The screams were disconcerting.
Terrifying.
“Maybe we should break into one of these houses. Hide out just for tonight.” Rod looked worse than he did earlier, his skin waxy and bloodless.
“How? If we break a window, break a door, they’ll hear us.” Lana took Rod’s arm and studied his wrist, her hiss all the info I needed to know it was bad.
A scream—a human one—was abruptly cut off. Another scream, one of theirs cut through the night. The hoots followed and I shivered. “Okay. Let’s start checking doors.”
“What about security systems?” Rod pulled his hand away from Lana. “If we open a door and it goes off, they’ll all know where we are.”
“We have to do something. We’re sitting ducks out here. Dee?”
They were looking at me to make the decision, but it had to be obvious who I would side with. Instead of answering, I walked up the porch steps and peered in the windows. No blinking box at the front door or anywhere near the back door that I could see. I twisted the knob—locked.
The hoots and shouts street-side grew louder. Would they hear breaking glass if I muffled it with my coat? I took it off and wadded it up, then shut my eyes long enough to hope and pray nothing heard what came next.
“What are you doing? You’re going to get us all killed.”
“We need shelter. Shut up, Rod, you’re too loud.”
“Too loud?” His voice cracked, then he coughed, and that was loud.
“Fuck. Run. Run,” I whispered, and we raced between a swing set and sandbox, spilling out of the back gate into the alley. One of them stood at the far end, their back turned to us. “There,” I mouthed, pointing at the half-open gate across the way. We didn’t get more than three steps before Rod stumbled into a tipped over trashcan. The sound was loud.
The scream from the end of the alley was louder.
“Go, go, go!” I whisper-yelled, and we ran full out, bypassing the house, charging across the street into another yard.
The thing screamed again, and I heard them calling to each other, the howls rising as they gave chase.
“Hungry!”
“Food!”
“I need you, Mommy!”
And above all, the sound of a young woman singing a lullaby, her voice high and sweet and terrifying amidst the chaos.
Lana tripped over a discarded tricycle and fell, sprawling. I yanked her up as the first of them spilled into view. There was no hesitation, no confusion. Had Lana not gotten her shit together fast they would have gotten us.
Instead, they got Rod.
He screamed as they took him, but I didn’t let her stop, didn’t allow her to look back or mourn or think she could save him. He was lost but we weren’t, and I wasn’t going to waste the small window of opportunity we had. “Over there, look!”
An SUV idled in the street, door hanging open. Whoever owned it had left half their blood spattered on the windows and spilled across the concrete. I didn’t think too hard about what had happened to the previous occupant, just waved Lana in and scrambled after her, slamming the door on one of their fingers.
The man roared and slapped at the window. “Screw you, asshole,” I said and jerked the shifter into drive. When I stomped on the gas, his finger tore off, leaving him screaming in our wake. “Put on your seatbelt,” I snapped, glancing over at Lana when she didn’t move. “Lana!”
“He was the boys’ father, Dee. He was their dad even if he was a shit and I let him—”
“He was fucked already and you know it. He was bitten, Lana. Like April was bitten. He was sick. He was dying.” I jerked my gaze back to the road when she shrieked, slamming on the brakes when a man stumbled into the road clutching his belly. His expression was horrified, twisted in pain. He wasn’t one of them, not yet, but he knew he was headed that direction.
He stepped in front of the car. I couldn’t stop in time. He did it deliberately.
The sound his body made when I hit him …
The car idled. I heard nothing but the crunch of his body, the scream of the tires on the street as I tried to stop in time.
“We have to go.”
I gripped the wheel tight. “He’s not dead.” He was sprawled a few feet away, the impact having knocked him back several feet. His legs moved as if he were trying to crawl but of course there wasn’t any way he’d be up and moving again. His guts were all over …
Gorge rose and I slapped my hands over my mouth to keep from vomiting all over myself.
“Go! You didn’t let me stop for Rod, now I’m telling you we have to go. Keep your shit together, Dee!”
I yanked the wheel hard right and stomped the gas as they started to surround us. They could do little more than slap the car as we peeled away, jumping a curb before I managed to right us again.
The roads were thick with abandoned cars and people. Twice I had to drive across someone’s lawn and hit more people than I wanted to remember—though they had all been monsters as far as I could tell. Later I would think about what I did tonight to save us, but now I had to concentrate on keeping us alive. “Where do we go now?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know where we are.” She opened the glove box and rummaged through it. “No maps, shit.” She slammed it, then twisted to look in the back. When she faced front again, she said, “Let’s keep going west. Head toward the boys.”
I glanced at her and away. The boys. Shit. “Have they texted?”
She fished through her purse and yanked out her phone. Her voiced relief eased something inside me. “They’re all right. They’re locked down. An emergency broadcast went out an hour ago, they said. Oh god, Dee. We have to get home.”
I nodded. “We will.
