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I stopped with the silverware drawer open in front of me. “Who?”

“
I don’t kiss and tell, but since you asked, Nancy Piznowski.”

For a moment I drew a complete blank, my mind refusing to recognize an identity for the name even though I knew full well who it was. “Nancy. Red-headed Nancy from the council? Jesus, Fes, she’s got to be forty.”

“
So? Older women know what they’re doing in bed. They know what they want and they don’t play games. I went to Louie’s for a drink after I dropped you off. She was there. We drank for a couple of hours then we went to her house and it was fucking fantastic.”

They say politics makes strange bedfellows. It’s got nothing on an apocalypse for bringing together people who never would’ve occupied the same universe under normal circumstances. I couldn’t think of anything to say to that. Then Ashleigh appeared in the kitchen doorway. Her light tank top outlined her nipples and a slash of bare stomach showed between the top and her low-riding sweats. My heart did a quick double beat and I gripped the spoon in my hand tighter.

“
Hi, Fes. What’s up?” she said. “I thought you might be Daylon.”

“
Not last time I looked.” He scraped his gaze down the length of her body. “Good night’s sleep?”

“
Solid, no nightmares. So yeah.” She walked over to the dripping coffeemaker. “God that smells wonderful. Fresh coffee is the best thing you guys have, next to the hot showers. You live like kings here.”

“
Not for long. Coffee supply is getting low. Soon it’ll be instant or nothing.” Fes looked at me behind her back, frowned and mouthed,
You’re crazy
.

I supposed I was. I’d lain with this beautiful girl and wasted the entire night sleeping.

“
Janice wants to see you.” Fes abruptly got serious. “She sent me to get you. The big news is that zombies are gathering at the fence. More than we’ve seen in weeks. Guess the attack yesterday was only the beginning. And Janice and Daylon are locking horns. He’s demanding she release Maureen.”

“
How is Maureen this morning?” Ashleigh asked.

“
No symptoms yet. But you know we can’t be too careful. Janice thinks it’s time you leave town,” Fes said as he poured coffee.

My stomach dived. I’d known Ashleigh wasn’t going to stick around long, but I’d thought I’d have at least a few days with her.
You missed your chance. You didn’t even kiss her,
said the helpful voice in my head.

“
Now that she doesn’t need us anymore to pick the corn. What did Daylon say to that?” Ashleigh asked.

“
He swore at her and told her it was fine by him.”

“
Damn Daylon’s temper! We need time to recover after yesterday. I’m not ready to move on, especially if there’s more dead gathering out there. I can’t face that again.” Ashleigh picked up the steaming cup of coffee then set it down again. “I’m going to get dressed.”

I watched her go then turned to Fes. “Any other news you want to tell me?”

“
Janice told Topeka our situation was heating up and asked for help. They said they’d send people when they could, but it sounds like ‘never’ to me.” Fes stared into his coffee cup.

“
They’re not ever going to help us, are they?” It was the most discouraged I’d ever heard him sound. His faith in our eventual rescue had been broken.

“
No. I don’t think so. I’ll finish getting dressed and go talk to her,” I said. Enough of holding down the fort and waiting for backup. Janice had to understand that a wall wasn’t going to be enough to protect us. It was time we developed a battle plan.

Upstairs, I put on my socks and shoes and brushed my teeth. When I entered the hallway, I almost ran into Asheigh coming from the guest bedroom.

She stopped me with a hand on my arm. “Hey, before we go, I just wanted to say thanks for last night. I tend to rush into things without thinking. I’m glad you didn’t.” She smiled and warmth rippled through me. “You were really sweet.”

Sweet
was usually a sign you’d been placed in the friend zone. I didn’t like the sound of it. Had I missed a small window of opportunity before she came to her senses and realized I wasn’t her type at all?

“
After everything we’d been through, it didn’t seem like the right time to do anything.” I fumbled to explain something that seemed totally stupid this morning. Now I wished I’d seized the moment.

“
You were right. It’d be nice to take a little time for once.” She rose on her toes and kissed me before heading down the hallway.

I blinked, resisting the urge to grab her and pull her back for more of that. As I followed her downstairs, I felt the impression of her mouth on mine and the light touch of her hand on the side of my face, small details that unleashed a horde of feelings to rampage through me. I was doomed, crushing on a biker chick on her way to someplace else.

Fes was waiting for us in the foyer and talking to Lainie, who’d come over from next door. The sick boy was with her. Considering Jeff had appeared to be on death’s door when I saw him last, he looked completely well now if a little shadowed under the eyes.

“
Hi, neighbor,” Lainie said. “We came over to borrow milk if you have any.”

“
Powdered not fresh,” I warned her and led the way toward the kitchen. Fes stayed in the foyer with Ashleigh. I glanced at Jeff and lowered my voice. “Feeling better?”

The boy nodded. Freckles popped against his pale face.

“
Glad to hear it.”

“
It’s a miracle,” Lainie said. “His fever’s completely gone and he’s hungry for some cereal. You don’t happen to have Sugar Pops? That’s what he’s been asking for.”

“
No, sorry. Will Cap’n Crunch be sugary enough for you?” I asked.

“
Yeah.” Jeff’s voice was caught between a manly croak and a boyish squeak. I was suddenly deeply happy that at least this one boy was going to make it past puberty.

