George slays modern dragons; he seeks to quiet the undead, protect the weak and help to fix the broken. He and 'Hazel' reach a sort of truce and have dinner, bed down for the night, but then George gets back up to take care of business. Hazel comes after him but it’s not what she thinks. He needs her to reconsider; she was grief-stricken and made a choice which she doesn’t have to stick to.

I concentrated on the zombie now, trusting her more than it. He was not terribly interested in me, fortunately. Well fed…

“What was his name?”

“Jake. Jacob Herriot Bixby.”

“Three good names for the price of one. How long ago did he pass and how?”

“Not long, less than a week. I’m not sure what it was, a fever. He was burning up, talking nonsense and getting things out of order. I, he tried to get me leave him, and…”

“You wouldn’t, of course. And there was a thing which he couldn’t ask his daughter to do?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I guessed, but it happens, a lot. I have walked a long way since the dead started getting back up, with a lot of people, and now I’m alone again. By choice and by chance, both ways.”

“One of them told you that thing about it being a blessing to quiet the dead.”

“She did.” I smiled sadly. “I think you would have liked her, if you could stand each other, which I bet you could. You’re a lot like Ruth.”

We were quiet for a bit. You could hear the breeze blowing. Even the zombie was quiet.

“What-”

“No. Sorry, but no.” I was shaking a little bit, turned to ‘Jake’ and his shiny bit of pretty.

“What’s with the locket, or is that-”

“I can tell you about that. It’s a gold heart-shaped locket my uncle Jamie gave me for my tenth birthday last year. It has my name and the meaning of it and a picture of our family. I wanted him to have it.”

“Your family?”

“My uncle, his little brother my dad, Mom and the baby.” She chewed her bottom lip. “We were all that was left, and then there was just me.”

“I think we’ve had enough questions, save for one or three. Are you hungry, Amanda? What do you do with your shadow when you need to eat and sleep? And can I interest you in a nice bar of soap?”