I open my mouth, intending to order us to move out, but before I can, the dirt rushes up to meet my face. The last thing I hear is Ollie screaming, “Rhys!” before everything goes black.
Gaping Wounds
Olivia
“Rhys!” I scream ashis eyes roll to the back of his head and collapses to the ground.
Theo is on him in an instant, cursing as he rolls the unconscious man onto his back and examines him. I ride over to them and leap down from the saddle to rush to his side. Only to stutter to a stop when I catch sight of his injured shoulder and arm.
Dark blood soaks through his jacket and the Henley beneath. The flesh beneath is so pulverised that it almost looks like raw meat, as white bone gleams in the moonlight. It’s horrific. How the hell he wasn’t screaming in pain throughout that fight is a mystery to me.
“Is he…?”Dead. I don’t want to finish that sentence, terrified to speak the word out loud. It’s too final and I feel too emotionally raw and ragged. My chest tightens, my breaths harsh pants and my limbs tingle with the telltale sign of an impending panic attack.
My eyes stray down at the hilt of Andy’s knife, still flecked with blood.I killed someone, a human being. The thought causes me to tremble as panic squeezes my chest harder.I’m a fucking killer, a murderer, a monster.
“He’s still breathing,” Theo says, his taking on a strange clinical, almost cold, tone. “Ollie, I need you to grab a light and shine it on Rhys’s shoulder. Alex, grab my supplies and two canteens of water.”
With shaking hands, I do as I’m told.
Focus on Rhys now. Freak out later,I tell myself as I grab a small torch from my backpack and turn it on. As soon as I illuminate the ragged mess of Rhys’s wounds, my stomach roils and nausea claws at my throat. It looks ten times worse than it did in the dark; the flesh peppered with what looks like hundreds of tiny silver balls, some deeper than others as they shimmer in the light.
“Fucking birdshot,” Theo growls under his breath as he shakes his head and removes Rhys’s jacket and shirt. “Ollie, keep that light steady.”
Alex returns with a medical bag, and Theo wastes no time in rummaging through it. The first thing he does is douse the wound with an entire canteen of water, washing away the blood. I swallow against the bile singeing my throat and look away.
“I’m going to need your help, Alex,” Theo says, drawing my attention back to him as he cleans his hands with an antiseptic wipe. Alex nods and does the same before the two start the long and arduous task of picking the silver balls from Rhys’s flesh.
I turn away from the horror show, unable to stomach watching it any longer. Last thing Theo needs is for me to faint or throw up when he needs me to keep the light steady so he can work. Unfortunately, I can still hear the sickening squelches of them digging the metal from Rhys’sflesh. I grit my teeth and keep my breathing steady even as my stomach roils and tightens.
“Rhys is so fucking lucky this is the extent of the damage,” Theo mutters once the sickening squelches stop.
I whip my gaze to him, mouth open in shock. “Lucky?How is having his shoulder and arm look like mince meatlucky?”
He fixes me with a hard stare. “He’s lucky because it could have been so much worse. A few inches to the right, and he would have taken the entire shotgun blast to his body. He could have lost his entire arm and one of those fucking balls could have severed his carotid. He’d have bled out in less than thirty seconds. As it stands right now, he’s lost a lot of blood, but he’ll live as long as he doesn’t get an infection.”
My mind seizes on thecould have bled out in secondspart of Theo’s rant. It’s only then that I realise just how close we all came to losing him.Again. And I hate how terrified I am of that. I shouldn’t care, but I do. I really fucking do.
During this suicidal mission, my emotions have become entangled with these three men. Men I should be keeping my distance from. But they’ve burrowed so deep into my skin that I’ll never be able to cut them out. And I know just how this is going to end.
Theo’s sure he can get them to agree toshareme, but I know they won’t budge. I saw the rage in Rhys’s eyes when he saw me with Alex and I saw the hurt in Alex’s eyes when I picked Theo to be my fake boyfriend. This weird four-way relationship Theo wants won’t work.
And I just know that when it all comes crashing down, I’ll be the one left to pick up the pieces of my shattered heart. If I survive it.
“Come on, we should get moving before any more zombies or Scourge members find us,” Theo says. He’s stitched up the worst of Rhys’swounds and has wrapped the entire thing is clean gauze and bandages. He goes to pick Rhys off the ground, but I stop him.
“We can tie him to Bean’s saddle. It’ll be more comfortable for all of us and it’ll be less chance of reopening his wounds.”
Alex and Theo exchange a quick look before the former paramedic nods at me. We haul Rhys off the floor and sit on top of Bean, who stands patiently as I weave a rope around her neck and chest to tie Rhys to her. Once done, Rhys is sitting on her back with his chest lying against Bean’s neck and ropes tied around him so he won’t slip and fall from the saddle.
Perched behind him is Ketchup, having graced us with her presence once again. She gives the man in front of her a light peck, but he doesn’t stir, so she squawks at me. I roll my eyes at her as I gather Bean’s reins and prepare to leave.
Apparently, the magpie isn’t pleased about being ignored, because she flies from her perch to land on my shoulder and taps my head with her beak. Sighing, I reach up to scratch the side of her neck. She preens beneath my attention, leaning into my finger as I watch Theo and Alex shrug on their backpacks.
“We need to keep to the green belt and the outskirts of the city because I’m damn sure that’s not the last we’ll see of the Scourge and we’re not in any shape to fight them,” Theo says, taking charge in Rhys’s absence.
Alex and I nod in agreement before we all emerge from the back garden of the cottage. I’m unable to stifle my gasp as I take in the cottage’s front. It’s completely blown apart, with pieces of stone and rubble dotting the overgrown driveway. There are body parts lying in the tufts of grass and weeds, staining them red. Whoever caused the destruction must have been caught by the blast, killing themselves.
“What the fuck did they throw at us?” I ask as I stare at the grisly scene.
