“There’s weapons hanging on the wall in the passageway out!”Boden called after him.“Grab yourself one!”
“Thanks, man!”Fergus yelled back as he ran down the corridor.
“I’m fine,” I told Edie, yanking my hastily bandaged arms back from her.“Fae needs me.”
Once we were outside the barracks, we all parted ways, with Boden and I heading to the right.It was impossible to ignore the carnage and chaos unfolding around us, although I desperately wanted to.
When I had first come up with this plan and discussed it with Boden, I had known there would likely be casualties.I had hoped that once Nell had seen what I could do, she would let us all go, but I had known that she might choose violence even when peace had been an option.
Then, in hushed conversations, it had been easy to think of it as a necessary evil.Nell was holding us captive with the intent to feed us to zombies and raise my daughter up as a follower and servant.I never wanted to hurt innocent people, but I would do anything to prevent Nell from making the final decisions for me or my daughter.
Now, though, as I ran through streets in disarray and upturned market stalls, listening to the people scream and cry around me as the zombies ran amok, I worried that there was no such thing as a necessary evil.That all evil is simply evil.That some means cannot be justified by any ends.
“I think I can see the sign!”Boden yelled, pointing toward a corner of the fortress.He was a good foot taller than me, so he had a better vantage than I did.“A moon and star on a pink building, right?”
“That’s how Alphie described it,” I said.
We pressed forward, weaving through the wreckage and skirting shattered carts.My heart hammered as Boden led the way, his eyes fixed on the pink building.All around, the shrieks and commotion seemed to blur together, making the fear and regret harden in my chest.
Finally, we reached the nursery.The door wasn’t locked, just as Alphie had predicted, so Boden threw it open and we ran right into the main room of the nursery.It was a rectangle with pastel murals featuring children and colorful animals playing with zombies, as if they were all friends.
One wall was lined with bunkbed style cribs stacked three high.While they were undeniably still cribs – each one covered in ornate carvings of flowers, baby animals, and zombies in a fairy tale sort of way, even on the spindles – the stacked style gave them an unnerving cage appearance.I suddenly had a memory of being in a pet store as a young child, and the feeling was disturbingly similar.
Toys were scattered across the floor, with books and crafts stacked on dressers and shelves.There were even a few adult size rocking chairs, but nobody was sitting when we ran into the nursery.
In addition to the children in the cribs – from babies to maybe four-years-old – there were three women in the room.Two appeared to be in their early twenties, cowering in the back and looking horrified.
The third was Nell Mahler.My daughter Fae was in her arm, resting on one hip, while Nell held a curved skinning knife in her other hand.
“I knew you would come for her,” Nell said, as if she had cleverly deduced some great mystery instead of running for the most obvious choice.
“Give me my daughter, and we’ll be gone,” I said, keeping my voice calm and light because I didn’t want to frighten Fae.
“Mama!Bobo!”Fae called for me and Boden, stretching her tiny arms out toward us.
“Not yet, sweetheart,” Nell told her soothingly.“Mama has to tell me what’s going on with my Loved Ones before I let you go.How is she controlling them?”
A gunshot blasted outside, and all the babies in the room began to wail and scream.Fae, for her part, began to squirm.Nell was a petite woman holding a frightened toddler in one arm, and it didn’t take much for her to wriggle enough that Nell dropped her on the floor.
Boden immediately dove at Nell while I ran for Fae.She was crying now, big wet tears streaming down her rosy cheeks, and I pulled her into my arms, squeezing her tight to me.
Nell and Boden fell to the floor beside me, and I skittered out of the way with Fae still in my arms.Boden got Nell on her back and punched her in the face, hard enough that she went unconscious
He sat back on his heels and gave me an apologetic look.“A man should never hit a woman.But she tried to kill my family.”
“I would’ve punched her if I wasn’t holding Fae,” I said as I got to my feet.“Come on.We have to go.”
“What about the other kids?”Boden asked, glancing around.
“We can’t take care of a dozen babies,” I said, because there was nothing more we could do.Fae was crying in my arms, and outside, people were screaming.“We have to go.”
“Yeah.”Boden nodded grimly, and he got up.
Nell was still unmoving on the floor, and Boden told the other two women to put something heavy in front of the door after we left.He grabbed his spear from when he’d dropped it, and we went back outside into the chaos.
Fortunately, we were at the back corner, so there didn’t seem to be as many zombies or people running around.It would be easier to slip by unnoticed, even with Fae’s cries muffled into my shoulder.
“Don’t you fucking walk away from me!”Nell shrieked behind us, and a wooden barrel next to me exploded as a musket bullet pierced it.
