Adam would have liked to run in the opposite direction before being spotted, but the undead were already headed down the road in his direction, so he'd been detected immediately. Grunts and moans erupted from the corpses as their decayed organs and barely functioning minds tried to sound out words and alert the others to having found food.

Adjusting his pack to a better position, Adam turned around and sprinted away from the slow moving zombies. He was grateful he hadn't used up his energy earlier in the day when he'd left the military base as he'd have none left for the return.

His strong boots thudded against the old and untended asphalt of the street while his mind considered different options.

Going around a zombie group of such massive size would be impossible. Narrowed by the four lane road, the zombies had been compressed down into a roughly rectangular formation. Some of them had spilled over the edges of the road into the tangled trees and shrubs of the adjacent woods, but most stayed contained.

Even if Adam managed to get around the leading elements, the length of the zombie horde was so great, the tail end could swing around and trap him. He'd be cornered with no chance to escape, no matter how fast he ran.

East and west were available, but Adam's thoughts kept turning back to what the cop had told him. Walton, a fortified city in the east had been overrun, so a mass zombie force was coming from that direction as well. If these mass hordes were coming in from the north and east at about the same time, it stood to reason the south and west zombies were probably not too far behind.

The cop had said the undead would join together and converge on the last remnants of the living. It looked as though Adam was going to get to see it firsthand. He smiled humorlessly. The death he'd been expecting had arrived.

Adam knew running back to the military base with the zombies in tow would surely lead to a conflict between the horde and survivors. Considering the numbers of undead he'd witnessed a moment ago, it was unlikely the small band would survive such an assault. Going back to the base might mean the deaths of everyone there, but his other options didn't look any better.

Maintaining his speed and long stride, Adam raced back with his message of impending disaster.

***

Kevin, George, and Isabella worked furiously to gather whatever they could from the abandoned military base. Adam had taken the last of the medical supplies, but enough remained of the other essentials for them to make a start on their treetop colony.

"How are we going to sleep up in the trees?" a civilian woman asked. Her loose, white shirt with pearl buttons and black skirt was simple and on the formal side. Because of her glasses and pinned back brown hair, she looked like a librarian or a college professor.

"We've got people pulling sleeping bags from supply," George answered her. "We'll weave a cargo net around it to form a cocoon of sorts. Don't worry about it. We'll work on it when we get where we're going."

George dropped the supplies he was carrying and headed back for more.

"I'm not used to this," the woman lamented. "I taught school in Walton. It was peaceful and safe. All that's gone, and we're left with this."

Kevin could see how she was in danger of falling apart, and quickly reached out and took hold of her by each arm, offer her some much needed support.

After the horror of Walton's fall, he was surprised any of the refugees still had their sanity intact. Their concepts of safe and secure had been severely undermined, if not shattered completely. Kevin wanted to restore that sense of security, but for the current moment, he needed them focused on the task at hand.

"It's alright," he told her. "I've been out here for years, and I'm still alive. You won't have to endure this undead world for long. Once we get the new settlement built in the trees, you'll be out of the zombies' reach and safe again. Right now, the priority is to gather what we need."

"Would some medicine help?" a new voice asked from over his shoulder.

"Yes, it would," Kevin answered, releasing the woman and turning to face the newcomer to the conversation. He immediately drew an arrow back on his bow when he saw the two scavengers standing a few paces away.

"Greetings," Razor said, holding up his hands in a nonthreatening manner. "My name is Razor, and I mean you no harm. I, along with Red here, are the last survivors of the Snake Eye clan. They were destroyed by a zombie attack the like of which you have never seen."

"I have seen it," Kevin stated, lowering his aim slightly but not his guard. "It destroyed the town of Walton."

"We eliminated them, but not without obvious losses," Razor responded. "We have medicine and weapons."

"Good for you," Kevin said suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"I overheard you say something about a city in the trees, out of reach of the zombies," Razor told him. "We will offer our supplies and assistance in battle if you will let us join you."

"Protection from lions by bringing in a snake," Kevin muttered. He remembered well what their kind were capable of doing, and the idea of welcoming them in didn't sit well with him.

"If I were you, I'd accept their help," Adam suggested as he ran up to them and stopped. He leaned heavily on his knees in a bent over position, trying to catch his breath. "Zombies on the north road."

"How many?" Kevin asked.

"I didn't stop to take a census," Adam grumbled. "But, I'd guess triple digit thousands, perhaps a million."

"The northern zombies," Kevin breathed in horror, his eyes wide.

"The east hit Walton, the north is up the road, no more than an hour or two behind me, and you can guess where the west and south hordes are currently," Adam explained between gulps of air.

"Get everyone on the ship!" Kevin yelled, pointing in the direction of the docked vessel in the harbor. He motioned for the others to follow, and they did.

