SurvivorZ: Grave Harbor

85

DANIELLE

"Is this our new home now?"

Emily's innocent question hit Danielle hard for some reason. With her lips pursed, she first glanced down at Lee, who was staring up at her from her right, and then at her baby sister on her opposite side.

The three of them stood atop the wall, overlooking the contrasting views of serenity and industry splayed out before them. Thirty feet below, the men from Mystic worked side by side with army soldiers to erect a tall fence around the perimeter of the fort. The busy workers were a tumultuous sea of movement compared to the peaceful waves of the bay lapping against the stone shoreline. The blackened ruins of the smoking, burned out buildings hunched across Boston's skyline framed everything else. They were a constant reminder of the horrors everyone toiled to keep outside.

"Looks like it, yes," Danielle replied. "What do you guys think of this place?"

Emily craned her neck to peer over the edge. She trembled slightly at the height. "It's a long way down."

"Are we going to be safe here?" Lee inquired.

Danielle bit down on her immediate response. Under other circumstances, she would have reassured the kids with an optimistic answer. That wouldn't fly with them now. They had both seen and experienced too much to accept anything but the brutal truth.

"I don't know," she honestly admitted. "I hope so."

Lee considered the new barbed wire fence dividing them from the rest of the city. "What happens when the zombies find us again?"

"I don't want them to find us," Emily whined.

"Me neither, but they always do."

Danielle reflected on Lee's declaration. Everyone involved in fortifying their defenses below probably shared the boy's opinion that their safety had an expiration date. Otherwise, they'd content themselves with the notion that their tall, stone walls would be sufficient to keep them protected.

"Don't worry." She pointed at the new fencing. "They're putting that up so the zombies will get stuck out there. That way, they'll be able to go out and kill them without making a lot of noise."

"But what if there're too many?" Lee asked. "What if they knock down the fence?"

"Then we'll be safe in here," she replied. "Even if something happens, the fence and walls will hold them long enough for everyone to escape to the boats in the harbor. This isn't like the other times. We'll have a way out."

"But what if—?" Lee persisted.

Sensing the stiffness in her sister's tiny frame, Danielle shut down his questions before they disturbed her any further. "Hey, Lee, did you know that Edgar Allan Poe once served here as a soldier?"

The boy stared at her quizzically. "Who?"

"Edgar Allen Poe," someone declared behind them. Danielle and the kids looked back to find Judith approaching. "He's an American writer and poet from the 1800's. A little before your grade level. You'd probably learn about him in a few more years, if the schools were still running."

"Oh," he said. "Okay."

Danielle stared at the fence going up below them. "Now that we're settled, you should look into starting one up for the children."

"Perhaps one day," Judith agreed. "A classroom will take resources that we don't have right now, and probably won't have for some time."

"Where's Drew? I haven't seen him around."

Judith nodded at the crew setting up the new barricade around the fort. "He and Robin are helping out down there." Sensing Danielle's next question, she shrugged and added, "There wasn't much I could do to help, so they put me on lookout duty up here."