He raised his hands up as he backed away. "No worries, bud. No worries. I got a few back in town anyway. See you at the base."

Kalman hadn't taken his eyes off me. He looked relieved, but still on edge as he watched the man walk away and join the rest of the group. With the threat gone, they moved down the highway towards Goldbar.

We made it. We fucking made it. I let out a long breath and zipped up my coat. There were a million bad ways it could've gone, but we were on the winning end.

I waited until the group was out of earshot before speaking. "Thank you. You saved our lives."

"If you didn't have that brand, you'd be dead." He was suspicious, his voice plainly accusatory. "Should I have saved you?"

"Yes." I gestured to my chest. "This was by force five years ago. I'd call it an accident. The rest of them don't have it."

"Do you know anything about the main base? In the mountains?" Ghost's booming voice startled me. The question was directed at Kalman.

He frowned. "I think we all have a lot of questions. Come back to my house and we'll exchange information."

"No can do, Doc," Blaze said. "We're on a tight schedule. We need to get to that base as soon as possible."

"To stop the attack on the settlements? I can tell you right now the attack won't be for another four days." Kalman gripped the straps of his pack, pulling it up his shoulders. "Please, I know you've probably been through a lot, but what I know might help you."

I sighed. Nothing was ever what it seemed. Nothing was ever point A to point B. "Fine. Take us to your house."

Chapter 24.

After brief introductions, we were on our way. With Kalman in the front and me wedged between Blaze and Lasko in the back, we drove through Goldbar. It was a town right by the base of a mountain, which was always in sight no matter where you were. The town was weathered and dirty, but it had been like that Before. You could tell. Scores of cars and motorcycles were parked outside of two of the biggest buildings in town. I counted ten bodies scattered throughout the town. Crows picked at their flesh. The lower half of one body was crushed, with faint tire marks trailing blood away from it.

"Zs?" I asked.

"Some. Some are from fights gone awry. Some are survivors who mistakenly wandered into town thinking these people might help. There's still people like that." Kalman stared straight ahead. "The people here, though, are lost souls. They've chosen not to remember what life was like. They're primal, doing whatever they want whenever. The prime objective of this place is to breed and increase numbers. The hotel over there, that's where the women are. When they capture them, the ones good for breeding, they get branded with an X so they won't forget. Some are willing. Some are forced. The grocery store is a drug den and hangout for everyone else. I converted the high school into a hospital where I do my best to treat the women. The children are taken care of there as well. As you probably noticed, the dead are the least of our worries these days. Turn left up here."

We turned down a road that led into a small residential area. Some houses were falling apart, but others appeared to be maintained and inhabited. Smoke drifted up from chimneys and there was movement inside. A few people drunkenly stumbled about, looking more like zombies than the undead themselves. Hooded eyes and slack jaws; they were drunk or high. Maybe both.

The pregnant girl in Valtown-had she escaped, or did they take her with them on their way to destroy Brickston? I had no doubt she came from Goldbar, yet the details of her escape left me wondering. If she wanted to escape, why wasn't she more forthcoming about where she'd come from? Valerie said she fought them when they tried to bathe her.

"We found one of them near our town," I said. "She wouldn't talk. Seemed dazed."

Kalman frowned. "She would be. Trauma will do that to you. Between the drugs, rape, and abuse, their brains shut down. Better that than reality."

I felt Blaze shift beside me as she leaned forward. "What happened to Sultan?"

"The Brotherhood invaded Sultan five years ago. We were doing well, but we'd been focused on defending ourselves from the dead, not other people. We did end up blowing up the bridge. The dead fell into the water, but we didn't do a good enough job. The living climbed over it at night. Some just waded through the river. It isn't that deep in the summer. About fifty of them. Sorted through us to find useful people, like me, and the women. Killed anyone else who wouldn't comply."

It wasn't long before the houses grew sparse and we drove up an incline. The road became narrow, only wide enough for one car, and low hanging branches scraped against the jeep.

Eventually Kalman told Ghost to stop. To the right was a large home, surprisingly well taken care of. It was nestled into the side of a hill, and a giant field stretching out in front of it then melded with a forest.

