I was pissed I hadn’t cut it yet. If I had, he probably wouldn’t have been able to get me so easily. And he was pulling on it like it was his lifeline or something - if I didn’t do something quick, I was going to be scalped by having my hair ripped out at the roots.

I punched him hard in the thigh, bringing on what I hoped was one hell of a charlie horse. His knee buckled with the pain, but he held on tight to my hair. I reached up and slammed my arm down on the inside of his elbow which hurt my head like hell, but brought me closer to him.

I swung my hand in an upper-cut arch, coming from way back to clamp down on his balls hard. The fist holding my hair went slack, making it possible for me to flip my head up so I could watch his face turned white.

“Oooof, oh, man … I tried to warn you,” said Bodo, a pained expression on his face.

The guy bent over in pain and I finished him off with a hammer strike to the back of the head. He fell on his face to the ground and didn’t move.

“Oh, my godt!” said Bodo, half laughing, clapping his hands together slowly, “dat was … oh man, dat was unreal! Dat was not real! Whoot!”

Kowi stood up slowly, keeping his hand on his upper thigh, which I knew was his way of trying to manage the pain still radiating up from his groin.

I put my fists up in a defensive position, ready on the balls of my feet if he decided to get stupid, but he held his hand up in surrender.

“No. No more fighting. You’ve made your point.”

“I want Peter back. Here,” I said from behind my fists.

“Yeah. I got that.” He looked over and motioned to the guy who’d finally gotten out of the swampy water and was now dripping just outside the entrance to the hut.

“Go tell the Creeks we will agree to their terms.”

“But!” he argued.

“Just go!” he yelled, looking down at his friend on the ground.

I could tell from the look on the wet indian’s face that something huge was being sacrificed here.

“Bryn,” said Bodo, and I could almost read his mind.

“Wait,” I said to the guy who was getting ready to leave to deliver the message, putting my arms down and relaxing. “before you go run off all half-cocked, why not tell us exactly what’s going on here? Maybe we can help you resolve this without your sacrifice and without mine.”

“It’s indian business,” said Kowi.

“Don’t be like that, Kowi. I want to help. We all do.” I looked over at Bodo and he was nodding his head enthusiastically.

Kowi looked like he was weighing his options, so I continued my plea. “The world is a different place. It’s never been like this, even when your ancestors were here greeting the friggin settlers. Back then the settlers just wanted to survive at first, figure out how to grow food and live. The people who are out there now … want to eat you guys. I mean seriously … we’re all fighting the same enemy here.”

“Yeah,” said Bodo, “da zombies.”

“Let us help you. We’ve already shown you we have skills and we’re determined.”

“We made it all da way down here from over two hundredt and fifty miles away. Through zombieland,” said Bodo.

“I can’t just bring you into our tribe business without talking to the others.”

“Just do it, Kowi,” said the wet guy.

I looked over at him, surprised his ego would allow those words to come out of his mouth.

He shrugged. “We need the help. Obviously.” He walked over and kicked his fallen comrade. “Get up, asshole.”

The guy on the floor moaned. He slowly rolled over and we got a look at his face. He’d broken his nose in his fall.

“Oops, sorry about that,” I said. I looked over at Kowi. “Do you want me to fix that before he’s fully awake?”

“You can do that?” he asked, looking a little shocked.

“I’ve seen my dad do it enough times.” I went over and straddled him, sitting on his chest. “Bodo, get on his legs, would you?”

“Dat’s not a problem,” he said coming over and laying across them.

“Grab his arms, Kowi.”

Kowi limped over and kneeled down, taking the guys arms and holding them on the ground, above his head.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, as I put my hands on either side of his smooshed nose, yanking it back to the front.

A loud crunch and a fresh gush of blood told me that I’d at least gotten it back in the general direction; the loud screaming and bucking from the kid told me that it had hurt. He passed out in a few seconds, finally going still. I got up and rolled him over on his side so he couldn’t choke on his own blood.

I walked down to the swamp to rinse my hands off in the water. “He might not look pretty, but at least his nose won’t be sideways,” I said, scrubbing my palms together and watching the blood dissolve away.

I didn’t get a response, so I turned around to look at them. They were all staring at me. I self-consciously reached up and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. I was hoping I hadn’t ruined the whole effect of my fighting skills by having a boog hanging out or something.

“What?” I said, tired of the silent treatment. “Why are you guys staring at me? Cut it out.”

Bodo spoke first. “I don’t know why dey are staring at you, but I’m doing it because I’m admiring your muscles. You really know how to make a guy feel like a wimp.”

I looked down at my arms, noticing for the first time that they were a little pumped from their recent workout. I had pretty much zero body fat left, so they did look pretty ripped. I glanced back up at him, “I hope that’s not a problem for any of you.” It would be just my luck that I’d ruin any chance of ever having a boyfriend by scaring them all away.

“It’s not a problem for me,” said Bodo, shaking his head slowly side to side. “Not a problem …”

I smiled, ignoring the responses from the other guys. The more I got to know Bodo, the more I thought I might have a chance at finding a guy my dad would have loved.

