When those hungry jaws were inches away from tearing my neck open, a bck boot smashed into the face of the man. His body slumped off me, and I rolled away before he could pounce back on me.

  I jumped to my feet and ripped one of the knives out of my pocket. As he struggled to his feet, Sam settled into a fighting stance. One foot in front of the other, arms up to protect her head and body, and shifted her weight to her back foot to steady herself.

  The man turned his head sideways to look at me and then shifted his gaze to the girl. What a creepy thing to witness. No living human holds their head at that angle.

  “Garrraahh,” the man unleashed an unnatural growl and started dragging his feet along the road and shuffled toward Sam. Once he was within striking distance, Sam shifted her weight to her front foot, lifted her back foot and bent her knee, bringing her foot behind her. Her leg shed out, the top of her boot colliding with the jaw of the man. There was a loud crack as her kick jolted the man; he went limp and dropped facedown on the ground.

  I lunged forward and, before he could get up again, plunged the knife into the side of the man’s head where there was less skull resistance to my knife. It sank into his head all the way to the hilt with ease, and he went still. There was a sickening plop as I pulled the bde out of his head, then wiped off the brain and blood on his pants before sheathing it again.

  “That was a heck of a kick,” I said and started digging through the man’s pockets for anything useful.

  “I-I-I just helped you kill someone. Was this murder? No, it was self-defense. We had no choice. Right? We had no choice? No choice. Tell me we had no choice.” Sam was shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe what she had just done. She put her hands on the sides of her head and kept shaking it in total disbelief.

  “Hey, hey. I know this is a lot to take in, but that wasn’t a human. Not anymore,” I said and put a hand lightly on her shoulder. I wasn’t sure if she was comfortable enough with me for physical contact, seeing how our entire time together had basically been me killing people and after what she just went through with those two men, but she didn’t react to my touch. “Sam, look at me, please.”

  She slowed down her head shaking and stopped after a minute or two, and looked into my eyes. My stomach did a small flip when those stunning emerald green eyes locked onto mine. I could see the fear gripping her and felt an overwhelming need to protect her. It was so obviously the wrong time to get distracted, but she was so pretty it caught me off guard. It was my turn to shake my head.

  Focus the hell up Grayson. Things are trying to eat you out here!

  “We can figure out what is going on once we are safe. All I can say right now is don’t assume anything is human. I can assure you I won’t be out here killing living people… well, more living people,” I said. Not the greatest reassurance speech, but it seemed to ground her at the very least. She gave a small smile and took a step away from me to gain some space between us.

  “Okay. I’ll just focus on the now and deal with whatever happens once we’re safe,” Sam said.

  “That’s my pn. Thanks for saving me there,” I said and pointed to the fresh corpse. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself after all that excitement and then having to calm Sam down. I tried not to think about how close to death I had been.

  “Well, I owed you from before. No biggie,” Sam said with a shrug that she tried to make look nonchant, but it was too fast and she kept sneaking gnces at the body.

  “I think it’s definitely a biggie, so thank you.” I made sure to look her dead in the eye when I thanked her the second time. Personally, I enjoyed not being eaten. By zombies.

  Becca: If you’ve received your fill of near-death experiences today, perhaps you should-

  “Yes, Becca. Yes. I will return to the facility. I am actively working on it,” I shook my head for the second time in as many minutes, annoyed with the AI in my brain that I could not escape. No off button there. “Let’s move on, Sam.”

  We ran down a few more streets. I was shocked by the ck of people, or zombies, that we saw. Mostly we saw empty houses; it would seem at the first real zombie sighting, people got in their cars and cleared out. I’m sure the highways were a dream right then. As we continued on, we ran by a few stumbling decayed, but none that got close enough to us to be a concern.

  “So, you really have someone in your head that you were speaking to?” Sam spoke up after some minutes had passed in silence.

  “Yeah, long story short. Basically, there’s an AI inside me, and she can speak with me through our connection. I should be able to… well, basically think back at her to communicate, but it’s a prototype. It’s still in progress, so I have to speak out loud for her to hear me. Doesn’t make me look crazy at all. Ever.”

  Sam giggled without breaking stride and gave me a thoughtful look. “Technology like that was being created right as this craziness began. Pretty wild timing.”

  “It’s certainly not ideal.” I came to a stop at an intersection. I knew if I took a left here that got me closer to the facility. But I didn’t know what else we might encounter, which is why I was tempted to go straight. Hmm…

  “I know you don’t TRUST me trust me, but do you trust me to lead us somewhere risky but potentially get us some real protection?” I turned back to look at Sam. She seemed calm while surveying the surrounding area. She was handling all of this surprisingly well, considering. Especially for someone who had just been thrown to the ground by her family so they could escape. That was probably good for a few years of therapy on its own, even without the zombies.

