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“To put it mildly,?

?? she replied with a weak smile.

“You okay?”

She shrugged. “Just a little PTSD.”

With a somber nod, Rashmi said, “We all have it. Undiagnosed, but…the nightmares are bloody awful, aren’t they?”

“I have new content for them now. Those razor-wire traps are scary as fuck, but I gotta say those fire traps being set so close to the wall were a bad idea.”

“I agree. The smoke was worse than expected,” Rashmi admitted. “I’ll put that in my report when I’m off duty.”

“Report?” Emma chuckled. “Everything here is so organized. It’s so strange.”

“Paperwork. It exists even now.” Rashmi flashed a grin at her. “It’s damn annoying.”

Katarina returned, the walkie-talkie clutched in her hand at her side. “I got word from Juan about that kid. They aren’t letting the mother bring him in.”

“I can’t believe she thought we’d allow him inside the walls,” Rashmi said.

Katarina glanced down at the walkie-talkie, her freckled face tense. “Apparently someone told her we have the cure to the zombie virus. She’s been traveling this way for months. All the way from fuckin’ Georgia.”

Rashmi stood, an incredulous look on his face. “Georgia! Seriously? All that way?”

“They started with a group of nearly one hundred. They thought the Fort was held by the military and that a lab here had the cure. Altogether, we rescued four. Only four!” Katarina shook her head in disbelief. “They came all this way for nothing.”

Emma was sick to her stomach. If she’d thought there was a cure for Billy, she also would have lugged him across the country wearing a catcher’s mask. “Why would they think y’all had the cure?”

Katrina shrugged. “Who the hell knows?” “Disinformation travels faster than you’d expect. Especially when it carries a seed of hope,” Rashmi said. “I heard about the Fort through a ham radio transmission. I only caught it once, but it was the worth the risk trying to get here. Hope is a great motivator.”

“Hope can get you killed,” Katarina grumbled.

Emma got to her feet. Holding her rifle with one hand, she gazed at the destruction in the street below. There were so many bodies and the stench of fresh death assailed her. “What now?”

“We head back and leave the others to finish their scheduled duty,” Katarina answered.

Somehow, that felt wrong. Like they were abandoning the others.

“Nice meeting you, Emma,” Rashmi said with a firm handshake.

It was a small comfort that his hand was trembling. If he hadn’t been affected by the battle, Emma would have been worried.

Following Katarina back down the ladder, Emma noticed the noise level within the Fort was rising. Workers were trickling out of the buildings and machinery started up in a street nearby. The crane was silent again, having delivered its cargo to safety within the walls.

As abruptly as the battle had started, it was over.

The walk back to the inner wall was in silence. Emma didn’t feel like talking and Katarina seemed to be in the same state of mind. When Juan appeared at the end of the block, cowboy hat tilted back on his head, Emma wasn’t surprised. He acted like she was his responsibility. Hands on his narrow hips, he waited.

She didn’t quicken her stride, for she needed a few more moments to herself. The child in the mask had shaken her to the core. It was only a few days ago she’d seen her sweet little boy’s face twisted into that of a snarling monster and put a bullet through his undead brain.

“Y’all did good,” Juan called out as they approached.

Katarina grunted. “That was all sorts of fucked.”

Juan lifted one shoulder and winced. “Agreed, but we saved some folks.”

Katarina stopped in front of Juan, her fingers tightening on the strap connected to her rifle. “None of them were Ed’s people, huh?”