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Things started out so well. Just by screaming and hopping around a bit, I attracted plenty of attention. You might call me foolish for going out on my own like that.
You might be right.
A dozen or so of the Decompositionally Challenged had fallen at my feet before one came along who had a boxer’s build—a crooked nose from multiple breaks, scarred ear tissue from too many knuckles to the head. He wasn’t John Brown, but I shot him in effigy, filling him with holes in John’s place. If there was a chance for redemption for any of those poor suckers, I didn’t care.
Not that night.
That night, I lived through my guns, and they were all I was.
I was Ready. Aim. Fire.
I was Force. Explosion. Penetration.
Some people drank to forget. Not me. I shot. And like an alcoholic, I didn’t know I’d had enough until too late. Unless you’ve had an addiction, a vice of some sort, then you wouldn’t understand what it was like to lose control. To let go of thought. To let fear, anger, and pain dissolve away, if only for a few minutes. If you hadn’t experienced that, you couldn’t understand how a perfectly rational girl could lose all common sense. You would judge me, call me reckless and stupid. So what if you had a valid point? It would change nothing. I still would’ve been out on that street, firing round after round, getting high on gun smoke and the sound of corpses dropping to the ground.
By the time the dead overwhelmed me, euphoria had filled me to the point that I didn’t even care.
“C’mon, you rabid dogs,” I said, taunting. They gawked at me with voided faces. “You’ve taken everything. What else do you want?”
They groaned and gnashed their teeth, those who had them. For a great number, their teeth had fallen out probably even before they died.
“Come on!”
Blam! Blam! Blam!
I pulled the trigger faster and faster, but fewer and fewer bodies fell, and eventually, my ammunition ran out. The bony fingers of one undead man slithered around my arm, pulling me close with remarkable force. Before he could bite, his head exploded into pulpy bits. I searched for the source of the shot as another putrid monster got a hand on my wrist and tugged me forward, its strength surprising me. Its slobbering mouth groped for my exposed wrist, aiming for the pulse point there.
“Sera!” Erik stood maybe twenty yards away, waving his rifle over his head like a banner.
The undead’s moldering lips brushed over my wrist like a horrible parody of a lover’s kiss. Contrary to how it appeared, I didn’t actually want to die. So I fought, trying to free myself from its grasp, but its body tumbled into me, knocking me to the ground. Its rotten gums found purchase. One of the few remaining teeth in its festering mouth punctured the fat pad at the base of my thumb.
Aw, hell.
Screaming, I ripped my hand away, gouging my thumb against that undead tooth.
“Erik,” I shrieked as an explosion of sound and light rocked my world. The street’s rough bricks dug into my back while everything else twirled round and round. Above me, the sky, the buildings, and the bodies of hungry corpses broke apart like the colored bits at the end of a kaleidoscope.
Then, Erik’s face appeared over mine, and everything fell back into place.
“Quick,” he said. “You’ve got to move. They’ve fallen back, but not for long.”
I pitched my voice above the ringing in my ears. “What happened?”
He hauled me to my feet. “A shock bomb.”
“A what?” My knees wouldn’t hold, and I melted to the ground.
Erik caught me and tossed me over his shoulder. “A shock bomb. It creates a concussion that dazes anyone around it for a few seconds, but it wears off quick.”
“Where’d you get it?” I wheezed from my upside-down position over Erik’s back.
“Shep gave it to me before we left Dwivedi’s place.”
After a bit of uncomfortable jostling, Erik managed to get us both safely back to the tunnel near his rail car. “Can you walk?” he asked.
His shoulder in my gut had made for an uncomfortable perch. “I think so.” He lowered me to my feet and held me steady until my bout of dizziness passed. “I think I left my guns back there.”
He growled and turned on me with a black look. “If that’s all they got from you, then count yourself lucky.” Grabbing me by my shirt collar, he dragged me down the tunnel.
“Ow, Erik. You’re hurting me.”
His grip eased slightly. “Am I? Because I’d really like to tie you up and gag you right now. I figure this is a gentler alternative.”
I thought better of making further complaints.
Back in his maintenance bay, Erik threw the locks and barred the door before turning on me with white-hot rage. His scars stood out in vivid contrast against his red face. I found no trace of beauty in him. His anger, however, was an awesome thing to behold, and I couldn’t help cowering before it.
“What. In. The. Hell. Were you doing?” He gripped my shoulders. “Were you trying to kill yourself?”
“No,” I whispered.
“No?” he mocked. “Because that’s sure as hell what it looked like.”
“Not on purpose.” I hadn’t intended to go looking for death, yet when it found me, I’d felt much less afraid than I probably should have.
He squeezed me tighter. “Everything you’ve done, all you’ve fought for... You want to throw it away?” Like a burst balloon, his fury suddenly dissipated, and he crumpled. He let go of me and sank to his knees. Sitting on his heels, he let his chin fall to his chest. “Is it me, then? Do you resent me so much?”
“Oh, God. No, Erik.” My heart wrenched. I dropped to the floor in front of him and gathered his hands in mine. “No, no, no.”
He glanced up at me, moisture glistening in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Sera. I only wanted to protect you. I never meant to force you. I didn’t want to make you—”
“Now who’s the one who needs to shut up?” I said, cutting into his attack of self-pity. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one to suffer the occasional bouts of egotistical feebleness. “This has nothing to do with you. I was stupid and thoughtless, but I wasn’t trying to kill myself.”
He gave me a doubtful look.
“If I wanted to get away from you, I would’ve left. I wouldn’t have started a fight right outside your front door.”
His familiar scowl returned. “Then why did you go out there like that?”
I shook my head. “If I could give you a good reason, then that would mean I thought it over first. I didn’t think. I just acted. I had all this rage inside me, and I needed to let it out.”
Mouth falling open, he shook his head. “You foolish, ridiculous girl.” He pulled me in for a bruising hug. “Next time you want to burn off some anger, take it out on me. I’ll probably fight back, but at least I won’t try to eat you.”
I didn’t resist his embrace. I wanted him—I knew I did. I needed him, too, and I opened my mouth to admit it, but a searing pain lit up the entire length of my arm, like my bone had suddenly turned into a bolt of lightning.
Color instantly drained from Erik’s face. “What is it?”
My heart fluttered erratically, making it hard to catch my breath.
“Sera?” He searched my face then my neck and shoulders. “Are you hurt?”
I could manage a groan but nothing more. The pain climbed up my neck and across my chest. With icy tentacles, it lashed out, latching onto my heart and squeezing. Panicking, Erik tugged my shirt up, down, turning me around in his arms, touching, searching, and finally finding.
He sucked a sharp breath as he yanked my wounded hand up between us. “Were you bitten?” He ground out the words between teeth clenched with dread.
Dear me.
And then the lights went out.