Page 40 of Immune

Kaito’s mouth tightens, not quite with a smile but close enough that I want to slap him. Thankfully, he distracts me enough by asking, “Are you hurt?”

“No,” I reply bluntly. His gaze drops pointedly to my knee, then my bleeding hand, and then to the dust coating half of my body. I glare that little bit harder before snapping, “Don’t give me that look.”

“What look?” he questions, almost too innocently.

“A look that makes you think I’m lying,” I grit through clenched teeth.

He gives me a look now, one I don’t appreciate. “You are lying.”

“It’s not a lie,” I counter, pausing for a second. “I’m merely exaggerating the truth and leading it in a more convenient direction.”

Just then, a sharp sound cracks through the basement from the far wall. We both fall silent, stilling where we are. The Zed on the floor continues to crawl toward me, but that’s not what has my blood freezing in my veins. It’s something else that I’ve heard that stalls my heart in my chest and forces my pulse into a rhythm that makes me feel sick.

A Runner.

I know it before I even see it. Runners don’t sound the same as the others. They don’t drag, crawl, or shuffle. They breathe fast, wet, and excited. Their bones creak and click weirdly from the way the virus tightens muscle and tendons,pulling them into something that moves too quickly for an already rotting body.

The sound comes again, a scrape from behind the maintenance shelves. Then a low, eager inhale. Kaito’s face changes, and I know he’s heard it too, and a horror like I haven’t felt in a very long time suddenly washes over me.

Because it’s one thing me being trapped here with a Runner nearby, but it’s another thing completely with Kaito here. He’s already wounded enough, and he’s going to ruin my handiwork all because he couldn’t stay well enough away.

Fucking Alpha.

NINE

DAKOTA

“Dakota,” Kaito calls down from the hole very quietly but loud enough that it reaches my ears from where I stand.

My stomach drops instantly, and not because of the Runner this time. But because of my name. Not Kota, but Dakota. He must have heard me talking to myself before his head popped into view, my talking out loud giving my name away unintentionally. It’s that, or he must have guessed, though that seems a lot less likely. Either way, hearing my name in his voice while I’m trapped in a basement with a Runner nearby feels like the floor is collapsing under me all over again.

“Don’t call me that,” I snap suddenly.

He nods rapidly, instantly conceding, “Okay.”

No argument, no question, and no fucking time to deal with any of it.

The Runner suddenly screams, this shrill sound that chills my bones, right before it bursts from behind the shelving on all fours. It’s too fast, mouth stretched wide, eyes clouded but with far more focus than normal Zeds. Its limbs smack onto the concrete in a horrible, uneven rhythm as it launches itself across the basement.

My hand is wrapped around my gun before my mind can truly form a thought, yanking it out of the holster and aiming at the speedy Runner just as Kaito jumps through the hole.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I shout, fear making me forget to control my voice before the words are out of my mouth.

He hits the basement floor with a grunt that sounds like stupidity and pain fucked and had a baby together. His hand clamps against his stitched side for half a second, but he doesn’tstop there. He comes up swinging a metal pipe he’s apparently pulled from thin air, catching the Runner across the jaw mere seconds before it reaches me. The impact snaps the Runner’s head sideways, but it doesn’t fall.

Runners very rarely do.

It shrieks like a banshee before diving at me again, and I hold my gun steady before pulling the trigger. I fire once, and the shot cracks through the basement far too loudly. The bullet catches the Runner in the shoulder rather than its head, because the bastard moves at the very last second, but the force spins it into a shelving unit.

Above us, every Zed in the building answers and the clinic explodes with a symphony of wet, hungry groans and rumbles.

Kaito looks at me. I look at Kaito.

“Well,” I grumble, voice shaking. “That wasn’t the smartest idea I’ve ever had.”

The Runner lunges again before Kaito can agree, forcing him to duck left as I move right, my bad knee wailing as I will it to work for a little while longer. The Runner splits between us, momentum carrying it past us. Kaito swings the pipe into its leg while I throw myself forward, grabbing my knife from the dead Zed’s eye as I pass.

Twisting too fast, the Runner turns and its claws catch my jacket. I slam into the concrete with a meaty thud and a muted groan, the collision winding me worse than the fall did. Kaito moves instantly, no shouting or posturing or making the mistake of turning my fall into some grand Alpha moment. He simply steps into the space, putting the pipe between the Runner and me long enough for me to roll onto my back.