respond, a shot came from behind her, as a bullet pierced Jethro’s thigh.

“Son of a bitch! She shot me!”

Roper nodded before killing both outlaws with a single gunshot to each head. “Assholes.”

By the time they covered Peanut and cleaned up the Hummer as best they could, it was time for Roper to say goodbye to her horses.

“I suppose these hills are as good as any,” she said, taking the bridles off the horses and spending a few minutes with each one. She murmured something to each of them, ears twitching as if understanding.

When she came to Merlin, she broke down and cried.

“You saved our lives, old buddy,” She whispered, gently caressing his soft muzzle. “As loyal as any dog, you’ve been the very best creature I’ve ever known. Thank you...thank you for everything. Take care of the others. Stick together and enjoy your freedom. If I can ever come back for you, trust that I will. I...I love you.” Slapping his hindquarters, she sent Merlin into the hills with the other three right after him, salty tears stinging here eyes.

Turning with a face stained with tears, she told everyone to get into the Hummer, including Cue-Ball.

No one questioned her as he jumped in, begging forgiveness while reminding everyone he probably saved their lives.

After Safety emptied the gas can into the Hummer, Dallas started it and glanced over to the hills.

“Roper, look.”

Trying to hold back the flood of tears, she looked up the hill. Standing shoulder to shoulder were her four beautiful horses looking down at her, tails swishing.

“If they could salute,” Butcher said quietly, “I’m pretty sure they would.”

Wiping her eyes, Roper nodded. “I’m pretty sure they are.”

****

The mini-mart was overrun with a number of zombies who seemed chained by an invisible force.

“I’ll pump the gas,” Roper said, opening her door. “Come on, Cue-Ball.”

“What? I’m not going out there.”

“Look, we need to clean this car out.” Roper shot a quick look to Safety, who also got out. “Safety, if you don’t mind grabbing some cleaning supplies and rags. Cue-Ball and I will keep the area clear.”

Safety struggled to get his big frame out from the back and waited for Cue-Ball. “Come on, dude.”

Slowly getting out, Cue-Ball held his hand out for a rifle.

“You’re kidding me, right? You pull a gun on Einstein and leave us to face a couple dozen dead kids? Uh uh. You pump the gas. I’ll make sure the area is clear.”

“But there’s no power.”

Roper shot two man eaters before Safety took off for the mechanic’s bay. “Generator,” he yelled from the garage. “Go for it.”

Roper shot another. She figured there were at least eight more coming toward them. The moaning grew louder, causing Cue-Ball to fumble with the gas nozzle.

“You’ll be fine.” Roper shot three more as Safety came running back with an armful of cleaning products and a bag of rags.

“How many?”

“At least three,” Safety answered, getting in the Hummer and closing the door.

He knew.

“Step away from the Hummer,” Roper ordered Cue-Ball.

“W-what? Come on, man. This isn’t funny.”

“No, it’s not. You pulled a weapon on a kid. Our kid. You gave away our Hummer. Our Hummer. You stood by while they set a bunch of kid zombies on us.” Roper shot two others who got too close. “You threw us to the wolves, Cue-Ball, but you’re lucky: Dallas has strong ethics and doesn’t believe you should be killed.”

Roper raised her rifle, then lowered it. The zombies were about twenty yards away and coming straight for Cue-Ball.

When the gas pump clicked off, Roper shoved the nozzle back in. “You sacrificed all of us, dickweed. I wanted to get rid of you long ago, but Dallas has a softer heart than I do, but you know what? Not any more.”

Cue-Ball held panic in his eyes. “Wh-what are you doing? Shoot them!” He started for the Hummer, but she pointed her M16 in his face.

“Away. From. The. Vehicle.” Roper enunciated every word as she put him in her sights.

Stepping away, he shook his head. “Please. Please. I didn’t mean—”

“Shut up. You left us there. After all we did for you? Fucking ingrate.”

The Hummer window rolled down slightly. “Come on, Rope, get in,” Butcher’s voice wafted from the two-inch opening.

Roper ignored her, even as the zombies closed in.

“R-Roper, please. I...I have money. I know people who have yachts on the Gulf. I can—”

“You can shut the fuck up is what you can do. Now, step away. More.”

He took two steps back, his eyes frantically scanning back and forth at the two groups of undead making their moaning way toward him.

“Further away.” Roper ordered her voice cold and hard, her finger tightening on the trigger.

“Roper, please. Don’t do this. I made a mistake. A terrible, terrible mistake. Don’t do this.”

A man eater bumped into her as it limped by, arms outstretched toward Cue-Ball.

“Do what? Kill you? I told Dallas I wouldn’t do that.”

“Then what are you going to do...because...” He turned left and right. The zombies were closing in. “Shoot!”

The corners of her mouth curled up slightly. “I’m going to give you the same chance you gave us.” With that, she shot him in the upper leg, knocking him to the ground, where he raised up on his one good leg, a mask of fear on his face.

“You shot me!” Cue-Ball cried, holding his bleeding leg. “You fucking shot me!”

Grabbing the door handle, Roper nodded. “But I didn’t kill you.” She smiled grimly. “They may not be so obliging.” She got into the now more spacious Hummer, the occupants sitting there in stunned silence.

“We’re burning daylight, Dallas,” Roper said. “Let’s go.”

Dallas’s hands never left the wheel as she stared out at Cue-Ball struggling to get to his feet as the man eaters surrounded him.

“In a way, he sorta looks like them,” Einstein said softly.

“And soon, he will be.”

****

They all decided that spending the night in the hills was safer, and the Hummer had no problem getting them there.

The rock formations were a perfect buffer from the slight wind that had kicked up and the oak trees gave them plenty of shelter from the night’s dew. Once settled atop the tallest hill in the area, they made a small fire and quietly ate a dinner of Spam, freeze-dried spaghetti, and topped it off with the multi-vitamins Butcher was always harassing them to take.

The mood around the campfire was somber, their losses felt too deeply to discuss.

“Well,” Roper said quietly, “at least we’re sure of one thing: They’re not interested in gay meat.”

“No, I think we’ve had plenty of confirmation on that score. Looks like science got it right. We’re born gay.”

“With a different genetic make-up, so whoever designed this virus, had no clue it would leave at least ten percent of our population alive.”

“That ten percent is going to be needed to keep this country going. Speaking of irony.” Dallas shook her head. “Did anyone know that Peanut had been bitten?”

Einstein bowed his head. “I did. I saw a mark on her upper arm, but I didn’t have it in me to ask her. I guess I sorta convinced myself it was a dog bite. She seemed okay, you know? I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Putting his face in his hands, he wept.

Roper pulled him to her and held him. “Shhh. It’s not your fault. I doubt I would have done anything differently. Not your fault.”

“But it is. I’m the one who always knows. I’m the one with the answers. I knew what could have happened, and I sat on it. I could have gotten us all killed.”

“But you didn’t. You’re also the one with a heart of gold and you cared about her. We all saw that.”

“Besides, Einstein, given what we know, we probably would have assumed she was gay…or going to be.”

Einstein sniffled and tried to pull himself together. “That was so...hard. So damn hard.”

Butcher slowly chewed the Spam. “Yes it was, and I nearly crapped my pants when that one came from behind us. She moved so fast, I didn’t have time to warn anyone.”

“I won’t let it happen again. I swear. I won’t let my emotions get the best of me.”

Safety patted Einstein’s back. “You done good, kid, really.” To the women he said, “Well, gals, if the homos are gonna save humanity, what are your thoughts about mocha babies?”

Everyone laughed, and the mood lightened.

“You laugh, but repopulation is gonna be an issue, you know?”

Dallas and Roper glanced over at Einstein, whose blush was visible in the light cast by the fire.

“Cart before the horse, buddy,” Butcher said. “But I have to say watching that eater bump into you without even noticing freaks me out. We really do have our answer, don’t we? You guys are immune. Only me and the kid are tender morsels now.”

Einstein rose and excused himself. “And on that nice image, I’ll take first watch. I need…I just need to be alone, if you guys don’t mind.”

When he was out of earshot, Roper said, “Peanut’s death has really hit him hard.”

“I think he really saw her as his little sister.”

“I can’t believe he didn’t say anything. I think he knew…knew what we would have had to do.”

Safety placed his large hand on Roper’s knee. “Thank you for doing what I could not.”

Dallas nodded. “Ditto. That couldn’t have been easy. Are you...okay?”

Blinking back tears, Roper shrugged. “We live in a different world now, with different rules. I don’t know if a zombie feels anything, but we did her a favor.”

“And Cue-Ball?”

“I did us a favor. That bag of shit deserves whatever happens to him.”

Safety shuddered. “Can you imagine the shock on Crazy Callaghan’s face when she popped up and went for his throat?”

“Too damn scary.”

“Speaking of Callaghan, I think I’m gonna go clean the Hummer a bit more before I lay down. Dried blood will only be harder to get out as time goes by.” Jumping to her feet, Roper headed to the Hummer with Dallas right on her heels.

“Wait up.”

“Can’t.”

