Emma: Part One (Outpost Nine Book 1) (4 page)

"You recharge the batteries yourself?" Max was already walking toward the battery station.

"Yes," Emma said, hurrying to catch up with him. Jack was fast on her heels. "I have a solar and wind turbine setup. Some of the power is routed into the house and other buildings for my lights, hot water, communication equipment and stove. A lot of it goes into the fence. Whatever is left over goes into the battery bank. I keep a week's worth of power stored there plus a bit more, just to be safe."

"That's smart," Max murmured as he examined the smaller battery station. He caught her gaze and asked, "What's the plan if the power fails?"

Emma's face hardened. "Remember the Alamo, I guess."

Max's jaw slackened with shock. "You're one woman. How in the world can you defend yourself against a zombie onslaught?"

She smiled sadly. "I'm fully aware of my limitations, Max. The house is on stilts. I have enough ammo stockpiled to fight through a few days at least. There's not much else I can do out here."

Max swore and turned away from them. Jack sensed the rage boiling beneath Max's exterior. It wasn't directed at Emma, but at the human family who had failed to adequately protect her. Instead of filling her head with conspiracies and fears, they should have encouraged her to seek help and support in one of the settlements should anything happen to them. That she had survived this long was a miracle and testament to her tenacity.

"When we get to your house, will you allow Max and me to shore up your defenses and check your stockpile?"

"Sure." She glanced toward the trees again. "And if those monsters try to jump my fence, you have my permission to do whatever it takes to get rid of them. Just don't set my land on fire. It's not like I can call in the fire department. Hell," she said with a soft laugh, "I've never even seen a fire truck in real life, only in books."

Jack was taken aback by her statement. She really had lived a sheltered life. Yet she seemed so incredibly worldly. It was strange. "You were well-educated."

"Yes. My grandparents were academics. They home-schooled my parents and my parents home-schooled me." Emma motioned forward with her hoe, and they started walking again. "I had a very hands-on education. I'm sort of a Jackie-of-all-trades."

"And if you were a part of the larger, mainstream society, what vocation would you enjoy?" Jack hoped that by chatting her up and gaining information he and Max could find a way to convince her to come with them. If she had a needed skill, it would be easy to offer her a position on the Outpost. Working would make the transition to life inside the wire easier for her.

"I don't know. Engineer, I guess," she said finally. "I'm good with my hands. I maintain all the turbines, solar panels, batteries and more out here. I also do some mechanic work in trade for necessities."

"Trade?" Max moved closer. "What kind of trades?"

"Oh, you know, stuff I can't grow or make myself. Flour, yeast, sugar, salt, spices. Sometimes beef. I trade battery recharges for things."

Max seemed interested. "How do you find these traders?"

"They're old friends of the family. We arrange meet-ups via the Chain. My farm is a usual stop on their route. They prefer the safety of the farm to the open road at night."

"Understandable," Jack replied. "We were caught unaware on the 277. I'd never seen anything like it."

Emma stopped in her tracks and spun to face them. "You ran all the way from 277?"

Max nodded. "Once we hit that IED, our truck was trashed. It was run or die."

"But that's over thirty miles from here."

"Yes," Jack confirmed.

"And you ran the whole way with zombies on your ass?" She looked incredulous. "No wonder the two of you were moving so slowly across that field! I just thought you were, like, the lazy models of cyborgs."

Max's face pinched with annoyance, but Jack just laughed. "No, Emma, we're not the lazy models."

She grinned. "Good to know. I mean, ol’ Max here is promising to defend me from the zombies all night. I'd hate for him to fall asleep on the job."

"I would never sleep through a night watch!" Max's ire was evident. He didn't take jokes very well.

Emma rolled her eyes and patted his arm. "Calm down, big guy. I'm just playing with you."

Max's temperament shifted from annoyance to interest. "I would like to play with you."

Emma thumped him with her fist. "Not like that."

Max shrugged and rubbed the spot she'd punched. "We'll see."

She shook her head and started walking again. They fell in step with her and ambled along in silence for a while. Eventually, Emma broke the quiet. "They're changing again."

