Her blade, a silent whisper, eased through infected flesh. As she withdrew it, Ruby Reddington caught the deceased zombie, preventing its mutated bulk from crashing to the floor. Slowly, quietly, she laid her latest victim down. Silence. Ruby was a ghost in the wasteland, rarely seen, never heard. She had vowed to remain mute until the abominations were purged from their land. She wiped her blade clean, its edge gleaming, ready for the next target. This was the deepest she had ever ventured, and she was utterly alone.

  Ruby was a member of the city’s Attack Force, tasked with the relentless, brutal clearance of monsters from the wasteland. This desolate expanse had once been a vibrant district of coastal homes, roaring factories, and bustling markets—and, fatally, home to the Radioactive Power Facility that had birthed the Great Calamity. Ruby wasn’t supposed to be this far out, but her team’s inefficiency, particularly Blaze Reddington’s thunderous approach, negated Ruby’s greatest advantage: stealth. But at least Blaze still showed up. Avalon Skylar had long since abandoned her post to search for her lost sister in the mountains, and Lori, another Reddington, had decided that endless zombie-slaying wasn’t for her. Ruby knew, with a grim certainty, that if this war was to be won, she would have to win it herself.

  She spotted another zombie, a towering brute. Too big for a frontal assault; she needed a plan. With impressive agility, she scaled the rusted scaffolding of a skeletal building, moving silently toward her target. Or targets. As she drew closer, she saw the massive zombie was not alone; two more, equally monstrous, shambled beside it. Ruby sighed. She could really use Blaze’s indiscriminate firepower right about now.

  Then, a distant blast ripped through the air, shaking the very ground. It erupted from the direction of the power facility, sounding as if it came from deep underground. What in the world could have caused that? The explosion also drew the zombies’ attention. While they stared, bewildered, two figures burst from the shadows, rushing them. One, with short, dark green hair, wielded a sword with chilling finesse, plunging it into the first zombie’s chest, precisely where its heart would have been. The other, identical save for her dark blue hair, carried a large, unfamiliar pistol. A squeeze of her trigger, and the second zombie’s head exploded in a shower of putrid brain matter.

  Ruby acted on instinct, leaping down onto the third, largest zombie. Her blade sank deep, but seemed to have little effect on its colossal hide. Still clinging to its back, Ruby wrapped a thin, taut cord around its neck and pulled. But the monster roared, bucked, and threw her to the ground. She heard a laugh, mocking and cold, from one of the figures, then saw them aim their gun at the beast. But Ruby, quick as a cat, scrambled to her feet and gestured for them to stop. This one is mine, she thought, a fierce pride burning within her.

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  Wanting to impress her unexpected audience of two, Ruby charged, launching herself into an acrobatic leap, plunging another dagger into the zombie. This one found its mark, piercing straight into its empty eye socket. The zombie let out a guttural scream, its foul breath, reeking of death, washing over Ruby’s face. The stench was so overwhelming, so distracting, that she didn’t see the massive fist until it smashed into her, sending her flying, a broken ragdoll, against a crumbling wall with a sickening thud.

  “Sure we can’t help you, miss?” The voice was dripping with mockery. Ruby, pain blossoming through her, merely shook her head. No. The zombie, its blade-punctured eye socket a gaping maw, stared at her, unblinking.

  And then Ruby unleashed hell. She held nothing back, tearing every single dagger from her body and hurling them in a relentless, furious barrage. All the iron strapped to her, a deadly arsenal, soon found its home in the zombie’s flesh. Though of immense size, it could not withstand the onslaught of blades. It swayed, groaned, then fell flat, dead. Ruby fought back a tear of rage. She had never come this close to defeat.

  “Well done, well done,” came the mocking voice again. “No wonder we don’t see more of you this deep into the wasteland. It’s too dangerous for your kind.”

  The other figure, the one with the sword, was more empathetic. “Shay-Ye, can’t you see she’s hurt? We need to take her back to base until she’s recovered.”

  The mocker, Shay-Ye, turned in a flash of anger. “Are you crazy? How dare you mention my name and that we have a base to this thing? She knows too much! We have to end her.”

  Ruby bowed her head, her ribs screaming with fractured pain. All she could do was accept her fate. “What, you have nothing to say for yourself? You aren’t going to beg for your life?”

  Ruby remained still, unmoving. She would rather die by human hands than by the claws of the abominations.

  “Stop, Shay-Ye, this is enough.” The figure with the long sword pointed it at Shay-Ye, whose gun was still aimed at Ruby’s head.

  “Fine, whatever,” Shay-Ye snarled, holstering her pistol. “But you have to carry her back. I ain’t touching any filth that comes from Cape Lumous.”