“What are you waiting for?” Justin yelled. “Go!”
Still in shock, I did what Justin said and landed on the other side of the wall near Mr. Higgins. Justin followed me over, and it took me a minute to fully comprehend what I had witnessed.
“Why did you do that?” I screamed, shoving him. “They could have made it!”
“I did what was necessary. If I hadn’t, we all could have died,” Justin argued.
I knew he was wrong. They could have made it, but now wasn’t the time for that debate. “We’ll discuss it later. We need to get moving.”
“We’re not going to the memorial,” Justin stated. He snatched my bat from me and hit Mr. Higgins over the head with it.
What the fuck was going on? Before my fight or flight response could kick in, Justin had thrown me over his shoulder and began walking away, leaving Mr. Higgins unconscious on the ground.
“It’s for your own good, Emmy.”
I struggled against his hold, knowing I needed to get as far away from Justin as possible. I needed to get back to my parents.
Justin put me down, his hand wrapping around my throat to keep me from moving. “You’ll see. Once you’re away from those gang bangers, you’ll see.”
The crazed look in his eyes sent chills down my spine. His fist was the last thing I saw before everything went dark.
Chapter eleven
Luis
Ilet my anger that we got separated from Emery flow through me and into the knife I plunged into the zombie in front of me. I had to stay focused on the task at hand: keeping Emery’s parents alive. She trusted us to make sure they made it to the memorial, and that’s what we were going to do. Emery could take care of herself. She would be just fine, and we’d see her again soon. That mantra looped through my mind as we continued through the city. I was in the lead, Miguel stuck close to Camila and Felix, and Nico covered our backs.
Anyone who presented a threat was put down. Human or zombie, it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was safely reuniting Camila and Felix with their daughter. When we were far enough from the mayhem, we ducked into a convenience store to let Camila and Felix rest. To their credit, they kept up with us without complaint, but they weren’t spring chickens anymore, and we had to make sure they didn’t become too worn out in case we had to make a run for it at some point.
“We have to keep going,” Felix demanded. “We have to find Emery.”
“Emery can take care of herself,” Nico replied, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than Felix.
“He’s right, darling,” Camila said, grabbing Felix’s hand and tugging him to sit next to her. “Emery will be ok. She isn’t alone.” Begrudgingly, Felix sat, but we didn’t rest for long before they were both up and ready to keep moving. We all felt anxious to get to the memorial as fast as possible. We continued moving away from the pier where most of the zombies were still concentrated before cutting over toward the memorial. We moved a little more slowly since the streets weren’t as busy, which reduced the need for breaks. As we neared the park, we came across a group of zombies.
“Is that...?” My brain couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. Darla and Lani, their entrails dragging across the pavement, were among the zombies.
“Do you see Emery?” Camila asked in a panic.
I scanned the group but only recognized those two. “I don’t, does anyone else?”
“No,” Miguel answered. “The rest of the group must have made it through.”
“Let’s get to that memorial,” Nico said. “If they already made it this far, they’re likely already there waiting for us. Keep moving.”
We had to take a little extra time to avoid catching the zombies’ attention, but when we arrived at the memorial, Emery wasn’t there. Where the fuck was she? Felix and Camila held on to each other as they tried not to worry while I discussed what to do with Miguel and Nico.
“We need to find Emery,” Miguel stated.
“We can’t leave her parents unprotected,” I said, “and it’s too risky to bring them with us.”
“Plus, we don’t know where to even look for her. She could be anywhere,” Nico sighed. “We’re going to have to stay put and trust that Emery will make it here as planned.”
We settled in among the trees within view of the memorial and waited for Emery and the others to arrive. When the sun started drifting toward the horizon, we began to get seriously worried.
“She should have been here by now,” Camila said.
She’d obviously gotten close to the memorial because we saw Darla and Lani, so where was she?
