Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

MIKO

W e slipped out a side exit onto a gently sloped road, no biters in sight, the rain pounding everything. Water streamed down the road, overwhelming the drains. An aggressive wind howled, churning the plethora of rubbish, stirring the hair of the corpses strewn everywhere.

God, it was dark for a morning. Almost night-like, the clouds so thick they could've been painted on with a trowel.

It didn't take long for those bodies to reanimate, each one in various states of decay. They crawled, staggered, each one groaning for our blood.

So unfair that the already dead got to re-join the fight.

Dawn didn't play by the rules, using all the cheat codes.

Paige continued to lead us, having studied the maps of this area while I'd been sleeping.

Basil clung to Paige's back, being the slowest of us, with a face like a smacked arse. Mercifully, he didn't complain in his pompous way, keeping his gob shut.

We passed a blue and white sign, telling me this was Hemel Hempstead Hospital. I knew this town, having come here once to meet with some fellow alphas. Didn't see much of it because the visit was strictly business.

Under the heavy downpour, our soaked scrubs clinging to our bodies, Paige led us to a residential street, the houses heavily damaged by fire. Of course, there were charred corpses everywhere, burned-out vehicles blocking a lot of the street. But not enough to slow us down. Thank God.

We navigated the streets, weaving through the debris, ignoring the predictable reawakening of the bodies.

"The morning of your demise!" Dawn cried from several mouths.

Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, dickhead.

Eventually, we came to a public footpath overrun with undergrowth.

"This way," Paige said, charging in first.

I stayed close behind her, pushing through the bracken, taking a thorny vine to the cheek, crushing weeds under my trainers. Focused on the escape, thinking of nothing else. Well, there were things trying to throw me off, but they were useless against my fresh, new walls.

Fuck off, intrusive thoughts. You won't be bringing me down.

I'm off to…die.

I turned off the noise, too ready to shirk my responsibilities and storm the Faery gates with my one-man army.

"Ori?" I tried our connection.

No answer, but I felt his heartbeat.

Still alive. Still going.

"I love you…"

Making good gains, we reached a new path hugging a field of tall grass. No corpses, only more weeds breaking through the concrete.

"We follow this for a bit," Paige announced, "clear a couple of residential streets, then we hit some woods and some farmland. We might be able to pause there, horde permitting."

They were coming, a riot behind us.

"I'll see what the situation is," I answered, a bit too curtly.

"Yes, sir."

Snappy tone damage control time. "Thanks for this."

She threw me a warm look.

Good. I liked her warm looks.

Upon leaving the field, we hit another street, no bodies here.

The next street made up for it, the dead already back for another try, joined by some slowies and six aggressive speedies. The rain stopped suddenly, as if in retreat from the biters.

"Eat!" they screamed, rushing us.

I charged to meet them, my pack flanking me with Trev, Basil, and the Gilmores making up the rear.

My beta roared, leaping into the air, bearing down on a speedie with his fist. I didn't see the damage but heard it well enough.

Nice crunch.

I pulled off a series of swift punches, breaking two skulls as if they were pi?atas, then picked up a stray piece of metal pipe lying beside a car and drove the pointy end into a slowie's brain. Yanking it free, I swung it in the face of a speedie.

"Kill! Eat!" Biters bellowed from the depths of the houses.

There were more speedies than expected; a horde was forming before our eyes.

Shit. I pushed forward, in full battle mode with the pipe.

A quick check behind me clarified my people were good, fighting strong.

Yeah. All fine. Cate tearing a speedie in half filled me with pride.

A swing of the pipe, a break of the face. Kick, punch, taking down flimsy corpses on the wrong side of skeleton. I carved a route through the bodies, fully aware of the other horde catching up to us.

"Keep going!" I boomed.

Meter by meter, we moved deeper into the street, almost at the end. A yellow house my marker. Once we reached it, we'd make for a side alley, get our arses over garden fences and run like hell.

"Miko!"

I spun at the sound of Malorie's voice. A series of cracks formed a spiral close to my feet, a slowie at the center of it.

They expanded quickly, filling the street, too many of them to jump over, the ground between them precarious.

Pink smoke steamed out of the cracks, hot enough to burn my face. I jumped back before it boiled my head, looking for a way around.

No way were we being separated again.

I aimed for a front garden, determination sparking in the soles of my feet. But a speedie cut me off, rolling off the hood of a car.

"Fuck you!" I swung the pipe. Its neck snapped from the force of it.

Another grabbed my back, getting its teeth on my right bicep. Not long enough to chew through flesh, though. Dropping the pipe, I took hold of its head, my fingers slipping in something slimy.

Lovely.

I flipped the biter up and over, slamming the fucker down on the hood of a car. Its back broke, and then so did it its face with a single punch from me.

"Fuck this." I picked up the pipe, the ground splitting under my feet.

With no other choice, I was forced back, the widening circle now up to the houses, spitting hot smoke into the air.

The biter at the middle of the circle laughed.

What now?

"Miko! Sir!" James called. "Are you okay?"

Through the lens of sickly pink, I saw their fighting silhouettes.

"Horde is getting too close," Cate warned. "We can't stay here."

The ground quaked, the circle's center collapsing, taking the laughing biter with it.

I leaped back again. "Get to safety!"

"We're not leaving you!" Paige responded.

More of the ground collapsed, rumbling aggressively.

"Go around. Meet me?—"

The entire circle caved in, taking some houses with it. I ran from its trajectory, constantly checking on my pack.

Oh. My. God.

The circle spread east and west, creating a wide trench. Heavy sheets of pink smoke burst out of it, completely blocking me from my people. A fetid stench attacked my senses, cackling bubbled up from the depths.

With my throat constricted, I struggled to call for my pack. Fear got its fishhooks in me, locking me in place.

My pack. My pack. My pack.

Voices. Their voices. The horde's voices, their hisses. Too many footsteps, too much terror in the air.

A slowie came at me from behind, successfully landing a bite on my left shoulder.

That snapped me out of my funk. Releasing a mighty roar to make my ribs ache, I drove my fist through its left eye socket, finding its brain and tore it out, the man falling down dead. I crushed the damn thing in my hand, its juices leaking through my fingers.

From what I could make out, the trench kept going in both directions, the ground vibrating.

Right. Plan B.

Finding my voice, I gave an order with as much volume as I could muster. "Find a way around. Get away from the horde. We'll link up soon."

"Sir!" James called back—the kind of response meaning he understood loud and clear.

Good. Time for me to?—

A huge head rose from the depths of the trench. Next, a beefy hand landed on the edge, making a dent. Then came the rest of it, rising, rising, rising until the man loomed twenty feet above me.

The same man who'd gone into the ground when it collapsed. Every part of him swollen as if he'd drowned and been underwater too long, his face like melted candle wax. Bruises covered his pink-hued skin, infected sores just about everywhere.

Holy. Shit.

His laughter caused parts of the trench to collapse, widening it further.

That pack of mine better be running, not trying to be heroes. I couldn't tell, didn't dare take an eye off those balled-up fists of death.

Huge pink eyes snared me. "Chosen wolf! Behold evolution! Behold my might! Behold your end!"

The giant brought one of those fists down with shocking speed.

Fuck!