While Ryan, Martin, and everyone else were working tirelessly to clear Atlantic City or at least the specific area they planned to transform into their new permanent ho, back on the main road leading into the city, the rest of the people who’d been left behind were simply trying to pass the ti.
So fighters had obviously stayed behind, positioned strategically at various points along their defensive periter just in case they needed to fight off any Infected that might wander toward their location from either direction. But overall, the atmosphere was surprisingly peaceful now, almost relaxed compared to the tension that had filled the air during the early morning departure.
It had been nearly two hours since the clearing teams had vanished into the urban landscape, and in all that ti, only a handful of Infected had appeared near their position. Each one had been dealt with efficiently and without drama a quick engagent, a killing blow, and then back to waiting.
They’d been extraordinarily lucky that the Infected hadn’t co in concentrated groups or coordinated waves. Instead, they’d appeared individually or in pairs at most, shambling out from side streets or erging from abandoned buildings in ones and twos. That made them infinitely easier to handle, even for the less experienced fighters who’d remained behind with the non-combatants.
anwhile, Rebecca stood apart from the others, her arms folded on the tal railing of the bridge as she stared off toward the city skyline in the distance. Her posture was contemplative, isolated, soone clearly lost deep in their own thoughts and not particularly interested in being disturbed.
Daisy was currently occupied helping Margaret sort through and pack the various supplies they’d scavenged during their brief stay in Galloway. The work was tedious but necessary, cataloging food stores, organizing dical supplies, making sure nothing essential got left behind or lost in the chaos of moving an entire community. With Daisy busy and i inside the camping van, Rebecca found herself alone with nothing but her increasingly turbulent thoughts for company.
The background noises of the camp seed to fade away as she focused inward, the distant conversations, the clatter of supplies being moved, the occasional warning call when soone spotted an Infected in the distance. All of it beca white noise, ambient sound that her brain automatically filtered out.
A cool breeze rolled in from the direction of the ocean, carrying with it the faint salt-tinged sll of the sea.
Rebecca’s mind drifted backward through ti, pulling up fragntary mories of her past life, the one that had existed before the Infected outbreak had shattered the world into its current nightmare state.
She’d been so carefree back then. So blissfully, ignorantly happy in a way that felt almost impossible to comprehend now. Her biggest concerns had revolved around howork assignnts. Trivial, aningless problems that she would give absolutely anything to have back.
Studying at Lexington Charter had been sowhat challenging academically, the school maintained high standards and expected a lot from its students—but she’d thrived there in ways that went beyond just grades. She’d had friends. Real friends who knew her secrets and shared their own, with whom she laughed.
All of them were dead now.
Every single friend she’d made at Lexington Charter had died because they’d been at school on that day—the day the slaughter had begun, when the Infected outbreak had torn through the building like a wildfire through dry brush.
Rebecca had been lucky—if such a traumatic absence could be called luck. She’d been feeling unwell that morning that had convinced Rachel to let her stay ho. That decisiion had saved her life while condemning nearly everyone she knew to death or worse.
Only Jason had survived from among her classmates. Jason, who’d sohow made it out of Lexington Charter alive and intact. And he’d turned out to be a psychopathic monster, his mind twisted and Enhanced by superior Starakian technology he’d sohow acquired, he’d beco sothing terrifying and unrecognizable until Ryan had killed him, ending whatever Jason had beco.
The only anchors still connecting Rebecca to her previous world, to any sense of continuity with the person she’d been before, were her older sister Rachel and maybe, just maybe—their father.
Their annoying, controlling, overbearing father who’d always tried to dictate every aspect of their lives. Who’d set unreasonable expectations and enforced them with psychological pressure and guilt. Who’d driven their mother to depression and ultimately to her death.
Rebecca hated him for what he’d done to their mother. That hatred was real and justified and sothing she’d carried for years, a hot coal of resentnt that burned in her chest whenever she thought about him.
But sohow, despite everything, so small part of her—so childish fragnt that she couldn’t quite suppress no matter how hard she tried—wondered where he was now. Whether he’d survived the outbreak. Whether he was safe sowhere, or whether he’d died screaming as the Infected tore him apart.
And maybe, in her most private and shaful monts, she even missed him.
She was only fifteen years old, after all.
No matter how mature she tried to act, no matter how much life had forced her to grow up far too quickly, she was still fundantally a child. Too young to be dealing with the weight of everything that had been thrust upon her shoulders. Too young to process the scale of loss and horror she’d witnessed. Too young to go through a world where survival required constant vigilance and violence.
