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Collin went down the ladder first, and once he reached the bottom, he quickly made his way over to the roaming corpse. She watched from the loft, knowing he wanted her to stay up here even if he hadn’t specifically said so, and saw him take out the man who groaned out low.
It was a quick stab to the infected man’s skull, and then Collin went over to the woman who was still trying to get through, clearly stuck halfway in the wall’s opening.
The contaminated woman was struggling to get her arm free, as it was stuck between parts of the wall. Even from this distance and height, Rebecca could make out the skin and muscle being torn from the corpse’s body as she struggled to get through to them. But the infected woman was oblivious to anything aside from the fact that Collin was close by. She reached out with her other arm, trying to grab him even though he was feet from her.
She opened her mouth, made this low, wet, and filthy noise from the back of her throat, and became more frantic to get through. Her flesh continued to tear from her arm, and dark blood oozed onto the ground. But the walking corpses felt no pain. Collin moved over to her, grabbed a chunk of her hair, and tilted her head back.
He plunged his knife into her eye socket, and when the infected slumped forward, finally dead for good, he removed the blade and wiped it on the tattered and stained shirt she wore. Rebecca couldn’t breathe.
Collin had taken those two out without any emotion on his face. He had been like a machine—a well-oiled, dangerous, and heartless machine. But in this world, that was how someone survived.
He walked over to the window and looked out of it.
“We need to leave, Rebecca. Now.” He turned from the window and moved back toward the ladder. She was already making her way down it, but it was slow going, as she had to keep adjusting the bags on her shoulders. When she finally reached the last couple of slats, Collin had his hands around her waist and lifted her from the ladder. He held her for a second.
“Shhh,” he said softly against her ear. The sound of moaning and groaning became even louder, and then there was banging on the windows as the infected made themselves known. When they saw Collin and Rebecca, they made this loud screeching noise and clawed at the building. Collin grabbed her hand, and they made their way quickly out of the warehouse and out through the back way where they had entered.
Once outside, an infected lunged forward in the slow, sloppy way a starving corpse did, but Rebecca had her knife ready and stabbed it in the side of the neck. It wouldn’t kill it, but it would slow it down. It gurgled out a sound, and dark blood gushed out of the artery as it fell backward and landed on the ground. Collin and Rebecca started running again, still moving from the horrors that swarmed in on them, yet unable to get rid of the sounds of hell filling her ears.
There was clanging behind them, and once they got into the woods, they didn’t stop. Collin continued to pull her forward, refusing to let go of her hand. She ran as fast as she could, but he had longer legs, and the supplies she carried were weighing her down.
Glancing behind her, the world shook, and the warehouse grew smaller and smaller the harder she ran. The ground was uneven, and when she faced forward again, her foot caught on something. She fell forward, landed on her knees, and the air left her in a whoosh.
“Come on, baby. We have to keep moving until we can’t walk any farther,” Collin said and had her lifted off the ground a second later. He cupped both her cheeks with his big hands and leaned down so he could look into her eyes. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“But why?” she gasped out, still trying to catch her breath.
He shook his head. “Does it matter why? I am here, won’t let anything happen to you, and I want you to trust me.” He continued to stare right in her eyes, and a little bit of moonlight filtered through the treetop. “We might be safe from those infected, but I want us to get as much distance between us and them as possible. We can talk about all this later, but right now, we need to move.” He kissed her hard and fiercely, broke away, and breathed just as rapidly as she did. “You good, baby? Good to walk?”
She nodded. “I’m good.”
He nodded in response, kissed her once more, and then they were moving through the forest, fast and hard, not stopping until the warehouse was now a distant memory and she nearly collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.
