Chapter 32 #2
We reach the cabin door. Sienna shoves it open, towing me inside. Cameron follows. Ramirez is last, backing through the door, rifle at his shoulder. The moment he’s inside, Cameron slams the door shut, throwing the deadbolt.
“Windows.” Ramirez’s voice comes from somewhere far away. “Secure them all. Now.”
I stand in the middle of the room. Knife in my hand.
Mom brought food. She was bringing us food.
She screamed, and I couldn’t—
The tray. Where’s the tray? Did someone pick up the tray? We can’t waste food. Mom would be so angry if we wasted food, she’d give me that look, that tight-lipped she just did a second ago before—
“Dakota.” Sienna’s face swims into view. “Dakota, I need you to—”
“She brought food.” My voice sounds strange. Hollow. “We should go get it. Before it spoils. Mom hates waste.”
“Listen to—”
“She was just standing there.” My throat closes. Breathing hurts. Everything hurts.
Mom’s throat. The way it opened. Red and then redder and then—
I’m going to be sick.
Cameron grips my shoulders, forcing me to meet his eyes. His mouth is moving, but I can’t hear him over the roaring in my ears, over Mom’s cut-off scream playing on repeat, over and over and—
“—nothing you could have done!” His voice breaks through. “Dakota, there was nothing you could have done. Okay? But right now we need to survive.”
I nod mechanically, but everything inside me is screaming, twisting, tearing apart. My mother’s blood, dark and spreading across the ground. The way the wolf zombie dragged her into the shadows like a fucking meal.
“We need to block every entrance,” Cameron says. “Help me with this.”
He gestures to a cabinet that needs moving in front of another window. Muscle memory takes over where my brain has short-circuited. Together, we shove it into place just as shadows move past the glass.
A heavy thud against the back door makes us all jump.
“They’re testing the doors.” Ramirez braces a chair under the doorknob. “Smart bastards.”
Another impact, harder this time. The chair legs scrape against the floor, but hold.
Silence falls, broken only by our ragged breathing and the distant moans of zombies outside. Then—
Glass explodes inward.
A dark shape crashes through, sending the cabinet to the floor in a shower of jagged shards.
The wolf zombie rights itself, head swiveling to take in each of us. Its face is barely human anymore. Elongated skull. Blackened gums. Back curved wrong.
Ramirez raises his rifle. “Get back!”
The creature lunges at him, knocking the gun aside as it slams him into the wall. Cameron swings his shotgun like a bat, connecting with the wolf zombie’s ribs with a wet crack. The creature shrieks, releasing Ramirez to face this new threat.
Sienna stands behind Cameron, who holds up his shotgun, finger on the trigger, barrel aimed at the wolf zombie’s distorted face.
“Move!” he shouts at Ramirez.
Ramirez rolls. The shotgun blast catches the zombie square in the chest, hurling it backward. Dark ichor sprays across the wallpaper. But before anyone can celebrate, another one launches through the broken window, glass crunching under its twisted feet as it lands in a crouch.
Its head swivels, scanning the room with clear eyes that shouldn’t exist in something dead.
They land on me.
The knife in my hand feels pathetically small, a child’s toy against this nightmare made flesh. The creature’s lips peel back from blackened gums, a clicking sound building in its throat.
“No!” Sienna lunges for me.
The zombie moves faster. One second, it’s across the room.
The next it’s on me. I slash outward with my knife, catching it across the chest. Dark blood sprays, hot against my skin.
The creature hisses, more annoyed than injured, before slamming into my chest with its shoulder to knock me off my feet.
We crash to the floor, my head cracking against wood. Everything goes white-edged and ringing. Weight crushes my lungs.
Can’t breathe. Can’t—
Its face fills my vision.
Breath like rotting meat washes over me. Teeth snap, missing my throat by a hair as I twist my head sideways.
Wood splinters somewhere behind me. Cameron’s shotgun booms. Sienna screams something I can’t make out.
My knife. Where’s my—
Its jaws open wide, strings of black saliva dripping onto my face.
The rifle blast deafens me, so close the muzzle flash burns my retinas. The wolf zombie jerks, its full weight falling on me.
Another set of hands grabs my arm, yanking hard. Sienna. She hauls me sideways from beneath the creature.
“Is it—” I can barely form the words, scrambling back against Sienna, who hugs me from behind.
“Dead.” Cameron retrieves my knife and hands it back to me.
Outside, another wolf zombie circles the cabin, pausing at the broken window.
It peers inside, head cocked at that impossible angle, assessing the bodies of his friends with a small howl.
Its gaze meets mine for one heart-stopping moment before it withdraws just as Ramirez fires another shot, melting back into the darkness.
He moves to the window, clutching at his side where blood paints his fingers. “They’re scared?”
A howl rises. The sound resonates in my chest, primal fear crawling up my spine.
“We killed three of them,” Sienna looks at the bodies around us, then spots the blood on Ramirez. “You good?”
“Yeah. Just a scratch.” He straightens. “We were lucky they faced us alone.”
“Julien,” I say. “He’s still out there.”
The three of them exchange glances.
“He was checking the north fence,” Cameron says. “Last I saw him.”
My heart stutters. “We have to find him.”
“He knows how to handle himself.” Ramirez peers through a gap outside. “Better than most.”
Cameron rests a hand on my shoulder. “We will.”
Shadows shift, draw closer. More of them are gathering.
Somewhere, Julien is fighting. Or bleeding. Or already—
I tighten my grip on the knife until my knuckles go white.
He has to be alive. He has to be. Because I can’t lose him, too.