If the threat had been limited to just the Infected, just the shambling corpses and the constant danger they represented that would have been difficult enough. Terrifying, yes, but at least comprehensible.
But adding an entire alien race actively seeking humanity’s complete extinction? Advanced technology from beyond Earth being used to hunt and destroy humanity for purposes Rebecca couldn’t fully understand? That elevated the situation to a level of horror she simply wasn’t emotionally prepared to handle.
In that aspect, she was remarkably similar to Daisy, both of them desperately trying to maintain so form of denial about the reality underlying the Infected outbreak. Trying not to think too deeply about the fact that the shambling monsters weren’t so natural plague or random mutation, but rather a deployed biological weapon. A tool created by the Starakians to wipe out humanity and simultaneously identify the scattered Symbiote hosts hidden among the human population.
But Rebecca couldn’t entirely deny or ignore that reality, no matter how much she wanted to retreat into comfortable ignorance. She couldn’t pretend it away because her own sister was directly involved in the supernatural conflict. Rachel had sohow beco a superhuman herself, transford into sothing beyond normal human capability, just like Ryan, just like Sydney and Cindy and Elena.
Rebecca still didn’t fully understand how that transformation had occurred or what chanism had allowed it to happen.
The others had offered vague explanations about prolonged contact with Ryan, about spending significant ti in close proximity to him sohow triggering the transfer of Dullahan’s power. They’d made it sound almost casual, like catching a cold from soone who sneezed near you.
But what kind of explanation was that, really? Did it work like a fever spreading through contact? Had Ryan literally coughed on them and sohow Dullahan had expelled fragnts of itself that attached to the others and granted them powers? Was there so kind of mystical energy transfer that occurred through physical proximity?
Then why hadn’t she inherited anything? Why hadn’t Alisha, or i, or any of the other people who spent ti around Ryan developed abilities?
The obvious answer that kept presenting itself was that Sydney and Rachel, and presumably Elena and Cindy as well—had been significantly closer to Ryan than the others. Not just physically present, but emotionally intimate like close friends.
So maybe the theory about closeness did hold so validity. Maybe there was so kind of threshold of intimacy or connection that needed to be crossed before the power transfer could occur.
But what about Christopher then?
He was basically Ryan’s best friend and the closest to him from her perspective yet he didn’t beco a superhuman?
Sothing about that explanation felt clearly incomplete and evasive.
Rebecca was certain her sister was hiding sothing important, so crucial detail that would make the whole picture make sense. She’d known Rachel her entire life, had studied her older sister’s mannerisms and tells since childhood. She could recognize when Rachel was being less than completely honest, when she was carefully choosing her words to conceal sothing.
The relationship among Ryan’s inner circle were another source of confusion that Rebecca couldn’t quite understand.
She’d have to be completely blind not to notice that Rachel was in love with Ryan.
But nothing seed to be actually happening between them. No displays of affection, no acknowledgnt of those feelings, no movent toward establishing any kind of relationship.
Maybe Rachel had accepted that Ryan was in love with Elena first? Maybe she’d stepped back out of respect for that relationship, choosing to suffer in silence rather than complicate an already difficult situation? And then after Elena’s loss and presud death or capture in Russia, maybe Ryan had started going out with Sydney instead?
That was Rebecca’s working theory, at least based on observable evidence.
Sydney and Ryan were definitely not just friends, that much was absolutely clear to anyone with functioning eyes. The way they touched each other, the casual intimacy of their interactions. They were obviously involved romantically and probably physically as well.
Yet Rachel didn’t seem bothered by it at all. She continued to maintain her close relationship with both Ryan and Sydney without any apparent jealousy or resentnt. And Sydney, for her part, didn’t seem to care that Rachel was clearly in love with the sa man Sydney was sleeping with.
And then there was Cindy, who also obviously had deep feelings for Ryan based on how she acted around him, how protective and possessive she could be.
Rebecca felt her head beginning to ache as she tried to sort through these incoherent thoughts, to make sense of the absurd interpersonal dynamics she was observing.
Maybe she’d been in denial about what she was actually witnessing. Maybe she’d been refusing to see the obvious conclusion because it was too strange, too outside her fra of reference for how relationships were supposed to work.
But the more she thought about it, the more it seed like they were in so kind of open relationship with Ryan—all three of them. Rachel, Sydney, and Cindy, all romantically and probably physically involved with the sa man, apparently with everyone’s knowledge and consent.
Rebecca’s cheeks heated up furiously at the thought, a blush spreading across her face that had nothing to do with the temperature. The ntal image that conjured was deeply uncomfortable and weirdly embarrassing to contemplate, even in the abstract.
