by Dia Cole
The canisters of gasoline we had in the back must’ve spilled over.
He patted me down and, apparently satisfied I wasn’t in dire straits, shouted the question to everyone else.
“Son of a bitch. I think I broke my nose,” Grady gasped.
Darcy let out a painful grunt.
Reed said nothing.
The side air bags deflated as suddenly as they’d appeared, giving me a clear view to my left.
“Oh my God…”
Reed.
The knife tip of the shotgun had impaled his chest. He slumped over the weapon, his head lolled to the side. He was unconscious… or dead.
The world blurred around the edges.
Reed can’t be dead. “Reed.”
Dominic was already out of the car and opening Reed’s door in the time it took me to fumble out of my seat belt.
“Is he…?” My lips couldn’t form the words.
Dominic looked up at me an unreadable expression on his face. “Not yet…” He turned his head and barked, “Corporal, get over here.”
For the first time I was thankful Darcy was with us. Her medic training might save Reed’s life.
My hands opened and closed as I waited for her to slide out of her seat and stand next to Dominic.
The female soldier looked like she might need medical attention herself. Blood trickled down her face from cuts in her scalp. Angry purple bruises mottled her swollen throat.
“Are you okay?” I couldn’t help asking her.
“I’m fine,” she snapped hoarsely.
Dominic stepped out of her way and she knelt down next to Reed. She pulled aside the blood-drenched fabric around the knife and made a tsking noise.
“Well…”
“Goldilocks is one lucky bastard. It looks like the blade missed his heart by a few inches.”
I released a relieved breath. “Reed. Can you hear me?”
He didn’t respond. I almost slapped his face to rouse him, but thought better of it.
Maybe being unconscious right now is a blessing.
I wrapped my hands around the barrel of the shotgun.
She slapped my hands away. “Do you want him to die, Hooker?”
I froze. “What do you mean?”
She turned back to Dominic. The two of them spoke quietly with their heads down.
I strained to hear what they said, but it felt like my ears were filled with cotton.
There was a crash at the front of the store.
“Deal with him. I’ll deal with that,” Dominic said, heading toward the sound.
Darcy turned back to me. “We have to hurry. Dominic said you had bandages.”
My mind drew a blank for a second, before flashing on the wad of bandages I’d grabbed back at the hospital. They were in my backpack. “Grady,” I said, leaning forward.
His head was in his hands. When he looked up at me, blood streamed from his nose. “What do you want?”
“I need the backpack.”
He shook his head. “Fuck that. Rosie’s pills are in there. Besides, anyone can see Jesus is a goner. Leave him.”
I fisted my hands to keep from punching him in the back of the head. “I’ll give the pack right back,” I promised in as soothing a voice as I could manage. “And I’ll get you something for your nose.”
That seemed to mollify him. As Grady reached back to hand me the pack, he froze and gave me a weird look. “Do you smell that?”
“What?” I said absently pulling the pack from his hands. I set the pack next to me on the seat and dug through it.
With steady hands, Darcy carefully separated the knife from the shotgun. Once free, the shotgun slid to the floorboards.
I pulled out one of the big bandages and held it out for her.
She shook her head. “I’ll need your help binding this. We’re going to wrap his chest leaving the knife in. I can remove it when we get to a safer place. I’ll hold the knife, you wrap.”
I nodded jerkily.
Grady suddenly scrambled out of his seat. “I smell smoke. Get out!” His frantic gaze darted left and right. Then he took off running.
Darcy’s eyes widened. “Get out, Lee.”
I blinked in confusion looking from her to Reed.
“What about Reed?”
“There’s no time,” she said, a hint of regret in her tone.
Dominic appeared at her side, saying, “We’ve got company. Two dozen infected closing in fast. The horde won’t be far behind. Why is Grady running toward the back exit?”
I distantly heard Darcy talking. My focus was on Reed.
I’m not leaving him. I’ve already lost Eden…
“This gets better and better.” Dominic looked down at Reed. “Hippie?”
Darcy shook her head slowly.
“He’s fine,” I cried. “Darcy, help me bind his wound.”
Dominic straightened his shoulders. “Corporal, grab the weapons bag and follow Grady. Lee and I’ll be right behind you.”
“Yes, sir,” Darcy said. She grabbed the black bag from the floorboard of the front passenger seat.
“Wait. No!” Hope evaporated as I watched her disappear in the direction Grady had gone.
Dominic peered down at me over Reed’s body. “You need to come with me.”
I dug my fingers into the seat. “I’m not leaving Reed.”
We’ll die together.
Dominic reached his hand out to me. “Come with me now.” His voice was low and uncharacteristically gentle.
I started at him incredulously.
There’s no way I’m abandoning Reed. And I’m dead anyway. Dominic just doesn’t know it yet.
There was a loud commotion behind us. It had to be Biters.
I reached over Reed, careful not to jostle the knife in his chest.
“Good girl,” Dominic said in a patronizing way that made me want to punch him. He backed up to give me room to step out of the car.
“Goodbye, Dominic.” I said, slamming the door in his face and locking it.
