Chapter Eleven #2
“You’re thinking hard,” Mason murmurs. We move slowly down a narrow alley and step out onto another cobblestone street. The houses are squat and solid, looming over us and seeming to watch us with their dark, empty windows for eyes.
“Is something else going on here?” I ask, and he hums under his breath but doesn’t look at me.
I know why survivors might hide. I can even understand why they’d want to stay out here instead of surrendering to the safety of the Citadel.
My father regretted going there in the end.
He missed our home outside its walls, even though that place was long gone.
“I don’t know what you think could be,” Mason replies.
Dane walks ahead, not listening to us, approaching a house door that’s half off its hinges.
I raise my bat, all the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.
The townspeople have kept their home well.
Some of the windows might be boarded up, but I noticed it yesterday—things are neat and clean and well-secured.
“Neither do I,” I say, then plough ahead, voice firm, “but there is something going on here. Something else. I know it.”
Mason reaches for me. His hand stretches out, fingers reaching, but as they graze my sleeve, Dane lets out a startled cry. A zombie lunges from the darkness of the house and he gets his hatchet up between them, trying to push it back.
I race over, adrenaline already pumping and making my heart thump hard against my ribs. This zombie is big and still strong, hardly looking dead at all. Its stomach stretches with bloat and my mouth fills with saliva when I take in a breath, the stench making bile rise in my throat.
I raise my bat. “Down!”
Dane ducks, losing some of the resistance he had against the zombie, but my strike is accurate and the first hit of my bat caves in half of the zombie’s face.
It doesn’t go down, but it does stumble back before letting out a weak, wet roar.
I hit it again. Dane wrestles his hatchet back from the zombie’s now-frail grip and goes for its knees, leaving me to work on the head.
I hardly hear the crack of bone and wet tear of flesh over the sounds of my own panting breaths and frantic heart. My arms ache when the zombie finally topples to one side, and I take a tremulous step back.
It isn’t dead. Another fragile sound escapes its throat, and me and Dane both raise our weapons, but Mason is faster.
He has something with him, something like the old batons the police once used, and he brings it down in a graceful, sweeping arc, metal connecting with the still-intact pieces of the zombie’s skull. It gargles and goes still. Blood splatter paints Mason’s pale skin and my throat goes dry.
“Nice of you to eventually step in,” Dane says, but the venom he wants to inject into his voice is missing. There’s a tremor in it instead. He’s scared.
“You both seemed to have it well in hand,” Mason replies smoothly. In contrast, there’s no fear in him at all. His eyes move over me like mine move over him, and heat sparks in their depths, making my throat dry even as relief rushes through me.
Whatever angered him before, it’s gone. Or at least forgotten in the face of this.
“We should find the others,” Dane says. “See if they—”
Someone screams. Dane is off like a shot, and I’m quick on his heels, Mason keeping in step with me. Why are they here now? The sky might be darker today, still heavy with clouds, but it’s not night, so I don’t know why the zombies have decided to emerge again.
Are they hungry? I huff. Zombies are always hungry.
“Fuck,” Dane curses as we round the corner.
Blake is fighting off a zombie on his own and seems to almost have the better of it. Otto has two, trying to help Emma, who has her back to him, beating back one of her own.
And those four… There are more still, spilling up from the centre of town. I think of Rae and Autumn. I should go and find them, see if they need help—
As though they hear me, they arrive just behind us, Sal breathing hard. There’s a smear of blood on his cheek. He looks at Mason and scowls. “Three of the fuckers.”
“Dealt with?” Mason asks.
Sal nods.
I don’t speak. I exchange a nod with Rae. Dane is already fighting alongside Blake, and she heads towards Otto, Autumn close behind her. I look at the horde shambling up the slope. It isn’t too steep, but it’s enough to slow them down.
“Want some help with that?” Mason’s shoulder brushes mine.
I hear Sal enter the fray behind us.
“We’re going to be overrun.”
“Hm.”
“You should probably go back up to the church.”
Mason lets out a faint, delighted sigh. “I meant what I said. I like it when you worry about me.”
With those parting words, he runs. He meets the first zombie with a blow that shatters its kneecaps, sending it sprawling across the cobblestones. Fuck. I push aside the heat that rushes through me. Here and now, there’s no place for it.
And I can’t leave him to fight alone. I follow, matching each of his forceful, accurate blows with one of my own.
