Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
ARENA
Lettie was shaking and still breathing too quickly as I listened to Gwen’s explanation.
“I think you might need to take one of your—”
The door banged open, interrupting me.
Lettie screamed.
I looked at Nav in surprise.
“Did you leave anyone with your boat?” he demanded.
Gwen glanced at me.
“Why?” I asked.
“I hear gunfire and screaming.”
“Shit,” Gwen breathed, sprinting for the door.
Nav caught her around the waist. “Stay with Arena. I’ll go. Keep her safe.” Then he was gone.
Gwen looked at me, panic in her eyes. “We left Lynn and Asha. We’re not just going to stay here, are we?”
“No,” I said, untangling from Lettie. “I need pants.”
I ran to the bedroom and came back out in less than a minute, zipping my jeans and jacket hanging open. Barely pausing at the open front door, I stomped into my boots, then rushed outside.
Lettie and Gwen stood in the road, listening to the gunfire. Gwen held the recently acquired rifle, and my stomach twisted at the sight of it. Guns were great. They killed infected. And if she had one, she was expecting some.
We sprinted toward the fence, scrambling over it almost at the same time. The gun slowed Gwen a little.
We moved as quietly as possible down the center of the road, no longer sprinting.
Our footfalls were soft but hurried. No one said anything.
If the gunfire hadn’t drawn infected yet, it would soon.
I kept looking over my shoulder in case any came up behind us.
But as they’d said, nothing was moving besides us.
By the time we reached the pharmacy, I could hear someone yelling something, but the sound of the boat’s engine and infected calls made it impossible to make it out.
I tugged on Gwen’s jacket to stop her from running past the hotel. She and Lettie followed me to the side, near the tall grass, where we could see the docks without being spotted.
The chaos I saw stunned me. A group of men near the land end of the dock was shooting at the horde of infected between them and us.
I recognized a face. Eric. Scanning the rest, I saw the one Belak had knocked out, too.
The pair were dividing their attention between that group of infected and another group on the dock that Nav was trying to keep from Asha, who was huddled behind a pile of supplies.
How had Eric managed to get his people pinned between two groups of infected? And why wasn’t Nav killing the ones surrounding him and Asha?
My heart leaped when Eric and his partner fired a few shots in that direction. Two infected in front of Nav jerked but didn’t go down.
Lynn, in the boat, yelled. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but based on the arm movements, she was trying to get Asha to jump and swim out to her.
Nav turned his head and said something to Asha as he shoved an infected into another. Why wasn’t he tearing off their heads? I’d seen him do it. He could kill them all in seconds.
I squinted, noting the blood on his forearm. Was he bitten again?
“What do we do?” Lettie whispered, sounding on the verge of tears. “What if he turns?”
Gwen’s expression hardened, and she lifted the rifle. I stopped her.
“He won’t,” I said quietly. “No shooting here.”
I nodded toward more infected moving our way.
Gwen didn’t question me as I gestured toward the front of the hotel. They followed me into the building toward one of the lower rooms facing the water in the middle of the hotel. I knocked softly on the broken door. When nothing answered, we went in.
While Lettie and I moved the dresser to block the door, Gwen went to the window. She had a clear view of the dock and Nav.
“Don’t shoot him,” I said. “He’s immune. I’ve seen it.”
“I won’t,” she said, opening the window enough to aim.
Lettie and I covered our ears.
Gwen fired.
At the sound, the men in the group started yelling.
“Did you get one of them?” Lettie asked.
“No, I shot the knee out of one of the infected trying to get to Nav. He didn’t look happy. I think he’s using his group as a body shield.”
“Shit,” I said, understanding.
Eric wasn’t shooting at the infected around Nav; he was shooting at Nav. He wanted to get rid of him to get to the supplies. Not just the ones here but the ones at the house too.
Gwen’s gaze met mine, and she indicated Lettie. With a nod, I stepped in front of my friend and covered her ears. She stared at me, her gaze briefly sad.
“It’s okay. I’ll take more medicine.”
I kissed the tip of her nose and then glanced over my shoulder at Gwen.
“The two that are focused on Nav are the ringleaders,” I said.
“Got it.” She slid the bolt on the rifle and took aim.
I didn’t flinch when the first shot rang out.
Instead, I grinned at Lettie and stuck out my tongue, stretching it to see if I could touch her nose without moving.
The sadness left her gaze. Her shaking eased just a bit as she gave me a “What is wrong with you?” look.
I leaned in. She started to struggle. Not enough to get away.
She knew what I was doing—distracting her as the second shot rang out. Then the third.
“Clipped him,” Gwen said, sliding the bolt again. “I’ve got one more. Use it or save it?”
“Use it on the other one,” I said.
A fourth shot rang out.
“Lucky me,” she said under her breath. “They’re panicked now. Get down.”
I shoved Lettie to the floor a second before a volley of bullets hit the building, shattering the window.
Lettie cried out.
Nav roared.
The gunfire increased in volume. The shots stopped pinging off the building. The yelling by the docks increased.
Afraid for Nav, I scrambled to the window.
