Convincing Bart to come in the house and repeat what she'd said to Keats in the woods wasn't easy.
"You think I want the love test?" she said. "Or sent to Siberia?"
Eventually, though, she agreed to do it. The information, Keats said, needed to come from a long-time resident. He also wasn't sure that everyone would believe him.
"It wasn't a walker that bit Marco," she said. "I was here when it happened. There was this guy, William. He was always strange. One day he just lost it. Chomped down on Marco's arm like it was a turkey leg."
"I've seen people alive one second and turn the next," said Tommy. "Maybe he had a stroke and dies right there, standing up, then turns."
"When they yanked him off, he was still babbling and talking about the end of days. He wasn't dead."
"You said 'they,'" said Hemingway. "Why hasn't anyone else told the truth about what happened?"
"They've all gone away, one by one. They went out on runs and didn't return. Or a walker surprised them in their sleep."
"No witnesses," said Keats. "Except for you."
"I was upstairs in one of the houses," said Bart. "I saw it from the window."
"You've never told anyone else?" said Hemingway. "Why us?"
"Because I want to get the fuck out of here. The people here are as mindless as the things out there. You saw them, how they break into fucking song when someone gets their neck ripped into."
"You could play along if that's all it was," said Pike. "We all could. It's not like Flak was completely innocent."
"You think that was about her?" said Bart, pointing to Jamie. "Flak didn't get the love test because he tried to rape you. He got it because he violated one of the biggest rules here. Marco gets first dibs on all the females."
Jamie's face curled like this news made her sick.
"Well fuck that then," said Pike. "We're busting out of here."
"They're not going to let you leave like that," said Bart. "But there's another way. You know what Siberia is? How they keep walkers away from the fence? It's a shack out in the woods. If you fall out of favor with Marco and need rehabilitation, you get sent there to make noise all day and draw walkers."
"Jesus," said Keats. "How do they keep them from busting down the door?"
"There's concrete slabs along every wall and door. The only way in is through a storm drain access. Goes to a hatch 100 feet away. The people there get a supply run every month that way."
"You think he'd trust us to make the run?"
"If you earn it," said Bart.
"So," said Pike, "we stick around for a couple months until he gets to know us and trust us. No big deal, except for the women get raped."
"There's another way," said Bart. "The love test."