They Walk (30 page)

The building that the guys want is straight ahead and closer back to the street.

Following close to Gabe and trying not to make a sound that will alert the dead that are still coming closer, we head for the left and leave behind Noah and Hunter. We just cross the barrier between the two buildings, when the dead are closing in on us. I take in a deep breath at the sight of them, and almost come to a stop.

“
We have to run, but stay close to me.” Gabe shouts almost in my ear.

We barely have time to glance at each other before we have to defend ourselves. I rush forward and swing the ax up and around just as a professor looking man missing half his body comes lumbering over to me. I catch him in his still attached other shoulder, and knock him to the side. I have the ax pulled free just as another gets close to me, one that looks like it used to be a girl rushes me. Not hesitating I give my back to the man, and swing at the girl before she gets to close.

I feel her hands just graze me as I knock her to the ground in one hit.

Her flesh is softer than the man’s and her body is almost dissected already when she falls. Hearing movement behind me, I remember the man, but then I hear Gabe’s gun go off closer to me and the movement stops.

Not having time to thank him, I feel him beside me as we pace farther down the path toward the library.

We’re running now, and I have to try to keep my breath even and ignore everything beside the sound of my feet hitting the concrete path. I can hear the feet of the dead following us, and I pray we can make it inside before they reach us. We don’t bother to try and stop to face them. It would just waste time and ammo, so we push forward. I don’t even think of the possibility of having to fight them when we leave, but I can only process one thing at a time.

And right now, it’s getting inside the library.

Hearing Gabe’s labored breathing beside me, I know he’s thinking the same thing. I can see the library building looming up before me, and we’re just making our way into the small quad on front of it, when we find ourselves surrounded.

In the circle of the library’s front, there are at least five more dead approaching from inside. Blocking out the movement from behind me, I face the next two dead approaching and raise my ax. I barely have time to take in their decade and charred appearance before I have to hit at them. They are practically side by side, so when I hit one, the other gets knocked into and they both fall to the ground. I can hear gunfire and I try to focus on those before me and not for Gabe, since they are already getting up by the time I pull my ax free. I take a step back and get better footing as the one that was only knocked aside lumbers towards me. I swing the ax up as hard as I can, and catch it just under the jaw and into its head.

We both fall to the ground with me riding it, still gripping the ax.

I can feel its soft flesh and bile rises in the back of my throat, and I quickly get to my feet while yanking the ax out with me. Half of the face comes free in a spray of blood as its movements cease, but I don’t have time to try and dodge it. The other dead I had hit, is now back to its feet coming towards me. I spin around so fast to face it, that my I lose my balance at the last moment, and it hits me from the side and sends me to the ground.

I fall with a yell and manage to get the ax between us.

It’s easier than it would be, since this one is missing half of its right side and only has one arm to claw with. I’m just hitting the ground with its mushy body above me, that I hit at its snapping jaws with the butt of the ax and knock it off me.

Before I can even get to my feet, I see movement above me, and I think I don’t have enough time to fight another threat, when I see its Gabe’s familiar form. He has the machine gun aimed at the dead I was struggling with, and pulls the trigger when I am finally standing. As the body falls still on the ground with half its head blown off, he turns to me and grabs my free hand. I wonder what happened to his knife as he pulls me to the front door of the library. Almost against my will I glance behind me as we are just reaching the doors. Inside the quad now, are at least five or more dead trying to get to us. When I feel Gabe push open the door and pull me inside, I can’t help to think that it’s going to be interesting trying to get back through them.

Once I’m completely through the threshold, I turn and throw myself against the door and push it closed.

As soon as the latch clicks, there are already bodies crashing into it. The whole door shakes from their insistence, and I stumble back into Gabe’s arms. I can feel his chest heaving and realize mine is going just as fast and am having a hard time catching my breath. We stay there for a moment and try to remember how to breathe slowly while staring out through the see through door, and even as I try I can’t turn away.

There are so many against it now, I can’t see where one begins and another ends.

They are all hands and teeth, and covered in their own and maybe the blood of others.

“
Were you hurt?” Gabe asks as he turns me in his arms.

I stare up at him now, and notice that he too is covered in blood, and distantly I think I might be just as covered. It’s beginning to be something I don’t even think about anymore, like it’s not even real blood that sticks to us.

“
I don’t think so.”

Though when I say this, I know it’s a lie, one he can see through too. I may not have been bitten, but the fight is weighing on me. Now that I’m not filled with adrenaline of the fight, I can feel my head throbbing like a drum behind my eyes. The ax in my arms is already feeling heavy in my arms, and I don’t know if I’ll even have the strength to face the dead when we leave. But I can’t let him know this though, he’d only worry.

“
No bites, you’re sure?” He raises his free hand and lightly touches my cheek.

I lean into his touch and close my eyes, and nod my head in assurance. Opening my eyes again, I find him watching me, but he too nods and steps away. I watch him as he walks over to the door, and slides the lock into place and secures the door. We both know that if the dead were to get in, that the lock won’t stop them. But just as he locks it to feel better about it, I feel better to and don’t say what we’re both thinking. He turns away from the door, and stares behind me into the lobby we are in.

Already it’s beginning to get darker outside, so the light in the room is dimming.

“
Stay close, Mags, we don’t know if this place is really empty.”

The lobby we are in is wide open, but not very big.

