An arrow whizzed through the back of its neck, but not before its teeth tore into Daisy’s throat and landed on top of her.
My entire world froze as time seemed to slow. The zombie lifted from Daisy’s gushing neck, her flesh between its teeth, and it glanced behind us.
It was a freshly turned zombie, and it was Jay’s mother.
Turning back to Jay, it moved forward as Jay held his arm up, and her teeth sank into his forearm as a bullet hit her in the head.
“We need to amputate,now!” Micah barked an order, and Calix blinked at him.
“We don’t know if that will stop the infection. That was only a rumor at the start.”
“We have to try.” My voice croaked, and I couldn’t move my gaze from Daisy’s body. Blood continued to pour from her neck all over the concrete. Her blue eyes were wide and starting to turn milky.
Calix shook his head before rushing to another aisle. “I’ll grab a tourniquet and see if I can find a medical saw and a splint, but we need to watch him carefully the entire time. You need to have gloves and a mask on.”
Jay’s body was so pale he looked like a ghost, and he looked at his mother’s corpse in horror. Blood trickled down his arm from the bite, but he didn’t seem to notice. Janet was a prim and proper woman, so it didn’t surprise me that she was dressed so fancy even in the apocalypse. She had always been cold to me, but even so, she didn’t deserve to become undead.
Nathan got up and rushed over to the metal door he’d shot open and cursed. “It’s a small horde.”
“Fuck.” Micah got up as Nathan held the door closed and barricaded it with a large metal cabinet that was sitting beside the door. “Let me find more to barricade it.”
Daisy’s fingers twitched before a gurgled moan left her.
My heart dropped as I leaned down and grabbed Micah’s axe he’d left by Jay, switching my golf club for it. It would be easier to deliver the final blow since she was so newly turned. My stomach churned. “Jay…”
He barely blinked as his gaze was locked on his mother still.
Micah pushed another large piece of furniture toward the door Nathan held closed with the file cabinet, and Calix still hadn’t returned from the aisle with the supplies.
I was on my own here.
Daisy pushed off the ground before stumbling back a few steps and locking her milky white gaze on me, her head tilted to the side as the gaping hole in her neck opened and closed with each step closer she took.
I gripped the axe tighter, and sweat dripped down my spine as my nerves seemed to heat my body. “I’m so sorry.”
Her eyes widened, but she lunged forward, mouth open as her own blood still pooled inside it.
I swung the axe and embedded the sharp blade into the side of her skull, and a small groan escaped her mouth before her body convulsed. It felt like minutes watching the woman I used to call a best friend die for a second time in front of me. Then, she fell, and the axe slipped from my hands as it went down with her.
My throat burned as I held in a sob and stumbled backward. I’d just killed Daisy—zombie Daisy, but still. I’d killed plenty of undead corpses before, but I’d never put down anyone I knew when they were still alive. And Daisy wasjusttalking to me in the aisle only minutes before.
“That should hold.” Micah slapped the furniture holding the door shut. “At least until they move on.”
“As long as they don’t notice us in here,” Nathan muttered.
“I have everything except a medical saw,” Calix said as he came from the aisle but stopped short as he noticed Micah’s axe in Daisy’s skull and my probably horrified expression as I stared at her. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. I should’ve put her down before she could rise.”
Calix set the supplies down next to Jay, who still hadn’t budged, and then came over to me. His arms wrapped around me like a blanket of comfort, and I turned into his hold and buried my face in his chest.
“Damn it, darlin’. I’m so sorry,” Micah murmured, going over to where Jay was with Nathan.
“You did good, Tori.” Nathan quickly kissed the back of my head before moving over to Jay. “Alright, Jay, we need to amputate the bottom half of your arm before the infection sets in. Honestly, we may need to amputate the entire arm.”
Jay didn’t respond, and I was worried he was already dying.
“Entire arm,” Micah rasped before getting up and grabbing a new axe after seeing his embedded in Daisy’s brain.
Nathan used the tourniquet on Jay’s shoulder before laying him down on the concrete, and as soon as his mother’s corpse was out of his field of vision, his eyes fluttered shut.