When Dallas reached for her, Roper crumpled into her arms, sobbing.

“Shh. I gotcha. I gotcha, love. You stepped up and did all the hard jobs today. I know it had to hurt.”

“I feel...I feel...so much...less.” Roper squeezed Dallas tightly. “All those kids…Peanut…leaving the horses. I feel…empty.”

“I know you do. I know leaving the horses was terribly hard on you and I promise, if we ever get our country back, we’ll come back for them.”

Roper leaned back, tears wet on her face. “Really?”

Kissing her forehead, Dallas nodded. “Of course. We’re in this together, Rope. I know what a tough call that was for you. I know shooting Peanut must have been awful. And I know, too, as much as you hated him—”

“Oh hell no, Dallas. Leaving him there to that fate was the easiest decision I’ve made in a long time. Self-serving son-of-a-bitch.”

Dallas barely smiled. “Tell me how you really feel.”

The expression completely changed on Roper’s face as her features softened. “I feel like I’ve fallen in love with you, and I’d do anything to protect you and our little family. I don’t know exactly when it happened, Dallas, but I have fallen madly in love with you.”

Dallas gently kissed Roper, whispering into her mouth, “And I love you.”

For a moment, they stood in the soft rays of a half moon looking into each other’s faces, oblivious to everything else around them.

“We are going to make it through this,” Dallas finally said. “Together.”

Kissing Dallas longer and with more passion, Roper pressed her body into Dallas’s, wanting more and knowing it might be an eternity before the time was right.

She was willing to wait.

“Together,” she said before continuing a kiss that heated her loins and melted her heart. Nothing had felt this good to Roper in years.

“I would say ‘get a room’, but there aren’t any.” Einstein walked up to them, rifle hanging loosely at his side. “Unless we’re willing to check out that house on the hill.”

Roper and Dallas separated. “What house?”

“Come look.”

They followed him around a short bend in a deer trail. There, on a hill about a mile away stood a house with a single light on in the front room.

“What the hell?”

“I think it’s a signal,” Einstein said. “I looked through the binocs, but never saw any movement.”

“You think there might be people there?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I feel like we need to at least let other survivors know what we know. You know—kind of a moral obligation?”

“A moral obligation?” Roper said. “Kid, I just shot one of our group in the head and left another to be eaten. I’m pretty sure I am as morally bankrupt as those assholes in the truck.”

“Don’t say that,” Dallas said sternly. “You did what you felt you had to do.”

Roper shook her head. “Dallas, I do know that. That was cowboy justice, plain and simple. He got what was coming to him. I was just the delivery girl.”

Einstein shook his head. “Whatever. I’ll go there alone if I have to, but they obviously have that light turned on for a reason. I’m thinking they’re letting others know they’re here.”

Roper looked at Dallas. “We should all go.”

In less than thirty minutes, they stood on the front porch of the house with the lights on, ringing the doorbell.

“Wait,” Einstein said, putting his ear to the door. “Ring it again.”

Dallas did.

“There’s no sound.” He stepped back, and when he turned to say something to Roper, he raised his hands in surrender.

“Do as the young fella’s doing or we’ll shoot.”

Slowly turning around with their hands over their heads, Roper, Dallas and Safety saw two men and two women holding guns on them.

“Casey, you collect their weapons,” the older man ordered. He stood well under six feet tall, short salt and pepper hair, clean-shaven with square-shaped glasses.

The girl named Casey was probably closer to twelve than twenty and wore shorts that were too short and a button down shirt that was too big. Her Doc Marten ten-hole combat boots had seen a lot of life.

Dallas stepped in front of the young girl. “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re not giving up our weapons. We didn’t come here to cause any trouble or to donate to your weapons fund, so if you’d just let us leave unmolested, then no one will get hurt.”

The man cocked his head. “You mean to tell me you aren’t going to give us your weapons?”

“I mean to tell you we aren’t giving them up without a fight. If bloodshed is what you want, we’ll oblige, but we just finished off a pack of hoodlums who thought they could just take our stuff. We’re no longer in a very generous mood.”

“Just say the word,” Roper growled, aiming her rifle at his chest.

The man lowered his rifle. “Lower your weapons.”

Casey backed away and the other two let their rifles hang from their shoulders.

“Why are you here then?”

“We saw your light.”

He nodded. “We’re collecting as many survivors as we can, but you can’t be too careful. I know about them hooligans, all right. Put a few down my own self.”

Safety chuffed. “Tell us about it.”

“Name’s Evan,” he said, extending his hand to Dallas. “We don’t have much, but we’ve managed to gather enough food to last a month or two.”

“We’re not looking to stay,” Dallas said. She shared with them almost everything they knew, leaving out the part about the genetic code they’d uncovered. Evan and his young threesome listened intently as Dallas spelled it all out for them. When she finished, Evan whistled.

“Woo-whee...and you believe all that mumbo jumbo? This is the United States of America. Our military will figure out what needs to be done. In the meantime, we live in the basement and bomb shelter just biding our time till it’s safe to come out.”

“Biding your time? Evan, those things are winning.”

“Maybe for now, but a war is won in inches. We give some, we lose some, but we all need to stick together if we are going to make it through this. You are welcome to join us. We could always use able hands who know their way around a rifle.”

Dallas didn’t even need to consult the other three. “Thank you, Evan, but we’re getting out of California as quickly as possible. I respect what you’re doing here, though. You’re right about us sticking together, but we’re going to continue with our plan.”

Evan nodded. “Please let anyone you see know that we are here and that we’ll be creating our own army soon enough to battle those things.”

“We will do that. You all take good care here.”

When they were far enough away, Einstein said, “Well, that was weird.”

“Uh, you scared the crap outta me when you wouldn’t give up our weapons.” This came from Safety.

“We were helpless today. We won’t be again. We’re making a pact here and now. We don’t give up our weapons. We don’t let people take our car. From here on out, we fight any and everyone who tries to take our shit.” Dallas looked at them for confirmation. “I’m through being nice.”

Roper put her arm across Dallas’s shoulder. “About fucking time. I second the motion. No more getting the screwgee from people.”

When everyone got settled for the rest of the night, Roper took the next watch.

She wasn’t fifteen minutes into it before Dallas made her way over to her.

“I wanted to finish our conversation.”

Roper pulled her closer and kissed her hard, her hands in her hair, down her back, pressing into her, pulling her shirt up so she could feel the softness of her skin.

“I didn’t want to fall in love,” Roper said softly, resting her forehead against Dallas’s. “And to be honest, I didn’t even think it was possible that you’d return the affection.”

“Why not?”

“We’re in survival mode, ya know? It’d be easy just to pass off these feelings as something else all together.”

“But I didn’t.”

Roper grinned. “No, you didn’t. Thank you for that.”

“You might play a tough girl on television, but I see right through you. You have a heart of gold.” Dallas placed her palm on Roper’s chest. “And I know it had to hurt like hell to shoot Peanut. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I respect you. I know I can be too soft. I get that, but you. You always step up. Always.”

“You know, it might have if I saw that thing as Peanut, but I didn’t. I kept picturing her as a sick and injured animal who was better off being put out of her misery.”

Dallas kissed her tenderly once more, holding her face in her hands as she let her tongue roam inside Roper’s warm mouth.

“If there was anywhere or any time for me to lay you down and make love with you, I’d do that. You know that, right?”

Roper nodded. “But don’t expect it to be tender. I want to fucking tear your clothes off right now.” She stopped when she heard someone approaching from opposite the camp. The speed of movement did not indicate an eater.

Grabbing her M16, she leveled it in the direction of the noise. “Stop where you are or I’ll but a bullet through your brain.”

“It’s me, Cassidy.”

Dallas and Roper exchanged questioning glances.

“Casey. That doofus never could get my name right. It’s Casey from the compound.”

Roper kept her rifle up. “Come on up, but keep your hands empty and in the air.”

Out of the darkness, Cassidy emerged, a rifle slung behind her back, a revolver tucked in her belt, and a backpack on her back. She held her hands up to show they were empty.

“The compound?” Dallas lowered her weapon. Roper did not.

“That’s what we all call it.”

“What are you doing out here?”

“I was hoping you could take me with you.”

Roper started to shake her head, then looked to Dallas.

“Why would you want to leave the relative safety of your place?”

“Because I’d rather die in the sunlight than live like a vampire below the ground. I can’t stand it down there. Evan and his family firmly believe our government is going to get a handle on this, but he has virtually no contact outside the compound with which to make that assumption.”

Dallas squinted in the dark. “How old are you, Cassidy?”

“Twenty-one. I came from the University of Miami to visit my family when the epidemic broke out.”

“Is your family?”

She shook her head. “They’re in the compound. You know, I’ve sat there for weeks listening to the uneducated guesses of the moral majority and I can’t do it any longer. I made up my mind that I would try to hitch a ride with the first people who came through.”

“And if we say no?”

She shrugged, lowering her arms. “Then I’ll make my own way, but I’m done living underground. It’s suffocating the life out of me.”

