The night deepens. Midnight passes into that hollow darkness. Cameron and Ramirez remain at their posts, and Julien passes by every hour or so.
My neck cramps. My back aches. But I don’t move, not wanting to disturb Sienna, who’s now fully asleep on my shoulder, occasional soft snores escaping her lips.
It feels like we’ve been sitting here forever, and although the night sky slowly gives way to that deep pre-dawn grey, we still have a bit until sunrise.
It’s like holding your breath underwater, waiting to surface.
That’s when I hear it. A low moan drifts through the air, so faint I almost think I imagined it.
I freeze, listening hard.
There it is again.
Ramirez raises his rifle, scanning the tree line through the scope.
“See anything?” Cameron calls up.
Another moan, louder this time, joined by several others. Mindless groans of regular zombies, mixed with snarls and clicks that have a rhythm, almost a cadence to them.
“Movement on the east side,” Ramirez says. “Lot of it.”
“Sienna.” I jostle her. “Wake up.”
Her eyes open, confusion giving way to instant alertness as she straightens. I stand, knife clutched in my fist, as I move to the bottom of the steps, trying to see past the fence.
The first shapes emerge from between the trees—shambling, decaying forms with that telltale lurching gait. Regular zombies. But there’s a darker shape moving with more purpose behind them.
“Fuck.” Sienna comes up beside me, rubbing her eyes. “Is that—They look a lot more creepy than you told us.”
A taller figure lopes along the edge of the zombie group, head lowered, back hunched in that unnatural curve I recognize from that first night. A wolf zombie. And it’s… herding them? Directing them toward our gate with a series of clicking sounds, nudging stragglers back into line when they drift.
The wolf zombie pauses at the tree line, raising its distorted head. It makes a sharp clacking sound, like bones snapping together, that echoes through the evening air. From the darkness of the forest, similar sounds reply. First one, then another, then several more from different directions.
“What the hell?” Cameron’s voice rises with urgency. “Ramirez?”
Ramirez swings his rifle in a wide arc, checking all sides of the compound. His face goes ashen. “They’ve surrounded us.”
“How many?” I shout up to him.
“Too fucking many.” He adjusts his scope. “Zombies on every approach, at least fifty from what I can see. And those wolf things. They’re guiding them.”
The wolf zombie throws its head back and lets out a howl that raises goosebumps across my skin. Other howls answer from the forest, forming a nightmarish chorus that makes my stomach clench.
“They can’t get in, right?” Sienna’s voice wavers. “The fence?—”
“It’ll hold.” Cameron reaches for the torch, striking a match against the fence post to ignite it. The flames catch, casting flickering orange light across his face. “Get back to the cabins. Both of you.”
“We’re not leaving you out here,” I say.
“Dakota!” My mother’s voice sends ice through my veins. I turn to see her crossing the compound, a tray balanced in her arms. “I brought coffee and snacks.”
No. Not now. Not her. “Mom, go back inside!”
She doesn’t listen, of course. Just keeps walking toward us with that determined stride, lips in a tight line that means she’s still angry but doing her duty anyway.
“Mrs. Levine!” Cameron waves his free arm. “Get back to the cabin!”
She pauses, frowning. “What’s going?—”
