Love and Decay, Episode 10 by Rachel Higginson Page A

that out, he was angrily working at the five-button fly and then thrusting his hand at me.
    “What?” I couldn’t imagine what he wanted from me like this.
    “My glasses,” he demanded.
    Oh, those.
    I placed them in his hand and then watched as he put them on and then worked the deodorant, brush and toothbrush via fresh water stream. He shoved everything back into the backpack and put it on without thinking.
    “You knew this was coming,” I huffed irrationally. “You always knew I would leave you.”
    “Oh, did I?” He sounded so petulant I could hardly take him seriously.
    Except that he was really pissing me off!
    “Yes!” I argued. “You have got to get over me! I’m not some…”
    But before I could make my point, he had slapped a hand over my mouth and slammed me against his chest.
    Panic immediately infused every cell in my body and I began fighting blindly against him. He rasped a harsh “Shh” against my ear and then pointed to what held his attention.
    Feeders. Two of them. Stumbling through the forest blindly and without much coordination. I reached for my gun and clicked off the safety. Kane let me go, so I could lift my shooting arm and point it in the direction of the approaching threat.
    One of the guards saw them first and through the sight of his high-tech rifle, aimed, fired, killed. I let out the breath I’d been holding and then watched everything I thought I knew about Feeders crumble and disintegrate in front of me.
    The second Zombie let out a shrill, superhuman shriek of either warning or mourning, I couldn’t tell. But it happened as soon as his friend hit the earth now lifeless and empty. The scream pierced through the quiet air as loud as any siren I had ever heard. The hellish sound didn’t go on for long though when a second guard pulled the trigger and put the miserable creature out of its painful existence. It too, dropped to the ground with an empty thud.
    And then from everywhere the shrill shriek that had been cut short was answered . In every direction echoing cries resounded in the air, sending birds over the entire state of Oklahoma skyrocketing out of their nests and into the air in search of safer homes.
    I doubled over and covered my ears against the sharpness of sound. Against instinct, my eyes slammed shut and I tried not to whimper from the ferocity of what had to be at least fifty Feeders, if not more. And they were all close by.
    When the banshee screams finally died down another sound filled their place- this one not quite as ear-piercing, but if anything a million times more terrifying. Rustling.
    Rustling so loud from the rushing movement it rivaled the shrieks. At the same time I figured out what the rustling was from- the movement of all those Feeders rushing toward us at a full sprint- Kane started shouting at me to run.
    “We can’t leave the guards!” I yelled back, glancing desperately around for the men that had been with us just moments before.
    Whatever hope had miraculously survived the last two years of hell in my life died out the moment I spotted them. I would have crumpled to the floor in defeat if it hadn’t been for Kane’s strong hands catching me under my arms. He hefted me to my feet and shook me out just as the first guard met two Feeders he couldn’t hit. They attacked him with a desperate hunger, tackling him to the ground in less than a second. They’d bit into him before I could take my next breath.
    The second guard didn’t even bother to stick around. He took off for the safety of the complex walls as fast as he could. I distantly wondered if he was going for help or just trying to get out of here alive. It didn’t matter- none of us would live through this.
    The third guard had better luck and was able to put two of them down before they started to close in on him. He was shouting something at us, waving his arms for us to run, but I was too paralyzed by shock and disillusionment to listen to him.
    This couldn’t be