Page 69 of Faith Among Monsters

He frowns.

And I read him loud and clear.

The ferry isn’t coming.

This isn’t just here.

My blood runs cold.

The island isn’t the only place burning.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dax

The ladder vibrates under my grip as I descend, my mind running at a speed I can’t fucking match. That boat is everything.

It was our ticket off this island before. Now? Now it’s a lifeline. The moment Zachs told me other sites had been compromised, that the mainland was already fucked, everything changed.

We aren’t just surviving this island anymore. We’re surviving whatever’s left beyond it.

Faith drops down first. Lands steady. Hands flexing around the gun like she’s been holding one her whole damn life. She’s pulled together, too pulled together. Her control is a sharp edge I want to smooth down, but there’s no time.

Wilkes follows, then Zachs, then Trip.

As far as I can see, nothing is moving. No silhouettes in the distance. No dragging feet. No snapping jaws.

And still, the fuckers on the boat are shouting.

“Box her,” I say.

Zachs moves out first, slipping into point. Trip and I take the sides, Wilkes holds the rear. Same setup. Same plan that’s kept her alive this long.

Then we round the corner.

Fuck me sideways.

The dock was clear when we started down. Now? It’s a goddamn bloodbath waiting to happen.

The three left on the boat are fucked. Good.

Trip flicks a look my way, a silentWait it out? Let the dead handle it?

Then the gunfire starts. The fuckers on the boat start picking them off.

Shit.

Trip exhales like that was expected and raises his gun. I do the same.

Zombies drop. We move in.

We’re halfway to the dock when we get fucking ambushed. From the side.

The smart ones.

I’ll give those lab-coat bastards credit, the bioweapon freaks they pumped full of this shit? They know how to fucking hunt.

The first one crashes into me. The weight of it slams me sideways, claws tearing at my shirt. I brace, swing my gun up, and put a bullet through its fucking eye.