Break Free The Night (Book 1) (21 page)

There was a scrapping sound from above her and she forced her eyes up. She noted at that moment that the pounding of feet on the pavement was still looming closer, that Jac
k’
s fingers were digging into her sides and most likely bruising the skin there as he screamed in her ear, but then Emm
a’
s tear-streaked face was inches from her own, her fingers clawing at the windowsill as she attempted to throw off her father and Andrew and escape the fire station. Kaylee forced out a breath.

“
Em
.
”

“I’
m sorry
,”
her sister whispered through her tears, looking mournfully at Kaylee, and then she was ripped from view. Andrew had given an almighty tug and Emma was gone. The window was darkened and empty and the roar of Jac
k’
s voice broke through the strangled noises coming from Kayle
e’
s throat.

“
Kaylee, we have to go
!
”

She spun around and choked back a scream. The swarm of infected was closing in on them, there was no chance, no time to get back through the window. Jack was already swinging his pipe at the oncoming crowd.

“
Jack! Run
!”
Kaylee screamed as she tugged his shirt. He gave one last ferocious swing; cleaving through the torso of an elderly, snapping infected woman before turning and pushing Kaylee down the road.

They broke into a sprint. Kaylee had no real idea where they were headed, though somewhere in the back of her mind she had wild, half-formed thoughts of making it to the fenced-in cornfield. Her idea was squashed when they reached the end of the building and she and Jack skidded to a halt. Just as they made the last few steps to the road a veritable wall of infected met them. The groaning, twitching bodies advanced steadily, with very near the same speed and strength of newly infected. Though some staggered on shattered ankles and missing limbs, more than enough were running full tilt towards them.

Kaylee shrieked as a loud boom shook the air around her.

“
Keep your head down
,”
Jack yelled as he grabbed her hand and veered them toward the set of buildings on the right. Kaylee drew a wild breath, her eyes flying around her, searching for the source of the noise. A small group of infected was closing in on them and Kaylee forgot the boom. She ducked her head and pushed herself harder, running faster than she had in over a year. Her limbs ached already and each breath felt like fire as it unwillingly entered her lungs.

A trio of infected were overtaking them, feral shrieks streaming from dirty, bloodied mouths. Their yellowed teeth were snapping and their outstretched hands were snatching and scraping as they reached for Kaylee and Jack.

Another ear shattering explosion sounded and Kaylee turned to see a now headless infected man stagger over. His knees hit the ground with a sickening crunch and his torso fell next, lifeless. His fellows fell over his bleeding remnants and Kaylee turned back at the insistent tug on her hand from Jack.

But she understood now what the sounds were. Gunshots. Someone from their group was shooting from the rooftop, trying to clear their way for them. As Jack and she made it across the street and around the corner of the next set of buildings, two more explosions sounded and this time, Kaylee saw the targets hit. A woman staggered in front of her, a red, bleeding hole blossomed on her chest, opening like the petals of a rare flower. Blood seeped from between her teeth and her yellowed eyes rolled back before she fell face first unto the pavement. The child next to her was howling from the hole that separated his right leg from the rest of his body. Jack jumped over his prone form, dragging Kaylee with him.

The road ahead was clear and Kaylee felt Jack steer them towards what had been an abandoned factory even before the infection took hold. The windows had mostly been boarded, though the few that had remained had the glass kicked out, the occasional shard clinging stubbornly. The scramble of footsteps was still sounding behind them, though not as close as before.

“
Here
,”
Jack muttered, lifting Kaylee and shoving her through an empty window frame
.“
Make for the stairs, w
e’
ll get to the roof and barricade there
,”
he said, his voice even and clear despite their sprint. Kaylee tried to answer, to affirm that she had understood, but she was unable to properly draw breath. Her tears still ran clear tracks down her face, her chest was heaving with exertion and grief, her heart hammering and yet feeling like a dull, dead weight regardless. 

Emma.

“C’
mon
,”
Jack huffed, breaking glass as he followed her through and cutting through Kayle
e’
s sob. Kaylee nodded as she staggered forward, hastily wiping her sleeve across her eyes. Jack was already several steps ahead and Kaylee hastened to catch up to him. She reached forward to clasp his hand and just as her fingers intertwined with his a sharp crack echoed off the broken walls. Jack had one small moment to look back, one second to lock eyes with Kaylee, mirroring her confused expression before their world tilted.

The floor split open.

Through splinters and shafts, nails and broken crossbeams Kaylee and Jack fell, the remnants of the rotten floorboards raining down with them.

Kaylee landed with a thud on a cold cement floor, her left hip pulsing and throbbing as blood pooled rapidly under her skin, spreading to collect into a large bruise. Her left hand ached, radiating a dull throb up her arm, but she had at least had the sense to use that now-crushed hand to cushion her head. And though her vision swam initially, she was able to shake it clear, to watch the hell she had now fallen into bloom before her.

