Page 36

“Wake up, princess. It’s time to move.”

The sound of Brie’s voice warmed her after the cold, lonely night she had with Zane. They hadn’t spoken after their brief conversation, and Renee couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d royally messed things up, not only for them, but also with Zane. She’d broken something in him, and he wasn’t going to be okay. And she didn’t know what to do.

“Okay, okay. I’m up.” Renee grabbed her bag and walked out. Reflecting on their conversation from the other day, she risked the question. “You mentioned others also had to wear sunglasses sometimes. What was that about?”

“Oh. When we turn and our eyes change, it can be tough for some of us. It doesn’t happen to everyone, however the ones it hurts and gives headaches to, we discovered shades help. After a while, whatever’s going on is done, and they don’t need them.”

That explained Renee’s daily headaches that had disappeared. “Is that why our eyes are so light?”

Brie shrugged. “Not sure. Most of us ended up with corpse-like coloring, and I haven’t seen one of us that doesn’t have pale-colored eyes. Those of us who had brown eyes while human seem to have the most variety.”

“Brown? But that’s the most common eye color.”

“Yeah, but something about when we die - it shifts. My eyes were always blue. Now they’re just lighter. Yours were probably always green. Garren’s look red now, but they used to be dark brown. Nail’s were a lighter brown, and now they look kinda like coffee with too much milk.” Brie chuckled. “Hatchet’s reminded me of milk chocolate, fuck, I miss that. But she said hers were almost black when she was alive.”

“So maybe it’s whatever colors are mixed inside the brown?” Renee guessed.

“That’s the working theory. I remember back in the day when I would go to the salon,” Brie paused and sighed, her fingers trailing over her locks. “Anyway, one of the stylists there who did the clients’ color would always shine this bright-ass LED light in someone’s eyes before she would agree to a color. She insisted that people with brown eyes had a “base” color mixed into their eyes, and the highlights or coloring for their hair needed to match if someone wanted to pass it off as their natural color. I always thought she was nuts, but she was their best colorist.” Brie picked up strands of her hair and narrowed her eyes at it.

“Did you ever dye your hair?” Renee hadn’t ever considered coloring her hair natural-looking colors. If she would’ve dyed her hair, she’d have picked pink, purple, or maybe blue. A color one of the magical beings in her books may have chosen.

“No. I’d get highlights or lowlights, but it was always this.” Brie frowned and let go of her hair. “I had an image to maintain for all the good it did me.”

She wasn’t sure how to interpret Brie’s displeasure about her hair. Renee thought she enjoyed being stylish and fancy. In an attempt to improve Brie’s mood, Renee changed the subject. “Are we going to the same location as before, or did he change his mind?”

“Nope, still headed to the city. It’s supposed to be kinda like the one we just left. Full of food, but we’ll need to fight for it. Some humans have taken parts of the city for themselves to keep us out because of the smaller settlements around it. It looks like they’re trying to set up shop more permanently.”

“Won’t that be dangerous for the horde?”

“Yeah. We weren’t supposed to go there until we had at least two more rounds of the culling and… enlisted more troops.”

“But why-” Renee stopped and groaned. “I need to talk to him. We can’t do it if we’re not ready. We’ll lose too many… of us.” It was weird to say ‘us’ when she talked about zombies. She understood her reality but hadn’t completely given up on humanity yet.

“Thought you wanted us gone?”

“Don’t be a bitch. I haven’t wanted you or Zane gone for a while.”

“Aww, I rank, how sweet.” Brie’s red lips gave her an exaggerated smile.

“Brie.”

“I’m just fucking with you. I know it’s still messed up for you. I was trying to lighten the mood,” Brie said as they joined the bulk of the horde.

“I know.” Renee gave her a weak smile as they trudged on. “How long before we reach the other city?”

“A few days.”

“Won’t we need to… eat before then?”

“Yeah, tomorrow we take a minor detour. There should be an encampment and a large feral deer population ahead. The scouts reported to him right before I woke you up.”

“That’s… efficient.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty good at this. The military experience helps,” Brie said with a shrug.

“Zane was in the military?”

“Yeah, before he turned. For five years.”

Well, shit. Brie knew a lot about Zane. So much that it made Renee uncomfortable. The word queen shouted in her mind again.

“I didn’t realize he planned so much.”

“He kinda has to. There are so many of us. An army, remember?”

Renee tried to smile but couldn’t manage it. Everything Zane said conflicted with what Brie told her about him. Brie had no reason to lie, granted, it didn’t make sense for Zane to lie either. It was like he was their king but didn’t want to be and didn’t like them. He seemed to have felt some sort of responsibility for them because he made them. If he didn’t want to be their king, why had he made them or ordered them to be made?

It must consume. Again, it repeated in her mind.

“After everyone… eats, I’m talking to Zane. We can’t go to that city because he’s upset. I don’t want to risk-” She stopped. Did she even have any right to say any of this?

“You don’t want to risk what? Zane? Yourself? Me? The horde?” Brie studied her.

“Anyone, I don’t want to risk anyone for a lost cause. It’s stupid.” She looked away from Brie.

Renee thought about when they’d talked weeks ago. He told her he planned to devour the world until nothing was left, and they’d all eventually die.

“But if you keep traveling and eating all the humans, there won’t be any left. You’ll all die.”

“Yes.”

If his plan was to kill them all, her actions seemed to have sped things up.

Did Zane want to die?