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they’ve gotten through to make it this far, but ultimately they’re just reservists.  They had their chances to go career and didn’t, for whatever reason.  This here is way more than I figure any of them ever expected to find after the outbreaks, and is also closer to any sort of stability than they’re going to see if they come with me to South Dakota.”
    “What’s that mean?”
    He chuckled.  “I’m surprised, I would have figured you’d have a better grasp on this.”
    “Just because I was a Marine brat doesn’t mean I know everything that goes on in uniform.”
    “Well, think about it.  The camp is easy duty.  I’m not kidding about how sticky things might get if a couple thousand zombies turn up, and how much camping through the winter is going to suck, but honestly the odds of something really bad happening are probably really low.  A couple handfuls of stragglers a day is no sweat, and the scavenge runs aren’t much more dangerous as long as everyone remembers to take things nice and careful.
    “My guys and girls are good people, like I said, but they’re not careerists.  They stuck with me because we were all headed in the same direction; and I’m pretty sure this was the sort of thing they were all aiming for.  As it turned out, I just happened to be coming here.  They came along for the ride, but this is their stop.”
    Sawyer shook her head.  “You’re seriously going to go to South Dakota?”
    “Ninety-nine percent, yeah.”
    “What might make you stay?”
    “If they’re not taking volunteers, or if it sounds like they’re not holding on very well, but if they’re running national radio broadcasts I bet they’re doing fine.  And you heard them say they do want recruits to join up.”
    “You realize how far it is to South Dakota.”
    “I’d have to check the map, but it’s far.  More than a thousand miles.”
    “This is the heart of the southeast, and you’re talking about cruising all the way up to the northern edge of the Midwest.  In the middle of a zombie apocalypse.”
    “Yeah.”
    Sawyer shook her head.  “I’ll never truly understand Marines.”
    Peter grinned.  “Yeah, we’re dedicated.”
    “Insane was what I was going for.”

Chapter Four - Born to Run
    “Gunny—”
    “Gunny this is—”
    “You can’t be serious—”
    Peter shut the door firmly behind himself and raised a hand to forestall the jumble of simultaneous voices.  It took a few seconds, but the assembled soldiers of ‘the unit’ trailed off and he could get a word in without having to shout.  “Grab some wood and listen.”
    They all returned to their chairs in what had become the ersatz ‘security planning office’; formerly Mrs. Hertz’s world history classroom.  After tugging on the doorknob again to make sure it had shut, Peter crossed to the teacher’s desk and stood behind it with folded arms.  “Okay, in the interests of full disclosure, since I know several of you have been busy running security on scavenge trips, here’s everything I know about what’s going on.”
    He studied the faces watching him, keeping his expression and voice calm.  “The group in South Dakota seems to be on the level.  They’re claiming to be the Emergency Federal Government, and absent a direct visit up there to confirm, I think they’re for real.  I think they’re for real enough to take seriously, which is good enough for me .”  He stressed the qualifier very slightly.
    “They say they’ve taken over Ellsworth AFB and have turned it into a safe zone.  They also say they’re totally focused on maintaining and expanding that safe zone so they can work on relief efforts.”
    “What relief efforts?” Mendez asked, finally losing his battle against just listening quietly.  “They say they’ve got hundreds of civilian support staff to protect and are scrambling to find trained teams to do that and push patrols with.”
    “That’s an exaggeration.” Peter