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Nerit inclined her head. “I agree with you. This time. ”

Katie smiled at him and kissed him lightly. His body was tense and she knew he wanted to argue with her, but she loved that he respected her enough not to.

“So if the Senator says yes and there is a horde of zombies outside of the mall, how do we get the people out?” Curtis was looking very uncomfortable with everything going on and his foot was rapidly tapping the floor.

“Airlift. We got three other helicopters other than my bird,” Greta answered.

“We’ve been using an abandoned commercial airstrip for refueling. We cleared out the zombies and have been refueling there regularly,” Kevin explained. “It will take a lot of trips, but it would be the safest. We do have explosives on all the gates out of the mall, but if we do that, there is a good chance of the last part of the convoy being overrun. ”

“We can coordinate and figure out how to make the airlift work then,”

Nerit assured Kevin. “As long as the helicopters don’t pull in any zombie mobs, we can run regular pickups out to the helicopters to pick up the people. ”

“Sounds like a plan,” Travis said in a low voice. ” A workable, needs to be fine-tuned plan. ”

The tension in the room had dissipated and now there was a sense of tentative camaraderie. It would be rough bringing everyone here, Katie knew that, but they could do it. And perhaps they could use the Senator’s contacts within the East Texas compound to their advantage.

Travis rubbed Katie’s back gently as she leaned into him. She loved him so much, but it was time for her to do what she did best. Beyond that, she felt a great need to go to the mall. She wanted to see what had happened there and see her father. She wanted to bring him home as well as Jenni.

The thought of both of them trapped there made her feel sick to her stomach.

“We should get to planning then,” Nerit decided.

Kevin nodded. “Absolutely. ”

Calhoun burst into the room, wide-eyed, jabbering, and wielding his camera. With a scream that made Katie jump, Calhoun raced toward Kevin, his hands stretched out.

Valerie swung her rifle out from under her chair, rose easily to her feet, and nailed the old man with a sharp crack to the forehead. Calhoun fell back, blood running down his face, the camera falling to the floor. Thomas aimed his revolver at Calhoun’s head and everyone heard the safety snap off.

Everyone began shouting as chaos erupted.

Nerit calmly stepped in front of Thomas, blocking Calhoun. “Stand down. ”

“It’s a fucking zombie,” Thomas shouted at her.

“. . . damn clones…” Calhoun muttered.

“He’s just a crazy old man!” Katarina had her gun pointed at Thomas.

“Stand down!”

“He looks like a fucking zombie,” Valerie protested.

“Do zombies talk?” Katie stepped forward and she felt Travis holding her arm, making sure she didn’t rush forward.

“. . . Government set them free…Amazonian conspiracy…gawdamn aliens…”

Calhoun was saying in a low voice as he lay on the floor.

Kevin gently pushed the weapons down that his people had trained on the old man. “He smells dead. ”

“But he’s not,” Nerit assured them. “He’s just crazy. ”

Thomas and Valerie slowly relaxed, looking confused.

“Curtis, get Charlotte,” Travis ordered. “I think he’s hurt pretty bad. ”

Katie leaned down and moved the broken camera out of the way. Gently, cautiously, she touched the old man’s matted hair. “Calhoun?”