I slowly glanced up, and my heart plummeted as I locked gazes with dead eyes. Up in the tree above us was a matted and undead mountain lion. “Don’t move.”
Her entire body was stiff as I maintained eye contact with it and raised my gun.
It let out a low, choppy growl, baring its teeth before lunging forward and landing on the remnants of the earlier zombie. It glanced back at us, and I made sure the gun followed it. It darted away from us in the opposite direction of the Oasis as I pulled the trigger. The bullet hit its shoulder, and it roared but continued running away from us.
“It has to be the one we heard go down during the horde,” I told her, and she swayed into me. “Tori?”
She sucked in a stuttered breath before squeezing her eyes tight. “I’m dizzy, and I think we may have just died. How long was it there?”
“I don’t know.” I bit down on my lip before slinging my gun over my shoulder and grabbed her golf club and the blanket before we started back toward home. “But I don’t like how close of a call that was.”
“Me either,” she mumbled. “But the sex was still great.”
“Yeah. Life-threatening sex really makes our sex-life exciting.”
She giggled, but I wasn’t actually joking. It was great even if we did almost die.
We made it to the treehouse without running into anyone, and Tori immediately started stripping when we shut the door.
“What happened?” Micah’s gruff voice was immediate as he came from his bedroom.
Tori winced as I helped her pull the sweater off. “I fell into a bush.”
“Youfell?” He arched a brow. “And cut your arm?”
“We had sex in front of a zombie, and she hopped off me as soon as it came close and stumbled into a bush,” I clarified.
Micah’s lip twitched like he was holding back a smile, but he shook his head. “You two have to be more careful.”
“We didn’t mean for that to happen.” Tori shimmied out of her leggings and yelped as she bumped her arm on the wall. “Shit. I got blood on the wall. Calix is going to lose it.”
“I’ll clean it, darlin’. You go clean the wound.”
“Blood?” Calix rushed from his room and paused as he took in Tori’s disheveled state and the blood. “What happened? Tell me you didn’t get bit.” His voice cracked, and my heart ached from his words.
“No! No. I didn’t get bit. A branch cut my arm when I fell into a bush,” she explained. “But I’ll keep blood off everything. So don’t worry.”
Relief flooded his features before he moved forward and wrapped his fingers around her wrist, pulling her into the bathroom with him. “You need to disinfect it now, honey. Let me help you clean it. I know how to prevent infection.”
Micah and I shared a surprised look. Calix had really come so far, and it was all thanks to Tori.
“Listen…the zombie wasn’t the only issue we ran into,” I told Micah, and his shoulders stiffened. “We saw a zombie mountain lion, and it could’ve been watching us for a while in a tree above us. It didn’t try to bite us though, it ran away, and I shot it in the shoulder as it did. It went away from the Oasis, but it’s definitely posing a danger.”
“And you’re sure it was a zombie?”
“Definitely.” I swallowed hard, and his frown deepened. “I’m going to go tell Dad and the rest of the survivors, so they know to bring a weapon at all times, no matter where they go.”
“Good.” He nodded, glancing back at the bathroom. I swore I saw a flicker of fear go through him.
“Go help Calix. He may need assistance,” I murmured. “I’ll be back soon.”
Micah nodded. “Be careful.” He started toward the bathroom without another word as I left the treehouse to inform the Oasis about the looming danger.
I’d hoped the zombies weren’t evolving further. That mountain lion was too intelligent for my liking, but maybe it was some freak of nature and not something to be worried about.
21
TORI
