Page 31 of Outbreak

A bright yellow converse draws my attention in the sea of death laid out on the ground.The young couple parked behind us.I remember her sitting in her car, her foot propped up on the open door. She didn’t make it.

I don’t see her body lying on the ground though; I see Rue.My little death.The blonde’s curls transform before my eyes into long black waves with pink swirling through the lengths. The blood-splattered yellow shoes shift and become those black boots that make her feel like a badass.

I can’t breathe. It’s not her. I know it’s not her. It can’t be her. My mind is playing tricks on me.Focus!Get out of your head and find her!

Shaking my head to clear the mental images of her dead body, I keep moving. I have to. She’s not dead until I see it with my own eyes. And I’ll scour every inch of these woods until I find her if I have to.

CHAPTER 24

Rue

As soon as the sun starts filtering through the trees, I slip out of the minivan, careful not to wake anyone. They don’t need to put themselves in any more danger for me. They have kids to worry about.

Making my way back to Ghost’s truck, I climb into the back and rummage for anything I can use as a weapon. I wish I had my blades strapped to me. I feel naked without them, especially with my body in fight mode. After I ran from Arizona, I spent a long time stuck in that state of mind. My blades became a security blanket. Even after starting college, I couldn’t give them up.

Tossing the heavy duffle bags to the side to see what’s under them, I pause when the bag clinks against the truck side. Curious about what's inside, I lower the zipper.Fucking BINGO bitches.I open the sides up, revealing an array of weapons. There’s guns, knives, bullets, even a machete, and a few fucking grenades. I don’t know what the fuck my stalker does for a living, but goddamn. I’ve never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth though, so I’ll fucking take it. Literally. There are some belts and holsters in here as well, and thank fuck they’re adjustable. I spend a few minutes strapping myself up. I forgo the gunsbecause I remember from zombie movies that sounds attract zombies and will get you killed. I have no idea if that is actually true, but I don’t think I want to fuck around and find out today.

Once I’m armed to the teeth, I close the duffle bag and hide it, covering it with the others.WhenI find Ghost, we’re going to need these. I don’t want someone stealing the only shit that could keep us alive. Climbing out of the truck, my boots hit the pavement with a crunch as I take off in a sprint down the ditch and into the woods, the machete clutched in my hand. Bodies are still littering the ground, blood and guts strewn across the grass like halloween decorations. It won’t be long before they become the thing that killed them. Logic says since they died around the same time, they will all come back at the same time too, right? I need to find him before we become their first meal as an undead dead person.

When I get to the woodline, my eyes scan the ground for any sign of him. He shouldn't be hard to miss. He’s big as fuck and wearing a mask.

A blood-curdling scream slices through my throat, piercing into the forest as icy fear blankets me. Bloody, dead fingers of a woman’s hand wrap around my ankle, nearly knocking me off balance as her jaws snap, teeth clashing together.

“No!” I scream, squeezing my eyes shut tight as I swing the machete on instinct, severing her hands at the wrists, and they immediately release me. She doesn’t stop though; she keeps crawling, digging her nubs into the dirt as I back up. “Ghost!”

Panic threatens to drown me as I try to find a way out of this. Darkness blurs my vision, and I’m worried I’m going to pass out and get eaten alive. My heartbeat pounds in my ears, drowning out the sounds of the growling woman as she gets to her feet, almost like a baby deer standing for the first time. Her head cocks sideways as her milky eyes flitter around, as if she’s unable to focus on one thing. Until she locks them on me and lunges.

“Rue!”His voice fills in my head as I fall to my ass and scramble backwards, scooting over dead bodies that could reanimate at any second. At least if I die, his voice is here to comfort me.

“RUE! Get up! Run!For fucks sake, open your eyes and run!” My eyes shoot wide open as his voice sounds louder… clearer..Alive!

He’s alive.

He’s not dead.

He’s yelling at me, and nothing has ever made me happier.

I scramble to my feet and swing the machete hard, right into the woman’s skull. The blade gets stuck as I pull back, but as she collapses to the ground, it releases from her split skull. Standing right behind her is the most terrifyingly beautiful sight I've ever seen.

Ghost.

There he stands, looking like an angel of death with his metal pipe dripping crimson. His black clothes are soaked in blood and dirt, and the white on his mask is stained red.

“Rue,” he whispers, and breaks through my resolve as the machete falls from my hands and I launch myself at him. He catches me, lifting me from the ground as I bury my face into his neck and wrap my legs around his waist.

“You’re not dead,” I cry, sniffling like a lost child who’s finally been reunited with her family. I’ve always imagined what it would feel like—my real parents would show up one day, with a really good reason why they faked their deaths and couldn’t keep me. They would beg for me to forgive them and promise we’d be the family we should have been all along. When I would dream about it, this is what I imagined it would feel like. A dream that will remain forever.

My parents might be dead, but Ghost isn’t. He’s very much alive and holding me tightly against him like I'm the mostprecious thing he’s ever had the privilege of holding. Like he thought he lost me forever, too.

“You’re my death, Rue,” he whispers into my hair. A chill races up my spine as I try to piece together a memory that hits me, but I don’t have a chance to ask him what he means when growling erupts around us.

“Oh shit,” I whisper at the same time Ghost says, “Fuck! We gotta get out of here.”

Cradling my body to him with one hand, he picks up the machete I dropped in the other and takes off in a sprint towards the road. He leaps over the stirring bodies as the woods pass us by in a blur.

I squeeze my eyes shut tight and cling to him like a spider monkey, with only one thought on repeat in my mind.

He’s not dead.

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