"Marauders . . ." Harvey repeated the word, rolling it over on his tongue. "How do you know them?"

Joelle cried a little as she unbuttoned her pants and turned toward him.

"Hey - what are you doing? I barely know you."

She scooted on her side and exposed her inner thigh. Beneath her frilly cotton panties was a tattoo of a crow gripping a skull.

Harvey's mouth dropped in disbelief.

She pulled her pants up. "I can explain."

"Are the other two in on this as well?"

"Sarah's a Marauder, but Alex isn't. We got separated from the gang about a month ago. Ever since then things have been different. We've been surviving on our own but trying to reach them. Sometimes I think we're going back not to join them so much as to put an end to them."

Harvey sighed. "Most of them are still in New York City but the ones who have my daughter have banded together. Can you help me?"

"Yes, I'll try," Joelle answered.

They sat in silence, watching for movement from the tower, neither one wanting to break the silence between them.

"Down here, I think we found something," Sarah said. She pressed deeper into the darkness and came to a door that was slightly ajar. "Hurry up, Alex."

"Hold on, I'm coming," he said, and pulled away from the room. "There's nothing here. We're wasting our time."

Sarah smiled in the dark. "Come with me." She led him through the open door and into a small room stuffed with boxes.

Alex gave her the flashlight and examined one of the boxes. "This is canned food."

"I thought so," Sarah said. "There's too much of it to take with us though."

"Only if we go by foot," Alex suggested.

"There's no way we're walking through the snow. I've been through the mountain pass before and lost half of my crew."

"Maybe all of the zombies are cleared out by now," he said.

"They weren't killed by zombies. The path is dangerous and most of them fell off the side of the cliffs. The others starved to death after we ran out of food."

"We can't leave all this stuff here," he said.

"We have to," Sarah told him. "We'll take what we can."

Alex pressed his palms to his face.

"I'm not going to argue about this with you," she said.

"It'll go bad, and then nobody can eat it."

"So what," she said. "The world is fucking gone Alex. And nobody cares."

"What do you plan on doing when we reach this cabin?"

"I don't know yet. A part of me wants to kill Graves for what he's done, but the other half likes having the security. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yes, exactly," he said, and put his arm around her back. "Let's carry some of this outside and let them know we're okay."

Sarah kissed him on the cheek. She looked back to the hallway behind her. Dozens of dead zombies littered the floor with their heads blown apart, leaking fluid onto the floor. She felt the weight of the .357 strapped to her holster and hoped she had enough bullets for the days to come.

Chapter 29.

The helicopter flew over mountains lined with snow, and passed over back country roads littered by stalled cars. From the sky everything looked small and inconsequential. Pillars of black smoke rose in the distance, ascending into the air like giant claws reaching to blot out the sun. As they flew closer they spotted an enormous pile of blackened corpses rising almost to the tree line.

"We're getting closer," Harvey said.

Sarah leaned on Alex. She shuddered, as though trying to fend off a bitter wind.

"How many are there at the cabin?" Alex asked.

"Not many," Harvey said. "Most of them are still in New York City. I doubt that they even know about the place. There might be five or six."

"Only five or six . . ." Joelle choked. "There were at least a hundred when . . ."

"They made a few bad mistakes," Sarah said. "And kidnapping Harvey's daughter was the last one. We can't let them slide."

Alex nodded.

Harvey grunted.

And Joelle curled up in her seat and stared out the window.

They flew beyond the curling black smoke and over more mountains. There were no signs of stores or houses. The area was lonely and empty.

"We can't kill them," Joelle finally blurted. "They're family. They gave us a home when we had none, Sarah. Where would we be without Graves?"

Alex's back stiffened at the sound of the name. Graves.

"We would either be dead or whores. Don't you get it? They never cared about us," Sarah said.

Joelle sucked in her lips. "I don't know what to do anymore."

Alex cleared his throat. He withdrew the long handled knife with the wolf's head depicted on the base below the shining blade. "I never told any of you this, but Graves murdered my uncle."

Silence prevailed in the helicopter and all they could hear was the spinning blades slicing through the bitter winter air.

"My uncle and I were surviving in a gas station. There wasn't much food but we had plenty of soda and bottled water to drink. He was the last trace left of my family. Both of my parents were killed by zombies, and I found my uncle locked in his bedroom closet at his house. My undead aunt was banging on the door. I killed her and we went to the gas station. He was all I had left," Alex said, paused, and continued, "and a man on a motorcycle came by one day. We kept the doors locked at all times but he shot through the glass and came inside. We tried to fight him off but he was too strong, too quick. Within a few minutes he had both of us tied up. He shot my uncle and was about to kill me but then he changed his mind. He wanted to play a game. He tossed me this knife and told me to find him and then he left. I promised myself I'd track him down no matter how long it took. That was over a year ago. And now, I finally have my chance," he finished, and twirled the knife in his hand.

Sarah held his free hand. "Is that all you've cared about this entire time?"

"It's all I had. It was the only thing that's kept me going," he said.

