Dog Blood

can’t cover my eyes, so I instinctively screw them shut. I almost drop Ellis but manage to tighten my grip before she falls.
    “Let her go,” an immediately familiar voice orders.
    “Julia? How did you…?”
    “I followed you. We knew you were looking for your kid, and Craven showed me what you found on the system.”
    “But what about the plan? The fighting?”
    “What about it? Have you seen what’s happening out there? The chain reaction’s started, McCoyne. They’re turning on each other.”
    “So you’ve got what you wanted. The city’s falling apart and-”
    “I can’t let you take her. Kids like this are the future. We need them more than you can imagine-”
    “She’s staying with me.”
    “You don’t understand. Sahota and Preston both-”
    “No, you don’t understand. Ellis is my daughter, and I’m responsible for-”
    “Your only responsibility is to this war.”
    “But I’ll take her back to the others. I promised Preston I’d-”
    “Do you think I’m stupid? If I let you go you’d disappear and we’d never see either of you again. I can’t take that risk. She’s coming with me, and you should be proud to let her go. We’ll take her, and she’ll help us hunt more of them down until the last one’s dead. Your kid’s already more of a fighter than you’ll ever be, and you should-”
    “She’s my little girl. I don’t want her to fight.”
    “You dumb bastard, do you think you have a choice? Just let her go.”
    I don’t answer. I run forward, trying to find a way past. Julia comes at me, and I drop Ellis to defend myself. Another flash of the light blinds me for an instant, and the sudden tightening of the cord as Ellis darts away pulls me off balance. Julia swings a punch and catches me on the side of the head. I’m knocked back and sent reeling by the unexpected angle of her attack. I trip over something hard and heavy in the dark behind me and find myself on my knees in some kind of oily inspection pit. I feel the cord tighten again, and I immediately grab it and try to pull Ellis back. It gets even tighter, then goes taut, then drops down loose as Julia cuts through it.
    “Ellis!” I shout as I scramble out of the pit. Julia drops her flashlight, and for a split second I catch a fleeting glimpse of her shape as she sprints through the office and back outside, barely managing to drag Ellis behind her. I chase after them, over the land at the back of the garage, through the wooden gate, then out along the cobbled passageway. It’s packed with people, far more than before, all of them running to escape the carnage that is steadily consuming the center of town. Can’t see Julia-she’s just one among hundreds now.
    I follow the stumbling crowd until we reach the end of the passageway. I look in all directions and shout for Ellis, but my calls go unanswered, most probably unheard. Too many people. I start to wade through them, unable to see anything through the waves of foul, barely human flesh that constantly crash into me. I grab the knife from my belt and start hacking into those nearest to me, not interested in killing, just wanting them out of the way. The sun’s almost up now, but the light’s still poor. Dirty smoke drifts everywhere like horror film fog.
    Someone grabs me from behind. I spin around to defend myself, but they’re not attacking, just trying to get through. I’m on my back in the gutter in a puddle of rancid rainwater before I know what’s happening. My wrist cracks against a curb, and I drop the knife. I reach out for it, but it’s kicked away by one of the stampeding crowd. Before I can get up someone plants a boot right in the center of my chest. Suddenly struggling to breathe, I roll over and manage to crawl away through the forest of legs. Other Unchanged trip and stumble over and around me, but I force myself to keep moving until I reach the side of the street where their numbers are fewer. I’m next to a badly decayed body in a deserted shop doorway when my hand rests on a length of metal tubing about a yard long. It looks like it was a fence post or part of a road sign, but it’ll make a decent weapon. I use it to help me get up, then head back into the crowd again, swinging it around like a samurai sword. On a vicious, upward arc, the jagged end of the tube hits an Unchanged woman on the side of the head, tearing her flesh from below her ear up to the corner of her eye. I swing the tube again and more of them go down like