The exhaustion that had been weighing down every muscle in my body vanished the second a bullet scread past my head.
The sound was so close it almost felt physical.
A violent crack.
Then concrete exploded sowhere behind .
Oh, shit.
This is real.
Not that I hadn’t known before.
Not that I hadn’t spent months surviving impossible situations.
But there was sothing different about watching a gun aid directly at you.
Sothing primal.
Sothing that reminded your body exactly how fragile it was.
"Move!"
Aubrey grabbed my shoulder.
The three of us dove behind an overturned table just as another burst of gunfire tore through the room.
Wood splintered.
tal scread.
Terri yelped as fragnts sprayed over us.
The table shook under the impact.
I pressed my back against it, breathing hard.
The situation wasn’t good.
Actually, it was terrible.
The exits were covered.
Every hallway we’d considered using was now occupied.
Every route the lattice suggested led directly into ard soldiers.
We weren’t pinned down accidentally.
They’d been herding us.
Boxing us in.
Waiting.
—
"Sir, we’ve got them surrounded!"
A soldier crouched behind a support pillar, rifle trained on the table.
"They’ve got nowhere left to run."
His voice echoed through the walkie.
Around him, a dozen more soldiers waited.
Finger on triggers.
Eyes fixed.
Nobody wanted to be the one who looked away first.
—
I closed my eyes.
Imdiately the lattice responded.
Possibilities flooded my mind.
Angles.
Distances.
Timings.
Paths.
Failures.
Deaths.
Too many deaths.
The calculations overlapped so quickly they beca difficult to separate.
Terri shifted beside .
I could practically hear a question forming in her throat.
Aubrey imdiately raised a finger.
Terri froze.
Aubrey glared.
Terri looked offended.
Aubrey gestured toward .
Let him think.
Terri rolled her eyes but stayed quiet.
The two of them had sohow developed an entire language of irritated expressions.
Under different circumstances it would’ve been funny.
—
On the other end of the transmission, the man listened.
Then sighed.
"You’re overestimating the boy."
His voice was calm.
Annoyingly calm.
"He isn’t invincible."
Jennifer’s head imdiately snapped upward.
She was still restrained.
Still seated.
Still trapped.
But sothing in the man’s tone made genuine fear flash across her face.
"No—"
The word escaped before she could stop it.
The man glanced toward her.
Annoyed.
Jennifer swallowed.
"You can’t use that again."
Her voice cracked.
"You don’t understand what it’ll do to him."
The man’s expression didn’t change.
"He survived before."
"Barely."
The response ca instantly.
Her composure was beginning to fracture.
"The third exposure nearly killed him."
The man looked away.
Uninterested.
"Then let’s hope he’s resilient."
Jennifer felt sick.
Actually sick.
"You’ll kill him."
"Shut the fuck up."
The words struck like a slap.
Silence followed.
Jennifer’s mouth closed.
The man raised the radio again.
"Use the device."
A pause.
Then:
"Do it now."
—
"Copy that."
The soldier shoved the radio away.
Then turned.
"Bryce!"
No answer.
"Bryce!"
Still nothing.
The soldier frowned.
The rest of the squad remained focused on the barricade.
Weapons ready.
Nobody noticed Bryce imdiately.
Nobody noticed his rifle slowly lowering.
Nobody noticed the trembling.
The slight twitching.
The smile.
Then sobody finally looked.
"...the hell?"
Bryce stood motionless.
Head tilted.
Eyes blood red.
Not irritated.
Not bloodshot.
Red.
The kind of red that made your stomach drop.
The soldier who’d called his na approached cautiously.
"Bryce?"
Nothing.
The man grabbed his shoulder.
Shook him.
"Get it together."
Bryce turned.
The smile widened.
The soldier recoiled imdiately.
"What the hell—"
The rifle discharged.
The shot blew through the side of his face.
Blood.
Bone.
Gray matter.
The body hit the floor before anyone processed what they’d seen.
For half a second nobody moved.
Nobody understood.
Then chaos erupted.
