LaRouche glanced over his shoulder. "Jim..."

The ex-priest put his hand on the back of the girl's head. "Close your eyes, Sweetie. Just keep 'em closed, okay?"

The Humvee rolled to a stop about fifteen feet from the nearest shelter.

"You see anything?" LaRouche called up to Joel.

The turret rotated back and forth, slowly. "No. Looks clear."

"Come on down with me." LaRouche nudged his door open, grabbed his rifle. "Jim stay with the girl. Wilson, help me out."

The gravel drive crunched under his feet. He could taste the smoke in the air.

Wilson exited the vehicle, his rifle shouldered, looking questioningly at LaRouche while the sergeant moved quickly to the first pile of bodies. A man and two little boys, perhaps four and five years old. He looked into the tent that they lay beside, cleared it with the muzzle of his rifle, then bent in quickly and came out with a b.l.o.o.d.y blanket, which he threw over the bodies. They had not truly begun to rot, so the smell was not bad, save for the slight whiff of stale s.h.i.t from when they'd voided themselves, either upon death, or upon knowing that death was imminent.

Wilson and Joel quickly followed suit, covering the other bodies with tarps, plastic, even an old truck bed cover. They counted as they went, tallying up a grisly scoreboard. Three women. Six children. Four men. Thirteen, altogether.

Bad number, LaRouche mused.

He'd never been one for superst.i.tion. Had even been b.a.l.l.sy enough to eat the Charms out of his MREs while deployed. But lately he'd found himself seeing portents in things he would have ignored in the old world, and doing things that he would have mocked if he saw another man doing them. Like always putting on his right boot first. Refusing to discard the stripper clip he'd recently found inside the map pocket of his chest rig. And keeping his old dog tags dangling from his neck, though he couldn't see a reason for them now. All of these things now seemed like they were just barely keeping him alive, and if he were to put his left boot on, or lose the clip, or take off his dog tags, the next ten seconds after that would see him with a bullet in his brain or infected ripping him limb from limb.

Stupid, he knew.

But there was no denying the psychological power these little rituals and objects held. And if the only benefit they could give him was some strange perception of confidence, some mental placebo effect, then he would take it anyways. He would take any benefit he could get.

The only problem was that you couldn't just believe in good luck. You had to believe in bad luck too. So when you counted thirteen bodies, it gave you a little cold feeling in the pit of your stomach, that little cringing tension, like descending a rickety staircase into a dark bas.e.m.e.nt.

He shifted the chaw around in his mouth with his tongue. Faced the Humvee and waved.

After a moment, the door popped open and Jim stepped out, then helped the little girl down.

Wilson stepped to his side, rifle relaxed across his chest. "What are we doing with her, Sarge? She shouldn't be seeing this s.h.i.t..."

"Well, I'd hoped..." he looked around at the piles of dead bodies under their poor disguises. He shook his head, a very small gesture of regret. "All we can do now is ask her questions. See what she can tell us."

"Pump her for info?"

LaRouche nodded. "S'pose so."

"Sarge," Wilson looked around. "Who the f.u.c.k's gonna take care of her?"

LaRouche shrugged. "First decent person we can p.a.w.n her off to."

"That's f.u.c.ked up."

"Yeah. The world is f.u.c.ked up."

Jim approached, walking slowly alongside the girl's small, hesitant steps. She looked at the mounds underneath the blankets, could clearly see a foot sticking out here, some fingers there, a woman's long hair curling up from under a tarp, the shadow of a face, the folds of skin oddly frozen in place by rigor.

The girl stared, but gave no reaction.

Everything was being internalized.

Processed.

LaRouche looked up at Jim and mouthed quietly, "What's her name?"

Jim mouthed back: "Tessa."

LaRouche knelt down, touched the girl's shoulder to get her attention again. "Tessa, are you doin' okay?"

Tessa looked at him, her eyes darting back and forth between his. They watered. "Where's my daddy?"

"Honey, I don't know." LaRouche let out a breath. The sweet chaw suddenly cloyed at him. He looked off to his right, where the wreckage of humanity lay in burned ruins and piles of bodies. The unrelenting acid in his stomach singed his throat. It'd seemed common sense to come here and see if anyone in the settlement had survived to take the girl. But now it seemed like a mistake.

Wilson pointed towards their Humvee, looking for any excuse to get out of the awkward situation. "I'm gonna tell the others to come on up."

LaRouche waved him off, then draped his hands over the receiver of his M4. "Tessa, can you tell me anything about the bad guys that came?"

The little girl nodded.

"Do you remember where you first saw them?"

She pointed to the left of the farmhouse. "They were coming through the woods right there." Then she turned and pointed towards LaRouche's convoy. "And they were coming from the road right there."

"So they were coming from two directions?"

"Yes."

"Were the bad guys that came through the woods just walking?"

"No, they were running."

"But, I mean, they weren't riding horses or anything?"

"No horses."

"Did they say anything, or did they immediately start shooting?"

Tessa's lip quivered. She looked around. "I don't know. Daddy told me to run. And then there was lots of screaming and shooting." Her breath came quicker. "I know what the bad guys do. Daddy told me they hurt people on the cross, just like Jesus."

"Sarge..." Jim said quietly.

LaRouche looked up, nodded. He wasn't going to get anything out of Tessa that he didn't already know. And prying was obviously not helping. He was beginning to feel like a tremendous a.s.shole. "Alright." He stood up. "Come on. Let's get us turned around and on the road."

Jim put a hand on the girl's shoulder and began to guide her back to their Humvee.

Joel suddenly crossed in front of LaRouche, whipping his rifle up and putting a hand on LaRouche's chest as though to keep him from going any further. "Head's up! Head's up! Tree line!"

