My heart plummeted into my stomach, and the horse gave a bone-chilling groan as it went down, the zombie’s teeth still embedded in its flesh. The horse must’ve already been at its limit because it didn’t even try to run.
Tori and Spencer went down with it, but Tori fell to the side, rolling with the impact, while the horse fell on top of Spencer’s leg with desperate groans.
“Tori!”Spencer’s panicked voice was laced with pain as she pushed at the horse and tried scrambling out from under it.
I rushed toward them, weaving around the chaos of the horses, but Tori moved faster than I did.
She pushed off the ground and raced back toward her sister and horse as the zombie yanked a chunk of flesh from the horse and spat it out on the ground as it found its next victim.
Zombies had one motive: to bite and infect.
They didn’t eat like the mainstream media had eluded before the world ended.
The infected corpses didn’t care about anything except spreading the soul-sucking virus as it crawled over the horse’s struggling body, intent on getting to Spencer as she screamed for help.
I made it to them just as Tori threw herself over Spencer and kicked the zombie in the face to force it back, but the zombie’s mouth chomped down, wrapping its fingers around her ankle.
My vision pulsed red with fury at Tori being at the mercy of a zombie.
An intense desire to protect her bloomed deep within me, and I lifted my axe over my shoulder, bringing it down onto the zombie’s head before it could pull its teeth out of the rubber of Tori’s sneakers and try to bite again.
The skull split with a crack before its jaw loosened, and it slumped forward.
“Oh my God,” Tori whimpered, shaking her foot until the zombie fell off the horse to the ground.
Its teeth had been an inch or so deep into the thick rubber part of Tori’s sneakers—just the sneakers.
Relief swept through me.
“Help me get her out from under him.” Her voice cracked as she moved her arms under Spencer’s and pulled.
“Of course, darlin’.” My throat thickened as I bent down and lifted the horse up enough for Tori to free her sister’s leg and laid the horse back down.
“Spencer, Tori, are you okay?” Grace’s frantic tone sent a pang of remembrance of my mother before I pushed it away.
“We’re fine,” Spencer assured as she rubbed her leg and flicked her watery gaze toward the horse. “But Kovu’s not.”
“I’ve got Spence.” Grace fussed over Spencer’s leg as she helped her to her feet, and miraculously her leg wasn’t broken. “She’s fine, Tori. Go to him.”
Saying that seemed to clear any of Tori’s hesitation.
Her face crumbled as she turned and dropped back to her knees next to Kovu’s head. She slipped the horse’s large head into her lap and stroked his face as he groaned and squirmed in pain.
Tears dripped down her face and landed in small splatters on the horse’s fur. “I’m so sorry, Kovu.”
The horse blinked up at her, and while I didn’t know much about horses, it was clear that Kovu loved her just as much as she loved him.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t see it.” She gritted her teeth as the tears flowed freely. “I know it hurts.”
“Tori…” Nathan stepped beside me, rifle perched on his shoulder as he kept checking the perimeter. He’d managed to tiethe horse we’d ridden to a tree limb a few feet away, and it was huffing and pacing while trying to break free.
The havoc of the situation had startled everyone, including all the horses, and we had a newly turned zombie attack us from nowhere.
Adrenaline flooded me, which made slowing my heart rate down difficult.
“It’s only a wound. We can make it past this. I just need something to use as a bandage.” Tori sniffled, stroking the horse’s face gently.
“He was bitten, Tori,” I whispered.
