She began to fade, and I couldn’t look away. “She taught me to protect those who could not protect themselves. To stand in the path of the oncoming shadows.”
Giselle nodded. “That she did. Is it who you are, Pamela? Or do you follow your elemental blood and wall yourself off from the world? Or your mother’s blood and only save yourself?”
My heart thumped hard inside my chest and I whispered my greatest fear. “What if I’m not strong enough, Giselle? What if they die when I am protecting them . . . like the others?”
I blinked up at her and her image wavered, strengthening for a moment more. “Rylee did not always succeed in bringing children home alive, Pamela. But she never stopped fighting. Even when the odds were against her.”
“I’m afraid.” I could barely say those two words.
She nodded once. “Then they will all die. If you fight for them, some will live.”
I looked away from her, back toward the camp. “The kids . . . will they survive?”
I knew I was looking for a guarantee. One that really would never exist.
“I cannot say. Their leader is right, though. Someone hunts the children who are Immune. Someone who would see chaos reign and keep balance just out of the world’s reach.”
“Who?” I asked, but before she could answer, a distant scream reached my ear, followed by a single gunshot from up the road.
“Bloody hell,” I said. The image of Giselle dissolved, and I spun and ran toward the roar of battle.
Again.
Chapter Eleven
I burst out of the woods and back onto the trail, not sure what I would find when I reached the slow-moving caravan. Night had fallen, and the darkness would work against us in a fight.
“They barely made it a mile without getting into trouble!” I snapped as I ran toward the back end of the group.
Oka bounded along beside me. “Now? Please say now!”
“Let’s see what the hell is going on first.” I gritted my teeth as I ran, legs and arms pumping hard as I tried to move fast, but still save some energy for a fight at the end of it. A mile wasn’t that far. I could cover it quickly with my long legs. Five minutes, tops.
Oka laughed, picking up on my timing. “You aren’t that fast.”
“Race you?” I offered.
She didn’t answer with words but instead shot out ahead of me, her tail straight in the air as she leapt the chunks of concrete and easily dodged the holes in the semi-darkness. That was the perk of night vision, I supposed. I stumbled twice, and only went down to my knees once.
And Oka was right, it took me longer than five minutes to make it to the caravan.
Breathing hard, I slid to a stop and took it in. The horror unfolding in front of me was certainly not what I’d been hoping for.
A newly dead body rushed me, mouth open, eyes white with the classic zombie glaze. It was Ron, aka Ass Face. He was faster as a zombie, the stinking fucker, and he tackled me hard, taking me to the ground. Oka leapt onto his back.
“I got it,” I grunted as I held him back with one arm jammed under his chin. He roared his frustration as he snapped his teeth at me. He sounded much too animalistic for the arrogant fuckwit I’d dealt with only hours earlier.
“Shit, Ron. You really should’ve learned to aim, mate,” I said as I dragged one of my zombie slayers across his neck all the way to his spine, relieving him of his head. It rolled off me, the teeth still snapping. That much was true of the stories. A direct hit to the brain was needed to finish the dirty fuckers off. I pushed to my feet, then kicked the detached head for good measure before I turned around.
Chaos played out behind me as I stared at the camp. People ran everywhere as Sage made—once again—a rather poor attempt at eliminating the threat. Her inflated opinion of herself was coming back to bite her, and the entire caravan, in the ass. They’d landed themselves right smack in a zombie nest thanks to her carelessness and inability to actually read the ground.
And she was powerless to save them from her stupidity.
“What a stupid twatwaffle,” I muttered, and Oka startled.
“Never mind her. The kids. I’d bet my next archie the creatures will go for them,” Oka said, prompting me to get my own ass in gear. I took a breath and ran into the mess of bodies, living and dead.
One of the men tried to run past me and I grabbed his arm, dragging him with me, shaking him a little as we went. “Oh, no you don’t. This way. Form a barrier around the children. We can stop the dead, they aren’t as bad as wolves.”
