“There!” The kid smacks me on the chin with one of his little elbows as he points to a woman frantically searching from car to car.
“Mom!” he screeches right into my ear and I have to fight the urge not to throw him off me.
Then the woman’s running in our direction, slipping on the snow but determined to get to him as quickly as possible.
“Arty! I was so worried.” Her voice is frantic as she scans him for injuries.
“I did what you said,” he says with a proud little nod. “I hid.”
“You did so good,” she replies, grabbing him and yanking him into her arms. She shoots me a grateful look. “Thank you for finding him.”
I nod.
And then I move on to the next crisis.
This fucking night is neverending.
As I’m passing a group of people huddled together beside a crumpled car, I catch part of their conversation and for some reason, it draws my attention.
“You reckon she’s the one that called them? Created a bunch of zombies and let them loose on the city?” A man says.
“Why would someone do that, though?”
“Nah, she looked scared as shit. Just a young thing, isn’t she? She never could have controlled those things.”
“I watched one of those monsters tear someone clean in two. That little girl couldn’t have made that happen. No chance.”
I catch sight of the screen of one of their cell phones as I skirt past. It’s a newsreel, playing the same video on repeat. My stomach twists with dread as I take in the image of the very familiar building, with its windows smashed to pieces.
City Hall.
The camera pans to a room filled with people dressed in finery. They’re all standing stock-still, staring at something in the center of the room. The camera is a little shaky as it pans closer to the zombie sniffing the air andlunging.
All the air leaves my lungs as I recognize the person it’s heading toward.
And then she’s there. Silver, my little witch, whose face I know about as well as my own. Her expression is set with determination.
... as she faces off against a motherfucking zombie.
I’m frozen in place, staring at the damn screen over one of these stranger’s shoulders. Pretty sure my mouth is gaping open, but I can’t control my muscles right now.
I’m too focused on the screen. I need to see what happens next.
The zombie collapses. Just like all the others did. As though someone took a celestial pair of scissors to them and cut the force that was keeping them alive... or at leastundead, I guess.
Holy shit.
It was the exact same thing that happened to the horde of them down here.
Silver was the one that stopped them.
My girl.
Ourgirl.
Pride fills me for just a second. She’s a little badass and powerful as hell. Then, in the next moment, it hits me. The entire city just watched her do it. Pride makes way for urgency and panic, and I move away from the group of gawpers. My feet slip on the snow, but I don’t care.
I need to move. I need to get out of here and find her.
