And if they’d managed to break down the secure front door of a New York apartment building, how fast would they tear through the door in front of her now?
She fell to her knees, tears stinging her eyes.
There was no weapon that could save her now. There were too many of them.
David had warned her not to show her face, and she’d done it anyway. What was wrong with her? What had she been thinking, risking everything like that?
Parrish would be so angry.
But it was only for a second. She didn’t think anyone would see her.
She kept her eyes on the door, just waiting for those things to crash through, the way she’d waited for her father to finally push through the suite door and tear into her. Her breath hitched in her chest.
This was it. She was going to die.
A thud sounded behind her, and she sprang to her feet, arms up to defend herself. Were they coming from all directions now?
Only, this was a familiar face.
David rolled across the floor, stopped, and grabbed a backpack on the floor next to the couch. He touched her arm.
We have to go. No time.
She nodded once and turned toward the bedroom. Her bag and violin were both in there, along with her shoes.
David gripped her arm tighter and shook his head.
Time stood still then, as she realized what he was saying. There was no time to get her violin. She would have to leave it behind.
“I can’t,” she said. “You don’t understand.”
That instrument was a part of her. It was the only thing that had kept her alive throughout this whole thing. Without it, she would have gone insane, and leaving it here felt like leaving herself behind.
Like losing herself.
A memory tugged at her, deep inside. Something about the hotel and her violin, but she pushed it away. She didn’t have time to think about that now.
David was right. Her hesitation was costing them too much.
She could hear the rotters climbing the stairs now. It was almost like a low hum at first, then a tapping. But now, it was a pounding. They were just outside the door.
David closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He drew one hand back toward the window, and a strong breeze flew in toward them, ripping the curtain off the wall. He seemed to gather the wind in his hand and push it toward the door.
Rotters slammed against the door, their fingers wrapping around the edges as they tried to push it open with the force of their combined weight.
I can’t hold them long. We have to move.
Zoe ran with him to the window and together, they climbed out. It was so high up, and the ground was invisible through the swarm of rotters still pouring into the building. An endless sea of them spread out in every direction.
We’ll never survive, she thought
We have to, David said in her mind. Hold on.
She gripped his hand tightly, and together, they jumped just as the door behind them splintered into pieces and rotters filled the room.
Zoe could have sworn she felt the scrape of fingertips on her heel as they flew into the air.
Thirty-Five
Parrish
If they’d ever needed a situation that could push them to the limits of their abilities, this was it. Parrish had never seen so many zombies in one location. Even the horde at the compound was small compared to this.
The group came off the docks and stepped into a war zone.
“Bring everything you’ve got,” she said, lighting up the area in front of them with a flash of blue that brought down at least fifty of the rotters running toward them.
They had to step over bodies to keep moving forward.
Karmen worked fast, doing her job by holding a circle of zombies at bay, letting them act as a shield while the others brought as many down as possible. It was elegant the way she seemed to control them with the motion of her hands, as if she were smoothing out the air in front of her, commanding them to stop and form a circle, arm to arm, around the guardians.
Still, it took time to get into the rhythm of working together as a group, despite all their practice.
At first, Karmen was only able to hold about a semicircle worth of zombies at bay. Whenever she turned around to the other side, the first set seemed to release.
There wasn’t a second to relax as the four of them stood back-to-back in the center, each taking out any zombies that approached them. They weren’t going to move forward at this rate, though. They would just get stuck in an infinite battle here in one spot as more and more rotters pushed toward them.
“We have to keep inching forward,” Parrish said, so thankful they had these earbuds to communicate. Otherwise, they never would have been able to hear each other over the sound of the rotters. “Use whatever you can think of. We have to move or we’re going to end up overwhelmed out here.”
“Pulling out the big guns,” Crash said.
“Do it.”
They had originally planned to lay off the guns for fear the noise would draw more attention, but at this point, they already had the attention of every rotter for miles. There was no sneaking around in this scenario.
Crash unleashed a storm of bullets into the crowd around them, and after about a minute or two of inching forward, Parrish noticed the bullets all seemed to have a slight electrical charge to them.
“You figured it out?” she asked.
“You like it?” he asked. “It took me a few to get it working, but I think I’ve finally got the hang of it.”
To prove his point, he sprayed the crowd in front of them. The bodies of the rotters shook like they’d been hit by a taser and then fell to the ground.
“Hell yeah,” she