“I can totally understand that. Let me talk to our people in the morning. From here on out, we decide as a group who can join us. I’m sure you understand.”

She nodded.

“In the meantime, toss your bag down there so we can keep an eye on you during the night. We hate to be so suspicious, but I’m sure you know why it has to be that way.”

When Cassidy was in her bag and Dallas returned to hers, Cassidy said to Roper, “I think it’s cool ya’ll are lead by two women.”

“It just happened that way, but you can imagine what some of the outlaws will try.”

She nodded. “In the beginning, we had a few issues, but Evan took care of them.”

“And what did that look like?”

“Bloodshed says it all. Evan may look like a mild-mannered mouse, but he’s fiercely protective of the compound.”

“And they really believe the government can contain this? That waiting it out is the thing to do?”

“They do. And since the undead aren’t around as much, they feel safer.”

Roper shook her head. “They horde together.”

“Like schools of fish. I noticed. I am...was an oceanography major at the university. At first, I just thought I was seeing things, but then, I saw a mob in action and I just knew.”

Roper let the conversation fade with the last of the light, tasting Dallas on her lips and wanting more of that. Lots more. It was as if the constant threat of death made her hungrier for more of the goodness of life.

And Dallas was good.

She was better than good. She was amazing on so many levels.

“Is she your girlfriend?” Cassidy asked with a sleepy voice.

Here in the hills amid the wreckage of what was once the great state of California, Roper actually smiled in the darkness.

“Yeah, Cassidy. Yes, she is.”

****

With a unanimous vote for Cassidy, they set off with a nearly full tank of gas to Barstow, California, a lower-income burg with more military and ex-military than not. It sat in a desolate part of the state, not a destination location by any means.

Along the way, they shared the story of their journey so far with Cassidy, and she shared tales of the compound with them.

To Dallas’s surprise, the energy in the Hummer changed dramatically with Cassidy in it. She was bright, vivacious, and full of questions. She was also pretty in a punk sort of way, with a pink stripe in her brown hair and jean shorts than were just too short. Einstein seemed to have difficulty finding words as his eyes stayed on her bare legs.

“So, Barstow to grab another Hummer, huh? Why not just break into a car lot?”

“We don’t want a civilian Hummer. We want a military one. Night and day difference.”

“Ah. I see. Why not also get one of those deluxe Monarchs or Winnebagos to stay in? I mean sleeping on the ground must get old.”

“Safer up here, and the flat nose of those motorhomes would make it hard to cut through a crowd of those things.” This came from Einstein who finally found his voice.

“But a small, self-contained unit might be just the ticket, especially now you’re able to travel.”

Dallas looked over at Roper, who was nodding. “It’s not a bad idea for once we get on Route 66. We could at least have a little comfort.”

Einstein shook his head. “It would only slow us down. What we need is one more Hummer, additional gas cans strapped to the roof, and then a beeline to the Gulf.”

Butcher agreed. “We could make it in this, but I think we need to grab all our supplies, including fuel and then make one big push.”

“I think we need more weapons and ammo,” Safety offered. “We don’t know how the rest of the country is gonna react to us, and we gotta assume it ain’t gonna be good.”

Butcher nodded again. “From here on out, we’re on our own, people. We take care of us first. We assume everyone is insane or undead until proven otherwise. Any questions?”

Cassidy raised her hand. “Are we there yet?”

Everyone laughed.

****

They made it to Barstow in a couple of hours, but the number of undead they saw as they drove along the freeway gave everyone pause.

“What the hell happened?” Safety asked.

“Well, the way I figure it, the military was able to cut San Francisco off from the East Bay, but the zombies in Los Angeles have had weeks to migrate. Obviously, they made their way here on their way east.”

Dallas pulled off to a frontage road and took the Hummer off-road to a small knoll overlooking the town of Barstow. There were large hills and small mountains all over the place here, between the main highway and the town, which was nestled down in a wide valley.

Getting out, everyone stretched while Dallas and Roper peered through binoculars at the town and army base.

“It’s completely overrun,” Roper said, handing the binoculars to Butcher.

“I count at least three dozen military zombies schlepping through town.”

“We need to skip this idea and head east. There’s too many of them.”

“No fucking way,” Butcher murmured, adjusting the binoculars. “I can’t believe it.”

“What?”

Lowering the binoculars, Butcher explained. “There’s a Fuchs four point five just inside the base.”

Roper and Dallas looked at each other and shrugged. “It’s Greek to me.”

Butcher lightly grinned. “A Fuchs is a fully amphibious vehicle with a gun turret, a night vision system, and NBC protection.”

“NBC?”

“Nuclear, Bio and Chemical warfare protection.”

“It needs a Z,” Einstein mocked, “For zombie.”

Butcher’s voice rose slightly. “No, no. You guys don’t get it. That vehicle could carry all of us comfortably and safely, and the best part is not only could get us through the bayou without issue, but if we are in an area that is bombed with that bioweapon, we’ll be notified and can stay safely inside.” Butcher looked through the binoculars again. “Having that could keep us all together and get us there safely with maybe one or two stops.” She handed the binoculars back. “She’s definitely worth the effort. It’s something to think about.”

Roper looked through the glasses. “It’s ugly.”

“But functional. Very functional. See that gun on top? It’s a forty-millimeter mount that can be operated from the inside with a joystick. It would really protect us. We’d never have to stick our heads outside to fire it.”

Dallas studied it as well. “The front looks like it could cut right through a football field full of them.”

“Dallas, this all sounds well and good, but I don’t see any safe way of getting to that vehicle.”

Einstein stepped up to Roper and shielded his eyes from the sun. “I, for one, am all for a weapon we can shoot from the belly of an armored vehicle and protect us from a bioweapon.”

Safety came up behind Einstein and put both hands on his shoulders. “I agree with the kid. Staying together should be our first priority. If that machine will keep us safer together, then I think it’s worth the risk.”

“That’s an awful big risk,” Cassidy said.

Roper shook her head. “Not really.” Then she explained what they thought they knew about the genetic issue and the gay gene.

“You have got to be kidding,” Cassidy said. “Are you certain?”

“Ninety-nine percent. I think we can do it.”

“Then I agree with Safety and Einstein. I say we stick together and go get us that tank.”

Butcher continued to peer through the binoculars. “We can’t stop all the jerk-offs from trying to take the Hummer, but the Fuchs? Oh hell no. Not only will we have vision at night, we’ll cream anyone before they even have a chance to approach. I say we need to go all in on this one.”

Roper was nodding. “It’s time this wasn’t so hard on us and we do need to stay together. Defending one vehicle has been a challenge...but two? We need that thing.”

Dallas studied the landscape below. “Those things must have started inside the base and worked their way out like Luke said. Lots of men and women in uniform.”

“My guess is,” Butcher said, “testing went awry in there and blew up in their faces. Whatever the reason, there’s a butt-load of shit down there that could get us where we need to go unscathed.”

“Unscathed sounds almost too good to be true.”

“If you three are willing to risk it...”

“I am,” Safety blurted out. “I just don’t know the safest way in there.”

Dallas returned her attention to the base, a slow smile spreading on her face. “I do.”

****

The fire engine came crashing through the front gate, bowling over a dozen undead who had immediately started through the new opening. At the wheel, Dallas drove directly up to the Fuchs. On the cherry picker sat Butcher, the only one of them who had any hope of knowing what to do with such a complex piece of machinery. Dallas hadn’t wanted to bring her, but Butcher and Roper had made too strong a case, so Butcher waited in the basket known as the cherry picker while Dallas, Roper, and Safety made their way to the Fuchs.

When Dallas pulled close enough to the Fuchs, she grabbed the joysticks and began positioning the cherry picker by slowing moving it up and over to the Fuchs.

“Good thing you know how to use that thing. I’d have her all over the place,” commented Roper. “I suck at video games of any kind.”

Dallas kept her eye on the crowd of undead that had noticed Butcher and were wandering toward the fire truck.

“Shit.” Roper said, raising her rifle.

“No, save your bullets until we get her in the vehicle.”

Roper’s eyes followed the basket on the end of the ladder. “That woman has balls of steel and I am so glad she is part of us.”

“You’re right up there with her, my little high wire friend. That balancing act on the bridge made me wet myself.”

Roper never took her eyes off the sights. “Yeah well, I obviously knew a good thing when I saw it.”

Dallas managed a slight grin as she expertly swung the basket over to the Fuchs. “Okay, Butcher, easy does it.”

The undead gathered around the Fuchs, but it was too tall and shaped in such a way as to be impossible to climb up unassisted. The ladder on the back was not a piece of equipment they could manage.

“We gotta a whole bunch coming this way,” Safety said from the back of the fire truck. “Five dozen, at least.”

Dallas looked behind her as the horde grew around them, all clambering to get to the Fuchs and Butcher. Lowering the basket, Dallas held her breath as Butcher climbed out of the basket onto the top of the Fuchs. Within seconds, she disappeared inside it.

“Oh mother-of-God,” Safety cried. “Dallas!”

