Page 23 of Such a Feral Little Lamb
I follow him, bemused, and frown when he sits down, strong hands curling around the chains. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?”
“Mason, we don’t have time for this.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t have long before the train comes. If we haven’t found the zombies by then…” I trail off.
Mason is spinning in a circle, the chains tangling together above him. He lets go and grins as he spins back into his original position.
“What happens then?” he asks.
“Nothing good.”
“Hm.” Mason frowns. “And that’s where you’re wanting to stay, is it?”
“What?”
He shrugs and gets off the swing, bouncing into my personal space. We’re almost the same height, and when I breathe in, I get a lungful of some warming, spicy scent. “Why did you come here, Isaac?”
“To clear this town of zombies.”
“Is that why?”
I swallow down the truth. It’s not like survivors leaving the Citadel and repopulating the rest of this landmass matters much to me. I’ve got no interest in doing that myself. I just want a safe place to rest and a life of my own.
I can only get those things if I do this job properly.
“Yes,” I say through gritted teeth.
“And that’s why you came out here with me today, is it?”
“Yes,” I lie again.
His smile tells me he knows it. He’s waiting for me, challenging me, and I don’t trust what I can’t see—I can’t see a weapon and I can’t see how he managed to hide from us twice before.
“So you don’t want to just get away from that big oaf?” Mason says, and this smile is friendlier, a kind of olive branch. I don’tdare ask him about what I saw, and he’s clearly not going to answer until I do.
And what could the answer possibly be? He was spying on us, maybe? I’d expect that.
But the zombies…
Why didn’t the zombies turn on him? Why did they come after us?
“He’s part of my team,” I say instead of asking any of my questions.
“But you don’t like him.”
“He’s fine. I just—”
“No,” Mason interrupts. He’s not smiling anymore. “I wasn’t asking. You don’t like him.”
Fear skitters down my spine because he might not have a weapon on him, but that look… That lookscreamsdanger. Mason steps even closer, eyes never leaving mine.
“It’s obvious. To me anyway.”
“Oh, yeah?”
