“Do you have a safe place to go?” Zeke asked, kneeling beside him. He nodded.
“There’s several of us living in a compound about two miles west of here.” He pointed with a bloodstained hand, and Zeke stood.
“All right,” he said. “Darren, go back to the others. Tell Jeb what’s happened. Warn them there are probably rabids in the area. Allison,” he continued, nodding to the injured man, “help me get him home.”
I frowned. Zeke noticed my hesitation and stepped close, lowering his voice to a murmur. “We can’t leave him here,” he said earnestly. “That wound looks deep, and he’s lost a lot of blood.”
“Exactly,” I hissed back. “He’s probably attracted every rabid in a ten-mile radius. Fighting an endless wave of rabids for some random stranger doesn’t sound like a good plan to me.”
“I’m not leaving him,” Zeke said firmly. “Random stranger or not, I’m not going to let another human die out here.” His eyes hardened, and he lowered his voice. “I won’t leave him to be torn apart by soulless demons. That’s not going to happen. So, either help me, or go back to the others with Darren.”
“Dammit,” I growled as Zeke turned away. The stupid boy didn’t know it, but rabids weren’t the only thing he had to worry about. The man reeked of blood, and deep within, the Hunger stirred restlessly. My fangs pressed against my gums, and I could almost taste the heat spreading over my tongue. But Zeke was already bending to help the wounded man, shouldering half his weight and lifting him to his feet. The human gasped and leaned on the younger man, keeping his injured leg off the ground, and Zeke staggered under the weight.
“Dammit,” I muttered again and stepped to the opposite side, looping the man’s arm over my neck. Maybe if I didn’t breathe and stopped fantasizing about plunging my teeth into his throat every few seconds, we would be all right.
“Thanks for this,” the human panted as we began the agonizingly slow hobble into the dark woods. “The name’s Archer—Joe Archer. My family owns these lands, or at least, they did back before the plague.”
“What were you doing so far from home, Mr. Archer?” Zeke asked, gritting his teeth as the man stumbled. I braced myself, keeping all of us upright. “Especially at night, when the rabids are roaming around?”
Joe Archer managed a short, embarrassed laugh. “One of our damn goats got through the fence,” he admitted, shaking his head. “We keep them outside in the daytime, when the rabids aren’t awake. But one of them decided to go roaming the forest, and if we lose even one of the little buggers, that’s half our meat and dairy right there. So I went looking for it. I didn’t mean to be out so late, but it got dark quicker than I expected.”
“You’re lucky to be alive,” I muttered, wishing they would both move faster. “If that pig had bitten you a few times instead of just gouging your leg, you’d have a lot more to worry about than finding a goat.”
I felt him go very still under my arm, and his heart rate sped up. “Yeah,” he mumbled, not looking at me. “It was a lucky thing.”
*
MIRACULOUSLY, DESPITE the obvious scent of blood in the air and the conspicuous trail we left behind, we managed to avoid any sudden rabid attacks. Breaking free of the trees, we found ourselves at the edge of a large clearing, encircled with a barbed-wire fence. The remnants of an ancient barn sat rotting within the fence, overgrown with weeds and falling apart, and a rusty tractor sat beside it in the same condition.
In the middle of the clearing, a wall of corrugated metal, wood and cement surrounded a low hill. Bonfires had been set a few feet from the perimeter, lighting the darkness with heat and smoke, and I could see lights and other structures beyond the wall.
We eased Joe through the barbed wire, taking care with his leg, and started across the clearing. Halfway across, a shout came from somewhere up ahead, and someone on the wall shone a flashlight into my eyes. Joe shouted back, waving his arms, and the light disappeared. A few minutes later a rusty groan echoed across the field as the gate opened and three people, two men and a woman, rushed toward us.