When All is Lost

Chapter 54

Anton's eyes shined with annoyance. "Yes. But the others do and they'll be here soon. You're wasting time."

"You don't want to kill my group?"

"No."

I shook my head. "How am I supposed to believe that?"

"Don't know," Anton answered, sounding bored with our conversation. "Not my problem."

"But-"

"Hunting parties on foot will have over ten people. Do you want to stay and meet them?"

I blanched. "No," I said in a smaller voice than I would have liked.

"Good." Anton's lips slightly quirked up but his eyes were filled with frustration. "Keep running. If I find you again, you'll probably die."

"Oh, uh, okay..." I glanced between him and the window we'd both used to enter. "So, I can just go?"

The expression in Anton's eyes soured further. "Yes," he practically hissed.

Still a bit wary, I took careful sidesteps around him. When I made it all the way to the window without being attacked I turned back to meet his eyes again. "Thank you."

He gave me a single-shoulder shrug in return. "If you want to thank me, don't die."

I gave him a sharp nod.

I don't intend to. Not yet.

Without another word, I hauled myself out the window. The freezing night air stung at my exposed skin, but I barely felt it. Too much of myself was caught up in what had just happened and once I started running, all I could feel was the pain in my side.

I ran in the opposite direction than the one I'd seen Anton approach from, but worry gnawed at me as I still had no idea if I was bringing myself and those following me closer to my group. There was no time to stop and assess my surroundings and I wasn't even sure that it would have helped if I did. As much as I'd studied the map, I hadn't exactly memorized every street in a ten-mile radius. I had to get lucky with familiar names.

Hugging my side, I kept moving. I ran through backyards and random streets, doing my best to at least stick to a straight line. After a hard fifteen minutes, I had to slow down to take the strain off of my side.

I watched my panting breaths turn into little puffs of clouds in the night air. Trying to slow my breathing and to breathe through my nose, but it was too stuffed up. I wiped at my nose with my sleeve and glanced behind me. My heart nearly stopped.

I was being followed.

It wasn't by Anton or his people but by a zombie. I hadn't even seen or heard it but I had to have passed it at some point. It was tall and lean and making great, fast strides towards me.

With my heart in my throat, I picked up my pace again. I wanted it to lose sight of me so I made a plan to turn into the next alley I found. The shops I was passing were all part of the same plaza and it took far longer than I had hoped to find a turnoff. When I eventually did, it was anything but clear.

I stumbled into the alleyway only to find three zombies loitering about. Their attention snapped almost instantly to me and with an eerie suddenness, they went from standing still to a stuttering jaunt. I backed out of the alleyway as quickly as I could, but the zombie that had been previously following me was catching up. Not waiting to see it happen, I knew three became four.

In my rush to flee, I was slowly creating a horde.

Panic brought tears to my eyes as I passed another alley and another two zombies joined in the hunt. I began to run blindly, gripping my side as hard as I could. My wound was screaming at me to slow down, but I couldn't.