But if that was actually the arrangent they’d established, then why wasn’t Ryan doing anything about it? Why wasn’t he acknowledging it publicly or establishing clear boundaries or... or doing literally anything to address the situation?
Was he really that stupid and emotionally dense? That oblivious to what was happening right in front of him?
Or—and this thought made her flush even deeper—did he know exactly what was happening and was simply enjoying the attention from multiple won without having to commit to any of them specifically?
"How shaless," Rebecca muttered under her breath, the curse directed at Ryan even though he was miles away clearing buildings and couldn’t possibly hear her judgnt.
She gripped the railing tighter, her knuckles whitening with the pressure, trying to force her thoughts in literally any other direction.
This was ridiculous. She had far more important things to worry about than Ryan’s love life and whatever bizarre arrangent he’d established with her sister and the others.
Though if her sister hide sothing like that to her, she would have hard ti forgiving her.
"It’s dangerous standing there like that. You should step back."
The voice ca suddenly from behind her, breaking through Rebecca’s turbulent thoughts.
Turning around sharply, Rebecca saw i standing several feet away with her arms crossed over her chest.
"What?" Rebecca asked, confused by the sudden intervention.
"You’re leaning too far over the railing," i pointed out calmly, gesturing toward Rebecca’s precarious position. "You could easily slip and fall off the bridge from that angle. Especially if you’re distracted and not paying attention to your balance."
Rebecca glanced down, suddenly aware of the significant drop beneath them. They were positioned on a section of the main road that happened to be an elevated bridge structure, which ant there was a chasm of several dozen ters directly below where she’d been standing. A fall from this height would almost certainly be fatal for her.
"Since when are you worried about ?" Rebecca asked defensively, stepping back from the railing nonetheless because i’s concern was objectively valid, even if Rebecca didn’t want to acknowledge it. "Let guess—my sister asked you to babysit ? Told you to keep an eye on her stupid little sister who can’t take care of herself?"
The bitter edge in her voice was impossible to miss. She hated being treated like a child who needed constant supervision.
"Actually, it was Ryan who specifically told to watch over you," i replied with a small smile that sohow managed to be simultaneously genuine and deeply irritating. "He seed quite concerned about your safety and wanted to make sure nothing happened while they were gone."
The revelation that Ryan—not Rachel—had been the one to assign i as her unofficial guardian made Rebecca sowhat even more annoyed.
Why was he still treating like her so kind of kid?!
And worse giving that demand to i out of everyone.
The relationship between Rebecca and i had always been complicated and sowhat strained. It was almost as awkward as her relationship with Ryan himself, though manifesting in completely different ways. Unlike Ryan, who typically responded to Rebecca’s hostility with silence and avoidance, i faced her directly with sarcastic comnts and observations that invariably hit exactly the wrong nerves and provoked Rebecca’s temper.
"Since when did you beco Ryan’s obedient little doll, jumping to follow his every request?" Rebecca shot back, trying to regain so control of the conversation through aggression. "I honestly thought better of you than that, i. Didn’t realize you’d turned into just another one of his admirers hanging on his every word."
i’s expression didn’t change at the insult, which sohow made it even more infuriating. "I’m not his ’doll’ or anyone else’s," she replied evenly, completely unruffled by Rebecca’s attempt to provoke her. "I simply understand cause and effect. If sothing happened to you—if you got injured or killed because I wasn’t paying attention—Rachel would be absolutely devastated. Several other mbers of our group would be deeply affected as well."
She paused, her dark eyes eting Rebecca’s with quite directness. "And like a domino effect, Ryan would spiral into guilt and self-bla, which would put the entire group through another exhausting episode of drama and dysfunction. Frankly, I’d rather avoid going through all of that if possible. So keeping you safe is actually just pragmatic self-interest on my part."
The casual way i delivered this explanation—reducing Rebecca’s potential death to rely an inconvenient trigger for group drama—was sohow both insulting and oddly touching at the sa ti.
"If you find my presence so annoying, then you can just leave," Rebecca retorted. "Nobody’s forcing you to stand here and watch . Go find sothing else to do."
"And why exactly should I do that?" i asked, tilting her head amused.
Rebecca opened her mouth to deliver a cutting response, then closed it again when she realized she didn’t actually have a good counterargunt. She just stood there grumbling under her breath, unable to formulate anything that would effectively dismiss i without sounding petulant and childish.
i’s small smile widened fractionally seeing that.
The mont of tense silence between them was suddenly shattered by a loud voice calling out from sowhere closer to the main cluster of vehicles.
"Group of Infected approaching! Multiple targets, coming from the east!"
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