Free Where the Dead Men Lie by James Harden Page B

to walk sideways through most doors.
    I could see why the priest had to shoot him with a shotgun to get him to cooperate. And why the blast from the shotgun seemed to have only left minor injuries.
    I wondered if Kenji or Daniel would be able to stop him if he decided to turn violent against us. I had a feeling that we’d be helpless, even if we all jumped on him at the same time.
    The stranger knelt down beside the body of the woman. Even when he knelt down, he was still as tall as me.
    "Oh man," Jack said. "I think that’s the woman from earlier."
    The stranger had his head lowered. He then closed the woman’s eyes.
    "Did you know her?" I asked.
    He didn’t answer.
    "Wait. Were you part of her scavenger team or whatever? Do you know about the Fortress?"
    We were all silent, waiting for an answer. But he continued to kneel over the woman, his head lowered, like he was saying a prayer.
    After awhile, Maria spoke up. "What the hell? Why are they keeping her down here?"
    "Yeah why can’t they leave her outside?" Jack said. "Or even better, why can’t they bury her?"
    I was starting to feel more and more uneasy. Maybe we should’ve made a stand against these people instead of laying down our weapons. Maybe Jack was right after all.
    I noticed the stranger had a smile on his lips.
    "Why are you smiling? You think this is funny?"
    "Yeah, I do."
    "What? Why?"
    "Whenever we left the safety of the Fortress she would always say, ‘she had a bad feeling about this scavenger hunt’. But we always made it back. Sure we had some close calls. But nothing bad ever went down. Well, not until tonight. Funny thing was she didn’t say it this time. I made fun of her, told her she had jinxed the group."
    "So you were part of her scavenger team?"
    "Yeah."
    "So that means you know about the Fortress?" Daniel asked.
    He stood up and eyed Daniel suspiciously. "How do you people know about that?"
    "We found her earlier," Daniel answered. "Or rather, she found us. She had been bitten."
    He nodded. "Doesn’t surprise me. We were in pretty deep when we got separated."
    "She told us what had happened. She told us about the Fortress and that it was the only safe place left. And that we would never find it."
    "That about sums it up."
    "Why?" Kenji asked "Why would we never find it?"
    "It’s hidden. It was designed never to be found."
    "So how did you find it?"
    "I got lucky."
    "What do you mean? You just stumbled across it?"
    "Yeah, sort of."
    "What the hell were you doing out in the desert anyway?"
    "I grew up out here. Spent most of my younger years working as a drover."
    "Drover?" Kenji asked.
    "Yeah, you know, herding cattle. I worked out on the bigger properties. The ones out in the middle of nowhere, bigger than some European countries. But that was a long time ago."
    "So you came out here to get away from the virus and the infected?" Daniel asked.
    "Yeah. I was in Melbourne when the virus first appeared. I was stupid enough to stay there right up until they started dropping the firebombs. But when things got real bad, when they started herding people like cattle, killing people like cattle, I got the hell out."
    "Is it true?" Kenji asked. "Did they really drop a nuclear bomb on Melbourne?"
    "I don’t know. I got out before that happened. Wouldn’t be talking to you right now if I didn’t."
    He had a good point.
    "So, you’ve just been wandering around out here all by yourself?" Daniel asked.
    "Yeah, pretty much."
    "How the hell have you survived out here on your own?"
    "Like I said, I grew up out here. But I’m not gonna lie, this is a hard place. Hard to find food, even harder to find water. But that’s why it’s the perfect place to hide. It’s kind of a double edged sword. I was struggling, but I was doing OK. Until the dust storm hit a couple of weeks ago. That’s when things started to get real interesting."
    "Interesting?"
    "Yeah. Let’s just say, the infected ain’t the only things that goes bump in the night. Not