“Sarah,” Carter said with quiet horror. “What have you done?”
The woman clapped a hand to her mouth and her face went dead pale. “Oh God,” she said. “I’m sorry . . . I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to . . .”
Carter nervously shifted the shotgun barrel between Nix and Benny, as if trying to decide which of them should die first. Or maybe, thought Benny, trying to decide which one would be easier to kill without losing too much of his own soul. Benny did not believe that this man wanted to fire that gun, but he looked desperate and shoved to the edge of panic. Benny knew full well how panic could inspire the worst possible choices.
Riot’s face hardened. “Now we got no choice at all, Carter.”
In a voice loud enough for only Benny and Chong to hear, Nix muttered, “Screw this.”
“Nix,” warned Benny too quietly for the strangers to hear, “don’t do anything crazy.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she murmured.
And then she fired at Carter.
24
LILAH HAD NO CHANCE.
She heard the scuff of a footfall on stone behind her, but before she could turn the thing slammed into her. Even then she tried to dodge, but pain exploded along her side and suddenly she was flying through the air.
Blood trailed behind her like the tail of a comet, spattering the leaves and bristles of the shrubs. Her spear spun away into the weeds. Then Lilah struck the ground on the edge of the cracked shelf of rock, and the impact knocked all the air from her lungs.
She lay there, firestorms of pain racing up and down her spine. She clung to the edge of the shelf and to the edge of consciousness. Blood pooled under her. Every part of her was wrapped in pain. She tried to get up, tried to see what it was that had attacked her, but fresh pain detonated in her lower neck and back. She collapsed down with a helpless cry.
The thing wheeled toward her and grunted in awful hunger.
Lilah craned her neck and stared at it. At the impossibility of it.
It was a massive wild boar. Five hundred pounds of muscle and hunger. Brutish, ugly, with a barrel chest, short legs, and wicked tusks.
But that was not the worst part of it.
Flesh hung in bloodless strips from the massive shoulders. Its teeth were caked with rotted meat. It stank of rot and death.
It was impossible.
And yet . . . it was a zombie.
Lilah screamed.
The monster roared with terrible hunger as it charged.
25
NIX’S SHOT GALVANIZED EVERYONE INTO MOTION.
Carter flung himself to the ground, twisting and firing as he fell. Nix dropped down to avoid the buckshot, but the pellets went high and wild, chasing birds screaming from the trees.
Sarah clutched Eve to her chest and dove into the tall grass.
Chong staggered backward from the blast and stood teetering on the edge of the ravine, his arms pinwheeling, while below him the zoms let out a renewed moan of hunger.
Benny had to drop his sword to grab him, but he spun fast and flung Chong with unintended force straight into Riot. They slammed down on the ground and vanished into the brush.
For a moment only Benny was left standing.
Then Nix and Carter both rose to their knees, guns coming up. Benny dove for his sword and skidded five feet on his chest.
“Don’t!” he cried, but Nix fired again, forcing Carter to dive sideways again.
Benny heard a thwop sound, and something whipped through the air a finger’s width from his cheek. He saw Riot lying on her side with the slingshot in her hands. She’d aimed at Chong, who was already on his feet, but the stone missed him and almost hit Benny.
Riot’s hands moved with incredible speed as she fished out another stone and seated it into the sling.
“Chong—run!” yelled Benny, but Chong was already in motion, cutting away from them toward the nearest stand of pinyon trees. His only weapon was a wooden bokken, and that was the wrong thing to bring to this fight. Benny was relieved to see Chong dive into the shadowy woods.