"And it ain"t the toilet paper supply running low again," Peggy drawled, folding her arms grumpily across her chest.
This drew a bit of laughter and broke a little of the tension.
"No, no, not the toilet paper running low. It"s...we got a large group of zombies heading this way. And not in the numbers we"ve seen before. It"s around fifteen to twenty thousand zombies."
There was complete silence and it felt as if no one in the room drew a breath for a few minutes, then suddenly the room exploded into sound.
People were on their feet, some were crying, others shouting, children clutched their parents tightly with fright, and Calhoun"s little pack of dogs started barking wildly.
Travis held up his hands. "Please, calm down! Calm down! We do have plans on how to handle it!" Despite the microphone, he felt as if his voice was small and inaudible to the panicking people.
"Plans? Plans? What kinda of plans!"
"Are the walls going to hold them back?"
"We need to leave!"
Voices mingled as they fought for dominance.
"Please, listen up! Please!" Travis could hear the firmness in his voice getting hard and angry. "I need you to f.u.c.king listen up!"
"There are children in here," a woman snapped.
"Then listen up!"
"Please listen to the man," the Reverend called out. "Please listen before you let fear overwhelm you."
There was much grumbling, but the din slowly lowered in volume.
"We have plans," Travis repeated. "Solid plans. We will need volunteers to implement them, but if we work together we can do this."
"Like what sort of plans?" an older black woman shouted.
"We need to change the direction of the mob or at least get a lot of them moving away from us. Zombies tend to follow after humans. They get going in one direction and stay that course until they find their prey. The helicopters have tried to buzz the crowd and get them to peel off, but it"s not working. So we"re going to use the Durangos from the dealership about fifty miles from here."
The cries of dissent began again, but he kept talking over them.
"We"ll send out trucks with fully armed drivers and one pa.s.senger. Their role is to try to lure the zombies off track. We"ve mapped out how we want to do this and we already have a few volunteers. We need to split off as many as we can from the main group before they reach our area."
"And what about the ones that do reach us?"
"Eric"s been working on estimating the amount of stress the walls can take. The safest area in the entire fort is the original wall around the hotel.
But we will defend the entire area. We"ve been working on fire straps, catapults, barbed traps and a variety of other ways to decimate any undead ranks heading our way. We have firearms and we have crossbows.
But we"re going to try to divert as many as we can and thin their ranks out on the outer edges of the town before they even reach us."
The murmur in the room grew louder as people began to talk among themselves.
Katie"s hand was gentle on his arm as she moved closer to him. He draped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her into his side. He was as afraid as everyone else, but there was no real choice. They had to defend their home.
"It"s suicide to go out in those trucks," someone shouted.
"It"s volunteer only," Travis answered.
"And if no one volunteers?"
"I do," Bette said, standing up, her expression grim. "I"ll go."
Linda instantly stood up next to her and took her girlfriend"s hand. "I"ll go with her."
"Count me in," Bill said, and beside him Curtis scowled angrily.
"Me, too," a man shouted from the back.
A few more voices called out and the dissenter sat back down.
It was then Mary West stood up. She was in her fifties, one of the last of the survivors to be rescued and brought to the fort before the evacuation of the mall. A dour woman with a pinched mouth, she was the leading voice of the Baptist Coalition (as they liked to call themselves).
Travis felt his pulse quicken slightly as she stood up and he acknowledged her with a brief nod of his head.
"We understand your plans, Travis. But they are for naught. The sin of this fort has offended G.o.d and He will strike you down. As He pa.s.sed judgment on the earth, He will pa.s.s judgment on this fort."
The nodding heads around her and "amens" made Travis feel cold inside.
"I think many of us feel G.o.d has brought us all here to begin anew," the Reverend responded quickly. "That He has shown us grace in our time of need."
Mary"s tight little smile had no mirth or kindness to it. "You would think that. You have fallen away, Pastor, and your congregation is full of fornicators, idolaters, and h.o.m.os.e.xuals."
"Hey," Ken cried out, jumping to his feet. "Hey, I"m a Christian, too!"
Lenore"s hand came up to draw Ken down, but he shrugged her hand away.
"A h.o.m.os.e.xual cannot be a Christian," Mary responded coolly.
"I love Jesus," Ken shouted. "I read the Bible. You can"t tell me that I"m not a Christian!"
This time Dale took hold of him and sat him down, whispering to him.
Katie"s fingers were icy on his arm and Travis kissed her brow softly to rea.s.sure her.
"An unrepentant sinner cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven," Mary answered in her smirking manner. "But this fort will fall because you have let sin run rampant in its walls." She pointed abruptly at Bette and Linda who sat nearby. "Lesbians and gays in open displays of affection." She pointed at Travis and Katie. "Children out of wedlock."
"Hey, we"re married," Katie protested.
With a cold look at the Reverend, Mary answered, "Are you really? By a holy man of G.o.d?"
"Oh, that is going too far," Juan said, standing up sharply. Margie was holding tight to his hand and glaring at Mary. "Just because we may not believe as you do-""
"Catholics worshiping idols and putting them up in a garden for reasons of idolatry," Mary droned on.
"That is a tribute to those who fell," Juan shouted. "It"s Jesus" mother, Mary, for G.o.d"s sake."