Turning around, Dallas stared as undead soldiers streamed out from inside the barracks and other buildings. Hundreds of them now crowded around the two vehicles.

“Shit,” Roper uttered. “Get us out of here, Dallas.”

“Not until Butcher gets that thing started.”

Suddenly, Safety’s weapon discharged. When Roper glanced over, she realized the zombies were clamoring around the fire truck. “What the fuck? They shouldn’t be trying to get up here!” Roper yelled.

“Why are they trying to get up here?” Safety asked as the zombies’ outstretched arms reached for the sky.

“They just know she was up. In the air. That’s the last they know.”

“Come on, Butcher,” Dallas muttered, her eyes never leaving the hatch that swallowed Butcher.

Time ticked slowly as Dallas, Roper, and Safety waited for the Fuchs to come to life. With every second that passed, more and more undead soldiers crowded around the two vehicles until they were ten and eleven zombies deep all the way around them.

Turning completely around, Dallas knew the wall of bodies would prevent her from backing out. The flat back of the fire truck wouldn’t be able to peel off the human wall now gathered behind them. “We’re blocked in,” she said, realizing, too late, that she hadn’t left herself any room to maneuver.

Suddenly, the Fuchs roared to life, and Butcher popped out of the top hatch. Surveying the scene, she instantly understood what was happening. “Get out of that thing!” she yelled. “Come across on the ladder!”

“Oh hell no,” Safety said. “Me and ladders don’t mix. Uh oh. No way.”

“We have to, Safety. We’re boxed in here.” Dallas turned the fire truck engine off and hopped out of her seat. “Come on.”

Roper was right behind her, but Safety refused to move. “I can’t do it.”

“Why not?”

“It’s...it’s a phobia I have. I fell off a ladder when I was a kid and broke my back. You girls go.”

Dallas hesitated. “We’ll move the Fuchs closer. You can jump.”

Safety shook his head. “Just run a block for me. I’ll follow in the wake.”

She nodded and started across the ladder, followed by Roper. When they got to the Fuchs, Butcher helped them off the ladder and inside the vehicle.

“Holy crap, it’s like the cockpit of a plane!”

“But look at all this room. This will do nicely.”

“Where’s Safety?” Butcher asked.

“Too afraid of ladders. He wants us to pave the way. Said he’ll follow. As soon as we’re clear, we can pick him up.” Dallas sat in the co-pilot seat of a high-tech vehicle that looked like something out of Star Wars.

“I’ll teach you both how to drive her. That way, we can just keep rolling to the Gulf.”

“Good call on taking this, Butcher. You were right. It’s exactly what we need.”

Dallas surveyed the inside of the vehicle. There were benches on either side in the back, capable of holding at least a dozen people. There were first aid kits, fire retardant suits, and all sorts of military weapons hanging from the sides. While the back end was clearly for transport, the cab was a deluxe combination of high tech and infrared. It was breathtaking.

As Butcher put the Fuchs into drive, the wedge-shaped front cut an easy path through the hundreds of bodies wandering aimlessly through the base. Looking out the tiny window in the back, Roper watched as Safety lowered himself off the fire truck and into the middle of the horde. “Jesus, that’s gutsy. Here he comes.”

Lowering his shoulder, Safety started running, knocking undead in his path this way and that as he followed the path carved out by the Fuchs. Any zombie stepping back into the cleared path was bashed to the ground by his lowered shoulder and even as the horde slowly trudged after the Fuchs, Safety managed to put enough distance between himself and the horde for Butcher to lower the ramp so he could simply run right in.

“That was impressive,” Roper said, clapping.

Safety was out of breath. “Never...thought...being...gay...would have a benefit.”

When the ramp was up, Butcher started back to where they’d left the others in the Hummer. As she drove, the radar beeped. “What the hell?” Looking at the radar, she saw a dozen or so dots approaching.

“What is it?”

Butcher studied the radar a moment. “Planes. About a dozen heading our way.” Putting the pedal to the metal, she made it to the others just before the jets flew overhead.

“They’re headed toward Los Angeles,” Butcher noted.

“Luke.”

She nodded. “Get in here! Hurry!”

When the ramp lowered, Roper and Safety hustled Einstein and Cassidy into the rig.

“What’s going on?” Einstein asked when he saw and felt the tension inside the Fuchs.

“The military is getting ready to bomb Los Angeles. Get in!” When everyone was in, Butcher raised the ramp and closed the doors before turning back to the freeway. As she was just about to get on it, the radar blipped. One of the jets had peeled away and was coming back. “Shit! I need a place to hide her.”

“There!” Dallas said, pointing.

It was a church. Connected to the church was a funeral home with a carport…a carport that was soon filled by the Fuchs just as the plane began retracing its path.

“What’s going on?” Cassidy asked.

“The military is bombing Los Angeles. They’re trying to get a handle on this.”

“I thought you said they’d never—”

Suddenly, a loud explosion shook the Fuchs as the jet roared by dropping a bomb on the military base.

When the rumbling ceased, everyone looked to Butcher. “He must have wanted to put those soldiers down.”

Einstein shook his head. “I never thought we’d destroy our own infrastructure. I never imagined—”

“Any of this?”

Looking out the tiny window in the Fuch’s, Einstein shook his head. “All of this.”

****

The Fuchs had proven invaluable as they easily shoved stalled cars out of the way, had ample room to sit and even lay down, and could become a boat with a flick of a button. Butcher showed everyone how to operate the Fuchs and how to shoot the forty-millimeter machine gun mounted on the top. By the time everyone knew what the Fuchs could do, they were all in love with it.

As they made their way east, there was much more movement around them as survivors headed away from California in vans, motorhomes, and high end SUVs. After nearly twelve hours without stopping for anything more than bathroom breaks, Butcher pulled the Fuchs into a fire station off the freeway so everyone could get some well needed sleep. Dallas hopped out, ran around to the back of the building, and opened the far right garage bay.

It was empty.

“Pull her in,” Dallas said, watching Butcher back up the Fuchs.

Once everyone was out and stretching, Safety said, “That thing’s a beast.”

And so the Fuchs was christened.

“Anyone seen any eaters in the last hour or two?”

“Nothing besides that one walking along the road way back there.”

Although free of the zombie horde thriving in California, that didn’t mean Colorado was zombie-free. Every zombie they passed, Butcher would back up and one of the others would put a cap in its head before moving on. Twice, families in campers pulled up next to them, thinking they were military, and when they realized it wasn’t the case, asked to share information.

Sharing information looked very different now than it had when the first three started off on their own. Now, they remained in the Beast, one of them manning the forty while Butcher spoke through a five-inch diameter hole used for rifles. The first family’s eyes bugged out of their heads when Roper pointed the forty at their camper.

“Don’t mean to be paranoid,” Butcher said, “but we’ve faced some living who were far more dangerous than the undead.”

Family number one nodded. They were from Las Vegas, where the virus had spread quickly due to the full casinos. The only usable piece of intel they got from that family was that the entire country was infected and the infrastructure was completely down.

The second family had just left their basement after a month and were frightened and hungry. It was clear to everyone that these people hadn’t the first clue about how to survive this and when Butcher closed the circular window she said, “They’re toast.”

Family number three wasn’t a family at all, but a Boy Scout Troop of eight heading east. They had heard there was a safe zone in Maine, but had little to offer other than that.

Now, here they were in the fire station, with family number two parked across the street.

In the open.

Wide open.

“Oh my god,” Roper said, looking out the fire station windows. “Those people will be dead in under a week.” Grabbing her rifle, Roper headed for the back door.

“Roper—”

“Just cover the door, Dallas. I’ll be right back.” Running across the street, Roper banged on the door of the camper.

The mother answered. She was a tiny woman with a weak voice and timid mannerisms.

“Yes?”

“You guys are like a billboard screaming ‘fresh meat here’. You need to hide your camper.”

The husband appeared at the door along with his chubby son. “So far, we haven’t had a problem parking on the side roads.”

Roper shook her head. “Sir, I’m sure you want to do what’s right for your family, but—”

“Jesus, our Lord and Savior has protected us this far. We are resting in the safe bosom of Christ Jesus.”

Rolling her eyes, Roper stepped away from the door. “Jesus can’t help you, sir, but my advice might.”

“We are but walking through the Valley of Death and we fear no evil because Lord Jesus is with us,” he countered.

“Well then, I hope he can keep ya’ll from being eaten. Good luck and good night.”

On her way back across the street, Roper stopped and watched as four undead hobbled down the street about a hundred yards away. She knew where they were going and hesitated for one moment before continuing back to the firehouse.

“Well?” Dallas asked.

“Eaters are coming. They’re toast.”

“Why do you say that?”

“They expect Jesus to protect them.”

“No.”

“Yes. And now there are four coming down the road.”

“We ought to dispatch them,” Dallas said.

“You do what you want, Dallas, but those are the kind of people who have prevented us from marrying, adopting kids, and serving our country. Fuck that. If they think Jesus can save them from this, why don’t we all just watch and see.”

Dallas turned to Butcher, who shook her head. “I’m with Roper on this one. Don’t be a fool over someone who would never offer you a hand if you fell in a hole.”

