Suddenly, the pushing stopped. I looked over at the fingers, which now loosely curled around the door, no longer holding it.
A knock startled me.
“Anyone home in there?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “There’s still an infected holding the door.”
“Uh, that’s just what’s left of him. The rest is gone.”
I’d seen the human on camera. I knew he was real, but I was still terrified to open the door. Too many people had died by being stupid about so-called friendly company.
“Why are you here?” I asked instead of opening the door.
“A few friends of mine saw the cattle yesterday. They thought the herd had been abandoned. We came to take them back to Tolerance.”
“Where’s that?”
“Out in the middle of nothing, a few hours from here. It’s a town my friends made. It’s protected by a wall to keep the infected out.”
“Your friends with the pointy ears?”
“The very same,” he said without hesitation.
Taking a steadying breath, I opened the door.
Not a speck of blood dotted the dark hair or pale skin of the younger man who stood in front of eight of those grey-skinned men.
After everything I’d witnessed in the last twenty-four hours, seeing those grey-skinned men in person shattered any remaining hope I had left of a stable world. I started shaking hard. I knew it was a mixture of adrenaline and shock.
“You shouldn’t need the knife anymore,” the man said, not moving to enter. “The fey will get any infected that are still hiding. I’d keep it close, though.”
Fey? My gaze shifted to the creatures behind him. They were huge. The guy in front of me, who was tall, barely came up to their shoulders. Their arms were thicker than my head and their legs even bigger. If the grey skin, pointed ears, and sharp teeth didn’t give away that they weren’t human, their eyes did. Green with a vertical slit for a pupil.
“Are you hurt?” the man asked.
I shook my head, dragging my gaze to his.
“What about the guy behind you? Was he bitten?”
“I don’t think so. The infected pushed him into the wall. He has a lump on the back of his head.”
“Has he opened his eyes?”
“No.”
“I’m going to be straight with you. You had a great setup, but the infected know you’re here. It’s not safe to stay, and he could probably use a doctor.”
“You have a doctor?”
“As close as we can get to one. She was a nursing student but has treated her fair share of injuries since the quakes.”
“What’s the catch?” I asked. “People don’t help people anymore.”
“You’re right. Most don’t. That’s why my sister made friends with these guys.” He jerked a thumb at the men behind him. “They help humans and don’t ask for much in return.”
“Much?”
“Just a chance to prove they aren’t what everyone thinks they are. Monsters. Demons. Grey-devils. They’ve been called a lot of things.”