"This is my house." His laughter held sadness. "Well, it was my chiropractor's house. Once they brought me here and I earned their trust, they let me live where I wanted. I don't know what happened to Dr. Allison."

Walking into the place was like taking a step back in time. The only thing that screamed 'the world has ended' was the five of us, smelling like smoke and sweat, toting guns and reeking of violence. The house was warm, due to a gigantic wood burning stove that sat in the living room by a couch and two recliners. A bookshelf packed to its edges ran the entire length of the living room. The living room connected to a spacious kitchen, where a middle aged woman opened a big metal can.

A revolver soon replaced her can opener, and she pointed it at us. "Who are they?"

"They're good, Marlene."

She set the gun down and resumed opening the can. "Beans and rice again. I'll make enough for all of you."

Kalman walked over to her and kissed the top of her head. "You're the best."

It was all an illusion. The happy family, the tidy home. The undead world was overwhelming and lonely. We were all dead in ways, made to go through the motions of living even though a part of us had given up. Kalman and Marlene were picture perfect examples of it. This world didn't exist any more, but they resurrected it with careful precision and made it dance like it was alive.

The doctor shrugged off his pack and jacket, then settled at a sturdy wood dining room table and gestured for us to do the same. I could disagree with their passion for normalcy, but I couldn't say no to food.

"Like I was saying earlier, they're getting ready to attack, but not for another four days. A group of a hundred never came back, save for one or two. I'm guessing they're dead?"

"They killed a lot of us and put a hole in our wall. We managed," Blaze said. "Our defense wasn't textbook, but the Brotherhood was chaotic and unorganized."

Kalman looked somewhere else. He wasn't interested in more details of the battle. "What's it like where you live?"

The question caught me off guard. I thought about how Kalman lived. He was a slave to crazies, but wanted something better. The prospect of our settlements, full of mostly good people and structure, was something he dreamed about.

Before I could answer, Ghost did. "No offense, but none of us have a reason to trust you." He looked at me when he said it. "You've been with the Brotherhood for years. How do we know you aren't wasting our time up here? Or that someone is going to come kill us a minute from now?"

In the kitchen, his wife stopped working. Her spoon hovered above the pot. Kalman stayed still and stared at the scratched wooden table. Ghost was right. I knew Kalman for all of a few hours. He did save us, but was that enough to disclose everything we knew?

"You don't have to tell them," Marlene whispered.

"They branded my chest first, over the heart, like they usually do." His fingers hovered over the gnarled, scarred brand on his face. "When you put up a fight, or disobey, they'll brand you again to remind you where your loyalty should be. When I was first here, I delivered a baby to a girl no more than fourteen years old. She asked me to kill it because she didn't want it to grow up in this world. She was dying herself of a hemorrhage."

Tears welled in his eyes as he recalled the memory. One escaped, trailing down into the tangle of his auburn beard.

"So I did. I put my hand over the baby's mouth and smothered it. It went against everything I believed in as a doctor, but I did it. I wanted to believe the mother died with a smile on her face, but my mind did that to help me cope. One of the Brotherhood came in to check on me and caught me in the act." He took in a ragged breath. The tears flowed freely now, dripping into his beard. "They got my daughter from the motel. They brought her in and four men raped her right in front of me, to teach me a lesson."

His wife set down the spoon. Without saying a word, she walked past us and upstairs.

Kalman shook himself, and smeared his tears away. "Lilly died eight months later due to complications from the pregnancy."

"Doc, listen..."

"No, Cyrus. To answer your question, Ghost, you can trust me because no one can hate these people as much as I do. Whether I do right or wrong, the result is always suffering. A doctor-a man-can't live in a world where nothing he does brings life, where everything he does somehow hurts somebody. When I learned about the settlements out west, it was the first ray of hope I've had in years. All I've wanted is to escape here and do what I'm meant to do. I want to heal people. Make their lives better. Not perpetuate the evil lingering in every crevice of this cult."

He spoke with a kind of fiery conviction that would convince even the most adamant skeptic. Fuck, Kalman could start his own cult if I wanted to. I couldn't speak for my group, but I believed him. I knew when someone was playing me, and Kalman wasn't. I also knew what the Brotherhood was capable of, and could only imagine how their depravity increased over the years.

