though the room. To his credit, George wasted absolutely no time regaining the attention and focus of everybody.
“People, we don’t have time to talk this over. This is not some community meeting where we are going to take a vote. If you stay, you have to be willing to kill a living person. For those of you who doubt your ability to do such a thing, nobody will think less of you, and we hope that, provided we prevail, none of you who do opt to leave will think less of us who stay when you return.”
“Where the hell would we go?” a woman’s voice shouted from somewhere in the back of the room. This received more than just a little bit of voiced assent.
“Danny and a team have set up a bunker out at the old pr ocessor on Roy Weaver Road,” George announced. “There is a supply of food and water there. If nobody from here comes for you in a few days, I suggest setting out for someplace else.”
“Like where?” more than one voice quipped.
“That would be up to you, but like I said, we don’t have a lot of time to talk. If you are leaving, grab your stuff and get moving. Everybody else meet up at the armory. We need to be in place within the hour.” George stepped down and headed for the rear exit from the gym. He grabbed Selina by the hand as he did so leaving a room that was abuzz with a hundred conversations.
She followed him, but she was almost as lost as everybody else. Once they got outside, the big man turned to face her. “Jody knows you will stay, but he asked me to convince you othe rwise.”
“Tell him you failed,” Selina snapped, jerking her hand away from his.
“Just hear me out.” George held up his hands like he expected her to take a swing at him. “He wants you to take Kat and go. He said that if it is bad, he promises to fall back and come for you. But he wants you to grab your packs—that includes his and Danny’s—and go.”
“So you guys have known about this for how long?”
“Last night, actually,” George said with a shrug. “Danny had the tower watch on the west side and thought he saw a glow. He left at first light to see what was going on. He promised to signal Jody if there was a problem. And before you ask, the reason we didn’t come out and just tell everybody is because both Jody and Danny wanted it that way. They said that if people spent all their time worrying about something that may or may not happen, it would have us so fatigued that we would be easy pickings.”
“What a bunch of crap!” Selina snapped.
“Really?” George asked with a raised eyebrow. “So the six other times we have sent somebody to investigate something in the past three weeks…are you saying we should have told everybody and got the community all worked up over what proved to be nothing?”
“Six?”
“See what I mean?” George pointed at her and her visible emotional outburst. “Now imagine everybody here in town waiting around all day while we sent teams to investigate. How much work do you imagine would have gotten done?”
Selina opened her mouth to argue, but she found that she could not think of a single rebuttal. With a sigh, she dropped her head and muttered that she would do as she had been asked.
George turned to walk away, but Selina grabbed his arm. “One thing before you go. When you see Jody? Tell him we will discuss this decision of his, so he better not die or I am really gonna be pissed.”
“I’ll be sure to pass that on,” George said with the straightest face he could muster.
5
Geek Warrior
“That can’t be good,” Catie hissed as she and Kevin moved through the front yards in a double back to the church.
As they came within about five or six houses from the co nflagration, they saw a flurry of activity. The gang that had only moments before been engaged in all manner of carnal recreation were now scrambling for weapons. Kevin only took a moment to appreciate that each of the women were pulling an
“People, we don’t have time to talk this over. This is not some community meeting where we are going to take a vote. If you stay, you have to be willing to kill a living person. For those of you who doubt your ability to do such a thing, nobody will think less of you, and we hope that, provided we prevail, none of you who do opt to leave will think less of us who stay when you return.”
“Where the hell would we go?” a woman’s voice shouted from somewhere in the back of the room. This received more than just a little bit of voiced assent.
“Danny and a team have set up a bunker out at the old pr ocessor on Roy Weaver Road,” George announced. “There is a supply of food and water there. If nobody from here comes for you in a few days, I suggest setting out for someplace else.”
“Like where?” more than one voice quipped.
“That would be up to you, but like I said, we don’t have a lot of time to talk. If you are leaving, grab your stuff and get moving. Everybody else meet up at the armory. We need to be in place within the hour.” George stepped down and headed for the rear exit from the gym. He grabbed Selina by the hand as he did so leaving a room that was abuzz with a hundred conversations.
She followed him, but she was almost as lost as everybody else. Once they got outside, the big man turned to face her. “Jody knows you will stay, but he asked me to convince you othe rwise.”
“Tell him you failed,” Selina snapped, jerking her hand away from his.
“Just hear me out.” George held up his hands like he expected her to take a swing at him. “He wants you to take Kat and go. He said that if it is bad, he promises to fall back and come for you. But he wants you to grab your packs—that includes his and Danny’s—and go.”
“So you guys have known about this for how long?”
“Last night, actually,” George said with a shrug. “Danny had the tower watch on the west side and thought he saw a glow. He left at first light to see what was going on. He promised to signal Jody if there was a problem. And before you ask, the reason we didn’t come out and just tell everybody is because both Jody and Danny wanted it that way. They said that if people spent all their time worrying about something that may or may not happen, it would have us so fatigued that we would be easy pickings.”
“What a bunch of crap!” Selina snapped.
“Really?” George asked with a raised eyebrow. “So the six other times we have sent somebody to investigate something in the past three weeks…are you saying we should have told everybody and got the community all worked up over what proved to be nothing?”
“Six?”
“See what I mean?” George pointed at her and her visible emotional outburst. “Now imagine everybody here in town waiting around all day while we sent teams to investigate. How much work do you imagine would have gotten done?”
Selina opened her mouth to argue, but she found that she could not think of a single rebuttal. With a sigh, she dropped her head and muttered that she would do as she had been asked.
George turned to walk away, but Selina grabbed his arm. “One thing before you go. When you see Jody? Tell him we will discuss this decision of his, so he better not die or I am really gonna be pissed.”
“I’ll be sure to pass that on,” George said with the straightest face he could muster.
5
Geek Warrior
“That can’t be good,” Catie hissed as she and Kevin moved through the front yards in a double back to the church.
As they came within about five or six houses from the co nflagration, they saw a flurry of activity. The gang that had only moments before been engaged in all manner of carnal recreation were now scrambling for weapons. Kevin only took a moment to appreciate that each of the women were pulling an
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