Siege (52 page)

“Kit-Kat, run!”

She turned and ran. Pulling his gun from his holster, Bill was obviously in pain as he ran after her. Katarina ran as fast as she could on her banged up legs. Meanwhile, the freed family and the semi-truck driver moved with a swiftness that was terrifying. They weren’t runners, but they were fast enough.

Out of the corner of his eye, Bill saw something lurch up off the side of the road and reach for Katarina as she ran. Without a second thought, he tackled the thing. He crashed into the brush, the thing under him hissing and growling as it snapped its teeth at him.

Katarina started to turn, but Bill’s voice urged her keep running. She heard a gun shot and felt a sense of relief.

“Keep going,” Bill shouted.

The helicopter slowly descended in front of her like some great bird. She sucked air into her burning lungs through bruised lips and ran toward it.

“Keep running, honey!” Bill urged her, more gunshots sounding behind her.

The helicopter came down to hover over the road. Katarina forced her body to move those last few steps and she collapsed into Kevin’s arms. He swung her up into the safety of the bird. Turning around she saw that Bill was not running toward the helicopter, but firing into the quickly advancing crowd.

“Bill! Run! Bill!”

“He’s bit,” Kevin’s ragged voice said in her ear.

“No! No! Bill, run!”

Bill turned and smiled at her in that special way that made her heart beat faster. Giving a short wave with a badly mangled hand, he turned back to firing into the advancing horde of undead.

Katarina felt her heart lurch in her chest as she was pulled backwards from the door by gentle hands.

“No! No! We’re getting married! No!” She kicked and fought to get away, but Linda and Curtis held her firmly back from the door. Ed moved to the doorway as the helicopter lifted up and took aim with his rifle.

“Ed, please, don’t! We’re getting married! Bill just fell! We had an accident! He’s not bit!”

The gun fired once.

Kevin and Ed both averted their eyes as Ed lowered the gun and the helicopter swung about.

“No,” Katarina said again weakly. “No! You don’t understand. We’re getting married.”

4. Open Doorways

The sound of the helicopter’s enormous blades slicing at the sky filled her ears as Katarina lay sobbing on the floor beside Bette and Linda. The two women were trying to comfort her, but there was no comfort to be gained. Her insides felt like they’d been torn out. Katarina felt like throwing herself from the helicopter and joining Bill.

Through her blurred vision, she could see Ed, Curtis and Kevin speaking. Beyond them, in the cockpit, Greta was flying the huge beast, whisking them to safety. Another figure appeared, sliding out of the seat beside Greta. The big, lumbering form of Bill moved past the three men talking softly together and moved with absolutely no grace to where she lay. Mesmerized by her fuzzy vision, she didn’t dare move or blink her eyes for fear of him vanishing.

Slowly, he knelt down next to her and took her hand gently in his. “I need you to know something before I go on, baby.”

“Bill,” she whispered, more tears filling her vision.

He shifted his weight and sat next to her on the floor. “When Doreen died there was nothing I could do but watch that cancer eat her up from the inside out. I sat on the Internet at night looking for alternatives, trying to find that magic cure for her. She was a spry thing but the cancer was too mean, too fast. It ate her up and when she died, she was so sad she had lost that battle. She had been so determined to win. If I could have taken her place, I would have. I would have given my life to save her.”

Katarina didn’t dare blink, but her eyes were so full of tears she could barely see him.

“Today, that thing came at you out of the brush and I didn’t think twice. I knew I could die right then and there, but I knew you would get away. I knew it! Don’t get me wrong, I tried hard not to get bit, but it got my hand pretty bad. I’d rather be going home with you than moving on. But I had a chance with you that I never had with Doreen. And I took it. And I’m glad for it.”

“Bill,” she whispered again.

“It’s okay,” Bette whispered, smoothing her hair back. “He’s at peace now.”

“She’s right, Kit-Kat,” Bill assured his bride-to-be. “I’m at peace because you’re alive. The fort needs you and you need them. You keep them strong and sure as the battle rages. You can do this. I know it. I’ve been damn lucky in my life to love two strong women. You keep strong, Kit-Kat. I love you.”

