Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 124

BREN

I closed my eyes and braced myself against the bullet, expecting it to pass through my head, or if Drucker still had a cruel bone left, he'd go for my heart, right through my aorta, and let me bleed out to death right there on the floor. Instead, Drucker cried out. When I opened my eyes, an arrow pierced through the back of Drucker's hand, diverting his aim a few inches to the side, the bullet hitting the cross looming behind me.

And that's when Haskell struck.

Like a predator smelling injured prey, Haskell latched on top of Drucker, tearing into his arm, putting all his weight to pin the man down with his hands still bound behind his back. Aria and Paloma hauled Yousef off the pew and ran, dragging the boy with them toward the back, where Noodle urged them to hide up in the balcony. Peter and Logan shot at where the soldiers took cover while Olson and Murray returned fire. Gunshots rang across the worship hall, blending with Haskell's shrieks and Drucker's desperate screams.

Olson gaped, hands shaking as he watched Haskell took another bite out of Drucker's arm. With the infected blood shooting him with adrenaline and fury, Haskell tore his wrists off his bounds, tearing a few of his skin in the process, and proceeded to beat Drucker with his freed fists. That was when Olson bolted.

I saw the knife sheathed on Olson's belt, and I stuck my leg out, tripping him onto his face. Swinging my legs, I planted my feet on the ground and stood up, turning around and smashed the back of the chair on top of Olson's body. He let out a loud grunt and a whimper, hitting him right on the gut. I managed to grab the knife's handle and pulled it out of the sheathe a split second before Olson pushed my chair off of him. I went with the momentum, rolling to my side, and I fervently slashed the binds lose.

Drucker managed to push Haskell off and crawled under the pews to get away from him. Haskell took a step back, flailing to regain his balance, but his back ankles stuck my chair, and he toppled over me...and landed on top of Olson.

Finding new meat, he tore through Olson's shoulder as the soldier screamed.

"Chris!" Murray screamed. Left with no choice, he sprayed a hail of bullets to suppress Logan and Peter behind cover, darting across the hall to where Drucker kept crawling. He merely had to follow the blood trail to find him and pulled him out of the row. "Come on! Let's get out of here!" Murray dragged Drucker into the hallway.

Olson's screams slowly died down.

And there! I felt it. The binds loosened, and I could finally feel the blood rushing back into my hands normally. I curled and uncurled my fist a couple of times as I got up to my feet, trying to reorient myself.

"Bren! Over here!" Logan shouted.

I followed his voice and found him waving at me from the entrance.

Then, Haskell lifted his head, flesh stuck between his teeth, and his eyes landed on me. I knew what he wanted. Beneath Haskell, Olson was starting to stir awake.

Gripping my knife, I scampered in the other direction, toward where Drucker and Murray had gone to as Haskell sprung to his feet and ran after me. Bullets followed his wake, hitting him on the shoulder and the hip, but not enough to put him down. One arrow struck him on the arm, but that didn't even bother him. Haskell merely broke the jutting tail end and kept running.

Drucker's blood trails led to the left. I didn't think it would be a good idea to hide beside another infected, and Drucker's injuries might be serious. He could turn in three minutes or three hours, but I was not going to risk it. I turned right and slammed straight into Walters and Isaacs.