She closed her fingers around the watch fob. It pulsed lightly, but its rhythm was slower, more erratic. They had so little time left.
"Left.” She swung in that direction, but Michael jerked her back, again almost dislocating her shoulder in the process. She swore softly. “What's wrong?"
"The zombies are back."
She shined the light into the tunnel but could see no movement. “We can't just stand here, Michael. We have to get to Jake."
He hesitated, then shrugged. “Let's go, then."
The walls began to close in, threatening to smother them. Ghostly tendrils of slime brushed against her clothes and felt like long green fingers of the dead.
Twenty feet on, they came out of the ankle deep water and into a cavern. She blinked and stopped, taken by surprise. The flashlight filled the cavern with dancing shadows, dark demons that teased her imagination. Something about the air gave a feeling of vast emptiness. Then she saw the figure huddled against an outcrop of rock. With a small cry, she ran across. Squatting next to Jake, she frantically felt for a pulse. It was there, slow, erratic and weak.
"He's dying,” Michael said softly, stopping just behind her. She swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked back sudden tears. “No. I won't let him die." He couldn't die and leave her alone. She couldn't cope with it.
"Jasper has fed on him. There's barely enough blood left to pump his heart..." Michael's voice faded, and she glanced up quickly. He was listening to the silence, his face as still as his thoughts, giving nothing away. Evil closed the air around them, and her heart lurched in sudden fear. Jasper's plans were about to be revealed. She reached out and touched Jake's pallid cheek. His skin was colder than her fingers.
"Jake? Please, wake up."
No response, nor did she really expect any. They had to get him to hospital if they were to have any hope of saving him.
"We can't stay here—"
"And I won't leave him!"
"Nikki—"
"I don't want to hear it, Michael.” She clenched her fists and glared at him. She wasn't about to leave Jake here to die, as she'd left everyone else in her life she'd cared about to die.