Page 100 of His to Burn

We had to go.

I pulled her hand, and she followed behind me. Together, we looked back, and saw the same thing.

“There’s a lot of them,” Asia said.

And there were.

At least four, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were more.

“We gotta go,” I said quietly.

Asia nodded, starting to move, but then stopped in her tracks.

More shadowed figures in front of us. I couldn’t tell how many.

“What do we do?” Her voice was hushed but urgent.

I glanced back and saw those four figures getting ever closer. Looked forward and saw five—no, six more.

There was only one choice.

“We gotta fight,” I said.

She looked like she wanted to be sick, yet she nodded.

“We should try to save as much ammo as we can,” I said.

She nodded and grabbed her baton out of her duffel bag.

And then, moving in step, we approached.

Two hard, quick swings—and one of the things fell.

Two more hard swings and another fell.

Asia swung, too, grunting with the force of her efforts.

Sweat slicked the grip of my weapon, and I squeezed it tighter.

Judge Hanlon had gotten only the best of the best, and this baton was no exception. I swung it with all my might, and it held up to the force and was solid in my hand.

I tried to focus on that and not those things, though it was nearly impossible.

The scent of rot grew stronger with eachblow. The sickeningthudof bodies hitting the floor seemed to be timed to my heart beats.

Asia was at my side swinging with controlled abandon. A contradiction, but what about this woman wasn’t? Her breaths came in short bursts, and one of her braids clung to her cheek. Fear was stamped all over her features.

But she didn’t falter.

She wielded her baton with authority, and those things fell one after the other.

Pride surged through my chest.

She held her own.

But we cleared out enough of those things to buy us some time.

“Let’s go back inside,” I said.