Leaves crunched beneath our feet as Isisa and I crossed the grounds toward the registration tables. Dozens of people milled around, checking their Apple watches, stretching, and chatting on the phone. Excitement buzzed in the fall air, the wind scented of damp soil, dead leaves, and too many people.

A cloudless sky provided the perfect weather for our Zombie Dash, the air cool, crisp, and still.

“Isisa, Esteban, up here!”

Nadir waved us over to join him further ahead in the line. A dark-haired Asian woman in a matching T-shirt stood beside him, clothed in a pair of tiny turquoise running shorts exposing long legs with the impressive, sculpted thighs of an Olympic athlete. She greeted Isisa with a hug and passed us each a team shirt. The back read “Zombies can bite my dust” with bloody claw marks printed on the front.

“Glad you could join us,” Nadir said. “Have you met Juni, yet?”

“I haven’t had the pleasure, no.” I extended my hand toward the diminutive woman. “Sasha’s mentioned you, though.”

“Only mentioned.” Juni’s brown gaze slid toward Isisa. “The betrayal cuts deep. She and Sasha talk about you all the time, and all I get is a mere mention.”

“Juni,” Isisa hissed. She swatted at her friend, but the other woman danced out of the way and grinned.

“You talk about me, huh?”

Isisa’s embarrassment was adorable. She scuffed her sneaker across the grass and mumbled something incoherent before clearing her throat and punching Nadir in the arm since she couldn’t reach the true source of her frustration. My buddy winced but wrapped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed.

“So talk me through this again.”

“We each have three flags the zombies can snag off us. We have to make it through the run and obstacles with at least one flag left,” Juni explained.

“What happens if they get all three?”

Isisa’s brown eyes sparkled with mischief. “Then you’ve succumbed to your zombie infection and will be eaten. To cross the finish line into the safe zone, you’ll need at least one flag as Juni said. Then the good ‘Doctor’ gives you a cure.”

“Kinda morbid.” I grinned. “I like it.”

“You’re not allowed to touch the zombies, and the only time they can touch you is when they’re relieving you of a flag. The object of the game is to avoid contact with them altogether,” Isisa said, gesturing to a shambling guy in zombie makeup. The volunteers on the zombie side must have sat in the makeup chair for hours.

I glanced at some of the other teams assembling near the starting line in team shirts of varying colors and designs. “How does the team part come into play?”

Nadir chuckled and gestured to the three flags pinned to his shirt. “Since we all have three flags, the team bit comes into play when it comes to saving a teammate. You can distract a zombie or sacrifice one of your flags for one or us, or vice versa. Maybe Isisa is on her last flag, but you have all three of yours and we’re near the end.”

“I’d take the bite for her.”

“Right,” he confirmed.

“He won’t have to take a bite for me.” Isisa’s white teeth gleamed when she grinned. She was confidence personified, and nothing about her had ever seemed sexier.

We spent the five minutes leading up to the race stretching and preparing for the sprint. When the siren blared, we took off at a casual jog as planned, determined to pace ourselves until we saw the undead.

Without crossing a single zombie, we reached the first obstacle a quarter mile down the path. The runners in front of us dropped down to their bellies and crawled through a large pipe that led out into a mud pit.

Nadir and I had endured worse during basic training. I grinned despite cold mud soaking through my running shoes, a thick and cakey mess that squished beneath our fingers and clung to our hands. Juni hustled through ahead of us, the quickest and most agile, followed by Isisa and Nadir.

After that it was game on. The zombie horde exploded from the tree line to our left, at least three dozen of them to the two hundred or more participants in the race. With so many people ahead of us, we were able to weave through without taking any losses.

A new wave awaited us at each obstacle to whittle the competition down. We scaled a twenty-foot wall with a climbing rope and slid down to the other side, where we narrowly avoided zombies poised to attack. Isisa moved with incredible athleticism, a mesmerizing sight to behold despite the chaos taking place around us. The mere sight of her struck a blow to my situational awareness, and it cost me a flag before I had the chance to recuperate.

Worth it.

Zombies were closing in on us, spilling from the wooded growth bordering the path. The number of competitors had thinned, cut down by half, and the remaining participants were spread out in clustered groups.

We crawled through trenches teeming with submerged mannequins painted to resemble corpses, the howling screams of the hungry dead urging us to move faster. I ignored the slop soaking me down to my skin and burst onto stable ground with Isisa only a step before me.  

Damn, that woman ran like a gazelle once she was on open terrain. Her long legs pumped effortlessly, and I had to push myself to match her stride. There were five zombies closing in on us. True to our team slogan, the four of us left them in our dust.

We climbed another wall and zip-lined to the bottom, coming in on our finish line after an hour of gritty obstacles and jump-scares from bushes. My muscles screamed, reminding me of how infrequently I worked out these days.

Construction work was no substitute for cardio.

My body told me to go lay in the dirt and accept my phony death. But Isisa’s stride and the competitive light in her eyes forced me onward.

