Chapter 7: Desperate Wish
"Should I have spared them?" Merek retorted, one brow arched in quiet defiance.
From the looks of it, the man clinging to the woman with a baby was likely her husband. The other male, a young man about Merek’s age, needed no introduction. He was Tevin—the infamous Tevin. Son of the man who’d just shouted at him. A name often whispered among the girls in the complex, always paired with dreamy sighs and hopeful giggles. The handsome college baseball star. The guy whose father owned a company.
Merek had heard it all before. Even his brother used to joke about wanting Tevin’s face.
Now, Tevin’s father—Mr. William—stood at the front of the group, a wooden bat clenched in his calloused hands. His eyes bored into Merek with burning intensity.
"Those zombies were keeping the others at bay!" William snapped. "Now that they’re gone, this place will be overrun in no time! And why the hell would you fire a gun—are you stupid?!"
Merek scoffed under his breath. "I won’t disturb you any longer. I’m leaving," he muttered, turning toward the exit.
But William stormed after him and grabbed his sleeve with iron fingers.
A sharp hum sliced the air.
The glint of cold steel appeared—just a breath from William’s throat. The women gasped, some shielding the child.
The forty-eight-year-old man froze. His breath hitched, his eyes narrowing with fear at the sight of the sword. But despite the danger, a calculating gleam lingered in his gaze.
"You’ve just rung a dinner bell for every monster nearby," he growled. "And now you want to walk out and leave the door open behind you? You’ll kill that woman and her baby. You’ll be dooming all of us."