Each small stack was fastened with a paper clip and had notes on yellow notepad paper attached on top. What looked like pages torn out of books and a few printouts from the Internet made up the rest of the stacks along with what looked like drawings with crayons.

Travis sat down and picked up the first one.

“That’s for a concussion grenade. It would rip off the zombies’ legs, maybe their arms. If we get lucky, their heads. No fire, since fire would maybe end up burning us down,” Jason said in a rush of words.

“I have the main ingredients written out, but I’d need help finding the stuff to put them together.”

Travis reviewed the list and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I think these are doable. We may not have everything on the site, but maybe we can figure it out.”

Jason pointed to another stack. “This is for a catapult that would toss over really heavy shit. I got that from Lord of the Rings. You know, stuff we don’t use to flatten them. We’d have to make sure it was long range so they couldn’t crawl up on the stuff and try to get over the wall.”

Again, Travis had to admit it was a decent idea.

Soon Jason was talking in a torrent of words, pointing things out to Travis, getting more and more articulate as he went on. Travis found himself smiling at the boy’s enthusiasm and impressed with his ideas.

In many ways, the adults had been obsessed with just surviving and basic needs. The kids, obviously, had killing on their minds and had come up with some very good ideas.

“Jason, I think I’m going to hook you up with Roger. He used to teach science in junior high before he ended up working construction…if memory serves me.”

“Okay, cool. The other kids have ideas, too. They could definitely help out.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Travis decided.

“Cool!” Jason gathered up his stuff and started stuffing it back into the backpack. He hesitated, then looked at Travis. “Katie’s not gay.

She’s bi. You should go for it.”

Travis was surprised and a little taken aback. “What?”

“She told me not to tell anyone. I think cause she thought you’d hook it up with my Mom. But she’s with Juan and life is short and stuff so you should go for it.”

Travis rubbed his brow, bemused, then nodded. “Okay. I will.”

Jason heaved his backpack over his shoulder and headed out the door. “So you’ll let Roger know?”

“Definitely. And once we are in the newspaper building, I’ll let you kids clear out some space for your projects. You’ll have to have Roger with you whenever you are working with chemicals.”

“Cool. I can deal,” Jason opened the door and stepped out, Jack immediately at his side.

Travis leaned forward, resting his hands on his head and sighed.

Why had he been foolish enough to think that once they were in the hotel everything would be fine?

4. Enter the Empress

Katie added more water to the instant mashed potatoes she was making and stirred as vigorously as she could. The kitchen was a bustle of activity with the lunch crew working diligently to make a decent meal for those inside the fort from their supplies of boxed and canned food.

After a rigorous run on the treadmill in the very modern gym on the second floor, Katie had enjoyed a long shower before reporting to the kitchen. Rosie, Juan’s mother, ran the kitchen with the efficiency of a woman who had overlooked the high school cafeteria staff for over twenty years. Today’s lunch menu was chipped beef with mashed potatoes and green beans. Since Katie could barely make a sandwich without a recipe, she was handed the box of potato flakes and put to work.

Rosie’s great joy had been the discovery that the grocery store’s cold storage had remained cold and that some of the frozen meat could be salvaged. The delicious smell of beef cooking in rich gravy filled the kitchen and big, flaky buttermilk biscuits were being drawn out of the ovens to cool on the counters.

Gretchen, the librarian, had volunteered to make dessert. Big pans of peach cobbler were making Katie’s stomach growl with hunger.

Frowning into the bowl, Katie felt pretty sure the potatoes weren’t supposed to look so stiff and hard. She added more hot water and really began to put her muscles into stirring.

“Well, Jimmy was a klutz, but I just can’t see him falling out of the window,” Gretchen said to Stacey.

“But why would anyone push him?” Rosie asked as she began to slide the hot biscuits into a large basket for the buffet in the dining room. “I can understand that puto Ritchie being killed after what he did to all those kids, but Jimmy? He was just a little grumpy man.”