  “I followed you all the way out here and don’t really have anywhere else to go, so why not.” Sadness crept into her expression as she spoke. She forced her frown into a slight smile and wiped the water from her eyes. She nodded to signal me to lead on.

  There was a new sound in the distance, different from the sounds of violence that had taken over the city. Church bells.

  “We’re pretty close to the facility we’re heading to if we can hear those bells,” I said to Sam, pointing in the direction of the sound. “I hear them every day at eleven in the morning.”

  “It’s that close, but we’re not heading straight there?” Her brow was furrowed in either confusion or suspicion. I wasn’t sure which and didn't have time to find out.

  “From this position the church is closer to us than the facility, probably a mile out. The facility is past the church, maybe an additional mile or so. Mile and a half. That’s a long walk dressed like we’re out for a morning stroll; we need some protection. I know where to get some and it’s much closer than the facility. We head there, gear up, and are safer when we head to the facility.” I started walking straight—standing around talking about it would get nothing done.

  She followed me without protest.

  “Where are we getting this protection? Some kind of weapon store?” She asked and positioned herself right at my side, matching my pace.

  “Nah, I’m sure all those gun stores are jam-packed with people in a panic. We’ll be lucky if anything is left there. I’m thinking most people won’t be coming to this pce for a while, besides anyone who was already there.” I gnced back at Sam, expecting a follow-up question.

  She was checking out our sides and behind us as we walked. She had good survival instincts; hopefully, she could be of use to the doctor and the others in the facility. They might not be overly pleased that I was bringing a stranger to a pce where top-secret government experiments were taking pce, but I was sure they would understand.

  We followed the street up a hill, walking in silence with the only sound being the distant fighting in the center of the city and our footsteps. My legs started burning when we approached the top of the hill; they’d been through it today. Maybe I need to spend more time running. Well, I might not have much of a choice if the military doesn’t take back the city.

  We got to the top of the hill, and I stopped to enjoy the view with a huge smile on my face and my hands resting on my hips.

  “Isn’t she beautiful?” I asked Sam when she stopped beside me.

  “Taco Bell?” She asked with an arched eyebrow.

  “Don’t tempt me. Yes, but not what I was referring to. Look a little further.”

  “The car dealership?” She asked, still confused.

  “The motorcycle dealer,” I crified. “Big difference.”

  “Why does that matter?” She joined me in putting her hands on her hips. Although I think hers was from her annoyance with me. “You want to take a motorcycle to wherever we’re going?”

  “Want to? Yes. Willing to? No, not enough protection and extremely loud. Don’t want to advertise to those creatures where we are. What I was referring to are the accessories they will have in stock.” I tapped the top of my head to give her a clue.

  “Oh!” she said, her eyes brightening when she made the connection. “Helmets!”“That’s right,” I said. “Helmets and leather jackets. They’ll help prevent us from being bit. Maybe some gloves and assless chaps too.”

  “Uh, why?” Sam narrowed her eyes at me, as if she doubted I had actually said what I said.

  “Well, we don’t want our fingers to get caught in zombie mouths or bitten off.” I wiggled all my fingers at her.

  “I think you know good and well it wasn’t the gloves I was reacting to,” she took her hands off her hips just so she could do the motion of putting them back on her hips. Sam has a little sass to her—I liked it.

  “No time for that now, onward and forward!” I said and marched toward the dealership.

  Becca: Secure me a cool jacket too.

  “Get a body first.”

  :(

  “I don’t know how you said that, but it was weird, Becca.”

  I peered into the Taco Bell as we walked by. Empty. Not that I was expecting anyone to be working, but it would have been a nice surprise. I could eat. I pressed my face against the gss and sighed. Come to me, my precious quesarito.

  “Grayson!” Sam shouted a warning to pull me away from staring longingly into the Taco Bell. I looked back at her and saw two zombies stumbling toward us, only a dozen feet away. The chunks of skin dangling from their faces and necks told me these were the slower moving decayed zombies, not some weirdly strong zombie like that soldier. Still dangerous, but they wouldn’t be winning any marathons. “What the heck are these disgusting things?!”

  “Zombies I guess. Catch!” I pulled out a knife, still sheathed, and tossed it at Sam. She was slow to react, I grimaced as it went soaring over her head. She jumped up to grab it, but the hilt bounced off her fingers and nded several feet away. She stumbled when she nded and ended up on the ground. “Shit!”

  I whipped out the second knife as the zombies locked onto Sam, and I dashed over to her, rushing to close the space between them and her. She was on the ground trying to scoot back using her hands to hold her up and kept the zombies at bay with her legs.

  I ran up to the zombies while they were distracted. The one closest to me noticed me and turned to charge at me.

