Page 118 of After the Burn

Then another.

Wayne ran by the building toward the woods when a hand shot through the broken glass and caught the back of his jacket.

His feet left the ground as he was dragged against the wall. “Help me!”

Peter grabbed his wrist and pulled, even as more hands reached through the window. They closed around Wayne’s face, neck, and shoulders.

Even his enhanced strength couldn’t save him now.

His scream tore through the street as teeth sank into his cheek.

Peter released him, but he should’ve done that sooner.

A rotter crawled from beneath the post office steps and bit into Peter’s calf.

He fell hard.

Three more descended on him before he could rise.

Clark finally moved.

He ran toward the trailers, firing wildly behind him. Every shot drew more rotters into his path. One dropped from the roof of a mobile home and landed on his back.

Clark hit the gravel face-first, and the gun skidded from his hand. He rolled over just as the rotter sank its teeth into his face.

His screams ended as the bodies piled over him.

“Move!” Beck shouted.

Wren ran for the clinic, Colson at her back, crushing the skull of a rotter that came too close.

Max raced beside us as I followed, my bat slick in my hands.

Behind us, the street disappeared beneath the dead.

Beck reached the clinic door first, but before he could grab it, Lucas pulled it open, a hatchet already in his hand.

His eyes blew wide when he saw the swarm behind us. “What happened?”

“No time for questions,” Beck yelled. “We have to move!”

Adrian stood near the treatment-room entrance with his pistol drawn. Finley was beside Harper, checking the lines connected to her arm.

Rory sat near the wall. She jumped up the instant she saw Wren and me. “Are the monsters coming?”

Wren ignored her question. “We need to leave!”

Finley’s head snapped up. “She can’t be moved yet.”

A body struck the window by the front door, and the glass shuddered.

Adrian looked past us at the street. “She can’t stay here!”

Finley glanced at Adrian as another body struck the glass. “Give me five minutes.”

I saw a web of cracks spread across it.

“You have thirty seconds, or we’re all dead,” Adrian said, moving to my side to check me for bites. “I won’t risk us getting trapped here.”