"Oh, God," Bunny cried, grabbing him and holding him tight.
"Urf," Caroline said. "Hell of a grip you got there, girl."
"Sorry," Bunny said, sniffling back a sob of joy. "I just thought... I saw the van in the street..."
"Oh, yeah," Bruno said. "We had some trouble getting here."
"Who else made it?” Bunny asked, barely daring to hope.
Caroline shrugged. "Everybody. We all made it, Bunny. They're over in the mess, getting some dinner."
"But, I saw blood all around the van..." she gasped, gripping both their hands in hers.
Bruno looked at Caroline and bowed his head. "Yeah, some people lost their lives getting us here. But everyone from the club made it."
"Ahem," Angel coughed behind them. "Care to introduce me to the yummy there?"
"Angel," York chided. "Time and place."
"He can give me both," the woman said, eying Bruno like the dead eyed the living.
Bruno coughed as Bunny laughed. "Sorry, of course. These are my friends, Caroline and Bruno. They escaped the club with me, but we got separated on the way here."
“Any friend of Beckman's,” York said, holding out a hand. “My wife, Lucy. This little urchin is Angel.”
"Watch who you're calling an urchin, pops,” she shot back, sidling closer for her turn with Bruno’s hand.
"They helped me out when I was in a tight spot," Bunny told her friends, motioning to York and Lucy. "She just sort of tagged along."
"I'm not feeling a lot of love here," Angel complained as she shook Bruno's hand.
"Like the man said, any friend of Bunny's," Bruno laughed, then frowned as he tried to get his hand back from Angel, who just smiled.
"You must be hungry. Come on, we'll head down to the mess and get you guys some food," Caroline told them, waving them forward.
"Doc says we need to get them squared away," the corporal who had watched all of this told Caroline.
She waved him off. "I got it, Bill. No worries."
"You sure?"
"Aren't I always?" she asked him with a grin.
He held up his hands, offering a smile. "See you later then."
Bunny and her companions fell into step with her old friends as they made their way deeper into camp, passing groups of people coming and going, all of them talking and laughing, many staring sadly into space. For Bunny, to be surrounded by so many living people seemed somehow surreal, and she found herself smiling.
"What happened to the van?" she asked as they walked.
"Ah, that," Bruno replied. "Well, we got about three blocks or so from where you saw it when the tire blew. I think it got punctured by a bone shard from one of the Gaunts, but I didn't really have time to look at it close."
"Gaunts?" Bunny asked.
"That's what people are calling them. It's kind of a general term for them, really. The military says there're two or three different types. Shamblers, Bouncers, and Lurkers, that they've seen," Caroline told her.
Bunny nodded. "Then they're short one or two."
"Probably," Caroline agreed.
"Anyway," Bruno continued. "I kept driving as long as I could, before the whole thing just seized up. Once we were dead in the water, so to speak, we all pretty much figured that was it. There weren't as many of them as there are now, but there were still too many to make a run for it."
"That's when Dale had his bright idea," Caroline cut in.
"Yeah, and it saved our asses, too," Bruno added. "He shot out the window on top of the van so we could get on the roof. Not many of us, just me, Caroline and him, but it gave us a chance to defend the others to the last."
"Which it nearly was," Caroline intoned.
"Can I tell the story?" Bruno asked.
"If you stop trying to make it into a movie, then yes," she shot back with a smile.
"Fine. That's when the military showed up. Two Humvees, loaded for bear, and a Blackhawk. The guys on the ground helped defend us while the chopper pulled us in. Me and Carrie here went last, helping them hold the line," Bruno explained.
"Thank God they showed up," Bunny said, shaking her head.
"No kidding. One of them, a Sergeant Allan Walker, got pulled down by them. He kept shooting them the whole time, too. Never stopped until he was dead," Bruno told her. "Hell of a guy, I'm told. I tried to pull him up, but he wouldn't let me. Just told me to get on the chopper and kept fighting."
"They told us later he was the one who spotted us," Caroline cut in. "We owe him our lives."
Bunny nodded. "Wish I could thank him."
"We all do," Bruno said in a somber tone as they stopped in front of the large, sprawling tent. "Best we can do is make his sacrifice mean something."
"Amen to that,” York said softly.
Bunny looked at him, knowing he was thinking of Jerry, but for herself, she thought of Rosa. In their own way, she guessed, all of them owed someone now. What was the point of keeping score, though?
"Come on," Caroline said. "I know a few people who'll be glad to see you."
They stepped into the well-lit tent, and as Bunny looked around, she easily spotted them all. Amid the long rows of folding tables and chairs, the mass of steam tables and army cooks, she easily picked out each and every face she had thought she would never see again.
Standing at one table, Randy saw her and dropped his plate, hand going to his heart as he began walking her way. Bunny smiled and hurried to meet him, her dearest and truest friend, hugging him tight as he began to cry. She kissed his damp, bald head,
