The Awakened (15 page)

WE HAD ONLY BEEN DRIVING
for a few hours when the rain started. The sun had completely disappeared behind the haze of dark gray clouds, and we went quickly from a light rain to a heavy downpour. I had burst out laughing, filled with joy at this small show of nature, this small example that things weren’t completely different. Ash and my dad were staring at me for a long moment, watching as I rolled down the window and stuck my hands out.

“What on earth are you doing?” Ash asked.

“I’m pretty sure that the rain is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life,” I said, as the rain washed over my palms, washing away the dirt.

There was a chuckle from the backseat and I turned to look at Ash. “What?” I asked. “Can’t I enjoy a little rain?”

“I like that you’re enjoying the rain,” he admitted. “I didn’t think there would be anything left to enjoy anymore.” He rolled down his own window, and a gust of wind came through, pelting Ash’s face with rain. I giggled at the sight of his face dripping with rainwater. He grinned mischievously and leaned forward to shake his shaggy hair in my face.

“Hey now!” I yelled, throwing up my hands to block the spray of water. “I said I was enjoying the rain, not that I wanted it all over me.”

Ash laughed and grabbed my wrists, pulling my arms and rubbing his wet head all over my face. He pulled back, his face only inches away from mine. “Is that better?”

I felt my breath catch in my throat, paralyzed by how close he was to me. Water was clinging to his thick, black eyelashes, and I was suddenly completely transfixed by his lips. His smile slipped, and his gaze held mine. My eyes met his, and I watched as they traced down my face to my lips. He bit his lip and looked nervous, his cool breath washing over my face. He was too close. His warmth was seeping through the contact and making my heart beat faster.

My dad coughed loudly and obviously. “Yeah, I’m still sitting here. Could you guys maybe think about doing that later?”

Ash blinked a couple times and pulled back, letting go of my wrists. I straightened up and cleared my throat, embarrassed. I chanced a look over at my dad and saw that he was barely concealing a grin. He saw me looking, and the almost-smile turned into a full-blown smirk.

“Don’t you start,” I said.

“I didn’t say anything,” he said innocently, abandoning all pretenses and turning to laugh at me.

“You’re such a tease,” I said. I glanced in the mirror and saw Ash staring at his hands, his brow furrowed. I looked back out the window and felt fear go shooting through me. “Oh my god, Dad!”

He looked away from me, back to the road. There were no less than two dozen Awakened standing in the middle of the road, as if waiting for us. My dad jerked the wheel, and the car lost control. It went barreling to the left, off the road and into a ditch. The car flipped once, twice before landing on its side. I heard screaming and it took me a second to realize that it was me; the screaming was coming from me.

My eyes flicked open, and I blinked a few times, wondering if I had passed out in the crash. I was disoriented and realized I was turned on my side, my shoulder pressed against the window that must have shattered on impact with the ground. The air bag had deployed, probably saving my life, and I pushed it out of my way as much as I could.

The car had come to a stop and was lying on its side. I looked up and over at my dad, who was talking quickly and quietly to Ash, who looked shaken but relatively unharmed. I looked down at my arms and saw cuts all over them, tiny pieces of glass embedded in my skin. It hurt, like needles in my skin.

Dad kicked the door open with his foot and began to climb out. His eyes met mine.

“Are you okay?” he asked quickly. I nodded, wincing as the pain shot through my forehead. I lifted my hand to my head and it came back warm and sticky. I whimpered. “I know it hurts, but we need to move. We have to move now.”

I nodded again and reached overly slowly to unbuckle my seatbelt, while my dad struggled to lift himself out of the car. He leaned back over, extending his arm out to me. I grabbed it and let him pull me out. Ash was already out of the car, his gun pointed out in front of him. I reached for my own, and wiped the blood away from my eyes.

My heart sank. They were all around us. We were surrounded from all sides and outnumbered by about seven to one. We didn’t have Liam, Memphis and Julia with us this time, and I knew that this was what my dad had been trying to prepare us for. I reached down to my foot, relieved to find my knife was still there. I slipped it out, clutching it in my hand tightly.

The three of us watched them for a moment, waiting for them to say something, for them to make a move, but they stayed still and silent. This scared me more somehow, and I felt my heart beat faster in my chest at the excruciating anticipation.

“Zoey,” Ash whispered.

“Not now, Ash,” I whispered back, making sure that my weight was balanced and that I had a firm grip on my weapons. I needed to be ready.

“Zoey, I need to tell you something,” he insisted, his voice full of fear. I wanted to tell him to not be scared; I wanted someone to tell
me
not to be scared, but it was pointless. This was the perfect situation to be scared in.

I met his eyes for a moment. “Later, okay? You can tell me later.”

He looked like he wanted to protest, but instead, he nodded.

“Ash,” Dad said softly, looking around at the Awakened surrounding us. They were so silent and so still. They looked dead, more so than they already were. I kept waiting as the seconds passed by. “Ash, whatever happens, you take care of Zoey. You protect her, no matter what.”

I bit down on my lip hard, drawing the warm coppery taste of blood into my mouth. I refused to look at either of them, not even when Ash replied, “Yes, sir.” I couldn’t handle the waiting anymore, and I fired my gun at the closest Awakened near me. The bullet sailed straight into her forehead, my first perfect shot, and she crumpled to the ground. Everyone had watched in silence, but the moment her body hit the ground, chaos erupted.

