Page 39 of Zinnia and the Zombie
The single word brought him to a halt.
“Zinnia—”
“No, Jaxx. This is our home.” Her voice gained strength with each word. “You said it yourself, we’ve been here for weeks, and we haven’t even scratched the surface of what this city has to offer. We have shelter, food, and water. Everything we need.”
“The Grorn?—”
“Are dangerous. I understand that.” She moved closer, her eyes holding his. “But so are you. So am I, in my own way.”
He set down the communications device he’d been about to pack. “You don’t understand what they’re capable of.”
“Then tell me.”
He exhaled heavily. “They’re relentless. They don’t stop until they achieve their objective. They’re physically powerful—and they enhance their strength through religious rites.” He ran a hand through his hair. “And they’re methodical. They plan. They adapt.”
“So do we.” She placed a hand on his chest, above his heart. “This is our city, Jaxx. We know it better than they do. That gives us an advantage.”
His small mate had a core of strength that never ceased to amaze him. She wasn’t cowering, wasn’t panicking—she was thinking.
Her fingers curled against his chest as she looked up at him earnestly. “If they’re as single-minded as you say and they are here looking for you, they won’t give up. They’ll keep looking. Running just means we’ll always be looking over our shoulders. Is that the life you want for us?”
He reluctantly conceded her point. The Grorn were persistent. If they’d come this far in search of him, they wouldn’t simply give up and leave.
“We’d be safer?—”
“Where? At least here we know the territory. This is our home now. I think we should defend it.”
He cupped her face in his hands, searching her eyes. The fear was there, but it was overshadowed by determination, by a fierce kind of courage he’d seen in the best Zathix warriors.
“They outnumber us,” he warned.
“Then we don’t fight fair.” A small smile curved her lips. “You’re a warrior. I’m a survivor. Between us, we’ll figure it out.”
“A direct confrontation would be suicide,” he said, thinking aloud. “They’re stronger and better armed.”
“But we know the city,” she repeated. “That’s our advantage.”
“All right. Let’s see what we have to work with.” He led her to the console in the study and pulled up a three-dimensional holographic map of the city.
“Here,” he said, marking their current location with a pulsing amber dot. Another marker appeared where they’d spotted the Grorn ship landing. “And here is where our flyer crashed.”
The markers formed a rough triangle, with their apartment building closest to the crash site.
“The wreck will be the first place they look, won’t it?” she asked, studying the map.
“Yes. As I said, they’re methodical. They’ll be able to detect the wreckage. They’ll start there, then expand outward in a logical search pattern. They’ll assume we sought shelter in the nearest structurally sound building.”
“Not exactly, but I agree they’ll end up here pretty quickly.”
“I believe our best bet is to stop them before they reach the ship. These buildings—” he indicated several structures along the most direct route between the crash site and the Grorn ship “—are already unstable. With the right application of force, we could trigger collapses.”
She leaned closer, studying the buildings. “Would that kill them?”
“Possibly. Their hides are exceptionally tough, and they wear body armor. But it might trap them and it would definitely slow them down.”
He adjusted the map, zooming in on a network of lines running beneath the streets. “The city’s automated security systems still have some power. If I can access the right nodes, I might be able to reactivate some of the defensive measures.”
“Like the drone that attacked us?”
