I kept tumbling deeper and deeper into the darkness of insanity. I couldn't give her up not when I had her in my dreams, not when another lifetime meant another chance. In the blink of an eye, I lost her. In the blink of an eye, she was there. Anyth...
Carmen does exactly that – she unzips Bray's backpack, takes out the gun, and chucks it to me. With my finger already on the trigger and a firm grip on the pistol, I blast a hole in the head of each and every lurker that gets a little too close to my liking. Jace picks Amber up while I cover them both.
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Up ahead, Dad is shouting something and pointing somewhere but we don't know what. Lurkers are weaving through the forest rather too quickly, no longer 'lost puppies', but raging bulldogs with an objective. Bray meticulously recedes from Dad and Carmen's location to ours.
"Your dad said to head west!" Bray informs us. "There's a big opening there, the checkpoint. It's where Emmett will be."
"Woah! Watch out!" I hold the gun to his head.
He ducks down and I pop the lurker that was right behind him.
"Nice shot!" Bray breathes out.
We head west. You can tell there is an opening because the trees are getting fewer and fewer aka no more papercuts from skinny sharp branches as we run through them, thankfully. The ground is becoming clearer too. Fresh patches of green grass break through the muddy leaves. The sky's becoming a cyan blue with white cotton candy clouds blanketing some spots. It's like a nightmare turning into a daydream.
But we're not out of the nightmare yet.
"Grab my gun!" Jace tells Bray while holding Amber in his arms.
Dad's the first to break through the end of the forest, followed by Carmen and Bray, then me, Jace, and Amber. The lurkers get caught in between the branches of the trees and only a few get out. They get shot down like breadcrumbs with the help of Uncle Emmett who's sniping them from the chopper that finally comes into our view. It's up ahead, a mile or two west, just like Bray said.
We're in a field now, a hilltop with no trees but freshly cut grass. Jace puts Amber down because she starts to feel better. The firing also eventually ceases when the space between the lurkers and us grows. Dad's already at the checkpoint, holding the ladder that's dangling from the helicopter for us. He's got a good vantage point on us with Uncle Emmett while we all catch up to them. Amber closes into me like as if she's cold or something but it literally just turned into summer a second ago. Her blonde hair is in a mess, splotches of mud on her face, and she looks exhausted.
"You cold?" I ask her. "I've got a jumper in my-"
"No, I'm not cold," she mumbles.
"What happened back there with Jace? Sick?"
She comes to a full stop now.
"Amber, we can't stop. What's wrong?"
She looks up ahead and I follow her line of sight. It's at Jace who's now with Carmen and Bray. All three of them have now gotten a fair bit of distance on us due to Amber slowing down.
