Monica made an irritated sound from where she was perched on the back of a nearby bench. “Nerit, there’s a whole lot of them and not many of us. We could use some backup. Roof rescues suck. Jenni was good at them, but she’s not here.”
“The road is too narrow. There’s not enough room for maneuvering as it is, and we’re not putting any more people at risk. We came up here to see why Ed was pointing to this hill. Now we know the herd came through and Ed’s group didn’t make it to safety.” Nerit made a point of looking everyone directly in the eye one by one. “We have to handle this ourselves, so I need to know everyone is on board with this rescue. If not, we can leave right now. Travis gave me full discretion on this mission, but I want to hear your thoughts before I decide whether we proceed or not.”
Juan took a sharp step toward Nerit. “You can’t be serious? Those are our people out there! Of course we have to rescue them! We don’t have another choice! No way we can turn back now!”
Nerit shook her head. “No, they’re not our people anymore, Juan. They abandoned us. Remember? They left because they didn’t trust us to stick to the plan to defend the Fort against the herd. Now the Fort is still standing and most of the people who left with Ed are dead. So technically, they’re not our people, Juan, even if they were once our friends.”
“How the fuck can you say that?” Juan exclaimed.
Monica let out a noise of disbelief. “Nerit, you’re fucking with us, right? These people stood with us through tough times.”
“But not when it counted, right?” Arnold met Monica’s furious gaze steadily. “When we needed them to stand against the herd and defend the Fort’s walls, they vamoosed. They found a bullshit reason to leave because they were afraid to stand with their friends. I liked Ed, but he did us dirty.”
“Arnold, I’m not saying they’re perfect. Yeah, they turned chicken shit, but we can’t turn our backs on them.” Monica slid off the bench and leaned toward Arnold. “Look me in the eye and tell me you haven’t done stupid shit since the zombies started chomping people.”
“We all do stupid shit, Monica. But I can say I never abandoned my friends. We don’t owe them a damn thing, so we better consider our odds of surviving if we try to rescue them.” Arnold gestured toward the zombies. “This is gonna be a tough one.”
“That’s Belinda out there! My childhood friend! And you’re telling me to let her die!” Juan shouted.
“Juan, keep your voice down, or we’re going to have more problems than we have right now,” Nerit said in a commanding tone that shut down all protests from the upset man.
The silence that followed was uncomfortable. From the grim expressions surrounding Emma, it was clear that everyone was on edge. The tension in the small bus was only growing as each second ticked by.
It was difficult for Emma to find her voice in the face of such high emotions, but her life was on the line too. “Look, I know I’m new here, but every life is valuable. I tried, but couldn’t save anyone in my town. I kept hoping I would find people alive, but everyone was dead by the time I found them. So the fact that I’m standing here among the living is blowing my mind. You don’t know what it’s like to not see another living face for over a year. If humanity is going to have a rat’s ass chance of survival, we have to save everyone we can. I don’t know the people out there, but I’m willing to put my life on the line for them.”
It was evident from the look of approval on Nerit’s face that Emma had said exactly what she wanted to hear. Emma had the impression she had passed some sort of test.
“She’s right,” Monica declared, glaring at Arnold. “They may have bailed on us, but I’m not ready to bail on them.”
“Besides, don’t you have mad driving skills, Arnold?” Monica lifted an eyebrow.
“Fine. But if they run away again, I ain’t stopping them.”
“Then we’re all agreed. We save them.” Nerit patted Juan on the shoulder and he visibly relaxed. Bending over the driver, she said, “Arnold, let the Fort know our status.”
While Arnold relayed the information, Juan leaned against the windows, straining to see the people on the roof.
“You’re good people, Em,” Juan whispered.
“Thanks, Juan.”
His approval did mean something to her. He was the first person she had met when she’d arrived on the outskirts of the Fort and she felt an affinity to him for the losses he’d experienced.
Nerit straightened after the conversation over the radio ended. “The Fort is standing by for further updates. Now we need to plan our rescue. Arnold, I need you to park the bus as close to that building as possible, but away from the Durango. How close can you get us without risking the bus?”
“The picnic tables are right there,” Emma said, gesturing.
Arnold leaned forward, resting his arms on the steering wheel, and peered out the windshield, a frown on his face. Giving the area a long, scrutinizing look, he remained silent for nearly a minute.
“Nerit, I can get us close,” Arnold started with clear trepidation in his manner, “but the second we’re near that building, we’re going to be swarmed. This bus has been souped-up to deal with zombies, but it has limitations. There’s no telling how many of those fuckers are in the trees. We get enough of them hemming us in and we’re not going anywhere.”
“So we move fast,” Nerit replied. “Emma, you volunteered to be up on top, but if you’re having second thou
ghts let me know now.”
“I can do it. I’m stronger than I look and have plenty of experience scaling buildings, trees, vehicles, you name it. I basically had to learn parkour to survive this last year.”
Nerit grinned. “All right. Arnold, you pull up to the building with Emma already on top and the rest of us in position to pick off the zombies when they attempt to swarm us. We thin out the numbers while Emma gets our survivors on board. As soon as they’re secure, we leave.”