He laughed, one quick laugh, full of nerves. This surprised me; I had never experienced that coming from Ash before, not when it came to me. He gently pried the gun out of my hands and put it on the counter next to me. “Can you please just kiss me again?” he said, his voice low and full of desire. “I can’t stand being this close to you, and not kiss you.”
I bit my lip, thinking about it for a moment. I lowered my hands and raised my eyes to his and nodded. He broke out into a smile, and his hands came up to cup my face as he lowered his head toward mine. His eyes flicked upward and suddenly got very wide. “Zoey.” His hands dropped.
I pulled back, alarmed at the terror that suddenly filled his voice. I stared at him, trying to meet his eyes, but he was focused on something behind me. I turned to look over my shoulder and felt a chill of terror seep through my body.
A group of Awakened was sprinting straight toward our house; at least they were a good distance away. And my mom was outside, oblivious. I stared at her and noticed that, yet again, no matter how many times I told her, she was without a weapon.
“Shit!” I said.
I hopped off the counter and grabbed my gun. We both went sprinting outside, right toward her. She was at least a hundred yards away, right by the barn, a black bag next to her.
“Mom! Mom!” I screamed at her, running faster than I had ever run before.
She looked at both of us in shock, taking in our disheveled appearance. I remembered for a moment that we were both shirtless, our pants unbuttoned, caught unawares by a pack of Awakened. And they were running straight at us.
“What are you two doing?” she asked, her voice loud and yelling at us. They were right behind her. I needed to make it there before them. I needed to get there.
“Mom, behind you!”
She turned around, as if in slow motion, just as they came up to her. I reached her and shot the closest one to her but not before they had latched their hands tight on her shoulder, their teeth on her neck. The bullet went sailing past the Awakened that grabber her and straight into the one just a beat behind her.
“Shit,” I said, darting forward to kick the woman attached to my mom’s neck. She fell to the ground but was up on her haunches in a beat. This time, I aimed the gun for her head and shot, and her body crumpled to the ground. I turned just as Ash shot the man who had attached himself to my mom’s leg.
She was whimpering, fighting with another Awakened at her head. She wasn’t strong; she hadn’t trained; she was a freakin’ preschool teacher. I yanked the man off of her, sending my elbow into his throat before shooting him. I stood, my eyes darting in all directions as the Awakened surrounded us. I looked behind me as Ash kept guard on the other side. My mom was on the ground between us, blood gushing from her neck and leg. She was whimpering in pain, and I wanted her to get up, but she wasn’t going to.
“How many on your side?” Ash hissed out the side of his mouth.
I scanned the Awakened around me. They had slowed down and were just standing there, staring. I waited for them to say something, to do something, but they just waited. “Seven,” I said back.
“There’s five on this side,” he said.
“Of course, why would it be even?” I grumbled.
“Give us the blonde,” one of them spoke, his guttural voice sending shivers up my spine, so different from the ones Ash was creating earlier. “Give us the blonde, and we’ll let you and your friend there go free.”
“Do you think we’re stupid?” Ash growled at him. “We’re not giving you anyone.”
“Let us all go,” I said, trying to keep the tremor from my voice. “I’ll let you all walk away, scot-free. But if you make a move, if you try to take either one of them, I will take you down.”
They stayed silent for a moment before bursting into laughter. I had never heard them laugh before, and I decided right there and then that I never wanted to hear them laugh ever again. There couldn’t be a worse sound in the world than that one. I felt chills go up and down my spine, and it wasn’t because of the breeze on my bare skin.
“Suit yourself,” he said, shrugging.
They came at us all at once, and it was in that immediate moment that I knew that we were overwhelmed, completely outnumbered. This was when I knew I was going to die. After so many months of fighting and surviving, this is where it was going to end: in the middle of nowhere.
I immediately went to duck around the first man sprinting toward me, but I was a beat too late, and he went careening into my stomach. I fell to the ground, slamming my head against the rough dirt. For a moment, all I could see was the glaring sun in my eyes. It was blocked quickly by a looming shadow, and I quickly rolled over, just missing the man’s grabbing hands. I pushed myself up off the ground, feeling bits of dirt sticking to my sweaty palms. He was coming back for more, a grin on his face, blood staining his teeth. I shot him quickly, a perfect shot to the head.
I didn’t stop to marvel at my success. I immediately dove onto the back of another Awakened, taking them down as quickly as I could.