Page 87 of Grave Danger

“Looks like we can use these roots to climb out of the water.” Oliver waded over to the bank and grabbed hold of some larger roots, using the curls and bends as hand and foot holds.

“Be careful up there,” Dave said, looking up after him. “There might be more up there.”

Demetrius looked back and gave a start when he saw how close the zombies were. “We’ve got to get up there, right now.”

Dave, Agatha, and Cody looked and, motivated by the proximity of the zombies, all found roots of their own to climb. After a few scary slips, Demetrius reached level ground and stood with the others. Off in the trees, he could see movement within the dim light from the storm.

“We have to keep moving,” Demetrius said. “I see them.”

Agatha took the lead, jogging through the woods away from the creek. Demetrius and Cody followed her, and Dave and Oliver brought up the rear. With each squelching step he took, Demetrius was glad he’d worn his oldest pair of running shoes. And that his phone was supposedly waterproof.

With a shout, Agatha dodged sharply to the left. Demetrius saw a male zombie lunge out from behind a tree. He was dressed in a robe over pajamas, so definitely not someone that had dug his way out of a grave. Unless he’d requested a really casual funeral.

“Look out!” Demetrius shouted as he swerved out of the path of the pajama wearing man.

But more zombies were scattered among the trees. Hands groped for him from the shadows, fingers clutching at his shirt and skimming along his arms. The others cried out and cursed as they fought through the attacks as well, and it all made Demetrius think of the terrible haunted house put on by the Parson’s Hollow Men’s Club every autumn. It was set up in the old Victorian house the club had bought years ago as a gathering place, and which was converted into a fundraising event based on the season. Halloween was the biggest draw, of course, with people lined up down the block to walk through the house and have the screams scared out of them by the members of the club who dressed as zombies and mad scientists and Frankenstein’s monster and lunged at them from all the dark corners.

Big difference was these zombies would bite if given the chance. And they would all definitely die if they didn’t pay attention.

Demetrius eluded a trio of grasping and moaning zombies, his heart pounding and a coppery taste in the back of his throat. Ahead of them, a bright light pierced the gloom of the storm and the woods.

“I see a light! Directly ahead of us.”

“Thank God,” Dave said, then followed that with a shout of surprise and a terrified scream that felt like a knife in Demetrius’s gut.

“Dave!” Cody shouted from off to Demetrius’s right. “No!”

Demetrius turned back and saw Dave tussling with two zombies, repeatedly jerking his hands out of biting range as he tried to fight them off. In a flash of lightning, Demetrius saw Oliver rushing toward Dave, panic and fear plain in his expression even in the strobe effect view. Cody got to Dave first, however, rushing out of the woods and grabbing one of the zombies around the waist as if he was back on the football field in high school. His momentum tore the zombie away from Dave and sent all of them to the ground.

“Cody!” Demetrius shouted.

Panic tightened high up in his chest, a cold, hard knot that made it difficult to breathe and nearly impossible to think clearly. All he knew was he needed to help, he needed to save Cody. His thoughts stuttered across the one word denial that any of this was happening: No, no, no, no, no.

He zigged and zagged between trees and around zombies, pushing back the ones that grabbed for him, keeping his eyes on the forms struggling on the ground. He felt like he was running through a dream, unable to get ahead no matter how fast he moved and what path he took. All he could do was watch as Cody and Dave each grappled with a zombie.

Cody gripped the sleeves of his attacker’s shirt and held the man up and away from him. But the zombie became top heavy, Demetrius could tell by the way the man swayed above Cody before falling to one side and forcing Cody to roll along with him. They were now at the perfect spot to allow Demetrius to see through the gray light of rain-soaked woods as the man Cody struggled with twisted and bent at a nearly impossible angle. The move surprised Cody, and he pushed back harder, tightening his grip on the zombie’s clothing. But the old fabric of the sleeve Cody held tore, and the zombie lunged down to bite Cody’s forearm.

“NO!” Demetrius screamed, his voice pitched impossibly high as his heart banged and a cold wave of terror blasted through him.

Cody screamed. He flailed his free hand on the ground, looking for some kind of weapon. But there was nothing. The zombie bit down harder, and Cody screamed again.

Then Dave staggered up and drove a branch down into the top of the zombie’s skull. The thing’s hands fell limp, and its mouth slid off Cody’s arm. Cody shoved the body aside and scrambled through the leaves away from it. Another flash of lightning left an imprint on Demetrius’s vision of Cody: eyes wide with terror, mouth open and gasping, blood streaming down his forearm.

“Grab him!” Agatha shouted as she stabbed her own makeshift spear at a couple of zombies. “We’re almost there.”

Demetrius finally reached Cody and fell to his knees beside him.

“I’m here. I’m here.”

“I’m bit,” Cody said, voice shaking as he held his hand clamped over the wound. “I’m bit. It bit me. Oh shit, I’m bit.”

“I know,” Demetrius said. “I know. It’s all. It will be all right.”

“Get him to his feet,” Dave said, dropping to his knees on the opposite side of Cody. “We’ll help you there, bruh.”

They struggled a bit, but as Agatha and Oliver held off zombies, Dave and Demetrius got Cody to his feet. Demetrius tugged at Cody’s hand until he finally removed it from the wound and put his arm around Demetrius’s shoulders. The bite was a red, bloody mess. Demetrius’s stomach lurched, and he forced himself to look away.

“I’m bit.”