Part 15 (1/2)

Her argument for being out here was irrational. To find Kane? What hope did she have of finding Kane?

And sure, she was doing a decent job of drawing plenty of those zombies away from their original destination. But what did that mean for her?

She kept on jogging further.

Then she felt her right ankle pop beneath her.

She wanted to keep on running, defying the reality and the inevitability of what'd just happened. But it was just too painful to run on. She slowed down, right down.

She'd sprained her d.a.m.ned ankle, dammit.

She hopped along through the trees. The zombies weren't runners, but f.u.c.k, they were power-walkers. They were gaining ground on her. Soon, they'd have her. She couldn't allow that to happen.

The more ground the zombies gained on her, the more certain Melissa grew that this really was it. There'd been times where she'd nearly died in the past. There'd been times where she'd come so close to death. There'd been times when she'd closed her eyes and convinced herself she wasn't going to wake up again.

But those moments were on her terms. This wasn't.

And having your life hunted down when you weren't ready to go yet was devastating to say the least.

She kept on hopping onwards but it wasn't getting easier. She just had to hope she could get far enough to lose the zombies.

And then her ankle hurt even more.

She fell then, down onto the ground. As she lay there, she realised she'd dropped the bag carrying her arrows, and a load of them had spilt out all around her.

”s.h.i.+t,” she muttered, as she gathered as many arrows as she could. They weren't going to be enough to save her. They weren't going to be enough to keep her alive for long.

But what else could she do?

What other option did she have?

She pulled back the bowstring and it snapped between her fingers.

She looked at it in shock. She felt sickness creeping up her throat.

She was down.

She was without her bow.

And the zombies were getting closer to her.

She sat there, heart racing, and she saw her life flash before her eyes.

She saw the first of the zombies, all contorted, bones poking out of its flesh, eyes waggling everywhere but at her as it powered in her direction.

She saw her mum.

What secrets had she hidden from her?

How different would her life be if she'd just known the truth?

She felt a tear roll down her face then, as she held on to her knife. s.h.i.+t. She might be going down, but she was going down fighting.

”Come on,” she muttered, the zombie getting closer to her, a crowd following behind. ”Come the f.u.c.k on, you piece of s.h.i.+t.”

She pulled back her knife and went to stab the zombie as it crouched down towards her.

Then she felt the hand on her shoulder.

”Not a good place to take a rest, my dear.”

She recognised the voice. She recognised it, but she couldn't place it. Like it wasn't supposed to be heard out here. Like reality was glitching.

But as she looked around, she realised her suspicions-her fears-were true.

Kane was standing over her, hand on her shoulder.

He was pale. Well, he was always paler, but right now, he was much paler than usual.

But he was smiling.

”Come on,” he said. ”We'd better get moving. I made a promise that I'd kill you someday, and I'm not ready to abandon that just yet.”

Chapter Eight.

Riley didn't think about anything anymore. The time for thinking was gone.

He just ran.

The rain had stopped, and the air felt thick. Really, it wasn't because of the weather that it felt so thick. It's because of how many bodies had walked this ground so recently.

Of course, those bodies were dead, so they were cold. But they added thickness to the air. A thickness that made d.a.m.n sure you knew they'd been here.

Not to mention the layers of dead blood coating Riley's body.

But anyway, the dead weren't here now. That was the main thing.

Riley had an opportunity to get back to camp.

He had to take it.

He looked around at the trees. He wasn't sure whether he was heading in exactly the right direction. But he'd seen which way the creatures were drifting when he'd come face to face with them. He was making a.s.sumptions about where they were heading, sure. But those a.s.sumptions felt grounded in possibility and reality.

The creatures were heading towards the camp.

And with that many of them... s.h.i.+t. He couldn't just allow that place to fall. He had to be there. He had to help defend it.