Twenty-Two
sadie
With the memory of Theo’s kiss still fresh on my lips, I rapped my knuckles on the glass and grabbed the rotting man’s attention. His torn cheek smacked into the door and dragged across the surface, revealing a tiny scrap of fabric caught in his tooth.
Bile crawled up my throat, but I made myself keep looking. This used to be a person. Someone’s son. The glint of gold on his ring finger caught my attention, and I swallowed. Someone’s husband.
I stood in the centre of the entrance doors, with Owen covering the left side and Varesh monitoring the right. Our reflections stared back at us from the patches we’d cleared in the glass, mine superimposed with the infected man’s image.
Owen had sent the girls back up to their apartment for this part. They’d begged to stick around and watch, but it was a relief seeing them trudge up the stairs out of harm’s way.
“Can you see anyone yet?” I asked, my vision obscured by the man.
“Tim’s just appeared.” Varesh adjusted his glasses, sparing me a glance. “Coming around wide.”
“What about Laura and Theo?”
The infected man threw his shoulder into the glass. Hard. My heart leapt into my throat, and I jumped back, the air reeking of death as I found my balance again.
“Coming into view now.” Owen lifted his brows. “You good?”
I nodded sharply and moved to the side, watching the men flanking Laura. With her brow pinched in concentration and the maul steady at her side, she looked focused and ready.
Less than a dozen steps from the entrance.
A queasy feeling stirred in my gut, and I tapped the window, avoiding the cloudy eyes staring back at me. The man’s blood would be splattered all over the glass in under a minute.
“Here we go,” Owen murmured. “Come on, honey.”
The danger suddenly hit home. The mother of his children was out there risking her life with Theo and Tim.
What if one of them didn’t make it back inside?
Theo’s eyes flicked to mine as he stepped onto the footpath, jaw locked in place. My stomach tightened, and I begged for our first kiss not to be our last.
I couldn’t even fathom life without him now, not when my sister’s absence still weighed so heavily on me. I wanted to run outside. Stay close and make sure he didn’t get hurt.
I froze mid-frown, and my thoughts slowed as something moved behind the wheelie bins again. My mouth parted, and the world around me narrowed to a single, terrifying space. A shadow rose in slow motion, stilted and drenched in blood. The image slammed into me, and my pulse shot into overdrive.
No. No.
A dead woman straightened to her full height, her dark hair plastered to her cheek, and her neck torn open from ear to shoulder. She twisted her head from side-to-side, working her jaw as she shuffled around the bins and headed for the road.
Every nerve ending fired. My body went rigid.
“Varesh. Owen!” I said. “Over there. Another one.” I jabbed my finger into the glass and swore, frustrated at the barrier.
The undead man in front of me slapped wet palms at my face, his aggression intensifying.
When the woman stepped off the curb and pitched forward, Varesh banged his fist on the door and shouted, “Watch your backs!”
Tim tapped his ear and frowned.
I hadn’t experienced this level of stress since I lost my parents.
“Laanat hai.” Varesh uttered the words like a curse and grabbed a fistful of his hair, turning to Owen and me.
“Give them a minute.” Owen pulled the knife from his waistband and tracked every movement, ready to charge.
We never should have sent half our group outside. We didn’t know nearly enough about these things to be taking them on like experts.
I kept watch on the dead woman, fighting the urge to pace the room.
An incoming engine roared closer. The screech of tyres tore through the air. A horn blared, and everyone outside turned toward the sound, including the infected man who’d been focused on us.
Panic streaked through me, and I pounded on the door. They hadn’t mastered the skills to manage one of the infected, let alone two.
The silver sedan clipped the dead woman, and the impact sent her staggering into a half turn. If she were human, her life would have been flashing before her eyes, but her features were blank. No confusion or fear.
It took several steps before she regained her balance, then she continued trundling in our direction as if nothing had happened.
The second she spotted Theo and shifted course slightly, I reached for the door handle without thinking. I didn’t even have a weapon.
“Don’t.” Owen grabbed my wrist. “You’re in no condition to be dealing with this shit.”
“It’s three against two—and the two are deadly.“ I pulled my wrist free, my heart thumping so hard the beats filled my ears. “We can’t just stand here watching.”
“Believe me, I know. That’s my wife out there.”
“And my husband,” Varesh said. “Stay put, Sadie. We’ve all got someone we don’t want to lose.”
The dead man who’d been tracking us like fish in a tank trudged toward Theo, arms outstretched. But Theo had eyes on both infected now, and he locked in, barking something at Laura and Tim I couldn’t make out through the glass.
Owen nodded toward Laura, who’d changed position to monitor both threats. “They’re regrouping. There’s a new plan.”
Tim’s eyes flashed with fear at first, then they flicked to Varesh and hardened. In that split second, it looked like he’d chosen fight over flight, and something important shifted inside me, too.
I breathed deep and slow, ignoring the fatigue creeping into my vision.
