Page 11

“Jenni,” she answered, shaking it briefly. With her dark hair shifting around her and her face splattered in blood, she looked fierce. “Also known as La Loca. ”

“Loca is good,” Rune decided, giving her a rakish grin.

“Sometimes,” she answered, winking and walking off.

He watched as she headed over to where people were cl

eaning off spears, machetes, hatchets and other weapons. A small building had steam rising out of it, and Rune guessed that was where they were cleaning off the zombie gore. Halfway there, Jenni leaped onto the back of a tall, lean Hispanic cowboy. With a grin, the cowboy carried her over to the rest of the returning team.

Rune sighed. Of course a fine woman like that was taken.

“Okay. Who the hell are you? And what’s in the bag?” It was the old codger with the grizzled face.

“Rune. ” He opened the bag to show the old guy the grenades. “And a whole lot of hurt. ”

The man chuckled. “Name’s Ed. Welcome to the fort. ”

“Just staying until the storm blows over. Then I gotta move on. ” Rune shifted the bag.

“You sure?”

“Gotta keep moving,” Rune answered. He could see the ghosts around him, faint shimmering things. “Gotta keep moving ahead of the dead. ”

Ed looked at him strangely.

“There ain’t no rest for the wicked, man,” Rune joked. Or mediums, he thought. Ghosts were everywhere, just like zombies.

“You can’t escape the dead in this world,” Ed finally said. “You’re welcome to stay if you like. ”

“Thanks, man. I’ll think about it. ” Rune shifted his bag of grenades.

“Like I said, we’ll see how it goes. ” The man who could see the dead looked around, studying the fort, seeing the flickering of spirits all around him. “We’ll see how it goes. ”

3. Promises and Shadows

Juan grimaced at the stink coming off the woman he loved. She was hanging on his back, covered in drying blood and gore and reeked of death. She seemed immune to it, having been out in the deadlands all afternoon, but he had been in the nice and tidy dead-free zone of the fort.

It amazed him that he had been used to the stench of the dead when they had been under siege in the first days. It was strange how humans acclimated to things like that. But once the dead throngs were cleared out and clean fresh breezes filled the fort, the smell of the dead was again sharp and repellent.

“You ruined my jacket, Loca,” he grumbled, trudging toward the clean up area.

“It’s ugly anyway,” she assured him. “Besides, I’m tired. Spoil me. ”

“As if I have a choice,” Juan drawled, grinning and grimacing at the same time. “What did you do this time to get so messy?”

“Up close and personal decapitations of the zombie kind. I went whackywhacky with my trusty ax. ”

“You’re supposed to shoot them before they get too close. ” He felt his stomach coil up at the thought of her fighting with the ravenous dead.

“Yeah, well, sometimes runners see it a different way. ”

“Shit! Running zombies?”

“Fresh and fast. I think another van of survivors ended up a buffet. ”

Jenni sighed, laying her head against his shoulder.

He tried hard not to be angry with her. Sometimes it was damn hard.