Don’t fuck this up, she seemed to be saying.
The last occupants of the Humvee piled out. John was somewhat surprised. He counted six people crammed in the Humvee and only the three in the minivan. He immediately suspected that this wasn’t one group but two.
Prairie Dog had exited the Humvee and stood back. He was joined by a short female soldier, who had to jump to get out of the vehicle. They were followed by the final occupant of the Humvee: a young teenage boy, wearing a terrified expression.
John eyed the two younger soldiers.
They look legit.
John’s training took over and he tallied their potential opponents. He knew that Mel would be doing the same from her position near the school entrance. I think we’ve got two or three actual soldiers, and, what? Six civilians. John felt his confidence rise.
The woman who had spoken earlier approached Craig. The older soldier also moved up and stood beside her. John noted the name on his tag, which he could just make out from where he was standing: Stringer.
Two versus one, John noted. He stepped up and stood just by Craig’s right shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Joe do the same, ending up on Craig’s other flank. He knew that Melissa and Emily would have moved as well, to keep the rest of their guests under surveillance.
“You’re not army,” Joe blurted out before anybody could say anything.
Stringer looked up at Joe with one eyebrow raised. “This isn’t my Halloween costume, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Craig jumped into the conversation; one hand partially raised to ward off a conflict. “What my friend means to say is that he doesn’t think you are the army folks he had radio contact with last night.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right there,” Stringer said.
“Look, can we start with introductions?” the woman said, continuing without waiting for an answer, “I’m Tammy. Tammy Jensen.”
Craig seemed more familiar and comfortable with these rules of engagement. “Hi, Tammy. Nice to meet you. My name is Craig Van Gilze. This is Joe Collins, and this is John Miller.
“And I’m Mike Stringer. I am army,” Stringer looked sharply at Joe. “But not special forces or anything. I’m a radio operator.”
“Are you, now?” Emily piped up when she heard this. She came over to join the group. “Emily Hill. Radio operator,” she said with a smile, adding, “sir” as she noted Mike’s rank. Mike just smiled and offered his hand.
The congenial moment was shattered by Joe. “How did you know about this location?” he asked with an accusatory lift of his chin.
“Craig,” Tammy ignored the big man and talked to the person she perceived to be the school’s leader. “We knew about this location through Mike and his team.”
From the corner of his eye, Craig could see Joe bristle. The big man took a half step forward.
“Why are you here?” he asked, making it sound like a challenge.
That caused the stocky civilian to leave the scared teenager behind and take a few quick steps closer. “What’s your problem?” She exuded anger.
“My problem? We didn’t ask you to show up at our doorstep and raise a bunch of racket. You’re attracting all the zombies to our safe haven,” Joe exclaimed, puffing himself up.
“Safe haven?” She took another step towards him. “There is no such thing as a safe haven, bub!”
“Yeah, safe haven. We’re doing just fine over here,” Joe insisted. Craig had turned to Joe and started holding him back.
The stocky woman picked up on that. “What? You want to fight? Well, you’re in luck because I don’t fight ugly people. They got nothing to lose.”
Nobody knew how to react to that. She wasn’t done, though.
“Doing fine. Huh? By hiding out? Isn’t that noble of you.” She grimaced in distaste. “Bunch of cowards...”
“Whoa, whoa! Everybody take it easy,” Craig said. He grabbed Joe’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “Joe, simmer down.”
“Breanne, go back to Steve,” Tammy asked. When the stocky woman did not move, she added, “Please.”
Reluctantly, Breanne turned and strode back to stand with the teenage boy.
The Latino teenager at the other vehicle seemed unable to help himself. “Yo, man, you guys haven’t been through what we’ve been through. You all need to show some respect.”
The big woman shushed him, but he got more worked up. He shook off her hand and strode forward.
“Q, get back.” Tammy ordered.
He looked at her belligerently. “You’re not the boss of me.” He nevertheless backed up.
Tammy turned back to Craig. “I think we’re all just a little on edge right now,” she said with a rueful look.
“Yeah. This is new for us, too,” Craig admitted.
“Listen, I’m not even sure what we’re doing here. We were just looking for other survivors and some supplies.”
“I understand. We have a radio set up inside and have been trying to get in touch with anybody out there.” Craig looked slightly embarrassed. “But we haven’t been broadcasting our location, because we don’t know what other peoples’ intentions would be.”
Tammy nodded. “OK. Well, I assure you that our intentions are not harmful.” She looked over at Joe. “But I guess there is no way to prove that.”
A look of shame passed over Joe’s face. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I just got my family to protect.”
Tammy smiled at the big man and shrugged. “I get it. We don’t know each other. I think maybe we should just leave. Just to show you that we mean no harm. Maybe next time we’ll hit it off better.”
The sound of something hitting the fence got everybody’s attention.
“Dog. Looks like you got visitors,” Q said with a malicious smile. He pointed to the gate, where a zombie in a t-shirt and boxer shorts was banging against the fencing. Behind him several more zombies were approaching.
“We got this. We brought them here — we’ll clean it up,” Mike said