There are three hallways leading out and into darkened corridors. He starts for the hall in the middle and I follow close behind. After being outside, it’s much quieter in here and I can only hear the sounds we are making. I really hope that we are alone in here, well, that’s not actually true. If anything, I hope my parents are in here and I hope even more that they are alive. I refuse to let myself think of the alternative, all of this can’t be for nothing.

We are just walking into the hall and are nearing two opened doors on both sides of us.

That’s when I hear a shuffling sound.

Gabe goes still in front of me, and I stop too trying to figure out where the noise is coming from. Before I can even call out, a body rushes out of the room on our left and slams into Gabe. They hit near the opposite door, and crash into the wall. I only realize it’s not one of the dead, when the body brandishes a bat and steps back enough to hit Gabe with it. I rush forward with a yell, just as Gabe gets hit in the side of the head and falls to a heap on the ground.

I’m almost to the person with the bat, when they turn around and face me.

I freeze instantly in my tracks.

“
Hunter? What…the hell…are you doing?”

I can’t help but to cringe, when he steps forward and the bat in his hands has blood on the tip of it.

As much as I want to look away and seek out Gabe to make sure he’s alright, I know to not take my eyes off of Hunter. Whatever feeling I’ve been having about him, it makes me see caution, plus he just attacked Gabe. He can’t just want to have a nice chat with me over tea.

I step back as he moves closer still, and I raise my free hand as if to ward him off.

“
Why aren’t you with Noah, is he alright?”

He narrows his eyes at me, and cocks his head to the side.

As he walks towards me I pace his movements and keep him at a distance, and all the while he’s not saying anything. He just keeps giving me this look, something I can’t exactly read, but it’s one I don’t trust. I find myself back in front of a doorway and he’s right in front me now.

After everything I’ve been through, I know I can’t let him best me.

So I slowly lift my hand that is holding the ax and try to keep his eyes on mine while I do it. Before I have my hand at waist level, he flinches like he was hit and rushes at me.

I try to back up to swing at him, but he swings the bat as he runs and hits the ax out of my hands.

Chapter Fifty Three

From the hit, I get bumped to the side a bit. Before I can regain my balance, he’s already reached me and pushing me into the room. It’s small and dark, I don’t even see anything until Hunter shoves me back and I hit the side of a desk. All the air gets rushed out of my lungs from the impact. I scan my surrounding s for something to use as a weapon or something, but he’s already approaching me again. He steps right up into me.

I have to lean back against the side of the desk to keep him at arm’s length.

“
Hunter, why are you doing this? If something happened, we can talk about this.” I say is a rush.

“
Stupid girls, always thinking you can talk you way out of things.” He says between gritted teeth, as he leans into me so that his face is inches from mine.

I try to scoot back as far as I can, but there is only so far I can get away. He was on me so fast; I haven’t even been able to process what the hell is going on. I try to think back if he was bitten at all, in the time from the Collisee to here and I can’t remember if he had. He’s acting like, like someone else that attacked me, but it’s almost off somehow. He’s been acting strange since we first met him.

Can a bite take days to infect?

I don’t think it does, at least in my experience it always worked so fast.

“
Hunter, come on, be reasonable. I know we don’t know each other well, but you’re a good person. You don’t have to do this, just let me go.”

He lifts his hands, and grips my throat and begins to squeeze, softly at first before adding a little more pressure.

“
You don’t know me as well as you think Maggie. Remember my ex-girlfriend?” He says inches for my face, that I can feel his breath.

I try to turn my head away from him, but his grip is too tight and I’m starting to have hard time breathing. I raise my hands now and hit at him, anyplace I can reach, but it doesn’t have any effect. So I try to pry is hands off me, as he squeezes tighter.

“
She was just like you at first, always teasing me, but never giving in. You’re more stupid than her though, thinking you can show me up with your boyfriend.”

I try to scream now, but the air is trapped in my throat so it comes out as a wheeze.

Feeling my head get fuzzy, I know I won’t last much longer if he keeps choking me. Using all the strength I can, I wiggle around and try to kick at him, as I claw at his face. He yells, but inches so close to me, that I can’t move my legs anymore. His cheeks are bleeding from my scratches.

He releases one hand and pulls pack and slaps me.

My head gets tossed to the side, and he’s already chocking me with both hands, before I realize that my cheek is stinking from being hit. He squeezes me with such force now, that my head is pounding and I can’t get enough air.

The room is starting to get darker, and my hands fall limply to my sides.

“
She thought she could fight me off too, but I told you we had a back break up right?” He leans close to me again, and he laughs in my face. “It must have slipped my mind to say that I was the one to end things, and by things, I mean her life.”

What he’s saying isn’t making any sense, but then my ears are ringing now, so I can’t really hear anything anyway. He grips me tighter and shakes me, as if trying to keep me awake. Opening my eyes, I didn’t even know I closed them.

I’m so tired, and I can’t breathe, I just want to sleep now.

He shakes me again, and black spots dance behind my eyes and are starting to close in around me. I don’t even feel any pain now except for the way my lungs are burning for air. I’m about to close my eyes and give up, when one of the black spots turn into a shadow. Then the shadow takes the form of a person, and creeps up behind Hunter. My first thought is that the dead have finally broken inside through the door, but as the shadow gets closer.

I see that it’s Gabe.

I want to smile and cry that he’s alright, but before I can do anything, he slams into Hunter. He knocks him off me. Instantly, I fall to the ground and gasp in the biggest breath I have ever taken. My lungs burn as I breathe in and out and I can’t stop the coughing fit that pours out of me. On my hands and knees coughing, I look up to see that Gabe has Hunter on the ground and is hitting him.