Whatever had got her knocking on the bathroom door wasn’t on TV. The same footage looked to be playing on a loop now, as if they’d run out of reporters on the ground to record new content.
My pulse thumped faster as I crossed the room and stopped beside her. Her features were tight, her lower lip clamped between her teeth. Not a good sign. “What are we looking at?” I asked.
She nodded at the window. “That,” she said quietly, as if whatever was out there could hear her from four floors up.
My stomach tensed, and I followed her gaze through the glass.
It took me a minute to comprehend what I was seeing. Disorganised movement. Bodies staggering and shuffling.
Then my focus sharpened, and confusion turned to alarm.
At least a dozen zombies filled the street we’d cleared only an hour ago, their clothes ripped and stained with blood.
One had a broken arm. Another was shirtless, his gut shredded and intestines exposed to the air. I swallowed and fought the urge to close my eyes. A kid brought up the rear—a girl about the same age as Ruby. The only thing keeping me from losing my shit was the lack of understanding in her eyes. She wasn’t scared or lost. She had no idea what had happened to her.
My chest ached with the weight of it all. “The girl,” I said. “Look how young she is.”
I forced out thoughts of Ruby and Mia, of my dad and the farm. Seeing the girl out there didn’t mean they’d met the same fate. Dad had rifles. Plenty of ammo. He’d keep them safe, even at the expense of his own life. I had to believe they were healthy and whole because the alternative would ruin me.
Sadie’s hand found mine, our fingers interlocking as they had on the rooftop days ago. “This is how it is now,” she said, her voice strangely calm. “Old and young—everything in between. We’re all at risk, and we’re never going back to the way it used to be.”
Not only did I agree with her, but it would get worse. Much worse.
A car alarm went off nearby, drawing the group’s attention. The frontrunners shifted direction, their movements slow and awkward as they progressed down the street.
“They’re passing by,” she said. “It’s all just mindless movement.”
“They’re attracted to noise.” I gave her hand a squeeze as I tracked the girl again, manually shutting down the part of me that wanted to run out there and save her. “I picked up on it outside when the car came through. Even if their sights are set on someone, it changes the second any new activity takes their attention.”
“Do you think they can smell blood?” Sadie watched the macabre procession. “Or sweat? Can they pick up scents like other predators? That’s going to make things a lot more complicated.”
We still knew barely anything, and her questions needed answers soon. But not now. I faced her and brushed my thumb along her jaw. “I don’t know,” I said, “but we’ll work it out.”
She closed her eyes and took a breath before opening them again. “As long as we’re both in the same location, right?”
Her lips were so inviting. I knew exactly how they felt against mine, the way she turned soft as soon as I put my hands on her. It took everything in me to resist. “Right.”
“I think we should have this conversation on the rooftop with everyone else,” she said. “Find out who’s going where, so we can all decide together.”
“Fair enough.” At least we’d know what we were working with, and other people's decisions might determine hers.
Outside, the car alarm cut off mid-bleep, and the silence that settled over the street felt like the eye of a storm.
The part I couldn’t figure out was whether the storm was outside, or brewing right here between the two of us.
Twenty-Four
sadie
Ihadn’t been on the rooftop in so long it was almost like seeing it for the first time. The seasons had shifted while I was sick, bringing the cold, the heaviness. Everyone had gathered in coats and hoodies, beanies and scarves.
The wind turned Willow’s hair into a swirling halo of gold, and she waved at Theo as she walked backward on the slow-moving treadmill, still carefree somehow despite everything that had happened.
“Hi again,” Laura said. “Twice in one day.” She sat beside Owen on the couch with a plaid blanket draped over her knees.
Theo had pounded on all their doors before he ran back upstairs and collected me. It took less than ten minutes to assemble everybody.
Ellie threw me a distracted smile and turned on the TV, flinching at the blaring volume before she scrambled to turn it down.
