Return to me, Jane. Please. As soon as you are able, come back to Rose Hill. We need you.
Once we’re back within the city limits, Katherine heads straight for the sheriff’s office. But before we get there we’re intercepted by Ida, her eyes wild as she runs full tilt toward us.
“Did you hear? Did you hear?”
When she reaches us she’s panting, her chest heaving. I shake my head. “No, we didn’t hear anything, what’s happening?”
“A pack, bigger than last night’s, was spotted a few miles off the eastern border once more. The sheriff is sending everyone out to meet them, but the drovers refuse to fight this time, and the sheriff can’t do anything about it. He’s sending just the patrols. We’ve woken the night teams, but there just aren’t enough of us to take on a horde.” Ida looks from me to Katherine. “We’re not going to survive this time, Jane.”
I exchange a look with Katherine. “We’re too late.”
Ida looks from me to Katherine and back again. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
We quickly fill her in on what Gideon told us, her warm bronze skin going gray. “We can’t win against that many shamblers. That man is a monster. He and his boys are going to send us all to die.”
I nod. “Yep, but we intend to stop that from happening.”
Katherine puts her hands on her hips. “Right, I’ll go speak with the sheriff, you go ask the Duchess if she’ll spread the word that everyone needs to fight if we’re going to beat back the approaching horde.”
“Have you lost all the sense in that pretty head of yours? Fighting is suicide. We need to run.”
“Jane, where are we supposed to go? We’re in the middle of the prairie. It’s better to shelter in place here than take our chances on the open range, where they can just run us down.” Katherine flounces off toward the sheriff’s office, and I turn to Ida.
“Don’t listen to her. Tell the patrols to grab whatever weapons they have and any rations they can find and leave. Pretend like you’re going out to face down the dead if anyone asks you. I’m going to take care of the sheriff while you all get out. Half the folks should head north and half should head east. We need to get clear of the wall before the shamblers get into town.” Walls didn’t just keep things out, after all. They also kept folks in. I worry that everyone will try to flee the same direction and the wall will end up a grand choke point, serving up panicked folks to the dead.
Ida gives me a lopsided grin. “Got it. Good luck.”
I give her a wink and run inside of the saloon. I pause just past the threshold, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Once they do I realize that the saloon is empty excepting for the bartender, polishing glasses.
“Where’s the Duchess?” I call.
“In her room back down the hall.”
“She got company?”
“Nope.”
“There’s a horde headed this way, you need to grab what you can and get out of town.”
The bartender looks at me all wide-eyed. “What about the wall?”
“That damn wall ain’t helping anyone now. Only running can save us.”
I dash full tilt down the narrow hallway. When I get to the Duchess’s room the door is closed, and I knock.
“Duchess, it’s Jane. We need to get out of town.”
There’s rustling on the other side of the door, and then it opens a few inches. I walk in.
“Shut the door behind you.” The room’s got a sick, coppery scent to it, and I do as the Duchess asks. It’s pitch-dark, the curtains drawn, and hotter than the dickens.
“You okay?”
“I’m going to cut right to it, my dear. The sheriff knows that Katherine ain’t a real lady.” There’s a choked sound to her voice, and I swallow the lump of dread in my throat.
“How you know that?”
“He came by this morning for his weekly appointment and told me.” The curtain draws back, flooding the room momentarily with light, and I get the glimpse of the Duchess’s face, her lips swollen, eye blackened, before the curtain falls back into place.
My heart nearly stops. “I don’t understand. How’d he find out?”
“That father of his. He apparently followed up with a couple of the newer families in town once the sheriff took a shine to Katherine, and after some conversation it seems they remembered a pretty blond Attendant who was light enough to pass from a couple months back. Sheriff Snyder threatened me, told me he’d kill me if I didn’t tell him the truth. She’s dead, Jane. Both of you are.”
I can scarcely believe this is all happening, right now. “All right. I need to go get her. But we’ve got even more pressing issues to tend to.”
“I tell you the sheriff is out for blood and you say there’s something more important than that?”
“There’s a horde on its way. Big enough to wipe us off the map. We don’t get the town evacuated, we’re all dead.”
The Duchess doesn’t move for a long time. “We can just hole up here. The wall—”
“The wall is wrecked, it ain’t going to do naught for us but trap us in.” What is it with people and their fixation on this damn town? “We need to run, you need to gather up your girls and make a break for it.”
The Duchess doesn’t answer for a long moment, and I take a deep breath. “Please. You’ve been kind to me, and if it wasn’t for you I’d most likely be dead of infection of some sort. You have to grab what you can and run. I know it feels hasty, but trust me when I say Summerland ain’t safe. It never was.”
And with that, I run out of the room, hightailing it to Katherine, hoping I ain’t too late.