I nodded, swinging my backpack round and unclipping it. I reached inside, my hand finding the handle of an axe right away, and I pulled it out, feeling even more terrified at the sight of it.
Could I do this? Would I do this? Killing the dead things was one thing, but killing another man—a human being… I’d had to before, but when did it stop? When would it be enough?
I knew my answer already.
I put my backpack on and we left the safety of the dark corridor, stepping out into the burning hot Nevada sunshine, the air filled with the stench of death and decay, and chants for blood. I’d never known fear like it, and I probably never would again.
Nolan found my hand as we started to run, stopping at each building and waiting to make sure that the coast was clear. We were all sweaty and exhausted and we were only halfway across. The fight of our lives hadn’t even begun yet and I was already starting to think I wouldn’t make it.
Elias pulled us to another stop beside what used to be a store selling bikinis and hats. The faded signs were still up, but the place had been picked clean and everything replaced with wooden crates.
“What’s in there?” Nolan grunted, nodding towards the door.
“That’s a distraction,” Elias replied. “We need to get around this building and head north. The exit will be guarded so we’re going out the back entrance. It’s the longest way around, but it’s the safest way.”
I wondered what he meant by a distraction, but I didn’t care enough to ask any questions. Elias took off around the corner and Nolan and I followed. I’d let go of his hand once my palm had gotten sweaty, but I longed for the security of it. We passed around some smaller stands, the sound of growls coming from somewhere. It wasn’t until we were passing it that I noticed the pit filled with zombies and I swallowed, refusing to let the fear choke me.
That was where I would end up if I didn’t get out of here.
I’d be a zombie in a pit, ready to kill without a second thought.
I’d be a weapon designed to destroy.
I reached for Nolan’s hand as a sickness gripped me, and he tightened his grip around mine, giving me a backward glance that told me he already knew what I was thinking and that he wouldn’t let that happen. That he’d die before he let anything happen to me.
The funny thing was, I believed him.
“Just up here, not much further,” Elias whispered back to us.
And then from the opposite side of the pit of zombies, I saw him.
Barrett.
He came out from a building, his hands and shirt bloody and his nostrils flared in the sort of rage that I’d only seen on the likes of the monsters in the pit. His expression switched in an instant, from dark and deadly to motivated and angry.
Elias and Nolan spotted him too, and we all came to a stumbling stop, our gazes fixed on one another. Sam came out from inside the building, her hands and mouth covered in blood. Her expression was much scarier though. Because Sam didn’t look angry or full of rage, ready to kill anyone that got in her way. Sam looked happy. Gleeful, almost.
Her gaze found mine and Barrett’s hand went to her stomach, holding her back from running to me. His expression darkened further as it slid along from me to Elias, our intention becoming clear.
“You about to leave without saying goodbye, Rose?” he called across the pit of hungry zombies. They swarmed to the deep end where we all stood on opposite sides, their arms reaching up towards us, jaws snapping, hazy eyes willing us to fall in.
“I decided I couldn’t trust you,” I said, with surprising steel to my tone.
He put a hand to his heart. “Well that just hurts,” he mocked. He glanced back over at Elias. “Never thought you had a backbone, kid. Looks like I misjudged you.”
“You misjudge a lot of people, Barrett,” Elias replied. He looked back at us. “We need to go. We don’t have much time before they realize something’s not right.”
He started to move again, and Nolan and I followed. Sam called my name, but I refused to look at her. She’d betrayed me. Not only that, but every time I looked at her, all I saw was the blood that stained her lips.
She hadn’t just betrayed me, she’d betrayed humanity too.
“Not so fast,” Barrett said, moving around the pool towards us. “Looks like we’re going on a vacation too.”
“You can’t come with us,” I snapped, hating him with every fiber of my body.
Barrett chuckled. “Now what makes you think you can stop me, Rose?”
Chapter Five.
