It takes all my strength to heave the dead body off me as the throbbing in my shoulder gets worse. More blood soaks my shirt and jacket, causing the material to stick to my skin. Shit. Theo is going to kill me when he sees how much I’ve fucked up my wounds.
A bullet whizzes past me, mere centimetres from my face.
I hurl myself to the side, narrowly dodging another one as it lodges into the dirt where I’d been lying only seconds ago. During my brief fight with the infected, the guard took out the rest of them. Meaning I’m now his sole target and he’s a hell of a shot.
“I suggest you show yourself sooner rather than later, mate, before more zombies find you,” the guard calls out casually.
I say nothing as I crawl to cover behind a tree. The guard must see the movement, because a shot rings out and bark splinters just above my head.
“I can do this all day, sitting in this safe tower while you’re rolling in the mud!”
I adjust my position, causing the dead leaves beneath me to crunch and stir. There’s another shot and dirt explodes next to my boot. I jerk it back into cover before he can take another shot.
Needing to come up with a plan, I grab a rock from the base of the tree and throw it to the next thick tree on my left. Less than five seconds later, the guard shoots at where the rock landed. Fuck, he’s good.
“That’s cute,” he says with a laugh. “You impressed, mate? I know my CO would be.”
I just had to get pinned down by the one guard that refuses to shut the fuck up.
But it also confirms what I already suspected; he has military training to back up that rifle. I should have taken him out while he was busy with the infected and dealt with the consequences. But I didn’t. Now I’m stuck with a bleeding shoulder that probably smells like crack to any infected nearby and this chatterbox ringing the dinner bell.
Think, Rhys, think!
I try, but I’m coming up with nothing.
“Got nothing to say? I’m disappointed, mate. I thought you’d at least have a lovely conversation with me. But if you won’t, then just show yourself and I promise to make your death quick.”
“Well, aren’t you generous?”
At the sound of Theo’s voice, I don’t think, I just react. I lean around the side of the tree, take aim, and squeeze out two shots. One bullet hits the guard’s shoulder, throwing off his aim just as he fires, and the second hits him in the chest. He collapses to the ground, choking and gasping on his own blood before he succumbs to his wounds.
With the threat dealt with, I pull myself to my feet and round on Theo. “What the fuck were you thinking?” I growl at him, my heart pounding from the residual fear of him being in danger.
Theo leans against the tree, grinning like an idiot at me. “You were taking too long, so I came over to make sure you weren’t dead. I saw you were pinned and figured you could do with some help against Chatty Cathy over there.”
I shake my head as my hands twitch with the need to strangle him. “And I thought the princess had a death wish.”
His smile widens. “It’s not a death wish if I trusted you’d kill him before he killed me.”
If I wasn’t so terrified that he could have died, I’d be flattered. Instead, I just glare at him. “Come on, we should get moving and give Tobias the all-clear.” I go to walk past him, but he grabs my uninjured arm and scowls at my bleeding shoulder.
“You ripped more of your stitches?”
I grimace. “Maybe. We can deal with it after the fight.”
Theo narrows his eyes at me and clenches his jaw. “Fine, but if you pass out, I’m leaving your heavy ass wherever it lands.”
My lips twitch. We both know he won’t do that, no matter how pissed off he is with me. “Let’s get moving. The sooner we give Tobias the go ahead, the sooner we can find Ollie and Alex before they cause anymore trouble.”
As long as they’re still alive.
It’s an unspoken fear that sits heavily between us as we stalk away from the watchtower and back into the camp. Infected are still pouring in from the forest, lured in by the noise and scent of blood and death that hangs in the frozen air. Theo and I take out as many of them as we can while trying not to draw too much attention to ourselves. We’re still heavily outnumbered by both the living and the dead.
Tobias paces outside the warehouse, shotgun clutched in his hands as he keeps a watchful gaze around. He tenses and readies the shotgun at the sound of our approach, only relaxing when he sees it’s us.
“Thank fuck,” he breathes as he lowers the gun. “I thought for sure you’d got yourselves killed.”
I cock an unimpressed brow at him. “Glad you had such confidence in us.” It’s a little unnerving how similar he and Ollie are.
