by M. J. Haag
“Yep,” I said patting my belly. “I’d say the one and only, but Mya saw what kind of a trendsetter I am and jumped on my wagon, too.”
Brenna gave a weak smile. The topic didn’t seem to sit well with her.
“Speaking of trendsetters, I should probably let you know that I’ve asked for a bow, too.”
“You did?”
An infected called out, and Brenna glanced over her shoulder.
“Shit,” she breathed reaching back for an arrow.
She fired several off in quick succession.
“Everything okay?”
“I don’t know. The infected are acting weird.”
“Weird how?”
“Like they’re purposely doing stuff to get shot.” She fired again. “That one was just walking back and forth. Not a lost shamble but like the old shooting gallery decoys. As soon as I shoot one, another one takes its place.”
“That does sound weird. Are you the only one watching the wall today? I haven’t seen many fey.”
She shrugged slightly.
“I think they switched out the ones helping with Tenacity again. Those who aren’t sleeping or working there are with the survivors who left for supplies. There always seem to be a few lingering around here, though.” Her gaze swept the area around me then narrowed.
I hid my smirk and turned to the east to look for Thallirin.
“Do you see that?” she asked. “At the end of the street.”
I squinted and tried to focus on the group walking through the neighborhood. A few split off going to houses on each side. They moved normally, but looked like they’d been through a war. Their clothes were ripped and…I leaned forward as if another two inches would change what I was seeing.
One guy’s arm was dangling by a bit of tissue.
“Fuck!”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Run,” Brenna said a moment before she started yelling.
“Infected! Infected are inside! Drav! Infected!”
I ran. Down the road, the group of infected paused as they spotted me. Live prey bolting.
A cry went up. Those going into the houses didn’t stop. However, a few of the ones at the front of the group started toward me even as more split off to continue invading houses.
Three fey came running from different directions and converged on the infected. But there weren’t enough fey, and the infected weren’t the normal, slow ones. And they weren’t behaving like normal, either. Instead, they moved like they all had a part in a bigger plan. A distant scream came from one of the houses.
One person down.
I ran harder, breaking my rule and continued to glance back at the infected coming at me. They’d worked their way up to a sprint.
I swore and made it to the nearest house. The door wouldn’t budge. I pounded on the surface.
“Infected are inside the walls. Let me in!”
No one answered. No one came to my rescue.
I looked over my shoulder and saw the infected drawing closer. I’d never make it to the next house. Still, I bolted from the porch and ran for my life. A horn blared from behind me. This time, I didn’t look to see if it was working.
I continued northwest, away from the group, running through yards without trying the houses. The stupid break in and people’s mistrust was going to get me killed. Slipping and sliding on the snow-covered ground, I thought of the woman who’d tripped on the tent stake and wondered if I’d go out in the same way. And what would happen to the baby when I was bitten. Would it be undead inside of me?
More screaming rang out around the neighborhood. People started to emerge from their houses. I would have tried to warn them to get back in, but I was out of breath. Instead, I ran toward one of the open doors and pushed my way inside.
The woman squawked at me.
“Infected,” I panted. “Close the door.”
She peered outside instead of listening. I saw a shadow move by her feet at the same time she gasped. Spinning around, I bolted for the back door. Behind me, I heard her strangled cry.
More car horns started to blare, adding to the chaos. I ran blindly until arms closed around me. I fought until I realized I was being carried, not mauled.
I looked up at Shax’s worried twisted face and wrapped my arms around him.
“The houses aren’t safe,” he said.
I nodded.
He jumped suddenly, landing on the roof of a one-story house and jumped again onto the roof of the two-story house beside it.
“I need to leave you here. Stay safe, my Angel.” He kissed me hard and left me on the peak of the snow-covered roof.
Panting and shaky, I stood to see what was happening around me. From my place on the roof, I could see everything. The original group of infected from the east wasn’t the only group inside the wall. There were more to the north and the south as well.
Humans ran for their lives amidst the infected. Just below me, Shax grabbed the first human he found and threw the guy onto the one-story roof. He ran for the next human and tossed her onto another roof. It was higher and more steeply pitched. For a terrible moment, I thought she’d slide off; but she managed to grab onto the smoking chimney and hold tight.
While Shax killed infected and tried to get more humans onto roofs, a few brave humans stood against the undead horde and tried to protect others. Two stood back to back, surrounded. One of them was Garrett. I watched in fear as he faced one infected after another, his moves precise and unwavering. But there was so many. He had to be growing tired. Behind him, the other man with short dark hair fought just as fiercely.
“Shax,” I yelled. “Garrett needs help.”
Shax started working his way toward them, and I scanned the riot of bodies, trying to see where the infected were coming from.
Between the houses, I spotted Drav with Mya in his arms.
“Up here,” I yelled, waving my arms. He changed directions and headed my way with two other fey close behind.
Below, Shax reached Garrett and the other man. The three worked together to start clearing their area of the street.
Movement at the wall caught my attention. Brenna stood to the west, waving her hands and pointing. I followed her gaze to where infected were still streaming over the wall. Through the bodies coming up, I saw the ends of a ladder.
