So, she could kind of understand how Parrish felt.
Karmen’s stomach twisted as she thought of what they were about to face. There was no avoiding it, really. They had to get to New York, find Zoe, and meet up with the fifth. They had discussed it all morning before the sun came up, and no matter how much she hated it, she knew they had to go.
A single male guard was up on the roof with her, pacing from one side of the rooftop to the other, looking out for any sign of unusual activity. He’d passed by Karmen’s perch at the edge of the roof multiple times, but this time, he stopped in his tracks and cursed loudly.
She looked up, prepared to tell him to watch his language, but the second she saw the sheer terror on his face, she shut her mouth and followed his gaze.
Karmen scrambled to her feet and backed away from the edge of the roof.
An army of rotters stumbled down the streets. It wasn’t just one or two. It was hundreds. Thousands, maybe. Elbow to elbow coming from every visible street in this direction.
“No. No, no, no,” the guard muttered.
He seemed to be frozen in his tracks, just staring ahead with his mouth open.
“Sound the alarm,” Karmen shouted, waving a hand in front of the guy’s face. “There’s no time to waste here. We have to move now.”
The guy didn’t move. A tear rolled down his cheek, and he looked like he was contemplating dropping to the ground and rolling into the fetal position.
Some lookout he turned out to be.
If he didn’t get everyone to their stations right away, they were going to be in some major trouble.
No wonder the freaking neighborhoods had been so quiet all morning on their drive back. Hadn’t they learned their lesson with this crap yesterday on their way over to the hospital?
An abnormal lack of rotter activity did not mean they weren’t there. It meant they were somewhere you couldn’t see them, assembling for a massive attack.
She wouldn’t forget it again.
Karmen closed her eyes and focused her energy, reaching into the guard’s mind with as calm a tone as she could muster, considering the circumstances.
It’s going to be okay. Sound the alarm and call for help. Get moving now.
The moment she thought the word “now”, the guard seemed to wake up. He ran over toward the siren Karmen had seen them cranking when the group first got there, but instead of turning the hand crank, he reached for a walkie hidden there in a bag beneath it.
The walkie had a strip of red electrical tape around it.
“Code red,” he said clearly. “All hands on deck. We have a horde approaching from the South…”
He turned in a circle to survey the area and stopped abruptly, dropping the walkie to the ground. The hard plastic side broke into several pieces that scattered across the ground at his feet.
Loud static responded from the broken walkie, but Karmen couldn’t hear what the person on the other side was saying. She picked it up and pressed the button on the side, hoping whoever was there could at least still hear her.
“Major horde approaching the compound from all directions,” she shouted. “Get your asses to your stations. Now.”
More static responded, so Karmen did the only thing she could think of doing. She had no idea if it would work, but at this point, she had to at least try.
She gripped the walkie in her hand and focused her attention on whoever nearby might be tuned into this frequency.
We are being attacked. Thousands of rotters from all directions. Move as fast as you can. Spread the word.
The guard near her still hadn’t moved at all, but she didn’t have time to sit up here and babysit him. She needed to find her friends as fast as possible.
The group here was about to get the shock of their lives when they saw the real way she and her friends fought, but if they had any hope of survival, none of them could hold back.
A terrifying thought crossed her mind, and with a growing knot in her stomach, she turned to look at the group of rotters once again. She couldn’t quite see them clearly from here. It just looked like a mass of putrid bodies, but she remembered seeing the guy next to her looking through a set of fancy binocular thingies a few times.
She turned to him and was about to ask him to hand them over, but he had totally lost it. His entire body trembled, and his wide eyes made him look insane.
“This can’t be happening,” he said. “We cleared all these areas. We’ll never survive this. We’re all going to die.”
Something about the way he looked seemed strange to Karmen at first, but she immediately realized what it was.
Those last words hadn’t been spoken out loud. For the first time, Karmen had actually been able to hear what someone else was thinking.
Goosebumps broke out all over her arms.
“We’ll be fine,” she said, patting him on the shoulder and sending a wave of calm energy into his mind. “Call everyone in. This is what you’ve been training for. And hand me those binoculars.”
He nodded, inhaled a ragged breath, and then handed her the military-grade binoculars he’d had clipped to his belt.
The door to the roof pushed open, and a group of armed men and women rushed out, the fear in their eyes turning to sheer terror as they saw the number of rotters headed their way.
But these guys had no idea what terror was yet.
With trembling hands, Karmen brought the binoculars up to her eyes and searched the ocean of rotters, looking for one thing.
Glowing red eyes.
Seven
Parrish
Parrish marked three potential docking sites with pennies from a dish on Tank’s desk. No one would likely be using this kind of money again for
