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“You’re the Vigilante,” Travis said slowly, the shock of his words making him feel a little numb.

“Yeah, Travis, took you long enough. You’re dumber than I thought. ”

Curtis laughed. “You’re all so busy just trying to be goody goody and make the world great by talking and talking, but I am the doer. I do what needs to be done. ” The young man’s face was full of cold, raw anger. “I am the law around here, whether you want to admit it or not. I am the only real cop left standing around here. I took care of our people while you just talked and talked and talked. ”

“I’m not the only one making decisions around here,” Travis started.

“No, you’re not. But you got more influence than you deserve to have.

You’re an outsider, Travis. You don’t belong here. But ever since you blew into town, everyone has acted like you’re some great wonderful messiah.

All the girls were blabbing on about you and all the guys wanting to be your buddy. But you ain’t all that. You’re a city slicker that came out here to play country. And your city slicker ways ain’t doing us no damn good. ”

“So you killed all of them, huh? Ritchie, Jimmy, Phil, Shane. . . ” Travis tried to push his shock away and focus on the moment.

“Shane and Phil may have been a mistake. I’ll admit to that. I don’t approve of men raping women. But now that I know she really was a lesbian before she was with you, I see now that I may have gotten the wrong sinner. ”

Travis swallowed his anger and took a step back from the young man with the sharp knife. “You’re afraid of what you don’t understand. ”

“Oh, I understand plenty. Trust me, Travis. I can see very clearly that you have been letting in sinners that will destroy this fort. ” Cur

tis took a firm step toward him.

Trying to furtively examine his surroundings and figure a way past Curtis and out of the dead end the man was pushing him into, Travis decided that to keep Curtis talking was the best route. “Yeah, you seem to hate it that the people from the mall are here. ”

“The Baptists got that right. Crime went up when they got here. People got sick with the flu. Got more gay people and wetbacks to deal with. We were moving toward being a solid, Godly community until that happened. ”

“I guess you forgot our Reverend is black,” Travis said with a slight smile.

“Or is your bigotry arbitrary. ”

“Fuck you,” Curtis hissed.

A low moan whispered through the night.

Both men froze.

The sound made both of them tense even more. Simultaneously, they looked over the wall to see a zombie staggering into the alley.

“Well, now that is perfect timing. Guess he heard the lunch bell,” Curtis said with a grin.

Then he lunged at Travis.

* * * * * Katie ran down the hallway, her feet pounding the floor in rhythm to her rapidly beating heart. She tried to keep the apparition of Jenni in view as her dead friend ran in front of her. Skidding around the corner, she almost ran into the Reverend as he stepped off the elevator.

“Katie, are you okay?” he asked worriedly as Katie pushed past him.

“We’re fine,” Jenni answered as she reappeared next to Katie and dragged the blond into the elevator.

The reverend’s eyes grew wide just as the elevator doors shut cutting Katie off from his view.

Katie whirled around and tried to punch Jenni in the arm, but her hand went through her. “What is going on?”

“Crap. I’m losing it fast,” Jenni pouted.

“Jenni!”

“Oh, Curtis is the freaking Vigilante and about to kill Travis,’ Jenni answered. Frowning, she kept trying to touch Katie and failing.