When All is Lost

Chapter 61

"I need a weapon," I stated as I ran beside Carlos. My empty hands ached for something to hold onto. The night was closing in and so were the zombies.

Every turn we took we were met with the monsters. Their heads would snap to us and they'd quickly become enthralled by our presence. After five desperate turns, it became evident that they were clustering together. The trap for the Judge's group was working on us as well and it was becoming near impossible to find a way out.

"Neveah," Carlos panted out. "We had to redistribute the supplies. She has the spare weapons."

I winced. The girl was practically sprinting to keep up with Ian and lead the way beside him. My body was begging me to let it go, but I wasn't the only one in need of a weapon. Trust didn't matter in our current situation – the six needed to be armed as well.

"Keep a watch at the back?" I asked Carlos, knowing he both couldn't and wouldn't keep up.

After he gave me a stern nod, I picked up my pace, pumping my arms as I willed my body to go faster. I made it past the man with his arm in a sling when my pathetic excuse for boots had me skidding on a patch of extra slippery snow.

My arms pinwheeled but I managed to right myself just in time to see a zombie crawling out from behind an abandoned car. It thrust its body forward, using its remaining arm and leg to claw itself forward.

The thing moved fast – faster than any other zombie I'd seen – and it was going right for the tallest member of the six. I watched his whole body arch as he let out a terrified yelp at the sight of the creature.

"Neveah!" I screamed. "Shoot it! You have to shoot it!" Noise didn't matter. The thing had effectively cut our group in half as those of us in the back had to stop dead in our tracks. The zombie lunged at anything that moved, snapping its teeth at ankles. It was going to kill someone.

"Neveah," I pleaded, dodging the thing as the tall man dived past me trying to escape it. A shot rang out, but I couldn't see the impact in the dim light. However, after a single moment of silence passed, the thing shot forward again and managed to grab a hold of the man with his arm in a sling.

He didn't make a sound as he hit the ground hard, tripping when he was unable to shake the thing off. I dove towards him, grabbing him by his good arm to try and pull him away, but the zombie had a death grip on his ankle. It clung to him with a surprising amount of strength for only having one arm.

Marcy joined me, grabbing the man and pulling with me. Another shot rang out and the zombie slumped. The man on the ground let out a choked sob as he tore himself free from the now limp grasp.

I looked up to see Neveah's ashen-looking face as she stared down at the scene with a mixture of determination and revulsion. It occurred to me then that she had seen more zombies than anyone else in our group. The unadulterated hatred in her eyes spoke volumes.

"Should we hide?" I asked her.

It took Neveah a moment to tear her gaze away from the still form of the zombie, but then she slowly shook her head. "There's no point. We would need to get somewhere high and there isn't time for that. There are too many coming. We need to get out of here first."

"Okay," I breathed, trying to calm my racing heart. "Do you have the extra weapons?"

A look of realization flittered across her tense features and without even answering, she shrugged her backpack off and began to rummage through it.

The first thing she pulled out was a hatchet. She practically tossed it to me before carefully extracting three knives wrapped up in what looked like a dish towel, a hammer, and a screwdriver. Someone would have to go without.