She rolls her eyes. “I’m notthatbad. This is only the second time I’ve set zombies on fire.”
“That’s two times more than I have, princess,” Rhys says drily before turning his attention to Rachel. “We’ll be discussing you breaking into the armoury later, but first, hand over the weapons. We need these infected dead.”
Rachel leans over the edge and gives Tobias and Tamsin the go-ahead to hand out the weapons. While they do that, Rhys surveys the area with a frown.
“Princess, I need you to use that bow of yours and shoot the infected climbing on the car. Everyone else, aim for the ones around the car that aren’t taking interest in the fire. Prioritise the ones at the front.”
Ollie nods, takes aim and fires, hitting her intended targets with almost eerie precision. Once the rest of us have a weapon in hand, we fire at the zombies surrounding the car. The night fills with the explosion of gunshots and the stench of smoke, gunpowder, and death.
Things are going well. The horde is slowly being whittled down, the windscreen on the car no longer has zombies crawling all over it, and the fires are spreading amongst the horde. This plan of Ollie’s is working perfectly.
Until shit hits the fan.
We don’t notice at first; the sound of gunshots is so loud we can barely hear ourselves think, let alone anything else. It’s only when the zombies change their focus and shuffle towards the gate that alarm bells start ringing.
“The fuck?” Rhys mutters as he lowers his gun and flicks on the safety. He moves to the edge of the watchtower and glances over it, the frown on his face turning to horror. “Hold fire!” he bellows, his voice onlyjust loud enough above the din as he races across the tower and throws himself down the ladder.
Alex, Ollie, and I turn in confusion.
“What the hell is going on?” Alex asks as he follows Rhys, only to curse.
It’s then that we hear it.
“We need to let them in! My wife is in there!” a hysterical masculine voice shouts, followed by the unmistakable sound of the gate squeaking and groaning.
The colour drains from my face as cold, hard terror grips my throat and understanding dawns. Whoever that is just opened the gate; the only thing keeping us safe from the horde of monstrous zombies hellbent on making us dinner. And it’s nighttime.
We’re so fucked.
Ashes
Olivia
Everything is going perfectly.My plan is working better than I ever could have hoped, and the people in the car are no longer in immediate danger of being eaten.
Until someone opens the gate, potentially dooming the entire community. Now all that death and danger is spilling into Haven.
I watch in horror as zombies shove their rotting bodies through the small gap in the gate, throwing the man who opened it to the side. He stumbles and falls to the ground with a yell, drawing those terrifying glowing eyes to him. He tries to scramble away, but they’re on him in a flash.
Rhys curses, and several gunshots crack in the darkness. The heads of the zombies attacking the man explode into a bloody hail of bones and brains. However, as soon as they’re dead, others race in to take their place.Seeing this, Rhys growls out another curse before taking off, no doubt intending to save the idiot who caused all this.
Using the height advantage, I fire off several arrows, covering Rhys as he bolts to where the man is still on the ground, crying and screaming. He barely reaches him before another zombie tries to take a chunk out of the man’s leg. Luckily, Rhys is faster and yanks the crying man away.
“Get out of here,” he snarls at the man before shoving him roughly in the opposite direction of the gate.
The man stumbles and hesitates. “B-but…” He blanches at the incoming horde and scrambles away as fast as he can, completely forgetting what he was about to say or his wife.
By now the gate is wide open, and more and more zombies are spilling through it. Alex and Theo throw themselves down the ladder to support Rhys as they draw their knives to slash and stab at any undead that comes close to them. Other members of the security team, including Anthony and Simon, race to help them while Tobias, Rachel and, surprisingly, Tamsin keep to the side and pick off zombies with their guns.
I stay where I am, firing arrows at any zombie that tries to sneak up on my guys. Unfortunately, I run out of arrows and since I have no idea how to shoot a gun, I clamber down the ladder and join the fray.
The stench of rot and death is almost overpowering, causing my eyes to water and nausea to strangle my throat. It’s all I can do not to gag as I unsheathe my knife and get to work.
The fight becomes a blur of stabbing at zombie heads while narrowly avoiding clawing rotted hands and gnashing yellow teeth. Sweat drips down my spine as my heart slams against my rib cage and my breaths turn into frenzied pants. My muscles burn from the strain of constantly having to stab, kick, and dodge.
At some point, more people join the fight, and I end up next to Andy. The guy is a beast, wielding what looks to be a fuckingswordwith deadly precision. Each swing decapitates at least one zombie around us with surprising ease, and I can’t help but gape at him.
“I need one of those,” I blurt as he turns to me, a bloodthirsty grin on his face.