No less than four or five Awakened ran straight at me. I ducked the arms of a small woman, sending my elbow into the chest of a man that came up from behind me. I kicked out, hitting him behind the knees and sending him to the ground. I used my knife to stab him in the chest, hoping it would keep him down for a moment. I whirled on the others, shooting one quickly in the head, just above the neck. It must have been good enough, because he fell, and immediately turned my attention to another. I dodged a kick, grabbing the leg and flipping the woman onto her stomach. I shot her in the head and felt an arm grab me from behind.

I was yanked backward, and I stumbled. They were strong, stronger than their bodies suggested. They were light, much lighter than they had been before they had been Awakened, but they were strong and quick on their feet. The man who had a grip on my arm bit down on my skin, and I screamed. My hand scrambled for a grasp on the arm holding me in place, and I twisted, causing him to howl and pull back. I punched him in the stomach before taking a step back and quickly shooting him in the head.

The man I had stabbed had finally struggled to his feet and had a hold of me from behind. I struggled to throw him off, but he had a tight grip on me. His fingernails dragged across my exposed stomach, drawing blood in deep scratches. I tried to throw him over my shoulders, but he wouldn’t budge. I continued to pull at his arms, and when he wasn’t expecting it, I sent my elbow into his groin. He pulled back with a groan, and I spun around, kneeing him in the stomach. As he sunk to the ground, I pulled out my knife and stabbed him in the neck, blood gushing out and spraying all over my hands.

I was up to three kills, and I knew I had only made a tiny dent in the group that was attacking us. There was complete mayhem everywhere. Dad was standing up on the car, shooting as many Awakened that he could while Ash fought off a pair on his own. I didn’t know what to do; I didn’t know who to help. My world was spinning, and I couldn’t stay balanced. I felt dizzy; maybe I was losing too much blood. I couldn’t concentrate, and I knew I was vulnerable.

As if on cue, I was thrown backward, landing with a hard thump on the solid ground. I started to get up and found myself pinned to the ground. An Awakened held me down, his knees pressed into my thighs, and his arms holding my own down. I looked around in panic and saw my dad and Ash, lost in a crowd of fighting Awakened.

My captor grinned at me, sensing my predicament and enjoying the sight of me pinned to the ground. He reached for the knife in my hand, pressing his nails tight into my wrist until I was forced to let go. He picked it up, fingering the edge of it. He was young, maybe early 30s when he had died. There were traces of handsome features hidden underneath the chapped, blue skin.

“You know,” he said, his raspy voice breathing onto my face, “my mom always told me not to play with my food, but you’re just too pretty to eat so quickly.” He pressed the tip of the knife to my neck, and a rush of fear, unadulterated, uncontrollable fear filled me. I started to call out for my dad, for Ash. He pressed the knife tighter against my throat, drawing a quick line across it. It was just a scratch, but I felt the sting of it, and I hissed in pain.

“Maybe if I make you less pretty, I won’t feel so bad when I devour you,” he said, studying my face curiously. He dragged the knife across the flesh of my bicep, cutting deep enough to send more blood running down my arm. Tears were rushing down my cheeks, and I heard a loud, desperate sob escape my lips.

He acted like he didn’t notice, like he couldn’t even see it. “When I was a man, I would have wanted you. I would be doing different things to you right now, and I could. I always took what I wanted. But I don’t want you like that.” He sounded curious. “I don’t have those kind of desires anymore. I just want to eat. I’m so hungry, and you’re full of so much flesh.”

I whimpered loudly as I tried to use my legs to push him off, but his knees pressed too tightly against my thighs, keeping me in place. The knife bit into the skin of my cheek, drawing blood there. I was becoming numb, and I could feel the sticky blood all over my body and wondered when I would die; when he would just kill me?

“I can’t look at your pretty face,” he said, his voice full of insincere sorrow. “How can I eat something that looks like you?” He started to slice the knife across my face, starting at my temple and dragging it deep across my forehead, over the tip of my eyebrow, across the bridge of my nose, down my cheek to the corner of my mouth.

I strained against him, trying to pull away from him. The pain ripped through me, worse than I could have ever imagined. Blood ran across my face, into my eyes and in my mouth. I couldn’t see, and I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t stop screaming. The pain was never ending, and I wanted it to stop; I wanted to just die. I didn’t want to feel anymore. He bared his sharp teeth, and they came down toward me, and I welcomed it, anything to stop the pain, to end it all.

I felt free for a moment, and I realized he was no longer pressed on me. Ash was yelling, stabbing the Awakened over and over again before pulling his gun out and shooting him in the face, sending a spray of blood across the dirt ground.

Ash sprinted over to me. “Oh god, Zoey, are you okay? Oh my god.”

I was sobbing, sobbing so hard that I was having a hard time breathing. I couldn’t see anything. The world was a haze, a haze of pain and blood. I didn’t know which way was up or down. “No, no, no. Ash, it hurts. It hurts so much.”

“I know, baby,” he said, his voice breaking. Through the fog of my vision, I saw him pull his shirt off, and hand it over to me. “Keep that on your face, okay? We’re almost safe. I’m going to keep you safe.”

I pressed the white shirt, already covered in dirt and blood, tight against my face, covering my vision of Ash standing guard in front of me, shooting anyone who came near him. The white shirt soon became soaked with blood. I felt faint. I was losing too much blood, and I wanted to sleep. Sleep sounded so good; sleep sounded perfect.

A scream came from Ash’s mouth, a sound of pain and torment that I had never heard from a person in my life, let alone from Ash.

“Ash? Ash!” I said, panicked, dropping the shirt.

He reached for me and picked me up, easily, scooping me up in his arms. “We have to go. We need to go now.” He started to run, his breathing heavy as he carried me away.