Once my feet hit the dirt, she turned me to face her. “Follow me as closely as you can,” she directed. “I’ll do my best to keep it slow for you, but we need to move.”
I nodded and thought again that I needed to start working out. Especially cardio. I might not need to outrun a group of zombies, but I did need to run faster than at least a few of the people I was with.
Poppy darted into the tree line. She went about fifty yards into the trees before she started to move laterally. I realized that the house was no longer visible behind us, and that she wanted to make sure no one at the house could see us either.
The wind blew from behind me, and I realized that she was moving us downwind from the house.
Damn, she was so fast.
A stitch developed just beneath my right ribs, but I tried to ignore it. What was a little pain when I was trying to save my life?
My legs pumped faster even though they felt heavy. Definitely working out after this. Running, lifting, maybe even learning to fight.
Poppy was getting further and further away from me, and I couldn’t dig up any more speed.
It didn’t matter. I just had to keep her in sight. As long as I got out of here, that’s all that mattered.
I jumped over a fallen sapling and a movement to my right caught my eye. I turned my head just as the blur reached me.
Strong arms wrapped around me, lifting me off my feet.
I nearly took a swing at the man who grabbed me, but then I smelled him. It was Daniel. He’d come for me.
Instead of hitting him, I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his hips, letting him run through the woods with me. He moved much faster than I did anyway.
Within seconds, we’d caught up to Poppy, who glanced at us and said, “Took you long enough to get here, Boss Man.”
“Yeah, well, I was a little tied up myself.”
Had they cuffed him the way they’d cuffed Poppy and me?
“My car is about a quarter mile away,” he said, not the least bit out of breath.
I clung to him as the trees thinned and revealed a narrow road.
“Follow me,” Daniel said, turning to the right and heading up a hill.
I looked over his shoulder and met Poppy’s gaze. She looked mad as hell.
A few seconds later, we stopped next to his SUV. Daniel let me slide down his body and nearly stuffed me into the passenger seat. Poppy climbed into the back.
In a blink, he’d started the car, swung into a tight u-turn, and was speeding down the road.
“What in the hell happened?” Poppy asked from the back seat. Unlike Daniel, she was breathing heavily.
“Leona happened.”
“So, Leo showing up was a trap?” she asked.
Daniel glanced in the rearview mirror. “Not quite.”
She scoffed in disgust. “What does that mean?”
I saw Daniel look at me and then back at Poppy.
Oh, so he wanted to protect little ol’ me?
“Just spit it out,” I demanded. “If it got me kidnapped, I deserve to know why.”
