Feral Skies

by K. M. Raya

  That’s rich. We all need fucking time. It’s too bad we just don’t have the luxury anymore. “Alex, I know what it feels like to be hurt, but closing yourself off from people isn’t healthy, especially now. I don’t wanna get all preachy on you, but I don’t deserve your attitude just because some chick probably broke your heart.”

  Through the shadows, I watch his face morph into a grimace. “I know…”

  “Then let's cut the shit, alright? We both have fucked up memories, but it doesn't mean we can’t share what’s left of the world, right?”

  He’s quiet again, but I can tell he has something he wants to say. “Spit it out.” I nudge him again. Shaking his head, I watch as his hair plays softly on his shoulders, and for the briefest second, all I want to do is touch it.

  “I thin…”

  Anything he was about to say is cut off when from the other side of the outside door, something crashes against a wall. Moments later a flood of sound rushes through my ears. I reach for my crossbow, but a hand on my arms stops me. Looking at Alex, he brings his finger to his mouth to shush me. With his lips next to my ear, he whispers, “Don’t move and don’t make a sound. They might leave if they don’t hear us.”

  The zombies have crashed through that first door and into the xray room. It’s only a matter of time until they get in here too. I’m starting to sweat, an instinct is telling me to run, but there’s nowhere to go. Hands beat on the door, and I can hear the scrape of nails against the wood grain. The moans travel inside, filling the space with hellish music. They’re hungry… ravenous and as soon as this door gives way, they’ll tear into my flesh with broken teeth and jagged nails.

  With hands on my face, he turns me to look at him. Our eyes are aligned in the darkness. His fingers sift back, tangling through my hair. It’s such a gentle touch that it momentarily paralyses me. “Calm down, alright? We’ll be okay, I won’t let them get you, I promise.”

  “You can’t promise something like that, Alex.”

  “I can and I am. They wont fucking touch you, not while I’m still breathing, you hear me?” His eyes are hard on mine, and they shine with sincerity. His palms are shaking, and his breath whispers against my lips.

  “I can’t take that chance…” Feeling behind me, I pull out my last resort. My fingers curl around it, shaking and numb. I never wanted it to come to this, but I think I might be running out of options. The cold metal feels like sin in my hands and I pray that I don’t have to use it.

  Suddenly, Alex grabs my shoulders, hauling me towards him and shakes me. “What the fuck are you doing?!” he whispers urgently. Through the darkness I can see the glint of his ice blue eyes. They're bouncing between my face and the pistol in my hands. “I thought you hated guns…”

  “This is for emergencies only,” I breathe. “You might be thanking me for it in a minute.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Bringing the gun up higher, I remove the chamber, showing him what I mean. “There are exactly three bullets in here. I've carried it since day one, just in case.”

  “Just in case…” he mulls it over before realization dawns. His eyes widen. “You can’t be serious...”

  “Deadly,” I snap. “If they get in here and I have no way out, I’m taking matters into my own hands. I’m not getting ripped apart alive, and I’m not going to let myself become one of them. I won't do it, Alex.”

  “This is insane. Fucking insane, you realize that, right? Do you actually think you can do it? Because I know I can’t!”

  “I'm not asking you to do anything, but you can’t stop me. I made my mind up a long time ago, and I choose to have a say in how I go out. I won't be trapped again…”

  The door rattles and dust falls from the ceiling. Their moans are louder now, frantic and ready to tear into a meal. For some reason I can’t explain, I reach out for Alex, needing to hold onto something, anything. He lets me fall into him. His hands are shaking too and I know he’s as scared as I am. Looking up, I can barely see his eyes. “I’m fucking scared, Lex.”

  He presses his mouth to my hair, and I can feel every breath puffing in and out. “Me too, princess. Me too…” Closing my eyes tightly, my breathing picks up until I feel like I’m about to hyperventilate. “Can I ask you a question?” he asks. I can’t seem to get enough oxygen, but I nod anyway. “About the trappers…” he whispers. My whole body freezes for an entirely different reason. “I know you’re not telling us something, I know something happened to you… Now might be a good time to get that off your chest.”

  “Now’s not the time, Alex.”