Sam
Barrett and Rose were in a standoff, as if the cheers in the distance and the hungry zombies in the pit meant nothing to them. There was no threat now, nothing to run from. I called Rose’s name again, but she still wouldn’t look at me. I tried to move around Barrett’s body, but he kept pushing me back behind him.
“I said you can’t come with us, Barrett.” Rose lifted the axe she held, cradling it with both hands, and in that moment she looked as fierce as I’d ever seen her. “Elias is helping me and Nolan. We don’t need you.”
“You don’t have a choice, my little British Rose.” He shrugged, massive shoulders rising and falling as if nothing in the world could shake him. But I knew different, because not too long ago, I’d surprised the formidable criminal.
This time, I didn’t let Barrett hold me back. I pushed around him, slapping down his arm when it lifted to contain me.
“Rose, I don’t understand. Why don’t you want us to come? He was going to save you, wasn’t he? He promised me he was going to save you.”
“Sure, Sam,” Rose spat out, face flushed beet red. “He was going to save us, while you chose to save yourself. Isn’t that right? After all we’ve been through together”—she stamped forward, hand lifting and finger jamming into my chest—“you chose to save your own skin.”
Emptiness flooded through me, and all the endnotes of rage from killing Jackson and Stash, and the jubilant hysteria that had followed, were wiped clean.
“What are you talking about?” I turned, bewildered, to stare at Barrett.
“We don’t have time for this,” Elias, standing next to Rose, spoke up, reaching forward and gripping her by the upper arm. “Don’t you hear that? Don’t you hear the shouts? They’re not waiting for a fight anymore, they’re looking for one.”
For a few seconds more, Rose and Barrett stared at one another. I still didn’t know why she was being so cold to me. What did she mean that I’d chosen to save my own skin? Didn’t she know that I had stayed with Barrett—Barrett, who I hated with every ounce of my soul—just so that she’d have a chance with Nolan?
Nolan reached for Rose and Elias stopped touching her. My gaze widened at the sight of him; his face was a myriad of colors. A combination of bruises and cuts, and swollen cheekbones.
“Come on, Rose,” Nolan said. “He’s right. We’re going to be caught if we don’t run. Now. We’ll deal with”—he flashed me and Barrett a gaze filled with thinly-veiled threats—“the extra baggage as soon as we’re safe.”
Rose nodded curtly, her small pointed chin bouncing in assent, but her lips drawn in an unhappy, thin line.
Rose, Nolan, and Elias took the lead, pushing past me and Barrett.
I didn’t understand why Rose seemed so hostile toward me. I’d done everything I could to keep her safe. But what was I now? Extra baggage? As bad as Barrett to her, for some reason? My heart ached, and I wanted to yank her aside and demand answers. But danger kissed the corners of my mind, men closing in that wanted blood payment. And there wasn’t time.
“Take this,” Barrett growled, and I looked down to his outstretched hand. He held a compact gun, the grip pushed toward me while he held the barrel. “It’s loaded. I don’t have an extra clip, so use the damn bullets wisely.”
“Where’d you get that?” I asked stupidly, reaching for the gun and wishing it was something else, something I wasn’t scared of. Like a shovel. Or a bat. Or a sledgehammer, I thou
ght, the monster inside of me licking her lips as tasty brain memories flooded in.
Barrett quirked an eyebrow as if to say why are you asking dumbass questions? “I’m always carrying, Sam.” As if to prove his point, he reached behind his back and withdrew a much larger version of the gun he’d just handed me, this one with wood grips and a barrel that screamed bullseye. “Come on, we need to catch up.”
He grabbed my free hand, gripping it so tight I winced, and yanked me after the trio who were already too many yards away. They were paused beside a building, checking around the corner to see if the way was clear. Before they started moving again, Barrett and I were at their heels.
“Rose, can you please look at me?” I begged at her back, though I knew it wasn’t the time or place to try to force a conversation. “Rose, please,” I pleaded again, but she was moving too fast in front of me, her axe gripped in her hands and poised for action.
