CHAPTER 54: THE ROAD HOME

Sera stepped in front of the attacker and caught him by the throat mid-air.

Her momentum slammed the creature against the ground, pinning him down. He snapped wildly, trying to get out of her grasp, but she didn’t let go. Her fingers dug even deeper into his throat, her talons coming out and puncturing his pencil thin neck.

The creature rolled through me in a cold wave.

"Mine," she hissed, leaning forward until her lips were almost beside where the creature’s ear would have been. "He is mine," she hissed again, letting her eyes go black. "And no one touches what is mine."

The man froze for a moment before he turned his head to the side.

Submission.

When she let go, the man bolted toward one of the other survivors, leaping onto them without hesitation. No longer interested in Lachlan.

Sera’s hand was still trembling as she retracted her claws. Not with fear, but with restraint.

"What the fuck is going on?" Noah barked, knife still up, eyes darting from person to person.

Around us, the gym had become a war zone.

People screamed.

Tried to run.

Tried to crawl.

Some of the infected crashed through the crowd, ripping limbs off like wet paper. Others sniffed the air before choosing who to devour.

Most of the humans didn’t stand a chance.

But Sera didn’t care.

Not really.

She grabbed Lachlan by the arm again and one thing on her mind.

"What does it look like?" she snarled, jerking open the back door into the icy November air. "It’s the end of the world as we know it." She said the last bit with a twisted smile on her face as she scanned the back parking lot for any more creatures.

For any more zombies.

And then she shoved Lachlan through the door as behind them, the screaming continued.

Lachlan didn’t even hesitate.

"This way!" he barked, reversing the grip so that he was now holding on to Sera’s hand and yanking her toward a massive black hummer that seems to have its own gravitational force. "We’ll take my car."

Of course that was his car. How could she think otherwise?

The three of them raced to the hummer that was now warming up. Distant screams echoed between the buildings, rising and falling in a sick rhythm. A woman cried for help. Tires screeched. Something wet hit the ground behind them with a meaty slap.

But Sera didn’t look back.

Lachlan pulled open the passenger door and she slid in without an argument. He slammed the door shut, making sure that she was safe before rushing over to the driver’s side and getting in himself.

Noah climbed into the back a second later, his breathing even, his blade still in hand.

"We’ll need to go to one of the safe houses," he grunted, looking behind the hummer as Lachlan pulled out of the parking lot. "Reconvene with the rest of the team."

Lachlan grunted, but didn’t say anything. His grip tightened on the steering wheel as he drove out of the parking lot.

"I know a better place," Sera said quietly, already pulling on her seatbelt. "Drive west. Take Elm until you hit the cutoff near the river, then keep going."

Lachlan blinked at her but didn’t argue.

They hit traffic the second they reached the main road.

It wasn’t the usual 6 o’clock traffic. Not even an accident delay.

The entire street was a warzone.

Cars sat abandoned with doors flung open. Headlights glared through cracked windshields. People ran in different directions—some screaming, some completely silent, and more than a few not even human anymore. One man staggered between the lanes, dragging a shattered leg behind him as blood dripped from his chin. His eyes were gone. Just two hollow sockets and a mouth that gaped wider than it should.

A woman tried to crawl out of an SUV ahead of them, her arm bitten halfway through.

Someone slammed against the Hummer’s hood.

Lachlan didn’t slow, he simply narrowed his eyes and tried to navigate through the chaos.

Sera glanced at him.

He gripped the wheel with one hand, the other flicking switches on the dash like he was prepping for a deployment. There were compartments she hadn’t noticed before. Compartments no normal vehicle should’ve had.

"Don’t worry," he said, tone a little too cheerful. "This thing could stop a tank. I borrowed it from work and just haven’t had the time to give it back yet."

Sera didn’t ask what "work" meant. She already had guesses. None of them mattered now.

The city was breaking.

She could feel it. Taste it.

The hum in the air from earlier that afternoon had become a vibration beneath her skin. The creature stirred restlessly, agitated by the smell of death and the wet slap of running feet on pavement.

They were too slow.

Even with the Hummer, they weren’t going to make it through the gridlock.

"Cut through 5th," she muttered. "It loops around the park—"

"No!" Noah snapped from the back. "Stop the car. Right now."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lachlan asked, not looking back.

"There are still people in there!" Noah jabbed a finger at the Starbucks on the corner, where a group of teens were banging on the glass from the inside. "They’re trapped!"

"No," Sera said flatly. "They’ll only slow us down."

"They’ll die!"

Sera turned in her seat, locking eyes with him. "They were already dead the moment they got the vaccine."

"You don’t know that."

"Yes," she said. "I do."

Lachlan hesitated and it was just enough time for Noah. He flung the door open and rushed off, not even shutting it behind him.

"Don’t," Sera warned, her eyes narrowing.

But he was already moving.

He sprinted toward the café entrance like a damn action movie hero, ducking past two twitching bodies on the sidewalk. The teens inside saw him and started screaming louder, waving their arms.

Lachlan cursed and hit the brakes.

Then he, too, got out of the hummer, leaving Sera behind.