Cassidy took one long stride toward Dallas. “I’ll go with you.”

“Thank you.” Heading for the back door, Dallas was almost through it when Roper grabbed her by the back of her shirt and hauled her back in, slamming the door after her.

Einstein and Safety quickly pushed a huge toolbox in front of the back door.

“What in the hell—”

“Look!”

Dallas gazed out the window as forty or fifty man eaters surrounded the camper, banging on it, pushing it, rocking it.

“I told you they were toast.”

“Roper, we have to help them.”

“Why don’t they just drive away?” Cassidy asked.

“He put blocks under the wheels. Those people are going to die in there.”

“Not if I can help it.” Dallas turned, but Safety stood in front of the door. “No you ain’t. We made a deal, Dallas—a pact—and that was to stay together. You can’t help everyone, you know?”

Tears came to Dallas’s eyes as she slowly nodded. “They’re just children. They don’t deserve—”

Suddenly, a piercing scream filled the air and all six stood at the garage door and peered through the windows looking out at the camper. Standing on top of the camper was the little fat boy, waving his hands over his head. “Help us! Help!”

Dallas’s eyes implored Roper and the others, none of whom acquiesced.

“What on earth are they thinking, letting that kid out?”

“I know,” Einstein said. “He’s bait. They need to get those blocks out so they can get out of here and there’s only one way to—”

The kid took a running start and leapt like a triple jumper through the air. Chubby arms and legs churning, he landed about five feet behind the group, and tumbled two or three times before jumping up, grabbing his ankle, and falling back down.

The diversion worked. The horde slowly turned toward him.

“Get up, kid. Get up. Get up.”

“Ah man, he’s fucked.”

Suddenly, the camper door flew open and the father cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Run Skoubo! Run!”

Skoubo took one look at the advancing horde and hobbled over to the firehouse, where six sad faces stared out. “Help me,” he begged. “Let me in!”

“Sweet Jesus,” Butcher said softly, turning away.

When the door failed to open, Skoubo limped toward the schoolyard near the firehouse, where he made his last mistake. As he scrambled to get up and over the cyclone fence, his bad ankle collapsed and he lost footing. Hanging there with one toe hold, he tried hoisting himself up and over, but it was too late. The man eaters pulled him to the ground, where they tore him apart, devouring any visible piece of flesh and gutting him like a fish. He was dead and half eaten in under ten minutes.

“Ah man,” Roper said, covering her eyes. “Poor kid.”

“Hey, people, it’s not our fault. Like Einstein said, they sacrificed him. We did what needed to be done, but we sure as shit weren’t opening this door for them.”

“I’m sure glad we have the Beast.” Cassidy said quietly.

“I agree,” Butcher said, caressing the vehicle like an animal. “She’ll get us to where we want to go.”

“Now that the freeways are free and clear, it’ll be a much faster trip.”

“Okay everyone, grab something to eat, but stay in here. We don’t need those things knowing we’re in here.”

When everyone had eaten an assortment of canned goods and freeze-dried fruit, Einstein pulled out some cards and played poker with Safety and Cassidy. Roper, Dallas, and Butcher huddled together in the cab of the Beast, going over the control panel once more.

“Either of you notice Einstein checking Cassidy out?”

Dallas shoved Roper. “Get out.”

“Look, love, Safety wasn’t kidding around about repopulating.”

Butcher shook her head “I think you both have cabin fever. Now look, we need to bust a move through New Mexico. Rest and refuel, then we need to book through Southern Texas. With any luck, we’ll be in Louisiana day after tomorrow.”

“Day after tomorrow? God, that would be great.”

“If we put our heads down and get to going, we can move ahead with our master plan of finding a safe place to restart our lives.”

Roper and Dallas looked at each other for the first time with hope in their eyes.

“Restart our lives. That sounds...”

“Impossible?”

Dallas smiled. “Wonderful.”

****

They were up and on the road by sun up. By noon, they had shared intel with five other groups, all of whom were headed east...to Maine.

“They’re thinking there’s a safe house or a safe haven for survivors, just like Luke had said.”

“And there isn’t?”

Einstein shrugged. “Who knows? But you can’t trust a government that’s done what ours has done, can you? Look, if Luke thought Maine was where we should have gone, why didn’t he say so? Why the bayou?”

No one needed to answer. They had already culled information from the road that indicated the country had lost the battle. California was just the beginning. The border states initially saw military along the border. Then, people were told to evacuate their states and go eastward just before bombs were dropped that seemed to kill any zombies close enough to be affected.

The notion that whole states were requested to evacuate seemed preposterous, but after seeing what happened in California, they all realized the government was herding the healthy to run the gauntlet from their infected areas through more infected areas and to the Promised Land...wherever that was. Some people had heard it was in New England, others were headed to the Capitol.

The group within the Beast voted to disregard anything coming from the government. Even when they had tried to share what had transpired in California, people refused to believe it. Denial is a strong drug and many of the people they came across were addicts.

Some people didn’t even believe those infected were undead. They’d heard stories about people tying infected loved ones to their beds while they waited for the government to develop a cure.

You can’t cure the dead.

You also can’t fix stupid, and there were plenty of those as well.

The group had also decided not to join the caravans of people who had begun grouping along the way. There were some inherent dangers with traveling with larger groups. Food was one issue, weapons another, and they were unwilling to give up access to the Fuchs. Some of the caravans they’d chatted with were run by one or more men who were more dictatorial than the six were comfortable with.

Of course, everyone invited the group to join them, wanting well-armed and well-armored individuals for defense, but no one wanted to join another group. It was pretty clear they were all in it for the duration.

Dallas spoke individually with everyone to let each know they each had the freedom to go or stay and not to worry about hurt feelings or anything else. Everyone was a free agent, but not one of them wavered in their commitment to the group or to their intended destination.

This did not surprise Dallas at all.

They had become a family and decided they would sink or swim together. The idea of joining didn’t interest anyone, though plenty of men dressing in paramilitary garb eyed the Fuchs like a naked woman. So instead, they politely declined and continued moving south.

While they weren’t the only ones moving south, when the freeways diverged, the number of people caravanning around them dropped dramatically.

Everyone had heard that the Mexican border had earned the label ‘The Kill Zone.’ Helicopters, planes, Jeeps, men on horseback, in dune buggies, and on foot gave people one chance to turn around. If they didn’t, they were killed then and there. Horror stories of dead vehicles all around the border filtered up to the eastward survivors. The Mexican government had called on their neighbors to the south for aid and got it. The border had never been so secure—only moving in the opposite direction.

South was sure death.

So, east was where most people believed safety lay, but that was a treacherous journey into the unknown—a journey Dallas’s people did not want to make. There was something comforting about the idea of hiding out in the depths of the bayou. Hard to find by water, easy to hide from choppers, they all agreed it was the best plan while the government and military sorted it all out.

And it needed to be sorted.

The hardest part was not knowing.

Had they contained this in the United States or had the infected managed to get outside the borders? And what was the rest of the world doing to help? Or was it? So many unanswered questions. Their small group understood there would be no answers. Survival depended on trusting only those sitting in the belly of the Beast.

“This is worse than I thought it would be,” Roper murmured as Butcher deftly maneuvered the Beast through the cars littering the Texas freeways. Dead bodies were everywhere. They couldn’t look in any direction without seeing dead, as well as undead corpses scattered about.

“Well, when you consider it’s the state with the most guns, you’re bound to have more deaths. It’s probably easier to get trigger happy during an epidemic and there isn’t anyone more trigger happy than a Texan.”

Butcher’s words proved to be prophetic, as they would soon find themselves shot at seven times throughout the course of the day.

“Don’t take it personally, Dallas. They either want what we have or are afraid of what we have. It’s typical war mentality.”

“I find it interesting that so few of the license plates are from Texas,” Cassidy said, looking up from the book she was reading.

“Not me. These people will fight to the death for their property and their homes. They aren’t going anywhere.”

“That’s an interesting thought. What will happen to all the property people once owned?”

“You mean, after the government takes its share?”

“Yeah.”

“We get it, I suppose. If we live through it all.”

Cassidy lowered her book. “Will we?”

Roper nodded. “That’s the plan. We just can’t expect this thing to turn around overnight. We need to get to the bayou and plan on hunkering down for six or seven months, like Luke said. Start a new life where those things can’t get us.”

“What the government will have to do is set up a huge quarantine facility—maybe more than one—and then, one by one, allow the survivors into the safe zone in New England while they continue to bomb the remaining cities and to re-secure the country. That is, of course, as long as this thing was contained in the U.S.”

“That doesn’t seem possible. Not with two of the longest borders in the world.”

“Maybe not, but you heard those Oregonians say the French, Germans, Italians, and so on had sent thousands of troops to help defend the borders. If this remains contained, then our military will have its hands full eradicating the man eaters. The only good thing...” Einstein stopped, puzzling out something in his head. “Oh wow. I never thought of that.”

“What?”