The fear in his eyes lessened as he nodded at me. “Okay. Yeah, got it,” he said, then ran back the way he’d come.
He had a job, and so did I. In the end, magic was a bit useless against zombies unless you used it to pop their heads off like a dandelion, so in this fight I was on about as solid ground as I could be. The image of a field of zombies planted at the feet with their heads being popped off randomly was bizarrely funny, and I smiled to myself as I picked my way toward the worst of the fight.
Sage had already demonstrated to the caravan she didn’t possess the kind of power that could outright save them. Funny to think I was grateful for a bunch of zombies.
A cold, slimy hand on my leg broke my train of thought. It wasn’t someone I recognized, thank the Mother Goddess. It was a woman who’d been dead a long time, so not even from our caravan.
The last thing I needed was a tiny Frost coming after me, wanting to tear my flesh off with his teeth. Just the thought of it made me want to vomit, my gorge rising at the thought of any of the kids being turned into zombies. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that if an Immune died on the zombie grounds that they wouldn’t turn, and frankly I didn’t want to find out.
Oka skidded to a stop, but I sent her on with a tip of my head. “Go, see what help you can give. Stay small as long as you can.”
I stomped on the hand of the female zombie, pinning her down. “You’ve got a little something in your eye there,” I motioned to the arrow sticking out of her face. She roared at me, like Ron had, and I kicked her in the chin. She bellowed louder as I worked to get firm footing while she swiped at my legs. She was backing me into the battle, and that wasn’t what I wanted. I needed to face that head on. I couldn’t afford to get pinned between her and a horde of her friends.
She raised herself into a crawling position and screeched, giving me the perfect view of her green, decaying neck. A buzzing bug flew out of her mouth while she screamed, and I fought back the gag that threatened to alter my aim.
“Game over, screechy,” I said as I reached back to drag my blade across her neck. But before I could, her head fell to the ground at my feet. As if it had just spontaneously popped off all by itself.
“We’re even,” Macey said as she stood behind the zombie, wiping her machete clean.
“What?”
“You took my kill, now I took yours.”
She had a rather satisfied smile on her face. But I was still confused. I didn’t keep score, nor did I keep track of my kills. But clearly the wolf I’d killed had crossed one of her invisible lines of acceptable behavior. In my attempt to puzzle this confrontation out, I didn’t see the zombie lurking behind her, the stealthy bastard.
He roared as he lunged for her, sinking his teeth into her shoulder. “No!” I cried as I leapt into action, burying the serrated edge of my blades into his shoulder and yanking him off her.
I didn’t even bother to look at him. My only concern was for my friend. Because in spite of me working to stay distant, Macey was my friend, and she’d been my second chance. She’d told me about her sister, and about her fears, about her life before. And I didn’t take that lightly.
The zombie howled as I pulled him off his feet and he landed flat on his back in front of me. I jerked the crescent-shaped knives out of his shoulder and he scrambled to roll over and right himself. I kicked him in the chest and knocked him off balance. An opening was all I needed.
He rolled quickly,
closing my window of attack, and his muscles tensed. He watched me with pale green eyes that weirdly glowed in the dark, eyes that matched the decay on his skin. He’d been a zombie for a while. Neon green slime hung from his mouth, connecting with his shoulder as he growled low at me, swaying a little, calculating my next move. As if he wasn’t some mindless dead body without a soul.
More like he was a predator, and I was his prey.
What was this new fuckery?
This zombie was crossing a line. He didn’t deserve the swift death I had to give him. I could see it in my mind. It would be easy. He’d launch, I’d step out of the way, and cut his head off. The zombies were nothing if not predictable.
But he did something surprising, which for a dead thing said something. He stood up straight, and took a defensive stance, as if waiting for my move.
I did not have time for this bullshit. By the screams around me, the caravan was sinking like the Titanic.
Fast.
I lunged at him, blades drawn, and he was the one to step out of the way, using my body weight to propel my forward motion, and leaving me vulnerable. He used my own damned move against me, the ridiculous codswallop.
