• We were somewhere near what used to be Lucerne, Wyoming. Vlad, my traveling companion, and myself had been following the Greybull River in hopes of finding a survivor's fort. I had heard about it from some chance meetings with other wanderers like us, but no one had actually seen it. I knew it had to be near a source of water, so our plan seemed like a solid one. Actually, it was my plan, but Vlad likes to take credit for some things.

    Eventually, we reached the crest of a hill. "It kind of looks like a big rock from here, doesn't it?" I said to Vlad. He looked back at me in silence, though he seemed to agree. We were standing on the edge of a valley, looking down on what seemed like an endless plane, filled with short grass. Essentially, it was an endless plain. In the center of it, perched on the edge of a slowly drifting river, was Travistown.

    As Vlad and I descended the peak and approached it, we realized just how intimidating it was. The walls were made from tree trunks, which were probably once alive in the very valley where the fort stood. It wasn't really a town, but rather a solid fortress, a dark blotch on the otherwise clear moonlit field. Standing directly in front of it, I realized that it must have been at least 50 feet tall. It had looked deceptively smaller from the hilltop.

    "Stop right there, or we'll shoot your zombie asses." The voice came from somewhere among the dark branches, invisible to both Vlad and myself. As soon as we stopped, they must have realized that we were at least partially human, seeing as we understood English. "What's your name?"

    "My name is Tanya." I said. "This is Vlad."

    "We don't care about the dog." The sentry replied. "Take off your clothes."

    "Excuse me?" I replied. The night was cold, and I wasn't about to show the sentry my exposed body unless there was a real good reason.

    "We need to check for zombie bites."

    "Come on, can't you just trust that I'm human? Seriously, it doesn't need to come to this." I pleaded with the guard, but there was no answer. I resentfully removed all of my clothes except for my underwear. "Believe me yet?" I scanned the black mass for a pair of eyes, something to glare at. There was nothing.

    "No. Take off everything." At this point, I got mad.

    "A zombie apocalypse is the perfect excuse to see a naked girl, isn't it, fellas?" I said disdainfully as I finally bore all.

    "Enter the gates for inspection." I hastily threw my clothes back on as the gates rolled open. I scurried inside, still pulling my shirt over my head. I was patted down for whatever reason. Someone flashed a light in my eye, presumably checking for pupil dilations. Zombies' eyes were basically useless; they ran on smell. It was the same reason that having a totally black fort would protect against an onslaught at night.

    After a few dumb tests, they became a bit more polite. As an official human, I wasn't to be treated like a mental patient or a piece of livestock. Although, in times like those, when food was scarcer than company, some people would resort to...

    "Welcome to Travistown, Tanya." A man met me at the inner gate. Now I could see that there was a scaffold behind the outer wall, and one sentry looked sheepishly at me. I would keep an eye out for that little pervert.

    "Hello." I said shyly. The man went down on one knee and scratched Vlad behind the ears.

    "We've got lots of friends for you, little buddy." He stood up, and reached out to shake hands with me. "I'm Matt. Come on inside." He led me through a double door, held together with what seemed like loads of duct tape. Inside, it was warm, and smelled like food being cooked. "I suppose you're hungry. We've isolated ourselves from the big cities as much as possible, so your journey must have been fairly long." I was hungry, but not as much as I was tired. One thing you learn when there's not much food is that sleep is something you do as often as you can. For one thing, it keeps you rested. For another, it distracts you from your hunger. Unfortunately, sleeping increases the risk of being slain by zombies. Here, I was safe.

    "I think I'm going to get some good sleep first." I told Matt, and he showed me where the beds were. I can't really remember how I got there, or how I managed to fall asleep on a bag full of grass, but I did, and it was pure bliss.