Guide to Surviving, chapter 12 (Patreon)

“Climb!” a red-headed woman screamed at Stella through the fence. That kickstarted Stella’s brain, and she pulled herself up. Her leg was on fire, but she ignored the pain. The dark-haired Lily came running out with a ladder, setting it up next to the fence, and the redhead climbed to the top.

Zombies hit the fence, causing it to shake, and Stella had to cling to the links with every bit of stubbornness she possessed. After a second, she forced herself to climb, one handhold at a time. She was almost out of energy when the redhead reached over the fence and caught her wrist.

Stella ignored the agony and let the woman help her over the top and then she bumped down the ladder, leaving long streaks of red on each step. When she reached the bottom, she had nothing left to give. She collapsed in the dust and cried as her muscles shook and blood gathered under her in a stick pool.

“Help her.”

“Who is she?”

“The werewolf’s pack member. If she dies, the werewolf is going to blame us.”

“We didn’t stab her.”

“You’d better hope we can save her.”

Words floated around Stella, not quite sinking in far enough for her to make sense of them. Hands pulled her up, and Stella swallowed a scream, the edges of which escaped. The strangled sound elicited moaning cries from the zombies outside the fence.

“Hurry up. We need to get out of their line of sight.”

“I’m trying. She’s slippery.”

“And she’s going to bleed to death if you don’t hurry up.”

Stella went limp as the two women carried her toward the compound. They put her facedown on a camping cot and then she felt hands pulling at her pants.

“What happened?”

“One of the schoolboys dragged a horde over here.”

“I never thought one of them would be willing to go on a suicide run.”

These were new voices. Stella cracked her eyes open to see a black woman kneeling next to another cot where Sally lay with a towel over her eyes. Her hand was shaking, and tremors wracked her frame. She didn’t good. The red-haired woman and the blonde pregnant lady Stella had seen before moved to Stella’s side, blocking her view of Sally.

“We shouldn’t have declared war on them when we have a potentially more dangerous enemy moving in.”

“Not our call.”

“We have to live with the consequences.”

“We can leave. We can make that choice. Is that what you’re going to do, Beck?”

That caused the group to fall silent. Someone pressed something to Stella’s cut, and she screamed.

“Make her be quiet. Sally’s spell is down.”

“I’d like to see you be quiet with this kind of wound.”

“If she brings the zombies in here, the kids will die.”

That sank in farther than their other complaints. “I’ll be quiet,” Stella said. “Get me something to bite.”

The redhaired woman crouched next to Stella’s head. “The wound is bad, and Sally threw everything she had into stopping the truck. We have poultices we can use to staunch the bleeding, but I don’t think you can survive unless your friend can call a wolf for you.” She thrust a belt into Stella’s hand, and Stella brought it up to her mouth, but she didn’t bite down yet.

Instead, a rough and near-hysterical laugh slipped out before Stella could police it. Alicia didn’t know how to call a wolf spirit, so Stella was going to die here. At least zombies wouldn’t eat her. A new fear gnawed at her. “If I die, will I turn into a zombie?” She had seen a lot of death her in years, but always at the gnarled hands of a zombie. Even Jordan had used a zombie rather than have their father’s blood on his hands.

The women drew back. “Did one of them touch you?” the black woman next to Sally asked, her voice sharp.

“No.” Stella started to float away, but the pregnant blonde shook her shoulder.

“How long has it been since you touched a zombie?”

How long had it been? It had been the wanderer too near her treehouse, but that was before Alicia, which was a different lifetime. Back then she hadn’t cared about living, so of course death couldn’t be bothered with her. Death was one bitch that loved her irony.

“How long?” The blonde demanded as she shook Stella again. Stella clamped down on a scream as her leg flared with bright pain.

“Be careful. You started the bleeding again.”

“We have children in here. We have to know.”

“Three days,” Stella snapped. “Three days ago, I beheaded one.”

The blonde woman sat down heavily on the floor next to Stella. “Thank god.”

