Zombie Romance

Chapter 7

I…I have to go now.” The woman placed a shaking hand against Bryce’s chest and stepped backwards, but Bryce didn’t release his hold on her. He kept her trapped within his arms.
She closed her eyes and took a breath. When she raised her eyelids something had changed. She had changed, hardened.
“You attacked Mitchell,” she muttered.
“Mitchell? The zom…boy?” he asked. He kept his voice calm, conversational. She, he realized, might know something he could use to find the zombie and thus his maker. It was an excuse, a reason to keep her with him. But one he could justify, to himself and the Fringe.
“Zombie. You were going to say zombie. You gave it to him, didn’t you? You’re his pusher.” She jerked against Bryce’s hold again.
He had no idea what the woman was rambling about. “Pusher?” he asked.
She stomped down on his foot and kicked his shin; with her feet bare neither had any affect.
“Yes, pusher. You gave him the drug. How many others have you supplied?” She wrenched side to side. He held firm.
“I haven’t supplied anyone with anything,” he replied.
A rough laugh left her throat. “Then why did you grab Mitchell? Why did you come down here?” She glanced around.
“Why did you?” he asked.
“I was following you, trying to save Mitchell.”
“And I was following him, trying to find his…pusher.”
There was a scuttling up ahead. Both Bryce and Lexi stilled.
“Mitchell,” she murmured.
Bryce inhaled. The telltale scent of rotting human flesh assailed him. Zombies were just ahead, waiting for them.
“You have to leave.” He took a step toward the ladder, signaling for Lexi to follow him. She stood poised like a wild animal startled by a light. Then she ran.
***
Her hand trailing over the concrete wall for reference, Lexi ran as fast as she could through the darkness. Racing forward blindly was like being caught in a nightmare. The sound of her bare feet slapping against the cold floors echoed through the passageways.
She wasn’t sure why she was running. She had believed Bryce when he said he was hunting Mitchell’s pusher. Maybe that was why…. She shouldn’t trust him. The fact that she did, so quickly and so thoroughly, terrified her.
Her footsteps rang through the sewers and her breath came in puffs. She could hear little else, couldn’t tell if the man was in pursuit or not. But before she’d run, she’d heard something else. It had to be Mitchell; who else would be in this tunnel?
Once she found him, she would leave. She would let Bryce—if he was telling the truth—continue the hunt for the pusher.
But she couldn’t leave without her student.
Ignoring the panic that threatened to overtake her again, she raced forward. Then withoutwith no warning, the wall she’d been following disappeared. Her hand hit open air and her foot slipped to the side. She teetered, and for the second time that night, she was falling. And also for the second time that night, an arm wrapped around her waist.  …… To be Continued…...