The machete slices through rotted bone with a wet crunch, and dark fluid sprays across my face, warm and thick like motor oil. The dead thing drops, its milky eyes still fixed on me with that empty hunger.
Not today.
I wrench the blade free and pivot to the next one.
Three more at the gate. Two or three more minutes before we’re overrun.
The bell has done its job. In the distance, dozens more shuffle toward us, drawn by the sound like moths to a fucking flame. We’re lucky they’re not in a hurry.
“On your left!” Cameron punches his firepoker through the eye socket of a woman. He kicks the body back as it crumples, creating space for himself.
I duck under grasping arms, drive my blade up through the soft underside of a jaw. The thing—a man in mailman clothes with half his face missing—twitches, then goes still. Its weight drags against my blade, and I have to brace my boot against the fence to pull free.
“Sienna, gate!” I don’t turn to look, trusting she knows what to do.
She darts past me, cleaver dripping as she reaches the padlock. Behind her, Cameron dispatches the last one near us—an older man in what was once an expensive suit, things I don’t want to identify dangling from his open stomach. My brother’s face is splattered with blood and gore, but his eyes are clear and focused.
“Got it!” Sienna yanks the chain free, the metal links clattering as they drop to the gravel.
Beyond the fence, the horde grows, more appearing with each second from all sides. If we don’t move now, we never will.
“Everyone, let’s go!” I scan our ragtag group, counting bodies.
Carmen sits in the front with Nicklas inside the minivan. Amelia is in the back. Rosa sits in the pickup’s backseat.
One missing. I turn a full circle, chest tightening. Where’s?—
I should fucking collar her.
“Where’s Dakota?” I sweep the area again. “Anyone seen her?”
No response. Blank faces. Confused glances.
“She went back inside,” Rosa says, rolling down the window of the pickup. “After talking to Amelia.”
I sprint to the minivan, opening the side door where Amelia lies. “Where’s your sister?”
Amelia’s pale face crumples. “I’m not sure. I thought I forgot my pills.” She lifts her hand to show a small pink pill case. “I called after her, but I think it was too late. She went inside anyway.”
“When?”
“I’m sure she’ll be right back.”
Dakota’s not the type to wander off, not now. Not after everything. She fucking promised.
The first zombie reaches the street, stumbling over the edge and dropping to the ground.
“Fuck,” I mutter. “You go. We don’t have time.” I snap the door shut and cross to Cameron, who’s standing at the pickup’s driver’s door. “We meet at Pine Lake.”
“We’re not leaving you,” he says. “We can wait. Five more?—”
“No.” I gesture toward the approaching dead. “Every second brings more of them. Get Abuela to safety. Get everyone to the lodge. I’ll find Dakota and catch up.”
“How?” Sienna steps forward, eyes fierce. “On foot? With what vehicle? That’s suicide!”
“I’ll find a way.” I grab Cameron’s shoulder, pulling him into a rough embrace. His body tenses, then relaxes against mine. “Take care of them and stay alive, you hear me? Love you, little brother.”
He clutches the back of my shirt, like when we were kids, and he was scared of the dark. “You fucking better meet us there.”
