"n.o.body listens to me! I said that from the get go! But they wanted a kill zone! I got the inside information! I know how to deal with this stuff.

Years and years of planning for the clone uprising."

"You may be a crazy old s.h.i.thead, Cal, but you know what's going on in your own way," Rune's voice growled. "You're a mean old codger."

"Not as mean as Nerit," Calhoun pouted.

"No one is as mean as Nerit," Rune admitted as the bike came to standstill.

They were close to the open end of the high walls made of dirt, dead foliage, tree trunks and the remains of houses and buildings. Beyond the opening were the gas tanks half buried into the soil. Beyond that, the hill dipped downward. The wind was moving downhill and away from the fort. The smell was just barely noticeable. The smell of death.

Calhoun fell to his knees and began to dig up the device rigged to explode the fuel tanks. When he had tried to begin the start up sequence, there had been no response from the remote device. He knew the problem had to be right here, where it was set up to transmit and receives. Pulling out the huge metal box, he popped it open and began to examine it closely.

"What's wrong with it?" Rune asked.

"Don't know yet," Calhoun answered.

"Cause, you know, it's almost time," Rune stared out through the wide opening, arms folded across his chest.

"Yep. I know." He glared down into the device. "Gawdd.a.m.n gremlins got into it. I knew it!" Calhoun beat the ground with one fist, then controlled himself and adjusted his satellite dish hat. "Okay, I need Jason."

"The kid?"

"Yeah, the kid! You know, our future leader. Our John Conner? Our freaking salvation! THAT ONE!"

"Take a chill pill, Cal. Calling the fort," Rune said, then took out his walkie-talkie.

"I don't need a chill pill," Calhoun muttered as he began to sort through the wires with his grubby fingers. "I need the freaking gremlins to stay out of my stuff."

"We need Jason down here, Peggy," Rune said, then listened to the static for a moment.

"Okay, I let him know," a voice said that was not Peggy.

"Hey, Yolanda. You pulling double shift?"

"Yeah, things not so good with Peggy."

"That sucks," Rune said, and didn't press it. He didn't want to know.

Calhoun rubbed his big nose and frowned. "Who's idea was it to blow up the gawddern fuel tanks?"

"Yours," Rune answered.

"Gawdammit! Why do people listen to me? I'm freaking nuts!"

"And that, sir, is why they listen to you," Rune informed him.

Calhoun began to laugh.

Despite the slowly strengthening stench of death, Rune threw back his head and laughed, too.

* * * * * Jason made his way to the makeshift elevator and hoisted his tool bag onto his shoulder. Reggie, a big black guy, nodded to him and helped him onto the pallet platform. Reaching out, Jason took a firm grip on one of the thick cables.

"Ready?"

"Yeah," Jason answered.

Reggie signaled the crane operator and the pallet lifted with a sickening lurch and began to swing toward the edge of the wall.

With a sharp bark, Jack dodged around Reggie and leaped over the empty s.p.a.ce between the rooftop and the pallet and landed with a sharp yelp.

Jason reached down immediately and grabbed his collar. The pallet swung sharply and Jack slid across the wood. Holding tight, Jason felt the dog's weight shift back against him. Tucking Jack securely between his legs, Jason looked down at the startled dog.

"d.a.m.n dog. You were supposed to stay with the kids," Jason chided him.

Jack gave him a soulful look of apology, then looked out over the wide expanse before the fort. He growled low in his throat and his ears slid back.

"I know, boy, I know. They're coming," Jason whispered. "I know."

* * * * * Rune looked down toward the angrily muttering old man. Calhoun was in a tizzy, obviously trying to figure out what was wrong. Rune leaned over and figured the dim lights on the lid of the metal box was a bad thing.

Tilting his head, he looked out toward the gap.

"Smells worse than you now, Calhoun," he said.

"Soap is unG.o.dly and unnatural. It poisons you slowly," Calhoun answered.

"Right," Rune looked back toward the fort to see the kid running down toward him with the big ol' German Shepherd at his side. "Here comes your help."

Calhoun glanced up to see Jason drawing close. "Good, cause those d.a.m.n gremlins screwed this up royally. Worse than when the fairies stole all the wires out of my TV."

Jason rushed up and fell to his knees beside Calhoun. He immediately began to look through the wires as Jack stood guard beside him, growling low in his throat.

"You know," Rune drawled. "I always wanted to die a n.o.ble death."