  “Now’s the perfect time,” he argues. “Now might be the only time, and I’m curious. What the hell happened? What did they do to you?” He’s just trying to distract me.

  “Why does it matter?”

  He’s silent for a moment, contemplating. “I just…” his hand runs through my hair again softly before shaking his head. His scruff brushes against my face. “Never mind. Just sit tight, Wyatt will be back soon and we’ll get out of here.”

  My body is going into panic mode and there’s nothing I can do to stop. Looking up I go to ask him to talk to me, distract me with anything but...

  Alex’s mouth presses down on mine, taking me by surprise. My first instinct is to tear away, but his embrace feels so fucking good. His lips pry mine open, searching for comfort in the most obvious place. I kiss him back, pressing my body into his, practically climbing onto his lap. His heavy arms wind around my waist, dragging me against his torso as his hand comes up to grip the back of my head.

  He tastes like coffee and sweat, and it’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. It’s been so long since I’ve kissed another man, and the feeling is jarring. Of all the people left in this world, I never imagined my last would be with Alex. But I don’t regret it. Not right now. Not when his hands feel so good, when his lips feel so right. He tastes like life, like… hope.

  It’s not the time or the place, but we hold each other tightly. He’s my anchor to this world right now, and if I end up dying in his arms then so be it. I’m starved for it, I crave it. I need it. And I think he needs me too. I know I’m not his choice. I know he doesn’t like me, but he needs comfort too. We’re about to die in the most brutal way possible, so fucking sue us for trying to coax out a little pleasure before we go.

  His tongue dances with mine as he tilts my head to the side. His humming under his breath makes me a little crazy as I start to move my hips. I can feel him hard beneath me, needing my body to do things that aren’t possible in this tiny space. So we take what we can get because these moments might very well be our last.

  That terrifying realization spurs me on and I only kiss him harder. His hips are thrusting up into mine and it's like we can’t get enough of each other. Every moment is precious, panicked and the minutes seem to stretch into hours. We’re so wrapped up in the kiss, that when the door crashes open, I hardly notice until blinding light fills the supply closet and hands wrap around my arms...

  Chapter ☣ 16

  Wyatt

  My quad just won't move fast enough. I race down the streets, trying to remember every twist and turn it took to get here. Hands grab for me as I hurl the vehicle around fallen cars. Using the machete I had strapped to my thigh, I do my best to cut them down as I pass by, but I can’t linger.

  ​The second floor of the hospital filled up unimaginably fast, and I only had that split few minutes to sneak into the pharmacy stock room and snag a handful of antibiotics. Hopefully I grabbed the right ones or else all this was for nothing. Zombies flooded the halls and blocked off every exit, it’s a miracle I made it out when I did. If I hadn’t run the other way when Hell told me too, I’d have been trapped in that hallway and probably torn to pieces. I don’t know what happened to her or Alex after that, because I couldn’t hear a thing over the moans and the stampede of footsteps, but once I reached the front entrance downstairs, I heard a series of gunshots, and I knew Hell had to be
responsible. Last I saw, Alex was out cold, so she must have grabbed his gun as a last resort.

  ​I hope they don’t think I bailed on them. But I need help. They need help. There are too many zoms in there for me to take care of with my limited ammo. So I race though the streets, trying not to think about Alex and Helana being eaten alive by those monsters. The thought makes my gut churn with acid and my fists clench on the handles. Hell’s become important to me. Suddenly and out of nowhere. I feel something whenever she’s around me, and it’s been too fucking long since I’ve… felt. Every little thing she does is fascinating to me. She’s self sufficient and capable, and she cares for her friends to a fault. You don’t run into many people who would willingly risk their lives like this… even for a close friend. All those things coupled with the fact that she’s probably the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Hands down fucking gorgeous. To this point of irritation sometimes.

  ​Jessa was a pretty girl. Cute, even. But Helana… she’s something else entirely. She’s got this almost ethereal quality to her, and something as simple as walking across a room is enough to draw every male eye right to her. Well, and Ret, of course. If she thinks we don’t see right through her tough chick facade, she’s got another thing coming.

