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 an occasional rest stop here. One of our best, Brennan Cobb, was checking on a sizable zombie horde a few miles from here. From his descriptions, it's larger than anything previously seen. It was three weeks ago, and we haven't heard from him since. We can only assume he's dead. You have to understand, this was a man who was extremely good at getting away from the undead. If he didn't make it, the situation is worse than anyone could possibly imagine."

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

"From what Brennan saw, 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.

"It's getting larger every day," Clark confirmed.

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

"Everywhere, apparently," Clark replied. "After having our scouts study the undead for a time, we've discovered patterns in their behavior. They 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 quite as best we can."

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

"Tell them? Tell them what?" Clark shouted. "Would you have me announce the world is doomed? No matter how far or fast they run, the undead tide will catch up with them. No matter how many weapons or guns they have, the undead are too many and will overwhelm them. Do you realize the effect such news would have, everything from sheer panic to mass suicide?"

"What are you going to do?" George inquired.

"Nothing," Clark answered. "The war is already over, and humanity lost. The only chance we had of winning involved killing the zombies while they were still few in number. Now, they outnumber us, and we don't have the armies or industries to combat them any longer. It's over. We can hide behind our walls but not much else. If the walls fail to stop them, Walton is doomed, just like the rest of the world."

"What about arming the population?" Kevin suggested.

"The majority of the civilians have been isolated here since before the undead started showing up," Clark pointed out. "They've never seen a zombie, never had to watch someone they care about become a flesh eating corpse, and never had to worry about being eaten alive. What you would give for a single night's sleep without nightmares of what you've seen?"

No one spoke as they considered the question carefully. Kevin, George, and Isabella would give almost anything to have the old days back again; although not perfect by any standard, it was still better than what they had now.

"Exactly," Clark said, taking their silence as an answer. He sat down behind his desk and sighed heavily. "These people have peace and can sleep at night without being troubled by the horrors of the outside world. If we run, they'll die. If Walton falls, they'll still die, but at least they shall have peace for a few days longer. If the choice was yours, would you want to know such a terrible end was your destiny, or would you want those days of carefree happiness?"

"I won't say anything," Kevin promised. Although they remained silent, George and Isabella nodded their agreement.

"A room is available here for the duration of your stay," Clark said. A weariness hung on his every word.

***

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. He couldn't come to grips with the world being over and humans on a certain path to extinction. Trained to deal with emergency situations, he felt his experience coming up short in coping with his current problem. He couldn't find a solution to save the world when it was already lost. 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.

"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. What else is there? Zombies can go pretty much anywhere we can."

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 they could go pretty much where we can," Kevin stated. "But, they can't go everywhere. The solution to survival isn't heavier walls or more guns. We need to go beyond the reach of the undead."

"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 light enough 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 do to a zombie outbreak. If the zombies have either been killed by Walton's defenders over the years, or simply moved on, the base might have what we need and be fairly safe from undead and scavengers."

"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 door to see what had caused the commotion.

Clark hurried past them, surrounded by ten of his soldiers. He looked to 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.