Ghost reached across the table and placed one hand on Kalman's forearm. The gesture was odd coming from the generally stoic man. "We're on the same side."

Kalman coughed and wiped snot from his nose. "Please, tell me what it's like there. I need to know."

Lasko spoke. "There are two towns. Everyone has a job and we function almost like Before. We farm and raise most of our food. There are a few doctors, but of course we always need more. People are treated fairly. After all this, you're welcome to bring your wife and live there."

His smile was genuine. "That would be wonderful."

I'd come to terms with how the settlements were, good and bad, and I was sure I wanted to save them. When Lasko described them, they were an absolute utopia with no downsides. In comparison to the hell he was living in, they were. You never knew how good you had it until you saw the dead grass on the other side.

"Doc, what can you tell us?" I asked "Right, of course." He rotated his shoulders back and raised his chin. "I only know what I hear from the men I treat, or what I hear in the lodge, but they have loose lips. The drugs and booze make them loopy."

Kalman told us the attacks up until now were meant to weaken and study us. The Brotherhood had been keeping tabs on the settlements for almost a year, but hadn't been able to see past the walls to know what they were up against. The attack on Brickston revealed their reliance on wood walls, which the Brotherhood intended to burn. A handful of survivors came back from Valtown and reported it was well armed, defended, and organized.

"A whole fucking year?" Blaze leaned back in her chair, running her hands through her wild black hair. "The first sign we saw of them came a week ago, and they've been watching us a whole fucking year?"

That brought on my next question. "What do you know about the leader of the Brotherhood?"

"It's a young woman, which I know is hard to believe. I saw her briefly when they first raided Sultan, then some months later to deliver her baby."

Gabe had a kid? Damn, that was weird.

"She stayed here in Goldbar while her people cleared it and made that bridge. I don't know how they found the base in the mountains-I've never been there-but she hasn't come down in years. As for the Brotherhood up there? Not all of them are the inept hillbillies you saw earlier. The ones closest to her are smarter and loyal. I have a feeling they've been with her since the beginning. They do pass through here on occasion, often for medical care or when their wives are pregnant. There is some kind of strange religious doctrine they follow. Once a week, Goldbar holds a sermon. Most of these people use religion to justify what they do, but the rest honestly believe she is somehow connected to God."

I dredged up all the bullshit Kevin told me in the tent. Only bits and pieces came back. He thought Gabe was important, but I couldn't draw a connection between being important and how she became the leader.

"I was out searching for medical supplies with that group of men," Kalman said. "They have to be supervised or all they'd bring back is junk. We were just returning for the sermon tonight, actually."

Kalman went into the kitchen and helped his wife cook. He carried an iron pot to the wood stove and placed it on top. "I know every able bodied person from the mountain and here will be moving in for the final attack in four days."

"Do they use the highway to get there?" Ghost asked.

Kalman moved about the kitchen. "Yes, always."

Ghost thought for a moment. "Cyrus, this might work to our advantage. If we get the explosives from Crow, we can set up a trap on the highway. Let them come to us."

"That means waiting four days," Lasko said. "And we don't know for sure if every single one of them will come down."

Blaze entered the discussion. "You aren't thinking bigger picture. We kill everyone in this town. We set up the trap and kill whoever comes down the mountain. We go up the mountain and mop up. This is better than our plan before."

"That's wishful thinking," I said. "Attacking them on the highway, fine. But how do you expect us to kill everyone here? If you haven't noticed, there are four of us and, what, hundreds of them?"

"Just a hundred and fifty," Kalman said. "Most live on the mountain."

"Easy. I'll do what I do best," Blaze said. "I'll burn them alive."

Chapter 25.

I exhaled plumes of white in the cold air as Lasko and I funneled gasoline out of the jeep. It didn't seem like much, only two gallons, but Blaze said it would be enough. Kalman left for an hour and brought back a cache of isopropyl alcohol from his makeshift hospital. By the end of it, we would have enough supplies to make a fuckload of molotovs.

I didn't want to use what precious little stable gasoline we had left, but if her plan succeeded we'd have plenty of resources to scavenge once every crazy in Goldbar was dead. We left enough in the jeep to get us down to the lodge.

