Page 25 of Deceptively Dead

I hear the scream before I see it and slide to a halt with my heart in my throat. I scan the trees around me and spot the corpse heading my way. He’s only about ten meters away and if I had if kept running, I’d have smashed right into him. I turn tothe left, confident I can outrun a single body, but his scream gets echoed back to him from pretty much all directions.Fuck.

I can still hear Caleb crashing through the forest behind me, so I make a snap decision and sprint back the way I came. It doesn’t take long before Caleb jumps out at me like a leaf-covered jack in the box, but I just drop my good shoulder and barge straight past him.Nope. I will not be fucking eaten by a bunch of dead bodies today, thank you very much.I catch Caleb by surprise and he goes spinning back into the trunk of a tree. I pay him absolutely no mind as I sprint past. The dead are still screeching behind us and almost immediately Caleb is back on my tail, although this time I don’t think he’s trying to catch me.

“Thought. You’d. Rather be. Dead.” I huff out at him as he manages to pull alongside me.

He doesn’t answer, but whatever, I know I’m hilarious.

The smirk is wiped off my face a second later when he reaches over and shoves me roughly into a passing tree. The impact sends me careening to the ground and I land on my bound hands.

“Jacob wanted you back alive, Lacey, but reanimated will have to do.” He looks behind him at the staggering forms of bodies trying to maneuver through the tightly packed trees. “Hope it hurts.” Then he turns tail and runs.

Chapter Twenty-eight

That little shit is definitely on my kill list.I stagger to my feet as fast as possible; the fall has hurt something in my hip, but I force my body to move. I manage a few hobbling run-steps but the body behind me lets out a triumphant scream that’s far too close for comfort. I duck my head and throw myself to the side as I feel its bony fingers brush my shirt. I manage to land myself on my back and I bring my legs up immediately into the zombie’s chest. I only just manage to stop it from falling on me and tearing out my throat, but this is not an ideal situation, and I’m not going to last long. My legs are already starting to tremble from the force the corpse is using to try and push through.

If they were smarter, I’d already be dead. I grunt with effort as the body pushes harder against me. I note absently that it was a man at one point, its hi-vis vest and single work boot might indicate he was at work when he died, or he just had awful fashion sense. It draws in air through his decaying nose and screams its frustration at me, a rotten tooth flying out toland on my chest.Fucking yuck.Its bone tipped fingers scrabble against my legs, and I can feel them rip through my jeans and into my flesh. I scream right back at it as I heave it backwards and use the respite to try to get up. My hip gives out and I can only manage to scoot backwards against a large tree as the body lurches for me again, only this time I see the rest of them closing in too. There’s at least ten of them, maybe more.

I’m going to die.The thought hits me hard as the highly visible body slams into my waiting feet again. My knees try to buckle with the impact but I grit my teeth, determined to hold him off as long as possible.I bloodywantto live now, dammit. There are so. Many. Possibilities.All of which I fully intend to explore if I can get myself out if this mess.

They say life is supposed to flash before your eyes when you’re about to die, but all I see is my future. All I see is sunshine and a home with a sense of safety attached to it. That safety taking the form of three hulking men. But mostly, I see my guys. I seeuswith no barriers, no fear, and I want it. I want it so bad.

It only takes me a second for my revelation to sink in but it’s quickly followed by reality. It doesn’t matter how muchIwant to live; the zombies don’t care. But I won’t give in, I’ll keep these fuckers at bay as long as possible.

The rest of the mob is nearly within striking distance, and I brace myself for the pain. I close my eyes and think of the men I found as I wait for death to close in.

The weight of the body at my feet suddenly disappears and my eyes fly open to watch him topple to the side. I blink and the next body closest to me, a fairly intact woman, falls next. Another follows after that.

Chase.

As soon as I think his name, I hear a yell coming from my left and turn my head to watch as Nate and Hunter clear thetrees and fall upon the dead like vengeful angels. I use their distraction to struggle to my feet, ready to help if I can.

Clearly, though, they don’t need my help. I watch in awe as they carve through the horde, moving together as though they were made for this, had been doing it all their lives. Nate’s katana whistles as he slices it across the face of a decaying kid, not slowing at all as he reverses direction and cuts the head off a fat body lumbering up beside him with a quiet grunt.

Hunter is completely silent aside from the soft pop of his silenced handgun. He wields a knife as long as my forearm in one hand and his gun in the other. He kicks out at a body charging up on Nate from behind, forcing it to stumble to the ground, then whirls and stabs a skeletal grandpa through the eye. As the grandpa starts to drop, Hunter twists his body to shoot the zombie that managed to regain its feet, square between its eyes. He moves so fast that the first body hasn’t even hit the ground before the second is dead. They fight together for a few moments as I try to integrate myself with the tree behind me, desperately trying to stay out of their way while I’m bound and useless.

My voice freezes in my throat as two bodies converge on Hunter as he wrestles with a corpse that nearly got under Nate’s guard. They drop like rocks as I hear two quiet pops from the left and I watch Chase step out from behind a tree, mean looking handguns in each hand. He lifts one of them and squeezes out a shot and I look in time to see a lanky zombie collapse on itself, only a few feet from where Nate slices through yet another. His aim is perfect, and the thing doesn’t get back up.

He keeps his eyes on the fight as he moves closer to me, pausing to put a bullet in the head of anything that gets too close to his friends. By the time he reaches me, the guys have everything well under control as they move a bit further in to the trees to meet the straggling bodies.

I lick my lips as Chase turns his attention to me, meeting his stormy grey gaze as it searches me for bites.

“Fuck, Angel. I…” he doesn’t get to finish what he was going to say because I launch myself at him, hoping that he’ll catch me with my hands still bound behind me. He doesn’t disappoint and as he steadies me, I stretch up and seal my lips to his, deepening the kiss almost immediately. He pauses a moment, shocked I think, before returning my kiss with a deep groan that makes my breath hitch.

He backs me up against my tree again, holstering one of his weapons so he can tangle his fingers in my short hair and angle my head to deepen the kiss. His huge body presses me hard against the trunk of the tree and bark bites in to my bound hands, but I don’t care. His kiss is incredible and it tastes a lot like claiming, both of us claiming the other. Chase drifts his hand from my hair down my neck to cradle my head in his large hand. A rattled breath from our right has Chase breaking the kiss. He raises his gun and puts a bullet between the eyes of the corpse that snuck up on us and I watch its brain matter fly out the back of its skull. I blink rapidly but Chase hasn’t moved from where he has me pinned and he leans back down to seal his lips to mine as if nothing happened.

I’m a little messed up because I near about swoon into a puddle right there on the forest floor.

This kiss is only short though and he breaks off with a sigh.

“Maybe this isn’t the best time. Sorry.” I manage to breathe out.

Chase chuckles and tucks my hair behind my ear, trailing his long fingers along my jaw before tilting my head up to place a sweet kiss on my forehead.

“Anytime.” He declares, “Is a perfect time, for you to kiss me like that.”

I swoon a little more.

At a grunt from Nate behind him, Chase turns and fires off two rapid shots, giving Nate and Hunter some breathing room around them.

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