Page 13 of Before Their After

As the first blow connected with my temple, a sharp explosion of pain seared through my skull. The world spun in my momentarily disoriented state. Warm blood trickled down the side of my face, the cool ground beneath me screwing with my senses. Overstimulated was an understatement. Loud, nonrhythmic banging reverberated through the room. Everysound—every sense—was magnified. The frantic tempo of desperation and impending danger sped up the pounding of my heart. I needed to slow things down, regain control.

My hands dragged against the rough texture of the floor, betraying me as I struggled to regain my footing. The room seemed to tilt. A dizzying sensation sent me to my ass once more. Hands wrapped around my ankle and dragged me across the floor toward the door. The scent of decay hung heavy in the air, a sickly sweet reminder of what lay on the other side of the door. A hiss sang through the man’s teeth. My fire ants sought to defend me as they crawled up his arm and clamped down on his skin.

Despite the chaos raging around me, I remained focused on London. Her eyes were wide with terror as she watched the struggle unfold. A surge of determination swept through me. I would not die here today. Not without making sure my sister was safe first.

Fighting against the pain and confusion, I flipped myself over and freed myself from his grasp. He fell on top of me, granting me the first clear look at him. His brown eyes were dark as coal. As cold as coal too. The hardness there was familiar to me. I knew that look. A survivor’s stare.

“Wait,” I mumbled, using most of my remaining strength to shove him off me.

The man stumbled back, his hand instinctively reaching for the gun holstered at his side. My heart sank to my ass. I lunged forward, grappling with him in a frantic struggle for control.

“Kill him, Riley,” my sister croaked as she pushed herself against the fireplace behind her. She rolled to her knees, attempting to get up and failing.

His fingers closed around the grip of his pistol. The cold metal bit into my skin as I fought him off. Adrenaline powered me, dulling the agony of my injuries. But the man was strong. His grip unyielding.

“Here.” A fireplace poker clanged against the ground. “Finish him.”

No. It couldn’t be that simple. If all we did was kill each other, then the dead would win. We needed to work together, play to each other’s strengths. A group with a survivor’s mentality would be a force to be reckoned with. It wasn’t that long ago when my sister recognized that as the truth.

With a desperate cry, I threw myself forward and drove my shoulder into his chest. My fingers laced around the poker. I slammed it into his hand, sending the gun flying across the room. The impact staggered him.

“We don’t have to fight. We can help each other,” I tried again between ragged breaths.

London coughed, leaning forward as she dug through her bag, likely for her knife. “It’s us or them, Ril.”

“Thisis how we survive, London. This is how I make sure you live. We need help. We can help each other.”

“Help?” the man choked out a laugh. “In this world?”

I seized the opportunity. Tackling him to the ground, I placed him in a choke hold. I wasn’t sure where the strength found me, but I was glad it did.

For a heartbeat, we stayed locked in the deadly embrace. Breathless and bruised, I loosened my hold as his struggle stopped. “Yeah, in this world. We’re safer as three than we are as two or alone.”

He tapped my arm in yield and I released him. “Have you seen the groups out here? Nothing but trouble. More people, more noise, more zombies.”

“I said three, not twenty.”

“I just attacked you to leave you as live bait to those zombie shits clawing through the door,” he muttered. The beanie he’d worn fell off in our tumble, revealing his stark white hair.

“Unfortunately, I can’t say being left out as bait hasn’t been a common theme in my life.”

Consideration teased at his pale features. Everything about the guy seemed cold, but I didn’t care. “You have no clue the kind of person I am,” he said.

“We’d be a team. The only thing I need to know is that we have the same goal; staying alive. We”—I nodded toward London, who only glared back at me—“are no strangers to survivor pacts. Been at it for a long time.”

This had been a point of contention for us since the beginning. It’d pretty much been the two of us outside of one instance. It had only been a few weeks and despite the outcome, it’d been worth it. London had become attached to April. I might have even said she’d come to see her as more than a friend or ally, though she’d claimed there was no time for that.

Part of the time, London appeared more equipped for this life than I was. I was supposed to be the one protecting her yet more times than not, she’d been the one to make all the decisions. I just wanted to keep her happy. I couldn’t do that before, but I could do it now even with the world going to shit. Until recently. When her health had declined. Now all I cared about was keeping her safe.Alive. April’s presence had increased our security, allowing us to cover more ground in search of food and weapons.

“You know my vote is to kill you,” London grumbled, and I realized his attention had fallen to her. “Lucky I can’t do it myself.”

There was no time for contemplation. The door burst open, thudding against the wall like thunder clapping through a silent night. The dead flood into the room, the sickening clicks and groans echoing. A macabre symphony of death. Panic took over. My once logical line of thinking abandoned me for the first timesince I was eight. London whimpered, desperate to push herself away from the advancing herd. Her efforts were futile.

I scanned the room for the gun. They were fast. Too fast to have given us a fighting chance of all walking out alive. I swung the poker, driving the bar through their decaying skulls. The man fought at my back, the slicing of metal on skin giving me the impression he also carried a knife. London’s shrill cry for help overtook the moans of death that danced through the air.

Through the bodies of the dead, I’d lost sight of her.

The bar caught on bone, stuck within the skull of the lost soul in front of me. I let go. Dropping to the ground, I searched for something else to use. Anything.

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