Calhoun glanced over his shoulder. Beyond the gap, just coming up over the edge of the hill, was a lone zombie. It hesitated as it saw the fuel tanks, then saw what lay beyond and let out a mournful wail. It reached out its gnarled hands and began to limp forward.

"I think he's hungry," Calhoun decided.

"Well, boys. Time for me go do the hero thing and probably die. But let it be known to all survivors of the fort that I went out like a warrior!" Rune grinned his toothy grin and got onto his bike.

"What are you going to do?" Jason asked, his eyes huge with fear.

Rune shifted his bag around so he could reach in and grab the grenades easily. "Not sure yet, but it's gonna be wild."

With that the bike lurched forward toward the wide opening.

Jack began to bark fiercely as ten more zombies crested the hill and came into view.

Then twenty more.

The lone biker rode toward the undead with a gleeful shout that sounded like, "Time to rock and roll!"

* * * * * As Rune barreled toward the zombies and Jason and Calhoun struggled to repair the detonation device, Yolanda sat nestled in the communication center listening to the various groups check in from all over the fort. She checked off the numbered groups one by one on the notepad in front of her, her full lips pursed slightly.

She knew what had happened to Peggy. She felt both very sad and very angry. Peggy had always been kind to her, but today, of all days, to leave them in the lurch p.i.s.sed her off. Yolanda was supposed to be up on the wall with Lenore manning the huge crossbows, but instead she was trapped in the windowless communication center. She hated feeling disconnected from defending the fort even though she knew what she was doing was important. But dammit, she wasn't fully trained for this.

Scratching her head with the end of her pen, she sighed and responded to the last call in. She tried not to notice her stubby fingernails painted bright red. The black women of the fort had all cut off their fingernails and braided back their hair in a big party last night. It had been a rough thing to do. It may have seemed silly to some, but it had made them feel connected to their culture and their old lives to have their fancy nails and hair. But in the last week, they had decided to braid up their hair and cut their nails for safety reasons. A few of them had caught their nails on triggers during practice and their hair could be dangerous if the zombies managed to breach the walls.

In fact, everyone was under orders to have their hair up and pinned, just in case. Though she had noticed Rune had ignored this order and had worn his hair down at breakfast.

"Yoli, gotta create a distraction," Rune's voice cackled. "Something went wrong with the d.a.m.n fire line. Cal and the kid are working on it.."

"What you talking about?" Yolanda snapped at him. "You're supposed to be-"

She heard him laugh, cutting her off. "Say boom, baby."

A second later, she heard a faint boom in the distance.

Travis and the Reverend entered just as she began demanding to know what the h.e.l.l was going on.

"That crazy a.s.s long haired biker boy is off doing some stupid s.h.i.t,"

Yolanda informed Travis.

The tall man's eyebrow shot up and he glanced at the clock. "s.h.i.t! It's time. Sorry, Reverend" he quickly apologized for the profanity.

"No offense taken," the Reverend a.s.sured him.

"Rune, what the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Travis asked, leaning over to talk into the microphone.

"Getting the zombies to move my way. The fire line has got probs and the kid and crazy old guy are working on it."

In the distance there was another boom.

"Don't worry about me. I got my bike and bag of grenades."

Over another channel Nerit's voice cackled to life, "Rune is making some sort of a crazy run to draw the zombies away from the fire line and Calhoun and Jason. Those explosions you hear are him lobbing grenades into the horde following him."

"We just got the word from him," Travis said to Nerit. "How's he doing from what you see?"

"He's got the first hundred or so walking straight for him and away from the opening," Nerit answered, then laughed. "Honestly, he looks pretty happy about it."

"He's a brave man," the Reverend decided.

"More like d.a.m.n crazy," Yolanda muttered.

"We're going to say a few words before they breach the fire line," Travis said to Nerit. "Keep an eye on Calhoun and Jason. Pull them back in if it gets too close."

"Understood," came the reply.

"Yolanda, open up the speakers," Travis instructed and ignored her sour look. He picked up the microphone and was surprised at how slick his hand was. He almost dropped the microphone. Fear was slowly unfurling deep inside of him. For so long they had all lived with low-grade paranoia and fear it had become a part of them. Now those emotions were swelling as the dead approached.

The Reverend seemed to sense what was behind his hesitation and gently patted his shoulder. "You can do this, Travis."

