“Oh, shut up!”
Katarina and Felix appeared behind Curtis. Katarina laid a gentle hand on the younger man's shoulder.
“Let it go, Jenni,” she said in a soft voice.
“No! I won't! He's the gawddamn Vigilante! He told Dylan to go into that storeroom and it had a fuckin' zombie inside! He did it on purpose cause he was mad at him for smoking weed!”
Curtis was trembling with emotion and looked up at Jenni, tears streaming down his face. “I thought it was clear!”
“You liar!”
“Get Bill,” Travis said in a soft voice to Katie. “And Juan.”
Katie gave him a quick nod and hurried down the hall.
Travis pushed off from the counter and walked slowly toward Jenni.
“Jenni, things go wrong out there. You know it.”
Jenni whirled around, toward Travis. “Dylan was a boy! He's just a boy! Curtis got him killed.”
“I thought it was clear!” Curtis' face was red, his hands clenched at his side.
Katarina held onto Curtis shoulder, partially to comfort him, partially to keep him back from Jenni.
“It was not an easy ride back with these two going at it,” Felix grumbled.
“I want him locked up!” Jenni stomped her foot.
“Jenni, calm down. We need to take care of this in a calm manner.”
Peggy slowly walked up behind Travis, glad for his gentle demeanor. She, personally, wanted to slap Jenni and shake Curtis, but she also felt sick at the thought of someone so young dying so horribly. Poor Dylan.
Bill appeared with Katie, hoisting up his belt and looking slightly annoyed. “What's going on?”
Jenni and Curtis started talking at the same time. Katarina and Felix kept trying to interject, but the noise was unbelievable. Peggy felt like screaming at them to shut up.
Bill raised a hand. Everyone fell silent.
“Curtis, talk to me. What happened?” Bill looked at the younger man with a fatherly compassion that Peggy admired.
“We were in the Walgreen's. We made a sweep through. I checked the storeroom. Didn't see nothing. Told Dylan to go in and start organizing what we needed to take. I went to get a dolley. I heard him screaming and ran in. I guess the zombie came off a shelf or something. I don't know. I shot both of them.” Tears were streaming down Curtis' face. He rubbed at his flushed cheeks furiously.
Bill looked at Katarina and Felix. “Is that what you saw?”
“I didn't see anything, but I heard Curtis telling Dylan to take care of things in the storeroom,” Katarina answered.
“I didn't check the storeroom myself, but I heard Curtis call it as clear.” Felix shrugged.
“He sent him in there to die!” Jenni couldn't hold her tongue anymore. “He did it on purpose!”
Juan came running into view just then. His boot heels rang out in the huge lobby. He skidded to a stop near Jenni. “Babe?”
“Curtis did it on purpose,” Jenni shouted again, tears streaming down her face. “He did it on purpose. He's the fuckin' Vigilante! It could have been Jason! He could have killed my son!”
The minute the words left Jenni's lips, the atmosphere in the room changed significantly. Peggy could feel it. The accusation against Curtis suddenly felt impotent. Bill reached out and snagged the younger man's shoulder in a firm, comforting grip.
Juan grabbed Jenni's arm and twirled her into his arms. She clung to him, crying violently.
“Curtis, go to your room. Clean up. Rest up. We'll talk later,” Bill ordered.
Katarina and Felix both sighed as Bill shooed them off as well.
Katie smoothed Jenni's hair back from her face as Juan whispered in her ear.
“You two, calm her down?”
Juan nodded to Bill. He helped Katie lead Jenni away.
Travis stood beside Peggy. “What do you think?” He looked at Bill pointedly.
“Shit happens out there. People die. And it ain't easy,” Bill answered.
“Can't disagree with ya there.” Slowly, Travis turned back to where Nerit was still studying the map. “C'mon, Peggy. We got work to do.”
Peggy looked back at Curtis one more time before the elevator doors shut. Her stomach clutched tightly. Her nerves were getting the best of her. It was a fucked up world and she hated it. But at least Bill and Travis were there to make it better.
Trying to hide the trembling of her hands, she followed after Travis.