Drav jumped to the low first story roof, ignoring the people already there, then to my roof.
“There,” I said, grabbing his arm and pointing before he even set Mya down. “The infected are using ladders to get in. We need people on the walls.”
The two other fey landed on the roof and deposited Julie and Richard, Mya’s parents.
“Stay here, my Mya.” He kissed her, just like Shax had kissed me, and jumped down with the other two fey. The group ran toward where I’d pointed. Toward the ladder.
On the wall, the infected weren’t just jumping down but fanning out in both directions. I looked at Brenna, the ladder and Drav’s group.
“There aren't enough fey,” I said, watching the young woman. If Drav went to the ladder first, he would never reach Brenna in time.
She saw the problem, too, because she drew an arrow and began firing rapidly at the infected coming toward her on top of the wall. Her shots were spot-on, but her arrow supply was not limitless.
“Brenna needs help,” Mya yelled.
With a roar, another fey jumped up onto the wall and intercepted the horde coming at the young woman. Bodies flew left and right as the infected tried to knock him from their path. None of them stood a chance against Thallirin. Brenna pivoted and started firing at the infected still on the ground.
Seeing her safe for the moment, I focused on Drav’s group. The fey plowed through the infected, ripping off heads and tossing them aside. With an impressive coordinated leap, Drav’s group landed on top of the wall. They moved quickly, knocking infected to the outside without bothering to remove their heads. Any ladders they found they threw inside so the infected couldn’t get
back in.
“Where in the hell did they get all those ladders?” Mya asked.
“I hope they're not making them,” Julie said with a shiver. Her husband wrapped his arms around her.
“I'm sure they're not, Julie,” he said, rubbing her arms. By the look on her face, she didn't believe him, either.
With the ladders removed, the tide began to slowly change. More infected parts littered the streets than infected walked around. Exhausted humans kept fighting beside the fey until there wasn’t a single infected left standing. At least, not where we could see.
Shax jogged over to our house along with Garrett and the other man.
“You must stay on the roof until we check the houses,” Shax said. “It’s not safe yet.”
“We’re fine up here,” Mya called back. “Don’t you worry about us.”
I nodded.
“Mom? Dad? You okay?” the dark-haired man called.
“We’re fine, Ryan,” Richard said. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. No bites thanks to Garrett.”
“These infected seemed a lot smarter,” Mya said. “Their eyes. The way they moved.”
“Yeah, I think the infected were purposely drawing Brenna’s attention to the west just before they attacked,” I said.
“Are you saying they had a plan?” Garrett asked.
“They were using some of their number as decoys so the rest could get in. You tell me.”
“They're evolving. I wish I knew what that meant,” Mya said softly. “And what they are evolving into.”
Before Shax could move away to start checking the nearby homes, a roar filled the air.
“Mya,” a voice called loudly.
“Here,” she yelled back.
A fey came running with a woman in his arms. I recognized Ghua and Eden as he drew closer, carrying her.
“Tell him to stop,” Eden yelled.
“What's going on?” Mya asked.
“I've been bitten.”
Yelling started from the one-story roof next to us.
“Kill her before she turns.”
“Put her outside the wall.”
Shax snarled at them all, and they silenced.
Shax stopped Ghua when he reached the lawn of the two-story home on which Mya and I waited.
“She needs help,” Ghua said.
“There is no help,” Shax said. “You know this.”
Ghua looked down at Eden, his anguished gaze echoed by his low moan of denial.
“No. Eden cannot become stupid. She is smart and beautiful.” He held her more tightly against his chest. “Do not leave me.”
Eden lifted a hand and set it against his cheek.
“You are the best thing to have happened to me, Ghua. I’m so glad I didn’t shoot you.”
Julie sobbed softly behind me.
Kerr came running up with Cassie in his arms. The hope in Ghua’s expression as he lifted his head broke my heart.
“Set me down,” Cassie said. “I need to check her.” Kerr hesitated.
“Hold Eden's head, Ghua, so she cannot bite my Cassie.”
Ghua set Eden on her feet and gently cradled her head between his hands. Only then did Kerr put Cassie down.
I watched Cassie lift Eden's clothes, inspecting her skin.
“What are you doing?” Ghua asked. “Her bite is on her hand.”
“She's checking for gray marks,” Mya said.
“There aren’t any,” Eden said. “Ghua and I have been watching for them. Nothing. Not even a small bruise.”
Eden spontaneously threw up, barely missing Cassie. Cassie backed away, a knowing look crossing her features as Eden groaned in pain and clutched her middle.
There wasn’t a survivor alive who hadn’t already seen what was happening. We all knew what a bite meant. What we would become in only a few minutes. People learned to say goodbye quickly because, once the vomiting started, there wasn’t time left.
Ghua picked her back up, his anguish on his face as he rocked her.
Drav came jogging up.
“Half our number is needed on the wall to keep this from happening again. The other half needs to check the houses for remaining infected. I need one volunteer to run to Tenacity. We need our brothers to return home.”
He looked at Ghua and set a hand on the man's shoulders.
“I will take Eden for you.”
