Night Betrayed by Joss Ware Page A

She’d dealt with more, but any number over five was frightening and chancy.
    The familiar fear clogged her throat and her hands had gone clammy. Selena was suddenly acutely aware of the breeze that had been so refreshing earlier, but now felt like an icy blast. The last bit of warmth from the wine that had made her so loose had disappeared, leaving her taut and edgy and her heart pounding.
    No matter how many times she did this, no matter how important it was, how critical . . . Selena still felt the fear. As if to remind her of the dangers, the wounds on her chest tightened and ached. And a gash along her back that had healed long ago, twinged.
    But she went on.
    Now she could smell them in the air—the musty, death smell of old flesh and the putrid rot of their breath. Like swamp and garbage that had been sitting in the sun, baking, for days.
    But this was nothing. When they got closer, she’d hardly be able to breathe for the stench.
    Selena’s hands were cold and clammy and she automatically curled one around the crystal. It was hot now, like a stone that had been tucked amid the ashes of a fire and then withdrawn. The thick pouch protected her from the heat, but she’d soon remove it so that the rosy glow could beam through the night.
    She stopped in a shadow about three hundred yards from the wall, and even farther from the troop of gangas. The blossoms from the small cluster of apple trees had already dropped their petals and tiny buds had begun to form. The crushed and rusted form of a car sat a few feet away, and what looked like an old sign leaned against it. It was too dark to read the faded letters, but she knew there was a large fancy R on it.
    The creatures were somehow taller than the humans from which they’d come—taller and broader and thicker, as if their original bodies had been stretched and stuffed to make them larger, causing their skin and skeletons to protest the mistreatment and begin to tear and protrude.
    Selena counted eight zombies. Too many.
    She shuddered and swallowed. Time to move closer.
    From behind her, then, suddenly in the night, came a loud clanging sound.
    Selena froze and turned, her heart skipping a beat. A great beam of white light shot into the air from behind the walls, accompanying the ringing bell.
    That was the signal. They’d found the girl Hannah.
    Selena felt a wave of relief so strong that she nearly doubled over, her fingers brushing the rough bark of a tree next to her. They’d found her. She was safe.
    An answering light shone into the dark sky in the west, and then another, to the south. The search parties: acknowledging the message and confirming their locations. Far from where Selena was in the north.
    The searchers were coming back, and Selena could—
    Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the sound of hoofbeats.
    He was riding across the expanse of field, clearly outlined by the slice of moon and the glow from the torch he held high over his head.
    Selena watched as he galloped madly toward the cluster of zombies, the fire blazing a stream in the dark blue night above him.
    She realized in an instant what he was about to do, and she had to move.
    Dashing out of the trees into the open, the crystal swaying and bouncing against her, Selena shouted and waved her arms. She was exposing herself and him as well, but her biggest concern was to stop him before he tore into the zombies and tossed the blazing fire onto them.
    At the sound of her shouts, he looked over. In an instant, he wheeled the horse expertly, front hooves flailing briefly against the sky. Then suddenly they were barreling down toward her.
    Upright and steady in the saddle, he held the horse’s mane in one hand and the fiery torch in the other, looking like some primitive warrior. As one, they leapt over a small crevice in the ground and then over a pile of old tires. He barely shifted in his seat, his hair gleaming from the flames above.
    It wasn’t until they came closer that she