Travis tried not to think of Katie up there on the wall ready to fight for their lives. He closed his eyes. Steadying his nerves with a silent prayer, he pressed the b.u.t.ton and spoke.

"Good morning seems like the wrong thing to say," his voice boomed over the speakers scattered over the fort. "I don't think we've had a good morning for a d.a.m.n long time. But...h.e.l.l...good morning anyway."

Near the gate, Juan looked up from where he was busy doing the final tests on some of the traps. He slightly smiled at Travis' words and turned back to what he was doing. His long hair was pinned up on his head and he was wearing a cowboy hat. Nearby stood one of the bulldozers rigged up to fight the zombies. Spray painted along its side were the words "La Loca."

"But if we have to fight for our lives, I guess we couldn't ask for a prettier morning."

Travis' voice floated through the air as Lenore loaded up the giant crossbow perched high on the wall. She glanced toward the battered speaker near her and had to agree. The sky was brilliant this morning with the sun shining through beautiful white clouds sliding over the endless Texan sky.

"So this is it. What we all feared. But we can do this. We can fight and win.

No matter how afraid you are, remember that we're in this together."

Old Man Watson in his wheelchair watched out a window as several men loaded up a catapult on the wall beneath it. Chetan, the Indian from Austin, was helping Jimmy Ray, a good ol' boy from East Texas and Jerome from Houston, lift the heavy pieces of junk onto the catapult. The shrapnel was going to be used against the zombies. The old man smiled with satisfaction and patted the rifle on his lap.

"I'm not much of a speaker, so I have no idea what to say except y'all are my family. I'm glad to know ya and I'm glad to stand with you today. And now a word from the Reverend."

Katie pulled on her gloves and smiled as she listened to her husband's words echoing around her. Looking up, she could see over the wide expanse in front of the hotel. The smell of decay was now floating on the wind and she pulled her kerchief over her nose. She could see the dark wave of the undead in the distance just beyond the fire line. It was such a beautiful day the sight of the zombies was like a sacrilege against nature.

With a deep breath, she began to load up the giant crossbow.

There was the sound of the microphone being jostled as it was handed off and Katarina smiled slightly. She was perched on one of the highest points of the fort. Her sniper rifle rested comfortably in her arms as she tilted her head and closed one eye. Abruptly the undead filled her vision and she drew in a deep breath. The first zombie to swim into view was vile beyond belief. A large woman, half eaten, her womb torn open to reveal the fetus inside, its small limbs moving, came into sharp view. Katarina closed her eyes, steadied herself, then reopened her eyes and fired. The dead mother jerked once, then stumbled on, oblivious that the tiny form inside of her had stopped moving.

"This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it,"

the Reverend's voice boomed with smoothness and gentleness that Travis' did not have. It was like balm on the fevered minds of the inhabitants in the fort.

Kevin looked down at the map held under heavy plastic on the table before him and took a deep breath. Nerit stood next to him, her face calm as she gazed out toward the oncoming horde.

"Difficult words to embrace on a day such as this, but we must do just that. For this is the day the Lord has made for us to fight for our lives and the lives of those we love. This is our home, our fort, our safe haven. It has been called many things: the Fort, Eden, Sparta and a slew of other names. But it remains simply one thing to all of us: home. Our home. And, now, we face our greatest challenge as a family."

Kevin looked over at Nerit and she smiled slightly at him. He moved several red markers along the map as another explosion by Rune's grenades boomed in the distance.

"We have lost many friends, many family members, during this long plague of the dead. We have seen many atrocities at the hands of these creatures. Our beloved have fallen to their ranks and in some cases, joined their ranks."

Margie leaned against her new grandmother listening to the Reverend's voice as she played idly with the dry tangled hair of her doll. Her brother and sister weren't paying attention, but she understood the Reverend's words. She thought of her old Mommy and Daddy and of the nice lady with the black hair who had saved them. Kissing her doll, she pulled it close to her and hugged it like her grandmother was hugging her.

"But we must resolve ourselves to be strong. To stand firm. To not waver in the face of evil. It may wear the face of humanity, but it is corruption.

We must remember this. They were once alive. They were us. But now, they are the undead. The enemy of life. Be strong and know that the battle you fight today is just and good in the sight of G.o.d."

Linda pulled back on the lever of the catapult she was manning and it groaned as it prepared to fire its heavy junkyard load. Her expression was full of rage and determination as she watched the zombies stumbling after Rune's motorcycle in the distance just beyond the high wall made of the town's ruins.