When it was done I hurried over to Rachael, who was flushed and weeping. She stood by the guy who had been tied next to her, and as I approached I saw that she wept for more than what had happened to him. She wept for what she had to do. Her friend’s eyes were open, but they were empty of everything except that bottomless hunger. The other intended victim, the girl, was crying hysterically, banging her head against the pole to which she was bound.

“I’ll do it,” I said, reaching for the weapon Rachael had removed from the dead fingers of the woman she’d been fighting. But Rachael shook her head.

“Jason is my friend,” she said. Using “is,” not “was.” That hurt to hear. I waited until she’d quieted the young man before I cut her friend loose. The girl wrapped her arms around Rachael, clung to her.

I cut Jason down and laid him on the dirt. The two women knelt with me. The younger one, I learned, was Claudia. She bent forward and buried her face against Jason’s chest and wept with deep but silent tears.

Rachael grabbed my wrist. “Joe . . . how are you even here? I feel like I’m in a weird dream.”

“There’s no time for campfire tales, kiddo,” I said. “Those whistles are trouble coming.” I gave her the rundown on the Rovers and she told me about Happy Valley.

“Is it me,” she said, “or has a disproportionate number of total fucking assholes survived the apocalypse?”

“Sadly, it’s not you.” The whistles were constant, but they weren’t that close to where we were. That wasn’t all that much of a comfort.

“They’re heading to Happy Valley,” said Rachael, reading the sounds correctly.

“Yes. Do you still have friends there?”

“No, but there are a lot of people who need our help.”

“Pardon me for saying this, but fuck the residents.”

She shook her head. “Not them.”

Rachael told me about the “helpers.” “I can’t just leave them there. Even if the townies stop the Rovers . . . ”

“Yeah,” I said and sighed. “Guess this is going to be a long day.”

She started to say something, then stopped and smiled, shaking her head.

“What?” I asked.

“No . . . it’s just that I almost said that it isn’t your fight, but that’s dumb. The Nu Klux Klan wasn’t your fight, either. Neither was helping me and Dez Fox and those kids.”

I got to my feet, then glanced down at Claudia. When Rachael caught me looking, she nodded and moved to put her arm around her friend. They spoke together very quietly for a few minutes, then Rachael kissed her cheek and came over to me.