In the darkness of the cabin, she could hear the giggling of Dez, the last pregnant lady in their group and the furthest along in her pregnancy. She was also the person that, from a doctor's standpoint, Joan worried about the most. Something had snapped in Dez. Her "husband," although Joan gathered that they had never been formally married, had tied her to a bed for weeks upon learning that Dez intended to harm the baby growing inside of her. Even now, Joan expected to find Dez lying in a pool of her own blood any day now. She was as mad as a hatter.
She spent most of her day carving swear words into the wooden walls of the back room of the ranger station. The only time she ever came out of there was to use the latrine or eat a bird-like amount of food. Any other time, she would be in her room, muttering to herself, and carving "fuck" for the thousandth time in the walls. She was really getting quite good at it.
Katie ushered Joan to the room that they shared in the ranger station, and Joan groaned as she laid down on the bed. At night, Katie and Joan would take turns sleeping in case one of the pregnant women decided they weren't needed anymore. The tension of not knowing when the others were coming for her gave her a headache. She had broached the topic of leaving with Katie several times, but Katie's reasoning was sound, even if she, herself, was not. Katie was somewhere in the range of eight months pregnant. Joan could barely walk without help. The weather was terrible, and they could freeze to death. Neither of them was in any condition to hunt, and the dead were all around them. It was a solid list of reasons, and any one of them could be the end of them outside of the compound's walls. Combined, she knew that she really didn't have a choice in the matter
But that didn't stop her from dreaming of it. She wanted out, and there were days where she didn't care how it happened or what the consequences would be. But Katie remained solid in her refusal, and without Katie, she would have no chance on her own unless she intended on limping all the way to the ocean on her own.
"Are you gonna be alright?" Katie asked.
Joan nodded and propped her spear against the bed within easy reach.
Katie nodded and turned to leave.
"Where are you going?" Joan asked, her eyelids already feeling heavy.
"I gotta get some firewood. We're running low."
"Be careful out there," Joan said.
Katie closed the door without responding. Through the thin wooden door, she heard Katie say to Dez, "Keep an eye out for her, wouldja?"
Dez's giggling stopped for a brief moment, and then she said, "Sure."
Joan didn't know if she felt more or less in danger with Dez watching her. She was mulling over the pros and cons when she dozed off.
****
Katie exited the ranger station with a rifle in her hands. The rest of the crew's guns were locked up in the ranger station, under the bed that Joan reclined on. She had thought of pitching them over the wall just so the other women wouldn't have access to them, but they might be needed. The world was different now. You never knew when you and your enemies were going to need to team up and take out the dead.
She headed over to the gate. For now, it was clear to go in and out of the compound. They had cleared the dead from the trailers in the morning. It was their ritual. By the afternoon, there would be a couple more. Over-night, six to twelve more would have joined them. It was the same every day. Katie didn't know where they came from or how they got there, but there always seemed to be more. Just once, she'd like to wake up and not have to climb on top of a trailer with a spear.
She undid the chain to the gate. It pulled free with a loud metallic rattle.
"Where are you going?" Theresa called.
Katie didn't bother looking at Theresa. She was a pain in the ass, and she knew that sooner or later, she was going to have to kill her. She hoped that, when the time came, whoever died had already delivered their baby into the world. "I'm going to collect some firewood and keep my eye out for some food. I should only be gone an hour or two. Keep an eye out."
She pulled the gate open and stepped into the blood-soaked snow. The others didn't mess with her like they did Joan. They had seen her kill before. Katie walked quickly. There was no point in trying to be quiet in the snow. The flakes had stopped falling, and the top layer of the snow had turned to ice. It was like she was stalking across a field of flavorless crème brulée with every step she took.
She didn't bother collecting firewood. She could grab that at any time. But she only had so much time before the sky would grow dark, and she didn't relish the idea of being out in the woods in the dark. She walked a path she had walked a few times before, moving quickly. She could hear the dead around her, moving in the silence of the forest. The only other movement in the forest came from a few squirrels digging in the snow for stashed goodies. None of the dead were in sight, and she felt comfortable with the rifle slung over her shoulder. She made her
