Page 10 of My Undead Love Life

The memory hit so hard my chest physically ached.

I fired again on instinct.

An undead man toppled backward into the others crowding behind him.

I protected Spencer the same way she protected me. That was how we worked. It was how we survived. But now I was alone.

The realization hollowed me out far worse than the undead ever could.

I hated it. I hated the empty space at my back where she should’ve been. I hated not hearing her voice over the groans of the undead. I hated not knowing if she was safe or terrified or crying somewhere deeper in the tunnels.

My only solace was that she wasn’t alone.

Another zombie crawled over the subway seats toward me, dragging a broken leg behind it with a wet scraping sound.

I barely even looked before putting a bullet through its skull.

The undead kept coming. They poured through the broken windows faster now, crawling over each other in their blind desire to spread their virus. Rotting arms shoved through jagged openings while snarling mouths snapped wildly at the air, desperate to reach me.

Blood coated the bottoms of my boots, making the floor slick beneath me every time I moved. The coppery smell mixed with the stench of decay and gunpowder until the air felt too thick to breathe.

I kept firing.

At first, my shots came in controlled bursts.

Three rounds.

Pause.

Three more.

The rifle recoiled against my shoulder every time I pulled the trigger. Muzzle flashes lit up the train car in bursts of orange and white, illuminating snarling faces and grasping hands before darkness swallowed them again.

Then, my bursts became shorter.

Two shots.

One shot.

One kill at a time.

The magazine was getting lighter in my hands. Dread settled cold and heavy into my stomach.

Another zombie forced itself through the broken window with a wet snarl. I shot it through the eye socket before it could even fully climb inside. Its body collapsed halfway across the subway seats while another immediately crawled over it.

I fired again.

And again.

Every shot echoed deafeningly through the enclosed tunnel until my hearing became distorted beneath the constant barrage. Shell casings bounced across the floor around my boots while sweat dripped into my eyes, stinging hard enough to blur my vision.

I dropped every single undead that made it inside the train car.

And still, more crawled through. Their cloudy eyes locked onto me with desperation. Rotting fingers clawed against metal seats. Broken jaws snapped.

There were too many. Way too fucking many.

I fired again, knowing damn well the sound of my gun brought more to me.