“We need light.” Lena rustled beside him. A second later, a tiny beam illuminated the space in front of them. It was a keychain light on her house keys. “It’s better than nothing,” she said.
“I’ll go first.” Dal exchanged a look with Mr. Cecchino, who slid in behind Lena to bring up the rear. He looked worse than ever, but when he shouldered the Soviet machine gun, Dal knew he was ready to fight.
Dal raised his poker and advanced toward the stairwell, which was in the middle of the hall. Lena stretched her arm out, doing her best to shine the light in front of him.
The science wing was a mess. Many of the classroom doors were open. Inside were unmistakeable lumps of dead students and teachers. The dark made it easy not to look too closely at the bodies.
Books and other debris were scattered up and down the hall. Dal stepped over them. His Converse crunched on something. Were those crackers?
A growl echoed down the hall.
Shit. Dal froze, blood hammering in his head. His hands were sweaty.
“Nezhit,” Lena whispered.
“What?”
“Nezhit. That’s what the Russians are calling the infected people. It’s the name of the virus in those darts.”
“Nezhit.” Mr. Cecchino made a sound of disgust. “Fucking Soviet bastards.”
It was a measure of the situation that Mr. Cecchino was resorting to foul language. Dal could count the number of times he’d heard the other man swear on one hand.
“Can you tell where the growl came from?” Dal whispered.
“Step on the crackers again,” Lena said.
He didn’t like the idea, but he liked the idea of stumbling into a nezhit even less. He ground the heel of his shoe into the crackers.
The growl sounded again. It was somewhere in front of them, from one of the classrooms on the left.
Dal gestured with his poker. The others nodded in agreement.
They crept down the hall. Dal paused in front of each open doorway. The needed to find the nezhit and get rid of it. They couldn’t risk it sneaking up on them. He’d seen how fast they moved. If they weren’t careful—
A dark shape barreled out of a room two doors up. And it wasn’t alone.
Two more were with him.
Chapter 21Nezhit
THE THREE FORMS FLEW at them through the darkness like demons. Dal held his ground, doing his best to shield Lena and Mr. Cecchino with his body.
They don’t die like normal people. Sometimes it takes multiple blows to kill them.
Lena’s pathetic flashlight beam danced over red eyes and snarling faces. That was all Dal saw before the nezhit were on them.
Dal swung his fireplace poker as the first of the infected reached them. He smashed the infected in the face. Dal heard the hollow sound of bone snapping as the poker caved in the young man’s cheekbone. The nezhit staggered back a few steps, then charged again.
The flashlight and keys fell to the floor in a clatter. Shots rang out on either side of his head. The barrels were so close that he felt the shock of the recoil against his skin. The inside of his ears were stabbed with needles of pain. Dal saw one nezhit fall from a bullet to the head, but the other two kept coming.
This time, instead of swinging the poker like a baseball bat, he stabbed forward.
He was still raw from the rage that had gripped him earlier. A small part of his mind railed at what he did. You’re killing people. You’re murdering innocents.
But a larger part of his mind was engulfed in fear—fear for his own life, but even more than that, fear for the two people on either side of him.
It was this emotion that powered his arm and sent the poker right through the throat of a young man with crazed eyes and snapping teeth. Blood sprayed out from the force of Dal’s blow.
As the nezhit died on the end of the poker, the third and final infected broke past him. The machine gun fired again, but the monster didn’t stop. Mr. Cecchino yelled as he went down.
“Dad!” Lena swung her gun. The butt connected with the side of the infected’s head, but the blow wasn’t hard enough to phase the creature. The nezhit sunk his teeth into Mr. Cecchino’s shoulder.
“Daddy!” Lena’s voice went up several octaves.
Dal yanked his poker free and spun around. He shoved Lena to the side with his free hand, swinging the poker with the other. The end tore off skin and half of the infected’s ear.
The nezhit hissed, releasing Mr. Cecchino and spinning in the air like a cat. He hit the floor and launched himself at Dal.
Panic hammered through Dal’s body. His poker spun in a frantic arc. He hit the creature so hard he heard bone crack, but still it kept on coming. The blow barely slowed it.
He stumbled back with a shout and swung again. The poker arched up and smacked the nezhit in the bottom of the chin. His head whipped back. Blood flew.
Lena jammed the barrel of her machine gun against the nezhit’s temple and fired. Blood and brain matter sprayed the wall as the infected collapsed to the floor.
“Dad!” Lena raced to her father.
Mr. Cecchino sat up, pressing a hand to the blood that bubbled out of his shoulder.
Dal’s breath sawed over dry lips. Shock welded his feet to the floor. All he could do was stare at Mr. Cecchino and the blood that welled up between his fingers. Dead bodies of the infected surrounded them. He’d never seen so much blood in one place, not even when he went hunting and butchered animals with the Cecchinos.
“Dal, help me!”
Lena’s voice snapped him out of his stupor. He dropped the poker, looking around for something to staunch the bleeding. He tore the sleeve off his light-weight jacket and tied it around the wound.
“I’m okay, son.” Mr. Cecchino smiled weakly.
Dal’s eyes strayed to Mr. Cecchino’s shoulder, to his bloodshot eyes and clammy skin. To the forearm that was now
