Mortality

Chapter 1: Savannah

Alex had me beat and I knew it, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. He pinned me against the cement wall with only his forearm holding my body in place while he grinned in that ‘I told you so’ kind of way. Neither of us had ever expected me to win, but with Alex’s face inches away from my own, I was happy to have lost.

Halfheartedly I tried to shove him off me and back onto the training mat but he wouldn’t budge. One corner of my mouth lifted into a small smile. “Alright, I get it. You’re faster, stronger… blah, blah.”

Alex’s grin dropped but he still wouldn’t move. “You’ve got to take this seriously, Savannah.”

He moved in closer, as if he was going to whisper something to me. Then with a snorted laugh he made chomping and slurping noises right by my ear. A shiver ran down my spine, but I laughed along with him.

“You’re going to be zombie chow if you’re not more careful,” he warned.

“I get it.” I tried to look solemn. I did take what we were doing seriously and I couldn’t let anyone doubt that for even a second, especially Alex. There was nothing I cared about more than keeping our town safe, but it was hard to think straight with his face only inches from mine. His brown eyes were staring right into me as though he could read my every thought.

He let me go and I gave him a playful shove before stalking over to the other side of the room to catch my breath.

“Alright, which of you fools thinks you can beat me?” Alex asked, waggling his eyebrows at Pierce and Zack.

Pierce still had his nose buried in a textbook as he sat nursing what would probably turn into a nasty bruise on his cheekbone, but Zack was more than willing to step in while I took a breather. At least Zack had a decent shot of coming out on top when he sparred against Alex. The two of them would happily smack each other around for hours and call it time well-spent.

I slumped against the gym wall and pushed back a few stray hairs that clung to my face with sweat. It was only once I stopped moving that I noticed the smell and crinkled my nose. The small high school gym where we spent most of our time had that impossible-to-ignore scent of sweaty teenage boy. The smell and the one tiny window looking out onto the school parking lot didn’t exactly create a haven from the apocalypse.

“How about you? Want to take another stab at it?” I poked Pierce in the ribs with my elbow.

He was only fourteen but we worked well as sparring partners. I liked to think he made for a more realistic fake zombie attack than the walls of muscle that both of the older guys had become in the past few months. Most of the infected I’d seen had been little old ladies or other people who wouldn’t have been able to outrun me even before their bodies began to rot away.

The only response I got was an annoyed grunt as Pierce turned to the next page in his book. I let out a long, pointed breath and stretched my arms out, wishing for the millionth time that I could use my time for something more worthwhile. I started to stand back up to open the window but Pierce finally cracked.

“Hey, do you know what day it is?” he asked, looking up at me. The kid never stopped with the useful information, and I use the word useful loosely here. It was probably going to be about the birthday of some scientist or writer who had died long before the dead had begun walking.

“Haven’t the foggiest.”

“As of today it’s been six months since the beginning of the second outbreak,” he said, tilting his head back to stare up at the ceiling. His British accent was still just as thick as it had been when he’d first arrived at New Ravencrest a few weeks earlier, but after spending so much time together, he was easy to decipher.