Jack didn’t understand her at first, and Max shot him a questioning gaze. He noticed Emma looked at the trees. "You mean the zombies?"

She nodded. "There have been reports up and down the Chain. Some people think they're being trained."

"What? Like dogs?" Max asked.

"Maybe," she said uncertainly. "We've noticed they're not transforming the same way. It used to take a week for the virus to completely ravage the brain. Now it's taking days. They seem to be retaining more of their critical thinking abilities."

"Max and I were surprised by their tactics," Jack admitted. "We've been ambushed by zombies before in convoys and the like, but this was different."

"My friend, Avery, travels in a medical convoy with her family. They ran into trouble on the same highway you did. I'd bet it's the same group of zombies." Emma swung the hoe side to side in front of her, cutting down the grass. "I just don't know why. They're aggressive and nasty but they're not smart. And that's a smart thing to do, right?" She glanced at both of them. "I mean, lying in wait and then attacking like that? Using IEDs."

"Yes," Jack agreed. "It's very smart. Too smart for zombies. We considered the possibility that they’re being used by humans."

"Why does your Chain think they're being trained?" Max rubbed his jaw and drew Jack's attention. Had Max sustained an injury in the rollover?

"The Keatons ran across this abandoned camp when they were on one of their scavenging runs. They found some rotting zombies wearing collars."

"Collars?" Now Jack's interest was piqued. "What kind of collars?"

"Shock collars, apparently," Emma said. "Not long after that, I started hearing about these focused attacks. I mean, zombies tend to behave in very primal ways. They hunt. They attack. They eat. End of story. They don't set up roadblocks or separate and conquer their victims. They just chase, lunge, bite and eat."

Max made a low noise. "Have there been a lot of these attacks?"

"A dozen, maybe?" She gave an apologetic frown. "I don't know the exact numbers. You're welcome to check my logs when we get home."

Jack smiled at her thoroughness. "You keep logs?"

"I like to keep track of information." Her gaze hopped back to the fence and a rock painted a fading shade of red. "And that's that," she said with a loud, relieved sigh. "That's where I started my fence check and this is where it ends."

"Home now?" Max asked, his need for rest obvious to Jack.

Emma reached out and stroked Max's arm. "You look awful. It's not that far to my house. I'd offer you a piggyback ride, but I think you'd probably snap my spine."

Max laughed and winked at her. "Well, you know, I
am
a lazy cyborg."

Jack grinned at the interaction between the pair. The foundation for building a relationship had started to form. Emma's mistrust seemed to be fading. Now, if only Max could learn to control that big mouth of his, they would be home free.

"Come on. This way." Emma waved her hand. "It's not a long walk."

Jack motioned for Max to take up a position beside Emma. He waited until they were a few feet ahead to turn back toward the trees. He lifted two fingers to his eyes and then pointed at the woods. Whether those zombies were smart enough to get the message, he didn't know. If they were smart, they would know better than to attempt to scale that fence and attack Emma. Two cyborgs in a defendable position would be impossible for them to beat.

His message sent, Jack pivoted on his heel and followed Max and Emma back to her home. When the house came into view, he was surprised. The cabin-style home stood on eight metal poles and had to be thirty feet off the ground. A screened porch lined the front. Solar panels covered the roof. Off to the right, there stood a smaller structure on the ground, maybe one room at most. On the left side of the house, he spotted a chicken coop and some covered animal pens housing goats. There was a storage shed, too. He noticed none of the buildings were close enough to the house to allow a zombie to climb atop them and jump to the house.

"This must have taken years to build." Jack stared up at the structures in awe. "How in the hell did your family build this without heavy equipment?"

"Way before my time," Emma replied. "Papaw left notes though. I think they did some kind of trade with one of your cyborg construction crews that was on the way to San Antonio to rebuild the base there."

"You always leave your ladder down?" Max gave the rope and wood ladder a playful whack. "That's kind of an invite for zombies, don't you think?"

"Ha ha," she sarcastically said. "I leave it down when I'm out during the day. At night, it goes up and inside the house." She pointed to the building off to the right. "That's the bathroom. It's built camp-style with stalls and is separated for privacy. I'm heading up to start dinner, so you don't have to worry about me walking in and seeing anything. The water's safe to drink too. I have my own well."

