“Gale, she’s dead.” I grab his arm to haul him away. Even though he ripped my heart out only a few minutes ago, I still kind of love the asshole, so there’s no way I’m going to let him die in this church. However, before I can make a move toward the side exit, someone slams into us, causing both Gale and me to stumble to the ground.
My head bounces painfully off the side of a wooden pew, causing agony to ricochet down my spine. Gale’s arm disappears from my gripand I fight to stay conscious as I look around, trying to figure out who tackled us like we were on a rugby pitch. Only for my breath to catch in my throat when a pair of alien eyes find mine.
The zombie groans and launches themselves at me. Yellowed teeth embedded in blackened gums snap at me as it tries to bite. I swallow down a terrified scream as I struggle against the creature, only for it to be hauled off of me moments later.
A hand appears in front of my face. “Liv, take my hand!”
I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to hear my brother’s voice than I do in this moment.
I grab onto the hand like a lifeline and my brother, Tobias, hauls me to my feet. His wife, Lauren, stands trembling and terrified by his side. They’re both unharmed, much to my relief, aside from a few splatters of blood on their clothes. I tear my gaze away from them to see the zombie that attacked me is getting off the floor and Gale is nowhere to be seen.
Tobias sees the zombie is almost on its feet, curses and turns to me. “Give me your shoe.”
I just stare at him.
“Now, Liv!”
I scramble to do as he says, handing him my left shoe. He takes it from me before shifting back to the zombie. He adjusts his grip on the shoe, pulls back his arm and slams the heel into the side of its head. The heel sinks into their skull with a sickening crack and squelch and immediately the light dims from their alien eyes as they collapse to the ground.
Screams and moans echo around us from the other church guests as all three of us gawk at the dead body at our feet, the shoe still embedded in their skull.
Lauren mutters, “oh my God,” under her breath, her body trembling.
My stomach roils with nausea. “Holy shit.”
Tobias swallows hard, his green eyes wide and haunted as he tears his gaze from the corpse to me. “I did what I had to,” he says, a slight tremble in his voice. He sucks in a sharp breath and grabs both mine and Lauren’s arms, his grip firm. “We need to move.”
He doesn’t wait for either of us to reply and instead drags us toward the side church exit. I stumble, finding it difficult to walk with only one shoe, but there’s no way in hell I’m going back for the other one. When I try to stop and remove my remaining shoe, Tobias jerks me forward, refusing to let me. So I hobble with him as best I can while praying I don’t break my ankle.
The icy January air bites against the bare skin of my arms, face and bare foot as I’m marched through the small cemetery and toward the street. Only to gasp when the road in front of the church comes into view.
It’s like stepping onto a horror film set. Corpses and severed limbs lay strewn across the tarmac with large pools and splatters of blood. A few people are bent over corpses, their bodies obscuring the view, but from the sounds, it doesn’t take a genius to guess what they’re doing. Cars sit abandoned, some mounted on the pavement while others are left in the middle of the road, their doors wide open and painted in gore.
Several buildings are on fire, smoke billowing from smashed windows and flames dancing and crackling as they lick up the side of brick walls. Sirens wail in the distance, along with sharp cracks of what sound like fireworks. Dispersed between the bangs and sirens are low, inhuman moaning and bloodcurdling squeals and screams of people.
“What the fuck?” I whisper, panic and dread tightening my chest. Glancing around, I half-hope to see any sign of Gale, but he’s nowhere to be seen. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
A sharp bang followed by moans fill the air from the church behind us.
Tobias, having looked over his shoulder, curses. “Shit, we need to go.” He yanks Lauren and me down the street toward where he parked their car.
I try to avoid the blood and gore splashed across the pavement, but there’s so much that I end up stepping in it anyway. A shudder of revulsion shivers down my spine as it soaks the bottom of my white wedding dress and squelches between my bare toes, some of it still warm. I gag and stumble, only saved from falling into a large bloody puddle by Tobias’s grip on my arm.
Finally, we reach their Range Rover and he shoves me into the back seat, red smearing across the cream leather seats. The door slams behind me, and Tobias skirts around the car as Lauren climbs in the passenger seat at the front. With everyone inside, the car hums to life.
And so does the familiar panic of being in an enclosed metal box. I swallow hard around the tightness in my throat and instead focus on the present to keep memories of screeching metal and terrified screams from my mind. Like the horror film we just stepped in to.
“Anyone else realising we’re in the middle of the zombie apocalypse? Because I’m really glad I’m not a blond right now,” I say, trying to lighten the sombre mood in the car, but my joke falls flat.
The car pulls away from the curb and Tobias navigates around several abandoned cars, only to slam the brakes when several people shuffle into the road, all wearing suits and dresses… My heart sinks and bile burns my throat. The wedding guests are streaming out of the church, covered in gore. They snap their terrifying eyes toward us and begin shuffling to the car.
Tobias curses and reverses the car down the street. Only to stop again when we round the corner and find the entire road blocked by cars. He drives forward, stamping down on the throttle just as the wedding guests emerge from around the corner.
“Hang on!” he shouts just before we plough straight through them.
Lauren and I scream as the car jerks and bounces over the bodies of the people caught beneath the vehicle. Blood splatters across the front window, obscuring the road ahead as Tobias keeps driving. More wedding guests are streaming out from the church and with a glance behind, I see the ones that weren’t killed by the car chase after us.
“Fuck!” Tobias snarls suddenly as he jerks the wheel to the side, barely dodging a parked car.
