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“So we know that’s not accurate. Not off to the best start here,” she teases, lips pursed in victory. “Where’s yours? And Lucy’s?

“Sagittarius is mine. The archer.”

“Okay, that’s fitting.”

“And hers is the same, but I think Leo fits her better. A lion. Do you see it?”

“A kitten!” She grins as her line of sight follows his finger, delighted that it matches his nickname for the baby. She picks up Lucy as if she cares about any of this. “Look, a little lion.”

The baby is more interested in Cole’s shirt than astrology. Her small fist grabs the fabric, giving it a tug.

“Maybe we start easier for her. Big Dipper, Little Dipper,” he offers .

“Good idea.” She pauses, her shoulder brushing his and the next words whispering softly. “Is there anything up there that could have predicted how lucky I feel right now?”

She’s doing that thing again where she straddles the line of their friendship and risks irritating him, but his answer is a careful arm around her shoulders, encouraging her to lean in while they watch the twinkling night sky.

“I’m feeling lucky, too,” he answers, offering the reciprocation she so badly needs.

Watching Flower leave uneven paw prints in the snow, they spend the rest of their time outside in peaceful silence, exchanging glances over sips of tea.

* * *

A few hours later, they’re in the middle of securing fresh traps around the perimeter. Suddenly, the hushed rustle of footsteps beyond the trees stops them cold.

Cole’s got the gun up aiming blindly, only to have several other barrels emerge as a group of men show themselves.

“Easy now. We’re all friends here.” One of them says, too calm to be sincere. “Who have we stumbled upon?”

His attention fixates on her, but Cole intervenes, standing in front of her and Lucy. “Get your eyes off my wife before I carve ‘em outta your head.”

“Bold statement for a man that’s got four guns pointed at him. What’s your name, son?”

“I’m not your son.”

“You best tell me. I’m asking nicely after all, but I won’t ask again. I’ll even go first. Name’s Ray.”

“Cole.” It’s a reluctant, low answer, but it sparks the oddest flicker of recognition in the other man’s eyes.

“Carter? Cole Carter?” he asks. “Any relation to Wade?”

“No. Dunno who that is.”

It’s a well-practiced lie. She assumes after so many years Cole knows when it’s a good time to claim Wade and when it’s not.

The gun drops and a wide smile spreads fast on their enemy’s face. “I call bullshit! You know that, asshole. Well hell, we ain’t just friends, we’re family now!”

* * *

“So there I am, surrounded by the dead. This is it, right? This is how I go. In this shitstorm waiting for that first bite, and then what do I see? A big ass truck plowing through the pile and I live to see another day.”

Ray’s got everyone gathered in the house like this is a storytelling session at summer camp. All he’s missing is the smores and campfire.

Olivia doesn’t connect the dots until the answer is thrust upon them.

“…Wade was in that truck,” he says to Cole. “Crazy bastard saved my damn life! He drove my sorry hide back into safe territory again.”

That’s not exactly what either of them expected to hear. She’d been bracing for the worst, certain that Wade pissed this group off by doing something stupid.

Cole squints. “So when you said we’re family?”

“I meant it!” Ray exclaims, bestowing him with a shit-eating grin that she doesn’t trust for a single second.

That look is one she’s seen before in the eyes of the man who had made her life miserable and it sends shivers down her spine.

Jason would give her a false sense of hope only to snatch it away again, reveling in her reaction.

Her stomach clenches and she steps closer to Cole, but he’s only one man against six.

“You know what family does, right?” Ray leans forward for a beat. “They share each other’s debts, and your friend…your brother, as he so affectionately called you, right before he knocked my back molar out and stole all my shit, has incurred a hefty debt.”

There it is. She swallows hard, catching sight of two others sending her lewd glances.

“Thought you said he saved your life,” Cole replies carefully.

“He did. He sure did. But it wasn’t outta the kindness of his heart. Took my supplies not long after. It was before I linked up with these fine gentlemen. Nearly starved for a week. He didn’t leave me so much as a bag of trail mix.”

“We have food. You can have it.”

Their position is fragile enough that an easy agreement is the only option.

