Page 50 of Outbreak

We both know what’s at stake here.We fight, or we die.Plain and simple.

Our steps are confident, in sync, to the heavy metal door on the loading dock, but before we open it, I spin her around, pressing her to it with my hand on her throat. “Listen to me carefully, Rue. You get to that truck no matter what. If they overtake me, if I go down, don’t look back. Don’t come try to save me—just get out of here. Don’t you dare get yourself killed for me.”

A lone tear escapes her rounded eyes as she stares back at me in silence. She swipes it away and presses against my hold. “Are you done?”

“I’m serious, Rue. Do you understand me?” I flex my fingers against her warm skin.

“I understand just fine,” she says defiantly, shoving me back a step because I let her. She digs her finger into my chest as she squares her shoulders. “And you can eat a dick. I’m not fucking leaving you. We do thistogether. We survive together, or we die together. Those are your only options. Death doesn’t scare me anymore. Surviving this world withoutyou—that’s what scares me. So pull your big boy panties up and let’s do this. I’m fucking hungry!”

I grip the nape of her neck, pulling her to me and crushing my lips to hers. If we had time—and the dead weren’t literally on top of us—I would fuck her into this door. I could live the rest of my life buried inside her, and it still wouldn’t be enough for me. When I finally pull back, we’re both breathless and panting. My forehead rests on hers, not wanting to break the connection just yet, but it’s time. With a heavy sigh and one last gentle kiss to her lips, I grab her hand. “Alright then. Let’s do this.”

“I’ll see you on the other side,” she whispers, winking at me as I pull the door open and we step onto the loading dock. The growling and snarls of the dead are louder out here as they swarm around the warehouse, completely blocking our path to the truck. They aren’t on the loading dock—I guess the dead can’t climb—but the door dragging on the concrete floor alerts the fuckers of our presence.

The smell hits me first, like a putrid wave of death, right in the face. This is what the world smells like now. I can only hope it hasn’t reached the isolation of the mountains where we’re heading.

I count ten undead—their focus now on us as they drag their lifeless limbs behind them, just in our limited view of the truck that sits in front of the loading dock. I’m kicking myself in the ass right now for not backing it straight up to the landing; thatwould have made this so much easier.So would the bag of guns you have in the backseat, dumbass!

“What’s the plan here, Ghost? There’s too many. We’ll never make it—” Rue whispers, her voice shaking. I look at her, panic swirling in her cool blue eyes. I can’t let her lose it now, not after the very motivational pep talk she just gave me about big boy panties.

“No.” I swallow my own fears down like a bitter pill, letting my voice dip into the commanding tone she responds so well to. “We can make it. Just stay right behind me.”

She doubts my words, but she nods anyway, placing all of her trust in me to get us out of here. I take us to the edge of the loading dock. The cold, decaying hands start grabbing at our legs, trying to reach us—to bring us down.

Pushing her back a step, I dig in my pocket, pulling out my truck keys. I grab her hand, closing them inside as I let her see the seriousness—the desperation. “Just in case.”

She wants to protest; it’s right on the tip of her tongue as she opens her mouth, but she shuts it again and nods once. “Together.”

“We take out as many as we can with the bat and crowbar. Go for their heads. When we get enough cleared out, we jump and make a run for the truck.”

Going back to the ledge, I take the first one, swinging down on the top of his skull. The sickening crack of bone and rotted flesh knocks him back; his neck twists unnaturally, but the fucker doesn’t go down. I keep swinging. Rue slams her bat down repeatedly, but at this height, it's not doing much to take them out. She might be the strongest person I’ve ever met, but her size limits her physical strength. I’m fucking massive, and I’m at a disadvantage here.

“This isn’t working!” She shouts over the snarls and screeches below us, taking a step back and wiping the sweatfrom her forehead with her arm. More of them are swarming us, the sounds drawing them straight to us.

Think, Ghost. How do we get the fuck out of this?

“We need to distract them,” I say, already knowing she isn’t going to like what I have in mind. But I don’t see another way out. We’re out of options. I know what I have to do, even if it’s probably the most reckless, stupid thing I’ve ever done in my life. “I’m going to draw them away.”

“I’m sorry—what did you… No! That’s suicide; there’s to many!”

“No, it’s not. Listen to me.” I grip the back of her neck, pulling her into me, staring down into her wide, panicked eyes. “I’m fast. They aren’t. I’ll draw them down the alley, and once they are far enough away from the truck, you make a run for it. I’ll circle around and meet you on the street.”

She looks at me like I just grew two heads, and she’s going to smash each of them with her bloody bat. “I don’t like it—there’s too many things that can go wrong. I just.. I can’t?—”

“I’ll be fine, baby girl,” I say, praying to whoever is listening that I’m not lying to her. “It’ll take more than these mindless meatsacks to take me away from you.”

“Don’t you fucking dare leave me again, Ghost,” she cries, and I wipe the tears streaking down her reddened cheeks.

“You’re my Death, Rue. My life, and my death, are yours alone.”

Before I let her change my mind, I kiss her forehead and take a steady breath. My chest constricts when I look out at the growing horde of the dead and turn away from her so she doesn’t see my own fears on my face. This could go as planned, or it could go really,reallybad. Getting torn apart by walking corpses isn’t on my bucket list. But I swallow down the rising fear and shake my head to clear the mental images of my flesh being ripped open and hanging from their gnashing teeth.

There’s a dumpster in the corner, shoved against the loading dock and the warehouse. That’s my way around. I take a couple of steps back to leap across, but Rue’s next words freeze me in place. “I love you, too.”

My head whips around to her, my smile splitting my face wide open. I don’t have to say anything; I don’t need to. I throw her a wink over my shoulder and make the jump.

CHAPTER 41

Rue

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