  ​It’s almost impossible to see anything in front of me with all this damn fog, but I feel like I have a vague impression of the direction I need to head. The fog isn’t nearly as bad as it was in the beginning. When those bombs first dropped, it was like trying to make your way through a sandstorm blindfolded. Once people started to figure out that it was the fog that was responsible for turning everyone into monsters, they stopped leaving their shelters altogether. I remember in the beginning, right before the ship we were on had a supply drop from an unmarked chopper, we thought heavily about using snorkeling gear stored on the ship, but thinking about it now is laughable. We’d have been zoms in seconds.

  ​I guess in the end we have Jessa to thank for getting us on that ship in the first place. I was working as an officer in California, but Dante, Alex, Jessa and I had traveled out Mexico for a four day cruise, something we usually never did, but Jessa begged us. We were docked when the bombs dropped, and quarantined in our cabins. The next thing I knew, we were being given masks and herded off the ships and into safe zones at the nearest airbase. Alex tried to use his old rank to find out information, but even the soldiers were panicked. There was no order or decorum to be found. Just chaos. Once that was overrun, we were on our own. The people in the states got the worst of it. All those millions of people outside celebrating independence day, not knowing that in minutes they’d be slobbering, ravenous monsters.

  ​Of course, since they were all turned at the same time, they started eating eachother right away. They tore each other to pieces. The newscasters caught it all on drone footage that was played for months on end until all cable was cut on some random, meaningless day. The rest of us watched live on whatever TV we could find as people dropped dead, only to rise back up a moment later, staring vacantly until something living crossed their paths. I don’t know what the fuck kind of chemical was used in those bombs, or who was responsible, but whoever they are, I hope they rot in hell forever.

  ​Even now, as I cut their creations down one by one as I drive by, weaving in and out of them and debris, they wear those vacant, milky stares. Sometimes I’m not even sure if they’re actually dead. I mean, it shouldn't be possible, right? But what does that even mean anymore? There's no such thing as normal. My normal used to be waking up at the ass crack of dawn and heading out to patrol Yosemite National Park. Breathing in the fresh air, hiking the backwoods trails and shooing bears away from campgrounds. That was my normal. Not this bullshit.

  ​The store comes into view after what seems like hours and I speed into the parking lot, skidding to a stop in front of the sliding doors. A flash of light through the fog catches my peripheral and my muscles seize up as I snap my head in that direction. Here one moment, gone the next. I squint in the direction the strange light came from, but I see nothing but a wall of fog with the vague shapes of the dead ambling through. I must be fucking losing it.

  Hopping off my quad, I practically sprint to the glass and bang on it, yelling for Dante, for Ret, for Missy, shit… yelling for Anubis, even. Sure enough, Anubis comes galloping up to the glass, ducking under the half ass barricade. At first his bark was low and menacing, but when he sees it’s me, he starts to do this hopping motion, letting his tongue loll out to the side. Shaking my head, I yell through the glass for Anubis to get the others.

  ​I have no idea if the dog can understand me, but a moment later, he stops hopping, turns on his heels and starts barking into the store. It only takes a minute for Ret and Dante to rush the door. I watch them slip their masks on before prying the door open and moving the barricade out of the way. Once inside, I wait a moment, shaking my limbs out before ripping my mask off my face.

  ​Dante practically launches himself at me, squeezing tightly and slapping me on the back a few times, just for good measure. I grip him back, practically shaking with adrenaline. “What happened?!” he shouts, grabbing me by the shoulders. “Where’s Alex and Helana?” craning his neck, he searches outside the glass, as if they'll pop up and knock on it.

  ​Shaking my head, I run a gloved hand down my face and over my beard. “We need help…” I’m out of breath, panting as I try and suck in steady amounts of air into my overworked lungs. “They need help.”

  ​Dante’s face turns to stone. “What the fuck does that mean?!” he seethes. “Did you fucking leave them back there?!” His eyes are wild and terrified, both for Helana and Alex equally.

