By the time I’m swinging the barrel around to the second guy, Alex has already dispatched him with a savage thrust of the machete into the man’s chest. With both our guards dead, I turn towards the rest of the fight, needing to make sure Ollie is safe.
Somehow more enemies have shown up, probably drawn in by the sound of fighting, so the small area is clogged with fighting bodies. My eyes seek the familiar chestnut hair of Ollie, but I can’t see her amongst the sea of people. My heart stops and my stomach drops with dread. Where the hell is she?
“Ollie?” I shout, but my voice gets lost in the din.
Alex growls out a curse and barrels straight into the fray, shoving aside enemies like a battering ram. I hobble after him, my gunshot wounds making it known that they donotapprove. I grind my teeth and ignore the pain as best I can as I help Alex take out anyone who comes close.
We eventually come across Rhys and Mark, who are exchanging blows in a brutal fistfight. They’re both covered in bruises and blood, but it’s obvious Rhys has the upper hand despite still recovering from brokenribs. Mark’s face is black and blue, and he’s heavily protecting his left side while panting. Rhys is the most enraged I’ve ever seen him, his face red and his eyes almost devoid of anything aside from freezing cold fury.
He dishes out several savage blows to the older man, hitting him in the kidney and then the upper thigh. Mark yells out as his leg buckles beneath him and he half-collapses to the ground. But Rhys doesn’t let up on his attacks, making sure the man responsible for this shit is thoroughly beaten.
Satisfied that Rhys has Mark handled, Alex and I continue with our need to find Ollie.
Her brother is fighting off to the side, being supported by Harlow, who’s looking more like a feral wolf than a family pet as she tears through enemies. Ketchup backs both of them up, flying into the faces of men attempting to attack them and serving as a distraction. Shots from the wall ring out, and glancing over, I spot the familiar face of Rachel as she rains down hell on our enemies. I even see Anthony and the skinny guy—Colin?—fighting side by side.
The only person not fighting is Elsa. She stands off to the side, her back pressed against the wall as she watches the fighting in horror. Neither Alex nor I pay her much mind as we keep searching.
But no matter where we look, Ollie is still nowhere to be found in the sea of people. Shit. Where the hell did everyone come from?
Someone tackles me from behind. The shotgun I’m holding flies from my hands, and I shout in shock and pain as I slam into the ground. The impact sends a shockwave of pain through my body, causing my vision to waver. I struggle to breathe through it as nausea claws up my throat.
And then the sharp blade of a knife presses against my throat.
Alex
I’m a ball offear, panic and rage as I shove my way through the thick mass of fighting bodies, slashing at anyone who tries to stop me.
Where the hell has Ollie gone? I need to find her, every cell in my body screaming that she must be in danger. Especially since the last person I saw her with was Luke.
But no matter where I look, she’s nowhere to be found. It’s like she disappeared into the crowd, a crowd that is somehow getting bigger.
What the bloody hell is going on?
I slash my machete across the neck of a nearby asshole who was trying to stab me back as I hear Theo yelp behind me. Ice fills my veins, and I turn just in time to watch someone tackle him to the ground and press their knife against his throat.
Instinctively, I know I won’t get there in time to save him. He’s too far, and he’ll be dead by the time I reach him. So I do the next best thing.
I hike my arm back and throw my machete as hard as I can at the bastard attempting to kill him, praying this insane plan works. And somehow, it does. The blade of the machete slices across the bastard’s face, causing him to lurch sideways and drop his knife in shock. This gives me time to cross the distance between us, grab either side of his head and snap his neck.
He instantly falls limp, and I chuck his body to the side. Theo is already sitting up, shotgun cradled in his hands when I turn back to him. His face is pale and sweaty as he fights to get to his feet, his features contorted into a pain-filled grimace. I grab his arms with a frustrated growl and lift him up before he hurts himself more.
“Thanks for the assist,” he pants once upright. “Although I don’t think you should make a habit of throwing machetes around.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” I release him once I’m confident he won’t collapse and search for said machete, finding it lying innocently next to a dead body.
Glowing eyes catch my attention as I straighten. The man whose throat I’d sliced shuffles towards me, the front of his neck gaping open and his clothes saturated in blood. Glancing around, I see more of those glowing eyes as well as gnashing yellow teeth and half-rotted bodies. My eyes widen as understanding dawns.
It’s not just human enemies; zombies are here, too. As if this fight wasn’t already dangerous enough.
Fuck.
There’s the blast of a shotgun a second before the head of the shuffling zombie explodes into bloody confetti.
“We’ve got a problem,” Theo says grimly as I turn to face him. He lowers his shotgun and scans the bodies around us, his jaw clenching when he spots more zombies shuffling in the crowd. “Areally bigproblem.”
It’s almost eerie how similar this feels to our attack on the Scourge camp, when those zombies Ollie lured became a horde. My hand tightens on the handle of my knife at the thought of the woman I love. We still haven’t found her, and with these zombies now in the mix, the need to see that she’s okay and have her in my arms is overwhelming.
But shoving our way through the crush of people isn’t working. We need to thin the crowd and put down our enemies. Permanently.