"We haven't cleared it yet," George pointed out as he neared Kevin. He tensed slightly when he saw the two scavengers, but since Kevin didn't seem to be reacting to their presence, George kept his sword sheathed. "We don't know what could be in there."

"I doesn't matter," Kevin insisted. "We know what's out here. A mass zombie horde is approaching from the north, and we're fresh out of scavenger bases to hold them back. There's no telling how long the south and west hordes will take to get here, so we need to move now!"

George didn't ask any more questions as he realized the seriousness of their situation. Finding Isabella, they began corralling the Walton survivors up the gangplanks and onto the main deck of the ship.

It didn't take long for discipline to break down. People began screaming and shoving, trying to get on the ship and away from the incoming zombies. They'd seen a horde destroy what they'd thought was an invulnerable city, and they had no wish to be around when a second group of that size showed up.

In their haste to depart, many dropped the items they'd been carrying. Razor and Red instantly proved their value to the refugees, scoping up the abandoned provisions and carrying them onboard.

"Where's Clara and Jay?" the school teacher asked.

"They went that way," a small boy answered as his father pulled him up the ramp. "They thought they saw a dog."

"Get onboard," Kevin told the teacher. "I'll find them. George, check the ship!"

"Will do," he promised, drawing his curved sword and vanishing below decks.

Kevin headed in the direction the child had pointed. He noticed he wasn't alone and glanced over to discover Adam keeping pace at his side.

"I thought you didn't care," Kevin commented.

"It's a kid," Adam replied simply.

Kevin nodded his understanding. He altered direction when he heard a dog barking and children laughing.

"What are you kids doing by yourselves?" Kevin demanded.

Neither of the two children, a boy and a girl, were older than ten, and their neat clothes bore witness to their never having been outside Walton in their lives.

"We just wanted to play with the dog," the girl answered innocently, patting the head of the golden retriever sitting in front of her. The dog's tail swished eagerly at the attention.

Kevin gave them an understanding smile. "He's a nice dog, but it's not safe out here. Let's get back to the ship."

The boy suddenly screamed, falling back from a chain link fence where a zombie pressed itself against the flimsy partition in an attempt to reach the child.

Adam ran forward and kicked the fence with the heal of his boot, hitting the zombie in the face and sending it tumbling away.

Kevin was almost knocked over as the dog suddenly rushed past him and tackled a zombie coming around the corner of the building. Due to the neck damage the zombie had suffered when it had been turned, the dog was able, with several rapid jerks back and forth, to tear the creature's head right off.

"Run!" Kevin encouraged the girl.

Adam had picked up the boy and joined Kevin for a mad dash back to the ship. He whistled over his shoulder, and the dog came bounding along behind them.

When they reached the boat, Kevin stopped, drawing his gun and turning on the dog. "Stop!"

The dog halted as fast as it could.

"Sit," Kevin ordered. The dog once more followed the familiar command.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked. "He did save the girl's life."

"That dog has a mouthful of zombie blood," Kevin pointed out. "Do you want him licking you in the face?"

"It wouldn't matter much one way or the other," Adam dismissed, holding up his left arm. The blue squid tattooed on his arm had been partly torn away by a nasty looking bite, and his arm was covered down to his wrist in blood.

"When?" Kevin demanded.

"Just now at the fence," Adam explained. "There was another zombie I didn't see."

"I'm sorry," Kevin apologized.

"We don't have time," Adam brushed away the comment. Taking a bottle of water from his pack, he poked a hole in the cap with his knife. "Come here, pooch."

The dog hurried to him, and Adam petted the animal while squeezing the bottle in his hand. The hole in the cap turned the bottle into a squirt gun and allowed Adam to clean the dog's face and muzzle.

"Good boy," Adam told the dog. He pointed to the ship. "Go on."

The dog rubbed up against Adam, saying thanks in its own way before rushing up the gangplank to join the kids at the top.

"What are you going to do?" Kevin asked. Although he asked the question of Adam, his eyes were scanning the surrounding buildings.

The zombies were approaching from the west where the kids had found the dog, but Kevin also caught a glimpse of movement to the north, the leading elements of the horde Adam had found on the road. Because of the western and northern hordes coalescing into a single force, Kevin estimated there to be anywhere from two to three times the number that destroyed Walton.

"Any idea how long I've got?" Adam asked, sparing a glance at his injured forearm.

"Maybe an hour, two at the most," Kevin replied.

"Plenty of time," Adam accepted. He handed the bag of supplies he carried to Kevin, retaining a pair of baseball bats and a sawed off, double barrel shotgun for himself. "Get on the ship. I'll hold them here."

Holstering the shotgun at his hip, Adam held a wood bat in one hand and an aluminum bat in the other. Raising them into a fighting position, he charged the zombies.