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Chong turned his shoulder away and put his hand over the bite, not wanting her to see it. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay?” she demanded. “How is it okay?”
Chong wanted to run and hide, but he held his ground. “I … it’s my fault.”
“Did you let yourself get bitten?”
“No … I mean—everything. All of it, since we left town. It’s my fault. You were right. I’m a town boy. I have no business being out here.” He sighed and let his hand fall away from the bite. “And I guess this is proof. I’m no good out here.”
Lilah threw down her spear and grabbed his shoulder, using both hands to squeeze the edges of his bite until drops of blood popped up. “How long ago?” she yelled, and when he didn’t answer right away, she screeched at him. “How long ago?”
“Ten hours ago. Maybe twelve.”
“Are you sure?”
“No,” he said. “It could have been longer… .”
Lilah let go of his arm and jammed her fingers under his jaw to feel his glands, then pressed her hand to his forehead. There was a moan behind her as a zombie lumbered out of the smoke; and with a grunt of irritation at being disturbed, Lilah whirled, grabbed the creature by chin and hair, and snapped its neck with a vicious sideways twist. Then she turned back to Chong, grabbed his hair, and pulled him close so she could examine his eyes.
“Tell me what happened,” she screamed. “Exactly what happened.”
“What—now? There’s a big freaking fight going on and—”
“Now!”
Chong shook his head and told her in quick terms how the big zom had clamped teeth on his skin just as Chong hit him with a pipe. Lilah made him repeat that part.
Then she slapped him again. Harder than the first time. It rocked his head sideways, and he almost fell.
“OW! What the hell?” Chong demanded, reeling.
“You stupid town boy,” she said harshly. “You’re not dying.”
“Wait … what?”
“The zom had your skin pinched between his teeth but you fell away from him. It tore a flap of skin off. That’s all … the infection is in the zom’s mouth, not in its teeth … you did not get bitten!”
Chong stared at her.
“You aren’t allowed to die!” she growled, and her eyes seemed to radiate real heat.
Chong’s mouth opened and shut several times without sound. “I—I—” And then he suddenly dropped onto his knees. Lilah knelt in front of him and there were tears in her eyes, sparkling like diamonds in the firelight.
“I—,” Chong said. “God … I thought I was …”
She took his face in both her hands and stared at him with almost lethal intensity. “You are not allowed to die!” she said fiercely, growling the words with her graveyard voice. “Not now! Not ever! Promise me or I’ll kill you.”
Chong almost smiled. “I promise,” he said.
Then, despite fire and gunplay and screams and the living dead, Lilah did what she had never once done in her entire life. She kissed a boy.
“We have to get out here,” barked Tom as he raced to intercept Benny and Nix. “Right now!”
“How?” asked Benny, looking around. The zoms were everywhere. Before Tom could reply there was a huge explosion, and they turned to see several of the wagons that formed one of the walls of the arena disintegrate into a fireball that knocked down at least a third of the surviving people in the place. Zoms were flung halfway across the gaming floor, and a dozen spectators and guards fell screaming into the open pits.
“That’s our cue,” said Tom. “This whole place is about to blow itself into orbit. We have to go now!”
“But we can’t go! Chong …”
