Mortality

Chapter 4: Savannah

What the hell is going on? We never should have left. They’ll never forgive me for this. I wish I knew how to hotwire a car.

A million thoughts raced through my head as the four of us ran full-force back toward New Ravencrest. We had been pushing as hard as we could for ten minutes already, and we weren’t even halfway home. As I ran, so many different scenarios played out in my head. All of them ended in everyone I knew dying. I had been so anxious to force people to let me contribute, and now I wasn’t where I needed to be in order to protect my friends.

As the one with the shortest legs, I brought up the rear as we sprinted toward home. While I could tell through their uneven strides that Alex, Zack, and Pierce were all feeling the burn as well, they were managing to keep up a steady pace that I wasn’t sure I could match much longer. I thought I was in pretty good shape, considering how long I’d been cooped up inside. It turned out there was serious room for improvement.

My breathing began to come in gasps as we raced down a tree-covered walkway between large, expensive looking houses. I quickly lost sight of the guys down the winding path, but I could still hear three sets of steady footfalls. Trying not to make any noise was the least of our worries now, although we didn’t exactly have time to stop and take out any Zs if it came to that. We had to move.

I mentally braced myself to try and pick up my speed with another push forward, but stumbled as I was brought suddenly to a halt. One second I was trying to force myself to keep going, the next I felt someone grab me by the waist and yank me toward a nearby yard.

My first instinct was zombie, and I yelled out incoherently, hoping someone from my team would hear me. I started thrashing, trying to shake my attacker loose. When the strong grip didn’t falter, I kicked back and felt my boot hit bone. Whoever it was let out an ooph but still didn’t let go.

It was when I felt the smooth chill of a knife right against my throat and realized how wrong my assumption had been that I froze. My abrupt halt didn’t slow my captor though. The grip around my waist only tightened as I was pulled back. I had no choice but to move. I struggled with my urge to fight back, knowing I needed to stay calm and figure out what was going on. This could end badly either way, but a cool head would get me a lot further.

I tripped over my own feet as we moved farther and farther away from the path. My mind raced with stories of the things that happened to women since civilization had crumbled. I just couldn’t risk pissing off anyone with a knife to my throat.

 “Be careful,” a gruff male voice whispered in my ear as he held me right against his body, leading me up a set of wooden porch steps and into one of the houses.

I had no way of knowing if the guys had even heard me shout out, if they were even coming for me. Too soon, I saw a glass-paned door click shut behind us as we entered one of Ravencrest’s many long abandoned homes and were all alone.

The back door we came in led to a small laundry room, which I was quickly and efficiently pulled through. We only paused long enough for my attacker to throw my crossbow to the ground. I flinched at the clatter it made as it hit the pale blue tiles.

I had left my gun behind in the rush to get out of the medical center, but there was still a knife tucked safely into my boot. I just had to figure out how to get to it. I just have to find my moment.

When we reached the elegantly decorated living room, we paused and my captor seemed to fumble with something. Eventually, he took the knife away from my throat, but only long enough to bind my hands together behind my back. It felt like twine, but I couldn’t be sure. The bones in my wrists dug into each other until I managed to shift into a more comfortable position.