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  Alvarez. I sigh in relief at the sound of his voice, tossing a few coffee beans into my mouth. “I wasn’t the only one to miss a check-in. You missed the one before that.” I dispense with the official radio jargon.

  “It couldn’t be helped. A few of my people were nabbed by some bandits that came through the area.” His voice turns harsh and brittle. “No way those assholes were going to get away with taking my people. I went back to the fort and pulled together a full platoon. We got them back.”

  “Is everyone okay?”

  Silence drags through the ham radio for long moments. “We lost two. Two more were shot, but they’re on the mend. On the bright side, we acquired a doctor. He was being held captive by the raiders.”

  “Maybe your doctor can talk to Ash, our medic. We have a man recovering from a shark attack.”

  “How did one of your people get attacked by a shark?”

  “He wasn’t one of mine when he was attacked. He and his wife own a charter boat. They were at sea when the shit hit the fan. Survived out there for months.” I lay out the rest of the story, including our rescue of Gary and Susan.

  “Shit. That’s bad luck. Shark attack during the zombie apocalypse. Let’s set up a time for our doctor to talk to your medic.”

  “Thanks, Foot Soldier. I owe you one.”

  “You can pay me back with another trip to the library. Can you find me a book on fish farming and fish management? One of the women in our group wants to start a fish hatchery. She used to work for fish and game and knows how to run one, but not how to build one.”

  I stare at the ham radio, not sure how to tell Alvarez that we lost the library. It hurts to think about all that knowledge buried in rubble. It doesn’t help that it was my idea to blow it up.

  “Mama Bear? You still there? Over.”

  “I’m here, Foot Soldier. I’m sorry to tell you this, but the library is gone.”

  “Gone? What do you mean, gone?”

  “We had a ... situation up here. It’s the reason I missed our last check-in call.”

  I relay an abridged version of the last week and a half. From the appearance of the alphas, to our battle to protect the university, and to our work on the new fortifications around the dorms.

  Alvarez lets out a long whistle when I finish. “And I thought things were fucked up on my end.”

  “Have you guys seen any alphas in your area?” I ask.

  “No. Not yet. I’ll be sure to warn my people and let you know if we see anything.” His voice sharpens. “Can you back up to the part where you guys blew up the library? That’s a big loss for all of us.”

  “I know. We didn’t have a choice. We created a barricade that buried half the horde and diverted the rest away from the campus.”

  “So you have a primary wall on the south end of campus? And you’re building a secondary fortification around the dorms?”

  “Yeah. We’ve been working from sun-up to sundown for the last week. We have another few days of hard work in front of us, but it’s getting there.”

  “Damn, Mama Bear. Sounds like you’re going to have your own fortress up there. Is everyone in your group okay?”

  My throat tightens as I think of Jesus and Lila. All I can bring myself to say is, “I lost two of my people, too.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I know how hard that is. Are you sleeping?”

  I snort. “Right.”

  His commiserative chuckle rolls out of the receiver. “I feel your pain, Mama Bear.”

  I close my eyes, comforted by his empathy. Like Ben, Alvarez knows how I feel. He’s lost people, too.

  It’s one of the reasons I look forward to our ham radio chats every three days. Alvarez and I both lead our small communities; it’s nice to have someone in my same position to talk to. He knows what it means to have people depending on him.

  “Don’t let the grief and the guilt distract you from your primary mission,” Alvarez says. “Focus on the living.”

  “Is that how you get through the days?”

  “Yeah. Sometimes, it’s the only thing that gets me through.”

  I inhale deeply, flinching away from the memory of my knife as it slid through Jesus’s skull. Of Lila’s ruined head when her body hit the ground. I summon a mental image of my living family: Carter, Jenna, Johnny, Eric, Reed, Ash, Caleb, and Ben. I let their presence fill me, pushing back the darkness.

  “Mama Bear?”

  “I’m here.”

  “I’d take your alphas over my bandits. You know when I said they kidnapped a few of my people?”

