Another blast of molten air whooshed over my back and might have even singed the ends of my hair. Bits and pieces of zombie pelted me. Coughing, I kicked decrepit limbs away from me.
Then I ran. I ran and listened. A grunt. Snapping limbs. There. I chased the sound, turning left, quickening my pace, darting through a canopy of brittle leaves. Frosty’s features were bathed in panic as he bounded toward me, Kat flopping in his arms. Anima was coming at him from every angle.
Two of the soldiers raised their guns. Aimed.
“No!” I screamed, diving forward.
But I was too late. The bullets too fast.
One embedded in Frosty’s thigh—the other in Kat’s shoulder.
He fell, twisting midway to take the brunt of impact. Kat rolled from his arms. She stopped several yards from me. He stood, desperate to reach her, but he took a bullet to the chest and flew backward.
On my hands and knees, I scrambled to my best friend. Her eyes were closed. Dirt smeared her cheeks. “Come on. Come on! Mad Dog, you have to listen to me.” I tore off my shirt, didn’t care that I was left in my bra, and wrapped her bleeding shoulder. I trembled as I felt for a pulse.
Nothing.
No. I’d missed it, that was all. It was there. Had to be there. Maybe if I pressed harder, deeper. “You’re going to wake up. Do you hear me?”
Blood streamed from her mouth. Still there was no telltale beat to signal her heart had started working again.
I choked on a sob.
Pop. Pop.
A Hazmat toppled at my left, another at my right. Whatever. The men were nothing to me. “Kat. Mad Dog. It’s Ali. It’s time to wake up now. Okay? All right?”
Silence.
Respond! “Listen to me,” I screeched, desperate, so terribly desperate; there wasn’t room for any other emotion. “This isn’t cake. I need you to wake up. You’ve got a wedding to plan, the most horrid bridesmaid dress ever created to choose for me. Puke-green. With pink bows.”
Miserable silence.
She...
She was...
I fell back on my haunches, fighting to breathe. Anima had done this, had hurt an innocent girl. Ruined an innocent girl. Kat was—had been—no! I refuse to believe it—she was a bright, beautiful girl. Smart and witty. Kind and caring. She wouldn’t just...die out here in a forest, with zombies and fires and the enemy all around us. No, when she died, it was going to be on her own terms. In a blaze of glory.
Cole crouched beside Frosty and tried to tug him to his feet. The injured Frosty batted his hands away and crawled to Kat. My Kat, who still stared at nothing. He gently lifted her into his arms and settled her on his lap.
He croaked, “Kitten. Talk to me.” He kissed her forehead, his tears dripping onto her face. If this had been a fairy tale, she would have healed then and there, true love awakening her. But it wasn’t, and she didn’t. She didn’t smile, and she didn’t tease us about acting like babies.
And...she wasn’t going to, was she?
I could feel something else. Rage, sorrow and fury. So much fury.
“Tell me you’re okay,” Frosty demanded.
She couldn’t. She was...gone. She was gone, and I was a liar. I’d never gotten her to the hospital, and she wasn’t going to be all right.
Hot, stinging tears flooded my cheeks. I raised my face to the sky and screamed. Screamed so piercingly I could have shattered glass. But the sound, no matter how loud, could not drown out Frosty’s weeping. He was a male in pain, his greatest love stolen from him.
I had to leave. I had to leave now.
A strange calm washed over me. I stood to shaky legs and wrapped my arms around myself. I stumbled forward. There was Cole. Maybe he’d been shot. He was on his knees, his arms resting on his thighs. His head was bowed, his chest soaked with blood.
The pose struck me as familiar. The vision had come true at last. I didn’t care, wouldn’t stop.
Cole faced me. “I tried.” His lids squeezed tight, his lashes fusing. Tears welled between the strands. “I tried so hard to get them before they reached Frosty and Kat.”
I kept trudging forward, no destination in mind. Anywhere was better than here. At the back of my mind, I knew I’d come to some sort of mental crossroads; I had a decision to make. Give myself time to heal, if that was even possible, or let Anima have me so the madness would end.
I knew what I needed to do, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do.
I reached the street. A car was parked in the distance, two men standing outside it, holding remote controls. They spotted me and stilled, as if shocked to find their prey had come directly to them—and wasn’t bolting.
I could have shouted. Cole and Frosty might have come running. I could have raced away and hid. But I did neither of those things. Anima wanted me. Fine. They could have me.
Decision made.
They’d won. They’d taken another piece of my heart. One of the best. They could have their prize, shirtless as it was.
The rage burned up everything else. I would destroy them—even if I had to destroy myself in the process.