This was not how it worked with zombies.
He rounded on me quicker than I thought a zombie should be able to move and put his knee into my back, forcing me to the ground. I tasted dirt and tried to spit it out as he settled in on me.
“Goddess. What do you weigh, a ton?” I croaked as his bony knee dug into my back between my shoulder blades. I kicked my legs trying to make a connection with the heel of my foot but found nothing but air. I tried to worm my way around, to get a glimpse of Macey, but he wouldn’t allow for any wiggle room at all.
So, I sliced his leg. It was a blind swipe, and I knew it wouldn’t do him any damage, but I was hoping to get him off balance. This son of a bitch was going down. Right here, right now.
I did more than throw him off balance.
I cut off his foot, the blade going through the rotten leg bone with ease.
He wobbled, and I scrambled out from under him, seizing my moment. As I stood, I pulled his remaining foot and leg with me, setting him even more off balance. He landed flat on his back, the sound a mixture of wet flesh and thick skin hitting the hard ground.
I was on him in a flash, and this time, I didn’t hesitate. No emotion registered in those creepy green eyes as I separated his head from his body.
I sat back and sighed. “Whew. He was a bugger,” I said, not wanting to look back at Macey. Hoping I wouldn’t see what I knew would be there.
The zombie had knocked me a few yards away, and when I turned, nothing could’ve prepared me for what I found. My scrawny friend, snarling and tearing at her own clothes, wild with hunger for human flesh. She was gone, but torturously, she was still here.
This was not . . . possible. The zombie bites had never turned people before. If you died on the infected ground, yes, then you turned. But the bites themselves were equivalent to a dog bite. They got infected easily, and they could kill you that way. Even then, you had to be on infected ground to turn.
There was no way Sage could have missed infected ground. Even she wasn’t that blind.
“No. Macey. Hear my voice. Stay with me.” I ran to her, tucking my blades away so I could grab her by the shoulders and shake her. She looked up at me, her dull green eyes wild like her hair as spit and blood foamed at the corners of her mouth. The gaping wound in her shoulder was beyond me. Her neck and chest were soaked crimson with her own blood. She’d bled out fast, and the infected ground had claimed her.
Sage had missed the signs. And Macey paid the price.
Her machete lay forgotten on the ground at her feet as she writhed in my arms. This could not be happening.
I should have been able to save her. And I knew in that moment Macey had been a big part of the reason I’d stayed with the caravan. A second chance to save a Macey, and I’d failed again.
My heart took another punch. But . . . Giselle’s words rippled through me.
Rylee never gave up.
I would not accept this. I held Macey firm while the zombie’s curse coursed through her body, giving her inhuman strength. I knew my grip on her wouldn’t hold. She’d get loose. Soon, and then I’d be fighting her for my life, forced to use my power to remove her head.
Your magic can call her back.
Damn it. So be it, then.
“I’m not giving up on you!” I yelled at her as I opened myself to the dark in my blood. It roared forward and I screamed as it cut through me as if I were made of paper. The magic had a mind of its own as it slammed into Macey.
Smoke rolled off me as I wrestled with this new and wild magic that made me gasp for air. I tried to weave it around her snarling body, searching for the way to save her, to bring her back from this . . . the worst way to die. She’d been through so much, she didn’t deserve this.
I would save her, damn it!
As the magic reluctantly tightened around her, I held fast to my hope. I would do this. I would bring her back. She would not be another name added to the list of those I’d lost.
I wouldn’t let Macey down.
But then, the magic crumpled around her as if it had squeezed her too tightly. It found nothing. No mind to manipulate. No soul to zero in on. Nothing.
Of course it didn’t. She was a zombie. Her mind wasn’t there anymore. And apparently, neither was her soul.
Anger rose in me and I let out, screaming to the night air, adding to the cacophony. The magic spilling out of me and shooting out in every direction. The grief too much to bear, to hold in.
