My muscles coiled as the smell of decomposing flesh hit first. “Look out.”
The woman slapped her hands on the fence and mashed her face into the metal, rabid and desperate, deepening the gashes on her cheek and neck. Willow jumped back and stumbled into her mum.
“Easy,” Laura said, steadying her even as her own voice shook. “You’re okay. She can’t get you.”
The woman’s mouth gaped, and she wailed with frustration and hunger. A white film covered her eyes, and rot thickened the air as she wove her fingers between the links, nails ragged and broken. The tendons in her neck were exposed, her top drenched with blood, turning the navy to purple.
I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it. My eyes watered as I shifted my focus to the activity behind her.
Sadie entered the tennis court with Owen and Ellie close behind. They stopped for a beat and strategised, then spread out and approached the dead in a similar formation to what Laura, Tim, and I had used.
Sadie glanced at me, and I nodded my encouragement.
Steady now. I need you in my life.
My pulse thudded as I tapped my sword on the fence, the rhythmic clink pulling the man in pyjamas closer.
It hit me then how Sadie must have felt watching me through the foyer door—the helplessness and worry that someone you cared for might not make it back to you. The urge to put myself between her and the dead grew stronger by the minute.
“Keep smacking the wire, Wills,” I said. “Breathe through the fear. Focus.”
She sent me a split-second glance, then hit the infected woman’s fingers hard enough that it should have made her pull back, but she kept reaching, kept trying to grasp anything she could get her hands on.
“Good,” Laura said. “Keep going.” Then to me, she said quietly, “It sucks being on the outside. I need to be in there with them.”
The man in pyjamas finally made it to the fence, his bare feet slapping the ground as he joined the woman. His foot looked to be broken, and his arrival ramped up her agitation. The two of them jostled against the fence, fingers reaching, faces void of emotion.
“They’re close,” I said. “Almost there.” I couldn’t tear my gaze from Sadie now. If she tripped or rolled an ankle, it could change everything.
“Don’t take any risks,” Laura called out to Ellie. “Listen to your dad.”
She nodded her understanding, keeping quiet.
They were smart, all three of them. If they stayed alert and worked as a team, they’d be fine—and I’d keep reminding myself of that until Sadie was back on this side of the fence, injury free.
Owen pointed at the dead woman and said something to Sadie, his voice so low, I couldn’t make out the words. She gave the slightest nod and gestured for Ellie to approach along with her.
The women were taking the first swings, with Owen as backup in case it went south. He had the strength; they had the faster reflexes.
The man gnashed his teeth and tried grabbing Willow through the barrier, but she stood her ground. Each time he pushed his fingers through, she hammered his knuckles.
Laura’s maul clinked against the metal, a slow, steady tempo building the tension.
My feet were restless, my legs itching to move. I kept my position, tracking Sadie as she crept up behind the woman, her steps undetectable amid the noise of the infected. With her axe raised at shoulder height, she stared hard at her target.Everything about her posture, her focus, told me she could do this.
“She’s going in for the kill,” Laura said. “One clean hit, that’s all we need.”
The air went still, and I wanted to grip the fence. Call out instructions. But she didn’t need my help.
No one spoke. The only sounds came from the infected—the man’s low groan, and the woman’s eerie wail—and Willow attacking their protruding fingers like a game of whack-a-mole.
Energy moved through me like static electricity.
As Sadie stepped up to the fence and shifted her weight, I tapped Willow’s shoulder. “It’s about to get messy.”
We backed up enough to avoid the splatter, and a beat later, Sadie brought her axe down on the woman’s shoulder—off target, but still a solid hit. It cut straight through to the bone, and I waited for her to wretch or shrink back from what she’d done, but there was no time for her to feel anything.
She yanked the bit free, spraying droplets of blood as she moved into a defensive stance.