9
Anger pinched Dominic’s face tight as he peered through the window. “Lee, open up this door or I’ll—”
Something metal crashed to the ground.
“Shit.” Dominic spun around and took off in the direction of the sound.
A second later, gunfire rang out.
He’ll be okay.
I couldn’t worry about Dominic. I had enough problems of my own.
Grady’s passenger door sat ajar. I leaned forward across the center console and pulled it closed. A slam of my palm on the door panel and all the doors locked with a click.
It was a ridiculous move given locked doors couldn’t keep out Dominic or an angry horde of hungry flesh-eaters. But the action comforted me. The coffinlike silence rolled over me like a balm.
At the sight of Reed, anxiety flooded back through me. His face had turned a disturbing shade of gray. The pulse in his neck fluttered weaker than before.
Cold fingers of despair coiled in my chest. I couldn’t lose Reed too. Memories flashed into my mind.
Reed, the towheaded neighbor boy who follows me around like a lost puppy dog.
Reed, the grief-stricken teenager, moving in with Gran, Eden, and me.
Reed, the passionate man who presses his mouth against mine as he tells me that he loves me.
I shove the last memory away. I’d promised myself I’d never think about that night.
I studied the knife sticking out of his left shoulder.
Damn. Why haven’t I ever bothered to get any field medical training?
I hated being so helpless while another person I cared for died in front of me.
No. He’s not going to die.
I stiffened my spine. I’d just have to follow Darcy’s plan to leave the knife and bind the wound. If I yanked it out he’d probably bleed to death.
Willing the vehicle not to catch fire, I started wrapping his chest.
Reed groaned, his head snapping up
.
Damn. What a time for him to regain consciousness.
“Don’t move,” I ordered. Realizing that I needed something to keep the knife in place while I wrapped, I grabbed his right hand and placed it under the blade. “Can you hold this steady?”
He moaned. “Oh man. That hurts.” But even though his hand shook, he held it. “What happened? Where’s everyone?”
Ignoring his questions, I dug through the backpack until I found more white gauze.
I knelt on the floorboard in front of him, grateful that Darcy had flipped her seat up before she’d vacated the vehicle. “Can you lift you arm?”
Reed shifted, his face twisting in pain. “No. Fuck. Hurts so bad.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I reached down and unbuckled his seat belt. “Can you lean forward a little? Carefully, don’t move the knife.”
When he complied, I wrapped the wide gauze strips tightly across his entire shoulder.
Reed gasped, and then bit his lip as if swallowing a scream.
I kept wrapping until I’d emptied the spool of gauze. Then I leaned against the back of the driver’s seat. Most of his chest looked mummified, but the important thing was the bleeding seemed to have stopped and the knife was fixed in place.
Reed’s gaze locked on mine. “We crashed,” he said slowly. “They left. You stayed. Why?” His impossibly blue eyes searched my face.
“I love you, Reed. I’m not leaving you here to die.”
For a second, his expression brightened, but then his smile faded. “Like a brother. Right?”
The bitterness in his tone stung, but this wasn’t the time for an emotional tug-of-war. Not with the sounds of clothing racks falling and clicking teeth coming from outside. “Can you walk?”
He shook his head weakly. “No.”
I didn’t like the way the color was leeching from his face and how his head was dropping down as if it was too heavy for him to lift. “I’m not strong enough to carry you, but you can lean on me and I’ll—”
His head snapped up. “Leave me.”
“No, I won’t—”
More crashes sounded outside.
Alarm etched his face. He grabbed my arm with his good hand. “Run.”
Tears burned at my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “There’s no point. I’ve been bitten.”
He sucked in a breath. “No.”
I nodded. “While you all were inside the hospital. Damn Biter in the bushes. I didn’t see it until it was too late.”
His fingers dug into the flesh on my arm, as if I was his lifeline. “There’s a cure.”
“What are you talking about?” He must be hallucinating. “There’s no cure for the Z-virus.”
“Dominic has it,” he said, coughing. His hold on my arm slackened. “You have to…get it from him. Live. I love y—” His eyes fluttered and his head lolled to the side.
“Stay with me, Reed.”
Damn it.
He’d passed out again.
Now what do I do?
Before I could come up with a plan B, something rapped on the window near Reed’s head.
In an instant, my knife was up and ready.
“Down, tiger,” Dominic said through the glass. “You’re coming with me.” Determination painted his face in sharp lines.
“I won’t leave him.”
Dominic peered down at Reed’s bandaged chest and then back to me. “Fine,” he said through bared teeth. “Now open this door.”
I’d barely flicked the lock before he flung it open.
“We have to take him with us.”
“Okay.” Dominic must’ve read my hesitation because he said, “Trust me.”
Nodding, I slid over. In all the months I’d known Dominic he’d been many things, a fighter, a drill sergeant, consummate leader, overall pain in the ass, but never a liar.
I exited the door on the other side and froze.
Shit.
Billows of black smoke came from under the hood of the SUV. My blood pressure skyrocketed.
How much time before the vehicle ignites?
As I rounded the back of the SUV, the sound of chattering teeth rose up around me.
Oh, God. The Biters are here.