“What's the plan?” Travis asked Nerit, leaning his elbows on the counter.
“I heard there was a disturbance! I fully intend to reveal the truth behind the matter to all who will listen! I will not allow the truth of the conspiracies of this illegal fort to go unreported to the-” Calhoun burst into the lobby with his video camera already filming.
“I'll get rid of him, “Peggy said with a sigh.
“Actually,” Nerit said with a wicked little smile. “We're going to need him for our plan.”
Peggy looked at the smelly old man and then Nerit. “Him?” She was incredulous.”
Travis looked back at Calhoun and then Nerit. “You sure?”
“Oh, yes,” Nerit said. “I'm sure.”
Calhoun spotted them and headed toward them, his foil hat looking about to fly off his head his was coming so fast.
“Just the man I am looking for,” Nerit said.
Calhoun looked shocked, then a little afraid. “I will not assist you in your nefarious plans, Amazonian Queen!”
“Yes, you will,” Nerit assured him. “Because it will help defeat the marauding aliens attempting land grabs and abductions.”
Calhoun looked at her suspiciously from beneath his scraggly eyebrows, then slowly tilted his head. “Okay. I'm listening.”
As Peggy listened to Nerit's plan slowly unfurl, she felt her fear began to subside. Perhaps, it would all work out okay after all.
3. When Nothing is Clear
Travis handed Katie a beer and slid into the chair next to her. She was sitting with her feet hooked up on the balcony rail, her lean legs looking tan and fit in the waning sunlight. Dinner was sitting nice and filling in their bellies. Sitting out on their balcony seemed like the right way to end an evening.
Travis stretched out his legs in front of him and stared at his bare feet. They ached, just like the rest of him.
Katie tapped her beer against his and took a swig. “Jenni's okay now. I called Juan while you were in the shower.”
He looked toward her. “She took it hard, huh?”
Katie pulled on her shorts a little, still trying to get comfortable.
“Yeah. Once she saw Jason, it was a little better. I think she understood why she flipped out so bad after awhile.”
“She's still not talking about the boys, huh?”
“Sometimes I wonder if she ever will. I feel so bad for her. She says she sees Lloyd every day now, out of the corner of her eye, or standing in the shadows. She's ignoring those visions. That's good, but she's not dealing with any of it.”
“We're all fucked in the head cause of all this,” Travis decided.
“I've been hearing a few things around the fort.”
“Like what?”
“People seeing ghosts, for one. Or hearing their voices.”
Katie nodded. “Me, too.”
“You dream of Lydia.”
“I miss Lydia,” Katie reminded him, then slightly shrugged. “But I do have to admit that, sometimes, in my dreams, I feel her presence.
Or at least I think I do. Most of my dreams about her are just like flashes of memory or something along those lines. But, sometimes, I dream about her and she feels…real.”
Travis' brow puckered as he considered this. “I can't say I do believe in ghosts exactly. But considering that we got the living dead running around, I can't really discount stuff either. Maybe Jenni's asshole husband really is haunting her, trying to finish what he started.
I don't know. But I do know that until she deals with what happened with those boys, he's gonna be able to get to her. Ghost or not.”
Katie sighed and ran a hand over her blond curls. “Yep. I agree.
Do you see ghosts? Dream them?”
Travis shook his head. “No. But I wasn't exactly close to anyone when it went down. My parents died in a car crash a few years back. I don't have siblings. My fiancee and I were over. Being in Ashley Oaks to help with the restoration was my new beginning in life. Juan was the one who got me out here. He was the one person in my life giving me any sort of grounding, I guess you could say.”
“You're kinda like Jenni that way. This whole thing going down gave you a new lease on life, too.”
“It gave me you,” Travis answered, taking her hand. He looked at her. His emotions were very close to the surface. It was never easy at the fort. There was always hard work to be done and problems to sort out. He spent long hours planning with Eric and Juan on the fort expansion, long hours with Nerit on fort defenses, long hours with Peggy and Bill on the internal workings of the fort. He wasn't officially mayor yet, but everyone was acting like he was. Some nights he was so exhausted all he wanted to do was lay in Katie's arms and listen to her breathe.