The tour of Walton ended where it had begun, inside the welcoming office of the Governor. Once they were safely away from the unknowing population, Kevin decided to ask his questions.

"You care to tell me what's wrong here?" Kevin suggested.

"I beg your pardon?" Clark asked as if totally unaware of what Kevin was talking about.

"You clearly know more than you're telling, and your wall guards are in a heightened state of alertness," Kevin pointed out. "I used to be a cop, so I can usually tell when someone's hiding information. What aren't you telling us?"

The Governor sighed. "I suppose you might as well know."

"Sir," the guard who had been following them since they crossed the wall cautioned his superior.

"It's alright," Clark assured him. He waved toward the chairs positioned in front of his desk. "Please be seated."

Kevin, George, and Isabella took the offered chairs. A mixture of anticipation and unease filled the air. They wanted to know what the Governor was going to tell them, but they were hesitant to hear what was probably ill news.

"We occasionally send out scouts, people who travel the lands like you, and they report back to us the condition of the world in exchange for a rest stop here. One of our best, Brennan Cobb, was checking on a sizable zombie horde a few miles from here when he was surrounded. You have to understand, this is a man who is extremely good at getting away from the undead."

"I'm assuming by your knowing he was surrounded by zombies, you've heard from him since," Kevin guessed.

"Yes," Clark confirmed. "He was rescued and taken to the city of Sanctuary."

"I've never heard of it," Kevin stated.

"None of us had either until a message came through," Clark agreed. "Another of our scouts used a messenger bird to send us reports on the presence and movements of the undead and scavengers, alerting us to potential threats. He was also rescued by the people of Sanctuary, and since then, the residents have trained more birds to send us information on a more regular basis."

"Did they put up a wall like Walton?" Isabella asked.

"No," Clark denied. "They had an explosives expert blast out the lower portion of the stairways in some downtown buildings, cutting them off from street level. They've started gardens and trees to supply their food. They even waterproofed several floors and flooded them to create massive fish tanks."

"Incredible," Kevin said in astonishment.

"This sounds like good news," George spoke up. "Why are your guards on high alert?"

"The most recent reports of our scouts from Sanctuary point to a disturbing occurrence," Clark explained. "The zombies not camped outside Sanctuary are combining into hordes of incredible size."

"What size are we talking about here?" Kevin wanted to know. "Hundreds? Thousands?"

"From the reports we're getting, millions," Clark answered softly.

The room fell deathly quiet. No one moved or spoke, and it seemed as if even their breathing had been stilled. George found his voice first.

"Millions?" he said, desperately wishing what he'd heard had been in error.

"They seem to be getting larger every day," Clark confirmed.

"Larger?" Isabella repeated. "How? Where are they coming from?"

"Everywhere, apparently," Clark replied. "The undead search randomly for food in all directions, but once a city or area has been picked clean, they spread outward. When two or more zombie groups meet, they change direction, similar to the joining of two rivers. The zombies don't go into the territory already cleared by another undead horde, and in so doing, they are working together to slowly empty the lands of the living. Eventually, every zombie group will combine into a single mass, stretching across the world and bringing death and undeath to every last human being."

"Who knows about this?" Kevin asked.

"Myself and the guards," Clark replied. "No one else has all the information on the undead like we do, and we're keeping it quiet as best we can."

"Are you going to tell your citizens?" Isabella questioned.

"Tell them? Why should we tell them?" Clark asked in confusion. "We're not going to fight the undead when they arrive."

"What?" Kevin asked in horrified disbelief.

"Calm yourself," Clark advised. "We're not going to lay down and let ourselves become lunch. During the founding of Sanctuary, the people there noticed when zombies are killed in large numbers, the bodies pile up, and the undead can climb the pile to reach higher than they normally could. If we start killing zombies by the thousands outside our wall, they could easily pile up and create a corpse ramp, bypassing our fortifications. Sanctuary's warning has allowed us to spread the word among our guards and avoid this potentially disastrous situation."

"Good," Kevin praised. "But, it still doesn't explain your alert status."

"Our wall can keep the zombies out," Clark said. "Our concern at the present time is the scavengers."

"Have you had encounters with them before?" Isabella queried.

"We've traded shots with them, but they've never pressed a full attack against us," Clark informed the group. "There are less fortified targets available for them to pillage, so they tend to test our strength and back off when they see we're still prepared to fend them off. However, if they discover what we have, they may decide to throw their full strength against us in an attempt to take the city before the zombies arrive. We need to hold the line until the undead surround the city; afterwards, they'll be too thick for the scavengers to get near us."

"How strange," Kevin observed. "We've been fighting and building defenses against the undead, but you're going to use them as a defense."

"It is strange," Clark agreed. His brow furrowed as he contemplated an unpleasant thought. "Since you are now aware of our plan to allow the zombies to surround us, I'm sure you can also understand that once it occurs, no one will be able to enter or leave the city. Due to our confined area and limited resources, we can't support anyone beyond our current population."

"We're being evicted," Kevin reasoned.

"Unfortunately, yes," Clark confirmed. "A room is available here for the duration of your stay, but since we are expecting a mass zombie horde, I would recommend a short visit."

