Live Another Day by Baileigh Higgins (reading in the dark .txt) 📗

strapped him to a chair with tape while his sister watched on in terror. Their father lay on the floor in a growing pool of blood, his face slack in death.

“Done,” Hiran said.

“Carlito, warm up our guest, will you? He looks a bit chilly,” Ke Tau said with a sinister smile.

“With pleasure,” Carlito replied as he removed a lighter from his pocket. He flicked the top off and rolled his thumb across until a naked flame burned brightly. This he lowered to the boy’s thigh until it touched the skin.

Hoarse cries tore from the teenage boy’s lips, harsh and unforgiving. The flesh of his leg blistered and rose, turning bright red and angry. Michael blanched but forced himself to watch with an expression of indifference.

Ruby screamed and struggled against the grasp of Mosi as Carlito tortured her brother. “No, Lonny, no! No!”

Her struggles earned her nothing more than a slap across the face. Michael wracked his brains for a way out, not only for him but the two youngster’s as well.

“Aren’t you going to recruit him?” he asked Ke Tau.

“Sometimes I do, but I know people and this one…” Ke Tau shrugged. “He won’t fight for me.”

Michael opened his mouth to argue, but a glint in Ke Tau’s eyes warned him not to. He wants me to fight, to show the real me.

He gritted his teeth against a rising tide of nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. Rebecca was right. Mpho was right. He could never have done this. He could never have hurt these people. I have to get out of here. Now.

Chapter 10 - Lisa

Lisa ran through the night with nothing more than a knife, a gun, and a flashlight. The rain had softened to a mild patter, and the rumbling thunder grew distant. Occasional flashes of lightning still lit up the dark, but the worst of the storm was over.

As she ran, she cursed. “Why? Why the fuck did I leave him alone? I should have stayed.”

The sight of the dying Joanna flashed before her eyes, and she sped up. Her legs churned, and she hardly slowed when she reached the outer gates, scaling them in one swift move. “I’m coming for you, Kabelo.”

After making her way past the barrier and across the moat, she sprinted into the night. Her flashlight bobbed up and down; its light was just enough to show her the way. She stuck to the road, and her feet crunched on the gravel until she reached the tar.

Weeks of hard labor had strengthened her body and now stood her in good stead. Her breath flowed in and out of her lungs in a steady rhythm as she fell into a jog. Her gait was smooth and even.

After a time, she switched off the light when the clouds parted to reveal the moon. Its silver light lit the way like a beacon. “Run, little rabbit. Run.”

There was no need to try and track Kabelo. She knew where he was going. Ke Tau. All she had to do was catch him before he got there.

The road passed beneath her feet at a swift pace until she reached the crossing into Riebeeckstad. Here she was forced to slow down and navigate her way between the cars that clogged it. While a passage through had been cleared by Breytenbach’s team, infected were an ever-present threat.

She encountered no zombies, though, and passed without incident. Her gaze fixed on the horizon, and she estimated she’d reach Welkom within an hour. The minutes passed, falling by the wayside as the distance between her and town shrank.

The entire time she ran, she expected to see the slender figure of Kabelo in the distance. But he must have been faster than she expected because before she knew it, she hit the outskirts of town.

Here she slowed to a stop to reevaluate. Catching the boy on the road outside of town was one thing, but going into a zombie-infested urban maze after him was another. Especially alone.

“Crap. What do I do now?” Her voice echoed around her, but it provided no answers to her dilemma. She looked over her shoulder in the direction she’d come from and bit her lip. “Should I go back?”

Then she remembered Joanna lying on the ground while the blood pumped out of her frail body. Kind Joanna. Helpful Joanna. A person who’d never hurt anyone or anything. Her resolve hardened into steel.

She slipped her knife from its scabbard and held it in her right. In her left, she held the flashlight though she didn’t switch it on. The light would only draw infected. On balled feet, she snuck into town, taking the shortest route to Ke Tau’s place.

At first, it was easy going. The road stretched long and straight with a large empty field on her left and barren houses on the right. She walked down the middle, her eyes peeled for zombies, and her ears perked for unusual noises.

Enfolded by the quiet that accompanies the end of the world, Lisa pushed deeper into town. Her tread was light, but now and then a bit of sand or gravel would crunch beneath her soles. Her soft breaths sounded loud to her ears, and the faint crackles of rodents scurrying in the field were like gunshots to her sensitive hearing.

Her bare arms prickled in the cold night air. She'd taken off her soaked jacket earlier. Now she stopped and unwound it from her waist to slip it back on. The damp cloth rasped across her skin and elicited a shiver from her core.

A loud crack came from the open field next to her, and she whirled. A towering figure lurched from a clump of bushes and fell onto her upraised hands. Lisa's knees buckled under the weight of the heavyset zombie. She strained to stay upright as it shoved into her arms. Her muscles trembled as teeth she couldn't see clicked shut in front of her face.

Panic surged through Lisa. She ground her heels into the asphalt,