4. Facing the Truth
“What we are looking at is at least fifteen thousand zombies heading straight our way,” Nerit said as the photos were slid across the table one by one. “Possibly up to twenty thousand,” Kevin added.
Travis frowned as he studied one, then passed it on to his wife. “Where did they come from?”
Greta shrugged. “Who knows? They’re just there. Moving straight toward us. Rune was right.” Curtis and Bill studied the photos side by side as Katarina sat down sharply and looked rather ill.
Eric sighed softly, also looking a bit pale. “Could it be the people from the National Guard rescue center? Wouldn’t that be from the right direction?”
“It was completely empty when we went there for supplies,” Greta noted, then shrugged again. “But why’d they leave?”
“Who knows what got them started in this direction,” Katie said with a sigh. She sat down slowly in a chair next to the table and her hand pressed firmly against her belly. “We know that once they get started in a direction it’s hard to deter them.” Travis kissed the top of her head softly and rubbed her back. She leaned back into him, trying to find comfort, but not truly finding it.
“Will the walls hold them back?” Bill asked abruptly.
Juan shifted his weight from foot to foot, his arms crossed against his chest, his brow furrowed, then finally shrugged. “I can’t say.”
“That’s not very damn reassuring,” Curtis snapped. His young face was flushed with emotion and his brow was beaded in sweat.
“Yeah, well, we have been building pretty damn fast. We haven’t been sitting down and estimating how much stress those walls could take. Up until now we only had to hold off a couple hundred of those things.”
Looking calm, thoughtful, but a tiny bit pale, Eric nodded. Dressed in a white shirt and navy trousers, he looked as casual as it got for him. “We haven’t done any stress tests at this point―” he started.
“Well we better hurry the hell up and figure it out,” Curtis wailed, flinging out his hand dramatically. “Cause they’re fucking coming.”
“The outer wall is new,” Travis said. “That would be our major concern. I have more faith in the older walls inside,.”
“We could always fall back to the inner areas,” Kevin suggested.
“Less to protect,” Nerit agreed. “And the walls are thicker around the hotel and entry lock.” “We’re talking like we’re going to get overrun,” was the soft comment from Bill.
The stress in the room was growing more and more palpable. Katie’s fingers found Travis hand and she held him.
“It has always been a possibility,” Eric answered calmly.
“Why are you such a gawddamn Vulcan about this?” Curtis nearly screamed. He backed away from the table and the photos, his eyes wide, terrified, the drops of sweat on his face rolling down to his chin.
“Curtis, calm down,” Bill said softly, holding out one hand. “Just calm down.”
Running his hand over his hair, Curtis backed all the way into the corner of the room, shaking his head. “We’re going to get overrun, I knew it, I knew this bullshit would happen when we brought in all those people from the mall.”
“This has nothing to do with the mall,” Nerit said sharply. “The direction these zombies are coming from indicate they came most likely from the National Guard base or from Fort Worth or Dallas.”
“And it doesn’t do any good to panic,” Eric pointed out.
“But people are gonna panic,” Peggy’s quivering voice said from the corner. She was smoking a cigarette and her hand was trembling. “Fuck, I’m panicking. That’s a damn lot of zombies. More than we’ve ever seen out in these here parts. And if I’m panicking you know everyone else out there is going to panic, too.”
“Then we have a plan in place to deal with all of this before we take it to the general population,” Travis said, his voice raw, but firm. “I agree. We have been working hard to get fire traps up, the catapults and all sorts of other defensive weapons rigged. We can take a good chunk down before they ever hit the wall,” Kevin added.
“We plan carefully, then tell the people,” Nerit agreed.
“Yeah, well how fucking long do we have, Nerit? How long before they are at our fucking wall moaning and screaming for our guts? Huh? How gawdamn fucking long,” Curtis screamed.
“Eight days,” Greta said. “At the least, eight days.”
“How do you know that?”
The hysterical note in Curtis’ voice was sharp and desperate and Bill reached out to calm his fellow officer. Curtis avoided him and glared intently at Greta.
“Number of miles divided by their walking speed. Rough estimate,” Greta said regarding him coolly.
“So we plan. Today. All day if we have to, how we are going to deal with this,” Travis said. Eric nodded solemnly. “Agreed. Before we terrify the rest of the people.”
“They’re going to be terrified anyway,” Peggy scoffed.
“Let’s try to give them less to be terrified of then,” Kevin said with a small smile in her direction. Juan shook his head, his curls bouncing. “This is not going to be easy. Getting rid of that many of the dead. We’re talking a total siege.”
“We’ll deal with it,” Nerit said firmly. “We have no other choice.”
Katie’s fingers were trembling in Travis’ grip and he leaned over and kissed her cheek gently. Juan rubbed his brow and whispered, “We got kids and kids on the way. We gotta do this. We can’t afford to lose all we fucking gained.”
“Then we do this,” Nerit said again. “We deal with it.”
Kevin sat down at the table, his expression pensive but determined. “Then let’s do it.”
With that declaration, Eric rolled out the schematic of the fort and they began to plan. All except one. Curtis slipped out and ran down the hall. He did not stop until he reached the roof of city hall and it was there that he sobbed until he collapsed.
No one came to soothe him.
Chapter 27
1. Judgment Day
Travis had never been so scared in his life. He had faced many terrifying events in the last year, but this had to be the worst.
The entire dining room was crammed with the residents of the fort. They were crowded around tables, lined up against the walls, filling up the aisles, their voices a loud rumble in the large room. No one knew, except a small handful, what the meeting was about and the room was filled with old and young and a small herd of dogs sitting around Calhoun.