  A sick lump forms in my stomach. “Yeah?”

  “The people they took were women, one of them just a teenager.”

  “Shit,” I breathe.

  “We found them, but not before they ... it was a long forty-eight hours, Kate. The worst part is that two of the fuckers got away. I’d feel better if they were all dead. Knowing they’re still out there makes me uneasy.”

  I understand how he feels. I couldn’t live with the threat of Johnson hanging over us. If these bandits hurt his people, Alvarez must be chomping at the bit to even the scales.

  “Don’t give up,” I say. “Double up on watch. They might show themselves again, especially if they’re short on supplies.”

  “I almost wish they would.” Alvarez’s laugh is hollow. “I’d like nothing more than to gut those fuckers with our fish hooks. Have I told you about those?”

  Even though I can’t see Alvarez’s face, I can tell by his tone that he wants to change the subject. “You haven’t mentioned the fish hooks.”

  “Big fucking things. Like, the size of a small baby. Apparently they’re used for tuna fishing. We found some on a scavenging run. We’re getting pretty good at fishing.”

  “My son and his girlfriend want to figure out a way to fish for oysters in Humboldt Bay.”

  “Oysters, huh? I wouldn’t turn my nose up at that idea.”

  “Yeah, except there’s no safe way to navigate downtown Arcata right now. We have no way of knowing how many alphas are out there.”

  “You’ll figure something out, Mama Bear. You always do. If you could figure out how to run two hundred miles through a zombie apocalypse, you can figure this out.”

  Alvarez and I talk for another few minutes before Johnny shows up. He’s been interviewing people from Fort Ross for one of the many books he’s writing. I say my goodbye to Alvarez and pass the ham to Johnny.

  As I exit the room, chewing on another few coffee beans, my gaze travels across the room to the shrine Jesus built to St. Roch. Reed hung his pendant inside. I stare at the pendant, something Alvarez said tickles the back of my mind.

  If you could figure out how to run two hundred miles through a zombie apocalypse, you can figure this out.

  I pause, my exhausted mind spinning. When running, how many times have I faced an unknown? Why should this situation be any different? All I have to do is break it into manageable chunks. That’s what I always did with a long, hard race. Dissected them. Developed tactics for different terrains, weathers, and altitudes.

  An idea takes shape in my mind. Alvarez is right. The alphas are a challenge to be overcome. I just need to develop a complex training plan to deal with them.

  And I know just how to start.

  31

  Idea

  BEN

  When he pads into his room a little after midnight, Ben has the shock of his life.

  He flicks on his light and finds Kate curled up on his bottom dorm bunk, her head on his pillow. On the bed beside her is the collected works of Henry James. Her eyes flutter open at the rush of light.

  He stands frozen. He’d be a lying sack of shit if he denied daydreaming about this very scene. Except he’s pretty sure her reason for being in his bed doesn’t match up with his fantasy. If that was the case, she wouldn’t be wearing a thick jacket and blue jeans.

  She looks like complete shit, though Ben is wise enough to keep this observation to himself. She�
�s barely slept since Lila and Jesus died. She’s working herself to the bone and popping coffee beans like they’re candy.

  He gets it. Sometimes, it’s easier to be exhausted than alone with your own thoughts.

  Kate sits up, awakened by the light. If Ben had known she was sleeping in here, he wouldn’t have gone near the light switch.

  “I think I fell asleep.” Kate rubs at her eyes. “I was waiting to talk to you.”

  He waits in silence, not trusting himself to speak. The last thing he wants to do is to provoke her into moving. He could stare at her in his bed for hours, even if she is dressed like she’s ready to go outside.

  That thought brings a frown. Why is she dressed like she’s going outside? It’s the middle of the night.

  “I have an idea,” Kate says.

  Fuck. He should have known. “And you thought midnight was a good time to work out the details?”

  “I don’t want the others to know.” She has the grace to look guilty, though not for long. “I need your help, Ben. I want to capture an alpha.”