LaRouche spun, his boots grinding out a horseshoe shape in the dirt as he took a wide-legged stance, shoulder hunched, elbows tucked into his sides. The rifle raised up to his eyes and he turned back and forth, looking at the tree line that Joel pointed towards, but not seeing anything.

"You see him?" Joel shouted. "You see him right there? Right there in front of you!"

LaRouche strained to see in the woods, to sense movement. "What the f.u.c.k are you..."

He saw it.

A man in dirt-smudged overalls, and an equally dirty white thermal. He stood at the tree line a few hundred yards from them, his hands high above his head.

"Hold your fire," LaRouche mumbled around a mouthful of juice, then spat and raised his voice. "Everyone hold your fire!"

The man in the overalls had hesitated at first when all the rifles swung in his direction, but now, seeing that they were not firing, he stumbled forward and yelled across the distance between them. A single word. LaRouche couldn't tell.

"The f.u.c.k is he saying?" Joel said tensely.

"No idea."

"Why is he yelling?" Joel stammered. "Doesn't he know not to yell in the f.u.c.king woods?"

LaRouche initiated Joel with a slap on the shoulder. "Keep an eye on that idiot." He glanced behind him and saw everyone facing out towards the guy approaching. "Don't leave our a.s.ses exposed, people! Someone watch our backs!"

Two people spun and faced the other way.

"Sarge," Joel lowered his rifle a few inches. "I think he's calling for the girl."

LaRouche squinted at the man, kept his rifle trained.

"Tessa!" the man screamed hoa.r.s.ely. "Tessa!"

LaRouche took a few steps forward. The stranger was perhaps a hundred yards from them, still hollering, waving his arms, the picture of desperation. From this distance, LaRouche could see the pale remnants of blood smeared across his face, looking like it came from his nose, and from a gash over his left eye. Drips had created vertical streaks on the chest of his white shirt. His sleeves were marred with it from when he'd used them to mop up his face.

No other obvious signs of injury.

"Keep coming forward!" LaRouche called out to him. "Keep your hands where I can see 'em!"

"Sarge, there's more guys in the woods," Joel said. "Wait..."

LaRouche looked past the man. Several pale shapes, slipping through the dark timber. Moving fast. Spreading out.

"s.h.i.t!" Joel yelped.

LaRouche called it. "Infected! In the woods!"

The man in the overalls turned, saw the flitter of movement rushing up behind him. His hands dropped, his eyes went wide, and his legs began pumping. LaRouche could hear him as he closed the distance at a dead sprint: "Oh s.h.i.t! Oh s.h.i.t! Oh s.h.i.t!"

LaRouche backpedaled. "Joel! Get on the fifty!"

He raised his rifle again at the man running towards them. He wasn't about to let a stranger just hop up into their Humvee, no matter what the situation. He waited until the man was about to run past him, then reached out and grabbed a handful of his overalls, stopped him in his tracks and slammed him on the ground.

"Don't f.u.c.king move!" LaRouche screamed in his ear.

"Lemme go!" The man cried out. "They're gonna get me!"

LaRouche mashed his face into the ground, stood over him and began to pat down his pockets for weapons. "Shoulda thought of that before you started hollerin' at the top of your lungs, you dumb f.u.c.k!"

The man began to resist, twisting around. "Oh s.h.i.t! They're gonna get me! They're gonna get me!"

LaRouche put a knee in the man's back to pin him, and did a quick a.s.sessment. He looked out towards the trees. The pale shapes of bare-skinned bodies were just now reaching the edge of the woods. They were spread out in a line, four or five of them. The right edge of the line closer than the left. Moving ridiculously fast. Faster than a human should have been able to move.

"I need some help!" LaRouche hollered.

Jim shot out of the Humvee, rifle in hand.

Joel squirmed into the turret, swung it in the direction of the oncoming infected.

Jim stuttered to a stop. "What do you need?"

"He's clean!" LaRouche stood up. "Put him in the back and don't let him f.u.c.king move!"

The man wailed. "I didn't do anything! Don't let them get me!"

Jim grabbed the man by the arms, hauled him onto his feet. "Come with me!" They began moving towards the Humvee, LaRouche backing up and keeping an eye on the infected. They burst through the woodline, but stayed silent, which was unusual. By now they should have been screeching and barking and calling back and forth like a pack of wolves on the hunt.

LaRouche judged the distance quickly. There was no way in the world he was getting all of his vehicles out of there before the infected reached them. His stomach felt like it was going to start convulsing.

A flicker of movement to his left.

He spun in the direction of the farmhouse.

Three more of them, low to the ground, skirting the edge of the settlement.

Cutting them off.

LaRouche spun, sprinted for the Humvee. Just ahead of him Jim shoved the man into the rear door and dove in after him. LaRouche was fifteen feet from his door when Joel swung the big .50-caliber M2 in his direction, the maw of the barrel pointed just over his shoulder.

"Behind you!" Joel yelled.

LaRouche ducked and spun as the air percussed. A heavy, ear-shattering chug-chug-chug. Dirt erupted just a few paces in front of him, and beyond the dark flying clods of dirt a pair of sinewy arms outstretched towards him, and then the next two rounds slammed the creature back, ripping it apart.

LaRouche's back hit the wheel well of the Humvee.

Another one bound through the wreckage of the settlement. Its movements more ape than man. LaRouche could see nothing about it other than the fact that it was coming right for him. The rest was a pale blur. He snap-fired two rounds. Couldn't tell if they hit. Began firing more. The creature slid behind a tent, LaRouche's bullets tracking it, ripping through the thin nylon fabric. It appeared on the other side and came straight at him. He kept pulling the trigger, but nothing happened.

It didn't stop coming.

LaRouche backed up two steps and yanked his door open.

I'm not gonna make it...