Stella looked down at her. “But if I do start to turn, you cut my head off without hesitating.”

The woman rested her hand on her pregnant stomach. “I have no problem with that. But you need to hold on until your friend can come, and I hope the calling of a wolf spirit is a lot less complicated than Chad’s ridiculous ceremonies for calling the cat spirits.”

Stella almost cried. When the blonde tried to stand, Stella caught her hand. “Alicia is going to try to be go off alone. Don’t let her. Invite her in. Let her come and go until she gets comfortable with you but give her a place.” Stella didn’t want Alicia to retreat into the animal. She was more than a wolf, and she shouldn’t have to live a half-life.

“Of course, we will,” the redhead answered. “She won’t even need to buy a spot. She’s spirit-touched.”

Stella floated away, aware that there was something important in those words, but she couldn’t parse them with a brain that wanted sleep. She was so tired that she felt like she had never been allowed to sleep before. Her eyes drifted closed, but someone kept shaking her shoulder, kept pressing the poultice against the wound, opening new fires that dragged Stella back from oblivion.

“Stella!” a desperate voice screamed, and every person in the room answered with a shushing noise. Stella might have joined the chorus if she had energy for it. Alicia shoved her way to Stella’s cot, her face scratched and bleeding, and a deep set of claw marks down one arm.

Stella summoned every bit of energy to touch the wound. “You’re hurt.”

“I’m hurt?” Alicia gave a sob and then looked around her before composing her features. “You got yourself stabbed in the ass by a sword.”

“A sword-like object. That was not really a sword,” Stella teased. She didn’t feel any pain now, just a deep cold that made her shiver.

Another sob escaped Alicia. “What is wrong with you?”

“A sword-like object through my ass, apparently.” Stella closed her eyes. “I’m cold.”

“No. Keep your eyes open,” Alicia snapped. Stella didn’t have the energy to bother trying. “Get Sally to do something.”

“She’s down until she can recover from the truck.”

“The what?”

Someone sighed. “One of the schoolboys tried to drive a truck through our fence. She stopped it, but she’s down. She’s not going to be able to do anything for days.”

“This is why we need another magic user.”

“I don’t see how we can work any harder on that particular goal.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t. I’m just pointing out the obvious. Sally needs backup.”

“She might have been stronger if she hadn’t healed Stella, and now it looks like that was a waste of effort.”

“Shut up. All of you.” That was Alicia. The growl at the end made that clear. Stella wished she could stay, but the cold stole what energy she had left. She was dying.

“Stella. No. Don’t you dare close your eyes. Open them.” Alicia shook her shoulder, but Stella didn’t have the energy to listen. “No!” The word ended in a pained howl that cut through Stella’s soul. Loneliness and pain and loss and desperation filled the mournful notes before something slammed into Stella’s ribs. She gasped and pushed herself up on her arms as the world turned into a kaleidoscope of color and sound and pain. Mist gathered around her, thickening to obscure her view of most of the room, but a tunnel connected her with Alicia.

Need crawled across her skin. A need to be with Alicia—not like with-with her, but near her. A feeling like Alicia was part of her. She had two arms and two legs and one Alicia and she couldn’t imagine life without one. And maybe… maybe… if she had to, she might continue after having one amputated, but she couldn’t imagine what life would look like after the loss.

Alicia reached for her, resting a hand on Stella’s shoulder.

Stella opened her mouth, but she couldn’t find language. Words didn’t fit in her mouth or her brain. Instead, she tipped her head back and howled. After a second, Alicia added her own howl to Stella’s and for one second, everything was perfect.

Panting as if she’d been running a marathon, Stella collapsed onto the cot.

“Great, so that’s sorted,” Chad said, “but is anyone else worried about the fact that apparently we’re in the opening stages of a war?”

Alicia growled. If Stella weren’t so tired, she would have seconded that growl and added a few choice pieces of profanity. Instead, she slid into sleep.