Laurence paced, filtering in and out of Ashley’s view. Their disparate group stopped, yet again. Laurence had the look of a desperate angry man, beneath all the contempt that painted his face. Even the rain couldn’t mask that.

Despite the weight of her clothes and the sodden blanket, she relished the drizzle. When she opened her mouth it quenched her thirst and chilled her waning fever.

The voices of the others were distant enough that Ashley couldn't quite hear them but it had to be the wounded man that stalled their progress.

Laurence stalked off, all huffed and puffed to assert some dominance, and left Reid to mind the prisoner.

“This won't end well.” Reid looked over his shoulder in the direction of his stalking leader. If Ashley knew him at all, she might have guessed he was concerned.

Instead, she tried to read his face. He clearly wasn’t worried enough to get up and do something about it. Tension creased his brow as rain streaked down his cheeks and he rubbed where his lip was fattest.

“Afraid to go another round with the big man?”

His eyes snapped to her on the sled, shock lingering for a moment before he frowned. Apparently, it was the only answer she was going to get out of him.

Just need a chance alone. Just walk away Reid, for one minute.

“You could do something about him.” She tried to meet his eyes but it was as though he made a point of avoiding hers. “He’s losing control. You’re not dumb enough to not notice the stink of drink on him.”

A glare flashed in her direction but his lips remained tight.

“If you’re so sure he’s going to fuck it up, why don’t you do something about it?” Ashley said.

Reid frown deepened and his knuckles tightened. In a flickering moment, Ashley regretted the tactless attempts to start another brawl. Fights out here lead to deaths. Did she really want that?

Laurence won’t shoot his own men. But what she’d seen of the man didn’t exactly relax her nerves.

“You shouldn’t talk.” Reid adjusted the blanket and Ashley stiffened. Beneath it, she barely held the sawed through straps in place.

Reid looked up to her face and she maintained the stare, praying he’d leave the blanket where it was. Instead, he started to pull the soggy fabric up.

In her mind, she concocted a half dozen ways to start and finish the oncoming scuffle. She didn’t want to kill him but the thought wasn’t off the table. All ended with her over the guardrail, disappearing into the green.

Ashley tensed, baled her fists, released the straps, and stared hard at Reid’s features. It’d been a long time since she’d killed someone who hadn’t been infected.

Shannon yelled and Reid’s head turned.

The shot drowned the rain.

In seconds Reid was on his feet and rushing to the sound of the gun.

Ashley relaxed. In slow breaths, she ignored the taste of rain on her lips. She concentrated on the sounds; the rain returned and the shot finished bouncing. They were yelling, who it was didn’t matter.

This is all going sideways.

Ashley flung the blanket aside. When she sat upright, her shoulder tightened and pain returned. She lifted the gauze. The wound was swollen and moist with the dark thick infection oozing like puss. But the bite marks had receded and despite discolouration, she was healing and could move her arm. The veins though, that was no good. The black infected blood trailed from the wound site like poisonous webs. It needed time and rest but neither was an option.

There will be wendigos soon. She could feel them all around her, an instinct that quickened her pulse. Ashley moved to the supplies and found her pack, her hatchet, and hunting knife.

The scream. Her grip tightened around the handle of her blade. One of the girls was screaming and with it came the groans.

Pop.

Another gun let off a round but no bodies dropped.

From a distance, they were just shapes; humans upright and running where wendigos hunched and lumbered. But their numbers had doubled in seconds. They would triple in minutes.

Separated from the rest and a safe distance from the chaos, she could leave. The guardrail was only fifteen feet away, the thick green park a maze she could disappear in. They wouldn’t follow, not if there were wendigos.

She backed towards it, eyes on the scramble. Wendigos toppled on a man in the centre and split the group up. Shannon, clear only by his height, picked up something big and started swinging at the hunched shapes. In seconds he killed two of the creatures, saving one of the children.

The guardrail pressed against the back of her legs. In the time it took her to reach it the rain danced with shrieks in the air.

Just duck and run. They're not my problem.

She tried to press the beach from her mind, after all it’d been no more than an accident. Sticking her neck out got her bit, tied up, and dragged to the asshole of the city. Sticking her neck out to help would only end in her own death. But faces loomed and voices bellowed from memory like ghosts. She closed her eyes to the sound of a mother screaming for her children.

You can’ t help them.

In a crouch, she stepped over the rail into the thick trees.

It’s not your fault.

“Shane!” The young girl’s cry snapped Ashley’s eyes open.

“Fuck…” she whispered under her breath as she slipped over the guardrail back onto the highway.

Ahead of her Laurence was on the ground holding his leg. Blood pooled into the fabric from a deep scratch as Chandra and Tish pulled him back. Beside them, the screaming mother wailed with one of her kids, the tallest. He tried to pull his mother away from the growing horde.

They all froze as she drew near, eyes wide as though they’d forgotten the creatures a few feet away. When Laurence met her gaze she glared. They don’t need me. They had time to get clear, a path straight to the roadway.

