Page 7

Boots pounding against the concrete, Emma jogged behind Katarina toward the concrete brick structure cutting off Main Street. It was about ten feet high. A sentry post was built flush against the wall and spanned the entire width of the street. The wooden structure appeared sturdy and several sentries were clustered behind one of the three olive-green hunting blinds erected on the platform.

When they arrived, Katarina scaled the ladder straightaway. It wobbled a little beneath Emma as she climbed up after the other woman since it was rigged to be easily retracted. She was careful to keep her rifle flipped onto her back and out of her way. The last thing she wanted to do was to catch it on one of the rungs and make a damn fool of herself in front of the others.

Reaching the top, she joined the three other people gathered behind the blind along with Katrina. They were a diverse group: a man probably in his late twenties with dark skin and jet black hair; a blonde white woman around Emma’s age with a deep tan and athletic physique; and a scrawny older white man who looked every inch the redneck stereotype.

“Emma, this is Rashmi, Stacey, and Ennis.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet all three of you.”

The three nodded at her in welcome and she returned the gesture.

“What’s going on, Kat?” Rashmi asked.

His accent was British, not Indian, which surprised Emma. Then again, she’d never met anyone who was Indian.

“We’ve got runners wandering around and Nerit is going to lure them into the traps.”

Rashmi frowned. “Shouldn’t someone else do it? She’s still recovering.” “Have you tried to tell Nerit not to do somethin’?” Katarina chuckled. “Like that’s going to work.”

Stacey laughed. “She is stubborn. I wouldn’t dare try to boss her around. Nerit is scary in a lovable way.”

With a scowl, Ennis leaned against the wall at his back. “I ain’t scared of her. I can handle her just fine. But that being said, what does the scary old bitch want us to do?”

Stacey clearly took offense at his comment. “Don’t call her a bitch!”

“I meant it as a compliment!”

Ignoring the squabble, Rashmi focused on Katarina. “What are we supposed to do?”

“Give her cover if anything goes wrong. Otherwise, we hold our fire,” Katarina replied.

Stacey looked mystified by the order. “Hold our fire? Why?”

“We don’t want to drag more zombies our way. Nerit wants the traps to take care of them. It’s quieter.”

“Aw, shit, Kat! We’re going to have zombie bodies piling up and stinkin’ to high heaven. The one we have out there right ain’t cleaned up yet. She’s smelling up the whole area! Makes guard duty miserable out here.”

Katarina didn’t appear impressed by his woes and dismissively shrugged. “Since most of the traps didn’t go off over here and there is only one body, priority clean-up was elsewhere.”

“Which is why she should have gotten picked up first. She’s the only one on this end,” Ennis argued.

Emma raised one finger. “Excuse me, but after the horde came through why is there only one dead zombie in this area? How did that happen?”

“The rest bypassed the town after the main firewall was set off. She’s the only zombie that ventured close enough to this section to set off the razor wire trap,” Rashmi said.

Emma flinched. “Ugh. That sounds messy.”

Rashmi nodded. “She’s in pieces.”

“Well, in pieces or not, she’s giving me the creeps. Got one eye staring right at us.” Ennis shuddered. “I can feel it right now, all-accusing like. I could always feel that hag’s evil eye on me.”

Stacey leaned toward Emma and said, “He’s convinced the zombie is his ex-wife.”

“I know it is.”

Rashmi’s annoyance with Ennis was evident. “How could it be your ex? Be logical, Ennis. You said she was in Beaumont when the z-poc started. How could she possibly be here?”

“You have no idea how damn ornery she could be when she got in a mood. She always threatened to haunt my ass. I’m tellin’ ya, her zombie would hunt me down. I could see her trackin’ me down just to make me miserable.”