Thank God," Jenni said with relief.
"So we're staying," Jason said.
Katie looked at him and then at Jenni. Jenni smiled at her, her gaze flicking to Travis then back to Katie.
"Yeah, we're staying. "
"Good. Because we need you here. I feel it," Travis said and he put his arms around both Jenni and Jason. "Now, let's get you food, introduce you to the Mayor and hear your stories. "
Katie didn't think Jenni could get any redder or anymore giddy. She followed the little group as they moved toward the city hall not even glancing back once to see Juan and another guy loading the dead zombie onto the arm of the excavator to dump her back among her own kind.
"Besides," Katie mused. "How the hell would we get out of here?"
2. Through a Door Softly
Jenni felt rather special walking with Travis' arm around her shoulders.
His voice was like fine leather against her skin and she felt herself blushing.
Behind her, Katie walked briskly holding her shotgun in one hand and her backpack in the other.
As they neared the back entrance of city hall, Travis said, "Hold a sec" and released his hold on Jenni and Jason. He turned and motioned to Juan.
The Hispanic man, his long, curly hair flowing under his baseball cap, quickly ran over. He was tall, deeply tanned and had the lean muscled build of someone who worked at hard physical labor. His dark hair had glints of red in it and his eyes were a dark green. Tucking his thumbs into his work belt, he looked at Travis expectantly. He looked weary and a little shorttempered.
"We have more zombies on the way. Get the harnesses ready," Travis said.
"Great. It's not like we don't have enough of them out there as it is. "
Juan said in his very thick West Texas accent. "Are you sure?"
"They followed the ladies here to Ashley Oaks," Travis assured him.
"They're on their way. "
"Well, shit. " Juan took a deep breath. His keen eyes flicked to Katie.
"Where'd you pick 'em up?"
"Emorton was overrun. It looked like the whole town was turned. They weren't too messed up so they were fast," Katie answered. "I'm Katie, by the way. This is Jenni and Jason. "
"I'm Juan," he answered and shook his head. "We lost a man keeping them off the perimeter before. "
"We learned from our mistakes. We need to keep them thinned out or we'll get overrun," Travis said.
"What are you going to do?" Katie glanced toward the barriers then back at Travis.
"We're going to secure some men with safety lines and give them shovels and some homemade spears. When the zombies come up against the outer perimeter, we stand above them on the trucks and stab down through their skulls, jumble up their brains. We took out around a dozen that way before we lost a man the last time. But we didn't have the safety lines the first time out," Travis said, his voice tinged with sorrow.
Juan shook his head and looked up at the darkening sky. "Good thing we got the lights set up. And if the grid goes down, we're on backup power…" He shook his head again. "This is a fucked up situation. "
"Just get some men ready and hooked up. First sign of trouble, we yank them back. "
"It's like we're dangling bait in front of the zombies, Travis," Juan protested gruffly.
"They're gonna come anyway," Travis answered.
"Yeah. Yeah. Shit. " Juan sighed heavily. "Okay. I'm on it. "