Free Zomblog 05: Snoe's War by T. W. Brown Page A

looking for.
    I grabbed my map and walked in to the tent where the latest meeting was taking place. There were a lot more people in favor of banding together and dealing with this threat now that it looked like Dominique was escalating the action.
    The most vocal in opposition was Greg and Ginger. I didn’t know what their deal was, but they were really starting to annoy me. After all, how much clearer did things really need to be?
    I waited for my chance to speak and stepped up to be recognized. Ethan waved me forward and I climbed up onto the little makeshift stage beside him with my map.
    “We need to relocate our meeting or we are all going to be captured or killed.” I probably could have opened with something less dramatic.
    I held up the map and explained that Dominique’s forces where spiraling out from Warehouse City. They didn’t seem to actually know where the tribes were located, they were simply discovering them—most likely with a small team of scouts—and acting accordingly. My guess was that tribes were located and scouted, and then this Major Carson would decide on the size of the force needed to go in and do the job.
    I was able to show what—at least to me—looked like a very obvious spiral that would eventually reach us. And if my guess was correct, the scouts would discover us very soon…if they hadn’t already.
    That seemed to get everybody’s attention. A new round of shouting and arguing began. I was not in the mood to hang around for it. I didn’t understand what there was to discuss. It was clear to me what was happening. I was not going to just sit and wait for those people to storm in here and take us. I had a feeling that, as bad as my first experience with Dominique had been, getting captured would be a death sentence for me.
    I went to the little tent that I was sharing with Bob and Felicia. If I had to act alone, then so be it. I was sick of waiting…sick of talking…and sick of hearing people talk. My mother, Mama Lindsay was dead along with my friend Phaedra and so many other people that I knew. If I was going to die, it would be doing something…not talking about doing something.
    I had all my stuff, not that there was much, loaded into my little knapsack. I had a machete that Bob had given me and a nifty set of throwing knives from Mary. I would have loved to have a crossbow, but nobody was giving theirs up and since these people were all away from their homes, it wasn’t like anybody was carrying spares.
    I turned to leave and found myself almost colliding with that creepy guy who I first met during the torture of that one NAA soldier. I hadn’t heard him come in, so I had to wonder how long he had been standing there. The fact that he made no move to step one way or the other when I practically ran into him was a bit annoying. I waited for a moment to see if he would move out from blocking the exit. When he didn’t, I scowled at him and moved to the left. He moved with me.
    “Going someplace, Miss Gainey?” he asked in a voice that made think that, if a snake could talk, this is what it would sound like .
    “It really isn’t any of your business,” I snapped and moved to the right.
    He moved with me again, blocking my path. “Actually, it is. You see, I am one of the people responsible for the safety and security of the tribes in this region. It seems that your presence is something that this President DuBois requires. I have been assured that if I can somehow make that happen, that the tribes in this area will be left unharmed.”
    “And you think that anything she says is true? You think that if she has me she will just decide that whatever reason she holds for doing what she has been doing will magically go away?” I retorted.
    I was doing a couple of things. First, I was stalling. All I needed was anybody to show up and this would be over and done before whatever plan was swirling around in this man’s mind could be enacted. Second, I had a sneaking