“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.