  He closes the bedroom door so as not to wake anyone. “I don’t think I heard you correctly.” He narrows his eyes at her. “Did you just say you want to catch an alpha?”

  She looks him straight in the eye. “Yes.”

  There is no response that properly conveys the lunacy of this conversation. Also, he’s pretty sure he’ll wake the entire fucking floor if he opens his mouth.

  He does the only sensible thing he can think of. He turns his back on her, shrugs out of his coat, and tosses it across the back of a chair. Then he sits down in the same chair and begins unlacing his boots.

  “Ben.” Kate frowns at him. “Did you hear what I said?”

  “I’m trying to unhear it, Kate.”

  She slips off the bed and comes to stand before him. “Hear me out.”

  “No.” His belt comes off and he drapes it over the jacket on the chair back. His Sig and the holster go on top of the desk. The boots go under the desk.

  Everything in its place. This brings some semblance of stability to the current situation.

  He shoulders past Kate, grabbing the ladder to the top bunk. “I’m going to bed. You can keep the bottom bunk if you want.”

  Kate’s arm snakes out, blocking him. “Will you listen to me?”

  Two things happen. Her words fan a wildfire within him, heating his carefully tamped anger to an all-time high. Her proximity, coupled with the fact that she’s in his bedroom with the door closed, sends a white-hot spear of arousal through him.

  Both emotions are so intense he can’t see straight. He wants to shout at Kate and kiss her at the same. Only his indecision on the matter keeps his feet welded to the floor and his mouth clenched shut.

  She must see or sense something, because she drops her arm and steps back.

  “I’m sorry, I need to explain. I’ve been thinking about the alpha zoms. They’re a puzzle we need to solve. There are so many things we don’t know about them, but the most important fact is their language. They communicate, Ben. They speak and they organize. We need to learn their language.”

  “And how, exactly, do you plan to learn their language?” he demands. “How is capturing one those fucking things going to help with that?”

  “I don’t know!” Kate throws up her hands. “I don’t know, okay?”

  “Because it’s impossible,” he snarls. “If we bring a dog to Creekside, we’re not going to miraculously learn how to boss it around by barking.”

  “But people across time have learned how to communicate with animals. Why should this be any different?”

  He’s going to blow a gasket. It’s that simple. He can’t hold it back any longer. The mental image of Kate risking her life to catch an alpha, then subsequently putting herself at risk every fucking day by trying to figure out how to communicate with it, makes him want to break something.

  He opens his mouth, anger-fueled words gathering in his throat.

  Kate, seeing his face, presses a hand over his mouth. The contact is enough to distract him, giving Kate her opening.

  “Before you go ape shit, hear me out. We have to adapt. Three months ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of letting any of you snipe zombies. Now, it has to be done anytime there’s an alpha sighting. We need to learn everything we can about the alphas if Creekside if going to survive.” Her mouth tightens.

  God dammit, he knows that look. It’s her the-devil-and-all-the-armies-of-hell-can’t-stop-me look.

  The worst part of all this is that she isn’t wrong. They do need to adapt.

  He’s known it for a while. But he was thinking more along the lines of extending the perimeter of the dorms to include other parts of campus. Not capturing an alpha and bringing it home like a rabid pet.

  “I know it’s a crazy plan,” Kate says. “A lot of my plans are crazy. But I need your help. I trust you to have my back. If I have to do something stupid, I want you by my side.”

  Her words take his breath away. His anger is snuffed out in a millisecond, replaced with something else. Unable to digest the sudden onslaught of feelings, he turns away.

  “You couldn’t have said all that before I took my boots off?” he grumbles.

  “Does that mean you’ll come?”

  “Yes.” He grabs his belt, Sig, and jacket, settling them back into place. “No way in hell I’d let you go out there alone. You know that.”

  “Thank you, Ben.” The smile she gives him is so bright he has to look away.

  “To be honest, I was hoping you’d give up and take the bottom bunk.” He shoves his feet back into his boots.

  “You didn’t really think I would, did you?”

