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“Bitch, give us your shit.”
Genie made a small noise of alarm, but the boys both remained where they were standing, suggesting they didn’t think this was something I needed any help with.
They were right.
“Your safety is on,” I lied smoothly, never looking away.
“What?” He shifted his attention from me to the gun. I grabbed the muzzle and thrust backwards hard, smashing the butt of the weapon into his face. Blood spurted from his nose, and I shoved the barrel up in case he started shooting. Instead he released the weapon, both hands going to his broken nose. I was fairly certain he was swearing at me, but all I could hear was wet gurgling noises as his blood flooded down his throat.
With the weapon now free, I spun it around, holding it like the trained professional I was, and aimed it at Mick, the guy with the knife.
“Still want to tussle?”
He dropped the knife and took two big steps backwards. “You crazy.”
“Told you,” Holden muttered.
“Doesn’t matter if you warn them,” Desmond added, a surprisingly cheerful tone in his voice. “They never see her coming.”
I angled the gun between the two men in front of me and looked to the others who’d begun gathering around the cluster of cars. I’d have loved to get rid of them entirely so they’d stop harassing people trying to escape. But the only way I could stop them would be by killing them all. Spooking them wouldn’t help; they’d just set up shop on another block.
Unless they attacked us, I wasn’t prepared to kill a bunch of humans. Even if they were the shitty sort.
“We’re going to go now.” I lowered the gun but didn’t shoulder it, prepared to use it if need be. I didn’t like firing heavy artillery. I might be strong but I was also small, and big guns packed a lot of kick. I liked lightweight weapons I could control. “And when I come back, I don’t want to see any of you, understood? Get your asses out of the city.” They most likely wouldn’t listen, but I had to try.
The guy on the pavement was still muttering aquatic profanities, but Mick nodded, and none of the other guys appeared to be interested in intervening.
“Let’s go.” I stepped around the fallen gang member, and the rest of my group followed suit. Desmond and Genie stayed behind me, but Holden edged up to my side as we skirted the clearing. If anyone were to make a sudden move, he was by far the strongest and fastest among us.
I didn’t relax until we were on the opposite side of the street and the cars were out of view. There was still a chance they’d regroup and come after us, but I didn’t think they were interested in further confrontation. Getting beaten up by a girl tended to have one of two outcomes. The first was retaliation. They’d fight to regain their macho status by beating me down. The second was pretending it had never happened. The latter was usually the more popular option, because in spite of a desire for revenge, no man wanted his ass kicked by a chick twice in one day.
I was hoping these dudes would go with option B.
“I got us a shiny new toy.” I shouldered the gun. Now that I had a better look at the thing, I saw it was a semiauto M60. There was no way a street kid could afford such a gun, even black market. They must have robbed a pretty well-stocked weapon store. The only guy I knew in town who could get his hands on something like this was Leary Fallon, and I sincerely doubted a human gang could have penetrated his shop.
“Do you know how to use that thing?” Holden asked.
I gave him a look that questioned whether he’d like to see me demonstrate. Instead, I said, “We’re only a few blocks off, now.”
“Provided he’s there.” Holden was still walking beside me, and I couldn’t tell if he was being surly because of the situation or because he was annoyed with me. In all likel
ihood it was a bit of both.
“He’ll be there.” I was assuring myself as much as any of them.
We encountered one more walking corpse on the way, but nothing more serious. I was going to need to think of something easier to call them, and I refused to consider zombie an option. Before I wasted too much time coming up with something clever though, I needed to find out if there was any precedence for something like this, and that was knowledge Keaty would most certainly have.
Rather than destroying the ambling remains of a middle-aged woman, we waited her out in another stairwell. She might have been outnumbered, but I had no idea how many others were around, nor did I know if they were attracted to noise. It seemed like a smart bet to play things safe for the time being rather than bringing unnecessary attention onto ourselves.
Secret McQueen being patient and low key.
There was a first time for everything.
And a last.
I tried not to think too much about what our current situation meant on a broader scale. If a city like New York could be overpowered in mere hours, what was the endgame? And what hope did the rest of the continent have?
This was bad, though how bad I couldn’t fully comprehend just yet. It might well be the actual end of days, but if this was meant to be the apocalypse, I sure as hell wasn’t going to sit around and wait to die. It didn’t matter how morose I’d been lately, at the core I was a fighter, and I’d always be a fighter.
