Chapter 6

Nina couldn't understand why the man in black was walking toward her while an infected creature hung frozen inches from Rebecca's neck, its ruined mouth stretched wide enough to show the bloody gaps where its teeth had broken. She could hear her own breathing scraping through her throat, feel the sticky blood beneath her torn sleeve, and see Daniel gripping Rebecca's shoulder so tightly that his fingers had twisted the fabric of her blouse, but neither of them could move, not even when Nina tried to pull her mother away from the thing that had been seconds away from ripping her throat open. The entire street looked like somebody had taken a photograph of the world's worst nightmare, except the photograph smelled of burning rubber, open wounds, and the shit Nina had nearly stepped in while escaping her house.

Doom kept walking as though none of it concerned him, his black shoes moving across the bloodstained pavement without disturbing a single drop, and Nina found herself staring at his face despite everything happening around her. Jesus Christ, the world was ending, dead people were trying to eat everybody, and some ridiculously handsome bastard had appeared in the middle of it wearing black like he'd come to attend a funeral he hadn't bothered to organize. His dark hair fell carelessly across his forehead, his features were sharp without looking unnatural, and there was something deeply wrong about how comfortable he appeared among the bodies, the overturned cars, and the infected creatures whose jaws continued twitching without making a sound.

Nina tried calling out to him, but her voice came out rough and strained, almost disappearing beneath the pounding of her own heart, and she had to swallow before attempting again.

"Hey, you fucking lunatic, could you explain what the hell you've done to everyone out here, because my mother has a dead bastard hanging over her neck and I'd really appreciate it if you stopped walking around like you're looking for a bloody parking space?"

Doom didn't answer, and the complete lack of reaction irritated Nina almost as much as it frightened her, because even the most useless person she'd ever met would have at least looked at somebody screaming directly at them. His gaze passed over Daniel, settled briefly on Rebecca, and then moved toward Elise, who stood among the frozen infected with the restraints still hanging around her wrists, her grey face tilted toward him and her lips parted around teeth stained with blood.

Nina felt her stomach twist as she looked at her friend, remembering the girl who used to steal sweets from her shopping basket and laugh so hard that she sometimes snorted, because the creature standing there wore Elise's face but had none of the warmth Nina desperately wanted to find inside it. Elise's fingers twitched against the restraints, her nails scraped slowly across her palm, and although every other infected creature remained suspended in place, Nina could have sworn her friend's cloudy eyes followed Doom as he approached.

"Elise, please don't do anything stupid right now, because I swear to God I cannot handle watching you attack somebody else while this entire street is doing whatever fucked-up nonsense this is," Nina pleaded, fighting against the pressure holding her in place.

Elise's lips moved, but no sound reached Nina, and Doom continued forward until he stood several feet away from her, close enough that she could see the faint shadow beneath his eyes and the tiny flecks of blood scattered across the pavement behind him without a single stain touching his clothes. Nina searched his face for an explanation, some sign of panic or concern, but he looked as if he'd arrived at an appointment and found everything exactly where it was supposed to be.

"What are you staring at, because if you've got some magical explanation for why the dead are trying to eat us, now would be a fucking wonderful time to share it with the people who are about to become their lunch," Nina demanded, her voice shaking despite her attempt to sound furious.

Doom's eyes lowered toward her hand, and Nina instinctively pulled it against her chest, remembering Martin's blood smearing across her skin at the supermarket and the way she'd scrubbed herself raw at the petrol station. His expression changed so slightly that she couldn't tell whether he'd noticed the injury, recognized something about it, or simply found her attempts to hide a bloody hand amusing, but the attention made her skin crawl beneath her clothes.

She reached toward Rebecca, hoping she could at least touch her mother's fingers, when Doom raised one hand without looking away from her. A crushing pressure settled inside Nina's chest, forcing the breath out of her lungs as her arm stopped halfway between them, and she struggled against it until her shoulder began to ache. Nothing touched her, yet she felt as though the slightest movement might cause something inside her body to break, while the handsome bastard watched without appearing particularly interested in the fact that she was fighting to breathe.

"Stop doing whatever the hell you're doing to me, because I haven't touched you, stolen your car, or done anything else that would justify you standing there trying to crush my bloody ribs," she gasped, glaring at him through the tears gathering in her eyes.

Doom lowered his hand, and the pressure vanished so suddenly that Nina stumbled forward, catching herself against a parked car before her knees could give way. She dragged air into her lungs while Daniel strained to reach her, his face twisted with helpless fury, but Doom's attention had already shifted beyond them toward the darkened windows of the neighbourhood.

The flames crawling around an overturned vehicle bent toward him, their orange tongues stretching unnaturally across the metal without touching his clothes, and a thin crack spread through the windscreen as the suspended glass trembled around its edges. Nina stared at the vehicle, then at the man standing beside it, because she had seen enough impossible things that morning to last several lifetimes, yet watching fire lean toward somebody as if it wanted to crawl into his hands made her feel like she was losing her mind.

Doom looked back at Nina, and something in his expression changed, not enough to reveal what he was thinking but enough to make her wish he would go back to ignoring her. He seemed satisfied with whatever he'd found, although Nina couldn't imagine what the hell he could possibly be examining in a terrified woman standing beside a bloodstained car while her infected best friend waited among the dead.

"Please, whatever you're planning, don't leave us here with these things, because my daughter is standing right there and I cannot keep watching her become something that wants to tear everybody apart," Rebecca pleaded, her voice breaking as she struggled against the invisible stillness.

Doom gave her no answer, and after one final glance at Nina, he turned away and began walking toward the end of the street, his hands hanging loosely beside him as though he hadn't just stopped an entire apocalypse in the middle of its favourite meal.

Nina watched him move past the frozen bodies, her mind scrambling to understand why nobody could touch him, why the infected had abandoned their victims to stare at him, and why his attention had settled on her hand before he left. She wanted to chase him, demand answers, or throw something heavy at the back of his beautiful head until he finally acknowledged that other people were standing there, but her legs remained unsteady and her mother was still trapped beneath a creature whose teeth had been inches from her throat.

Doom reached the end of the street, and the instant his foot touched the pavement beyond the parked vehicles, the windscreen beside him shattered into a thousand pieces as the world lurched back into motion.

Rain struck the road, flames roared against the overturned car, and the infected creature beside Rebecca lunged forward with its mouth stretched toward her neck while Daniel screamed and Nina threw herself toward them, shouting a warning so loudly that her throat burned. The creature's teeth snapped shut inches from Rebecca's skin, but instead of biting her, it twisted its ruined head toward the far end of the street, where Doom was still walking away without bothering to look back.

The infected woman's jaw hung open as she stared after him, her bloodied fingers twitching against Rebecca's shoulder, and then every other creature in the street began turning in the same direction, abandoning the living where they stood.

Nina followed their gaze, her heart hammering as the dead crowded the road behind Doom, their ruined faces lifting toward the man in black, and she watched him continue walking while an entire street of hungry corpses stared at him as though he were the only thing left in the world worth following.