Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 68

Luke looked at me, lips quivering, scared out of his mind. For a long moment, he thought about it, and then he looked at my gun. I shook my head. I am not going to shoot him right here, even if he asked. I refused.

Luke nodded and extended his leg. I looked at his shoe. There was a hole there where the woman had chewed it. My heart skipped a beat.

Please, God. Please. Not like this. I took off his shoes. Let there be nothing. Let it be nothing.

Blood was everywhere. I pulled off his socks as well and wiped the blood off with my fingers. I quickly realized it was not from him.

His toes were still intact.

I heaved a sigh. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Is it bad?" Luke asked on the verge of tears. I looked up and saw he had closed his eyes.

"Um. No."

He opened his eyes and glanced down. A big smile crept on his face. "Fucking hell." He wiggled his toes. "Ha. Ha!"

Peter and Haskell had a silly grin on their faces as well, although I could tell that they were also relieved.

"I can't believe it. I felt her bite me!" Peter said.

I threw his chewed up shoe to the side. "Thank Adidas."

"I'll make sure to give them a big note."

Luke leaned in and gave me a quick kiss. He then checked all over his legs. No bite. Then, he looked all over his stomach and arms, made me inspect his back—still, no bites.

"You got lucky, lover boy," said Peter, patting Luke on the back.

"But now we're stuck here," Haskell said, panting. He took off his helmet and threw it to the side, wiping his brow. "Great job there, boss. This isn't how I imagine my Wednesday to start."

Peter grumbled. "Middle week slump. It's a curse."

"The only way out is through them now," Haskell said. He checked his rifle and counted how many bullets he had left. He spat a curse after the last count. "Fuck. I'm almost out. We're going to die here, aren't we?"

"Not necessarily," I said. They all turned to look at me, and then I looked up at the rescue hatch above me.

Peter laughed. "With that leg? No. You can't climb up that high."

"I can handle it. As long as I'm careful..."

"No way."

"But what other plan is there? Unless you're going to mow through that horde, you don't have enough bullets to do it."

I snatched the crutches from Luke and used it to push the roof panel loose, revealing the escape hatch. "It's our only play. Frankly, I don't want to go through them again." I took out Betty's magazine. "I have eight bullets left. I counted more than a dozen still outside the lobby."

"Fine. We'll go through the hatch."

Luke climbed the sides and reached up to turn the red lever. The hatch opened outward. The elevator shaft was shrouded in darkness, except for the few LED blue lights mounted sporadically along the walls, like beacons leading to the exit. I could make out the shape of a ladder just near one of the lights. It looked like a long climb, and part of me regretted that I had to scale it, knowing I had to use my upper body more. My upper body strength was shit compared to my lower body.

"I'll go check it out," Luke said, but before we could protest, he was already halfway through the trapdoor, feet flailing (with one shoe missing), propping himself up the railings fixed on the wall.