She moved past them towards the feasting wendigos.

Her hunting knife wasn't long but it was sharp. The creatures singled out the old man. He yelped twice before growing silent under mashing maws. The beasts’ attentions were so focussed on the already split flesh that they didn’t seem to notice Ashley. Two slices and the first one toppled to the ground immobilized. Its mouth gaped and cooed with hunger but couldn’t reach her.

Another wendigo lashed out but she was quick.

These creatures were soft and old. They'd been decaying for months, if not years, and didn't have the strength of well-fed muscles. Two down, she crouched on the ground for a quick survey. The creatures were more interested in the fresh blood than her. But a pang of pain in her shoulder whispered caution of overexerting herself while still recovering.

Shane, the smallest boy, called out again just a few feet from her. Under a car, though not far enough from his father’s ravaged corpse, Shane kicked away the hungry beasts. The closest could get under, its shoulders too broad. But its bony hands inched for the living, wriggling boy. Before long another one would notice the kid. Something smaller. Something that could reach.

You can’t save them all. She frowned.

Ashley launched from her crouch and mounted the car she was nearest. Jumping towards the boy she slid to the pavement and shoved her knife down into the wendigos skull. A loud death rattle exhaled from the creature and she knew there wasn’t much time.

She shot a hand under the car. Her fingers found Shane’s arm and pulled but he struggled with a scream.

“Dammit, kid. I’m trying to help!” she hissed and he stopped.

Pulled free from beneath the car, Shane hid behind Ashley. Two creatures drew nearer to the commotion. The kid’s arm dripped with fresh blood but no bite marked his skin.

“Get on the car.” Ashley gave him a quick boost and prepared for the first creature. It was a half-foot ahead and came straight for her with exposed rotting fingers.

She slipped between the arms and jammed her knife into its eye socket. In seconds the creature grew limp.

The second reached for Shane, fumbling to climb up the car. Ashley kicked it aside and when it rolled to its knees, she hammered the knife into the thick of its skull. She wrenched the blade free, using her foot to press the flesh away.

With her eyes set forward on the hoard, she backed up to the car. “On my back,” she ordered.

Shane obeyed. The moment his weight leaned into her shoulder, her flesh screamed in pain. Her body instinctively tried to avoid the ache and pressure but there was no way around it. Won’t be able to keep up for long. Make everyone move count.

Ashley assessed the chaos. Reid and Shannon stuck close to one another with two of the other kids. Laurence, Tish, Chandra, and some of the Youngs were north of the first dead body, but more creatures had swarmed between them. Ethan and Wendy? Their mother? Ashley couldn’t place where they were.

What she did know: the longer they stayed the worse they were off.

“I can’t carry you and fight so you’re going to hold on.”

Shane nodded against her ear.

“As tight as you can. I can’t be worrying about you, got it?”

He nodded again and his arms and legs tightened.

“My sister-”

“We can’t.” You can’t save them all. “But maybe…”

More wendigos surrounded. At least twenty descended on the dead and another dozen lumbered between the cars. But a sliver of a path to the guardrail opened.

“If they follow us, it could save your family. But if you let go, I can’t stop to help. You understand what that means, kid?”

Shane nodded against her cheek without an ounce of hesitation.

The fresh blood on his arm streamed from him onto her chest in the rain. Though the scent of it was beyond her senses, the wendigos could smell it.

A few of the creatures that weaved towards the bodies stopped and changed their course for her.

“Don’t let go,” she whispered one last time and took a deep breath.

“Get to high ground!” Ashley screamed as loud as she could. A few heads popped up from the meals on the highway, more bodies turned from the others that cowered behind cars. “Get distance and get high. The harder the climb the better!”

Knife in hand she pressed forward to the sliver of a gap. The first wendigo to cross her path she thrust her palm up at its nose and shoved the knife under its chin. A quick yank free and she moved on.

Skidding over a car hood, she mounted the next and climbed to its roof. Hungry hands reached out as she launched from car to car, skidding across the slick metal. Through it all, Shane’s grip remained tight against her neck and pack.

On the fourth, she slipped. Ashley threw herself into a roll, instinct unaware of the boy on her back. Shane grunted as her weight pressed into him, a whimper escaping. But he didn’t falter, didn’t let go, and it let Ashley collect her balance.

Good job, kid. She wanted to say it but every breath had to be saved.

Approaching the guardrail Ashley and Shane passed Shannon and Reid with gaped mouths. Behind them, Cally and Cooper cowered.

Don’t stop. She took another heavy breath.

“Get in the trees,” she managed but it nearly cost her a misstep. Her lungs ached for more air, her legs burned from the weight, and her fever felt renewed.

Run. Don’t Stop. She panted out another grunted breath and vaulted over the guardrail.

The green swallowed her whole. The rain lessened to the patter on the fall leaves. Behind them shapes followed, growls echoed, and cries of instinctive hunger called for her to slow.

“Don’t… let go.” She didn’t dare sheath her knife.