For once, the universe was on our side. Kalman explained that the lodge was old, made almost entirely out of heavy wood logs. Once used by actual loggers a century before, it was converted into a pathetic summer tourist attraction. A dining area, gift shop, and taxidermy display had been gutted out and now the area was a den of iniquity, where the Brotherhood's sermons were conducted. It was located at the base of a hiking trail not far from Kalman's house.

Blaze asked him a series of questions, all of which related to the flammability of the place. Inside, sheets were tacked over the windows to block sunlight. It had a double door entrance and two emergency exits. All the furniture was wood. It was a bonfire waiting to happen.

Lasko and I carried our buckets of gasoline into the house. Kalman explained the plan to Marlene, who was so enlivened by the idea she bustled about gathering as many glass jars as she could find. The kitchen stank of gasoline, alcohol, and an assortment of household additives Blaze mixed into them. She was a mad scientist, measuring, stirring, and pouring. Her bottom lip caught between her teeth-a sign of her unbreakable concentration.

A grin of anticipation played at the corners of her mouth. Her eyes sparkled. Her nickname wasn't Blaze for nothing.

On the dining room table, a neat row of molotovs grew. She made thirteen with rubbing alcohol and narrow mouthed mason jars. With the gasoline, she made some kind of thick, gel-like substance, which she poured into the empty alcohol bottles Kalman provided. There were eight of those, and she said they'd pack more punch. Ghost and Marlene were busy cutting a hole in the mason jar lids, through which they threaded a torn piece of cloth soaked in oil.

The sermon started soon. If we succeeded, the win would be invaluable. If not, we were fucked. Plain and simple.

The stream of men and women flooding into the lodge was an intimidating sight. I wasn't sure how a hundred and fifty people were going to fit into the building unless they packed themselves in like sardines. Then I imagined how they'd stampede each other as they tried to escape the fire and smoke. Panic killed people. They'd do some of the work for us.

The lodge was just as Kalman described, built entirely from thick wood logs. Some kind of metal made up the roof. Garbage cans contained bonfires, which were placed around the entire building to provide light. Most people came on foot, but a few drove in on bikes or in cars. The faint sound of jovial yelling drifted from within.

The four of us sat in the jeep, watching from where we'd discreetly parked at the far end of the cracked parking lot. A tight knot grew in the pit of my stomach. There was no point in denying it. I was afraid. There were four of us-four-trying to execute a plan that was more likely to get us killed than succeed.

I gripped metal pipes in my hand. Kalman gave them to me to jam the kitchen and emergency exit doors. Ghost started the jeep and slowly drove us to the front of the lodge. He stopped to let us out before he positioned the jeep to block the front entrance.

We climbed out of the car with the four boxes of molotovs. Lasko and I took our boxes to the emergency exit, which was near the back of the building. We left Blaze with the other two at the side emergency exit. Ghost climbed out the passenger side and joined her.

It was eerie outside. A calm quiet allowed me to hear my own heartbeat hammering.

Loud and rhythmic chanting filtered from inside. Beneath that came a shrill screaming filled with raw pain.

Lasko maneuvered one of the bonfire cans closer to us. Her job was to light while I threw. My palms sweated beneath my gloves.

Ghost and Blaze moved into position.

Time stood still as I opened the door, taking in the sight of all the crazies swaying in unison. They circled a man standing on top of a table, while a young naked man was tied to a pole in the center of the building, his innards flopping from his stomach. Merely twenty feet away, a wall of people had their backs to me. They surged forward, crowding around the dying man's feet, clawing at his stomach to pull organs from his body. They were rabid, like hyenas fighting over carrion.

Lasko handed me the first two molotovs. Heat emanated off the lit rags as I threw them at the floor near the crowd. Glass shattered and fire spread. Globs of it spattered the crazies. Blaze's homemade napalm stuck to their clothes and skin.

Panic surged throughout the group as the outer wall of people instinctively pressed away from the fire. Lasko handed me another two lit bombs. I threw them to my left and right, creating a wall of fire between me and the crowd.

Two gunshots rang out, but neither of them were directed near me. Chaos took hold, and people who caught on fire ran around wildly. I spared a glance inside to find Blaze throwing her molotovs, spreading more fire and smoke. Lasko handed me two more, and she clasped another two in her hands.