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Bette perked up at this description. “I really want to hear this story!”

Juan grimaced. “Later. After some beers.”

Bette finished jotting notes on the clipboard. “Emma, go ahead into the med center. Get some ice on that wrist before gets any worse.”

Emma knew she hadn’t been bitten, but she was relieved to be cleared. With a nod to Juan and the others, she walked to the entrance of the med center. She

wasn’t surprised when Monica followed in her wake.

There was a lot of activity in the back of the portable building where the space was divided into examination nooks. While Ted was complaining loudly to Nerit, which didn’t surprise Emma, Kurt hovered near Belinda, watching Charlotte treat the worst of her burns. Emma looked around, hoping for a restroom, but didn't see a sign. She really, really had to go.

A nurse’s assistant, wearing an armband with a red cross, stopped the two women inside the entrance.

“Bette said to get her wrist iced,” Monica quickly explained.

The older white woman with short cropped graying dark hair and piercing black eyes responded by taking Emma’s wrist and examining it herself. After a few seconds, she bobbed her head as though agreeing with Bette’s assessment. Without a word she walked over to a refrigerator in one corner and fished a blue ice pack out of the freezer.

“That’s Anne,” Monica said, her voice low. “She’s one of our newer people. She doesn’t talk a lot. She came in with a salvage team that was looking for medications in an old folk’s home. Anne was still there with her patients. She’d barricaded them into one section of the building and took care of them after the rising. She was out of food and fuel for the generator when they found her. The last of her patients had died the previous day and she was close to checking out. I think she’s traumatized by the fact that she couldn’t keep them alive one more day to be rescued.”

From across the room, Anne directed Emma to a metal chair pushed up against the wall. Emma took the seat and Anne carefully applied the ice pack to the swelling. Pointing to it, Anne indicated she was to keep it in that spot. Emma nodded. Satisfied, Anne returned to a small desk near the front door to make entries into a binder. Trying to relax, Emma stretched out her legs, and Monica took the seat next to her.

“So much paperwork,” Emma muttered. “I thought paperwork would’ve gone the way of the rest of civilization. Into the shitter.”

Monica laughed. “Nope. We have to keep a good eye on our supplies and keep everyone organized, so…paperwork.”

Emma was struck once more by how different the Fort was from the life she’d lived for the last year.

The door yawed open, sunlight flooding in and briefly blinding her, and two men entered. In the forefront was a tall, handsome guy with curly brown hair followed closely by another dressed in a white shirt and khakis. Though both were white, the first man had a tan that indicated he spent a lot of time in the sun while the other was pasty and looked like he was taking a break from a boring desk job.

“That’s Travis,” Monica whispered, indicating the man who’d entered first. “He’s the mayor. The second guy is Eric. He helps with a lot of the Fort planning since he used to be an engineer.”

The door swung open again, letting Juan inside. Emma expected Arnold to follow, but the door slammed shut. The three men walked toward Nerit, who broke off her conversation with Ted to join them. They huddled together, speaking in lowered tones.

Emma examined her wrist and saw that she was going to have a pretty florid bruise. Luckily it wasn’t broken.

Once again, she was blinded by the sunlight flooding through the open doorway when another man entered. He was tall, black, middle-aged, and ruggedly good-looking in his camouflage.

“Kevin, just in time for the debrief!” Nerit called out.

“Is Katie coming?” Kevin asked.

“No, she’s gonna be resting for a while. Maternity leave,” Travis responded with what Emma suspected was the grin of a proud father. “Yolanda should be here shortly.”

“This is where leave,” Monica whispered.

A little bewildered by their abrupt exit, Emma followed her out the door into the hot afternoon, cradling the icepack around her wrist.

“Those are the bigwigs of the Fort. They handle most of the planning of what goes down. They’re gonna want to talk to Belinda and the others about what happened to Ed’s group when they left here. It’s best to make ourselves scarce.”

“They could use a few more women on that council,” Emma replied.

“They had more, but shit happens. It is the zombie apocalypse.”

Emma didn’t want to pry. She remembered Yolanda’s sad expression when discussing the former city secretary’s demise.

“That it is.”

Monica gestured to Bette talking to a group of people near the gate. “But sometimes good things happen too.”