Lost World (9 page)

Axl, Al, and Winston are the only ones with guns, and the few bullets they have won’t last long. I grip my knife as my heart jumps to my throat. Why the hell did I drop that gun? I feel so useless right now, and thanks to my stupidity we’re in real danger.

“Every shot counts,” Winston says.

He puts himself in front of the kids, and Al takes a place at his side. Axl pushes me back and lines up with the other two men. They stand in a straight line. Putting themselves between us and the zombies. Raising their guns. Aiming at the advancing dead.

Shots ring through the air as the three men fire into the horde. The zombies scream and a few fall, but the ones left just keep wading toward us. I hold my breath as gunshots echo in my ears, making them ring.

Al’s gun is the first to click. “I’m out!”

He falls back, taking his place next to Lila, who’s crying. I can’t blame her. My own eyes are moist. The screams of the children mix with the boom of the gunfire as I count yet again. There are still seventeen zombies. There’s no way we have enough ammo for that many.

As soon as the thought enters my mind, Axl’s gun clicks. He swears and rips his knife back out. Winston fires off two more shots, then his gun is empty as well, leaving us with nothing left but our knives.

I ignore the tension in my body and pull myself through the water to Axl’s side. “Will we make it?”

Axl shakes his head but doesn’t take his eyes off the horde in front of us. “Can’t say.”

Which means no. At least not all of us.

A zombie lurches forward and grabs Winston’s arm. They struggle for a second, but somehow he manages to jam his knife into the bastard’s skull before the thing can take a bite out of him. Winston pulls the body in front of him, then grabs for the next closest one. He piles it on top of the first before going for another. Like he’s making a barricade out of the floating bodies. He’s a genius!

“Axl,” I call as I grab the motionless body bobbing closest to me.

I push it toward him, then go for the next. I don’t know if it will work, but it’s worth a shot. Anything that might buy us some time. All we need is time.

We work together, piling the bodies on top of each other in front of us. The zombies coming our way bump into the wall and scream. They reach out for us, but they can’t quite dig their fingers into us from this distance. Hope sparks inside me, but it’s just a flicker. We aren’t out of danger yet, but the barricade seems to be working. Bad thing is, it also makes it tough for me to reach the dead. My arms aren’t as long as Axl’s and Winston’s, so I can’t quite reach their heads. The best I can do is hack away at their hands. Maybe take out a finger or two.

Joshua and Anne join us with their knives, and we do our best to take the zombies out without getting too close. Some fall, but some just get cut, which releases more of the stinking black goo. Most we can’t get to though, and they’re pushing us back. Closer to the wall. Something bumps into my back, and I let out a yelp of surprise even though I know it’s just one of the kids. I look over my shoulder and find only a foot of space between me and the rock wall at our backs.

Lila screams, and Al swears, making me spin their way. A zombie is gripping the kid’s arm, pulling Al forward, his mouth chomping frantically as he tries to take a bite. Winston lurches toward the dead man, and his knife slams into the zombie’s skull.

Just then a gunshot cuts through the moans of the dead, and the creature furthest from me drops to the water with a splash. I freeze with my knife halfway to a zombie, my heart pounding harder than ever before. Where did that gunshot come from? I scan the group, but no one has magically produced a gun, and they all look as confused as I feel.

A second gunshot draws my attention toward dry land, and a shout of joy rips its way out of me when Angus comes charging down the stairs in the distance. Darla comes next with Parvarti right behind her. She stops at the bottom of the steps, raising her bow, and a split second later an arrow flies through the air, taking out a zombie to my left.

Some of the dead turn and head toward the people on land, but most stay focused on us. We’re still in danger, but we’re better off now that Angus and the others have arrived.

Angus and Darla fire their guns into the horde while Parvarti takes them out with her bow. Those of us stuck in the water continue to hack away at the dead. Every time one falls my heart jumps a little higher until it’s lodged in my throat again.

We’re going to make it! We’re going to be okay!

“Push!” Axl yells, moving forward. Taking the bodies bobbing on the surface of the water with him.

I follow his lead, putting all my strength into pushing the dead in front of us. The wall of bodies we created presses against the advancing zombies, forcing them into deeper water. The zombies still on their feet stumble back. One loses his footing and goes down. He splashes in front of us, trying to get up, but the bodies bobbing in front of him and the dead pushing at his back make it impossible. Winston leans forward and slams his knife into the rotting skull, and the bastard finally stops splashing.

Angus wades out so he has better aim. He fires, and the head of the zombie in front of me explodes. A second shot makes the one behind him drop. Only three left!

Axl reaches across the rotting wall in front of us and grabs hold of the nearest zombie. The thing screams and claws at Axl’s arm, and even though he doesn’t have any exposed skin, my heart almost stops. Axl slams his knife into the zombie’s temple, and the rotting body drops to the water.

