The Emissary (Horse Women of the Zombie Apocalypse) Read Free

while the others lay down to sleep. It was how the herds had survived without humans to tend them. Now that instinct worked in the girl's favor. The horses always smelled the muerto long before they were a threat.
    Even as they cooked supper and settled in for the night, the sisters kept watch. The porch had a trellis that made a good ladder to the roof. The moon was full enough for them to see the area around them.
    *

 

    Chapter 2
     
    At false dawn, the horses got up to graze. Beth woke Alexis for the last watch. Beth snuggled into her bedroll with a sigh. After a couple hours of sleep, the sound of human activity woke her. Her sisters were up, Julie was cleaning hooves and Dani was packing gear. Alexis kept watch on the roof of the house. Beth pulled on fresh socks and her boots.
    "There's coffee." Julie pointed at the barbecue pit where a coffee pot perched on a tiny stove.
    Alexis crossed the roof, her rifle in her hands, to report while Beth poured her coffee. It was the last cup and full of grounds.
    It didn't pay to be the last one up.
    "There was a pack of stinkers on the highway, heading south."
    Beth sipped her coffee, wrinkling her nose at the strong taste. She dropped the lid back on the Sterno can, putting out the flame.
    Dani snorted. "I'll bet on the cows any day. Cows are dumb, but they aren't that stupid."
    "Could you see a bull going up against a dozen stinkers? He'd smear them all over the ground." Alexis grinned.
    "Can cattle catch the infection?" Julie asked.
    "Horses don't catch it," Dani said
    "Dog's die from it," Alexis said.
    "Buzzards don't eat stinkers," Beth added.
    "What about hogs?" Julie finished with her pack horse's hooves. Only the coffee pot was left.
    "Hogs won't eat them, too smart." Alexis turned back to the road. She scanned the neighborhood with her binoculars. "You know, this is a good campsite. We're on high ground. The fence keeps the stinkers on the highway."
    "We'll mark it and come back." Beth downed the bitter coffee. Just knowing muerto were on the highway made her want to get going. She packed quickly, then she saddled Mist.
    When everyone was ready, they mounted up, opened the gate and filed out one at a time, Alexis was on point with her bow. Beth took rear guard.
    Dani carefully closed the gate behind them, and put a locking link on the gate to keep it closed. She sprayed the hobo sign for safe camp on the door in black paint - an X with a line over the top and an eye on each side. At the entrance to the subdivision, Dani sprayed another hobo sign for camp. Next to it she put the sign for no water.
    The horses settled into a long walk, skirting paved roads, trees and brush. The sisters avoided any area that alerted the horses. At an intersection leading to the freeway, the road was blocked with burned or abandoned cars, accompanied by hundreds of well-gnawed human bones.
    "Gross," Julie said as her horse picked her way through the bones.
    "Those are old," Alexis reassured Julie.
    At noon, the girls ate lunch sitting on a fallen log beside a creek. The horses drank cool water and grazed on the thin grass.
    Beth checked the map. The road they were on went straight through a small city. She wanted to find a safe route around the city that wouldn't add too many miles.
    "How much farther?" Dani asked.
    "I think we'll get there in another day and a half." Beth pointed at their location. "There's a small town right here. We need to pass it before we camp."
    "Are we going around or through?" Alexis asked.
    "Around," Dani said.
    "There might be stores," Beth said deliberately teasing.
    "There will be stinkers," Julie countered.
    "Don't be a spoil sport." Beth elbowed Julie.
    Dani shrugged. "Dad said not to take any chances. That's my vote: do what Dad said."
    "Okay." Beth heaved a sigh. "I'm outvoted." She held the map for the others to see. "This is the best route. We need to find these roads."
    Mist snorted, a loud blast of air that signaled danger. Immediately, the other horses