Katie slightly smiled at this tirade. It sounded more like the Jenni she knew now. “Okay. So if you feel that way, why let his memory-”

“His ghost,” Jenni corrected.

“Okay, his ghost. Why let his ghost upset you like this? Why let him make you weak and scared? You know that…” Katie hesitated, then plunged on. “You know Benji can't get out of the house. He couldn't be there today. As for Lloyd and Mikey, they are hundreds of miles away. Even if his ghost is here, he can't hurt you.”

Jenni sat up and looked at Katie fiercely, her dark eyes burning with raw emotion. “He wants me to die so I will be in his power again.

That is what it is.”

Taking Jenni's hand gently in hers, Katie said softly, “Then don't let him. You have a life here with Juan. We're about as safe as we can be in this world. You have Jason and Jack. You have friends. You have so much.”

“He wants to take it away,” Jenni whispered, and fresh tears fell.

“You can't let him, Jenni. You can't let him have power over you from beyond death. You're more than he ever imagined. You know that, right?”

“He said I should die and be with the boys,” Jenni said in a low voice.

Katie could feel the terrible pain in Jenni's voice mingled with an even more terrible guilt. “It's not your fault, Jenni, that they died.”

Jenni turned her head away, deep in thought. Katie could almost see the invisible walls sliding back up around that train of thought.

Jenni couldn't deal with that right now. Katie could see it. It would wait for another time.

“Fuck, Lloyd,” Jenni said at last. “Fuck him. I'm not going down without a fight. Whether it's fighting zombies or bandits or ghosts, I'm not going down without a fight.”

Katie smiled and kissed her cheek. “That's my girl.”

Jenni's lips slightly quirked upwards and she raised a trembling hand to wipe away her tears. “But I don't want Juan to see me like this.”

“He doesn't have to,” Katie assured her. “Stay here tonight. He called me. He knew you would come here.”

“I'm that predictable, huh?” Jenni laughed.

“He knows we're tight. He knows that if you're not with him, you're gonna be here with me. We're kinda like Thelma and Louise.”

“Meets the zombies,” Jenni added with a soggy grin.

Katie laughed. “Yeah.”

“I'm not driving off a cliff with you though,” Jenni said firmly.

Katie embraced the morbid humor that kept them from falling into the darkest of emotions. “But we can run over zombies together.”

“Totally,” Jenni agreed. She fell over on her side and tucked her head on a pillow. She stared at Katie thoughtfully, her tears finally abating. “I'm not crazy. It really is Lloyd's ghost trying to kill me.”

Katie lay down and tucked one hand under the pillow Travis' usually slept on. His scent comforted her. “As long as you don't give into him, you'll be fine.”

Jenni rubbed her reddened nose. “Sometimes the first day feels like a hundred years ago. Today it feels like…today.”

Katie gently smoothed Jenni's hair back from her face. “I know.”

Rolling over, Jenni hid her swollen eyes and tear-stained face as she fought to recover herself. Katie draped one arm over her waist. They lay in silence for a few minutes. It was not a strained silence, but a comforting one as Jenni regained her composure and her shoulders relaxed.

Katie reached over her and switched off the lamp. Jenni sighed in a way that was reassuring. Katie could feel her friend letting go and sinking into the drained weakness that came after an emotional storm.

Katie snuggled down behind Jenni again, holding her close.

“You're the best friend in the world. The best I've ever had,” Jenni whispered.

“I love you, Jenni. You're my best friend. I'll always be here for you.”

Closing their eyes, the two friends held each other until, at last, sleep carried them away.

Chapter 14

1. The Dead in the Night

“We have a problem. Let's go!”

Travis and Eric looked up to see Curtis rushing toward them. They were standing in the lobby, studying a map of the town. It was an antique and kept under glass, but it was surprisingly accurate. The town had not changed much in seventy years.

“We have to go! We have to go!” Curtis' young face was flushed under his blond hair. He was agitated and motioning with both hands.

