“Nate, where’s Seth?” Booker asked.
Glancing up, Nathaniel shook his head. “I don’t know, he was gone when I came in.”
“I think this was recent,” Scott said, assessing her injuries. “The bruises are still forming.”
“Which means he couldn’t have gotten far,” Booker said. “Y’all stay here, take care of her. We’ll spread out and track him down.”
As soon as they were outside again, Caitlin grabbed his arm.
“Jack, we have to check on Desi. If Seth was out here…”
She didn’t need to finish her sentence. Booker was already bolting for their trailer, calling Desi’s name.
No answer.
“Desi?!” Caitlin cried. “Desi!”
Throwing open the trailer door, Booker jumped in. “Des, where you at?”
Still nothing.
Standing in the doorway, Caitlin frantically looked around for signs as to where she could have gone.
Near the line of poorly landscaped hedges that lined the back end of the park, she spotted the physics book Desi had taken with her, carelessly flung into the dirt.
“Jack!” She screamed, running over.
With Booker right behind her, she bent to pick up the book, clutching it tightly with numb fingers.
“He took her,” she gasped. “Seth took her, I know he did.”
You’re going to lose everyone you love, one way or another, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
“There’s plenty of snow on the ground, they’ll leave a trail,” Booker said. “I’mma get my rifle and tell the others. Stay here.”
Caitlin told herself to wait, that Booker would be right back.
She tried.
But her feet had other plans.
Pushing through the shrubs, she scanned the ground, looking for shoe prints.
Nothing but pure white and dry grass.
Panic stormed in her chest, squeezing the air from her lungs and tunneling her vision.
Not Desi… Not after everything…
Turning in a circle, she searched for anything—any clue as to which direction they went.
Several yards away to the north, heading towards the main road, were two sets of footprints.
No. One set of footprints, one set of drag marks.
The closer Caitlin got, the easier she could make out the details.
Desi was fighting him, kicking and pulling, digging her heels into the slick frozen ground.
That’s it, Des, she thought, running as fast as she could, following the trail. Keep fighting.
There wasn’t much nearby that would make for a decent hiding place, except for an old farm and an abandoned grain silo. They’d scouted that area when they first made it to the trailer park, looking for supplies or a possibly better equipped place to live.
The farm had once had cattle, and that had attracted a considerable herd of Geeks who now were trapped in the huge barn and surrounding pasture by the rest of the fence they didn’t know how to navigate.
Caitlin wanted to believe Seth would take Desi to the top of the silo or hide with her close by.
But that wouldn’t teach her a lesson. It wouldn’t make an impact.
And sure enough, the trail they left for her wove around the silo and across the field, continuing north.
Straight towards the overrun barn.
* * * * * * *
Caitlin could hear them over the hungry groans of the Geeks shuffling closer.
“Let me go,” Desi grunted through gritted teeth.
“Shut up,” Seth snapped. “You want to end up down there with the rotters? Then stay quiet.”
From the way the herd of undead had changed directions, closing in around the front of the barn, she knew they hadn’t jumped the fence, which meant they had climbed up the ladder to the hayloft.
Glancing over her shoulder, Caitlin saw tiny figures moving across the plain, heading for them.
Booker and a few others—Nicole and Nathaniel probably.
She couldn’t wait. Not when images of Seth dangling Desi over a starved herd of Geeks kept flashing in her mind.
As quietly as possible, Caitlin pulled herself up the ladder, ducking into the open loft. Straw rustled under her feet, barely audible over the snarls and groans of the creatures crowding into the barn.
Seth still knew the moment she was inside.
“You must’ve been a runner,” he said, voice cool and tinged with delight. “Before all this, I bet you got up early and ran every morning. Am I right?”
Caitlin scowled into the dim light, spotting him at the other side of the platform.
“Actually, the only exercise I got was running for my train,” she said. “But I adapted quickly.”
“Clearly.”
Seth shifted in the dark, keeping Desi in front of him as a human shield.
“Let her go, Seth,” Caitlin urged. “It can be just you and me up here, and we’ll talk.”
Sucking air between his teeth, he shook his head. “I don’t think so. See, I need her. And I think you know why.”
She’d been right.
He was going to prove another point.
“But if she’s gone, then we can be alone,” Caitlin said, hoping he’d fall for it once more. “Just like you wanted.”
“Don’t patronize me,” he said tersely. “You think I’m that easily manipulated? After everything?”
“I think you led me here for a reason,” she said, taking a few slow steps closer. “And I don’t think it was just to hurt me by making me watch Desi die.”
Wriggling in his grasp, Desi tried to pull away from Seth, but he yanked her back by the hair. Desi yelped and the Geeks beneath them responded with desperate, guttural noises, reaching up with rotten hands.
Seth grinned with dead eyes. “Consider it a two-for-one special.”
Just then, the loft shuddered as Geeks pressed against the support beams. Caitlin swayed, terror rushing through her as she glanced down.
“Oh yeah, I should have mentioned…” Seth craned his neck to stare at the herd below. “This isn’t the most stable structure. Termites and wood rot plus about a hundred hungry rotters equals a hell of a good