Seconds later the last two zombies fall, and the night goes deathly silent. My chest is tight, and my heart pounds so hard I can hardly catch my breath. Tears fill my eyes as I’m able to take in the full weight of the situation. We almost didn’t make it this time.

One of these days, our luck is going to run out.

7

THE SOBS OF THE CHILDREN bring me back to reality. The once welcoming hot spring is now littered with the dead. Their black blood has mixed with the water, making it dark and murky. We need to get out of this infected water, and fast. Who knows how dangerous it is for us to be in here?

I push my way through the bodies floating around us, heading back toward the kids.

“We need to get them out,” I say when my eyes meet Anne’s.

She nods as she hoists Jake up. He coughs, and even in the darkness of the night I can tell how ill he really is. He’s so weak he can barely hold on to Anne, making it tough for the small woman to carry him.

“Keep your head up,” she tells Jake, “out of the water.”

The kid nods, and Anne moves forward, pushing her way through the mass of rotten bodies. Only she’s so short I’m not sure she’s going to be able to keep her own head up, let alone Jake’s.

Before she’s gone two steps, Joshua is at her side, holding his hands out. “Let me have him.”

Anne smiles gratefully as she passes the sick child to Joshua, and I breathe a little easier. The doctor is six seven, so I know Jake and Anne will be safe in his hands.

When I turn back for the others, I catch sight of Sophia struggling with Ava. Without asking, I take the little girl from her mother’s arms. Winston grabs Max, and as a group we push our way through the dead, heading toward dry land where Angus, Parvarti, and Darla wait. Axl meets me halfway and holds his arms out for Ava. When his eyes meet mine, they’re full of emotions too conflicted for me to read.

“What is it?” I ask as I hand the sobbing girl over to him.

He jerks his head toward land. “Don’t see Hadley and Jon.”

All the air leaves my lungs. He’s right. It hadn’t occurred to me before now, but it should have. If they’d come back with the others, they would have helped kill off the dead. Something must have happened to them.

I can’t talk as I move through the water, focusing on Angus. All I can think about is how angry Hadley was when she left, how the last words we spoke to each other were bitter.

Please don’t let that be the last conversation we ever have.

I move faster, pushing through the hot spring. I want to know what happened. Need to know if Hadley and Jon are gone. When the water is down to my shins, I start running, taking big steps so I can move faster.

I stop in front of Angus, huffing. “What happened?” we say at the exact same time.

It’s one of those moments in childhood when I would have burst into laughter and yelled jinx, but there’s nothing funny about what we just went through. Especially not with Hadley and Jon missing.

“Are they dead?” I demand, ignoring his question completely. I know he wants me to tell him what happened here, but I have to know about Hadley and Jon first.

Angus spits, then shakes his head. Darla and Parvarti come over to join him. None of them look happy.

“Don’t know,” he finally says. “We got split up.”

“So the town was overrun?” Winston asks, stopping beside me with Max still in his arms.

“Not by zombies,” Parvarti says.

My stomach tightens, and all I can think about are Jon and Hadley and where they might be. What they might be going through. Hopefully, they didn’t get captured by another group of crazy rapists. Hadley wouldn’t survive that.

“Blew up the Nissan,” Angus says, glancing toward his brother.

“Damn,” Axl mutters. “You see who it was?”

“Didn’t see nothing.” Darla speaks for the first time, and her voice is shaky.

“We were in the pharmacy,” Parvarti says. “Jon and Hadley went across the street to check out this little convenience store. They wanted to see what kind of supplies were left. There weren’t any zombies in town and the pharmacy had barely been touched, so it seemed likely that the store would still have bottled water and—”

“So you got the meds?” Joshua says, cutting her off.

Parvarti gives him a curt nod, then pulls off her backpack.

Joshua exhales, but I’m too freaked out by our missing friends and what just happened with the horde to be relieved. This is good news for Jake, but we’ve lost so much already today. How much more can we realistically take and still be able to move forward?

“They was gone for less than a minute when there was an explosion. Shook the whole damn building.” Angus purses his lips. He looks like he’s going to spit, so I take a step back, but he doesn’t. “We ran out and found the Nissan in flames. Somebody started firin’ at us, so we took cover. Went back into the pharmacy, then out the back door. Snuck through town ‘til we found the store, but they wasn’t there.”

“So you just left them?” I can’t believe they would just drive off like that.

“Hell no,” Angus says. “We waited. Hid in the store and waited to see if they’d come back. They didn’t.”

