“Put him down and let's drag him up,” Nerit ordered.

Katie dragged the crossbow back into position. It felt strange to put Phil down one last time, but somehow right. She fired once and watched his torso flop backwards.

“He so deserved that,” Jenni said with satisfaction, and shoved the rest of the taco into her mouth.

4. Ghosts of the Past

Jenni landed feet first on the street below Katie's sentry post and raised her pistol quickly. Bill scrambled down the ladder behind her, his big belly giving him a little bit of trouble as he went.

The bodies of the dead zombies were scattered around them, the deadly bolts from the crossbow having done their job. Jenni knew they were finally, truly dead, but she couldn't but be afraid. Every time she was outside the walls, she was terribly aware of her vulnerability.

Bill set his booted feet down on the street and heaved his belly upwards as he tried to get his belt hoisted up on its girth. His keen eyes looked around the street from beneath his cowboy hat.

Felix easily climbed down the ladder. Nerit followed more slowly.

Jenni and Felix took up positions to the left and the right, watching the road while Nerit and Bill moved over to the pieces of Phillip's body.

“That smell is enough to make me puke my tacos up,” Felix grumbled, and kicked a dead body in irritation.

Jenni looked down at the gray, decaying carcass at her feet. It could have been a woman at one point, but it was so badly eaten, it was hard to tell gender. There were no clothes on it and most of its hair had been pulled out. It wasn't the smell that got to her. It was seeing their empty eyes, like Mikey's as he snarled and clawed at the window of the white truck on the first day. She blinked hard and shoved that thought away.

“Mighty chewed up,” Bill said to Nerit. “Can't tell much about what happened before he got ate.”

Jenni rubbed her nose and narrowed her eyes as a few shambling figures appeared in the far distance.

“Look at his leg,” Nerit said from nearby.

Jenni glanced over to see the older woman squatting down by one of the torn off limbs. The skin was shredded and muscle and tendons were ripped from the bone.

“Shattered,” Bill said after a moment.

“Human teeth couldn't do that,” Nerit agreed.

“What does that mean?” Felix's voice was tight with his fear.

“I'm thinking bullet,” Bill answered. “I think someone shot him in the leg.”

“I betcha Shane did it,” Jenni offered, and watched as one of the far away shambling creatures tumbled to the ground. It struggled to get back up resulting in an almost comical series of pratfalls.

“Maybe,” was all Bill said. “We better go see if we can find Shane.”

Nerit continued to stare at the shattered bone thoughtfully. She prodded the limb with the edge of her gun, then began to look around on the ground around her.

Bill called in to the fort for a vehicle to be brought around while Felix began yanking the bolts out of the zombie heads to be cleaned up and recycled for use later. Jenni kept her eyes on the figures in the distance.

“What's going on?” Katie's voice sounded worried.

“Heading out to see if we can find out what happened to Shane!”

Bill gave her a thumbs up.

Jenni could see the worry in Katie's expression and knew that her friend was probably feeling some sort of misplaced guilt. Jenni didn't mind Phillip being in pieces. She kind of wished Shane was out here, too. She returned her gaze to the figures wading through the shimmering heat. The one that had fallen was still not able to get back up on its feet. They were still some distance away. Jenni wasn't too worried.

Nerit continued to look around, shoving the decaying bodies out of her way, obviously intent on finding something. Bill pulled up on his belt again and stared down the road where the zombies were moving relentlessly toward them.

“Helluva day,” he said at last.

The school bus roared around the corner, Ed behind the wheel.

Felix said, “Thank God.”

Jenni understood his relief far too well. She was keeping a cautious eye on the walking dead slowly approaching their position.

She liked them slow like this. It was easier to kill them and it was more like the old zombies movies. She hated it when they were fresh and fast.

She was the last one on the bus and gave Katie a little wave. The worry in Katie's expression was touching. It was a good feeling to know that people actually gave a damn about what happened to her.

