Chapter 23
Stella
The tunnel was cold and dank without the warmth of the sun, and Fae fussed in my arms. All of us were huddled together, shuffling forward in the darkness, so close that I bumped into Boden or Leandro or Edie with every step.
Then the metal door on the other side finally opened, and for a moment, we were nearly blinded by the bright light.
“Get going,” Benedict commanded behind us.
Boden moved right in front of me, shielding Fae and me from whatever laid ahead, but even before we emerged from the tunnel, my curiosity was nearly overwhelming my fear.
It was the sounds and the smells first. People laughing and singing, chickens and goats, savory meats and sugary sweets, flowers and hay.
I peered around Boden’s shoulder and saw the sunlight spilling over a lively, bustling town square set inside the walls.
Little homes and cottages were along the edges with gravel pathways woven between barns, gardens, and market stalls.
Vibrant colors danced everywhere. In the banners strung overhead, the planters overflowing with wildflowers, and the bold clothing adornments of the people moving about.
It was if we’d stumbled into a street fair instead of being taken hostage from the wilderness.
“Keep walking and don’t talk to no one,” Dusty said in a loud commanding voice.
That was the first time that the residents of Fort Lately seemed to notice. They looked at us with mild curiosity, and some of them whispered to one another, but mostly it fell eerily silent as we passed by.
Alphie kept her eyes down on the ground, but a few people seemed to recognize her. Nobody spoke to her, though. Nobody said anything to us – or even to our captors – at all.
“You’re going straight ahead to the barracks,” Benedict directed us, pointing to the buildings that made a quadrangle in the center of the fortress.
The barracks were made of stone with evenly spaced windows covered in bars. They were relatively squat rectangles topped with low-pitched thatched roofs, and if not for the colorful murals on the exterior walls, they appeared simple and utilitarian.
As we approached, Dusty went ahead of us and unlocked the door. He led us down a narrow hall dimly lit with lanterns, and the ceiling was so low, it was almost claustrophobic walking in single file.
Finally, we reached the bunk room at the back. The ceilings were still low, and the walls were white. A dozen cots lined the walls, each one with folded blankets on top of it, but that was it for furnishings.
The windows were small but numerous, so they let in plenty of light. Although the bars cast shadows all over, almost comically emphasizing the fact that we were in prison.
Unfortunately, the view from the bunkroom wasn’t something any of us wanted to see. We were at the back of the building, with the windows open to the courtyard created by the barracks quadrangle. And that courtyard held hundreds of zombies milling about.
But unlike any other zombie I had ever seen, these ones appeared to be decorated.
They were draped in robes and scarves colored in vibrant jewel tones.
Many of them wore necklaces and bracelets, and some had on earrings, pierced through the rotting flesh of their ears, noses, even their cheeks and lips.
“What the hell did you do to your zombies?” Boden asked, sounding shocked.
“Nell will come by later, and you can ask your questions then,” Benedict said, his musket still in hand but now pointed at the ceiling.
“Are you going to tell her that I’m here?” Alphie asked him.
He smirked down at her. “You’ll find out when she gets here.”
None of us said anything until after our captors had left. Most of us stared at the zombies, watching the strange sight of the costumed corpses shuffling this way and that. Fergus helped his brother over to a cot, and Dougal collapsed back onto it with an exhausted sigh.
As soon as Benedict and Dusty had gone – the door closing with a loud click of a lock – Fergus asked, “Alphie, girl, what the fuck is this place at all?”
“I already told you,” Alphie said. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her eyes were on the floor as she bounced from one foot to the other.
“No. I feel like you didn’t tell us about any of this,” Edie argued. “Why are there a bunch of zombies dressed like drag queens in the damn courtyard?”
“Those are the Loved Ones.” Alphie pointed at the windows, out toward the zombies, but she wouldn’t look at them. “They were family or friends of Nell or other Revvers before they got infected. So they keep them and care for them to honor what they’ve become.”
“What about zombies that aren’t connected to the Revvers?” I asked. “What becomes of them?”
“We burn them, and we mix their ashes with the paints,” Alphie explained, sounding more and more agitated as she spoke.
“I suppose that’s not the worst thing I’ve heard someone doing with zombies,” Fergus muttered.
“What is this room we’re in?” Leandro motioned around the barren room and the cots. “Why did they bring us here? Is this like a quarantine or something?”
Alphie nodded rapidly. “They want to make sure that we’re not sick.”
“And how do they do that?” Boden asked.
“For three days, they will keep us locked in this room,” Alphie explained. “They will give us water and food, and they will wait.”
“And then what happens?” Boden asked.
“And then Nell decides,” Alphie said as if that explained anything.
“What does that mean?” Leandro asked.
“It means that Nell decides!” Alphie snapped. “She decides after she meets with us, and she alone.”
“How has she decided in the past, when the people aren’t sick?” I asked.
“Exilation, Execution, Expiation, Exaction, Exbindition,” Alphie recited in a flat voice. “Those are the five punishments.”
“Exilation, that’s like exile, right? So it means we won’t be allowed back here?” Leandro asked. “That seems like the one we should aim for.”
“Nell will decide,” Alphie said again, in the same flat voice.
“Ah sure, if we don’t end up dead, three days’ peace wouldn’t be the worst,” Dougal said, groaning a bit as he readjusted himself on the cot.
While Dougal was definitely faring the worst of us – his stomach bug necessitated frequent breaks, and he’d been struggling to keep down anything more than the weak broth that Edie made of water and dried venison – we all could use a break.
It wasn’t only the long days spent hiking uneven terrain, or the loss of so many people in such a short amount of time.
I had hardly been sleeping to keep everyone safe, but here was different.
If I summoned the zombies, they wouldn’t be able to get through the bars on the windows.
They hadn’t even broken through the glass after all this time.
We were finally somewhere that everyone could be safe from me, and the moment that realization hit me, I almost sobbed in relief. I sat back on the cot behind me, and the vice around my heart loosened enough that I could feel something other than fear and dread.
“Maybe this is a blessing in disguise,” I said. “Like an oasis in a desert. Somewhere we can catch our breath for a minute.”
“Here is only as much a blessing as it is a curse,” Alphie responded cryptically. “But everyone should rest while we can. No matter what Nell decides, you’ll want your strength.”
Since I was sitting down, Fae untangled herself from my arms and walked to the end of the cot.
There, standing on her tiptoes, she could peer outside at the zombies.
For her, they were dazzling displays of color and decoration, unlike any she had seen before.
How enchanting they must look to her! Her only comparisons for something like Fort Lately were in colorful picture books.
“I should rest,” I said, because I wasn’t sure I had the strength to do much else.
The relief had washed over me, but it had also washed away the steely resolve that had masked so much of the pain and exhaustion that had been building up inside me. Suddenly, I could feel the burn in my shoulders from constantly carrying a child on my back.
My feet felt swollen inside my boots, and when I got them off, my socks were stained yellow and pink from blood and popped blisters. The pain in them ballooned after I relieved the confinement of the boots, and a slow burning ache radiated throughout my entire body.
The insatiable hunger inside me – my constant companion – for once was overridden by the general exhaustion and pain of everything else.
I laid back on the cot, and the tiredness hit me so hard, I was dizzy and nauseous. Fae’s feet were right by my head, dancing as she watched out the window.
“Sleep while you can,” Boden said, draping a threadbare blanket over the top of me. “I’ll watch Fae, and we’ll work on a plan for getting out of here.”