Roger carefully poured a large pan of green beans into one of the buffet tins. “He fucked up yesterday. He almost got Jenni killed.”

Katie flinched. She had been really hoping that he would keep his mouth shut.

“Really?” Rosie’s eyes grew stormy. “My Juan’s Jenni?”

“Yeah. He freaked and pushed Curtis out of the hotel room they were in. Left her in there with three zombies. That’s why she’s all banged up today. I heard she had to jump from one balcony to another to escape,” Roger answered with all the fervor of a well-practiced gossip.

And people said women were bad gossips…

Rosie’s explosion of Spanish cuss words, though not really understood, impressed Katie. She slammed the lid to one of the skillets down and waved her gravy-covered spoon about like a sword. “Then he deserved to fall out the window!”

“Maybe Juan pushed him,” Stacey said softly.

“Oh, he wouldn’t do that, would he?” Gretchen looked up from where she was spooning cobbler into little bowls.

Katie looked toward Rosie, almost afraid of her answer.

“He might punch his lights out, but I’d be the one to throw him out the damned window,” Rosie responded. Her expression was so intense Katie was pretty sure that the older woman would have shoved Jimmy out the window if she had known that his cowardice had almost killed Jenni.

Then the prosecutor side of her whispered, Well, how do you know she didn’t know? This could be an act.

“Well, maybe someone did throw him out the window then,”

Gretchen said in a soft, conspiratorial voice. “Like Ritchie was.”

“A vigilante,” Roger said to her.

“Yeah. A vigilante.” Gretchen took this in and then shook her head.

“I don’t think I like that.”

Stacey leaned across the counter, snagged a biscuit, and began to pull it apart. Rich, fragrant steam rose up from its center, making Katie even hungrier. “So we have to find the vigilante now and do what?”

“Thank him,” Rosie said irritably, “or her.”

“Or…um…put them on trial?” Gretchen continued to spoon the cobbler out.

Roger looked at Katie. “What do you think?”

“I think we need to finish lunch and not worry about all of this. Let Bill deal with finding out what happened, then we’ll go from there,”

Katie answered as neutrally as possible.

“But aren’t you worried?” Gretchen asked. “Aren’t you worried that someone is just going to start throwing anyone who upsets them over the wall?”

Katie lifted the spoon and let a huge dollop of mashed potato fall back into the bowl. “Yes. But speculation isn’t going to help Bill solve this any faster.”

“My son didn’t do it,” Rosie said firmly. “He may look guilty, but he’s just a very fiery Latino who loves his woman.”

“Oh, aren’t they cute? Juan and Jenni,” Gretchen gushed. “They’re so cute together.”

Stacey continued to eat the biscuit, piece by piece, listening intently.

Roger dumped more green beans and looked over at them. “Well, he’s the one who has the most reason to do something about Jimmy being a dumbass.”

“I’m her best friend. Maybe I did it,” Katie said pointedly.

“Crazed lesbian kills girlfriend’s almost killer,” a voice said very sarcastically from behind her. “Oh, yeah. I see that.”

Katie turned to glare at Shane. He had come in through the side door. His crew had been sent out to bring back more supplies from the grocery store freezer since the hotel freezer was now chilled. They had opened up the loading dock door on the side and were now entering the kitchen with supplies.

Rosie waved her hands at him. “Don’t go near the food. You’re all sweaty and gross.”

Shane just grinned at her. “Yeah, and we smell real funky. Had to kill more of those deadfucks.”

Rosie began to put lids over all the food and the others in the kitchen helped her.

Shane turned his gaze back to Katie, the hatred in them cold and furious. “What’s up, lesbo.”

He had hated her since she had to kill his brother after he was bitten during one of the first major fort battles against the undead. Every chance he got, he harassed her verbally. She tried to avoid him.

“Nothing, dickwad.” She moved to dump the potatoes into a serving bin.