“I’m sorry, my friend,” I whispered.
Carefully, I pulled her machete toward me with my foot while I held her. I knew it would have to be quick. She was gaining strength by the second.
It felt like time slowed as I let go of her, stepped out of her way and she fell forward, toppling over as I bent to pick up the knife. She was horribly uncoordinated in her new existence, nothing like that old zombie I’d just dispatched. He’d had years to learn to move around, calculate, and become deadly. His mind had reformed into a killing machine, which was unheard of. There was no way I would allow Macey to turn into that. Tears streaked my face.
“Fuck, I hate this,” I whispered.
Macey landed flat on her stomach, snarling and flailing around. It broke my heart as I raised the machete. “If I see Marley, I’ll tell her you never stopped looking, Macey.”
In one, swift move, I brought the huge knife down on the back of her neck, and she stopped moving instantly, stopped snarling, stopped existing, as her head rolled about a foot and came to rest with her open eyes looking at me. I cried out again, not because of what I’d done, but because of the sheer lack of emotion I saw in them. She was gone, turned to one of the monsters of this world. Her worst nightmare.
And mine.
I searched for the anger at the injustice of this world. I needed it to keep going, to do what I had to do.
The battle still raged, I could feel it in my bones, the blood lust curling up through me, calling to me, the dark magic there again, begging to be used. Only it had done nothing useful.
Are you sure about that?
I wasn’t on the outskirts of the battle anymore. I’d somehow gotten right into the thick of it. Zombies were everywhere, but they were slower than before. Against their skin, I could see the sparkle of my black magic that looked like midnight diamond dust.
The magic had bought me some time to inflict more damage with my blades.
I didn’t have time for grieving Macey. I never did. We needed to get the children and get out of there. Now.
I jammed Macey’s machete into the ground next to her, a tribute of sorts, and searched the battle for my next move. I yanked my own curved blades from the ground, grabbed hold of them and took a deep breath.
Time to do some killing.
I strode into the thick of the fight, taking heads with eac
h step, dropping zombies left and right as I fought my way to the center of the caravan like a dance of death.
The man I’d issued orders to what felt like eons ago had listened, and had created a human wall around the Humvee, protecting the kids and Chris. I cut down two zombies as I reached him.
“Cut their heads off, destroy their brains,” I yelled over the din. “They won’t die until you do.”
They knew this, but in the chaos and fear they were just swinging blindly. Like sheep bleating at the wolves. They needed someone to take them in hand.
The man echoed the order down the line. Their movements became more coordinated, the blows deadly to the zombies.
Over and over my blades landed. Oka found her way back to me, helping me keep the monsters off my back.
“Behind you!” she called out and I swung without looking, driving the tip of a blade deep into the side of a zombie’s head. I yanked it free and spun, kicking another zombie in the chest, snapping the bones of the sternum.
“To your left!” Oka worked around me, tripping up the zombies where she could.
I hated to admit it, but if the magic hadn’t slowed them down, we’d have been overrun by now.
Oka was deadly in her accuracy and her tiny body kept the zombies from not just overrunning me, but the humans too. In her smaller form, she was actually better at keeping the zombies from me. We’d learned that much in the last three years. Bigger was not always better when it came to battles.
A house cat had her place in this world too.
The battle wore on into the night, minutes ticking by and turning into a solid hour. That may not sound like very long, but it might as well have been a month for the drain it was on the body.
With each ooze-covered zombie I cut down, two more took its place.
Exhaustion threatened to creep in as the adrenaline of the initial fight wore off.
I looked to the barricade. The humans were getting sloppy. Two of them were picked off while we fought, and the morning sun rose. Was it that early already?
A question floated through my head. Where the hell were Richard and Sage? I’d seen her at the beginning but then nothing. I wasn’t sure whether to root for her or the zombies, to be fair. Little Dick, I wanted him to live . . . I still had to pick his brain about how he knew of the Immunes in the first place.
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