"Taking the Lord"s name in vain. Is it no wonder that G.o.d has sent down this horde of demons to destroy your fort?"
Around Mary there were confirmations of "amen" and bobbing heads.
Travis felt sick to his stomach and he took a breath to steady his temper.
Voices were now rising in anger and frustration. People were arguing and it was quickly devolving into something very nasty.
"If we die, you die with us," Ken shouted angrily.
"We must repent and throw out the fornicators, adulterers, idolaters and h.o.m.os.e.xuals, then G.o.d will deliver us." Mary raised her chin, her confidence impressive, yet terrifying.
And to Travis" dismay more than thirty people stood up in unison to stand with her.
2. Trouble in Paradise Horrified silence filled the room after Mary"s words stopped reverberating. Those who stood beside her looked resolute and hard. To Travis" dismay, the family they had rescued thanks to the Reverend stood with Mary. The young father and mother, who had kept their entire family alive beyond incredible odds, stood with Mary and her cohorts, looking just as angry and firm as she did.
"Look, I don"t agree with gay people or what they do. I think it"s wrong.
Not of G.o.d in anyway," Peggy said loudly. "I think it"s a sin just like you."
Travis felt Katie"s hand tighten on his and he looked sharply at Peggy, his gut clenching with anger at her betrayal.
"But I don"t believe in putting anyone outside these walls just because we don"t like what they do!" Peggy"s voice trembled with her emotion and her eyes were full of tears. "Death is outside those walls and we"re all safe in here. Even if we don"t all agree on what is right and what is wrong, we all got a right to live!"
"G.o.d"s judgment is on this fort. Sin fills its halls with gambling, alcohol, dancing, fornicators, adulterers, h.o.m.os.e.xuals and false prophets!" Mary looked sharply at the Reverend. "You"re leading them astray!"
"G.o.d is a G.o.d of love, not hate!" The Reverend rose to his feet. "You have no right to put words of hate in His mouth."
Mary"s face was full of cold fury. "Jesus will judge you harshly for leading His people astray."
"Well," Bill"s big booming voice rang out as he stood up. He adjusted his belt around his beer belly and fastened his eyes on Mary. "As a good Southern Baptist boy, son of a minister, and former summer missionary to Mexico, I gotta say I don"t remember Jesus saying anything about being so d.a.m.n hateful."
"You"re a fornicator and a man with a serpent"s tongue," Mary shot back.
Katarina stood up abruptly behind Bill, her face as red as her hair. "Bill and I have never had s.e.x! We"re waiting until we get married! You have no right to say that! You don"t even know us! I was raised Baptist, too!"
Nerit rose smoothly from her chair and gently took Katarina"s hand to calm her.
"Harlot," Mary snapped and her imposing husband behind her added, "I saw them kissing with tongues. Disgusting wh.o.r.e."
"That is enough," Travis said loudly into the microphone. It hissed and sputtered for a moment.
Travis felt fiercely angry and his face felt like stone. His eyes were so hot in their sockets he felt as if they would explode into flames. Everything he and the others had fought for was being torn apart.
"You have no right to judge anyone here. Didn"t Jesus say judge not least ye be judged?" His voice was firm and clipped.
Mary lifted her chin a little and her eyes narrowed. "A sinner needs correction."
"Jesus said to love one another," someone called out. "He said to love!"
"Lucifer himself used the scripture to his purposes," Mary hissed.
"Is that where you learned it from?" Ken asked smartly.
There was laughter throughout the room.
"We will not stay and be slaughtered with the sinners!"
"Then leave," a voice called out.
It was Kevin. He looked as fierce as Travis felt.
"Then take your followers and leave," Kevin repeated. "We"re not going to hold you here like the Senator held us hostage. Just go."
"Agreed," Nerit said from nearby.
"G.o.d has pa.s.sed judgment on this fort and you must repent," Mary repeated, but she was losing her fire as more and more people were standing up and voicing their opinions. Some were quoting scripture right back at her, others were just angry.
The small Hindu population sat together in silence, their discomfort clear. A few of the old-timers of the town reached over and patted their shoulders, rea.s.suring them.
"Most of us here would call ourselves Christian," Eric said abruptly.
"Whether we are Catholic or Protestant, we all believe in the message of Christ. Even those of us here who are not Christian but of other faiths or no faith at all deserve to be loved as Jesus commanded. So if you want to hate, then hate somewhere else. Personally, I am done with you."
"Your sin will be your downfall," Mary shrieked. Her eyes seemed too wide and her voice was harsh.
"Then it"s our choice. What is yours?" Travis asked firmly. "Are you staying or going?"
Mary clenched her hands at her side. Around her, the followers that had made their stand with her looked uncertain and looked to her anxiously.
"We will not stay and bear the judgment of the fornicators, idolaters, and pagans."
"Fine then," Bill said. "I bet we could give them some supplies and a few vehicles, couldn"t we?"
"I don"t see why not," Nerit said in her ever so calm voice.
"Any objections?" Travis asked. He felt a little calmer now that most of the fort had sided against the extremists.
No one raised their hand.
"Then we will be leaving immediately," Mary said firmly.
Her tall, imposing husband nodded his head grimly and motioned to the others to leave. Slowly, the thirty or so people filed out of the room.
"We have seen the enemy," Eric whispered, moving closer to Travis.