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“The fire was an accident. You were there. You saw it,” I reminded him.
“What does she mean you were there?” Bly asked, then he let out an annoyed groan. “Were you galivanting around with the house girls again? If you’d have left them alone the way me and Wyatt warned you, none of this would’ve happened!”
“Shut up, Bly! You don’t even know what did happen!” Waylon snapped at him.
“Waylon, please. You’re already injured,” I persisted. “You need to move while you can and get somewhere safe.”
“Now I’m supposed to believe you give a shit about me?” he asked with a smirk. “Too little, too late.”
“What was that sound?” Nova asked, but I could hardly hear anything over the pounding of my heart.
“Don’t worry I’ll shoot your friends when I’m done with you,” Waylon said.
“No, Waylon, I hear it, too. What is that?” Bly asked, and then I heard it. A deep, reverberating zombie howl followed by a loud stomping sound. “Shit, Waylon, it’s the King.”
When the zombie gorilla let out another booming howl just behind me, the gun in my face no longer felt like the most imminent threat. We all looked back to see the decaying beast lumbering toward us at a terrifyingly fast pace.
Waylon fired a shot at the King, with the bang deafeningly close to my ear, and for a moment, I couldn’t hear anything but a loud ringing. Lazlo grabbed my arm, and we were running away as fast as we could.
I looked back over my shoulder, even though I knew I shouldn’t. Waylon couldn’t really run with his injuries, so he kept firing at the King, but the zombie never even slowed. He reached Waylon and had him torn apart within a matter of seconds – limbs ripped off, blood spraying, viscera spilling out.
Bly was running right after Lazlo, Nova, and me, but that still left him lagging behind us. The King leapt on top of him, and that’s when I finally stopped looking. I didn’t need to see anyone else get ripped to shreds.
“Harlow!” Kimber shouted.
I ran to the sound of her voice. She was hiding under some old farm equipment, and we crawled underneath on our bellies, so we were concealed under the thrasher with her.
“Did the Loths let the gorilla out?” I asked.
“No, that was me,” Kimber admitted. “It didn’t seem right leaving him in a cage for the Loths to play with and torture.”
“Is everything set free then?” I asked.
“Everything I could find,” she said.
“Good. Because we really need to get out of here,” Nova said.
When the King finally ran by to continue his rampage, we crawled out from under the farm equipment, and Kimber had her first chance to appraise Lazlo and Nova.
“What are you doing here?” Kimber asked.
“Long story I’ll tell you about later, but I came looking for you guys.” He hugged her, and she seemed surprised, but she hugged him back. “I’m glad you’re okay. Thank you for taking care of Harlow.”
“Anytime.”
He let her go, and then the four of us went back to finding our way off the ranch. It was easier to see now that most of the farm buildings were engulfed in flames, and all around I could hear zombies and the King.
The wolves rejoined us as we made it to the fence that surrounded the interior of the ranch. Lazlo and Nova had cut a hole in it when they came in, which meant that the zombies would be able to escape again. But it was also a way that other uninfected humans and livestock could get out.
We had a trek up a steep hill, and the adrenaline from the night was coming down, leaving me shaky and exhausted. I stumbled a few times, but Kimber or Lazlo were always there to catch me and help me back up.
A mule was waiting for us at the top, just as Lazlo had told me. He helped me and Kimber up onto the mule, while Lazlo and Nova stayed on the ground, walking beside us and the wolves. We went off into the dark forest, travelling as far as we could into the night.
41
Lazlo
It took us longer to get home than it had for Nova and me to get to the Loth ranch. Harlow and Kimber moved slow, but they were not in good shape. They were thin and filthy, and their eyes had this panicked faraway look to them.