  “No.” He frowns down at her. “That’s not your style.” He pushes past her, grabbing his headlamp on the way out. The moon is almost full, but having extra light won’t hurt.

  The ache in his crotch doesn’t subside until he’s all the way downstairs and has some fresh air in his face. The woman is going to be the death of him in more ways than one.

  She, too, dons a headlamp and flicks it on as they head outside. They’re halfway across the compound, heading toward the gate, when a voice stops them.

  “Where are you guys going?”

  Kate and Ben freeze like two teenagers caught sneaking out of the house at—Ben glances at his watch—12:16 at night.

  Eric comes out from the front door of Laurel dorm, a roll of packing tape in one hand.

  “What are you doing?” Kate asks.

  “Inventorying food in Laurel. I did another sweep and found a bunch more edibles.”

  “In the middle of the night?”

  Eric shrugs. Apparently insomnia is rampant in this compound.

  “So what are you guys doing?” Eric asks again.

  Ben doesn’t even bother trying to answer. This is all Kate’s idea. She can decide what she wants to tell Eric.

  “We’re running an errand,” she replies. “We’ll be back in a few hours.”

  “An errand?” Eric raises a skeptical eyebrow.

  “We’ll be back soon.” Kate attempts to march past him.

  Eric isn’t so easily brushed off. “You’re leaving the compound?” he asks, incredulous. “You’re going outside in the middle of the night?”

  Ben grunts. This is going about how he’d expected. And Eric isn’t about to be deterred.

  “I’m coming with you. Whatever you’re planning, I’ll help.”

  “You don’t even know what we’re doing,” Kate replies.

  Eric eyes them. “As long as you’re helping Creekside, I’m in. Unless ...” he frowns at them. “You guys aren’t, you know, going out for a romantic stroll of something?”

  Once again, Ben decides to let Kate field the question. There’s nothing he can say that won’t make him look like an idiot. Not the least of which is the fact he’d actually consider a stroll outside these walls in the middle of the night if it were with Kate.

  “No,” Kate says q
uickly. “We’re going to catch an alpha zom. We’re going to bring it back and study it.” She delivers these two sentences like a threat, as though they’ll kick some common sense into Eric.

  Common sense that Kate herself doesn’t have. Unfortunately, these kids are almost as crazy as their surrogate mother. Eric actually perks up at the idea.

  “Good idea,” he says. “I have some extra rope in Laurel. Be right back.”

  “Grab the dolly, too,” Kate calls after him. To Ben, she says, “Might as well make use of him if he insists on coming.”

  “Dolly? For the alpha transport?” Ben asks.

  “Yeah.”

  It’s a good idea. Better than him carrying an undead fucker over his shoulder, which is what he assumed he’d be doing until now.

  Three minutes later, he, Kate, and Eric exit the compound together with the dolly.

  “Where are we going?” Eric asks as they close and lock the gate.

  Kate doesn’t answer right away. This puts Ben’s hackles up.

  “You know where one is, don’t you?” he asks.

  She looks at him. “Yes. I found it a few days ago when I was digging up fencing.”

  “Where is it?” From the look on Kate’s face, he isn’t going to like the answer

  “It’s down on the freeway. Sandwiched between a few cars and a whole lot of zombies.”

  “How do you know it’s an alpha?” Eric asks.

  “The way the others react to it. It’s trying to give orders to make the horde move, but they’re in a logjam with all the abandoned cars and bodies.”

  “And your plan to get the alpha?” Ben has no doubt Kate has something up her sleeve. Her large backpack has not escaped his notice.

  “I have some rope,” Kate says. “I think we can drop the rope around its neck and pull it up.”

  32

  Carnival Game

  KATE

  Ben is such a skeptic. If he weren’t so capable, I wouldn’t have bothered to ask him along.

  Or at least, this is what I tell myself. The truth is that I feel safe when he’s around. Trusting Ben feels like vulnerability. I don’t like it, yet I can’t seem to separate myself from it.