Resurrection (Eden Book 3) by Tony Monchinski Page A

people she knew. Most of them said nothing to her. They were scared of her, of what they all knew she was capable of. MacKenzie’s wife saw her as Janis rushed to the bally-hoo, hoping to find her husband. Janis didn’t look at Red.
    “Dalton.” Red greeted the man who stood outside his cabin by a fire with his wife and four children, two of whom were deformed. Dalton reached up and touched his knit cap by way of greeting. He’d always been a quiet one.
    “Hey, Red.” The brothers, Keith and David, were standing around a fire outside their cabin. They were older men, but not as old as Thomas or Gammon. It was Keith who had called out to her, his AR slung over his back. “What do you call a deer with no eyes?”
    “No idea,” David answered.
    “What do you call a dead deer with no eyes?”
    “Still no idea.”
    Red smiled at them as she walked by.
    “Hey,” Keith asked, “if they had the chance—what would Rodriguez and Mac be doing to a dead deer with no eyes?”
    “Fucking still no idea,” replied David.
    “I think you’ll see Mac’s changed,” Red remarked as she walked by.
    “Hope so,” David said to his brother.
    The brothers were always talking some nonsense, amusing themselves. They were Red’s closest friends in the camp outside of Thomas and Tommy and Thomas’ three younger sons, outside of Gammon and Dalton.
    Thomas was their leader, but his cabin was just like everyone else’s. There was nothing ostentatious about it. Thomas was a man who led by example. He would never set himself on a pedestal, even if others did.
    Paulson was outside Thomas’ cabin. There was no need for a guard. No one could imagine hurting the old man. Thomas was much beloved. And if they tried? Well, Thomas was getting on in years, but he could still hold his own. Paulson loved the old man, and liked being around him enough that he often stationed himself outside of Thomas’ cabin.
    Red nodded at Paulson and he nodded back. She knocked on the door and when she heard Thomas say come in, she stepped inside.
    “Red. It’s good to see you back.”
    “Thomas. It’s good to be back.”
    “Come on in. Sit down.”
    The interior of the cabin was Spartan. There were few furnishings—a wooden table with three wooden chairs. A bookcase filled with books. Thomas had made these all himself. Some meat dish was cooking off in the kitchen, its delectable smell wafting throughout the cabin.
    “How’s Homer treating you?” Thomas asked her about the book he had leant her.
    Red sat down at the table across from him. “Achilles is desecrating Hector’s body.”
    “Yeah, he did go a little overboard there. He reminds me of you, you know? Achilles that is.”
    “Because we both have red hair?”
    “How’d it go out there with Mac?”
    “I think we’ve got ourselves a penitent.”
    “Well, I gotta say good job then, Amy.” Amy . Thomas was the only one to call her that. Everyone else called her Red or Lil’ Red.
    She nodded.
    “Anything out there I need to know about?”
    “We attracted twenty-five Zed.”
    “Twenty-five, huh?”
    She said yes.
    “Well, twenty-five is a lot, but it’s nothing like we used to face. You’re too young to remember, but there was a time we’d have thousands of those things wandering around.” A look came over Thomas’ face, the look that always stole over him when he was remembering the way things had been. “Millions in the cities.”
    Thomas had been around since the time before. He’d had what Little Red heard Gammon refer to on more than one occasion as “a life.” Meaning a family, a job, a home somewhere. Meaning daily routines free of the undead. Gammon’d had such as well. Since she was born, all Little Red had known was Zed. Zed and spiked cancer rates, and those of your own kind that you couldn’t depend on, or worse, that you couldn’t trust. Hence their camp, where they were safe with each another.
    “That wasn’t all, Thomas.” Little Red told him about the