Page 7

Saff took a careful step toward her, inching the muzzle of her gun closer to the girl’s head. She watched for any sign of a reaction, but there was none. The girl remained perfectly still.
She slowly crouched down in front of her, peering into the dark lenses of her glasses. She squinted, trying to see past the reflection of the sun.
Was she lying?
She leaned a little closer.
Then suddenly, there was a flash of movement to her left.
Two zombies stumbled down the street, their speed slowly building as they locked in on them.
Any other time, she would’ve used her knife to take them down to avoid unnecessary noise.
She glanced back down at the two people in front of her. The guy stared at the zombies, fear filling his eyes. If she wanted to use her knife, she’d need to leave them in order to do it. And that was a risk she couldn’t take.
She pulled the rifle up, lining it up with the zombies coming toward them, and let out two quick shots, each one easily finding its mark.
Immediately after she turned back to the guy and girl in front of her, another noise caught her attention. She turned to the other side of the street.
More zombies. A lot more.
She whipped her rifle around, aiming it at the horde. But she instantly knew it wouldn’t be any use. Within a second, even more poured around the corner of the building, filling the street they were on. There were too many to count.
She took a step back as the guy in front of her jumped to his feet, stumbling away from the approaching horde.
He was the least of her worries now.
Her eyes shot to the duffel bag on the ground in the middle of the street, surrounded by medical supplies—supplies she desperately needed.
“Ty?” the girl called out. “Ty—what is it? What’s going on?”
The guy took another step back, then turned the opposite way and froze.
Saff followed his gaze.
More zombies had appeared on the opposite end of the street, coming their way.
“Tyler!” the girl yelled, pushing herself up onto her feet, the white cane clutched in her hand.
“There’s—there’s—“ He stuttered, head swiveling wildly from side to side. “We have to go!”
One zombie after the next poured into the street on both sides. Saff’s heart pounded. She turned back to the alleyway she’d come down, then ran a few steps toward it, and froze when she spotted the dead end of a brick wall on the other side.
“Tyler!” the girl yelled behind her.
She turned back just in time to see him grab her by the arm and pull her toward a door on the side of the pharmacy. At least he’d made the right call with that, choosing the only way out that wasn’t blocked by a wall of zombies.
She cast one last hopeless glance at the medicine lying in the street, about to get trampled. Even if she could get to it in time, she’d need to sift through it to find what she needed. There was no time.
She gritted her teeth, reluctantly ripping her eyes away.
Then she ran to the half-open door they’d just entered.
She sprinted through the opening, throwing the door shut behind her, and leaning her back against it.
She blinked once—twice. Complete darkness.
A crashing noise in front of her grabbed her attention, and her hand shot down, quickly pulling the flashlight from her pocket.