Page 8

She flicked it on, illuminating the space before her.
They’d entered a small room, with stacks of cardboard boxes lining the walls and papers littering the floor. The girl stood in the center, just a few feet away, white cane outstretched in front of her.
A box fell to the ground in the far corner, and her eyes jumped to where the guy stood, pulling them away from where they blocked another door leading further into the building. Below the stacked boxes sat a large file cabinet that had clearly been pulled over to block the door.
He threw the last box off the desk and grabbed for the file cabinet.
“Stop!” Saff yelled. “You don’t know what’s behind that door.”
He kept going, bending his knees and tugging against it with all his weight.
“Hey!” she yelled, rage filling every fiber of her body. “I said—“
Suddenly, something slammed into the door against her back. Her body flew forward a few inches, and the sickening noises of the dead outside instantly filled her ears.
She turned, shoving the door back against them with all her strength.
Teeth clacked on the other side between sickening grunts just above her head.
And with each moment, the weight of the zombies against the door increased until she could barely hold them back.
She twisted her head down, leaning all the weight of her shoulder against the door as her hand fumbled in search of a lock.
Right as her fingers skimmed the deadbolt, the door slammed forward, knocking her back once more. An arm jutted through the opening, snatching wildly at the air.
She rushed forward, grabbing the arm by its mud and blood-soaked sleeve, then shoved it back outside. And with one more hard thrust, she forced them back. Her hand shot down, finding the deadbolt once again. Then she twisted it hard to the left, turning it into place.
The banging on the door continued, but the heavy metal held solidly in place without so much as budging.
After a few moments, Saff slowly leaned back from the door. And when she was sure it would hold, she lifted her flashlight, turning around to scan the dark room once more.
The file cabinet had been pulled halfway out from where it had stood against the door in the corner. Beside it, the guy crouched, pulling against it with all his weight.
“I said,” she growled, stepping toward him, “leave it.” Saff grabbed a fist full of his shirt and ripped him backward. He stumbled away from the cabinet, crashing into a pile of white filing boxes stacked against the opposite wall.
“We have to—” He pushed back up onto his feet, his arm waving toward the door they’d come through. “They’ll get in!”
“You don’t know what’s on the other side,” she hissed. “You could be rushing out into another horde.”
Another loud bang of bodies hit against the main door, and she turned to check it, but before she could take a step, he slammed into her.
She landed hard on her side against the cement floor, the rifle and flashlight both knocking loose from her hand.
And suddenly the guy was on top of her.
He threw a punch, landing squarely against her eye socket. Pain radiated out across her forehead as she felt his arm pull back again.
His other fist flew down at her, and she just barely managed to get her left arm up in front of her face in time to block it.
“Ty?” the girl called out. “Ty—what’s happening?”
Saff reached down with her right hand and hooked it behind his knee. One more punch came, and as his hand descended, she hooked her left arm over his, pinning his body to hers.
Then, in one fluid motion, she stomped her boot on the ground and rolled their bodies until she was on top of him. She reared her fist back and slammed it into his face, the satisfying crunch of broken bone reverberating through the air.
She threw the next punch with her other hand, at an angle that just barely allowed her knuckles to avoid the blood now gushing from his nostrils.
She continued the battering of punches until he stopped fighting back, instead laying there with his arms curled around his head for protection. Her breath came in quick spurts,the pain on both sides of her head throbbing as she pushed herself up and stood.