Twenty-Seven
theo
“Like glue, girls,” Laura said as we crept down Sanderson Street. With both daughters flanking her, she clutched her maul tight, ready to take off the nearest head. “Stay close to your dad or me. No exceptions.”
“Got it.” Ellie had locked in the second we stepped outside, mace in hand as she scanned the street.
“I know, Mum.” Willow tugged her beanie lower and gripped her prospecting hammer. The thought of a twelve-year-old driving that tip through a skull went against everything I knew about the world.
“You too, honey, while we’re on the subject,” Owen added from behind me. “No heroics.”
“I’m a veteran,” she said over her shoulder. “Talk to me when you’ve taken your first one down.”
I turned my head and smirked at him. He rewarded me with the finger.
Tim and Varesh were still at home, monitoring the building in case Dustin did something underhanded, like barricading the doors and stopping us from getting back inside.
We woke early and went out at first light, taking advantage of the empty streets. The sunrise bathed our faces in an eerie orange glow, and our breath formed clouds that faded like smoke.
“You good?” I asked Sadie as she walked beside me.
She nodded quickly, Gav’s medieval axe hanging at her side. “Just imagining what it’s like to kill one of them.”
“They’re already dead,” Owen said without looking back at her. “Just worry about yourself.”
“I am worried about myself. I don’t know how I’m going to handle all the blood and guts. I don’t even like horror movies.”
“Don’t be ashamed if you throw up,” I said, bumping her shoulder. “Some of the bravest soldiers vomit.”
“Is that right?” She slid me a smile that had warmth unfurling in my gut.
Sadie fell asleep on the couch last night while we were in the middle of a conversation about our families. I never got the chance to kiss her again, but knowing we’d be leaving together shifted something inside me, and suddenly the waiting felt like part of the journey.
Shouting came from a house on our right, and her humour faded. I glanced in that direction, the hair on the back of my neck rising.
Willow stopped, but Laura grabbed her wrist and tugged her along. “Ignore it,” she said. “We can’t take on other people’s troubles right now.”
As the yelling turned to screaming, I steeled my spine and kept moving. Maybe we’d get to a point that we could jump in and help strangers, but it was too soon, and we’d only risk losing some of our own.
The six of us fell silent and walked for a couple more minutes, until Sadie pointed at the tennis club up on the left.
The main court was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence with a gate on the right, swinging in the breeze. The clubhouse was quiet, the car park empty.
Movement inside the fence line caught my attention—a man in striped pyjamas following a woman wearing navy scrubs. Both were soaked in blood, and the man dragged his foot in an exaggerated limp.
“Dad, look.” Ellie clasped Owen’s shoulder as we moved from the road to the footpath.
Our first infected out in the wild. My breath stalled as we bunched together and studied them.
I still hadn’t accepted what I was seeing—that a couple of dead, bloody figures could just exist like this, with no destination and no goals other than tearing people apart.
They shuffled along, bumping into the fence every few steps, and I couldn’t tell if they were lacking in coordination or trying to get out.
When the woman staggered straight past the open gate, I had my answer.
“Who’s up first?” Sadie asked.
“It’s probably your turn now,” Laura said.
“Right.” Sadie took another look at the infected, her shoulders pulling back in preparation. “I guess I should have expected that.”
“Better to do it now while you have backup.” I repositioned my grip on the sword. Since she wasn’t back to full strength yet, I’d keep watch as if both our lives depended on it.
“I’ll come with you.” Owen jerked his head toward the tennis courts. “Ellie, you too.”
He must have already had this chat with Laura because she didn’t utter a word of complaint. “Make sure you don’t lose sight of her,” she said.
“Always.” He gave her a reassuring smile, his expression sharpening as he readied himself for the next step.
“Remember what we talked about,” I said. “Keep clear of their teeth and watch one another’s backs.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not taking any chances.” Sadie switched the axe to her other hand. The wind blew strands of hair across her face, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Why don’t you lure them over here while we go through the gate and sneak up behind them?”
Already pushing down her fears and talking strategy.
The infected were still near the longer stretch of side fence, the one in scrubs lifting her head as if she’d sniffed our scent. When her mouth opened to let out a wet gurgle, my stomach tensed. “Here we go.”
