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“I’m sorry about your kid.”
“Me too.”
Juan hesitated. “The mom with the boy in the mask must have shaken you up a little.”
Emma was a little surprised by how intense his gaze was, as if he was trying to read her inner workings. “I can’t help but think about what I would have done for Billy. I would’ve traveled a thousand miles on foot if I thought I could somehow bring him back. But I couldn’t. That’s reality.”
In the beginning, she had wondered if one day there would be a cure for the zombies. That maybe somewhere out in the world in a secret lab there was a miraculous remedy. During her darkest days, when she had come to accept that Billy was one of the undead, she’d hoped that this was the truth. It was only after months of culling zombies that she had accepted that there was nothing left of their human selves inside their slowly decaying bodies. After the apocalypse started, her grandfather had instilled in her the belief that the purpose of her survival was to deliver peace to the dead.
Juan's expression altered from curious to despondent. “It’s hard to accept reality when you lose someone you love. I still struggle with it.”
“That makes you human.”
“I suppose.”
“I’ll be honest. I didn’t want to live after I put Billy to rest. I came here because a ghost told me to in a dream.” She giggled at the outrageousness of that statement. “That sounds ridiculous.”
“Nah. Not after what I’ve seen. Trust me. Around here, we’ve all seen our share of ghosts.” Leaning against the wall near the map, Juan folded his arms across his chest. “This is a good place to make a new life, Em.”
Emma glanced out the garage door toward the sunlit courtyard. Nerit was out there talking to Kevin. The woman embodied strength that Emma envied, and hoped she could discover inside herself.
“Em?”
“I wasn’t even sure this place existed, but I’m here now and it feels right.”
Juan nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it does.”
A Hispanic woman, dressed similarly to Emma, approached them with a welcoming smile on her face. Her dark hair was in a tight French braid under a cowboy hat and she had a passing resemblance to Juan. When he spotted the newcomer, he swept her up into a tight hug and she grinned up at him.
“You’re back! And in one piece!”
“Lucky for me! Those damn runners had us trapped on the roof of that old gas station.”
“We took care of them for ya.”
“Took you long enough,” the woman cracked, poking his chest.
“Hey, Em, this is my cousin Monica,” Juan said. “Monica, Emma. She’s new.”
The woman’s handshake was firm and quick. “Nice to meet you. You’re already the hot gossip in the hotel. News travels super-fast here.”
Emma widened her eyes, not sure what to say.
Monica set a hand on her hip and cocked her head to regard Emma. “Don’t worry. It’s all good. Rune says you’re some sort of kick-ass zombie killer that took out an entire town of them. You’re already a legend.”
“I-I just did what I h-had to,” Emma stuttered, embarrassed to be exalted for a task that was sacred and necessary.
“My cuz is right about the gossip, Em. Wildfire.”
“It’s those old biddies who hang out when the hair salon is open. They see everything. I’d barely kissed my girlfriend when they’d already told everyone Bette and I were a thing.”
Emma absorbed this information with surprise. “Girlfriend? Things are a little more progressive here than in my town.”
“Trust me. We’ve had our share of homophobia.” Monica’s expression darkened. “Had a whole group of Baptists leave because our sinnin’ was going to bring hell down on the Fort.”
“Damn.” Emma regarded the dour expressions on the faces of the cousins and realized things weren’t as idyllic as she’d assumed. “That was recent, wasn’t it?”
“The approaching horde did bring out the worst in people,” Juan admitted.
