“We appreciate you letting us ride the horde out in a safer place, but that is our home as my wife said,” Tom clarified.
I scrunched my face up in a wince. They had not seen what a horde was capable of. That ranch had little chance of actually surviving it.
“We get that,” Micah said.
“But the offer is always open,” I added, specifically thinking of the cute brunette woman who had saved my life with agolf club. “My father’s a prepper. He and I always joked about how the apocalypse would come about. I told him zombies, but his thought was society collapsing or nuclear war… I never thought I would be disappointed to be right.”
“I get that,” Tori spoke softly. “I played a lot of zombie video games before everything, and seeing it play out in real life is a lot less thrilling.”
“Same here.” My lips curved into a small smile.
We had a lot more in common than I suspected.
I hadn’t been this interested in a woman since the night my father, step-mother, and I lost our home.
Going down this road could’ve been dangerous, but my gut told me that Tori was safe.
Micah glanced over his shoulder back at the woman we had both become infatuated with before turning back to the front.
She could be the key to a type of happiness we had long given up trying to achieve.
4
MICAH
“Are we getting any closer?” Grace asked, exhaustion dripping from her voice.
The horses had slowed their trot to a walk, and the group had tired themselves out.
The crescent moon hung high in the sky accompanied by a billion twinkles of stars that lit the way. We’d passed almost completely through the pasture that led to the forest home of the Oasis.
“We’re only an hour out now,” Nathan answered. “We normally would’ve camped three nights from the city and one night from the distance of your ranch. We need to get back as soon as possible to warn the others of the incoming horde and prepare.”
The group fell silent, matching the nightlife as we drew closer to the woods.
“The forest being this quiet used to mean there was a large predator around.” I gave a heavy sigh. The crunch of dead pine needles and twigs under the horses’ hooves and our breaths filled the air, but nothing else. “But the roles have changed now.These days, the forest is indefinitely this quiet—unless there’s something making noise.”
“That’s ominous,” Tori murmured, and my chest tightened.
That woman made me feel things I hadn’t since Kelly, and it didn’t feel as unwanted as I thought it would. It made me want toprotecther.
“I miss the ranch,” Spencer whined.
“You’ve really lived in a bubble the last three years of this shit storm,” I said. “Count your blessings. Things aren’t so good out here. Stay alert.”
The group didn’t say anything else as we left the pasture and entered the forest.
This area was fully wooded, and it went on formiles. It was why I chose it to make my homestead. It wasfaraway from people.
I had to use the four-wheeler to get to my truck next to the road if I ever wanted to go anywhere. Fuel had long run out though. Any motor-vehicles that relied solely on gasoline had become a thing of the past.
A branch snapped, and our horse jerked, causing the horses behind us to get spooked and try to run off. The rest of the group fought to get a handle on their horses as I narrowed my eyes toward the thick-rowed trees to our left and pulled back on the reins until the horse came to a stop.
Distinct moans echoed through the forest just before a zombie sprinted from the darkness with speed I had only witnessed in someone freshly turned. The moonlight filtered through the leaves above, showing that its muscles and body were still intact.
“Get the horses under control, and watch out!” I shouted, jumping off the horse as Nathan took the reins and tried calming it down.
All the horses reared up and bucked, distracting everyone else from the zombie that leapt forward and sank its teeth into the back leg of the first horse it could—Tori’s horse.