When she started to climb the ladder, Jack reached out to stop her. "Give us your backpack and weapons. The hoe, too. We'll carry that up for you when we're done."

Emma frowned. "I climb this ladder with all my gear every day. It's not a big deal."

"Humor me," Jack replied.

With an annoyed sigh, Emma handed over the hoe and removed her rifle and shotgun. She slipped out of the backpack and placed it in Max's arms. "What in the hell do you have in here? Bricks?"

She shrugged. "Ammo. Water. Food. Flares. Tools." She glanced at Jack. "May I go upstairs now, Mother?"

He narrowed his eyes and flicked his head. "Go."

Chuckling, she climbed the ladder like a spider and entered her home through a hatch in the floor. Jack watched her disappear before stowing her gear against one of the metal supports for the house. Max dropped her backpack nearby.

Wordlessly, they made their way to the bathroom. Along their way, they discovered a modest garden teeming with early fall produce. There was also a compost pile and some fruit trees. All of the trees were bare at the moment but looked healthy. He got a good look at the wind turbines and shielded battery bank, too. Everything seemed so well-maintained and neat.

"She has a nice setup," Jack remarked as they entered the immaculately clean bathroom. He was relieved to see running water and tiled shower stalls as well as toilets. He had been afraid this was going to resemble some of those primitive privies they had been forced to use during the height of the Last War.

Max grunted in agreement as he started to strip out of his clothing. "It's a nice place, but it's not safe, Jack. She's going to get killed out here."

"What do want to do, Max?" Jack lowered his voice as his temper flared. He didn't want Emma to hear them arguing. "We can't just knock her out and steal her."

"Why not?" Max looked totally serious. "Our mission is to protect humans, isn't it? Taking her with us serves that mission. I have tranquilizers in my med kit. Half of one of those in her drink tonight and she'd be off to sleep in twenty minutes."

"She'll hate us, Max." Jack understood his friend's desire to protect Emma, even if that meant doing something as ugly as kidnapping her. "I've seen the way you look at her. I know you're attracted to her the same way that I am. I don't want her to hate us, Max."

"I don’t either," Max admitted gruffly. "But I'll be damned if I'm returning to the Outpost without her. She's too small and sweet to abandon here. Those zombies in the woods will probably wait for us to leave before they strike. I can't do it, Jack. I won't leave her."

Jack exhaled roughly. Max made a good case. Emma needed to be removed to safety, but it had to be done right. "You heard her, Max. She wants to make her own choices."

"How do we get her to choose us?" Max shook his head. "I've been playing it a thousand ways in my head. All I can come up with is seduction."

"It's a good plan. She's been alone out here for four years. She probably craves the touch of another person. If we can show her how good it can be with us, maybe we can convince her to come back to the Outpost. We'll offer her a trial run on a relationship."

Max rubbed his jaw again and winced. "And what about the paperwork? We can't bring her on base without signing union papers. The law is the law. The general won’t allow us to break it simply because we’re officers.”

Jack's mouth settled into a grim line. "I don't know, Max. If we don't tell her the truth, we risk her resenting us for making the decision for her."

"And if we do tell her, she might be too scared to commit."

"Your jaw okay?" Jack asked as he considered their quandary.

"What? Oh. Yeah. It's fine. Just sore. Definitely not broken. My medical chip read negative after the crash." He frowned and touched his temple. "I'm still having problems with interference, though."

"It's all the electricity she's producing. It's not well-insulated like we're used to," Jack explained. He reached out and grazed Max's jaw, his touch light and comforting. Even though he and Max had been together for decades, his love for the other man hadn't faded any. Today, when they had been fighting for their lives, Jack had buried his emotions and allowed the implants in his brain to normalize his feelings. Emotions like love were dangerous on the battlefield.

But now, out here alone together and safe, Jack could indulge in those feelings. He hauled Max close and slid his hand around the back of the other man's neck. Jack pressed his cheek to Max's. "I'm glad you're all right."