“Give it a rest, Sam,” Barrett spoke sternly, his breathing heavy. “Being here’s changed you both. She’s not worth it. Let’s just fucking survive and then you and I can be on our merry little way. I’ll keep you safe, fuck these fools.”
“I don’t want you to keep me safe.” I picked up my pace so I could be in front of him instead of beside him, but seconds later we were all stopping again at the corner of a building.
Barrett threw me a seriously pissed off expression, and I warred with feelings of hate and anger and guilt. I hated him for what he’d done, hated him for hiding Rose from me. I was angry at him for all of it. I realized I blamed him for so fucking much.. But he was willing to leave it all behind—everything he knew, including his stupid crazy, mixed-up family—for me.
“We need to get past these vehicles and take the next right.” Elias was talking hurriedly and pointing at a parking lot with faded lines and cracked asphalt.
“Why aren’t we just hopping into one of these trucks and getting the hell out of here?” Rose pointed at a nearby truck; it was fortified to the nines with a front grille made for ramming, big lights atop the roof, and gas tanks on either side.
“Because the minute we start one of those up is the minute the lookout snipers spot us. We’ve got to go slow, low, and stay out of sight.” Elias pointed over the building, indicating a water tower with the amusement park’s old name written in faded yellow script.
“There are snipers?” I swallowed, craning my neck to see if I could spot one of them. And their…super big, accurate rifle.
“Bloody hell, Sam. He just said there were snipers. Why are you asking?” Rose bit off each word angrily, and they felt like bullets to my chest.
“I’m…I’m sorry, Rose. I didn’t mean to be stupid.” It was funny how the anger from Rose caused my monster to shrink away. She wasn’t scared of Jackson or Stash or even Barrett; but for Rose to be mad with us…was almost unbearable.
“Let’s just get out of here,” she muttered, turning away from me, her eyes wet with unshed tears.
Why was she trying not to cry? I didn’t understand.
And then there wasn’t time to keep thinking about it.
The shouts were getting closer; they couldn’t have been far off from finding us now.
“We have got to fucking move,” Barrett bellowed. “Elias, if we try to go straight through the parking lot, we’re going to be sighted.”
“What do you suggest?” Elias looked at him, face serious. Even if he disliked Barrett, which he seemed to, he also seemed to take his opinion seriously.
“I think we should take a vehicle.”
“But the snipers—”
“No one knows I’m part of this. Comprende? I walk out there, wave, drive the truck next to this building, you get in, we drive off. Simple as that.” Barrett made it sound so easy, just a walk in the damn park. But I didn’t trust him one bit. Not anymore.
“Do you think that will work?” Elias was nervous, shooting glances over his shoulder at the sound of the approaching voices.
“If I act real goddamn quickly, maybe.” Barrett, not waiting for agreement from the group, walked away from us, stuffing his gun into his rear holster as he moved.
We all moved around the corner of the building so that we could see him exit the other side. He waved up at the water tower, looking for all the world like a man on a Sunday stroll. I heard a faint voice holler down at him.
“Barretttttttttttttttttttt, when the fuck did you get back?”
“Santos! How the fuck are ya, brother? Got back a few days ago!”
“Have you seen the new pussy Nathan got? Wooooo-wheeee! I been tapping that shit every chance I get. But I heard you got a permanent side piece. That can’t be true. Not our Barrett!”
Barrett laughed, a deep loud chuckle. “What can I say. I just haven’t gotten enough of her yet!”
They continued the idle chitchat until Barrett waved a second time and moved to a double-cab truck, not as pimped-out as the one Rose had wanted, but big enough to seat all of us. He yanked on the door handle, and maybe because I was watching him so closely, I saw the way his shoulders relaxed only a fraction. He hadn’t been sure it would be unlocked.
The engine rumbled to life not long after.
But still, the shouts were getting closer. They were looking for us. They were going to find us.
Barrett didn’t drive fast, though I willed him to. He took it carefully, avoiding suspicion. The big truck shuddered to a stop between the water tower and the building we were hiding behind. He rolled down his driver’s side window and started shooting the shit with the guy in the water tower again. None of us realized what he was doing at first, until he flashed us a pissed-off look.
