A River of Ash and Bone by Wren Cartwright

Author:Wren Cartwright [Cartwright, Wren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-11-22T06:00:00+00:00

Now that there was nothing else that needed my attention, I took my time scanning the landscape and noticed a few stray trees nestled up against the car barrier in the distance and a couple of zombies lingering near them. One of the trees was larger than the rest, its trunk extending well into the sky and branches covered liberally with leaves unlike the stripped clean appearance of its neighbors. I squinted, taking off at a run, when the faint sound of a sob grabbed my attention.

“Sakhira!” I shouted, trying to grab her attention.

She came into view as I got closer, her skinny body trembling where she clung to the large branch near the lower part of the tree, and I realized that the few zombies that hadn’t been queued up at the broken gate to go through one by one like they were in a fucking lunch line were snapping their jaws at the base of the tree, waiting her out. Not just lingering as I’d first thought. Fortunately, there were only three.

“I’ve got you, Khira,” I murmured as I inched closer, noting small details like the fact that she was clutching a dead branch close to her chest like a weapon, and that she didn’t appear to be injured although she was clearly distressed.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I saw a bunny and we never see bunnies so I followed it thinking I could bring it home to show my mom, but it ran outside the fence so I climbed the gate and I heard people talking so I had to hide–”

“Hold on a sec,” I grunted, trying not to get distracted. “It’s gonna be okay.” I was curious to hear more of her story, but was more concerned about the fetid undead as they approached me at a loping run.

I circled the one closest to me, kicking it squarely in the chest once it lunged and wincing when its ribs caved in. Khira made a gagging noise in the tree above me. “Don’t you throw up on me,” I groused, dodging the second one as it ran straight for me. She hiccupped a laugh through her tears, going silent once more and allowing me to focus.

I slammed my bat into the first one, praising myself when it went down with just one hit and then rounding on the second. It made a horrific screeching noise as I slammed into it and jerked aside at the last second so that I caught its arm and not anything vital. I cursed as it drew closer, wishing I still had my knife. This was a great bat and all, but my arms were tiring, my shoulders sore from the repeated impacts and the swinging. I was totally going to feel it tomorrow.

“River!” Khira screamed from the tree, her leg slipping for a second before she yanked it back up. The third one didn’t even care about me, it was utterly fixated on her. I finally managed to hit the second straight across the face, then once more for good measure before I took care of the one staring up at Khira.

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