Page 96 of Savage Throne
In front of me, another corpse shifted, a man whose skull had been shattered by my bullet. He rose to his feet like this grotesque puppet. Blood and green liquid ran in rivulets down his face. And he began walking too.
“No.” I quickened my steps. “This isn’t real.”
The dead men were silent, yet they followed me.
I glanced back wondering if anyone else was seeing this. But the remaining living men still remained on their knees with their heads bowed.
I have to get out of here.
The tent spun around me.
I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the haze clouding my vision.
After the fourth blink, I looked back and the dead men were back on the ground, motionless. Their bodies lay exactly where they had fallen, as lifeless and cold as before.
It was all in my head. They never sat up or walked my way.
I took a shuddering breath.
My hands trembled so hard that I could barely keep my grip on the guns. My pulse thundered, a wild, erratic beat.
I’m losing my mind?
I was so close to the tent flap.
All I could do was focus on leaving. I would not glance over my shoulder again. I didn’t know what was going on in my head.
Had the blood and death pushed me beyond the brink?
I can’t go crazy. . .
Soon, I stumbled out of the tent.
The crisp, cold air was a cruel shock after the stifling heat inside, but it did nothing to ground me. My limbs felt heavy, disconnected, as if I were moving underwater.
Relief surged in me—momentary and fragile—before my knees buckled.
What if now. . .I end up. . .crazy?
And then I just. . .began to fall forward, exhausted and in shock.
The world spun as the ground rushed up to meet me, but I think it was Leo who caught me and wrapped his arms around my shattered soul.
I closed my eyes and shivered. “I-I’m finished.”
He lifted me up completely and carried me forward.
I could hear his footsteps.
“L-leo?” I blinked, the images of the dead men rising still fresh in my mind, a nightmare that felt too real.
"Yes, Monique.” Leo’s voice was so close which told me that it was definitely him carrying me.
“I saw some of the dead men. . .rise.”
His body stiffened around me.
“They began to follow me. . .the dead ones. . .”
