"You'll have to clear the building," Katie said. "But you don't have guns."
"No, we were using our tools to off any zombies that attacked during the first phase of constructing the outer perimeter. A solid blow to the head and they go down."
"We could go get more guns," Jenni said softly.
They both looked at her and she blushed.
"You mean Ralph," Katie said.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I know you said that thing about the guns drawing the zombies, but one day, they are just gonna show up. And they're gonna make it real hard on us to do anything," Jenni said.
"Yeah, Jenni's right. Those zombies are just gonna come here anyway because we're here," Jason agreed. He chewed away on a chicken bone as Jack nudged his elbow.
Travis frowned a little and slowly nodded. "My family originally came from England when I was a boy. They were very anti-gun. We've done all right so far with our shovels. But…"
Katie laid her revolver on the table in front of him. "Discretion was in order for you to get this place secure as fast as you did, but soon this will be the answer. It's fast and more efficient if you got good aim."
"Your friend, Ralph, he has weapons? He just told us he was the Mayor of a small town."
"He is, but he also owns a pretty big hunting and camping store," Jenni said.
Travis rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"It wouldn't hurt to talk to him about this. Besides, I just realized we need to let him know we're okay." Katie looked at Jenni and winced.
"Ralph must be worried sick," Jenni answered. She felt a little better now that she was part of the conversation.
Katie turned to Travis. "I know you're in charge here-"
"The Mayor-"
"I know you're in charge here," Katie repeated "and I'd like to suggest that maybe you should arrange with Ralph to go pick up some weapons. If you really can clear out a lot of the zombies that are out there right now, maybe we can head over to Ralph's."
Travis looked at Katie for a long moment, his gaze steady and thoughtful. "Yeah, you got a good idea there. We got about twenty of those things out there now. More on the way. They may break out of the school soon."
"Then we can't waste time," Katie suggested.
Travis thought for a long moment. "Yeah. I think it’s time to go talk to the Mayor and get hold of your friend."
Katie had barely eaten, but she stood up as Travis did.
Jenni pushed her plate away quickly and followed suit. "I'll come with you."
"I'm going to keep eating," Jason said firmly and Jack seemed to agree with this decision as he licked his chops.
Jenni hurried around the table to follow Katie and Travis, desperate to be included.
Downstairs they entered a large room that was sectioned off into cubicles. The city secretary and her little boy were fixing up a bed for themselves behind her desk while the Mayor sat in a nearby chair listening to the emergency broadcasting channel.
"…as communication with Europe has ceased there is no word on how far the plague as spread. The CDC, operating in a slowly burning Atlanta, continue to issue guidelines for destroying the reanimates…"
The Mayor looked up to see them and turned off the radio. "They are beginning to repeat the broadcast. Not a good sign is it?"
Travis shook his head and sat in a folding chair across from the desk.
"What about the CB?"
"Lots of truckers still out there trying to find safe places, but some are running out of gas. There are not as many out there as there were." The Mayor folded his hands on the desk and sighed. "How is the wall coming along?"
"We still think we'll have the area fully enclosed by morning if we keep working all night. Another batch of zombies are headed our way."
"The school?"
"Not yet. Other zombies following Katie and Jenni here. Maybe twenty. I have Juan organizing some men to kill as many as they can. We'll use safety lines this time."
The Mayor let out a long breath as he ran a hand over his balding head.
"If the school…"
"Yeah. Which brings me to something. That man, Ralph, the Mayor who told us the girls were in route. He owns a hunting store. He has guns." Travis spoke softly with respect, but Jenni could tell he was subtly trying to steer the Mayor in the direction he wanted him to go.The Mayor took in this information, then said, "I have an idea. We could send someone out to get some guns once we thin out the zombies around the wall."
Travis hesitated and said, "That sounds like a good idea. I can try to get ahold of Ralph tonight and maybe send out someone in the morning."
"See what you can figure out and let me know," the Mayor said softly.
Travis nodded. "I'll get right on it."
The Mayor slowly turned and once more checked on his computer. The CNN homepage was up on the screen. "Still the same page as yesterday. No updates."
Travis motioned to the women and they followed him into a side room.
Curtis, the cop, sat beside a ramshackle set up of communication equipment.
He looked pale beneath his tan and his thin blond hair was matted with sweat.
"Hey, Curtis!"
The cop looked up and said, "It's getting quieter out there."
Travis nodded, walked over and laid a hand on the cop's shoulder. He squeezed it lightly. "What about that man, Ralph?"
"He asked about the women. I told him they arrived safely."
"Good. Think you could get him back on the line?"
"Yeah. Give me a sec."
Jenni stood close to Katie, watching, taking it all in. It felt good to be here. Safer somehow. But she still felt thrown off balance. Katie looked at her, smiled, and tenderly swept some loose locks of Jenni's black hair back from her face.
"You okay?"
Jenni smiled immediately under the attention. "Yeah. Just nervous."
Katie kissed her cheek lightly and slid her arm around Jenni's waist.
"Yeah. Me, too."
And then, outside, the moans and screeches of the dead rose to mingle with shouts of alarm.
The zombies had arrived at the perimeter.
Chapter 9
1. The Night of the Dead
Travis rushed over to a window, pulled back the curtains and swore under his breath.
"You two stay here," he said, and rushed out the door.
Curtis looked at the two women, then lowered his head solemnly. He seemed worn down, tired, and overwhelmed. Katie remembered that Travis said that the police force had been wiped out. She had a feeling Travis had asked him to oversee the communications center they had set up to keep him from the action. Curtis looked no older than twenty-one and Katie bet he hadn't been on the job long.
Jenni grabbed her hand. "If we go upstairs we could probably see out the window."
Katie nodded. "Let's go see."
Together, they ran out of the room and up the stairs.
A small crowd of people clustered around the windows to watch.
Managing to worm their way into a good position to watch out of one of the windows, Katie and Jenni looked down at the men taking position to fight the zombies. Ladders had been used to scale the wall and get up onto the trucks.
The harness lines glinted in the light from the huge lights set up around the perimeter. The men had only shovels and strange spears with what looked like trowels attached to the ends. Since the windows were looking out at the street over the top of the wrought iron fence, it was easy to see the zombies desperate to reach the men. Moaning loudly, some of them screeching, thirty or so zombies clustered under the men, beating the sides of the trucks, demanding the flesh of those above them.
Katie's heart jumped a little, as she caught sight of Travis running up one of the ladders, still fastening his harness, his spear under his arm. Of course he would be part of this. He was not the sort of man to send others to do something he wouldn't do himself.
It was as if his presence on top of the truck was a sign, all the men began to squat down and ram their weapons down as hard as they could on the heads of the dead below. Katie could see the shovels busting open heads as the trowel-ended spears were driven through the eye sockets in upturned faces. Some of the zombies managed to grab the weapons and those wielding them immediately let go and were handed a new one. She wondered if the man that had been lost in the earlier battle had tried to fight with a zombie for his weapon. In this new world you had to learn fast to survive.
In the first few minutes, the construction workers took out at least ten zombies. The crush of the other zombies against their now truly dead comrades became greater, holding up dead. This made the men reach out further to actually hit one of the living undead. One man lost his footing altogether and swung out over the crowd. Juan shouted and immediately his towline was drawn up and back. Zombies tried to grab his feet, but the man was swung to safety.
"Shit," someone said nearby and Katie couldn't agree more.
Her eyes continuously strayed to Travis. He had a greater reach and seemed to be driving his shovel down with a strange, staccato rhythm.