The pained noise that came from Ghua tore me apart. He held her closer.
“We will leave,” he said. “She will keep her head.”
She reached up and set her bloody hand on his face.
“Then let’s go, big guy. Before I hurt someone.” She cried out and convulsed in his arms. A weaker man would have dropped her. Whatever caused her to shake, stopped. Her head lolled back, her eyes open.
“Put me down so I can check her,” Cassie ordered.
“No.” Kerr stepped back further.
“Drav, hold her head. Kerr, put me down or you’re going to be the next one bitten.”
Drav held Eden’s head, and Kerr set Cassie down. Mya’s hand closed around mine and pulled me back. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized I’d been edging closer to the roofline.
“There’s no pulse,” Cassie said.
The people on the lower roof started up again, demanding the fey remove Eden’s head.
Ghua roared his rage and pain, and Eden jolted in his arms.
Kerr yanked Cassie back.
“I love you, Ghua, but you’re going to make me deaf,” Eden said.
“No way,” Mya said softly behind me.
I SIPPED the hot chocolate and listened to the conversation. Eden, Cassie, Mya, Jessie, and I sat in Mya’s living room. Byllo was with Julie and Richard at their house with all the kids. More fey had arrived from Tenacity to sweep through the homes in Tolerance and find any hiding infected.
“I don’t know about you, but the kids are sleeping with me tonight,” Jessie said.
“Same here,” Cassie said. “I’ve seen first-hand how the infected like to hide.”
“Grey patch or not, I don’t feel as safe in here anymore,” Mya said.
“In the house or in Tolerance?” Eden asked.
“Both. You still feeling okay?”
“My hand hurts like a bitch, but my stomach’s fine now, and my head stopped throbbing.” She looked at Cassie. “Any ideas how I’m not a flesh-craving shambler?”
Cassie shook her head.
“None. We thought it was Mya’s exposure to the crystal that made her immune.”
“First the grey patches then the immunity,” Mya said.
“As much as I hope this grey patch means I’m immune, I really don’t want to test it,” Jessie said.
“If not the crystals, then what? It has to be something we have in common,” Eden said, looking at Mya. “And the test and this—” Eden tapped her arm, “—make it very unlikely that I’m pregnant.”
“Birth control?” Cassie asked.
“Yep. Put in just a few weeks before the quakes.”
A fey’s raised voice coming from outside drew our attention. I turned and pulled back the curtain a bit so we could see what was going on. Brenna was still outside the house with her bow, a layer of protection in case any infected were still lurking. Thallirin stood before her, one arm held out and pointed toward the house.
Several of us inside the house groaned.
“Why do they think they need to be so bossy?” Eden said. “Ghua only tried that a few times before he figured out it wouldn’t end well for him.”
We watched Brenna turn toward the house. Her face was pale, and her eyes filled with fear.
“Thallirin needs to take a different approach with her,” Mya said. “He’ll never win her over this way.”
“I don’t think she wants to be won over,” Jessie said.
Brenna reached the door and let herself in. When she saw us all looking at her, she paused.
“Thallirin sent me in here,”
she said.
“Did you tell him to stick an arrow up his ass?” Eden asked.
Brenna shook her head and quickly closed the door.
“You should have,” Eden said. “Their expressions are priceless when you shock the hell out of them.”
“Come join us,” Mya said, patting the cushion beside her. “We’re trying to figure out why Eden’s immune.”
“Since arriving at Tolerance,” Cassie said, addressing Eden, “have you and Mya spent a lot of time together?”
“Please. Ghua barely lets me out of the house. My vagina is his new shiny toy, and he’s not done being in love with it yet.”
“Tell me about it,” Jessie said. “Byllo is constantly putting on movies for the kids and pulling me away for some play time. We were almost busted four times yesterday.”
“Four?” I asked in disbelief. I thought Shax’s fascination last night had been because it was the first time. “How many times a day are they after you?”
“Four,” Cassie said. “Easily.”
“Six,” Eden said. “Ghua can manage seven, but I had to tell him he was going to break his happy place if he kept that up.”
Cassie frowned slightly. “What we all have in common is the copious amounts of fey semen we are receiving.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
“Are you saying their sperm is like a vaccine against infection?” Mya asked.
“Well, that’s sure going to make them popular with the ladies,” I said.
“Oh, shit,” Eden groaned. “Ghua’s going to break his toy trying to protect it.”
I laughed along with the rest of the women and thought of Shax. Like many of the other fey, he was out there looking for infected and securing Tolerance. Although I knew he could kill an infected with ease, I still worried about him.
Mya caught me glancing out the window.
“How are things going with Shax?” she asked.
“Good.”
“Good or really good?” Eden asked.
I smiled, unable to help myself as thoughts of last night filled my head.
“Really good.”
Mya grinned and subtly nodded her head toward Brenna, who was still looking pale but listening.
“It turns out he and I were both pretty thickheaded. I thought he wanted Hannah. Then, when he didn’t anymore, I thought he only wanted me for the baby. It turns out, he wants me for me, which is perfect. The man is built like a horse,” I added.