Raven's Hell (Savage World 2)

Collin braced himself as this little prick tried to take him down. He got him on the ground, and Collin pinned his arms to his sides with his legs on either side of this piece of shit. He could have killed this bastard nice and slow and watched him bleed out, just lying here and waiting for an infected to come along and contaminate him.

But he lifted his head and stared at the woman. Her eyes were wide, and her lips were parted as she looked at the dead bodies on the ground, at the blood, and then at the way he was holding the knife over the man who had nearly taken her from Collin.

“Look away if the sight of this upsets you.” He didn’t say it angrily, because he could see she was living in the past, remembering the moment that had frozen her. There was no need to make her witness the grisly act he was about to take pleasure in.

“You motherfucker and your skank-ass cunt—”

Collin punched him in the face and heard his nose crunch from the impact. He bared his teeth at this degenerate. “Shut the fuck up,” Collin growled out.

“Kill him,” she said softly. “Make him scream,” she added with anger and hatred in her voice.

Collin glanced at her for a second and then nodded once. He brought the blade across the man’s neck, just like he had done to the other two, but more slowly this time, the fucker bellowing in agony. He watched as blood covered his chest. The guy gurgled and spat out the red liquid.

When he was dead, Collin wiped his blade on the man’s jacket and stood. He didn’t speak while he went through the three motherfuckers’ bags and pockets, taking what he could use as food, weapons, and supplies. He then turned and faced the woman.

The sound of groaning was becoming more apparent, and the noise from the men shouting, of their death cries, and of the banging and breaking of shit in the store had the infected coming out of the damn woodwork.

“Listen, you don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but we need to get the hell out of here,” he said with determination in his voice. Truth was, she could leave without him, but he’d track her, follow her, and convince her that they needed to be together.

No matter how long it took him to do it. She didn’t respond right away, maybe thinking about what she wanted to do, or if she should try to kill him too. He glanced behind him, saw ten or so infected slowly making their way toward the grocery store, and faced her again.

“I’d love to sit here and get to know each other, but we need to leave. Now.”

She seemed to snap out of whatever haze she was in, nodded once, and then turned to head out the rear door that could be seen through the back of the store. He moved in front of her, stopped for a second, and held his hand out, touching her abdomen with his forearm. He wanted to make sure she was safe, and although a horde of infected were coming toward them, he didn’t want to be ambushed either.

When it was clear to move forward, he grabbed her hand, held the knife with his other one, and was pleased when she didn’t fight him on it. Her hand was much smaller than his, and she was cold, her fingers like icicles.

He knew it was because of what happened and not because of the weather. She was breathing heavily, and the sound of her jacket moving up and down from her rapid respirations had Collin wanting to turn around and just hold her. But they would have time for that later. Right now, he needed to get her away from this place, somewhere safe, and then they could talk.

They ran out the back door, and he kept a tight grip on her hand as they moved across the back parking lot and into the woods. There was an infected that staggered out of a gap in the trees, but Collin was ready for him. He wasn’t very decomposed, so that told him this one had been turned recently, and the bite mark on his neck was proof of that. His face was ashen, his eyes milky-white, and he groaned as he tried to swipe at them. But Collin already had the blade plunged into one of his eyes.

The infected fell to the ground, but Collin didn’t stop pulling the woman through the woods. They ran for another five minutes before Collin finally slowed. He pulled her behind him, scanned the woods, and then breathed out. He sheathed his knife and faced her.

She was breathing heavily, her eyes wide as she scanned their surroundings, but she didn’t look as frightened as she had in the store.