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in their cars—most of the fiends of the undead variety prefer the residential areas or anyplace living folk might congregate. The bad news was that I couldn’t really see inside the camp. I was barely able to discern the switchback, maze-like trail through the coils of razor wire.
    I managed to acquire a two-way radio. It seems that the dumbass who had been on watch had chose to leave it behind. I plugged in the earpiece and was relieved that I heard no chatter. I wasn’t sure if these creeps had a scheduled check-in, but since things were about to get nasty, I didn’t really care. There was also a half-empty canteen of something resembling coffee and a crate of bolts for the crossbow. The sweetest find was a .357 magnum and a box of hollow-point bullets. A quick check of the cylinder revealed it was fully loaded with six rounds. I did a count of what I had in the box and was delighted to discover I had forty-three rounds.
    I shoved the huge handgun in my jacket pocket, then fired off a few shots with the crossbow to get used to the feel and aim. I was pleased. Still nothing in my ear on the radio, and I figured to have no more than an hour before the sun would start to lighten the eastern sky.
    I climbed down and made my way through the razor wire and into the trees. Not having any idea what sort of traps they might have here, I used my spear to prod the ground ahead of me. After what seemed an eternity, I reached the edge of the small wooded area and discovered a clearing.
    These folks were small-time. I would discover later on that they hadn’t laid the wire or set up the scaffold watch tower. There were five tents. In front of each tent was a small fire pit. Only three had embers still glowing.
    I decided to check the tents with the cold pits in front first. One just happened to be the closest and was empty inasmuch that there were no people, living or dead, inside. I did take note that there were two sleeping bags rolled out. I crept to the other and discovered mostly the same thing, empty, but only one rolled out sleeping bag.
    Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for what I had to do next. I had a flash for just a moment where I wondered if I could kill defenseless, sleeping, live humans. (Notice how I didn’t say innocent, I need not have worried.)
    I peeked into the closest tent with a fire dying in front. The first thing I noticed was Jenifer. She was bound and gagged with a couple of ratty blankets thrown over her. I had enough light to see she was shivering. There were two mangy-looking males (I won’t dignify them by calling them men) in sleeping bags. One was snoring, lying flat on his back. I fired the crossbow standing right above the non-snoring one. The bolt went through the temple and pinned him to the ground by the head. He never made a peep. I used my spear and drove it in at an angle into the wide-open mouth on Mister Snorey. The tip came out the crown of his head.
    Jenifer woke with a start, eyes wide with fear that could be seen even in the shadows. I knelt in front of her and touched my finger to my lips. It took her a few seconds to realize it was me. I cut her loose and ungagged her once she settled down. She gave some rather frightful looks at the two corpses, then, flipped Mister Snorey over and felt around under his sleeping bag. She came up with a sword that reminded me a lot of something from Arabian Nights . It was curved at the end and appeared very sharp.
    I whispered an inquiry as to where we might find Dominique. She led me to a tent, pointed and held up one finger. That shouldn’t be too tough , I thought. Peeking in, I realized it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. Dom was snuggled up under the arm of her…captor? He wasn’t a boy, but I couldn’t classify him as a man. I put him at no younger than sixteen, but no older than twenty. I had to walk in and get close enough to put the crossbow bolt in the center of his head. He jerked, which woke Dominique. Jenifer and I