Page 71 of Immune

The door gives with a damp shriek, and I don't hesitate for even a second before I dive through and haul myself over the railing. For half a second, I hang over the courtyard with Zeds groaning below, then I swing down onto the balcony below.

My bad knee weeps when it jars hard enough that my vision turns momentarily white. No sound leaves me, though. I silently roll, slam into a rusted chair that has to be made of fucking steel, and shove myself upright with panting breaths.

The Zed directly below me lifts its head.

“Shit,” I whisper, just as Ewan’s head appears over the railing, one hand braced against the frame while his hair falls into his face.

“I gotta say, that looked wildly unpleasant,” he says, looking down at me.

I flip him off and run through the balcony door.

“You’re so real for that,” he calls after me. “So fair!”

A second later, gunfire splits the air from below. Not from the Alphas currently chasing me, but the sound seems to still everyone for less than a heartbeat. Then another shot rings out, closer this time but not inside the building. Outside.

Male voices shout through the park district, and they’re not ones I’ve heard before or recognize. It’s not Fletcher. Not Ewan. Definitely not Kaito.

My face drops with my heart.

Looters.

Along with my heart, my stomach sinks, but I keep my feet moving. I burst into the apartment hallway, skidding on wet carpet, and take the stairwell down. Not up this time. They’ll expect it just because I came from height. Down is worse, meaning down might actually work. It’s a risk, but what the fuck do I have to lose at this point?

A Zed lingers in the stairwell when I reach the second floor, passing through the landing only to meet a decaying obstacle. I slam into it before it fully turns, driving my knife through its temple and using its falling weight to yank myself around the railing. Blood splatters across my sleeve, but my hat remains pressed against my chest under my jacket. Safe and sound.

Apparently, we’re not done yet, though.

Footsteps sound out from the floor above, right before I hear Fletcher’s voice. “Don’t crowd her!”

That command hits something weird inside me. Not chase her, or grab her. Don’t crowd her. My lungs stutter, and I absolutely despise that I even notice the words. But worse, they know I’m not the Beta boy I’m pretending to be. I don’t know how they’ve already sussed it out, but the her in that sentence slaps me with a hand the size of King Kong and I want to scream into a void for at least an hour, just to vent my frustration that this is how my day is panning out to be.

Shaking my head, I shove through the second-floor door into a hallway lined with peeling wallpaper. A balcony walkway runs across the outside, several sections broken and one hanging at a dangerous angle over the courtyard.

Perfect. Just… perfect.

Taking a deep breath, I sprint across the first section. It shudders just as Ewan appears in the goddamned doorway. Eyes wide, he shakes his head and calls, “You really have to stop choosing the structural nightmares as your form of transport!”

“Stop following me,” I snap back.

“I’d fucking love to, actually,” he counters.

But then the balcony drops half an inch under my next step.

Ewan’s face changes completely, just as he blurts, “Shit, careful!”

The warning is real, and I hate that too.

I leap the broken gap, grabbing the opposite railing and swinging my body over. Pain shreds through my shoulder, but I hold on with all my might, gritting my teeth through it all. My boots hang over empty air before catching the edge and, for one breath, I’m half-hanging over a courtyard full of walking corpses.

Then I pull myself up just as Ewan stops at the far side of the gap. The bastard is too broad to make the jump safely. Ha-ha, sucker.

I take that opportunity to run again.

The hallway ahead funnels into a passage between buildings. Maintenance access, I think. It’s definitely narrow, dark, and smells overpoweringly like mold, old water, and a heaping dose of regret. I take it without slowing down.

Behind me, the voices fade, and for three beautifully glorious seconds, I think I’ve done it.

Then someone grabs me from the side, right before a body slams into mine.