My insides curdled as clothing racks fell like dominoes around us.
“Lee?” Dominic emerged from the SUV with Reed in his arms. Reed’s complexion was even chalkier than before, but his chest rose and fell.
The sight returned oxygen to my lungs. He was still alive.
For now.
“Be careful not to jostle him,” I cried. If that knife moved, it could kill him.
Dominic turned toward me, his muscular body backlit by the muted light streaming in from the front of the store. He looked like an avenging angel: face dripping with sweat, body covered with weapons, legs braced apart as he easily shouldered Reed’s weight.
“Go toward the register,” he ordered, carefully shifting Reed in his arms.
Reed’s head dropped forward. His shirt was drenched in blood.
Too much blood.
A ball of anxiety lodged in my throat.
A mob of Biters shambled into view.
“Hurry.” Dominic nodded toward a back door with the sign Employees Only above it.
“You first.” I waved him ahead.
I’ll make sure the zombies leave them alone, even if I have to offer myself as a main course.
Indecision flickered across his face for a split second. Then he was running. It was only two hundred feet to the door, but it felt like miles.
We were almost there when I glanced back. I’d left the door to the SUV ajar, which gave me a perfect view of the backpack sitting in the middle of the seat.
“Crap.” I’d forgotten all about it. The pills were in there. If the car caught fire, they’d be destroyed. Then Eden’s life, my life, and potentially Reed’s life would have been sacrificed for nothing.
I forced my gaze forward.
Screw the pills.
The memory of my promise to Eden flashed in my mind. I cursed. “I have to go back.”
Dominic followed my gaze. “Leave it.”
I reached out and briefly touched the hand that was gripped around Reed’s leg. “Get him to safety.”
Dominic’s eyes darkened to pitch as he read the intention in my words. “Lee, I’m ordering you to come with m—”
Not giving him time to finish or myself time to process the danger, I unsheathed my knife and limped back toward the SUV.
“Lee!”
His voice was lost to the chattering of blood-crusted teeth. My focus zeroed in on the zombies swarming around the SUV.
Staying low to the ground, I crept forward.
Luck was with me. The creatures trampled over each other trying to reach the other side of the vehicle. Reed’s blood on the seat was driving them into a frenzy.
Moving as quickly as I dared, I crept closer. Careful not to make a sound, I reached in, grabbed the pack, and turned for the door.
A throng of flesh-eaters surrounded me. Almost as one, the creatures gnashed their teeth and lunged.
Oh hell.
I scrambled to my right. I grabbed a nearby clothing rack and wheeled it into the advancing horde. It crashed into the zombies and toppled over. The creatures tripped over the rack, becoming tangled in steel and fringed leather vests.
I limped as fast as I could for the door.
Something slammed into me from behind.
My knife went flying, and I nose-dived into gray carpet tile.
I managed to twist around in time to dodge grasping hands the size of dinner plates.
My heart pounded against my rib cage as I came face-to-face with a male zombie who dwarfed Dominic. My mind had a split second to take in a tattered purple SAU football jersey before the creature tackled me.
Stars exploded in my vision and the pain in my leg threatened to drag me under. Calling on my last reserves of strength, I tried to squirm out from under his cru
shing weight.
His fetid breath, stinking of rotting meat, washed across my face. I dodged the teeth snapping for my throat and wedged the backpack between us. The pills rattled wildly as he tried to bite through the bag to reach me.
I spared a quick glance toward the SUV. A handful of the zombies had gotten over my makeshift barrier. They were headed right toward us.
Panicking, I pushed as hard as I could against the creature’s chest. I might as well have been trying to deadlift an elephant.
He lunged for my exposed wrist.
Before his jaws could clamp down, a familiar knife sliced through the side of its skull.
The flesh-eater collapsed on top of me.
Breathing became impossible. I struggled to get out from under the three-hundred-pound corpse. I was trapped, and the rotting creatures were shambling closer.
Black combat boots filled my line of vision.
“A little help here,” I managed to gasp.
Dominic kicked the zombie off me and ripped the blade from its head. “Why don’t you ever listen?”
Dragging in a breath, I surveyed the creatures closing in on us. Every second more streamed into the area around the SUV. There were at least fifty. The sound of their teeth clicking together made me want to clamp my hands over my ears.
“Where’s Reed?”
The tic in the side of his clean-shaven jaw danced. “Safe. Which is more than I could say for us.”
I wiped the sweat out of my eyes. “Let’s run now. Give me hell later.”
“Planning on it.” Dominic grabbed the backpack lying crushed on top of me and slung it on his back. “Now get on your feet.”
I bit my lip to stifle the moan of anguish as I tried to pick myself off the floor. My throbbing leg crumpled underneath me.
Dominic made a sound of frustration. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re nothing but trouble?” Before I could respond he hauled me into his arms and booked it to the door.
Despite the fact that death was bearing down on us, or maybe because of it, I was acutely aware that our sweat-slicked bodies were pressed tightly together.
He glanced down. “I’ll get you out of here, I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He grabbed for the doorknob. As the door swung open, there was a deafening boom, followed by a wave of heat and light.