Love and Decay, Episode 10 by Rachel Higginson Page B

happening.
    This didn’t happen to me.
    I was stronger than this.
    I was supposed to live.
    I was supposed to survive.
    Kane was done watching the horror film happen in front of us and he was really over waiting for me to pull it together. He swooped me up into his arms and took off running in the opposite direction than the complex.
    Finally, some sense came back to me and I started panicking all over again. “What are you doing? Kane we have to go back! We have to help that guy! We have to get back to the complex!”
    “Reagan,” he explained rather patiently considering the circumstances. “Saving that guy is a suicide mission and the complex is completely blocked by about seventy Feeders. This is the only option for us right now.”
    “No,” I argued stubbornly as I bounced along in his arms. “I can’t go with you, Kane; even if you are trying to save our lives. I have to get back there; I have to get back to Hendrix.”
    He let out a feral curse and adjusted me roughly in his arms. “It’s more important that Hendrix doesn’t have to shoot you in the head when you get back to him than proving a point right now, Reagan. Get over yourself for five goddamn seconds and understand that we are really in trouble here.”
    I happened to look behind him just at that moment and noticed for the first time we were being pursued.
    Shit.
    Shit. Shit. Shit.
    There were only a bazillion Feeders behind us and zero places for us to go if we kept running further into the freaking forest. Where was my handheld video camera to capture this magic? Blair Witch Project was so old news after I filmed Kane and me getting our faces eaten off by the fastest, most rabid pack of Zombies I’d ever seen before.
    “Put me down!” I demanded.
    “No,” Kane panted stubbornly.
    But that was the thing. I wasn’t being stubborn. For once, when it came to Kane, I was being generous. I knew I was slowing him down.
    “Put me down, I promise I’ll stay with you,” I bargained quickly. He hesitated so I threw out, “They’re going to catch up, Kane! I will stay with you no matter what, but I need you to trust me.”
    He ground out a few more curse words, but did drop me to my feet with no warning. When I started to stumble, Kane caught me easily and then pulled me with him as we moved straight into a run.
    There were small rock structures up ahead and I hoped I’d been right when I assumed that this was what Gage was referring to when he described the cliff walls, the cave and the bug-out bunker.
    Please. Please. Please let this be the right direction!
    Because if it wasn’t I was so going to die today and Hendrix wasn’t even going to be able to find my body. There would be nobody to tell him I’d become Zombie food in the middle of an Oklahoma forest! No funeral in memory of my short, non-important. I wasn’t even going to get to hear the L word from a boy I actually felt the same about!
    This sucked!
    I raced toward the bluffs, hoping against all hope I could find the bunker Gage told us about just an hour ago. Then all I had to do was hold out until Hendrix came looking for me.
    “Where are you going, Reagan?” Kane demanded as he adjusted his course to keep up with me.
    “To safety,” I threw out casually.
    “And where’s that?”
    “That way!” I shouted back with an outstretched arm. “There’s a bunker, uh, somewhere back there.”
    “How do you know?” he demanded tersely while I pushed my body harder to stay ahead of the Zombies and keep up with his long legs. .
    “I saw it,” I struggled to lie while running. “From back there!”
    “You’re such a liar.” He called my bluff.
    “No more questions!” I shouted over the sound of moaning and clumsy but quick feet chasing us. “Just trust me!”
    “And what are we going to if this place really does exist?” He questioned while grabbing my arm to steady me just as I tripped over an above-ground root.
    “Stay there until someone comes to find us.” I