Juni and Isisa were neck and neck, entering a full-out sprint that left Nadir and me behind. He shook his head and continued his steady lope while I watched in awe of their performance. The zombie actors didn’t even try to touch them when they breezed by.

“Dammit,” Nadir muttered. “I told them not to show off.”

My lungs protested speaking. I forced the words out anyway between measured gasps for breath. “Why not?”

“Draws unwanted attention. We were going to fall back and take second place, but…”

“Isisa really wants to win.”

“Oh yeah. Can’t blame her. Sucks to go your whole life surrendering first place.”

The two women crossed the finish line ahead of us. Nadir and I made a last push and closed the gap, moving ahead with a final sprint to ensure our team’s overall victory. A few steps past the finish line, I bent down with my hands on my knees and focused on trying to breathe.

“You gonna live or do I need to deliver CPR?”

Looking up brought Isisa into view. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, full of warmth and amusement.

“Fine.” The wheeze in my voice made me cringe.

She moved closer and stroked a hand up and down my back. Eventually my muscles loosened up and it didn’t hurt so much to breathe. I straightened after the discomfort faded.

“You did good. Fun, right?” she asked.

I grinned at my mud-covered girlfriend and thought she couldn’t look any more beautiful than she did right now, her eyes bright and face glowing with happiness. Wanting to brand the memory of that look into my mine, I leaned down and claimed a lengthy kiss—the kind of demanding kiss that left onlookers flushed and envious, wishing they had the same kind of raw chemistry.

“Yeah, that was great,” I whispered against her lips. “Thanks for inviting me.”

Hose stations had been set up for the runners to use for cleanup. We sprayed each other down before adjourning to the large tents set up for the post-race buffet. I loaded my plate with two burgers fresh off the grill, creamed corn, brisket, and a couple cookies. Isisa’s plate looked about the same. The four of us found a picnic bench near one of the space heaters and took a seat.

“So, Juni, what do you do?”

“I teach kickboxing at a couple different gyms.”

“She’s being modest,” Nadir said. “She’s also a personal trainer for a few high-profile clients.”

Juni kicked him under the table.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“For being a big-mouthed blabber.”

They picked on each other like siblings. I’d seen the same behavior time and time again in my own family.

“Never tried kickboxing, but my youngest sister is into that sort of stuff.”

“It’s fun,” Juni said. “A good workout. I also have a self-defense class I run three times a year. Sasha helps me with that one sometimes if our schedules work out. Nadir, too.”

“Putting that military training to work, eh?”

More racers trickled in over the next hour. A second wave went off, and the girls joked about running the race a second time, but Nadir and I bowed out. I had the feeling he did it for my sake and promised myself to buy him a beer later in thanks.

We stayed through the end of the event and accepted our awards as a team. Not only had we won our heat, but we’d had the best time out of all three waves, earning ourselves a second medal. After that, we posed for pictures with some of the zombies and shared another round of treats from the buffet because I’d never been so starved in all my life since leaving the Marines.

Once everything started to wind down, we headed out, going our separate ways in the grass field parking area. Isisa skipped to the truck, full of happy energy. The whole drive back, we recounted the event, laughing over near misses and the difficulty of some of the obstacles.

“I have to admit, the zip line gave me pause,” Isisa said.

“Really? Didn’t look like it from my end. You sorta just hopped on and went for it.”

“Yeah, but my eyes were closed for half of it.” She laughed and rubbed her face. “What was hardest for you?”

A grunt was my first response, followed by, “Climbing that damn wall. I’d forgotten how much I hated that in boot camp.”

“Well, I think you did a great job. Some people had to skip the obstacle and take a time penalty. At least you made the effort and finished everything.”

“All worth it, even though I’m sure I’ll be sore for a week.”

I scanned her garage pass then drove inside. In the weeks since they’d entrusted it to me, I’d learned to drop off and pick the ladies up inside, avoiding traffic and honking cars on the busy road.

Isisa turned in her seat to face me across the console. “Thanks for coming with me today.”

“It was fun. I’d love to do it again next year.”

Her eyes brightened above the most radiant, genuine smile I’d ever seen on her face. “Yeah? Good, I’m glad. It’s more fun running with friends.”

“It was.”

“Anyway, I should get showered and dressed. I’ve got to work on a case. We’ll have to go out again soon.”

“I’d like that. Don’t work too hard, Isisa. Get some rest.”

One step at a time with her, I’d learned. She hesitated without opening the door, then leaned across the console and kissed me. Isisa never rushed. She liked her kisses long, slow, and deep. Sensual thoughts crept into my mind, imagining if she’d make love the same way, or if she would be as energetic and frisky as Sasha.

Isisa withdrew first. The kiss ended, seeming too brief, a damned tease compared to what I really wanted from her. “See you soon.”

I watched her walk away to the elevators with a sway to her hips and bounce to each step, and I knew right then she’d be the last one I had. And every second until then would be worth it.