The zombies groan and snarl, dull fingers trying to catch my clothes and bring me down with them, but I’m quick on my feet and careful to blink back the sweat that rolls down my forehead and stings my eyes.
Some escape around us, determined to get to the others further up the street, but when I risk a glance back, they seem to have it under control.
At first anyway.
The numbers are beginning to slow. Blood is slick underfoot, and I’ll throw up from the smell of everything later, but for now the desire to survive is stronger than all else.
Except I hear Otto shout. I spin on one foot, arm thrown out to keep my balance, and all the blood drains from my face when I see the zombie sink its teeth into his shoulder.
Rae is faster than anyone else, and Autumn’s training is impeccable. Rae drags the zombie back and Autumn swings her machete, hacking through the zombie’s neck with two sharp movements.
I tremble with the urge to run to Otto’s side, but even the time I’ve been watching is too long. I whirl back around and take out another zombie with a fast, brutal blow, and when blood splatters over my face, I just move forward.
Mason is still fighting ahead of me. He takes down two zombies in quick succession, and I hear gurgles among the shouting behind me, and all at once, it’s over.
My breaths saw in and out of my chest. I hardly dare to turn and look.
The bite won’t take him straight away. The virus has to work its way through his system. Though he might have longer than minutes, it will still be fast.
If he’s not gone by tonight, he will be by morning.
“Isaac!” Rae cries, voice pitched higher with fear. I’ve never heard that from her before. Never. “Isaac.”
Mason watches me. I take another breath, tiny razor blades dragging down the insides of my lungs, then turn away from him and head up the slope.
Dane and Blake are too close. Autumn is useless now, trembling all over, her machete slack in her grasp. I don’t have it in me to praise her for earlier, even if she clearly needs to hear it.
Rae stands between Otto and Dane. Sal frowns from the sidelines, and Emma watches me as though she simply wants someone else to take the lead.
“We need to do this now!” Dane all but screams. Fuck. We’ve all lost team members before. In the beginning, every trip out meant at least two or three people would be lost. Sometimes, entire teams didn’t make it back.
Otto looks faint. Sweat beads on his forehead, lips pale, and I don’t know if that’s due to the bite or the fear. He has to die. Either way, he’ll die. He tugs his shirt aside to get a better look, and my stomach turns at the sight of torn flesh, already reddening at the edges.
I come up on his free side, where the bite is. Rae is still yelling at Dane. Blake makes to move around them both, but Sal is quicker and larger and steps up to keep him where he is.
“Fucked it, haven’t I?” Otto says. His eyes are wet, the blue of them brighter than I’ve ever seen it.
I bite the inside of my cheek until I taste blood. No point in lying. “Yeah, looks like it.”
Otto laughs, but it rings hollow, and when he sucks in a breath, I think he’s swallowing down a sob. “Can you…?”
I glance down at my bat. Can I? I’ve done it before. Never to anyone I’ve worked with so often as Otto. We don’t socialise at the Citadel, but maybe he and Rae are the closest I have to friends.
“The guns,” I say, begging my voice not to tremble. “At the church, they—”
“Sal will take him,” Mason says, suddenly close behind me. His fingers curl over my shoulder, digging in. “Won’t you?”
Sal’s expression does something complicated before it settles on a dark glare. “No, Mason, we can’t—”
“ Won’t you ?” Power reverberates in his voice and I’m not the only one who hears it.
Otto shrinks back, and Autumn almost falls to her knees, collapsing sideways into Rae instead. Even Dane looks surprised, head jerking back as he blinks rapidly.
“We’ll take him,” Emma says, recovering the fastest. She slips around Dane, Blake, and Rae, and lays a gentle hand on Otto’s arm. “Come on.”
Otto’s mouth trembles. He blinks back tears, and it takes him a moment before he speaks again. “It’s better like this.”
“Go,” Mason says, and Emma and Sal steer Otto away before he can speak again. I watch mutely as they lead him up the hill and in the direction of the church.
“They’ll make it quick?” I ask.
A muscle twitches in Dane’s jaw. Did he want to kill Otto? Blood and viscera are smeared around us. We’ve all done enough killing for today.
“It will be fine,” Mason replies. He squeezes my shoulder too tightly before he takes a step back. “Come on. We should see where those zombies might have come from.”