A clear shaft of light illuminated a circle encompassing Kaylee and Jack, as though they were on some morbid joke of a stage in the spotlight. She could see the dust particles and debris floating in the rays of light, sifting gently through the stale air as they settled. The light stung, casting the shadows into even greater depths, but her eyes adjusted, slowly, as though her very body was afraid of uncovering what she saw next.

Kaylee saw the infected.

A mass of bodies all piled over one another, gasping shallow breaths that rattled through their under-used lungs.

How long had it been since they had seen the daylight? Had they been sleeping here all this time, kept dormant by the lack of sunlight?

But the sunlight reached them now. In massive heaps they surrounded Jack and Kaylee, the tendrils of light offering the faintest illumination to all but the farthest corners of the basement they had fallen into. Their emaciated bodies were stirring, guttural cries and shrieks were beginning to tear from their chests and bile rose to the back of Kayle
e’
s throat as she imagined how hungry they must be after all this time.

“
Kaylee
,”
Jack whispered, his movements measured and cautious
.“
Can you move
?
”

“
Yes
,”
she whispered back, swallowing down the sick and gritting her teeth
.“
Where
?
”

“
The back, as far from the light as we can go
,”
was Jac
k’
s hushed plan. His hand was blindly reaching out for her and she grasped it before gingerly getting to her feet. Her hip popped, aching and protesting the weight she forced onto it but she bit down harder and forced her body to move. Jack slid back slowly, checking his footing as he inched closer to her before he turned to pick their way away from the light.

Kaylee all but stopped breathing as they tiptoed through the piles of stirring bodies. A jaw snapped so near her ankle she almost cried out, instead she clamped so hard on Jac
k’
s hand that she heard his knuckles crack.

They had landed in the basement, one that was underused even when people had inhabited the building. Bodies covered the entire floor, garbage scattered among them. But there was no furniture, and there were no workbenches or storage containers, no hiding places of any kind. From the brief look in the limited light, Kaylee could see only concrete, concrete and pipes, with the occasional wire hanging limply from the now shattered ceiling.

“
Here
,”
Jack whispered, pushing Kaylee towards the wall and pressing her between two large pipes that ran down vertically. The concrete was cold and unforgiving against her back, it
s’
uncomfortable temperature already seeping through her thin, cotton shirt. A shiver rushed through her and she envied Jack his hooded sweatshirt. The pipes were rusted but large, Kaylee could no longer see the circle of light in which they had landed. Her vision was limited to the small gathering of bodies just in front of her. They were
n’
t stirring yet.

And then all vision of the basement was taken from her as Jack pressed up close to her, her nose bumping into his chest and grazing against his opened zipper.

“
W
e’
ll stay like this until dark
,”
he whispered, his breath hot against the clammy skin of her neck. She went to answer but found her mouth too dry; she nodded instead. Jac
k’
s hands settled on her waist, she could feel his chest rise and fall against hers with every breath. And the groans and cries of the infected around them grew louder.

Kaylee was
n’
t aware she was whimpering until Jack gently shushed her. His arms came all the way around her body and he pulled her against his chest. She was surprised to find she was also shaking
.“
Quiet now
,”
he said
.“
The
y’
re most active when they first wake
.
”

Kaylee bit her lip and held her breath, releasing it slowly after a few moments. But her blood still rushed in her ears, a low throb that beat to the sound of her siste
r’
s name.

Emma. Emma. Emma.

After all their planning, all the care they took, in one stupid little miscalculation, one erro
r
…

Emm
a’
s infected.

Bitten.

Gone.

Just like Mom. Sh
e’
ll never be my little sister again.

Kaylee could
n’
t help the sob that broke through.

“
Shh
!”
Jack warned in a hiss, gripping her tighter against his chest. She buried her face there and felt her tears soak his tee shirt, his zipper scratched against her cheek.

The infected were moving now, the ones closest to the shaft of light were screeching, Kaylee could hear their teeth grinding together, their nails scratching for purchase on the thick concrete walls. The bodies closer to them were groaning, breaths rasping unevenly through filthy throats.

And then came the sound of tearing, of ripping flesh. Kaylee whipped her head up in surprise.

They were eating.

All she could see of Jack was the whites of his eyes, and they gleamed down at her in shock. She turned out of his embrace and pressed her chest to the wall, feeling him push into her even closer as she did. She mashed her face between the cold concrete and the pipe, scraping her cheek as she turned so one eye could see the wakening throng.

In the clear shaft of white light she saw them, the swarm of infected, and they were feeding. Larger men and women were eating their sleeping companions, waking them with their teeth. Strips of streaming flesh were pulled from bone and the victims were waking with screams, backs arching in pain, eyes rolling back as what little life they had left went draining out of them. The basement echoed with groans and shrieks; the musty air became saturated with the rusty, metallic scent of blood. And dark rivers ran from the center of the carnage and out toward the remote corners.