Chapter 3

As dusk settled in, we pulled over to rest.

Raul lay on a stretcher in the back of the pickup, his face pale and his forehead burning hot. There was a deep, blackened scratch on his arm, a mark left by a zombie.

Blade checked him and shook his head. "He's infected. He's a goner."

"Not necessarily," I said, my voice dry. "Some people have antibodies. They might pull through."

"Odds are less than one percent." Blade looked at me. "You really want to gamble on that?"

I walked over and squatted next to Raul. His brows were tightly knit, and his lips were cracked and dry. Even while unconscious, he kept mumbling, "Romy, don't leave."

I touched his forehead. It was literally burning.

"Give him some water," I said to Blade.

"Supplies are limited." Julieta cut in. "Why waste them on someone who's about to die?"

I looked up at her. "I'll take out twice as many zombies and bring back double the supplies. Will that do?"

Julieta was left speechless.

Blade chuckled. "That's enough. You've got guts."

I gave Raul some water and wiped him down with alcohol to cool him off. Lia helped me out, whispering, "Romy, do you hate him?"

Did I hate him?

I hated him for betraying me, for destroying the last bit of hope I had for love.

But when I saw him like this, all that hatred felt like paper soaked in water, one poke and it fell apart, leaving nothing but a blurry mess.

"I don't know," I admitted.

That night, I stayed by Raul's side. He kept muttering, sometimes calling out my name, sometimes yelling "Don't come near me," and sometimes crying.

In the early hours, he suddenly opened his eyes.

His pupils were clear, free from the gray haze that marked the infected.

"Romy," Raul rasped, "You're still here."

"Yes." I didn't bother asking how he felt. There was no point. It was clear he was dying.

"I'm sorry." Raul choked out, tears slipping down his face. "I never meant to hurt you. That day, I was so hungry that I lost my mind. By the time I came to my senses, I'd already..."

"You'd already sold me out." I finished for him.

He shut his eyes in agony.

"Raul," I said quietly, "I can't forgive you. But if you survive this, we call it even."

He opened his eyes, his expression tangled. "Call it even?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "You won't owe me anything, and I won't hate you anymore. Let's act like there was never anything between us."

He stared at me for a long moment, and then suddenly gave a shaky, bittersweet smile. "Alright."

After that, he drifted back into unconsciousness.

But this time, his breathing finally calmed down a bit.

Maybe he'd actually survive this.

Maybe we really could call it even.

Outside, the moonlight was icy.

It shone on his pale face, and on my hands smeared with blood and grime.

It felt like some strange reconciliation. In the apocalypse, in the face of death, one gust of wind, and our love and hatred faded away.

On the morning Raul pulled through, the zombie horde rolled in.

It started with a dense, shifting mass on the horizon, spreading like a fast-moving plague. The ground trembled, and the low growls rose into a tsunami of noise, swallowing every other sound.

Blade kicked open the pickup door. "Get in. Head north!"

The pickup stampeded down the abandoned highway like a frightened animal. I hauled the still-weak Raul. He'd only recovered from his fever, and I shoved him into the back seat of the pickup.

Lia hugged her doll tight and pressed herself against me, her face as pale as a ghost.

In the rearview mirror, I saw the swarm of zombies was getting closer with every second.

Rotting, broken bodies tore across the road at insane speed, tripping, crashing, scrambling back up, and then barreling forward again. They felt nothing, no pain, no fear, just a raw, animal hunger for flesh.

"Left side. Ram them!" Blade shouted.

The driver yanked the wheel, and the pickup mowed down a few zombies blocking our path. Chunks of rotten meat and black blood splattered all over the windshield. The wipers went wild, smearing two messy streaks through the gore.

Raul was hacking up a storm in the back seat. He gripped the seat, peered out the window, looking worse than the zombies themselves. "Mutants. They're coordinating."

Sure enough, the horde split into three waves, left and right closing in, front blocking us.

"Ditch the ride!" Blade barked, not missing a beat. "Head for the building."

Up ahead loomed an unfinished office tower, its steel and concrete skeleton jutting out like the bones of some giant beast. We bailed out and raced for the entrance, desperate to get inside.

The reek of the undead hit us like a wall.

I grabbed Lia's hand and bolted, Raul stumbling after me. His breath was rough, like a busted bellows. He was still weak from the fever. No way he could run fast, and he lagged further and further behind.

A zombie suddenly lunged for him.

I spun around, snatched the screwdriver from my belt, and jammed it hard into the zombie's eye. Thick, black blood sprayed out, splattering my hand.

"Move." I dragged him with me as we ran.

The building was pitch black, with only a faint glow coming in through the broken windows. We scrambled up the stairs as zombies slammed against the door below, splinters flying everywhere.

"To the roof," Blade yelled from the front.

When we hit the twelfth floor, Lia tripped and busted her knee open, blood oozing out. The smell made the zombies downstairs go wild.

Raul bent down and picked her up. "I'll take care of her."

He carried Lia, staggering but still climbing. I stayed behind, stabbing a few zombies chasing us with my screwdriver.

We finally scrambled onto the rooftop.

Blade and the rest were already up there, sealing off the stairwell with steel pipes and wire. The roof was bare, nothing but a few concrete blocks and some scattered building materials.

"Headcount," Blade called out, still out of breath.

Five others, plus me, Lia, and Raul, eight altogether. Thank God, nobody got left behind.

But soon, we realized things were even worse. There was not a scrap of food or a drop of water, and we'd sealed off our only escape route ourselves.

We were stuck here.

Down below, thousands of zombies swarmed.