“Well...you know how Butcher explained their horde mentality and how they act like white blood cells? Maybe that was part of the terrorist’s retrieval and clean up plan. If the undead migrate to each other—”

“Then the military can wipe out more at one time.”

Einstein waited to see who would be the first to get it. It surprised him that it was Roper.

“Wait. If that is true and our military has the means to kill them—” she couldn’t finish her sentence, so Einstein did for her.

“That means our own government is responsible for this epidemic.”

The interior of the Fuchs went silent as everyone wrestled with the notion that the American government was responsible for the outbreak.

“Oh hell no,” Safety piped in. “You’re saying our own government caused this?”

Einstein shook his head. “No. I don’t think they caused the epidemic, but I think they knew about the virus.”

“Roper, remember how quickly those military choppers arrived on the bridge? It’s like they knew they needed to cut the city off from everyone else. There had been no time for our military or our government to even know what they were facing, yet they immediately rendered San Francisco into an island and began killing civilians.”

Roper nodded. “I never really gave it that much thought, but yeah, those choppers were there almost instantaneously and they immediately started killing survivors.”

The Fuchs went silent again.

“So, what does this mean?”

All eyes were back on Einstein, who shrugged. “Obviously, something went awry and this got well out of their hands. I don’t think we attacked ourselves, but something happened. Now, they’re cleaning up their mess using whatever biochemical warfare they have at their disposal.”

They all waited for more.

“Which is why I wouldn’t trust anything coming from our government or the military at all. At. All.” Einstein pulled a small notepad from his back pocket. “Luke gave this to me before he left. It has all his notes and ideas about what he thought was going on. Said he thought I would know when the time was right to share it.” He consulted the notepad. “While he’s just barely off-track for parts of it, one thing he was right about: There are only two places that can be considered safe—underground and on the water.”

“The compound,” Cassidy murmured. “So that crazy bastard was right all along.”

Einstein nodded as he handed the notebook to Roper. “It took me a few days to decode his writing, and when I did, I realized Luke had the same thoughts about this attack that I’ve been having.”

Roper flipped through the book before handing it to Butcher. “You’ve put a lot of thought into it, haven’t you?”

Einstein frowned in thought. “Too many pieces didn’t fall into place. At first, we were too busy trying to stay alive, but as time wore on I realized we were facing a three-front war: Zombies, outlaws, and the military. Think about it. At first, they were pretending to give vaccines which actually killed people. Then they began collecting and experimenting on us. Does that sound like a government we can trust? Does it sound like a government that is protecting us? They had an antidote they tried and it failed.”

“But containment—”

“Is necessary, yes, but what they were going to do to Safety and Roper? That smacked of Nazism in its extremist form, don’t you think? Experimenting on the living is ghastly and ghoulish.”

“And now, survivors are being told to head east...for what purpose?”

“Well, on the back of the Nazism, I think we can safely assume there will be camps called safe zones, which will be nothing more than quarantine areas. You know, we have no idea what the true extent of the epidemic is. We only know what we’ve seen, and we’d be foolish to believe anything other than what we know for certain.”

“This hurts my head,” Cassidy said. “I’m with Safety, hon. This theory of yours is a stretch.”

Einstein turned to her. “It is? If we had honestly suffered a terrorist attack, where are our allies? Have any of us seen one British plane? One French soldier? Think about it.”

“The intel says they are guarding the borders with—” Dallas paused, her lightbulbs popping. “With the rest of the world.”

“Exactly! No one is helping us stay alive. They are, however, making sure we stay contained.” Einstein leaned back. “Knowing any of this means nothing to us unless we intend on following the survivors east, and that, I’m not willing to do. Whatever is there, believe me, isn’t a safe zone.”

They rode for nearly four more hours in complete silence. The road became easier to travel the further south they went, but Butcher was careful not to go near the Kill Zone of the border.

As they drove through desolate countryside filled with thinning cows and mangy dog packs of once domesticated pets, Roper noted there were fewer and fewer isolated eaters; that they did, in fact, roam in packs that became swarms, that became hordes. More than once, Butcher plowed right through a horde, knocking back some, running over others. As she was just getting ready to pull over to let Dallas drive, she spotted a roadblock ahead.

“Roadblock ahead.”

“What the fuck?”

Butcher looked over at Roper, who already had her hand on the joystick. The mechanized buzz of the turret as she swung the forty toward the roadblock filled the Beast.

Dallas grabbed the microphone and waited.

“We can ram their cars. Blast them to smithereens, or see what they want.”

“They want the Beast.”

“Can’t have it.”

“Then you want me to shoot away?”

Dallas put the mic to her mouth. “You have ten seconds to move your vehicles or we will render them inoperable.”

Roper smiled over at her. “Render them inoperable? Who are you? You couldn’t have gone with ‘we’ll blast your fucking heads off’?”

Dallas rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, coming from every side were Hummers, Jeeps, and SUVs of all kinds, surrounding them.

“Go!” Safety yelled from the back.

Butcher started to gun it, when a Hummer clipped her from the left, pushing them only slightly off the road, but engaging them nonetheless.

Roper took hold of the joystick and shot everything that moved. She pummeled the Hummer that careened off them, and the Jeep to her right, but as she swung the turret toward the roadblock, it jammed.

“Fuck! It jammed!”

Safety looked out the back window at a Jeep behind them and realized they had a hand-held rocket launcher. If they fired off that rocket they were all as good as dead. Grabbing a rifle and two grenades, he turned to Einstein and said, “Take good care of these gals or I’ll come back and haunt you.”

Pushing the back door open, Safety hit the ground running, shooting his rifle at the driver of the Jeep and the man aiming the rocket launcher.

One, two, three bullets hit the massive football player, but he kept going.

“No! Safety, come back!” Cassidy cried. “What the fuck?”

“Shut the doors! Shut the doors!”

Einstein closed the doors as Roper scurried up to the turret to unjam the forty.

Butcher regained momentum toward the roadblock, and the last thing she saw before they hit it was Safety running and shooting, even as he continued taking fire.

“No,” Cassidy said softly, watching the man stagger but never leave his feet. “Oh no, no, no.”

Just before the man depressed the button on the rocket launcher, Safety tossed one of the grenades under the vehicle and laid down a constant stream of bullets, one of which smashed into the shooter’s collarbone causing the rocket to shoot high and go up and over the Fuchs. When Safety stopped moving to watch the rocket narrowly miss the Beast, his body was riddled with bullets from all sides until, at last, he fell to the ground. As he fell, the grenade blew the SUV ten feet off the ground, killing everyone inside.

Safety was dead before it returned to land.

“Mother fuckers!” Roper yelled, grasping the forty and shaking it before spraying bullets at every vehicle behind them. “God damned sons of bitches!” Swinging the gun around, she fired at the barricade just moments before Butcher plowed into and over it.

As they passed armed men, Roper continued cutting them down with the forty. Man after man, she tore apart with one of the enormous rounds, and she would have continued shooting like a woman possessed had Dallas not joined her and pulled her back into the Fuchs.

“We have to go back!” Roper cried as Dallas gathered her in her arms. “We can’t just leave him.”

“He’s gone, baby. He’s gone.”

“No!” Roper struggled, but Dallas held on and continued to hold on until Roper stopped struggling.

“We could have gotten away…we could have...why...why did he do that?”

“Because that’s what he was in life. He was the Safety. The last guy between a team and the goal. He went out of this life on his own terms and in his own way.”

“That was amazing,” Cassidy said softly. “He just...took it to them.”

“He saved our lives,” whispered Dallas. “What a selfless, courageous thing to do.”

Butcher bowed her head a moment. “That rocket would have killed us all, you know. He truly saved our asses.” Turning back around, Butcher maneuvered through the freeway in virtual silence, their loss a wound that would never truly heal.

“I have to stop,” Butcher said, driving over a barbed wire fence and right into the middle of a desert-like prairie. Cows scattered and prairie dogs ran back into their holes when the Beast came to a halt.

“What are you doing?”

Turning in her seat, Butcher had tears in her eyes. “We run and run and fight and fight, and when we’ve lost one of us, we’ve just pressed on. Well, I for one need a fucking moment to salute those who are no longer with us.”

Dallas grabbed her rifle and nodded for Roper to do the same. “I couldn’t agree more.” Pressing the ramp, Dallas waited for it to go all the way to the ground before stepping out. “Anyone who wishes to say a word, feel free to join us.”

It was no surprise that everyone exited the vehicle. Then all joined hands and waited for Dallas to start.

“This is for Peanut, who never got a chance to attend her prom or kiss her first boy. She was a sweet, dog loving little girl who deserved better than the end she had.” Dallas held her rifle and shot into the air.

Einstein squeezed his eyes closed as he spoke. “She was like a little sister to me, and…and…” he could not go on, so Roper spoke for him.

“And you will always remember her.”

Dallas looked around the small circle and continued. “This is for Safety, who, until the bitter end, was who he was, never allowing anything or anyone to dictate how he would die.” She fired another shot into the air.

“To Safety, for giving us the gift of our lives,” Cassidy said.

“To Safety…for having a heart bigger than he was.”

