"That fucking asshole, I'm gonna take his balls!" Vee exclaims, punching a car door.
Warren pushes himself painfully up until he's sitting up against the side of the car. He grabs at his trouser leg and tears it to the knee, inspecting the wound. He feels the back of his calf and sighs. "Through and through, I'll live. Now who the fuck was that?"
Vee hisses through clenched teeth. "He calls himself the Chief. He's the fucker who locked me up. Wanted to use me as a sex toy for his little fucking group. I'm gonna kill him."
I hear my own voice, but I'm barely aware I'm speaking. It still feels like a dream, and I can't quite believe what I just saw.
"His name isn't the Chief." I look back across the garage to the hotel as if I might still see him standing there smiling in the doorway. "And you're not going to kill him, Vee. I am."
Vee looks at me as if I've lost it. "What are you talking about? That's the fucker who runs the place. Calls himself the Chief."
I shake my head. "I know him by a different name." I look down at my spent gun and wish I had more ammo. If I had the fucking nuclear codes in front of me I'd use them if it meant he'd be dead. "His name is Sergeant Laurence," I say, staring back at the hotel. "I met him in New York. He's the man who killed my girlfriend. Shot her in the chest and drove over her body."
I look back at Vee, and she can tell by the fire in my eyes that I'm completely sane, and completely serious. "And now he's killed Bishop. Enough.” I nod towards Warren's injured leg. “We're going to get Warren's leg fixed up, then we're going to find more ammo. Then I'm going to kill that bastard."
In the distance I hear the howls of the infected echo from the streets below. For a month those sounds have stuck terror in my heart and sent me cowering into the shadows. Not any more. Now the dead will become my allies, bound by a shared cause.
There are worse things out there than the infected.
And I'm going to kill them all.
Thank you for reading CORDYCEPS, the second book in the Last Man Standing series. If you'd like to keep updated with my latest releases and sales you should subscribe to my newsletter:
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