  ​Knocking his hands off me, I glare at my best friend. “What the fuck do you think?” I spit. “No, I didn’t just leave. We got ambushed after hitting the second floor and they're trapped. Alex was hurt and I think Helana used the last of their bullets trying to get him in a room.There were too many zoms and I didn’t have enough ammo for all of them. We need to go back…”

  ​Missy comes running up. “Where’s Helana?!” Her green eyes are wild and her usually pale skin is white as a sheet.

  ​Shaking my head, I dig into my pack, grabbing the bottle of pills before tossing them to Missy. She catches them mid air before looking at me in question. “Get those to Nina asap, it’s what Hell wanted. But we gotta go now. I don’t know if those doors will hold, but we gotta bring some firepower, there’s around fifty zoms, maybe more.”

  ​Dante’s already running back into the store, presumably to grab his gear and some weapons. Ret grips my arm. I look down into her brown eyes, and I see the potent worry there. Her lips are flattened into a grimace. “Was she hurt?” she asks quietly.

  ​I let her question sink in for a second, cocking my head to the side. She sounds off. Different. “As far as I know she’s not hurt, but she might be if we don’t get back there right now.” Nodding my head over her shoulder, I urge her to hurry. “Get your shit, we’re taking the suv.”

  ☣

  After practically flying through the streets, we make it to the hospital, but the gathered zoms are blocking the entrance. There must be dozens of them, probably drawn in by all the gunfire. Beretta takes them out easily, spraying them with bullets before dashing inside.

  ​There are way too many of them. It makes me think that maybe we should have been more receptive to Helana’s advice. Maybe guns are a bad idea… I mean, we’re going to use them to save Hell and Alex, but maybe after this, we should start looking into archery or something, because all this seems like it could have been easily avoided if we were just a little quieter.

  ​Missy stayed back with Nina, we couldn’t move her and someone needed to give her those meds. She needs to get better or else all this was for fuck nothing. We reach the entrance and run right in. Zoms amble out of every which way, and we’re shooting before the thought even registers. They drop dead instantly, and we move on like a unit, a tight team. We pass the map H
elana and Alex studied earlier and make our way back into the hallway. The ones we killed earlier are still lying there, one with a big hole in his forehead where Hell’s arrow had been lodged. I remember now, her curse when I opened fire.

  ​I cringe, realizing now that all of this might be my fault. Maybe if I wasn’t so fucking trigger happy we could have avoided most of them and been back with Nina’s meds, whole and safe. I’m such an idiot. The others follow closely behind, Ret watching our backs as she swivels from right to left. The door to the stairwell is practically torn off its hinges, and we have to step all over the fallen bodies I’d shot the last time I was here.

  ​Up ahead, I hear what sounds like a loud crash, and even more moans than there were before. The amount of zoms in the corridor must have doubled since I went for help. We fumble into the hallway and my eyes widen in horror as I watch dozens of zoms crashing into the room I saw Helana drag Alex into. “No!” I shout, already shooting into the horde. “Fuck you!” I scream desperately as Ret and Dante curse and follow after.

  ​Some of the zoms turn and begin our way, but I take them out easily, eyes on nothing but that doorway, needing with everything inside of me to get to them. My best friend, one of my own who I’d sacrifice anything a thousand times over for, and the woman I’m beginning to fall for. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I just know they’re alive. They just have to be.

  There’s no other fucking option.

  Chapter ☣ 17

  Hell

  Alex clutches my other arm as I’m forcefully hauled out of the closet. Frantically, I reach for my gun, unwilling to let this be how it ends. Nails dig into my forearm and I scream, unable to stifle the blood chilling, bone deep fear rolling through me in waves.

  ​I’m ripped from Alex’s grip and hauled to my feet with surprising strength. But instead of meeting the teeth, nails and gore I’d expected, warm arms embrace me, holding me to a massive chest that smells vaguely like sunscreen and tobacco. Suddenly, the world comes back into focus, and the haze of overwhelming fear begins to recede. As my vision clears completely, I raise my head and feel my whole body relax. Wyatt holds me to his chest, his gun slung around his back as he squeezes the air from my lungs. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see another human being in my entire life. All I can think right now is, how the fuck had we not heard the gunshots? Were we so wrapped up in eachother we tuned it all out? Zoms lay around our feet, given their final deaths by the dozens.