“Come on, it’s now or never.” Nolan, bruised and battered, had been playing backseat to Elias and Barrett, but now he grabbed Rose’s hand and pulled her forward. “Through here.” He went to a door in the building, turned the knob, and pushed. It whined open.
“We don’t know what’s in there,” I protested, holding back.
“If we walk around the goddamn building, the truck won’t hide us. The water tower is too high up—those snipers would see us in seconds.” He and Rose disappeared into the shadows and Elias followed.
Swallowing, I moved to enter the building as well, but something slammed into my back, sending me reeling forward to slam my palm into the building to stay upright. I held onto the gun, to my credit, but I stumbled trying to turn around. A tire iron lay on the dusty ground at my feet. Blinking against the sun, I saw them. A group of kids, most of them wearing torn clothes stained with white dust. They looked…god, cracked out of their minds.
“Andy?” My mouth dropped into a little O when I saw his face. He wielded a hammer, and he didn’t appear lucid. He didn’t seem to recognize me.
“Fucking get her!” yelled a girl with ragged bangs and bruises on her chest.
I don’t know why I didn’t race into the building. It was funny. How many times had I watched a horror movie and gotten pissed at the heroine for going up the stairs instead of out the front door? Or, worse, they’d run down into the dark, deadly basement and I’d screamed at the television. You idiot! Moron! What are you doing? Don’t go down there! Do you want to die?
But here I was running AWAY from safety.
I pushed off the building, launching myself toward the kids. I lifted the gun, but I couldn’t pull the trigger. God, some of them seemed as young as twelve or thirteen. They were drugged out of their minds; this wasn’t their fault!
But I didn’t want to die. God, I didn’t want to die.
And more so, I didn’t want Rose or Nolan to die.
An engine revved behind me, and I took the chance of looking over my shoulder.
Barrett at the wheel, the dual-cab truck barreling toward me and the kids. He was going straight for them. He didn’t have any qualms over running them over. Of course he didn’t. He didn’t have any qualms about killing anyone. If they were in his way, they were already dead anyways.
Sniper fire
hit the bed of the truck, sharp pings of bullets into metal.
The truck swerved as it came level with me before slamming back my way, clipping into the horde of kids who were set on attacking me. Even Andy… The truck rammed into him and he was pulled beneath the wheels, the truck hopping up and down as if hitting a speed bump too fast. Andy… God. I hadn’t even thought about him. I hadn’t thought about saving him too. I was an awful person. Awful. The apocalypse made everything so fucking ugly.
As the wheels kept turning, the spattered blood and bodily fluids flew in all directions. The wetness and smells hit me, calling the beast inside of me to life.
I looked past the gore to the crowd of men now running our way, weapons in hand, fierce gazes boring into us. They started firing. Into the truck, into the meth-head kids. A bullet ricocheted off the truck and drilled into my shoulder. I screamed out, raising the gun in my hand and squeezing the trigger without even a second thought. With each pull, I felt the beast coming back to the surface. I’d figure out why Rose was angry with me. But for now, I had to fight. I had to stay alive.
The world went red, just as bullets burst the truck tires and Barrett completely lost control of the vehicle. It spun, nearly tipping over onto its side before slamming into a building with a groan and crunch of metal.
I raced toward it. “Rose! God, Rose!” I screamed.
I yanked open the first door I came to, pink eyes searching.
She was there, holding her head gingerly. Nolan was checking himself quickly. Elias was opening his door and urging everyone to get the fuck out. Barrett didn’t need any coaxing; he was already standing near the front of the vehicle, his large gun popping off round after round.
“Rose, come on.” I reached in, threading my arm under hers and curving around her back. I lifted her out easily, my monster’s strength racing through my veins. “We have to run, Rose. Can you run?”
“Just save yourself,” she mumbled, eyes unfocused. “That’s what you’re good at.”
Red Eye | Season 3 | Episode 3 Page 4