Page 81 of Hollow Child

“They’ve gotta be here somewhere,” Lazlo insisted. “We’ll find them.”

“Help!” Someone screamed at the door, pounding on it, but they couldn’t get the latch to open.

Castor ran over and opened the door, and a screaming woman covered in blood came racing in.One of her arms was missing and spraying blood everywhere, and a zombie charged right after her. She hardly even made it a step inside before it tackled her to the ground and tore into the back of her neck.

Samara went at it with a shovel, bashing it over the head with a few wetthwocksbefore the zombie finally stopped moving. Castor tried to close the door, but another zombie pushed its way in. It knocked him back, leapt over the corpse of the other zombie and the armless woman, and it dove right at Jovie.

My sledgehammer was still in my hand, and I ran to help her. The zombie tore into Jovie’s face before I had a chance to even raise my weapon.

Behind me, Boden and Nova were at the door, pushing it shut against the wave of zombies that crashed into it. Harlow was holding Sage, who was crying, and Stella was holding her daughter, so I yelled at Max to help me push a heavy toolbox in front of the door.

Once the door was secure, I went over to where Jovie was laying on the gravel floor. Her mouth was opening and closing, and her hands were trying to press the skin flaps of her face back on. Blood was pouring all around her fingers. She wouldn’t survive. The virus would get her if the blood loss didn’t, so I brought the hammer down on her head and put her out of her misery.

“What the fuck, Remy?” Samara shrieked.

“Don’t open anymore doors until we find the keys and we need to open the garage door to leave,” I said, referring to the rollup doors that were large enough for a vehicle to pass through.

“We’re gonna leave here?” Stella asked in dismay. “What about Ripley?”

“We can’t leave the wolves behind,” Nova added.

“And Minnie. I can’t feed Fae without the goat,” Stella said.

The building we were in looked about as old as the church, so it had likely been a carriage house and stable before it became a garage. There was an old hayloft above us, and I could see a glimpse of the harvest moon through the second story windows.

“You find the keys, and I will go out and get the animals,” I said. “I’ll leave out the upstairs window so no one will have to open doors again.”

“I’ll go with you so I can get my own animals,” Nova volunteered.

“Nova, I should go,” Lazlo said, plaintive.

“I’m faster than you, Lazlo,” Nova insisted. An injury from years ago left him with a bad knee and pronounced limp. “I’ll get the wolfdogs and set the others loose so they can run from the fire and the carnage.”

I grabbed the sledgehammer and headed toward the ladder up to the loft and the window. Boden didn’t try to talk me out of it, because he knew I couldn’t be talked out of it. I was the only one that made sense to go because I was immune to the virus.

“I am going with you,” Max announced.

“Don’t be stupid. I can handle it,” I said.

“Remy,” Max said firmly, and his eyes were hard. “My daughter could starve to death without that goat. I’m making sure that Minnie makes it here.”

In his eyes, I recognized the same determination that I had in myself, and nothing could ever keep me from him. So I nodded. No time for arguments.

Max climbed the ladder first, and I paused to tell Boden, “Find the keys and get the truck running so we can get the hell out of here as soon as we get back.”

“I will,” he promised. “Hurry and come back to me alive.”

47

Remy

From the second story window of the garage, Nova and I used a few old 2x4 planks of wood to make a quick bridge to the flat roof of the convenience store behind it. Most of the zombies were on the ground, running raggedly through the streets and pouncing on anyone they could.

All around us were screams and crying, and the dark smoke was thick enough that it was starting to block out the moon. The zombies moved so fast, running in tandem and consuming anything they could. They seemed more like a swarm of wasps, overtaking an enemy.

“How are we supposed to go anywhere without getting torn to shreds?” Nova asked in horror as she watched the flood of zombies turn the roads red and green with all the blood.

“Over there!” I pointed to a narrow alley half-hidden behind clothes lines and a dumpster. Leaning against one of the walls was a mountain bike. “There’s a bike. The zombies seem fast, but they’re no faster than a human running, and they’re very clumsy and dumb. We should be able to outride them on a bike.”

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