The shrill wail echoed across the lot, and deadheads turned instantly toward the sound. Surging toward the pharmacy.
A few dozen turned into swarms.
Stain stared at Nash. “You’re a real bastard.”
Nash grinned and twisted the throttle. “Yeah. But now we’ve cornered the market on meds.”
Then the bikes roared away.
Behind them, the alarm kept screaming, and the deadheads kept gathering.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
LUCAS
The back room was barely big enough for the three of us.
Shelves of boxed supplies lined the walls, and the overturned metal rack Adrian had dragged against the door groaned every time someone shifted their weight. All of us were cursing the car wedged against the door.
I had no idea how we were going to get out of here, and I was pretty sure Ben and Adrian didn’t either.
Everything that had happened so far still felt so surreal. How could this be possible? It was like something straight out of a horror novel. Things had fallen apart so quickly. Society had been building and evolving for thousands of years, and now it was all coming to an end in just a few days.
I refused to believe it. This couldn’t be the end.
I sat on a plastic crate with the pistol Adrian had given me resting across my knees. My hands still smelled like gunpowder and blood.
Ben leaned against the wall across from me, his side wrapped tight where Adrian had stitched him up. He looked pale, but I knew he’d never let a complaint cross his lips.
Not even a grunt.
Adrian crouched by the door, listening, his knuckles bloodied from his earlier breakdown. If he didn’t reach Taryn soon, my best friend would lose his mind. I’d known he had strong feelings for her, but what I’d witnessed earlier proved I’d underestimated the extent of them.
That last interaction I’d shared with her kept coming back to me. No matter how much I disliked her, I couldn’t deny even to myself the attraction I felt. But none of that mattered. Adrian had more claim to her than I did.
The pharmacy had gone quiet.
Not a normal quiet.
Dead quiet.
The kind that makes your skin itch because you know something is out there.
“You hear anything?” I asked.
Adrian shook his head. “Not yet.”
Ben exhaled slowly. “The infected are still out there.”
I didn’t need him to tell me that.
I could feel it.
The building felt different now. Like the air itself was polluted by the dead.
I rubbed my face and tried to push everything I’d seen out of my mind. Of course, it didn’t work. I’d never forget the look on Grace’s face as she was devoured by the infected. Losing a student in my care was something I’d probably never get over.
Then, out of nowhere, the world outside exploded with sound.
