Page 75 of Heart of Dawn
They were coming, a riot behind us.
“I’ll see what the situation is,” I answered, a bit too curtly.
“Yes, sir.”
Snappy tone damage control time. “Thanks for this.”
She threw me a warm look.
Good. I liked her warm looks.
Upon leaving the field, we hit another street, no bodies here.
The next street made up for it, the dead already back for another try, joined by some slowies and six aggressive speedies. The rain stopped suddenly, as if in retreat from the biters.
“Eat!” they screamed, rushing us.
I charged to meet them, my pack flanking me with Trev, Basil, and the Gilmores making up the rear.
My beta roared, leaping into the air, bearing down on a speedie with his fist. I didn’t see the damage but heard it well enough.
Nice crunch.
I pulled off a series of swift punches, breaking two skulls as if they were piñatas, then picked up a stray piece of metal pipe lying beside a car and drove the pointy end into a slowie’s brain. Yanking it free, I swung it in the face of a speedie.
“Kill! Eat!” Biters bellowed from the depths of the houses.
There were more speedies than expected; a horde was forming before our eyes.
Shit. I pushed forward, in full battle mode with the pipe.
A quick check behind me clarified my people were good, fighting strong.
Yeah. All fine. Cate tearing a speedie in half filled me with pride.
A swing of the pipe, a break of the face. Kick, punch, taking down flimsy corpses on the wrong side of skeleton. I carved a route through the bodies, fully aware of the other horde catching up to us.
“Keep going!” I boomed.
Meter by meter, we moved deeper into the street, almost at the end. A yellow house my marker. Once we reached it, we’d make for a side alley, get our arses over garden fences and run like hell.
“Miko!”
I spun at the sound of Malorie’s voice. A series of cracks formed a spiral close to my feet, a slowie at the center of it.
They expanded quickly, filling the street, too many of them to jump over, the ground between them precarious.
Pink smoke steamed out of the cracks, hot enough to burn my face. I jumped back before it boiled my head, looking for a way around.
No way were we being separated again.
I aimed for a front garden, determination sparking in the soles of my feet. But a speedie cut me off, rolling off the hood of a car.
“Fuck you!” I swung the pipe. Its neck snapped from the force of it.
Another grabbed my back, getting its teeth on my right bicep. Not long enough to chew through flesh, though. Dropping the pipe, I took hold of its head, my fingers slipping in something slimy.
Lovely.
