Page 101 of His to Burn

We quickly entered the body shop again.

“You all right?”

Asia looked at me and nodded.

“You?”

I nodded.

“We can’t stay here, can we?” she said.

“No,” I responded.

She looked at me and nodded.

“Okay. Should we try the cars?”

I thought for a moment, feelinguncharacteristically unsure. The cars might help, but we could get into trouble.

“Here in the city, we might get caught up. Probably be easier to move on foot, wait till we get farther out. Maybe the highways aren’t packed.”

“Do you really want to be on foot again?” Asia asked.

I bit back my frustration. She didn’t mean anything by it, and she raised a good question.

“No,” I said, “but all things equal, it’s safer on foot.”

She nodded, and then looked toward the door. More shadows gathered.

Asia gave a sardonic smile. “I guess we should make our exit now.”

I nodded.

“You ready to shoot that thing?” I asked as she put away her baton in her duffel and secured her weapon in her hand.

“I’d better be,” she said.

It wasn’t exactly reassurance, but I would take it and trust that Asia could handle herself.

And so we went.

We cut through another gathering of thosethings, which only proved my earlier thought. Sound attracted them.

I filed that piece of information away, knowing we’d need it.

Glass and other debris crunched beneath our feet no matter how lightly we moved. The wind carried a low, distant moan, one that I knew wasn’t human.

A shadow flickered across the far wall.

Asia caught my arm, then met my eye.

She was asking if we should fight.

We handled some of those things, but it was clear more were on the way.

“Not now,” I murmured. “Keep moving.”

Our boots crushed across the concrete now, the noise loud, but I didn’t care. We needed to get out of here.