Page 5 of Whispers of the Dead

Benji perks up. “Now that’s the attitude we need.”

I let her words sit for a moment. Her determination sparks something I haven’t felt in a long time. Maybe she’s passed us up as the crazy ones here. Or maybe she’s exactlywhat we need after all. Her mere presence is already shaking the darkness from my soul.

She shifts again, her movements restless. The faint scrape of her boots against the floor echoes in the silence. I can’t see her clearly in the dim light. All I can see is the faint outline of her sitting near the door, but she’s scooted closer to me now, resting her head against the bars behind her. She’s maybe only a foot away from me now.

I break the silence. “What’s your story? What’s so important that you’re willing to fight these bastards to get back to it?”

Her head turns to look at me, but I know neither of us can see the other. It’s pitch black in this block, save for the stream of moonlight illuminating part of her cell. “Isn’t freedom enough?”

“Freedom.” I run my tongue along my bottom lip in thought. “That’s an interesting concept. What’s waiting for you outside these walls?”

I lean forward, eager for her answer. For me, the only ones I care about are the two guys in here with me. There’s nothing waiting for me out there.

She hesitates, and I can hear the tension in her breath. “I have friends…”

“I see.”

“My best friend, Emily, she needs something. Medication. So I went out to find it. When I did—” Her voice cracks, and she clears her throat before continuing. “When I did, they came out of nowhere. A group of dregs. They ambushed me while I was stuffing it inside my pack. I tried to fight them off, even stabbed one, so he’s struggling to walk now.” She lets out a small chuckle that almost makes me smile. “There were too many of them. I only managed to…well, I think I cut off the dick of one of them before they shoved me in the car.”

Benji lets out a low whistle. “Damn, lady. You don’t do anything halfway, do you?”

Her soft laugh surprises me. “Guess not.”

For the first time in the months since I was shoved into this hellscape, a ghost of a smile tugs at my lips. The movement is so unfamiliar that it feels foreign, and I even think I can feel my lips crack. I can’t take my eyes off the shadowed woman a foot away from me. “Bold move.”

“Yeah, I’m full of bold and bad ideas.” Now there’s a bitter edge to her tone. “They took everything. My pack, my knife, my…all of it.”

Her hesitation at the end tells me she’s leaving something out. That’s fine. She doesn’t know us. If she’s lucky, she won’t get the chance to.

There’s something different about her. Not that I’ve met many decent people since the world went to shit. But her…there’s something. I don’t know what it is, but it latches onto me until I find myself drifting closer to the bars that separate us.

Benji, of course, ruins the moment. “So what’s your name, mystery girl?”

She sighs. “Zoey.”

I let the name roll around in my head, wanting to taste it on my tongue, but also not wanting to weird her out.Zoey.

“Nice to meet you, Zoey,” Benji says with exaggerated politeness. “I’m Benji. Not Benjamin. That grumpy bastard on the other side of you is Damon. Across from you, brooding in the shadows but listening to every word, is Cole.”

Zoey turns her head to peer through the bars at Cole, who’s swallowed by the shadows. The only thing visible in the darkness is his eyes that seem to glow in the dark. The green orbs watch her, unblinking, unwavering.

“Cole doesn’t talk much,” I add. “Don’t take it personally.”

“I’ll try not to.” She turns around again and leans back against the bars. “Why are you guys here?”

I hesitate, unsure how much to tell her. The truth isn’t pretty, but then, what is these days? “We crossed the wrong people. Got ourselves into a mess we couldn’t get out of.”

Her voice softens. “You’ve given up?”

I bristle at the implication. “It’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is,” she shoots back, turning her head in my direction. I can’t see her features, but I can feel her gaze penetrating me through the dark. “You fight, or you don’t. You give up, or you don’t. Either way, the moment you stop fighting is the moment you die.”

Benji lets out another whistle, and I almost wish I could reach through the bars and pull out his throat. “Damn, Damon, she’s got your number.”

Zoey shifts closer to the bars that separate her cell from mine. We’re mere inches apart now. “Look, I don’t know what you guys have tried or how bad it’s gone, but I know one thing: giving up isn’t an option for me. Not now. Not ever.”

Something in her tone makes me sit up straighter. It’s not only determination. It’s conviction. She’s not saying it to convince us or herself, because she doesn’t need to. She believes it, down to her core.

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