“I understand that,” William says, his voice oddly strained, which is pretty unlike him. “But I’m not sure we can help you.”
“Please,” the woman goes on, still holding the knife in front of her chest in that awkward position. “Everyone in town is … is infected … I just barely got away … and my husband … my Erik … oh, God …” The woman begins sobbing.
Dan can hear William take a deep breath, as though to try and steady himself. Something about the woman is obviously causing him a great deal of stress, which is weird to Dan, as she doesn’t seem at all prone to attack them. Yet William acts like the situation might get out of hand at any moment.
“He tried to … to bite me,” the woman says between sobs. “I just barely got away … I’ve been walking around out here for … I don’t know how long …”
“I’m sorry,” William says. “But—”
“We just woke up, and … and someone was in the house … Erik w-went to check, and he … I heard him s-shout …” The woman’s tale grows increasingly hard to follow as her voice breaks up into even stronger heaves and sobs.
“Listen,” William interrupts. “I’m sorry, I truly am. But I can tell from here you’ve got yourself scratched up pretty badly. I’m afraid that means we can’t do anything for you.”
The woman glances down briefly, and it’s only now Dan notices the thin, dark red lines running across the woman’s pale thigh. He finally realizes why William is so tense.
The woman tugs at her coat, trying to cover up the marks. “That’s … that’s nothing,” she says, sniffing. “It’s just … I ran into a bush …”
“No, you didn’t,” William says. “Those are marks from fingernails.”
“I’m fine,” the woman says, her crying subsiding with surprising abruptness. “I’m not infected.”
“I’m sorry,” William says. “But I need you to keep walking.”
The woman glares up at him, then she comes closer, lifting her hands in a pleading motion. “You’ve got to help me! Please!”
“No, I don’t,” William says, raising the rifle to his shoulder. “And if you don’t keep back, I’m going to need to use this. I really don’t want to, so please don’t force me.”
The woman is about to say something else, when there’s another sound—this time, Dan also hears it.
She spins around, wielding the knife, just as another figure comes staggering into view.
“Oh, God!” the woman cries out, backing away. “Erik! Oh, God, Erik!”
The man is wearing nothing but boxers. They were once white but are now soaked through with blood thanks to the giant hole in his abdomen, revealing his intestines. He doesn’t seem bothered by it, though, and just heads straight for the woman, who’s still crying out and backing up. As she turns to run, she slips in the wet grass, almost stabbing herself with the knife as she falls down.
William jumps down from the cliff and grabs Dan by the arm. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!”
“Wait,” Dan says, tugging against William’s pull. “We need to help her!”
“We can’t! She’s already infect—”
“No, she’s not,” Dan says, pointing to the woman, who’s scrambling to get back up. “If she was, then he wouldn’t be going for her!”
William darts a look at the guy just as he reaches the woman and grabs her by the coat as she gets up and tries to run.
“Fuck, you’re right,” William says, raising the rifle.
The woman is screaming and struggling to get free. Her dead husband is holding on to the coat, trying to rope her in, but she flails and thrusts and tries to slip out of the coat.
“Damnit, I can’t get a shot,” William says, lowering the rifle again. Instead, he points and shouts: “Ozzy, attack!”
Ozzy—who was obviously just waiting to be tapped in—lunges forward, closing the distance in three giant leaps before tackling the dead guy with the force of rugby player.
The zombie is thrown to the ground, but amazingly manages to hold on to the sleeve of the coat, dragging the woman down with him. Ozzy clams down on his shoulder, thrusting his head back and forth while growling. Had the guy been alive, he would have been screaming in pain. Instead, he just tries to sit up, ignoring completely the German shepherd tearing at him as he reaches for the woman, who’s landed on her side. She tries to crawl away, but her left arm is still caught in the coat.
William steps in and kicks the guy hard under the jaw, sending him onto his back. “Get away from him!” he shouts to the woman—needlessly, as she’s obviously trying hard to do just that, but the dead guy is still stubbornly holding on to the sleeve of the coat, and because of the awkward way the woman is lying, she can’t slip free.
As the guy sits back up, William flips over the rifle and uses the butt end as a piston, punching the guy in the head, sending him back down once more. He gets up again right away, only to get jackhammered a second time by William.
This could likely have gone on for several seconds—Ozzy growling and tearing, the woman screaming, William punching and the dead guy trying to get at the woman—if Dan hadn’t stepped in and grabbed the woman by her arm, helping to pull her out of the coat.
As she tumbles away, the dead guy immediately turns his attention on William, who’s towering over him and is now the closest prey.
But William seems prepared; he flips over the rifle, aims the barrel right at the mouth of the guy, then pulls the trigger.
SIX
Iver manages to slide slowly down the slippery roof tiles by clinging to the extension cord. Once he reaches the garage roof, he quickly unties the bag and the rifle. He runs
