Somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better.
2
TORI
Queasiness lingered like a lead ball in my gut hours after we’d left home.
The horses kept a steady pace the entire time, as if they knew we were escaping some impending doom. Even Kovu, who had muscle spasms every now and then from going long distances.
My muscles ached, and my butt had gone numb from the ride. We hadn’t ridden the horses for such a long period of time since we went into lockdown at the ranch. We hadn’t even left our property since the day this whole thing started. I kept looking over my shoulder and scanning the area the best I could.
Nathan insisted that we didn’t want to take any roads, and we believed him. I remembered the chaos when it all started. Driving through zombies and wrecked cars was something I’d tried to block from my memory, but it was no use. I remembered it vividly. The roads must’ve been in complete disarray even now.
The scenery changed back and forth between wooded areas and pastures, but the air turned even cooler as the sun left the high point in the sky. It didn’t stop the sweat that coated myskin from the long ride though, and the farther we went, the less flat the land became. The horses were starting to tire from the rolling hills on our path.
I’d been surprised that Kovu hadn’t insisted on a break yet, and he was having no trouble carrying both Spencer and me.
The sun dipped slightly below the horizon, making the sky alight with purples and blues that bathed the pasture.
“Nathan’s cute,” Spencer whispered in my ear, and I stiffened. “And he’ssuperinto you…”
“What do you mean?” I whipped my head toward her, and she giggled. “I haven’t really spoken to him.”
“He asked about you when we were saddling my horse. I mean, he was asking about everyone, but he asked me if you were seeing anyone in particular. The man definitely is attracted to you, and he is so sweet and funny. I’m telling you, Tori,go for it.”
“Really?” I looked to the front where Micah and Nathan rode ahead with my parents beside them. For not knowing much about horses, Micah learned how to ride quickly. “Heiscute…but so is Micah.”
“Micah too, huh? Well, we are in the apocalypse.Why choose?” She giggled.
“Spence,” I hissed out.
“What? I’m just saying…if you like both of them and they like you, why not try it?”
“They probably wouldn’t like that,” I reasoned with her. “I mean, I don’t even know if Micah is interested.”
“How would you know? Did you ask?”
“I don’t evenknowthem!”
“You know they’re hot.”
“Spence-”
“Tori, come on! Live a little. You’ve been burned before. Why not just have a little fun and take this opportunity to move on from the past?”
I rolled my bottom lip into my mouth and bit it. She had a point. I didn’t think I would even have a chance at finding anything romantic after the world ended. Thiswasan opportunity for me to get to know them.
“Can wetake a break? This ride iskillingme!” Daisy groaned, her words muffled as she shoved her face against Jay’s back.
“If we take a break, we will be increasing our risk ofactuallydying,” Nathan said stiffly.
“But we just-” Daisy lifted her head before cutting herself off with a high-pitch scream. “Zombies!”
Moans and strangled cries left the ghostly mouths of the small horde blocking our path as we came around the curved track.
My throat seized as I held back a scream of my own from the sight of them.
All the zombies I’d seen up until now had been clearly dead, rotten flesh and pitted skin. But the state of the more decomposed zombies that stood in our path was something out of an alien horror film. Human bones with mangled tendons and muscle hung off as they dragged themselves forward. Their teeth were rotten as they snapped their jaws at the air.