“Bill,” she whispered again. The tears slipped out of her eyes and his blurred image vanished. All that was before her was an empty space on the floor.

Sobbing anew, she covered her face with her hands, his presence still close to her. Bette and Linda leaned over her, trying to soothe her, stroking her hair and back.

“Oh, Bill,” she cried again as she fully realized the depths of his love for her. Without a doubt, his last act in his life was to show her how much he loved her.

* * * * *

The door slid open and Kevin leaped out of the helicopter followed closely by Ed. Katarina appeared next, her face and eyes swollen, her expression grim. Linda helped Bette out, Ed joining her to lift her down. Charlotte arrived with a wheelchair to take Bette to the clinic to set her arm. The Reverend moved forward to greet each person, whispering a soft prayer of thanks as he touched each one. When he reached Katarina, he held her in his arms and wept with her.

Travis reached out to Kevin and they clasped hands tightly. They stood in silence, their expressions tormented, then walked on together.

“How does it look?” Kevin finally asked.

“You guys peeled off at least half of the undead. They’re on a steady trek away from here. What remains has slowed down slightly. Some are still turning back and following the others into the west. I think we confused them.”

“Dale and Ken?”

Travis shook his head grimly.

“Shit,” Kevin sighed.

Travis looked back to where Katarina was talking to the Reverend.

“Losing Bill is one of the hardest hits this fort as ever taken. Everyone is important, but Bill...”

“I know what you’re saying,” Kevin responded with a weary sigh. “Damn, it feels good to know we got a good portion of the zombies diverted, but losing Bill and the others doesn’t make it feel like much of a victory.”

As they walked through the different gates to get into the old construction site, the two men found themselves lapsing into silence. The people on the street gave them wide berth at the sight of their stooped shoulders and somber expressions. The word had spread quickly about the deaths that had occurred in the world beyond the walls.

They reached Juan’s memorial garden and found Katie sitting on a bench with Lenore. The big, black girl was crying silently, clutching a bright pink teddy bear. Peggy sat nearby dabbing at her eyes and smoking a cigarette. Maddie sat beside Rune, eyes closed, tears staining her face. Rune had his head down, his arm around Maddie’s shoulders, grief etched into his posture.

“This is just the beginning of it,” Kevin said somberly.

“I know,” Travis answered.

Both of the men hesitated at the edge of the garden, feeling as if they were about to enter sacred ground. Above them the second helicopter was coming in.

“We did the right thing,” Travis said finally. “We’ve diverted half of them today.”

Kevin nodded. “Doesn’t make it feel any better though, does it?”

“No. No it doesn’t,” Travis agreed.

Katarina came up behind them with the Reverend, her soft cries breaking both men’s hearts. They turned as she drew near and she forced a smile.

“He died like he wanted to,” she assured them.

Travis hugged her first and kissed her cheek. He could feel the deep shudders inside her body and it broke his heart. She turned to Kevin and hugged him, too.

Katie came, kissed Katarina’s cheek, and drew her into the garden. For a brief moment, Travis took Katie’s hand and they exchanged a deep, sorrowful look. The Reverend joined the mourners and took a seat, his Bible clutched in his hands.

“Dale was a good guy,” Peggy said.

“He was, Peggy,” Travis agreed.

Peggy nodded and dabbed at her eyes with her damp Kleenex again. Travis and Kevin moved on.

“I didn’t know,” Kevin said finally. “About Dale and Peggy.”

“I think it was new,” Travis said. “Poor Peggy. Poor Ken and Dale.”

They reached the doorway to the hotel and both men looked up. It seemed unconquerable and strong, but they could not depend on that impression.

“Let’s get to work,” Travis said, walking into the hotel. Kevin followed.

1. The Fine Line

The room was dark except for a small Sponge Bob night light tucked into a wall socket across the room. Kevin sat at her side, his hand tucked under her long, pale hand. It felt slightly cool to his touch and he pressed his other hand on top of it to warm it.

Nerit looked younger with her hair falling gracefully alongside her face. Her strong features were not what someone would call beautiful, but perhaps elegant. Kevin wondered what she had looked like as a young Israeli sniper.

