Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Fifty-Six: Parrish

"It's a trap," she shouted. She gripped her sword tighter and spun around, searching for an exit, but they were surrounded. The lights flickered, and Parrish prayed for Crash to hang on to whatever power was controlling those lights.

Karmen fiddled with the radio, screaming into it that they needed help, but the only response was static.

The bodies that littered the floor stood, their eyes locked on the three girls standing in the middle of them.

"What do we do?" Karmen screamed.

"Whatever it was you both did back in Baltimore, I need you to do it again," she said.

She looked at Lily, catching her eye for a second. The girl looked just as surprised as Parrish, but she wasn't convinced. Would she help them? Or fight to destroy them?

Her mind raced to find a strategy for survival, but she couldn't think straight. There were just too many of them. If they cleared back toward the door, they'd still have dozens at their backs.

"Come closer," she said as she sliced through the neck of the closest rotter. "Put your backs against mine. I'll kill toward the door. You try to daze or mesmerize the ones behind me if you can."

"I don't know if I can do this," Karmen said. She lifted her shotgun and blasted a hole in the chest of a rotter clawing at her arms.

"You have to," Parrish said, her ears ringing. "You won't be able to shoot them fast enough."

"Take my hand," Lily said.

Parrish didn't have time to turn around and see if what they were doing was working or not. There were so many rotters right in front of her that she couldn't even see the double doors anymore.

She slashed through them as fast as she could, inching forward as each one fell. A dim blue light surrounded her sword.

"Parrish, help," Karmen screamed.

She stuck her sword through the neck of another rotter and kicked him in the chest, pulling her blade out as he fell backward. She spun on her heels, coming around Lily's side and planting her boot in the gut of another rotter.

Karmen had her hands on her head and was shaking it back and forth wildly. If she didn't get her shit together, she was going to get them all killed.

Parrish moved in front of Karmen and sliced down several zombies who had almost reached them on that side, but there was no way she could do this all by herself.

"Hey, I know you're both scared, but we don't have time for that right now," she said as she fought. "We have to work together. I can't do this alone."

She paused for a second and grabbed Karmen's arm, pulling her hands away from her face so she could look her in they eyes.

"You can do this," she said. "Just breathe."

Karmen took a deep breath in through her nose and nodded, but her eyes were wild with fear.

A rotting hand grabbed Parrish's arm and she gritted her teeth, spinning around to kick the zombie's knee. It cracked and the rotter fell to the ground, its teeth snapping onto the laces on her boot.

She pulled a pistol from the leather strap at her hip and shot it straight through the top of its head.

When she'd created a small space between their group and the rotters behind them, she pushed back through the two other girls and started killing her way toward the doors again. Blood splattered onto her neck and face, but she kept going. Her muscles ached, but she didn't stop for a second.