Peggy didn’t know what to say.
“We need a room,” the oldest girl continued.
“Well, we can’t just put you in a room by yourself,” Peggy answered.
“Do we have to go outside with the zombies?” The little girl looked terrified.
“Oh, no no. I meant…well, come around the desk. You need to have a room with an adult taking care of you.”
Obediently, the children came around the desk and stared at her. Feeling flustered, Peggy gazed at the little darlings pondering what to do with them. It was too late in the day to try to find someone else. They’d have to stay with her.
“Okay, well, you can stay with me and my little boy. I’m sure he will enjoy the company.” The three kids kept staring at her with their shell-shocked expressions.
Finally, the oldest girl said. “Is Christmas in your house?”
*
Katie stood up and slowly stretched. Juan was finally asleep and Rosie was snoring in her chair. Looking over at Guadalupe, she saw that the old woman was still praying the rosary. The teenage boy was looking at a magazine. Katie blinked, then leaned toward him slowly, studying his face.
The boy slowly looked up at her. “What do you want?”
“Who are you?” The boy blinked. “Uh….why?”
Katie suddenly recognized him and gasped. “Oh, my God. You are that kid from the convenience store that we kept telling about the zombies and you wouldn’t believe us!”
The boy hunched his shoulders, then said, “Yeah, so what?’
“What are you doing with Guadalupe?”
“He’s a good boy,” Guadalupe assured Katie. “He came with the soldiers to the rescue center and he always pushes my chair around.” Katie shook her head in amazement. “Oh, my God! The last time I saw him he was running from the zombies.”
“I run fast. I got away. The soldiers picked me up and Guadalupe is like my grandma now. She’s pretty cool.” The boy shrugged his shoulders again.
Katie was in shock, but it was a pleasant one. “Well, I’m glad that you’ve been helping her.” With a slight laugh, she walked to the door and looked back at the boy again. Somehow, seeing him alive made her feel better. The world wasn’t completely filled with death and it was a small comfort she would embrace.
*
Curtis stretched his legs and moved out of the communication center to see Linda walking down the hall.
“Hey, Linda,” he said with a sheepish grin.
“Hey, Curtis,” she answered with a smile.
“I hear that disco night is still on for Friday. We still going together?” Curtis asked.
Linda chewed her bottom lip. “Yeah, I think so.”
She looked hesitant and it made Curtis nervous. They had been fooling around for a few weeks, but she always seemed a little elusive whenever he tried to get her to commit to anything. “Okay, well we can dance and stuff,” he said.
“Yeah. That will be fun.” The blond soldier named Bette moved down the hall toward them. Curtis had been told by Nerit that Bette would be coming to update the communication center so they could start monitoring official channels as well. She was very pretty with her short hair and large blue-green eyes.
“Hi,” Bette said when she saw both of them.
Linda turned and gave Bette a wide grin. “Hi again.” “I’m supposed to help a Curtis,” Bette said slowly.
“That’s me,” Curtis said, drawing himself up and trying to look official.
“Great. Then I’m in the right place.”
Curtis’ eyes narrowed as the two women looked at each other in a way he wasn’t sure how to take. They seemed to share a secret, but he knew that was impossible. They couldn’t have but just met.
“See you around,” Linda said, and Curtis wasn’t sure who she meant.
“See you,” Curtis said quickly. Bette just smiled at Linda, then turned to him. “Let’s get started.”
*
As Calhoun danced alone under the stars hours later, the fort slumbered. The old man danced a wild jig of glee as he ignored the throbbing of his head and the pain in his side. He was jubilant and he was celebrating.
The Amazon Bitch Queen had been dethroned and the fort still stood.
It was a night to rejoice.
And so he danced….
Chapter 22
1. 1-35
?gThat’s a helluva lot of zombies,” Raleigh said in an oddly terrified yet awed voice.
Beside him, the Senator frowned she set her hands on her hips.
Beyond the copse of trees, that they were hiding within, was a dry and scrubby swathe of field that led down to the strangled interstate below. Vehicles of every size and description formed a tangled necklace of battered metal and glass. Standing among the ruins were thousands of softly moaning zombies. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the fleeing traffic of nearly every city and town along I-35 had become a buffet of fresh meat for the newly risen dead in the first days. The large silent National Guard truck beside them was a small consolation facing such danger.
I-35 cut across Texas dividing the East from the West. It connected major and minor Texas cities together like a chain from Laredo through San Antonio, Austin, and Waco, before branching off to Fort Worth and Dallas and then continuing on up into Oklahoma. If they wanted to get to East Texas, they were going to have to find a way over the massive thoroughfare that was clogged mile after mile after mile.
“They’re just standing there,” Raleigh said, mystified by this. “Why do they just stand there?” “They haven’t seen fresh meat yet,” Ruben, the soldier, answered him. “If they see us, they’ll be moving like ants toward a picnic.”
“We can’t get across. We need to go back,” a young black soldier His name was Lewis and he looked as terrified as the rest of them were trying hard to pretend they were not.
Ben, the soldier in charge and a native of East Texas, looked grimly determined. “I think we can barrel across and get onto the farm road.”
“I don’t see much of a weak spot,” Lewis decided.
“I got family over yonder. We’re going across,” Ben said firmly. The Senator looked toward him. “How?” Her expression was grim, all traces of her usual false bravado erased. She was facing the reality of the situation and she didn’t like it. Her plans had seemed so easy when they had been formulating in her mind. It was a simple plan: show up at Central, present all the information on the fort, get the support of Central’s firepower and take over the fort.
“First truck will gun it and hit that point right there. Those are just small cars. We can shove through. Second truck will then follow. We can do this,” Ben declared. “We can do this.”
“They’ll follow,” Raleigh pointed out. “Which is exactly what Central doesn’t want.”