Standing with their hands locked together, everyone in the little group felt the loss and released it, knowing they had to move forward and not look back. Never look back.

“We’ve been blessed with good people,” Dallas continued. “Some rotten apples, but for the most part, really solid people. The first chance we have to do a proper memorial, we will, but for now, it is enough that we say goodbye and move forward to our unknown future. Everyone ready?”

To a one, they were.

Butcher drove throughout the day until long after dusk. They were almost out of Texas by the time Dallas had her stop. “You must be exhausted,” Dallas said as Butcher climbed out of the driver’s seat. She had pulled into a large cattle ranch and parked smack dab in the middle of a corral.

“This way, we can see ‘em coming,” Butcher mumbled.

“Them?”

Butcher nodded as she lay down next to Roper. “All of ‘em. Any of ‘em. We can’t trust anyone, Dallas. Not...anyone…but us…”

Butcher was asleep before she finished her sentence.

“How are you two doing?” Dallas asked.

Einstein and Cassidy both shrugged and Dallas felt a huge tug on her heart. She vowed to get all of them to safety from here on out, and then felt tears fall as she finally allowed herself to feel the enormous hole left by a giant man.

“Don’t cry, Dallas. He went out a hero. He went out doing what he knew and loved. We should all be that lucky,” Einstein comforted her.

Dallas wiped her eyes before mussing up his hair. “You’re too smart for your own good.”

“And that’s always been my greatest weakness.”

****

They made it to Louisiana without another incident. Everyone was heading northeast, except for the occupants of the Fuchs. The drive was mostly silent as everyone sat with their thoughts or read one of the three books they had.

Dallas held one in her hand and wondered how they would ever restart the country. Everything was in a state of stasis, in slow decay and disrepair.

Everything.

She wondered what would happen to people in prisons. Did they just starve to death? Or what of those in asylums or retirement homes? When did this end and how were they going to kick start it back to life?

Or would they?

If this was global, it marked the end of the world as they knew it. If it was national, it still marked the end of their world as they knew it. There was no scenario in which they would get their lives back.

“You okay?” Roper asked, sitting down beside her when Einstein took over as co-pilot.

“Just thinking is all.”

“We can’t worry about the future, Dallas. All we can do is put one foot in front of the other and try to make a safe haven for the rest of us.”

“I know. I get that. It’s just...it feels so futile at times.”

“We all feel that way, but we’re almost there. The hardest part is over. We fought back and won.”

Dallas laid her hand on Roper’s shoulder. “Doesn’t feel that way.”

“I know, but it will. You’ll see.”

Butcher called out, “Entering Loo-see-anna,” and everyone applauded. “We’ll stay on Ten until it drips down into NOLA on our way to the municipal yacht harbor. I want to stay out of the city at large because it’s hard to maneuver such narrow streets.”

For the first time in days, the mood lightened in the Fuchs as they made their way to New Orleans. Everyone got chatty, some even laughed, and everyone looked out the windows in anticipation of seeing the outer edges of New Orleans.

Old plantation style homes shared the countryside with shotgun houses and more modern day architecture. No one was in the streets, no one could be seen through their windows. It was as if they had driven up to a Hollywood sound stage. Even the flora and fauna felt fake.

Roper reached for Dallas’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “Everything is going to be okay,” she whispered. “Everything will be all right.”

They stopped one time inside Louisiana for a bathroom break, but everyone was anxious to get moving. It had been a long few days of being cooped up in the Fuchs and everyone just wanted some place to light.

“How’s it looking?” Roper asked Einstein. He matured since they’d hooked up and he looked through eyes wizened by pain and loss.

“Not bad. A few zombies here and there, but it’s not too bad. Traffic light.” He grinned. “The few cars we have seen are moving northeast. Interstate ten’s been pretty vacant.”

Butcher nodded. “I expect New Orleans to be overrun, though.”

“Why is that?”

“Close quarters. We need to remember this is like an epidemic and still spreading. Unless the people of New Orleans bailed, they ended up like every other city.”

Truer words were never spoken as Butcher pulled into the outer roads of the city. It was a ghost town. The bars were silent for the first time in probably a century, and the Mardi Gras beads hanging from balcony swayed in silence.

“Where are they all?” Cassidy asked.

“Look, these people survived Katrina and FEMA. They won’t go down to a bunch of mindless zombies without a fight. My guess is they took to the bayou.”

“Let’s hope so,” Dallas said, looking out at the empty streets. Here and there were dead bodies, but she didn’t know if those were dead or undead.

“There it is!” Einstein announced, pointing to a flag flying over the harbor.

As the Fuchs pulled in to the small harbor, Roper noticed how many of the slips were empty. “They took to the water.” She said, remembering the intel they’d learned along the way of foreign battleships lurking along the coastline. “Wonder if they got out?”

“My guess is no,” Butcher said, parking the Beast at the harbor. “Which is why we’re not DDing out of here for the open seas.”

“You sure?” Cassidy asked. “We could live for a month or so out to sea.”

“We’re sure. We’re going to grab one of these and sail it back into the mouth of the bayou and leave it anchored in the water. We can use it to house supplies and take us to the open sea, should that day come.”

Getting out, they all stretched. The only sound was the flapping of the flags on still masts and that incessant dinging of a solitary bell.

“Ooh, look at that bad boy,” Cassidy said, pointing to a sixty-foot yacht.

“Too hard to navigate the—” Suddenly, Butcher’s voice trailed off as she stared at the white flags flapping in the breeze. “Holy shitballs,” she said, laying her hand on her chest.

“What? What is it?”

Pointing to the succession of white flags flapping in the breeze, Butcher read each word scrawled on them: “Butcher. I. Am. Here.”

Everyone froze.

“Luke,” Butcher said, suddenly breaking into an enormous grin. “Luke is here.”

****

As it turned out, Luke wasn’t there, but he was anchored out in the harbor on a forty-foot yacht he had already stocked with food, water and ammunition.

When he pulled into the harbor, Butcher took off down the pier, where he swept her into his arms and kissed her passionately. Even the squeamish teenager smiled at the shared intimacy, and when Luke tied up the yacht, he had hugs for everyone.

“What on earth are you doing here?” Roper asked, eyeing the yacht.

“That’s a really long story I’d rather tell once we get you all settled in.”

Butcher raised her eyebrows. “Settled in?”

Luke was beaming. “Me and two other guys split from the military once we knew the whole truth. They’re staying at the place we found on the river. I’ve been coming here every day for a week, hoping you’d make it.” He smiled a huge grin at Butcher. “I was beginning to lose hope, but—” He looked over their shoulders at the Fuchs, “I see someone gave you some good advice.”

Butcher threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “Boy did he ever.”

“God, is it good to see—” he looked around, his eyes suddenly saddened. “Safety? Peanut?”

“Those would be our stories to share when we get settled.”

He nodded sadly. “We’ll want to keep the Fuchs for sure, so some of you will need to—”

Butcher shook her head. “While we appreciate everything you’ve done and are doing, we made a pact not to separate.”

Luke looked quizzically at her. “Not a problem. I’ll take you up the river via the Fuchs. Once we get you all settled, I’ll come back for the boat.”

“Thank you. And thank you for coming to New Orleans. You don’t know how happy that makes me. I was afraid I’d never see you again.”

Luke blushed and looked down. “If I’m going to defend this country, I want to do it for and with those I care about.” Turning to the yacht he waved everyone to follow. “But before we go, you all look and...well...smell like you could use a shower. It’s not a big boat, but I’ve got food, water, and fresh clothes…even if they are a bit big.”

One-by-one, as each of them had a shower on the boat, Luke stood watch over the Fuchs. When, after two hours, everyone was clean and had a full belly for the first time in weeks, they all piled into the Fuchs for the final leg of their long journey.

****

Home was a log cabin built on stilts about fifteen feet above the river.

“Oh wow,” Roper said as the Fuchs turned amphibian and drifted over to the house. The green, brackish bayou water lapped quietly onto the boggy shores as Spanish moss swayed in the breeze. Nature’s scent filled the air and the occasional cicada could be heard.

“This is perfect.”

“Well, not perfect. It’s a little small, but those things won’t be able to get to us.”

“What about the living?”

“Well now, that’s the cool thing. Enzo and Walker scoped the area out within a three-mile radius. There are plenty of survivors out here. People just like us. Some are living on boats, some on stilts, and some wily old coots who refuse to leave their tin roof huts. It’s crazy.”

“But is it safe?”

“Well, Enzo and Walker have seen three zombies become dinner for the ‘gators. See, they can’t walk on the soft ground. They get stuck and are soon eaten. This is, in my humble opinion, the safest place on the continent that’s above ground.”

When the Fuchs came to a stop, they all climbed out of the hatch and up the ladder into the surprisingly well-built house on stilts. The cabin looked to be about twenty years old with signs of having been recently patched and repaired. The outside looked like a log cabin, but the inside had a huge stone fireplace with a bunch of worn lounge chairs all around it. There were two bedrooms on each side, one with a queen bed and two twins, and another with four twins. All had cozy comforters on the edge of the bed and several large pillows.