“
I have some books and comics upstairs you can look through to find something to read. And you can play games on my old Xbox even though TV’s not on the list of approved electronics,” I added in a confidential whisper. Utilities rationing was pretty fluid in Durbinville. Everyone had their own idea of what items were essential and didn’t always agree with what the council mandated.

A smile flashed across the boy’s mouth quick as lightning then he nodded solemnly and remembered his manners. “Thank you.”

I showed Lainie where everything was in the kitchen and she filled me in on what was happening at the other house. “Daylon and some of the others went to the courthouse to get Maureen released. The rest are sleeping or just relaxing. Thanks for the milk and cereal. I promise we won’t eat all your supplies, although Jeff seems to be starving this morning.”

“
Take whatever you want,” I said then added to the boy, “There’s a Zombie Hunter game if you feel up to it.”

He grinned at the irony. “I’d rather play Madden if you’ve got it.”

“
Sorry no sports games here. I was never into them.” I left Jeff and Lainie in the kitchen getting bowls from the cupboard and mixing powdered milk.

Fes was impatient to leave and talking a mile a minute to make up for his downtime yesterday. He filled me and Ashleigh in on more news as we got into the pickup with red handprints decorating the sides like marks in a primitive cave painting.

“
Your friend with the broken arm is doped up and sleeping at Marcy’s house. She’s the vet. Guess she took Richard home with her after she set his arm,” Fes informed us. “When I was at the bar last night, I heard some people discussing making a run for it, maybe head for Topeka before things get worse. But Barry Jensen and some of his pals were arguing to stay put and fight for what we’ve got. We got supplies enough to last for a while yet.”

“
People have to decide for themselves what they want to do,” I said. “The council can’t order them to stay.”

“
I think they’re afraid the town will be left with only the old or weak and nobody to defend them. Like my grandma used to say,
somebody’s got to hold down the fort
. That’s you and me, Pasman.”

His insight hit me like a baseball bat to the head. I’d been stewing for weeks over whether to leave or stay with only my own welfare in mind. I hadn’t considered that if every strong, able person hit the road, those who couldn’t so easily pack up and go would be left defenseless. I took Fes, someone I’d never seen as a role model for empathy, to understand the truth about our role here. We had an obligation. We couldn’t just take off.

When we reached the administration building, we parted ways. Fes was going to drive out into the countryside with some others to check on other farm families. Ashleigh went to the holding cell to see Maureen and I went to find out what Janice Myers wanted.

She sat behind a polished desk in the office she’d taken over after appointing herself interim council president, papers spread before her and glasses perched halfway down her nose. She looked organized and busy. I wondered what she was studying. It wasn’t as if there was anything to generate paperwork these days. But I supposed she’d been a bureaucrat for so long as vice principal of the local high school that reports and forms gave her a sense of normalcy. We all had our crutches to get by.

She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and looked at me. “Good morning, Mr. Pasman. Please take a seat. We haven’t had a chance to chat recently.”

Or ever
.

“
I think you and Mike Fessenden have been doing a marvelous job of patrolling. The town greatly appreciates your service in keeping us safe. Thank you.”

“
You’re welcome.” I waited quietly for whatever request she was steering toward.

She leaned her elbows on the desk, steepled her fingers together and pressed her lips to them. “I feel maybe you’ve been underutilized as a resource. You studied physics at Caltech. Is that correct?”

“
Yes.”

“
So you must be good at calculating statistics, extrapolating scenarios, graphing probabilities and such. In other words, working out the details of plans?”

“
In theory.” It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see what direction she was heading. “My focus was on probability and group theory, but real life situations have innumerable variables that make predicting outcomes much more difficult. Applying abstract knowledge in any useful way in the real world is…” I trailed off. “What do you have in mind, Mrs. Myers?”

She tapped her fingertips together then sat back and placed her hands in her lap. “I’m not certain yet. But I heard about the way you used George Wilkins’ harvester as a decapitator yesterday. That was clever. You were educated to be part of a brain trust and I have you working as a foot soldier. So I’d like you to take a look at our defenses and see if you can come up with any creative strategies for keeping us safe until help arrives.”

“
What if they don’t send any help?”

She gave me a sharp look. “I’m not a fool. I know Durbinville is hardly a top priority for the government and many people think we can’t survive the winter here. But I truly believe in our government’s ability to restore order and rebuild. Within the next month aide will arrive in smaller towns across the country like ours. We simply must hold out until then. It isn’t as if we have anyplace to evacuate our people to anyway.” She sighed and for a second I saw the careworn woman beneath the self-assured politician. “Right now we must concentrate on surviving this new wave of the undead.”

I nodded. “I’ll do what I can. Assess the weapons stockpile and our defenses on the fence line. I’ll see if I can come up with any suggestions.”

Actually I had no idea how to improve our strategy with the limited resources on hand, but I needed to say something. Right now I was Janice Myer’s stopgap hope until something better came along to save the day.

* * * * *

Chapter Eight

“
I’ve slept worse places. This isn’t so bad and at least I feel safe.” Maureen’s face was striped by the bars of her cell as she sat on a metal folding chair facing me. “Jake hates it though.” She lowered her voice even though he’d gone to stretch his legs and get something to eat. “He tends to be claustrophobic and being locked up really freaked him out. He’s afraid everyone would die and we’d starve to death in here. I told him he didn’t have to stay, but he wouldn’t leave me.” She couldn’t hide a quick, pleased smiled that her boyfriend was so loyal.