CHAPTER 57
Kate screamed as the security guards ripped the children from her hands and wrestled her to the ground. She scratched their faces and kicked. She couldn’t lose them again. She had to fight.
“No, to the train,” one of the guards said. The boys tried to wiggle free.
Kate reached out for them, but a man pinned her arms. Another man rushed to her and she saw the butt of a rifle coming at her face.
The room was dark and crowded. Kate was being crushed by people from every side. She elbowed people left and right but no one responded — they were dead on their feet. They would have fallen over if they weren’t squeezed in so tight.
Above her, Kate heard a loud boom. A huge metal device was descending from the ceiling. There were lights, flashing from the top now, with synchronized booms. She could feel the booms in her chest and in the bodies of the zombies crowded around her.
Were the children here? She scanned the room. She couldn’t see anyone, just blank faces, half-awake. Then — Naomi. The confident woman who had rescued her looked terrified.
The boom-boom-boom above grew deafening, the light blinding. Kate felt the flesh around her heat up. She raised a hand to brush the sweat from her face, but the hand was already so wet, covered in something thick, almost sticky, gritty — blood.