“You’ve been busy.” Butcher said, nodding toward the twin beds.

“Gave us something to do.” Luke smiled gently. “I knew you’d make it. I just had to push the doubt deeper into the water.”

“Where are your guys?”

“Making rounds. See, everyone out here looks after everyone else, so the boys were bringing our neighbors treats they found in one of the yachts.”

“Treats?”

Luke grinned. “Candy. See, all of the tweakers got most of the candy when everything went down. The boys have traded for a lot of what you see here.” Luke went over and held up two of those loud party horns in the aerosol cans. “They use these to signal either living or dead trespassers.”

“You keep a watch?”

“Oh hell yeah. There’s a ladder on one of the cypresses that leads to a hunting blind. You can see most of the area from there.”

“How would we know who—”

Luke produced a dozen NOLA PD baseball caps. “These. Don’t ever leave home without them.”

Roper took hers and jammed it on her head. “Looks like you’ve covered everything.”

“Well, not everything, and not me. These Orleanians have been through a helluva a lot in the last two decades. They know how to survive disasters.”

“You call an apocalypse a disaster?”

Luke waved for everyone to have a seat. “You need to know how everything really went down.”

Once everyone was relaxing for the first time in weeks, Luke gave credibility to Einstein’s theory.

Standing in front of a small fire in the fireplace, he started. “The Middle East has been a thorn in the side of our government for decades. Apparently, one of our presidents signed an executive order to find a solution that would wipe the people of that region off the map so they could start with a clean slate. I guess we are tired of sending troop after troop into an arena that will never change and never stop fighting each other.”

“That’s—”

“Genocide. Yes it is. Our scientists came up with the idea that if we could secretly start the epidemic rolling in the Middle East where it would be easier to contain, our military could swoop in later as the hero with the solution. We would, in essence, claim the oil reserves, the fossil fuels, plutonium...hell, even their goats. We wouldn’t just be the heroes. We would be the benefactor of all things good.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Cassidy said.

Luke heaved a loud sigh. “Many of us were. When the boys and I got back to D.C., the rumors were rampant, but Enzo’s twin sister is a scientist and she dug and dug until she uncovered the truth.”

“You were right all along, Einstein.”

Einstein nodded once.

“What she uncovered was that secrets that big are worth a lot of money to the right people, so someone sold what they knew to another country. You can imagine how scary it would be to be our enemy at this point. So the country that knew the truth went to our allies, and in turn, various powerful countries created a committee to stop us in the event we were actually successful in creating this virus. Of course, we denied, denied, denied, and fell right into the committee’s trap anyway.”

“The trap was to smoke us out, huh? We chose to move the virus to an unknown location.”

Luke smiled at Einstein. “You’re good, kid. Because it was so volatile, only small canisters of it were kept in a dozen different locations throughout the country. Once those locations were compromised, again, because people will always pay for good intel, this global committee decided that we, as a super power, had run our course. It was decided that we were the world’s greatest danger, and so, they let the virus loose.”

“The terrorists got us, but we were shot with our own weapon.” Einstein could only shake his head.

“Didn’t they realize how utterly stupid it would be to allow the virus out?”

Shrugging, Luke turned to stoke the fire. “We’re pretty sure they had no idea it was zombies. Even if they did, who would have believed it? All they knew was that this virus could leave our infrastructure intact, our farms tillable, our water potable. They understood that we are a large cookie jar and pretty soon, there would be no one left to guard the cookies.”

Roper held up a hand. “Wait. Are you saying the rest of the industrialized world elected to be mass murderers of Americans?”

Luke looked down. “It’s not hard to understand why, Roper. We’ve been a nation less than two hundred and fifty years. During that time, we’ve been in the Civil War, French-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Viet Nam War, Cold War, Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the Afghanistan War. We’ve destroyed economies, ways of life, and other religions. We are, in most of the world’s eyes, the greatest evil on the planet. We consume more, waste more, and share less. We have it all and yet, we do so little good.”

“So they opted to exterminate us?”

Luke looked up and nodded “Yes. That was their plan, but they had no idea the virus would have two legs and mobility. They didn’t know it would create man eaters. They also didn’t know if the antidote would work, so they pulled together a world army to contain us...to keep us here while the zombies eradicated us.”

“Oh my god,” Dallas said, her hand over her mouth. “They’re just sitting out there waiting to take us over.”

Luke touched the tip of his nose with his index finger. “Exactly. After World War I, Germany was divided into fourths, with each ally supervising their section. The United Nations probably has a similar initiative in mind. My bet is someone was going to divide us up and share the loot. That’s the beauty of the virus: Americans are dead…everything else is unharmed. Come and get it. It’s like finally being able to raid your big sister’s closet.”

As everyone digested this information, Luke held Butcher’s hand and Dallas clutched Roper’s, while all of them contemplated just what this could mean not only to themselves and the group, but to the nation as a whole.

“I don’t have to tell you what this means,” Luke said softly, bringing Butcher’s hand to his lips.

Roper gave Dallas’s hand a quick squeeze. “It means we have one of three choices: We can find someplace else to live, if we could get out. We can stay here and again become a minority in our own country, or we can band with the rest of the gay population and the few remaining straight folks and fight those fuckers for what they did to us and our nation.”

The cabin’s small interior crackled with energy.

“Well,” Roper said, rising. “I, for one, am gonna fight for this country of ours and if those United Nations asswipes step foot on our land, I’ll be right there sending a very gay bullet their way.” Looking down at Dallas, Roper asked quietly, “Who’s with me?”

The vote was unanimous.

****

Coming in 2013 from award winning author - Linda Kay Silva

The Horde

Dallas’s Log

It’s been a month since the deadly virus wiped out almost 3/4 of the population of the United States. Well, wiped out would imply that those 75% were gone.

Or buried.

Or both.

Not so.

They are very much still here roaming the countryside looking for human flesh to sink their blood encrusted teeth into.

We call them man eaters. They do not eat any other flesh or each other—just human flesh. Sometimes they tear the living apart, often stuffing their rotten mouths with intestines, brains, flesh and even bones. Other times, they settle for a single bite, or what we have started calling the B.O. D. which stands for Bite Of Death. Being bitten by one of them is only slightly worse than being eaten alive by one of them because it turns you into one of them.

Them.

As much as we would love to be able to hate them, we can’t. It’s not their fault our government created a virus to use as a bio weapon against some other country. It’s not their fault the global community set that very weapon against us, transforming our once prosperous nation into an infested pool of rotting flesh and blood stained muck. The man eaters are unfortunate victims of bad science and a world sick of the United States government playing God in their sandbox. As a result, the United Nations created a global army to contain the virus within our own borders. We became casualties of a government project gone awry, and before we knew it, survivors turned on each other, our military became our enemy, and we struggled and fought every single day to stay safe and free of virus, from the man eaters, and from each other.

Eight months ago, I met Roper, Butcher, and Einstein, and together, the four of us managed to get out of California’s deathbed and to the safety of the Louisiana bayou. Along the way we collected other like-minded survivors. I say like-minded because an apocalypse devolves man’s higher-level thinking skills into something base and lowbrow. We turn into Neanderthals and revert back to the survival of the fittest…or meanest…or most heavily armed. Outlaws ruled the streets using bully tactics to take what they want. We had faced a group of outlaws on our way to New Orleans and, in the end, it did not go well for them. We might have appeared like a group of women and the boy traveling in a military vehicle, but as we quickly discovered once the virus broke out, looks are deceiving. When we finally made it to the bayou, we had killed both the living and the undead along the way.

I have no regrets for doing either.

At 2:07 on a now memorable Tuesday, we entered a kill or be killed world, and so far, we had managed to do the former quite well. This doesn’t mean we didn’t lose some along the way.

We did, and it still hurts.

But the nucleus of my new family had made it all the way to New Orleans where we have been holding out for the last seven months hoping beyond hope that our scientists have figured out a way to kill those things.

I realized after a few weeks went by that it was time we all recorded our experiences—our successes, our failures, our losses, and our gains.

We are the survivors. I believe it is important for those who come after us to know who we were and why we managed to survive and others did not.

It’s a story worth hearing.

A little about Linda Kay.

Linda Kay, AKA Storm lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner of 16 years and a menagerie of animals. She wakes up happy, laughs all day long, and lives a life that had included African safaris, Thai temples, riding Harleys, and floating down rivers on bamboo rafts. By day, she is a World, American, British, Asian, and Women’s Literature Professor at a military university. By night, she is a lover of all things zombie-esque and will watch any movie where a zombie eats a human being. She’s has been known to offer parts in her books to her students, who touch her life as much as she hopes she touches theirs. She is proud to be with Sapphire Books and looks forward to a long and satisfying writing career with them. Linda Kay prides herself on responding to everyone who has ever written her, and she encourages you to join her and Sapphire Books on Facebook.

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You can find Linda Kay’s books at www.sapphirebooks.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ibooks, Kobo, Smashword, and All Romance Ebooks.