  “Look over there!” I yelled and pointed behind it. The zombie turned its head to look.

  Uh, that worked? I decided not to think too much into that, and I plunged the knife into the side of the zombie's head just as it was turning back to me.

  “Get off me!” I heard Sam scream and saw the zombie had grabbed her foot and was gnawing on her boot. Sam was trying to shake the zombie off, but it was holding on tight to that boot like a dog chewing on its favorite chew toy. As soon as she yelled, the air around her visibly vibrated for half a second before it settled back down.

  The zombie immediately released her foot and turned away from Sam, leaving her bewildered and forgetting her foot was still in the air. She turned her head to me looking for me to say something but I didn’t even understand what I had witnessed.

  “The hell just happened?” I said in a whisper when I saw the zombie halt its attack and leave Sam alone at her command.

  Becca: Sure wish I could tell you. Some of us are flying blind here. What did happen?

  “I’m honestly not sure,” I said. “That is definitely something we’ll discuss ter.

  I didn’t let the opportunity slip away. I pulled my knife from the first zombie and pierced the back of the skull of the foot-fetish zombie. It crumbled to the ground with a small grunt.

  Sam scrambled back to her feet and looked all around to make sure she was not going to get surprised again.

  “You good?” I asked her and wiped my knife clean on the zombie's clothes. I rotated my knife-wielding arm in a circle to stretch out my shoulder. I was going to be sore from all the stabbing.

  “Yeah, its teeth didn’t get through my boot, thankfully.” Sam went and grabbed the knife I tossed to her and brought it back to me.

  “Hold on to it for now; I should have given it to you way earlier,” I said to her. She nodded and clipped the knife to her side. “I’m gd you weren’t running around in heels with this mess going on.”

  “Me too. Who would be crazy enough to run around in heels with human-eating monsters chasing you. I would have kicked them off a while ago,” Sam said and gave a light chuckle at the idea of it.

  “I mean, Bryce Dals Howard did a good job of it. But that’s not the point,” I said.

  “She did what?” Sam asked.

  “She ran from dinosaurs in heels! Very well, mind you. Looked wonderful doing it, too. She’s a gift to humanity,” I said, to which Sam squinted at me.

  “No one would've been foolish enough to run around in heels. That makes no sense!” She said.

  I must defend my goddess!

  Becca: If you don’t move on from the Bryce Dals Howard discussion, I will short-circuit your brain.

  I wasn’t sure if she could do that or not, but I wasn’t going to test her.

  “We WILL discuss this more ter. Let’s go get some zombie protection so situations like this aren’t quite so stressful.” I put a hand on her shoulder bde and steered her toward the dealership. Bryce Dals Howard would be rocking this outbreak if she were here.

  We reached the outside, waist-high metal fence and were greeted by a dozen zombies shuffling around the parking lot. Ten of them were clearly of the decaying variety, and the other two looked fresh, simir to that soldier from before. Those were the main concern if they were even close to being as strong and fast as the soldier.

  Motorcycles were scattered all over the parking lot. Most had been knocked over by the aimlessly wandering zombies, I assumed. The dealership looked unharmed, most importantly the gss front doors were unbroken. That was a positive, at least, a little luck for us. It could provide a little bit of shelter while we stock up, if we could get in. Getting there would be a struggle.

  I heard a high-pitched whine, but I couldn't pce where it was coming from.

  “We don’t need to kill them all, but we do need some kind of distraction so we can sneak in.” I looked around us, hoping to see something, anything, that we could use. More cowbell would have been excellent for this.

  Sam stuck a finger in her ear and wiggled it around.

  ShowerKrogan

  “You alright?” I asked.

  “Yeah, just hearing some strange noises. It’s nothing,” she said and focused on the parking lot.

  “No, I hear it too.” I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the noise. It would start and then stop. It sounded like something or someone whining or crying?

  I walked along the fence to get a look at the side of the dealership. I saw a blue SUV parked in a marked employee spot, and a zombie was on the ground trying to crawl underneath it. The crying noise grew stronger—it was definitely coming from under the car! It had to be someone small to fit under there. A child, perhaps? I couldn’t ignore them. I had to help.

  “Sam! There’s someone under the car; we need to help them!” I shouted without thinking. Hearing my voice, every zombie besides the one trying to get under the SUV turned to face us. Silence hung in the air for a few exceptionally long seconds, and I froze in pce. It didn’t take long before the growling began. The zombies forced themselves in our direction, snarling and snapping at the air.

  “That’s my bad,” I said, and Sam rubbed her forehead in frustration. “Welp. Tally ho.”

  “Wait-” Sam started to call out, but I hopped the fence and faced the zombies. The rescue mission was underway.