Page 13 of Demon Shock

Pausing, I turned back to look at her.

“Thank you for welcoming me into your home. I will see you in the morning.”

“See you in the morning, Gyrik.”

She closed the door, and I smiled wide enough that my teeth reflected in the window beside the door. She’d hugged me, talked to me without screaming, and remembered my name.

Turning on my heel, I sprinted away from the cabin.

Our campsite was several miles away, down an unused dirt road near hers. Will had the fire going and a tent set up. Theentrance was open, and I could see Will and Zach in their sleeping bags inside. They didn’t like to sleep with the entrance closed when I wasn’t there. They said they felt more comfortable being able to see and hear what was happening.

I jumped over the wire Will had strung around the camp and landed several feet away from Bram, which made him jump.

“Sorry,” I said quickly. “I found a female.”

“Seriously?” Zach asked, sitting up in his sleeping bag.

“Yes. Her name is Ava. She has pretty blue eyes and a soft voice like her body. She didn’t scream when she saw me and invited me into her house.”

“Was it made out of gingerbread?” Zach asked with a grin.

“What is gingerbread?”

“Stop giving him a hard time,” Bram said. “How big of a group is she with?”

“She’s the only one. I watched and listened a long time before I approached. She’d been talking to Pete and Repeat, so I thought there were two males with her, but they are her cats.”

“Seriously? She’s alone out here with two cats?” Will said.

“And she didn’t know anything happened,” I said. “That’s why she drove around Silver Bay. She was looking for people. She has her things packed like she was going to leave. It’s good we found her.”

Zach chuckled. “I bet she’s like Eden and was just playing it cool around you until you left so she can run.”

My stomach tightened at the thought, and I glanced at Bram for confirmation. He patted my shoulder consolingly.

“He might be right.”

I glanced back in the direction of her cabin, feeling a thread of panic. I’d just found her. What if I lost her?

“Go keep an eye on her,” Zach said. “But remember not to act like a stalker. Girls don’t like that.”

“Stalker?”

“Someone who forces their attention on someone else when it’s not wanted,” Bram said. “Don’t overthink it. Just go keep her safe until first light. We’ll join you then.”

CHAPTER FIVE

AVA

I couldn’t sleep.Pete was acting like a protective hat, purring contentedly on my pillow. Repeat was by my waist under the covers. We were in our cozy sleep pose, but I couldn’t turn off my thoughts.

Everything Gyrik had said kept running through my head. Had I really worked my way through the zombie apocalypse? Was the entire world gone? Just like that?

The worst part was that my brain was stuck on the fact I’d wasted five months on something I would never get paid for. How dumb was that? I had no idea where my family was. If they were safe. How many people had died? What the hell Gyrik even was because, by his own admission, he wasn’t human. Or the fact that he hadn’t directly answered my question about whether they were collecting women.

All my mind wanted to obsess over was that dumb bonus—maybe because it was the easiest thing to process in the face of everything else.

With a sigh, I closed my eyes and tried to let it all go.

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