Cole throws clothes at my face, and I break from my shocked state to put them on. Of course, I left my tire iron in my fucking room tonight, but Cole has his weapon, the regular Boy Scout. Once dressed, I stand and glance back toward the fire raging into the night, mesmerized by the flames and smoke blazing into the sky.
Screams fill the air, and the terrifying sound sends a shiver down my spine.
“C’mon,” Cole shouts, holding out his hand.
As we approach, I spot a woman jumping out of the bedroom window where I usually sleep. Flames lick the windows in the room below. If I had slept there last night, that would be me right now, I realize with a shudder.
Newly turned zombies roam the area, reacting to the screams and waving their hands in the air as their mouths hang open in moans at the fresh meat sliding down the roof. Someone slips and goes tumbling over only to be pulled immediately into the crowd and consumed. All I can see from here are her flailing hands and feet before she’s gone.
A sob fills my throat and I suck back the scream as I run behind Cole at a fast clip. Shots emerge from the barn, but instead of picking off the zombies, they’re ripping holes through our fellow survivors.
“Wh-what?” Glancing around in confusion, I slow when another shot clips a woman on the roof, and she shrieks and loses her balance, falling to her death in a sea of zombies.
Fuck. We’re being attacked. But by who? It’s chaos between the fire, the Turned, and the gunfire blazing across the courtyard. I search for Michele in the melee, but I don’t see her, and my concern fades to relief when I see Jase coming around the side of the house. But Michele isn’t with him.
He returns fire toward the barn and Cole spins in his direction. I follow in a daze as we race for the side of the house.
“Michele?” Cole shouts.
Once we’re out of the direct line of fire, I slump against the wall. I’m out of breath while Cole stands calmly and cocks his gun before leaning around the side to assess the situation. My heart thumps at the sight because gunfire is deadly, and I don’t want anyone to be on the wrong end of it. Ever.
“She ran off to find you,” Jase grunts before turning to look at me and back the way we came.
Fuck. Shit. Damn. I stand and also look back that way, desperate for some sight of her pretty blond head, but I don’t see anything.
“Shit,” I mutter when a gunshot hits the side of the house where Cole’s head was moments before and he ducks back around the side.
“What the fuck is going on?” Cole demands, sticking his arm out and returning fire.
“I don’t know. All of a sudden, the house was on fire, and then people were shooting at us,” Jase replies grimly.
“I need to find Michele,” I say, pushing away from the wall.
“Fuck, no,” Cole shouts. “You need to stay here.”
“But—” I start before he cuts me off.
“Fuckers are shooting at us, Lo. You can’t go out there.”
He turns away from me and starts shooting back before I can answer, and the sounds of our people screaming in pain as zombies take their last bit of dignity rings painfully in my ears. Clutching my head, I moan desperately, helpless in the face of their terror.
Suddenly, the gunfire ceases, and in the quiet, the crackle of the fire behind our heads reminds me we’re standing against a burning building, and we won’t be able to stay here for too much longer.
Between the gunshots and the screams, my hearing is shot, but I can hear the pigs squealing in their pens. Even that sound drops off, and I know deep down that the poor creatures are dead, whether by zombies or asshat humans, I don’t know.
Closing my eyes, I lean my head against the house. People are trapped in the burning building and being taken down as they try to escape. There are over fifty of us on this farm. Where is everyone else? What the fuck is happening?
“We need to find Michele and get the fuck out of here,” Jase grunts, reloading his weapon.
“What about everyone else?” I ask as the gunfire resumes.
“They’re mostly gone,” he says.
“What? How do you know?”
“There’s like fifty zombies on the other side of the house, Lola, do the math,” he shouts.
Fifty zombies. Oh, my God.