They knew what was happening, and they left us in the dark, allowing the world to get overrun, silencing anyone who dared speak the truth.
I stop in my tracks, looking for an escape.
POP! POP! POP!
He’s looking at me. Gesturing.
There’s no way in hell I’ll go with that man! The Civil Police are monsters.
But what choice do you have?
With the dead closing in around me, I rush to the black arrow. Gage bends, and I jump to meet his extended hand with my own.
He pulls me up, and for the first time, I realize his enormity.
He’s a giant. Bigger than any man I’ve seen. Sure, the Civil Police were all big and bulky, but this is ridiculous. My hand practically disappears in his, swallowed whole.
He drops me on the side of the bus, which is now the top, and removes his shield, looking down at me with eyes hard as diamonds.
I’ve never seen such cold sculpted marble before. Such a perfect chiseled jawline. Such strong features.
He leans down, splaying one hand across my jaw as the other goes for his gun.
Then I remember his warning. If I’ve been bitten or scratched—it’s game over.
The bottle!
“A man hit me! With a bottle. He was screaming from a second-floor window just a block away.”
His eyes narrow.
“I promise it’s not a bite or a scratch.”
He touches it, then seems to exhale in relief. He runs his fingers through his short, dark hair that’s been tended to recently. His grooming should be a good sign.
“You said someone threw a bottle at you?” His voice is thick and rumbly like over the radio.
“Some old, crazy man. He told me that if I didn’t go into his building, he’d call the dead.”
“It was a trap.”
I nod.
The sounds of the dead surrounding the bus needles my anxiety.
“D-do you live in this bus, or something? I thought you had a home. A place for me to stay?”
He scoffs, then grabs my wrist and pulls me up off my feet, like I’m nothing.
I struggle, angry that I’m being manhandled. He hovers me over the missing door of the bus.
“Hey!” I scream.
He lowers me a little, then drops me the rest of the way, jumping in next to me.
“You could have fucking told me you were going to drop me!”
“I don’t have to tell you anything.”