***

We sat in our hut, surrounded by a big group of Miccosukee. I didn’t bother counting all of them. Kowi and Coli sat at the center, and everyone was listening closely to what Kowi was saying.

“As you all know, the Creek of Kahayatle have taken the friend of Bryn and Bodo, named Peter, and they are demanding that we turn over the grenades to them in exchange for Peter.”

I gasped. How could they possibly know we brought grenades?

“My first answer was to say no. Then Bryn was kind enough to show me the error of my ways.”

“She kicked our asses,” said the wet indian, who I now knew as Paci. A few of the group laughed, including Kowi. His girlfriend just glowered at me.

“Yeah, so after we had our … discussion with Bryn, we decided to go ahead and agree to their terms. But she convinced us to reconsider and share with her and Bodo the details of the Creeks’ demands, which we have now done. We’ve asked all of you to come here tonight so that we can discuss this situation before we make our decision about what to do. Those of us who are on the council have agreed to include Bryn and Bodo in our conversation.”

I looked around and could see that all but a few of the members were okay with it. Paci looked like he was on Team Bryn, and he seemed like the gregarious type. I had a feeling he’d been campaigning for us. He smiled and lifted his chin at me, acknowledging my presence.

I looked over at Bodo in time to see him narrow his eyes a little bit at Paci. Jealousy maybe? I tried not to be too excited over the idea. Jealousy was usually bad news, even if in the beginning it was a little flattering. I’d seen enough girls leaving the mini krav maga self-defense workshops talking about stalker ex-boyfriends who’d always started out being the jealous type; the same ones they were now trying to learn how to fight off. I didn’t need to be fighting my own people over stupid stuff like that.

Kowi began talking again. “Bryn wanted the chance to speak, so I gave her my permission. Does anyone have a problem with that?”

I could see Coli itching to say something, but she kept her mouth shut.

Kowi looked at me. “Go ahead. Say what you wanted to say.”

I stood up, wiping my hands nervously on my shorts. “I just wanted to say a few things, maybe share some ideas.”

I looked at Bobo and he nodded, urging me forward with his quiet confidence in me.

“The Creek have my friend Peter. He’s not a violent person in any way and he’s pretty much helpless. If they set him loose outside of the Everglades, he’ll never survive. He’ll get eaten.”

I saw from a few faces around that the idea didn’t seem all that likely to them.

“I don’t know how much you guys have gotten out of the swamps lately, but in case you’re living in a fantasy world that doesn’t include zombies, let me enlighten you - there are cannibals out there. Kids are eating kids.” I waited a few seconds to let that sink in.

Someone in the back spoke up. “That’s isolated stuff. It’s not all over.”

“Don’t be so sure,” said Bodo, standing up next to me. “I came from West Palm Beach. She and Peter came from Orlando. Dare are zombies in both placess and in between. Dat’s like almost two hundredt miles.”

“Right,” I said. “So it’s not just one group or one isolated situation. It’s all over and probably spreading as the resources dry up. This whole fighting thing you’re doing with the Creek is a bad idea. You need to get together and make one big tribe instead of a bunch of small ones disagreeing and fighting over grenades.”

“It takes both sides agreeing,” said Coli, “and that’s not going to happen.”

I looked at her with disapproval. “Well I guess you only have yourself to blame for that, don’t you?”

She stood up suddenly, taking a step towards me.

Kowi held out his arm, bracing it across her legs. “Trust me, Coli. You don’t want to go there.”

She looked down at him in disgust. “You guys might have bowed down to her little games, but I’m not going to.”

Kowi pulled his hand away and used it instead to gesture in my direction. “Well, then, by all means. Have at it. But don’t come crying to me later when she hands you your ass.”

Coli seemed to be considering the idea of being publicly humiliated in front of her tribe and decided to stay by her man’s side. But that didn’t change her opinion about me one bit.

I sighed. “Seriously, Coli. You’re Creek for god’s sake. Why can’t you go talk to them?”

She folded her arms. “I’m not going to get in the middle like that.”

“Why the heck not?” I demanded. “You’re the girlfriend of the chief over here. You’re second in command. It’s your job to make peace with neighboring nations, isn’t it?”

She stuck her chin out in defiance but didn’t seem to have anything to say back.

“Are you guys all crazy out here, or what? Can’t you see what’s happening right under your noses?” I stared Coli down. “How did they know about the grenades, anyway? Did you tell them? Maybe you’re a mole.”

She gasped at me, clearly outraged that I’d even suggested it. Or at least, she was acting outraged. She took a step forward and Kowi stood, taking her by the shoulders and pulling her back. “No. You’re not going to fight her. I like your face the way it is.”

He looked at me. “I think the Creek were tracking you before you got here. That’s how they knew about the grenades.”

“Dat’s not likely,” said Bodo. “Dey were covered all da time. You probably got a spy in here. I bet it’s her,” he said, pointing to Coli.