Parvarti tucks a few loose strands of hair under her bandana. “We waited until it got dark, then we had to make a decision. The longer we stayed the more likely it would be that these men—whoever they were—would find us. We had to go. Jon and Hadley know how to get back here, so we figured it was our best option. If they were taken, we have no idea by who or where they went. If not, they’ll head back to camp.”

“You walk?” Axl asks, shaking his head like he can’t believe any of it.

“Walked some, then found us a car,” Angus says. “Little piece a shit that nobody in their right mind would take. Probably only reason it was still sittin’ ‘round with gas in it. It’s almost out now.”

“I still can’t believe you just left them,” I mutter.

“Good thing we did. Look at this!” Angus waves his arm across the camp. “We hadn’t got here when we did, you’d all be screwed. We saved your asses.”

Dammit. I hate it when Angus is right, but he is. Who knows what would have happened to us if they hadn’t shown up when they did. Plus, Parvarti was with them. There’s no way she made the decision to leave them behind on a whim. It must have been the only way or they’d still be sitting there.

“You’re right,” I say.

Angus sniffs but doesn’t acknowledge my admission. Not that I expected him to.

He looks around, and his mouth turns down. “We lose people here?”

Axl nods slowly, and his eyes focus on something behind me. I turn to find Winston sitting on the ground. There’s a blanket over what I can only assume is his daughter’s body. Damn.

“Dylan,” Axl says. “Moira and her little girl.”

“Poor kid. That woman was bat shit crazy, though. Bound to happen eventually.” Angus’s eyes are focused on Winston, and for maybe the first time ever, there isn’t a look of disgust on his face. No hint of the racist redneck we all know him to be. He looks almost sympathetic when he tilts his head toward Winston. “That his girl?”

“Yup.”

“Shit.” Angus takes a deep breath and looks around. He points to the water. “First thing we gotta do is get y’all cleaned off. Don’t think it’s a good idea to keep walkin’ ‘round with that zombie blood all over you. Plus, you smell like shit.” His eyes sweep over his brother, and he purses his lips. “You got any open wounds?”

Axl pulls his shirt over his head and tosses it on the ground. “Nope.”

Anne and Sophia strip the kids and rush them toward the raised hot spring to get them cleaned up. For probably the hundredth time since we found this place, I’m thankful for the secluded little pool of water, and this time it has nothing to do with sex. Without it, we’d all be feeling pretty contaminated about now.

“I’ll look through the antibiotics so Jake can take some when you’re done,” Joshua calls after them. He dumps the paper bag Parvarti gave him on the ground, and four white pill bottles fall out.

“What do we do now?” Angus asks.

He spits, but it doesn’t even phase me. There are bodies everywhere. Covering the ground and floating in the water. The stench is so overwhelming that every time I inhale, my stomach twists. Then there are the mangled remains of our friends. A little spit is the least of our concerns right now.

Axl exhales slowly and shakes his head. His eyes are still on Winston, who’s sitting next to Jessica’s remains. “We gotta bury our dead.”

“We gonna waste time on that?” Angus says, pursing his lips.

“Yeah.” Axl walks away, heading toward Winston.

Angus swears, but he goes after his brother. Darla is standing next to the stairs looking dazed while Parvarti walks through the carnage, staring at the ground. She acts like she’s looking for something. Al and Lila are huddled together on the bench, staring into our dwindling fire. It’s going to die soon if we don’t throw more wood on it.

I’m not sure what to do with myself.

Parvarti stops and kicks something aside, then leans down. When she stands up she’s holding a gun. She’s looking for anything salvageable. Smart. We need to get moving. It’s the middle of the night and we’re all tired, but we can’t stay here. Not with all the bodies.

I head toward the fire.

“You two should get changed,” I say when I’m close enough that Al and Lila can hear me.

I scoop a few sticks up off the ground and gently toss them onto the fire. Sparks jump into the air and swirl around for a few seconds before fading away. The fire crackles. It sounds deafening in the silence.

Al gets up, pulling Lila with him. “Yeah.”

“You okay?” I ask.

They both look toward me, and the stupidity of the question hits me. Of course they’re not okay. How dumb.

“Yeah,” Al says again.

He pulls Lila toward the hot spring, and I exhale slowly. Everyone is going to need a change of clothes.

I head toward the tents so I can find something for everyone to wear. When I get closer, I can hear Angus, Axl, and Winston talking.

“We don’t got no shovels,” Angus says.

“We have rocks.” Winston gets to his feet, but he doesn’t take his eyes off his daughter. “We’ll pull rocks from those piles and cover the bodies.”

“That’s what we do,” Axl says, nodding.

Angus sniffs. “What about the zombies? We just leave ‘em?”

“Don’t wanna waste energy on that.”

“I just want to give her a proper burial,” Winston says, the pain in his voice so sharp it feels like a knife stabbing me.

My heart can’t take much more of this world.