I stood and waited for…something.
“He’s not right,” Laura said. “Check him out. His eyes look weird, like he’s not even in there anymore.”
“He’s on the move.” The man’s awkward shuffle took him closer to the main group. He reached the periphery and caught a wayward elbow to the temple from a beefy guy in a hi-vis hoodie, but his vacant expression didn’t change; not even a flicker of pain or anger. If he’d reacted, it would have at least shown awareness of his surroundings and eased some of the pressure on my chest.
“That hit didn’t even register,” Laura said, hanging onto my arm like a life preserver.
If he’d had a single thought in his head, it would have been his sign to turn around and get out of there. Instead, he extended his arms and closed in on the pack, jaw grinding from side to side in the most unnerving way.
“I’m sick of this fool.” Laura let go of me and muted the volume, shutting down the reporter. The sudden silence made the situation even more frightening, as if cutting off one of mysenses had made me tune into the others. My fingers shook, and I curled my hand into a fist at my side.
The next moments played out like a slow-motion nightmare. The formerly unconscious man grabbed the hi-vis guy by the hair and dragged him backwards, the attack so unexpected, it almost toppled him over. As he tried to right himself, the other man lunged and sank his teeth into his neck.
Into. His. Neck.
Fuck.
Laura made a funny squeaking sound, and I stared at the TV, mouth half open, eyes wide.
“He’s biting him,” she said in wonder. “Teeth. Neck. Chomp.”
I shook my head in confusion. Hi-vis guy screamed and struggled, trying to shove the man off him. My body tensed, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the TV. His injury sprayed like a geyser, and the biting turned feral. An animal going in for the kill.
As the thugs on the periphery turned toward the noise, a nearby movement finally dragged my attention from the attack.
One of the remaining men on the ground spasmed a couple of times just like the first, his body jerking as it became more mobile. It took him less effort to gain his feet, and this one didn’t need time to acclimatise to his surroundings. “There’s another one.” I nodded at the screen as he locked onto the man already drenched in blood and made a beeline for him.
If it had been chaotic before, the scene exploded into a frenzy. Both men tore into muscles and tendons, their faces shiny with fresh blood. Hi-vis guy had stopped fighting now, his body dropping to the ground. I had a sinking feeling he wouldn’t stay down for long.
Laura’s breaths were audible.
My mind raced, and I struggled to focus. This could have been Sadie. What if it was Avaright now?
I had to get back home. If Sadie had been watching the same footage, she’d be planning a rescue mission, and the panic wouldn’t help with her recovery.
“He’s dead.” Laura stepped back from the screen as if distancing herself from the truth. The man with the ripped throat had landed on his side, his clothes saturated with blood. “They killed him live on TV. What if my girls saw it?”
I exhaled a harsh breath and uncurled my fingers, shifting my attention between Laura and the news. “Owen would have switched it off the second it took a turn.”
Sadie, on the other hand, would have absorbed every detail—and I wasn’t there to support her.
Laura shoved her hair back from her face and turned to me. “Is this what we’re dealing with now, as if we haven’t already been through enoughshit?”
When another man rose from the ground, a fluttering started behind my sternum. More attacks, more blood. The crowd had scattered, leaving only those who’d risen and their victims.
As if the network had finally realised the scene wasn’t fit for mass viewing, they cut to a shaken news anchor in the studio. The restrained panic in the woman’s eyes hit hard, and I sucked in a breath.
One occurrence could have been put down to an anomaly. Two was a stretch. Three? There was no getting around what we were watching. “You know what it looks like,” I said.
“If you say it—if you so much asutter that word—I swear to God I’m going to lose it.”
It was unfathomable.
Inhuman.
It defied explanation.
I locked eyes with her. “Zombies.”