It was nearly midnight and the fort was very quiet. The day had drained everyone. It was hard to find one dry eye in the entire fort. Dale, Ken and Bill were men who left an impression. The chapel had been overflowing with people trying to attend an impromptu memorial service. Meanwhile, the meeting in the manager’s office had been crazy. Calhoun had crashed it, bearing his camera like a samurai sword. A few other concerned citizens had forced their way in as well. It had been a tense event with quite a few raised voices.

The recon mission with Juan had showed just how successful they had been in their attempt to draw off the zombies. The two trucks had directed a majority of the zombies traveling along the road toward West Texas. That had been the good news.

The bad news had been a large swarm of zombies that were trekking through the wild and nowhere near a road. A segment of this group had swarmed the Durango with Ken and Dale inside. Some of those zombies were still standing in the road around the Durango. Another portion had drifted off toward the West. Another faction was traveling down the road. Despite the success of the mission to direct the zombies away from the fort, the loss of life had been high. Since most of the zombies were off the roads at this point, it was determined not to send anymore Durangos out.

“We’re going to have to fight them on the outskirts of town. We control this area. There are too many variables out on those roads that we cannot control,” Travis had said.

“The secret government is controlling the clones, I tell you,” Calhoun had declared immediately. “They are trying to wipe us out cause we won’t obey their stupid laws.”

Kevin smiled slightly at the memory and looked toward Nerit’s peaceful face. “You should have been there, Nerit. Calhoun was in top form.”

“And how the hell do you expect to fight off that many zombies on our territory?” one of the concerned citizens had shouted back. That question actually led to some positive planning. Kevin had been amazed by the plans organized by a man named Roger and a bunch of teenagers. Evidently the science teacher, who had perished on a mission, had worked with the kids on some very creative ideas to defend the fort. It was Juan’s adopted son, Jason, who had laid out the plans for the adults. Kevin had been impressed.

Calhoun had to be his weird self. He repeatedly sniffed Jason, declaring,

“He is possessed by his dead mother, Jenni! Her wisdom from beyond the grave is guiding him!”

His odd declaration worked in their favor, because Calhoun then shut up and stared enraptured at the teenager.

In the end, the meeting had terrified everyone with the truth of the oncoming dead, but had calmed everyone when the plans to defend the fort were laid out.

It would take a lot of hard work to pull it off, but it was doable. How effective it would be was yet to be seen.

“It is never easy to face death. Even when you have laid out plans so perfect in composition you cannot believe they will fail,” a voice said behind Kevin, jarring him from his memories.

He turned in his chair to see a young woman standing next to the bricked up window. She had long blond hair that was braided over one shoulder and was wearing a uniform he did not immediately recognize until he saw the Israeli flag. Tall, lean, and elegant despite her intense stare, she was striking to gaze upon.

“Nerit,” Kevin whispered.

Stepping toward him, he saw the sniper rifle slung over one of her shoulders.

“The truth of any war is that you must plan for any eventuality. You must be persistent in trying to tear apart your own strategies. You must anticipate all possibilities and be prepared to immediately adapt.” The young woman ignored the form on the bed and sat next to him, her keen gaze resting on his face. “You must know your enemy and never underestimate him.”

“The enemy is dead, Nerit. They are us, dead and gone, but still up and moving around. You know this,” Kevin answered. “They don’t think. They just do.”

“You are underestimating them.”

“I’m not. Nerit, they’re dead.”

“You’re underestimating them,” she repeated.

“They don’t think,” Kevin persisted.

“Again, you are underestimating them. Three men died today. You almost lost three others.” Her gaze was so intense it was almost unbearable. Kevin took a deep breath and looked at the old woman in her bed then to the woman seated next to him. He could see the similarity between them.

“Are you dead?” he finally asked.

“If I am and I am sitting here talking to you, then consider the capabilities of those who are dead and out there.”

“But they don’t think, Nerit,” he insisted. “They just kill and eat.”

“A force drives them,” Nerit answered. “A basic need to eat. That is instinct. It is overwhelming. And that instinct makes them cunning whether or not you wish to believe it.”