***

The stars sparkled peacefully outside the window, but Kevin ignored them, staring blindly at the ceiling. He repeated the conversation with the Governor over and over in his mind. The largest concentration of living corpses was sweeping across the world, and he was about to be evicted from the one safe zone he'd found. Trained to deal with emergency situations, he felt his experience coming up short in coping with his current problem. Glancing across the room, he looked toward the priest.

"George?" Kevin whispered. "You awake?"

"Who can sleep after what we heard?" George muttered in the darkness. "We have to get out, but if the world is buried in walking corpses, where does it leave us?"

"There has to be an alternative," Kevin insisted, unwilling to give up and die.

George rolled over to look toward Kevin's half of the room, propping himself up on one elbow, but without the lights on, he had a hard time seeing Kevin as the former police officer's dark skin made him practically invisible.

"We can't exactly build a fortress wall as they did here, and we don't have the manpower or weapons to organize any kind of military," George pointed out. "Standing and fighting isn't an option. Running delays the inevitable but doesn't escape it. The cities are overrun, so we can't secure one like Sanctuary did. What does that leave us?"

Kevin jumped off his bunk and stood up. The tiniest sliver of an idea had traced through his mind, and he began pacing while concentrating on it, nailing it down in his thoughts before it could escape.

"You said we couldn't take over a city like Sanctuary," Kevin stated. "But, we can do something similar somewhere else."

"Where exactly?" George asked.

"The zombies can't do much with their hands and fingers in terms of climbing," Kevin pointed out. "What about the Grand Canyon? We could cross by a zipline to the other side, but the zombies couldn't comprehend it and would simply fall to the bottom."

"Sounds good, but what about the zombies coming in from the west coast?" George asked.

Kevin's hopes sank as he realized the flaw in his plan. His shoulders slumped and he released a defeated sigh.

"It's still a good idea about being out of reach," George complimented. "What other choices are there?"

"Mountain climbing comes to mind," Kevin told him. "They couldn't scale the cliffs behind us, but it would make it difficult to grow food."

"What about a place that has its own food supply?" George suggested.

"What do you mean?" Kevin asked.

"Years ago, I heard about a research station being dropped onto a jungle," George reported. "It resembled a wheel with an outer circle and spokes at evenly spaced intervals. The framework was filled with air, similar to an inflatable raft. Between the spokes and rim was stretched a mesh covering, allowing sunlight and water to pass through to the trees while keeping the scientists from falling to the ground."

"Where is it?" Kevin asked eagerly.

"I don't know," George answered regretfully. "Even if I did, I'm not sure it would still be in operation after all this time. What we need is a new one, and we would deploy it ourselves."

"I'm not sure where we would even look to find such a thing," Kevin admitted. "On the other hand, we don't actually need a real one. We only need the basic parts to make something similar. A large cargo net could be draped over the trees as a foundation layer to keep people from falling through."

"A framework around the edges would hold it together," George added. "It would need to be strong enough to hold the net up and prevent it from slipping off the trees where it's positioned. It should be heavy enough so as to not blow away in high winds but sufficiently light so it doesn't break the tree branches it's resting on."

"I had a friend in the military, and he he told me about a base somewhere around here," Kevin explained. "It was abandoned after a zombie outbreak. If the zombies have either been killed by Walton's defenders over the years, or simply moved on, the base could be relatively empty and have what we need."

"The Governor might have maps of the area," George suggested. "Perhaps he can point us in the right direction."

"Good idea," Kevin agreed, heading for the door.

"You might want to wait until morning," George put forward. "The Governor may be more willing to help if you didn't wake him in the middle of the night. Besides, with what we're planning, we need to be well rested and refreshed. Exhaustion could kill us just as easily as the undead."

Kevin released the door knob, returned to his bunk, and collapsed on the firm but comfortable mattress. Having something to work on in the morning relaxed his mind and eased the tensions of his muscles, allowing him to sleep.

***

Morning came with a great excitement. Soldiers raced through the hallways of the government building, their pounding boots waking the three visitors and bringing them to their doors to see what had caused the commotion.

Clark hurried past them, surrounded by ten of his soldiers. He looked too busy to bother him with questions, so Kevin, George, and Isabella swiftly collected their things and rushed to follow him.

The Governor and his escorting soldiers climbed on one of the mobile wall ramps, and the crane operator lifted them high into the sky. Lacking similar transportation, the three visitors to Walton clambered up the stairs on the back of the inner wall to see if they could catch a glimpse of what Clark was looking for. When they saw it, they immediately wished they hadn't.

From the norther horizon to the southern, as far as anyone could see, the zombies approached. They weren't a unified mass, and they shambled forward at different speeds, but there was no end of their numbers in sight.

Kevin swallowed hard. Thousands upon thousands of walking corpses would soon be upon them. He knew when they reached the city, they would spread out along the wall, cutting off any chance of escape.

"We need to leave, now," he told his companions as he started to climb down from the wall. No matter how he tried to suppress it, a thought in the back of his mind kept telling him it was already too late.