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Jack began to bark fiercely as ten more zombies crested the hill and came into view.

Then twenty more.

The lone biker rode toward the undead with a gleeful shout that sounded like, “Time to rock and roll!”

* * * * * As Rune barreled toward the zombies and Jason and Calhoun struggled to repair the detonation device, Yolanda sat nestled in the communication center listening to the various groups check in from all over the fort. She checked off the numbered groups one by one on the notepad in front of her, her full lips pursed slightly.

She knew what had happened to Peggy. She felt both very sad and very angry. Peggy had always been kind to her, but today, of all days, to leave them in the lurch pissed her off. Yolanda was supposed to be up on the wall with Lenore manning the huge crossbows, but instead she was trapped in the windowless communication center. She hated feeling disconnected from defending the fort even though she knew what she was doing was important. But dammit, she wasn’t fully trained for this.

Scratching her head with the end of her pen, she sighed and responded to the last call in. She tried not to notice her stubby fingernails painted bright red. The black women of the fort had all cut off their fingernails and braided back their hair in a big party last night. It had been a rough thing to do. It may have seemed silly to some, but it had made them feel connected to their culture and their old lives to have their fancy nails and hair. But in the last week, they had decided to braid up their hair and cut their nails for safety reasons. A few of them had caught their nails on triggers during practice and their hair could be dangerous if the zombies managed to breach the walls.

In fact, everyone was under orders to have their hair up and pinned, just in case. Though she had noticed Rune had ignored this order and had worn his hair down at breakfast.

“Yoli, gotta create a distraction,” Rune’s voice cackled. “Something went wrong with the damn fire line. Cal and the kid are working on it. . ”

“What you talking about?” Yolanda snapped at him. “You’re supposed to be-”

She heard him laugh, cutting her off. “Say boom, baby. ”

A second later, she heard a faint boom in the distance.

Travis and the Reverend entered just as she began demanding to know what the hell was going on.

“That crazy ass long haired biker boy is off doing some stupid shit,”

Yolanda informed Travis.

The tall man’s eyebrow shot up and he glanced at the clock. “Shit! It’s time. Sorry, Reverend” he quickly apologized for the profanity.

“No offense taken,” the Reverend assured him.

“Rune, what the hell are you doing?” Travis asked, leaning over to talk into the microphone.

“Getting the zombies to move my way. The fire line has got probs and the kid and crazy old guy are working on it. ”

In the distance there was another boom.

“Don’t worry about me. I got my bike and bag of grenades. ”

Over another channel Nerit’s voice cackled to life, “Rune is making some sort of a crazy run to draw the zombies away from the fire line and Calhoun and Jason. Those explosions you hear are him lobbing grenades into the horde following him. ”

“We just got the word from him,” Travis said to Nerit. “How’s he doing from what you see?”

“He’s got the first hundred or so walking straight for him and away from the opening,” Nerit answered, then laughed. “Honestly, he looks pretty happy about it. ”

“He’s a brave man,” the Reverend decided.

“More like damn crazy,” Yolanda muttered.

“We’re going to say a few words before they breach the fire line,” Travis said to Nerit. “Keep an eye on Calhoun and Jason. Pull them back in if it gets too close. ”

“Understood,” came the reply.

“Yolanda, open up the speakers,” Travis instructed and ignored her sour look. He picked up the microphone and was surprised at how slick his hand was. He almost dropped the microphone. Fear was slowly unfurling deep inside of him. For so long they had all lived with low-grade paranoia and fear it had become a part of them. Now those emotions were swelling as the dead approached.

The Reverend seemed to sense what was behind his hesitation and gently patted his shoulder. “You can do this, Travis. ”

Travis tried not to think of Katie up there on the wall ready to fight for their lives. He closed his eyes. Steadying his nerves with a silent prayer, he pressed the button and spoke.