"What about me? What about Joelle? You saved her life."

"I saved yours too," Alex reminded her.

"Don't judge Graves," Joelle said. "You don't know him."

"I know enough," Alex said. "What do you think I should do? Ignore everything the man has done and shake his hand? He deserves to die for the things he's done. I will have my revenge."

"Calm down," Joelle said. "I want Graves dead too but we have to be reasonable. He might have a good explanation for what's happened."

Alex's eyes grew as big as saucers. "What kind of explanation could he have for killing the only shred of humanity I had left?"

Joelle lowered her head.

"She didn't mean it that way," Sarah said.

Alex crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat. "I know what she meant."

They flew on in silence, nothing but the whirling blades holding them up, and each other to rely on for the task ahead.

Harvey set the helicopter down in a small clearing in the woods. He turned off the engines, flipped a couple of switches, and the blades slowly stopped circling. They got out of the helicopter and scanned the perimeter.

"Where are we?" Joelle asked. "I don't recognize this place."

"We're about a mile away from the cabin. They might've heard us coming in, but I'm hoping they're too drunk to care."

Joelle shrugged and took her backpack from the back seat. "I don't want to do this. Graves is like family to me."

Sarah stood beside her. "If you don't want to be a part of this you should go."

"Sarah, I can't just . . ."

"Go back to him. Warn them we're coming for them. I don't care. You're either with us or against us. You know they won't win."

Joelle turned to face her friends.

Alex and Harvey looked away. Sarah narrowed her eyes.

"Please don't make me do this. We've been through so much together. How can you just abandon me in the end?"

"We're not abandoning you," Alex cut in.

Sarah pushed him back. "Stay out of this. Joelle, listen to yourself. Are you really going back to Graves? Think of the things we've seen in his aftermath. All the destruction, the lost of life, the killing, the raping, he's a monster!"

Joelle turned her back on them. "You said I could go to him if I want and that's exactly what I plan on doing." She limped away, carrying her backpack, its weight slowing her down. "I'll see you in hell."

Alex drew a bead on Joelle with his rifle as she hobbled away into the forest.

"Don't bother," Sarah said. "They know we're here by now anyway. They haven't stayed alive this long without learning a thing or two."

Alex lowered his rifle. "I'll miss her."

"I should go after her," Harvey said.

"No," Sarah intervened. "Let her be. When the time comes she'll make the right choice. I trust her."

They watched Joelle until she faded into the dense trees, only the footprints in the snow marked her passing.

The wind slapped Joelle's face, numbing her cheeks and dulling the pain in her chest. She wanted to look back and offer some sort of condolence for leaving her friends behind. Instead, she continued hobbling away among the naked trees and dragging herself closer and closer to Graves. He would be so proud of her. She'd managed to surpass all the obstacles and hardships just to reunite with him. He would be shocked to see her, and grateful at the same time. He would take her back into his life and make everything better like he had before.

As Joelle continued to walk she couldn't help but glance back at her friends. She turned her head around and saw nothing. She'd gone too far. They were out of reach now. They hadn't even tried to stop her, even knowing full well she would go to the cabin and tell Graves they were coming to kill him.

Joelle focused on walking, letting her heavy cast dig into the snow and drag along the desolate forest floor. After walking for about half an hour, she spotted the cabin. It was a medium sized log home, two floors, wraparound porch outfitted with rocking chairs, and a handful of cars parked out front. She couldn't spot anyone from her position but imagined that all the Marauders were inside seeking refuge from the cold, drinking pilfered beer, and taking turns with Harvey's daughter. A sudden pain flashed in her chest. Harvey's daughter was being raped . . . She'd forgotten all about the little girl Graves and his men had taken captive.

What am I doing here? She wept silently. That was me last year . . . that little girl was me.

Joelle stopped. She stood just outside the border of the forest. The wind clawed her skin but she couldn't feel it anymore. She'd been so eager to reunite with Graves, to have a real sense of security again; she'd forgotten about what was truly important. Graves had never cared about her. He didn't care about anybody.

She took one last look at the cabin and turned around thinking she'd go back to Sarah, Alex, and Harvey, and tell them she was sorry, that she'd made a huge mistake. They were her family now. And they needed to rescue Harvey's daughter from the hell she was enduring. But when Joelle put her back to the cabin she found herself looking down the barrel of an automatic rifle.

"Hey toots, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" The man who pointed the firearm at her was wearing an orange baseball cap, motorcycle jacket, and leather pants.

"Robbie . . . it's me, Joelle. Don't you remember me? You always called me Boom Boom after I blew up half the cabin last year."

Robbie's eyes widened. He slowly lowered the rifle and a grin split his face. "Holy shit, Boom Boom, where the fuck have you been? Graves said you were dead."

Joelle shrugged. "I guess he was wrong."

Robbie looked her up and down, examined her curves and stopping at her cast. "What happened?"

"It's a long story. I'm cold, Robbie. Can I go inside?"

"Sure thing Boom Boom. Graves is going to go nuts when he sees you."