It’s then that the walls of the cottage close in around her. Her eyes dart from corner to corner, meticulously cataloging each intruder as if she can use the information to help herself.

One man with a shotgun standing by the window, peeking through the curtains.

Another in the kitchen searches for food and slams cabinet doors.

On the sofa, two lounge with legs spread and slouched postures, enjoying the show.

The last is close enough to reach out and touch her. She can see his fingers twitch with desire .

Although Ray’s pistol remains holstered, the eagerness in his eyes betrays his intentions.

He takes a step closer, invading Cole’s personal space, his next words rough.

“I know we can have the food. We’ll also be taking everything else,” Lucy cries from her bassinet and Ray smiles.

“Don’t worry, no one’s gonna touch that sweet child until she’s of age.

We’ll all take real good care of her. Real good care. ”

After that, everything explodes at once.

With the two men grabbing her arms and dragging her across the room, all Olivia can do is scream.

She knees one of them in the balls like Cole told her to and he crumples to the ground only to be replaced by another who forces her down, pinning her with his weight, and shoving his lower half between her thighs.

Her arms are pinned above her head, and she cries out while screaming obscenities that only spur them on. She spits in her attacker’s face and earns a fist to her temple for her efforts. As her head rolls against the hardwood, her vision swims and she goes lax. Stunned.

A brawl ensues between Cole, Ray, and two others across the room. Hope surges through her when he gains the upper hand a few times, but then he’s overtaken a second later. Ray’s pistol goes off, shattering a lamp on the side table.

As her shoes are torn off her feet and her pants ripped down her legs, her body jerks.

Lucy’s wails echo in the background.

Don’t fight this, she tells herself. It’s always worse when she fights it. Give them what they want and maybe they’ll let her live so they can have more later. She can’t save her baby if she’s dead.

“ Hey… guys…someone come look at this… ”

The one at the window is ignored and a cold finger gropes between her legs.

“ …what the fuck is that… ”

She can tell Cole is still alive by the crashing and cursing coming from the other side of the room. He’s still fighting.

The two about to assault her argue over who goes first, granting her a reprieve.

“ …holy shit, we gotta move…we gotta go…what the—”

The terrified warnings from the man watching the window are abruptly silenced when the front door bursts open and the playing field is instantly leveled. The dead swarm into the house like locusts, so fast that it’s difficult to process until half a dozen have converged on the men attacking her.

As she scrambles away, she pulls her pants back on while the shotgun goes off and then the pistol, both weapons pointed at the dead, but doing little more than pissing them off. No one cares much about her anymore. It must be hard to focus on raping someone when your face is being eaten.

A gush of blood from a torn limb sprays across the bassinet as she lunges for it, but Cole grabs it first, along with their bag beside it.

“Run! Out the Back!” he yells.

With rotters hot on their heels, they aim for the kitchen door. She seizes Flower’s harness with one hand while grasping Cole’s with her other, snatching the cat off the counter and holding her suitcase style as they all rush outside.

She’s never run so fast in her life. Never had so much adrenaline pumped through her veins that it feels like she could levitate.

As they race across the ice-covered lake, their only goal is to outrun the dead, and she fears they may not reach the other side.

One glance back at the horrifying reality reveals dozens of rotters, all so much faster than anything she’s seen since the turn, funneling out the back door of the cottage.

They’re all going to die right here. There are too many. They can’t outrun them.

Instead of the sharp claws of death consuming her, a crack beneath her feet is the only warning before her world is engulfed by water.

She spins, disoriented with shock, and tries swimming to the surface, only to be met by ice overhead.

Her fists pound against it, trying and failing to break through.

Hordes of the dead have fallen in with her, most sinking to the bottom, but one grabs her leg and drags her down too.

Olivia kicks and squirms in a fruitless attempt to save herself.

It is heavier than her, more determined, and unbothered by pesky needs like breathing.

Soon, her lungs burn, and her vision blurs.

All she wants is to inhale and relieve the pressure, but she resists, knowing the moment she does, she’ll never see her baby again. Never see Cole again.

There is a limit to her resolve and eventually, her body takes over, forcing that deep inhale against her will. As the water fills her chest, pulling her into darkness, her last thought is a desperate hope that Lucy and Cole are safe.