100-Days-in-Deadland(31)

Clutch knelt by me. “You okay?”

I came to my knees, spit out some more blood, and ran my tongue over the nasty cut on my lip. “I need a bigger gun.”

He belted out a single laugh, helped me to my feet, and held me up until the wooziness passed.

I rubbed my cheek. “Damn, that guy hit like a sledgehammer.”

“He’s had plenty of practice.”

I looked up at him, but he was scanning the area.

“The woman…” I said.

“They hurt her. Bad.”

Shivers crawled over my skin. There were too many victims of the zeds already. Adding more unnecessary victims poured acid onto my emotions. I looked over at the guy Clutch had put down. “I’m glad you killed him.”

“Some folks need to die.”

A flurry of movement caught my eye, and I turned to see another man run toward a truck in the distance. “Clutch!” I yelled, wincing at the sharp pain in my cut lip.

Clutch turned, a look of unadulterated fury washed over his face, and he bolted after the man.

The guy was a couple hundred feet away. My .22 was worthless at this distance, so I ran for the truck, jumped in the driver’s seat, and gunned the engine, kicking up pebbles.

Clutch was closing the distance, but he was still too far away. The man had already climbed into a dusty blue minivan. Clutch kept running even as the vehicle cranked around and sped directly toward him.

Clutch stopped, took aim, and fired at the windshield. Buckshot fractured the glass. The minivan was going to hit him head-on, but he fired again. I was on my way to T-bone the van, but I wasn’t going to get there in time.

At the last second, Clutch dove to the side.

I floored it to intersect the van, but it sped away, spinning out on the gravel road before straightening and tearing away from us.

I stopped, got out, and ran toward Clutch.

He was already on his feet, checking the shotgun.

“Are you okay?”

“Fucker got away.” He grimaced. “I didn’t recognize him, but he knows that there’s someone else out here now. We’ll have to be on our guard.”

“If we hurry, we might be able to chase him down.”

He shook his head. “It’ll draw too much attention. We’ll find him again.”

I nodded tightly, and then looked at the bin and started walking.

“Cash, you don’t need to see that. I’ll take care of it.”

I kept walking. The girl wasn’t far away, just out of the line of sight from the truck. She was covered in dried blood and bruises, making it impossible to tell her age, but she looked young. Probably hadn’t even graduated from high school yet. Could’ve been one of Jase’s classmates, even. Her nose was broken and one arm was bent at an unnatural angle. All the skin had been scraped from her knees.

She was nearly naked, her skin sallow. The wind flapped the tatters of clothing left on her. Her poor body looked like she’d been abused and broken since the virus outbreak started. She belonged in a hospital. Now, without doctors and medical technology, there was nothing that could be done. She lay there, one eye swollen shut, staring into nothingness. It was a blank stare. I thought she’d already died, but then she blinked.

I realized that it was only her spirit that had already died.

A tear trickled down her cheek. I came down on a knee and wiped the tear away with my thumb. I found it hard to breathe, like a fist had wrapped around my heart.

She tried to speak. Her pale, broken lips moved but no sound came out.

I pointed the pistol at her temple. “I’m sorry.” They were the only words I could manage to get out without choking.

She closed her eye and gave a weak smile.

I held the .22 as close as I could get it without touching and pulled the trigger. The blast made me jump, and I let out a sob.

I came back to my feet, staring at the girl, her destroyed features now relaxed.

Finally, she’d found peace.

Tears streamed down my cheeks.

I knew Clutch stood at my back. I had a protector, something this girl had never had. The first raindrops landed on her, creating shiny trails through the blood and grime. I turned my face to the sky to let the cool rain wash away my tears. But the rain could wash away neither the sins nor the memories of what had taken place here today.





HUNGER


The Third Circle of Hell





Chapter VI