“If I can help,” said Rosie, “let me know.”
“I definitely will.”
An idea was starting to brew in Emma’s head, but she wasn’t sure it would work. There was only one way to find out.
It was time to get dressed and leave the comfort of her new room.
9
The Newcomer
The roar of bulldozers pulled Emma’s attention out the window of her room. The activity outside the Fort was in full swing. The construction vehicles were in a final cleanup of the area in front of the hotel, removing any signs of the zombie horde. Two big trucks rumbled down the street, packed with the corpses of zombies. She watched until they disappeared down another side road. The battle against the horde must have been epic in scale. Observing the approach of the horde must have been frightening. The good news was the Fort was still standing, and inside its walls was hope for the future.
Which brought her to her mission…
Freshly showered and in her new clothing, Emma stepped away from the view to finish getting ready. She tightened a leather belt around her hips then hooked the buckskin holster she’d inherited from her grandfather onto it. She’d leave her rifle in the hotel room for now, but slipped her pistol into the holster. Tucking two loaded backup magazines into her back pocket, she glanced at the clock. It was a few hours until dinner when most of the population of the Fort would descend on the dining room, but she’d rather not wait until then to track down the person she needed to speak to.
Monica had given Emma the cowboy hat she’d been wearing yesterday. It was woven straw with a longhorn concho bolo around the crown. “You’ll need this since you’ll be out and about during the day,” she’d said.
Emma tucked it onto her head and was satisfied with the fit. Glancing into the mirror over the dresser, she marveled at how different she looked in her new clothing and hat. With her chestnut waves secured in long braids, she looked like someone different. Someone new. That thought appealed to her.
Snatching her denim jacket off the bed, she headed out on her mission.
Unlike the preceding night, the lobby was much quieter when the elevator doors opened. The afternoon sunlight poured in through windows that opened to a view of the high wall that spanned the front of the hotel. The golden rays gave the area a dreamy feel. A few of the elderly residents were reading, crocheting, or doing puzzles. The younger people were missing from the mix, probably out on duty. The imposing check-in counter didn’t have anyone behind it. Flowers in a vase, a few prayer candles, and hand-written notes and cards created a memorial to the deceased city secretary and her son.
Emma found her way out through the back of the hotel, nodding to the few other people she passed by in the hallways. Everyone she saw was a stranger, so she kept walking. It was a little unnerving to be around so many people after so much time alone and it was hard to work up the nerve to do more than nod in greeting.
Outside, there were a few people gathered at a folding table laden with large orange water coolers, red plastic cups, and a basket full of protein bars. Without a ton of people milling around, the hard-packed red earth looked barren. The memorial garden was empty, the flowers the brightest color on the block. There were stakes roping off a section near the portable office, a sign announcing it was a future vegetable garden. Yet, overall, the area felt empty.
The back door to City Hall slammed open just as Emma reached the bottom step. Lenore appeared in the doorway, closely followed by a skinny black guy in an Atlanta Braves cap. In the rear was the redheaded man named Arnold. Emma swiftly stepped to one side, letting the heavyset woman pass.
“You couldn’t have picked up the pace and gotten here like a month ago?” Lenore groused.
“I don’t get why you’re angry,” the newcomer snapped, pausing on the steps.
“You could’ve gotten here faster! And then Ken wouldn’t be dead!”
“Is she making sense to you? Because she is not making sense to me,” the skinny guy said to Arnold.
“Lewis, she’s upset because her best friend, who was gay, died alongside his unrequited love,” Arnold explained. “She thinks if you’d gotten here earlier he wouldn’t have died because you’re gay and he wouldn’t have been chasing that other guy.”
“Who said I was gay?” Lewis protested.
Lenore swerved around on her heel to pierce him with a disbelieving look. “Really? Really?”
“Fine! I’m gay. But just because you put two gays in the same space don’t mean they’re going to fuck,” Lewis shot back.
The unwavering incredulous gaze of the irate woman bore down on Lewis.
“Okay, maybe they will, but that don’t mean he’d be alive. You can’t put this on me! I just got here!”
“I can put it on you because if you’d been here earlier he wouldn’t have been pining for that mountain man!”
Arnold raised a finger. “Which is my point, babe.”
“Lenore,” she corrected. “I ain’t your babe.”
“Fine! Lenore, Ken was into buff dudes. Lewis ain’t that.”