“What’s wrong with her?” Kira placed the back of her hand across the other woman’s forehead. “She’s hot.”
“I don’t think I sterilized some water I drank good enough.” Perspiration dotted Lara’s upper lip.
“You know the dangers of this place.” I gritted my teeth to keep from saying something I’d regret. “We can’t afford to have anyone down. Now, the scouts are gone. Most likely to alert their comrades to our presence.”
“If they don’t already know,” Fawke said. “I think they wanted safety in numbers to get a good night’s sleep. There doesn’t appear to be any supplies missing.”
“Thank the Supreme Being for that.” I marched away from the group, clenching my fists hard enough for my fingernails to dig into my palms.
Why didn’t Shane keep better watch over his wife? Did the woman have a death sentence?
I stared down the crowded street. From the best of my calculations, we were in the city center. A few more days of travel and we’d be out. What waited for us out there?
Ezra didn’t think the Malignants roamed the open lands, preferring the dark damp of abandoned buildings to pastureland, once fertile, now nothing but miles of dried weeds. Still, there was something out there that helped an entire community survive.
“Are you okay?” Fawke placed a hand on my shoulder.
“I’d like to kill something.”
He laughed. “Maybe you’ll get lucky, and a Malignant will venture from its lair.”
“How messed up is that?” I grinned. “Hoping for one of those things to attack?”
“We could have a sparring session to allow everyone to work off some steam.”
“As tempting as that is, we need our strength for the journey.” I wanted to rest my cheek on his hand, have him pull me into a hug, smooth the hair from my face like my mother would do when I was sick or feeling bad. Instead, I squared my shoulders and stepped away.
Lara leaned heavily on her husband as we made our way slowly down the street full of potholes. More fires than I’d seen before burned in the cracked asphalt, taking away the chill of the night. With no rain in sight, and not being attacked by a horde, we rarely wore our rubber suits unless going out during the day.
Another good thing about more fires is less Malignants. I would have thought the hairless creatures would relish the heat, but they seemed to prefer the cold.
Something clattered in an alley to my right. I held up my hand to stop the group. When the sound didn’t come again, I waved everyone forward. We didn’t get far before I heard it again.
“What is that?” I asked.
“No idea.” Fawke pulled his sword. “I’ll go check it out.”
Not without me. I gripped my own weapon and followed.
Halfway down the alley I spotted what caused the racket. An injured Malignant fought to stand on a leg sporting a huge gash. “I think the scouts had gone through here. Why didn’t they finish the creature off?” With one swipe of my sword, I took off its head.
“Feel better?” Fawke flashed a grin. “You killed something.”
“Very funny.” I stood and stared at the four-story building. No faces appeared at any of the broken windows. Why injure a Malignant and leave it for us to find? I whirled, eyes wide. “The scouts left it to lure us here. They’re after the supplies.”
We sprinted back to the others, alerting them to get ready.
“Look.” I pointed to a window on the top floor of the building across from us.
A man hung out the window.
A Malignant shrieked.
The man, one of the scouts from last night, jumped. He landed with the sound of a melon hitting cement.
I rushed forward, Kira and Fawke at my side. He’d been gutted. “I guess he jumped to keep from being torn apart further,” I said, grimacing. Not that I blamed him.
The largest number of Malignants we’d run across yet spewed from the building. The scouts hadn’t left a trap, they had. “Run!”
The three of us turned and sprinted back to the others and formed our fighting circle. The injured Malignant must have had something wrong with it and the others left it as bait. Either that or the scout who’d jumped had gotten a good swing in before being hurt himself. Despite living among them as long as I had, I didn’t know enough about them to know the answer.
Shrieks filled the air, along with the rotten odor of the monsters. I pulled my scarf over my nose and mouth to make breathing a little easier and aimed my gun.
Guns fired, picking off a good number of the attackers before they got close enough for hand-to-hand combat. I set my gun on the ground and pulled my sword. “Do not step in front of me,” I told Fawke. “We fight side-by-side.” My tone left no room for argument. His special assignment be damned.
I dropped to one knee and thrust upward, stabbing a Malignant in the stomach. I withdrew, stood, and whirled, decapitating it as I had the one in the alley. Then, I turned and swiped as another charged.
Lara screamed behind me.
I barely got a glimpse of the Malignant biting into her neck before Shane killed it, only to be set upon by two more. We were losing the battle. “Do not let down your guard!”
Exhaustion slowed my movements. Still, I kept fighting. Behind me came the pants and grunts of my friends.
“We’ve got watchers,” Fawke said. “Two o’clock.”
I spared a glance to see the scouts watching but making no move to help us. They probably hoped we would die at the hands of the Malignants so they could take our supplies. Not today. I fought like a dervish, forcing my tired arms to continue, until the last Malignant lay dead and blood