I dragged my sword against the chain link, the metallic rattle drawing their attention.
When the infected woman was about halfway across the court, Sadie, Owen, and Ellie ran off along the front fence, rounding the corner and reaching the gate. Steps quiet, voices low. It was like watching my heart wander off, waiting to be trampled.
Laura gave Willow a brief side hug. “Stay close, remember?”
“I know,” she said. “It’s not like I want to run off on my own.” She trailed her hammer across the chain-link, eyes locked on the dead. If she was scared, I couldn’t tell.
“Incoming.” My fingers flexed on the hilt of my sword.
The woman’s toe scraped the acrylic surface of the court, another lonely moan drifting on the wind as the man followed.
Six steps away.
Her cloudy eyes found Willow, and she extended a hand, fingers curling around nothing.
Two steps.
My muscles coiled as the smell of decomposing flesh hit first. “Look out.”
The woman slapped her hands on the fence and mashed her face into the metal, rabid and desperate, deepening the gashes on her cheek and neck. Willow jumped back and stumbled into her mum.
“Easy,” Laura said, steadying her even as her own voice shook. “You’re okay. She can’t get you.”
The woman’s mouth gaped, and she wailed with frustration and hunger. A white film covered her eyes, and rot thickened the air as she wove her fingers between the links, nails ragged and broken. The tendons in her neck were exposed, her top drenched with blood, turning the navy to purple.
I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it. My eyes watered as I shifted my focus to the activity behind her.
Sadie entered the tennis court with Owen and Ellie close behind. They stopped for a beat and strategised, then spread out and approached the dead in a similar formation to what Laura, Tim, and I had used.
Sadie glanced at me, and I nodded my encouragement.
Steady now. I need you in my life.
My pulse thudded as I tapped my sword on the fence, the rhythmic clink pulling the man in pyjamas closer.
It hit me then how Sadie must have felt watching me through the foyer door—the helplessness and worry that someone you cared for might not make it back to you. The urge to put myself between her and the dead grew stronger by the minute.
“Keep smacking the wire, Wills,” I said. “Breathe through the fear. Focus.”
She sent me a split-second glance, then hit the infected woman’s fingers hard enough that it should have made her pull back, but she kept reaching, kept trying to grasp anything she could get her hands on.
“Good,” Laura said. “Keep going.” Then to me, she said quietly, “It sucks being on the outside. I need to be in there with them.”
The man in pyjamas finally made it to the fence, his bare feet slapping the ground as he joined the woman. His foot looked to be broken, and his arrival ramped up her agitation. The two of them jostled against the fence, fingers reaching, faces void of emotion.
“They’re close,” I said. “Almost there.” I couldn’t tear my gaze from Sadie now. If she tripped or rolled an ankle, it could change everything.
“Don’t take any risks,” Laura called out to Ellie. “Listen to your dad.”
She nodded her understanding, keeping quiet.
They were smart, all three of them. If they stayed alert and worked as a team, they’d be fine—and I’d keep reminding myself of that until Sadie was back on this side of the fence, injury free.
Owen pointed at the dead woman and said something to Sadie, his voice so low, I couldn’t make out the words. She gave the slightest nod and gestured for Ellie to approach along with her.
The women were taking the first swings, with Owen as backup in case it went south. He had the strength; they had the faster reflexes.
The man gnashed his teeth and tried grabbing Willow through the barrier, but she stood her ground. Each time he pushed his fingers through, she hammered his knuckles.
Laura’s maul clinked against the metal, a slow, steady tempo building the tension.
My feet were restless, my legs itching to move.
I kept my position, tracking Sadie as she crept up behind the woman, her steps undetectable amid the noise of the infected.
With her axe raised at shoulder height, she stared hard at her target.
Everything about her posture, her focus, told me she could do this.
“She’s going in for the kill,” Laura said. “One clean hit, that’s all we need.”
The air went still, and I wanted to grip the fence. Call out instructions. But she didn’t need my help.
No one spoke. The only sounds came from the infected—the man’s low groan, and the woman’s eerie wail—and Willow attacking their protruding fingers like a game of whack-a-mole.
Energy moved through me like static electricity.
As Sadie stepped up to the fence and shifted her weight, I tapped Willow’s shoulder. “It’s about to get messy.”