“They won’t survive this, and it’s not going to be pretty,” a voice commented from behind us.
The restrained glee immediately raised my hackles.
Dustin must have taken Theo’s absence as permission to rejoin the group. He was wise and kept several steps back, but knowing he’d enjoy seeing one of us die shot a streak of violence through me. “Shut up,” I snapped, “or we’ll throw you out there with them.”
“Throw him out there anyway,” Varesh said as he tracked Tim through the glass.
I couldn’t care about Dustin right now. Our people were making their first moves.
Tim grabbed the infected woman by the back of her shirt, twisting his hand and tightening his grip. He held on like his life depended on it, leaning back and staying clear of her teeth.
She struggled against his restraint, her mouth gaping in what might have been a moan.
Like a warrior, Laura came in with a two-handed swing straight at the woman’s head. I held my breath and flattened my hands against the glass, pleading for it to go smoothly.
She missed on the first attempt and nearly took out Tim.
“Careful,” Varesh said, voice strained. “We don’t want to lose anyone through friendly fire.”
She righted herself in seconds, and with another sweep of her maul, connected with the woman’s temple. The crack of metal on bone sent her dropping to her knees. Laura didn’t waste a single precious moment. She swooped in with another swing, hitting with skull-splitting force.
I winced and finally breathed again.
“That’s my girl,” Owen murmured. “Smashing up your apartment was good practice,” he said without looking at Dustin.
Dustin huffed.
Blood flew out from the body as it crumpled on the ground, splayed across the footpath like a crime scene. Except it wasn't illegal anymore.
None of us reacted in the silence that came afterward.
There were no words to match the situation.
Laura and Tim paused, catching their breath as they checked in on us through the glass, their faces a combination of relief and disgust.
The first kill.
Not the man at the door, but the woman he’d attacked.
I’d never expected survival to feel so deflating.
We didn’t have time to celebrate with another one still on the loose.
Theo stalked the infected man, taking strategic steps, hammer raised and ready to strike.
All I could do was wait and trust he had it under control—but his weapon didn’t look nearly weighty enough, and if those teeth connected with his skin, it was over.
My sister. Theo. There’d be no point to anything anymore.
“What will you do without Theodore around to protect you?” Dustin all but whispered as he sidled up closer, still keeping back so he wouldn't test the protection order.
He knew how to tap into my deepest fears, I’d give him that. But he’d become far too brave for a man who was so clearly outnumbered.
“You better back off now before I throw you through a window,” Owen warned, his voice like steel.
I shot him an appreciative glance. Five men in the building, and only one of them made me feel unsafe.
“None of you are going to live through this,” Dustin said, tracking Theo as if he couldn’t wait to see him fall first. “You’re all so emotional. Reactive. Aggressive. At the first sign of trouble, you implode. Take Laura for example—”
“Shut up.” All the tension bubbled up inside me, my body taut with the need for release. “When she hears you’ve been talking about her, she’ll take your head off—and none of us will stop her.”
“Oh, I’ll help her.” Varesh momentarily pinned Dustin with a stare before directing his attention at the street. “Theo’s on the move.”
A shiver trickled down my spine, and I clenched my hands at my sides.
Theo approached the infected man from the front as Tim and Laura moved in behind, the breeze ruffling his hair, his muscles taut beneath his shirt.
I pressed my palms against the smeared glass, every cell in my body screaming at them to move carefully. One wrong step, and we could be grieving one of our own. “Please, please,” I mumbled, refusing to take my eyes off them.
Tim snapped out something that sounded like now, then swept his foot out in front of the infected man, stopping his awkward gait in an instant.
The man tumbled forward, his face smacking against the concrete so hard I squinted. While he lay there in a pool of blood, Laura planted her foot in the middle of his back and pinned him to the spot.
I knew what was coming.
I could feel it.
Theo took a couple of steps closer, pulled the hammer back, and smashed it into the back of the man’s head.
Once. Twice. The muffled thud permeated the glass, and I swallowed back a wave of nausea.
He went back for an unnecessary third strike, but as disgusting as it was, I understood.
None of us wanted to be taken by surprise when our lives were so unsteady.
His breath wrenched from him as he straightened, and he shared a tentative smile with Laura and Tim.
“They did it,” I said, almost scared to feel relief. “And no one got hurt.”
“Better get them inside now,” Owen said. “More could be close by.”
As he flicked the lock, Theo raced to the opposite side of the road, yanked up the lid of a wheelie bin, and lost the contents of his stomach.
“Oh, Theo,” I whispered, my hand on my chest as he wretched. He’d push through any feeling, any situation, to keep the rest of us safe. If it hadn’t already been obvious, he’d made that crystal clear now.
He straightened and wiped his mouth, his gaze locking with mine. The second he registered Dustin’s presence, his expression darkened.
I’d forgotten about him.
With a fortifying breath, I turned and faced him, but he’d already disappeared.
Only the soft bang of his broken door let me know he’d been here at all.