Excerpt: 2013

“So, what’s Aggie’s story?” Anna asked Luke as he threw a ratty tennis ball ahead and Sophie bounded after it, floppy ears jumping.

“Fuck, don’t even ask me. I don’t know much about anyone except names. Connie!” Luke called ahead to the oriental girl. She looked back before slowing her pace to walk with the two of them. “Tell Anna about Aggie.” Sophie ran back to them, tugging on the wet tennis ball when Luke tried to pull it from her mouth.

“Oh, Aggie. She’s a tough cookie. She was a commissioned officer, a Colonel in the marines. She also went to this university in Texas to be a member of the Corps of Cadets, which has wicked hard training. Basically, she kicks a lot of ass.”

“How does she know all this?” Anna asked Luke.

“No idea,” Luke shrugged, pulling a blunt from one pocket, a lighter from the other.

“Must you do that all of the time?” Connie asked. “It probably isn’t too smart to do it when we’re in Infected territory-”

“Everywhere is Infected territory,” Luke interjected, words muffled from the slender, brown stick in his mouth.

“Still, you need to have your wits about you, you know?”

Luke gave her a look. “You know how I get when we’re out like this. I can’t fucking deal with that shit.” With that, he lit the weed-filled swisher and inhaled. When Sophie galloped back to them, Anna took the job of tossing the ball again. It bounced ahead, in front of Agatha, Lloyd, and Dale. Sophie chased after it, disappearing behind a pile of crushed cars at the corner of Fourth Street and Harrison, the leftovers of an accident. Suddenly, Sophie’s barking echoed into the air. A hushed shiver fell upon the large group, and they all moved slower.

“Sophie?” Luke called to her when the barking continued.

“Wait!” the man with Zach and Connie tried to stop him as he hurried ahead and Anna ran after them both on impulse. They ran around the mountain of cars and saw about two football fields away, two Infected. Half a field away, Sophie stood, fur on her back bristled as she growled and barked at the unmoving Infected pair ahead. Luke ran to Sophie, grabbing the rope collar he’d fashioned for her, keeping the dog from nearing the sick individuals any more. A few paces behind Luke and Sophie, the man and Anna were ambushed when an Infected woman attacked him, barreling him sideways onto the ground. They scrambled, she trying to bite him and he attempting to get away. He screamed when the Infected woman bit deep into his arm and grappled for his gun, tucked in the back of his pants. Anna stood and watched in horror, unsure what to do.

He managed to grab it and blow the Infected’s head off, leaving a bleeding, gaping hole, the sick body limp on the ground. He stood up, clothes soaked with blood and sweat. In a post-adrenaline daze, he’d left the firing arm on the ground and Anna picked it up.

As Anna pointed the gun at the man with violently shaking hands, she heard Agatha’s voice reassuring the group everything was all right. She heard approaching footsteps. He pleaded at her. She looked behind him and saw Luke looking to her, watching with a tense expression on his face. Sophie remained uncomfortable by the presence of the ones ahead and paid no attention to the goings on behind her.

“Are you crazy? Put that down, I’m not infected! Don’t shoot me!”

Anna couldn’t speak. Her eyes lingered on the bite mark decorating his forearm. She saw the yellow ooze from the woman’s lips mixed in with the gore. It would surely enter his blood stream. Dale’s words echoed in her mind, how none of them knew for sure whether they were immune or just lucky, and Anna wasn’t sure she wanted to take that chance.

“Lloyd!” the man exclaimed, desperate. Anna began to cry.

“I’m sorry. You were bit, I have to.” She pulled the trigger. The bullet forced itself into the man’s head above his left ear, exploding his flesh, skull, hair, into a grotesque spray that flew into the air, back at Anna, and splattered onto the ground. Moments after that, she heard two gun shots as Lloyd shot the pair Sophie was growling at, causing them to instantly fall to the ground the same moment Anna did.