“Another day. Another dollar,” Felix muttered as he slung his long body onto a seat.

“We don't get paid,” Jenni reminded him.

“Oh, yeah. This job sucks.” Felix grinned, and winked.

Jenni winked back and grabbed hold of the bar over her head. Ed shifted gears and the mini-bus roared forward. She watched the approaching zombies with irritation. She didn't feel like dealing with them today. The dead would only complicate things as they tried to figure out what happened.

Nerit sat across from Jenni, her rifle on her knees. Her hand was gripping the back of Felix's seat as the mini-bus bounced down the road. She looked eerily calm, as usual. Jenni envied her.

“Nothing is ever simple,” Bill decided. He let out a weary sigh.

“Never is,” Felix agreed.

“We just do our best,” Nerit said. “Do our best and hope.”

“Do you think we're it? The only ones left other than those little pockets out there that Peggy talks to?” Felix was staring out at the dead town and his voice sounded weary.

Jenni didn't want to think or talk about other people trapped out there. She didn't want to think about anything their own little world.

“Does it matter?” Nerit finally said. “Does it really matter if we are the last ones or not?”

“Puts a helluvalot of pressure on us if we are,” Felix answered.

Bill nodded. “That it does.”

Ed plowed over the slow moving zombies and the bus bounded on down the road. He was taking the route Shane and Phillip had taken the day before.

“It don't matter if we are or are not the last. We just gotta not mess it up. We gotta do what we have to and hope that anyone out there still alive is doing okay, too. My boys are still somewhere out there and I just gotta trust that they are alive and doing their best to survive.

I didn't raise no fools.”

“Where are your boys, Ed?” Nerit asked.

Jenni didn't want to talk about this, but she was stuck. She didn't want to think about families destroyed in the first days. She didn't want to think about her own dead children still out there seeking out the flesh of the living. She just wanted to get this job done and get back to Juan and the safety of the fort.

“Got two sons up in College Station going to A&M.”

“Aggies,” Felix muttered with the disdain only a Longhorn from the University of Texas could muster.

Ed ignored him. “The youngest is in military school up near Fort Worth.”

Jenni gazed out at the abandoned buildings of the town and frowned as several zombies shambled into view to watch the bus pass.

“If they are anything like you, Ed, I'm sure they are fine,” Jenni said, and hoped that would finish the conversation.

“I raised them good. They're smart boys. I know they are fine.”

“They're country boys. They got a better chance than most city folk,” Bill agreed.

Felix and Jenni, the only city folk in the bus, both protested the same time. “Hey!”

Nerit just chuckled.

“There it is,” Ed called out. “There's their car.”

The sedan the fort had provided the outcasts, far too generously in Jenni's mind, was listing on the side of the road. Its front tire was tucked down in a drainage ditch next to the road. There were a few old buildings and houses in the area and nothing stirred except the wind in the tall grasses.

“Let's get this done.” Nerit slid to her feet.

“Same drill as always,” Ed added.

Jenni picked up her ax and double checked her pistol. The ax felt good in her hands. Her anger against the zombies and the terror they had brought into her life was a hot furnace inside her.

The bus doors opened. She was the first one out. Her boot heels kicked up dust as she jumped down. She quickly took up her position, covering the others as they disembarked. Felix moved to cover the other side of the road while the others moved to examine the car.

From where Jenni stood, she could see one side of the car was smeared with zombie gunk. Nerit picked up a discarded weapon and looked it over thoughtfully. Bill squatted down to pick up a box of ammunition tossed nearby.

“All shots fired,” Nerit said.

“This box is filled with gravel. I'm not liking how this is looking.”

Bill stood and adjusted his belt. It was a common gesture for him. He had a pretty big gut, but he was losing it now. It meant he was always hiking up his belt. Jenni found it an endearing, but amusing action.

“Got six zombies dead on this side of the car,” Ed called out. “And another box of gravel.”