“Juan, I can’t allow myself to consider dying. It’ll freak me out, gum up the gears in my head, and slow my reflexes. I just concentrate on the job. I do what I need to do. I stay focused. I just don’t consider death an option.”
Emma was lying a little. Her last night in the trailer, death had been on her mind. She’d planned an exit, but when she dreamed about the woman with the long, dark hair and black eyes who told her about the Fort, she’d decided to give life one more shot. Now she was determined to hold onto her new life and see where it took her. Which evidently was on dangerous missions to find out what a ghost had been pointing at. Life was weird.
Staring at her, Juan searched her expression. What for, she wasn’t sure, but he appeared to find what he was looking for and nodded. “I hear ya and will do, fearless zombie killer.”
Rolling her eyes, Emma laughed. “I’m not going to live that title down, am I?”
“Nope.”
The bus downshifted.
Emma glanced out the window to see a steep and narrow road turning off from the one they were traveling on. It sliced through a thick bramble of undergrowth and closely clustered juniper trees.
“This is it,” Juan said breathlessly, sliding to his feet and leaning his forearm against the window to observe their ascent. The fear and anticipation in his eyes only reinforced how much Belinda meant to him. Despite what Rune said, Emma knew she had to keep Juan squarely in friend territory. His clenched fist resting against the window was shaking, and not from the bumps in the road.
“Look at all the dead fuckers!” Monica exclaimed from where she was perched at the back of the bus. “Whoa!”
Limbs, entrails, and other meaty parts of zombie bodies were strewn along the sides of the road. There were tire treads clearly visible on a partially-smashed head.
Juan was fighting to keep his breathing even, but his excitement was evident. “Someone took ‘em out with their vehicle.”
Monica stared at the destroyed corpses as the bus passed by. “Those bodies are mush, run over by something really heavy. Ed's people took Durangos. It must be them.”
At the front of the bus, Nerit stood holding onto a pole to keep upright, also scrutinizing the area. “It's starting to look like we might be on a rescue mission.”
“Or maybe Ed just wants us to know where they died,” Arnold offered. “So we can bury them.”
“There's someone alive on that hill and we all know it!” Juan clearly wasn't going to listen to any other theories on why Ed had directed them to the hill.
“We're about to find out the truth,” Nerit replied. “But it's looking like a promising possibility.”
As Arnold turned the short bus onto the narrower roadway, Emma noticed that a huge swath of foliage was trampled flat not too far from the intersection.
“That’s where the herd came through,” Juan said, pointing.
“Ed and the others must have nearly run into them,” Monica decided. “That’s why they took the turn.”
“To a dead end,” Juan grumbled.
“If you’re desperate, you do stupid shit,” Emma said. “If I saw that zombie horde coming at me, I’d shit myself.”
Monica gave Emma a grim look. “Trust me, I almost did when Bette and I played Pied Piper to try to redirect the horde.”
“Okay, that's a story I want to hear,” Emma said.
“Over drinks tonight,” Monica promised.
Emma studied the area as the bus rolled through, contemplating the possible path of a pursuing herd. “No downed trees and scrub here.”
“Maybe they weren't followed up the road. They could be safe up there,” Juan said hopefully.
Emma hated to be the voice of reason. “Then why haven't they come to the Fort?”
“Maybe their vehicle broke down, or ran out of gas. Maybe they weren't sure about coming back to the Fort after they decided to leave in the first place.”
“All possibilities, but we shouldn’t get our hopes up too high,” Nerit said reasonably.
“We don’t give up hope until we know for sure what happened,” Monica said.