"Who among you drives?" Richard asked, leading us through the narrow, shadowed corridors of the Safe City. His steps were careful and practiced, the gait of a man who had learned exactly which streets to avoid and which shadows hid danger.
Nobody answered.
He glanced back at . "You?"
"No," I said.
"Knew it." He kept walking, weaving around a pile of collapsed rubble. "I could tell the mont I saw you. But don’t worry. I’m an excellent driver."
The girls walked a few steps behind us, murmuring quietly between themselves with the easy rhythm of people on a casual stroll. rcury’s low laugh drifted forward now and then. Jenn’s voice was softer, calr. I stayed focused, eyes scanning every doorway, every dark corner, every broken window that could hide movent.
Richard kept talking.
"I was a soldier, you know," he said. "Fought infected my whole life."
I glanced down at his legs, pale, soft, and far too hairy for soone claiming combat experience. I said nothing.
"Richard," I said. "Can we get food before the car?"
He stopped abruptly and turned, eyes narrowing behind his thick glasses.
"Could you shut your mouth for one second?"
The irony of that coming from him sat between us without comnt.
"Ladies," he said, suddenly cheerful again as he turned to rcury and Jenn. "No need to walk behind. Co to the front. We’ll watch your backs."
"We don’t know where we’re going," rcury pointed out.
"I’ll direct you," Richard said smoothly, gesturing them forward with a flourish.
They passed us. Richard watched them go, his gaze lingering a little too long, with an expression I chose not to acknowledge.
***
The garage door groaned open on rusted tracks, revealing a large black car parked in the center like a sleeping predator. It was sleek, heavily built, and impeccably clean, the kind of vehicle that belonged to soone who had decided their comfort was non-negotiable even at the end of the world.
Sunlight from a high broken skylight cut across its polished surface, making it gleam.
"Senator’s car," Richard announced, with the pride of soone presenting sothing they had personally built. "Told you."
We all stared at it. For the first ti since stepping into his apartnt, I started believing Richard might actually be useful.
We climbed in. Richard took the driver’s seat with exaggerated confidence. The rest of us settled into the back with the shared instinct of people who had silently agreed the front seat wasn’t where they wanted to be.
I ended up between the two girls.
At the front, Richard was jabbing at buttons on the dashboard with intense focus, muttering to himself as the car refused to cooperate imdiately.
"Rember I have nothing under this skirt," rcury whispered, leaning close to my ear.
I stared fixedly at the ceiling.
"Richard," I said. "We still need food."
"I know," he said. His voice had a slight shakiness to it that I noted and filed.
"Richard," rcury said, straightening up and looking at the windshield. "Do you actually drive?"
"Do you?" he shot back.
"Yes," rcury said, without hesitation.
"Then co drive. My left leg is acting up."
rcury opened her door, winked at , and slid out.
Don’t tell , I thought. Don’t tell you were going to drive us when you don’t know how.
Richard slid smoothly to the passenger seat as rcury settled behind the wheel. "I’ll take over when you’re tired," he muttered.
The engine roared to life instantly under rcury’s hands. We pulled out of the garage into the bright, ruined streets of the Safe City.
"Don’t forget we need—"
"Can you not speak for one single minute?" Richard cut off. "I know."
rcury laughed. She had a different quality when she was driving, more settled, more herself, the steering wheel returning sothing to her that the passenger seat took away.
"There," Richard said, pointing.
rcury pulled up almost in the doorway of a small supermarket, open, the interior still stocked with the specific miracle of a city that had been abandoned fast.
"Ladies stay," Richard announced, opening his door. "I’ll go with the big man."
rcury looked back at . The look of soone calculating whether to stay or go.
"It’s okay," I said, aning everything I wasn’t saying out loud.
I got out and closed Richard’s door behind him since he had left it open.
***
The supermarket was dim and cool inside, lit only by ergency lights and shafts of daylight cutting through dusty skylights. Fridges humd faintly on backup power. Aisles were still lined with drinks, cereals, and canned goods, untouched by ti or looters.
Richard moved through the aisles with practiced speed, large bag open, clearly soone who had done this many tis before.
He reached into his own bag and shifted sothing aside to make room.
"What’s that?" I asked.
"Beans," he said.
"You had beans and gave plain rice?"
"Are you a girl?" he replied, completely deadpan.
Sothing fell from a high shelf behind us with a loud clatter. Richard ran.
He was gone before the sound finished. I hadn’t seen a man move that fast since Vince Vale, and the context was completely different.
There is no way you were a soldier, I thought, watching the empty aisle where he had been.
I stayed still. Listened. Nothing ca. Sothing had just fallen on its own.
I packed what I could find into a large bag, organized Richard’s abandoned one, and carried both outside to where rcury had the engine running and was watching the door.
Richard appeared from sowhere behind the car the mont I stepped out, walking with the relaxed pace of soone who had stepped out for air.
He helped load the boot without comnt. We settled back in. Richard at the front. and Jenn in the back. rcury at the wheel.
"You’re certain about the route?" I asked.
"The safest one," Richard said.
rcury started the car.
The safest route to the Fallen City, I thought, looking out the window at the Safe City moving past us. With a soldier who runs from falling shelves, a driver who had nothing under her skirt, a girl who counts infected with precision, and whatever charge I have left.
Let’s go.
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