Page 53 of What Blooms in Barren Lands

“What do we do?” Russ asked in a very low voice.

Finlay whispered something I had no chance of understanding when spoken so quietly in his distinct Scottish burr.

“Up to you, princess. Do you want to save them? Or do we not bother?”

Einar’s expression was nothing short of sadistic when he turned to me, dipping his head to force me to meet his unrelenting gaze. He said nothing else, and only the vein that continued pulsating on the side of his forehead belied his seeming calm.

“Fine, dammit,” I exhaled in a low growl. “Your death wish is my command. Bring out the speaker, it might come in handy. Dave, I’ll need you.”

A nervous hum arose behind us as my decision was carried on a whisper from one archer to another. I took a few deep, steadying breaths.

“Anything for you, hun.” Dave nodded at me in encouragement.

“Your only job this time will be to make sure I never run out of arrows, no matter what. Take them from someone else’s quiver if needs be. But don’t ever let mine go empty for even a second. I’m sorry.”

“Not at all, hun. You got it.” He put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it, and Einar speared him with a darkly displeased look.

“I can carry the speaker and bait them,” Josh suggested from next to Dave. “Kind of like I did in Pisa.”

“No, no way!” both Dave and I protested at once, with such vehemence that we almost forgot to speak softly.

But Einar fixed his eyes on Josh in a manner I didn’t like one bit. Like a child seeing a very interesting toy.

“I can outrun them, we know that. And I can kite them around until you pick them off one by one,” Josh spoke fast, and his quiet voice trembled with terror despite his valiant words.

“And if you trip and fall, you sod, then what? How do I explain that to Amit?” Dave rounded on him, but Josh didn’t get a chance to answer.

“You’re a brave man,” Einar told him with unconcealed admiration. “What you’re suggesting might make all the difference. It is a lot less risky than having them rush us all at once, isn’t it? For everyone involved.”

I narrowed my eyes at him to convey my desire for mutiny. But much as I wanted to, there was no way for me to repudiate the reasoning behind what he had said. I had to agree that it was strategically smart to risk Joshua’s life alone, even to a great degree, rather than imperil everyone else.

It didn’t take long to organise ourselves and line up between the trees along the edge of the plain.

Josh stalked towards the horde. Then he fumbled with the speaker, and the shaking of his hands was visible even at a distance. Abruptly, upbeat music filled the air.

The infected stirred, confused. It was like watching a wave ripple through water. Some began tearing off from their group to head towards Josh.

Then loud yells echoed from the windows above,

“Stay here, stay here!”

I exhaled, smiling with relieved gratitude. The building’s occupants couldn’t have come up with a better idea. The horde split almost perfectly in half, those infected closer to the building too distracted by its loud inhabitants to follow Joshua’s bait.

I fired the first arrow, and my archers followed my lead as instructed. About fifteen infected fell from just that one round. I managed three more before the archers reloaded. Josh made a U-turn, leading the crowd of fury parallel with our line of aim.

Our arrows rained down on them, some missing their mark but most true to their dispatchers’ mark.

Josh ran in long, graceful strides, speedier by far than the fastest of the roamers. There were almost none following him left, and so he made another U-turn, and then ran closer to those still pressed against the glass door to draw them away. Intuiting his intentions, the people trapped in the building ceased their yelling, allowing him to attract all the remaining cannibals and have them follow him in a clustered line.

Adrenaline coursed violently through my body. I imagined it was not all that different from performance-enhancing drugs in allowing me to achieve speed and concentration beyond what seemed natural. The buzz of it in my blood and the high of it suffusing my mind were nothing short of addictive. Ilovedmy new job, no doubt about it.

Only about eight infected were left running, and the plain was littered with bodies. Bodies that were dead and bodies that still twitched and crawled. Swerving between them and jumping over them, Josh navigated his way through the carnage with mastery. The yoke of tension was slowly lifting off my shoulders.

It was nearly done.

But then the unacceptable, the unthinkable, the impermissible happened. Josh tripped over one of the carcasses and crashed to the ground in a frenzy of limbs. Time seemed to stand still as I watched it happen, his hands flailing through the air and grasping at nothing, his lean legs crumbling under him, his mouth forming a perfect surprised ‘O’.

“No!” I wailed.