Page 95 of Ghosts of the Dead

Even when drowning in her own grief, she’s still including us.

34

AUTUMN

Ican’t sit still.

Even after carving names into bark until my fingers bled raw, there’s still this restless burn crawling under my skin. I pace the edge of our camp comprising the old laundromat and the clearing surrounding it. My boots wear a path in the dirt and scuff across the concrete while my hands clench and unclench. My eyes sweep the buildings beyond the clearing, then the overrun rot zone city on the horizon. Waiting for Lucy to appear feels like another kind of death. One that’s slow, torturous and completely out of my control.

The circumstances around Summer’s death still hurt, but the paralyzing grief is finally giving way to something else. Determination, anger, and a need for answers are going to be my driving force. I can’t wait until I can light a match and watch her abductors burn. I can’t bring her back, but I can find out what happened and exact justice. I owe her that much.

The wind picks up, scattering ash and dust. For a second, I think the silence is getting to me again and making me see things that aren’t there. Luna paces beside me, matching myrestless energy. Her ears prick forward and a low growl rumbles in her chest.

Then I see her. She’s not a hallucination this time. She’s really there. Bright red hair whips around her as she ducks behind a wall at the far edge of the clearing. I move before I can think. My boots pound the dirt, kicking up dust that makes me cough.

“Lucy,” I call out, but she doesn’t slow. I need answers.

Luna bolts ahead of me. Her powerful legs eat up the distance, making her a blur of black and brown against the desolation. Behind me, the guys yell out one by one. Mars calls my name and I hear his heavy footfalls race to catch up, but I don’t wait. Jace’s curse echoes through the empty streets, but I don’t stop.

I round the corner where I saw her disappear and scan the open road ahead. Empty. I spin around, frantic, searching for any sign of her, but the street’s dead. There’s nothing but shells of civilization until a rotter stumbles out from the shadows, followed by a second.

Luna lunges at the first one. She sinks her teeth into its arm and drags it to the ground. I snarl and draw my blade from the holster before darting forward to take down the second. Another rotter shuffles closer. Then another.

Fuck.

Footsteps thunder behind me as Mars and Caspian appear with weapons raised. Mars’s flannel hangs open and blood splatters across his bare chest when he drives his knife through a rotter’s skull. We clear them in no time. The corpses hit the ground one by one, and we move on to the next. The stink of death settles over the street.

That still doesn’t change the fact that Lucy is gone again, and I grow more concerned that she’s hiding more than she’ll let on. Why else would she run from me like that, when she was the one who brought me out here? What doesshe know about what happened to Summer that she’s too afraid to tell me?

My pulse races and my head fills with doubts. The familiar fog of grief threatens to creep back in, but I push it away. Not now. I’ve spent enough time drowning in that darkness. Now I need to focus.

I spot a flash of color caught on a rusted fence. A piece of fabric, torn and frayed at the edges. A scarf. It’s soft green and patterned with leaves. The same one she wore the day I first met her at that pharmacy.

I snatch it off the rusted metal. “She was here.”

Luna sniffs at the fabric, then the ground, her tail rigid. Jace pulls up in the car and the engine sputters when it slows beside us. He leans out the window, scanning us like we’ve gone mad. “Get in,” he orders. “If she’s here, we’re not losing her. Not again. Even if I have to hit her with this car in order to slow her down.”

We all pile into the car. Luna jumps into the back with Mars and Caspian while I take the front passenger seat to direct. “East. Head toward that warehouse, but don’t run her over unless I say.”

“If you want to take all the fun out of it,” Jace mutters, then presses down on the gas, pushing the car to its limits. The wheels bounce over cracked streets and the engine growls beneath us. He runs over every rotter in our way, not letting them slow us down by a second. My hands twist the scarf tighter until my knuckles turn white. Luna’s head pokes between the front seats, her nose working frantically at the scarf’s scent.

We reach a block where the road ends, blocked by a building that’s been halfway blown apart. I had done that the first day after Summer went missing. I didn’t find any clues that day, and rotters were piling up. Now the debris still scatters across the road, too thick to push through or go around, and I regret making such a mess.

“Thanks for taking care of the rotters, but this car is far too loud to be stealthy.” Mars is the first to hop out. He crouches low and scans the ground before motioning us forward. “Footprints.”

I jump out of the car and draw my weapon. Luna leaps out after me and sticks her nose to the dirt. The footprints disappear onto concrete, so we split up to search. I push forward, refusing to slow despite my lungs screaming for relief. Luna runs ahead, then circles back to lead me toward a narrow alley.

There’s a flash of red.

Lucy standsin the mouth of an alley, struggling to tame her wild red hair that keeps tangling in the wind. Her eyes widen when they meet mine, and I race toward her. “Lucy.”

She doesn’t move, doesn’t run. She stands there and watches me approach in silence. For someone who’s been missing for days and feared dead, she’s awfully calm.

I grab her by the arms and shake her hard enough to rattle her teeth. “What the hell happened to my sister? Did you have anything to do with Summer’s death?”

Luna circles us with her hackles raised, a low growl vibrating through her body.

Lucy’s eyes go wide with genuine shock. “Summer’s dead?”

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