“What's going on?” Travis lifted an eyebrow.

“The Hackleburg survivors are under attack!”

“Shit! Get Nerit!” Travis headed toward the communication center.

“What does that mean? Is that zombies? Bandits? What?” Eric was flustered as he rushed after Travis. He shoved his glasses up on his nose and looked as alarmed as Travis felt.

“In this crazy world, who knows?”

They burst into the center at the same time. Bill was perched over an array of radios.

“Repeat! Repeat! I can't make out what you're saying!” Bill looked up, his expression one of despair.

“…got through…we are fight-…please hur…” The sounds of gunshots peppered the woman's voice. She sounded terrified and static kept overwhelming her voice. “…please hurry! Please hurry!

They're…repeat…got in!”

“Zombies?” Travis asked in a soft voice.

“I don't know. I can't make it all out,” Bill said in a surprisingly composed voice.

Travis was always impressed by Bill's ability to handle stressful situations in a calm manner.

Eric cocked his head, listening to the frantic woman's garbled message. “Are we really going out there?”

Bill looked at Travis.

“Hey, I'm not the mayor.”

“Not yet,” Bill answered.

Nerit entered the room, her yellowed silver hair in a braid over one shoulder and her bathrobe tied tightly at her waist. “What is the situation?”

“Hackleburg is under attack. I can't make out if its zombies or bandits. Sue just keeps screaming into the microphone that someone got in.” Bill rubbed his broad forehead. “It don't sound good.”

Peggy rushed in with Curtis behind her. She was in her pajamas and her son clung to her like a monkey. “Hackleburg? Shit! They have kids in there! That's the one where they are in the church community center. They had enough food to make it through another week!” She tried to dislodge Cody, but he wouldn't let go. She ended up snatching up her map and heaving him onto one hip.

“Show me,” Nerit said to her.

“They're here. On the outside of town. They holed up in a church community center. Twenty-two people are in there. Mostly old folks, women, and kids. All, but four of the men went back into town to fight the zombies. They didn't come back alive. Anyway, they didn't have any vehicles to escape in and they ended up with zombies banging on their doors. They've held them off by barricading the doors and windows. They even managed to thin them out a little by dropping things down on the zombie's heads from the roof. They were saving the ammo just in case the zombies got in.”

“There have been gunshots going off,” Bill said quietly.

Through the static, they could still hear the woman crying and begging for them to come.

“We gotta go get them! Save them!” Curtis looked desperately at Nerit. “We gotta go.”

Travis sighed. It was decisions like this he did not like making.

Did they sacrifice resources to save other survivors, or did they stay safe within their walls? His humanity told him one thing, his fear for those he cared about told him another. He felt conflicted, yet he knew what he wanted to do. What he felt was truly right.

“How far away, Peggy?” Travis asked.

“Twenty-one miles going southeast.” Peggy was trying to sound calm for the sake of her son and her own nerves, but her eyes were wide with fright.

“We have to get them,” Eric said. “We have to. If we can, we have to go get the survivors. We have room and food. We can't let them just…die.” His voice shook with emotion. It had not been that long ago that Eric had been trapped outside the fort and under siege by zombies.

Travis rubbed his jaw and looked at Nerit, waiting for her to say something. He wanted to rush out and save the people, but he knew Nerit understood the actual dynamics of the situation better than he did. Nerit finally turned her gaze to Travis. Her expression said it all.

Travis was glad for her in that moment. She was quick to decide and quick to action.

“We take two trucks and the bus. We leave immediately. I need you to get Felix, Ed, Jenni, Katie, Roger, and Juan down here, Bill.

Have them meet me in the Panama Canal,” Nerit said in a firm, authoritative voice.

“Gotcha, Nerit.”

The older woman patted Travis' arm and headed out the door. He immediately followed.

“What are the chances we'll find survivors?” Travis had to hurry to keep up with her.