Gwen tried to pull me back to stop me from looking out, but I was quick and peeked over the edge.
In that brief flash, I saw Nav throwing infected like footballs at Eric’s group.
The leaderless bunch was fighting for their lives, shooting infected and trying to make a run for it.
“We need to move,” I said, pulling at Gwen.
She dragged Lettie toward the door as I shoved at the dresser and checked the peephole. Seeing it empty, we slipped out. I ran toward the door to the stairs. Gwen held the stock and barrel of the rifle, ready to use it to push back any infected in the stairwell, but it was empty.
We ran up to the second floor to a room near the end of the building in time to see the group running away from the docks. Infected trailed behind them. The survivors were shouting and motioning to the broken-out window.
“What are we going to do?” Lettie asked.
“Strip the bed. Tie the sheets together.”
They moved away from the window. Material ripped behind me as I kept watch.
Nav was killing a few limb-impaired stragglers by the docks.
The boat was trolling closer.
The fleeing group reached the end of the building, and I could hear their harsh breathing as they passed underneath our window. The majority of the infected followed close on their heels, tripping and stumbling over the uneven ground. One fell into the water.
“Add some knots to it,” Gwen said. “Get the window open, Arena.”
I quietly slid the window to the side. It didn’t move far, but enough that we could squeeze through. Lettie handed me a knife. I cut the screen.
Gunfire rang out below. They’d reached the room we’d abandoned. Someone screamed. I didn’t look. I didn’t need to. Their fight to survive would be our escape.
Gwen pushed the bundle through the opening as Lettie and I ripped more screen away. The length unraveled, almost touching the ground.
“It’s tied off. I’ll go first,” Gwen said.
I nodded and helped her shimmy her lower half out. With her feet gripping the first knot, she eased herself over the edge.
Lettie and I kept an eye on the infected as she quickly and quietly descended. One of the survivors had fallen behind, and they were attacking him. A good distraction for us. Bad for him.
Gwen landed softly. Lettie hurried to follow.
She was halfway down when the guy stopped screaming.
I scrambled to get my lower half out the window.
Lettie was almost to the ground. I couldn’t wait.
Either the infected would notice us or the group in the lower room would. One had teeth; the other had guns.
Suddenly, I free-fell several inches, the length still firmly in my grasp, before it jerked taut again. I scrambled down faster, knowing it couldn’t take both our weights. It let loose when I still had six feet to go.
I landed hard, jarring my knees and twisting my ankle. Gwen pulled at my arm.
Gritting my teeth through the pain, I ran with her. Not fast enough, though. Lettie was sprinting ahead.
Gwen was looking behind us.
“Run, Arena!”
That she wasn’t worried about keeping quiet spurred me more than anything.
I saw Nav. He raced toward us, passing Lettie.
“Go,” he said to Gwen, scooping me up.
She ran ahead of him.
Safe in his arms, I looked behind us. Several infected were chasing us. More were fighting to get in through the shot-out window where several dead infected were draped over the sill. In the room above it, I saw a window open.
A handgun appeared.
My eyes went wide as it veered toward us instead of the infected below.
“Nav!”
The word barely left my mouth when the report rang out.
Nav stumbled and kept running.
I looked at his tight expression. He pulled me in tighter toward his chest, ensuring I wouldn’t get hit before the second shot echoed around us. He jerked again.
“Fucking dodge, Nav!” I said through my tears.
He glanced at me and smiled.
Smiled.
“You said forever,” I said. “You better keep your word.”
“Start the engine,” Gwen yelled.
We reached the dock. Nav sprinted toward the end where Asha was chucking supplies into the boat as fast as possible. Gwen helped her. Lettie scrambled aboard.
Nav reached the supplies and dropped to his knees. For a second, I wondered what he was doing. Then I realized that was it. He’d carried me as far as he could. Right to the end of the dock with the last of his strength.
I scrambled out of his arms and looked at his back.
“He was shot twice,” I said, looking at the twin rivulets of blood coming from the two holes. At least it was slow.
I ducked under one of his arms and tried to help him stand. My efforts were laughable.
“Help me, Gwen. We can’t leave him here.”
She hurried over and took his other arm.
“Shit. He’s heavy,” she said.
“Pull,” I said, tugging with all my might.
He rallied enough to get to his feet with our help and topple into the boat on his side. We scrambled in after him. I kicked supplies out of the way, knelt in front of him, and took his hand.
“Please tell me you’re going to be okay.”
“I’ll be okay,” he said. But he didn’t sound like himself. He sounded winded.
I looked up, meeting Gwen’s worried gaze as she grabbed a towel and pressed it to his back. He grunted.
The boat rocked underneath us sickeningly, reminding me we were on the water as Lynn used the engine to pull away from the dock.
“Get flat, Arena,” Gwen said. “I can only worry about one of you.”
Feeling out of air myself, I settled next to Nav, facing him as Lynn opened the throttle. His pain-glazed gaze locked with mine as we bounced on the bottom of the boat.
The gunfire started to fade.
So did the light as we sped away from Ashland.