Page 4 of My Undead Love Life

“You two bitten?” he asked.

“No!” I answered immediately.

“Not yet,” Keith added grimly.

The blond pointed his pistol toward the growing crowd of undead surrounding the subway car. “That can definitely be arranged if we stand here talking.”

A strained laugh almost escaped me. The absurdity of this conversation in the middle of our current nightmare made my head spin.

Another zombie hurled itself against the subway window beside Keith with a shriek, splintering more glass inward. I flinched as shards scattered across the floor again.

The black-haired man with the axe finally looked directly at us, his face still obscured from the shifting shadows. Blood streaked the sleeves of his dark jacket, and his breathing remained unnervingly steady. “Can you hold your own?”

“She can,” Keith confirmed for me immediately.

I scowled, tightening my grip on my katana. “We can.”

The blond stranger barked out a quick laugh. “Good answer.”

The three of them moved.

The blond man spun his shovel in a brutal arc, cracking skulls with sharp, echoing crunches while firing his pistol between swings. Flashes burst against the darkness, briefly illuminating streaks of blood and snarling faces before plunging the tunnel back into shadow.

The man with the axe was more efficient than I expected. Every swing landed cleanly, cutting through the neck, skull, and spine of whatever zombie it went up against. Wet thuds and cracking bone blended into the endless ensemble of undead shrieks.

The one with the cane sword moved almost elegantly. His blade flashed silver through the dark, sliding into the eye sockets and under jaws of the undead before disappearing again in sprays of blackened blood. Zombies dropped around him one after another.

The undead swarmed toward them from every direction, but the three strangers kept cutting through them. The tunnel smelled overwhelmingly of death now—thick enough to coat the back of my throat.

Gunpowder burned sharply in the air after every shot.

“Open the door!” the blond man shouted. “We’ll hold them!”

Keith grabbed my wrist, pulling me toward the subway exit while the others fought to clear space around it.

“There’s a horde behind us!” the axe wielder called over the noise, splitting another zombie’s skull open. “You need to get out of the car, now!”

As if to prove his point, new groans echoed from deeper in the tunnel behind the strangers.

My blood turned to ice.

Shapes began emerging from the darkness beyond them. Dozens of twitching silhouettes stumbled over the tracks toward us.

“Keith—”

“I know.” His voice came out tight.

We rushed toward the subway door. Keith shoved against it hard enough to make the metal groan, but it barely budged.

“Come on!” he snarled, slamming his shoulder into it again.

The door rattled stubbornly in place as the sounds of fighting intensified.

Gunshots cracked through the tunnel.

The blond guy cursed loudly.

A zombie shrieked.