"HE’S INFECTED!"
Bryce opened fire.
Two more soldiers dropped.
One screaming.
One instantly dead.
The formation shattered.
n started shouting over each other.
So aid at Bryce.
Others aid at the spreading infection.
Nobody aid at us.
That was all I needed.
"Aubrey."
She already knew.
The second I moved, she moved.
—
The table exploded upward.
I shoved it directly into the nearest soldier.
The man disappeared beneath it.
His rifle clattered away.
Aubrey hit another before he could react.
Fast.
Violent.
Efficient.
One elbow.
One knee.
One stolen rifle.
The soldier collapsed.
Terri grabbed the dropped weapon awkwardly.
The recoil almost knocked her off balance when she fired.
The shot missed.
Terribly.
But it forced another soldier into cover.
That was enough.
Gunfire erupted everywhere.
Bryce continued tearing through his forr allies.
The infected grin never left his face.
I sprinted.
A soldier raised his rifle.
Too slow.
The lattice had already shown .
My hand closed around his wrist.
The weapon twisted.
A shot discharged into the ceiling.
Then into another soldier.
Then into him.
I shoved the body aside.
Kept moving.
Aubrey appeared beside .
Soone swung a baton.
She ducked underneath it.
Drove her shoulder into his chest.
The man crashed through a rolling equipnt cart.
tal scattered everywhere.
Terri ran after us.
Panicked.
Breathing hard.
Trying her best.
A soldier grabbed her arm.
For a split second fear crossed her face.
Then she rembered Aubrey.
Her knee slamd upward.
The man doubled over.
Terri imdiately looked horrified she’d actually done it.
Aubrey shoved past her.
"Later."
The three of us ran.
More gunfire followed.
A bullet shattered a light fixture above us.
Glass rained downward.
We kept moving.
Every corridor felt identical.
Every turn felt wrong.
But eventually—
A door.
A stairwell.
An exit.
Fresh air.
We burst through it.
—
The outside wasn’t any better.
If anything, it was worse.
Blood covered the streets.
Bodies littered sidewalks.
People ran in every direction.
So fleeing.
So hunting.
The infected had spread everywhere.
The sll hit imdiately.
Blood.
Rot.
Smoke.
Fear.
The borough had beco a graveyard pretending it was still alive.
Part of wanted to look away.
Another part rembered every second I’d spent suffering beneath these people’s system.
The neglect.
The abandonnt.
The cruelty.
It would’ve been easy to say they deserved this.
Easy to convince myself this was justice.
But watching a man get dragged screaming into an alley made sothing twist inside my chest.
Watching a mother desperately pull her child through the chaos did the sa.
Nobody deserved this.
Not really.
Even if they had failed people like .
Even if they’d stood by and watched.
Empathy still felt stupid.
It always had.
Yet sohow I couldn’t get rid of it.
"Terri, hold it in!"
Aubrey’s voice snapped through the chaos.
I looked over.
Terri’s face had gone pale.
Dangerously pale.
She swallowed hard.
Nodded.
Then almost gagged anyway.
We rounded a corner.
Dove into a narrow alley.
Finally stopped.
The mont we did, Terri doubled over.
Violently.
Aubrey imdiately looked away.
Pretending not to notice.
Terri threw up.
Then again.
Then once more.
The sounds echoed off the walls.
I leaned against the brick.
Trying to breathe.
Trying to think.
Trying to process everything that had happened.
"Fuck..."
Aubrey wiped sweat from her forehead.
"This place is so fucked."
Terri was still busy vomiting.
Aubrey looked genuinely concerned.
She just wasn’t good at showing it.
Eventually the retching stopped.
The alley beca quiet.
For a few seconds.
Then I spoke.
"You two rember where the exit is, right?"
Both looked toward .
Aubrey nodded first.
"Yeah."
A pause.
"I an...I think so."
"Good."
I turned around.
Imdiately Aubrey frowned.
"Wait."
The irritation arrived instantly.
"Where the hell are you going?"
I t her eyes.
"You two need to leave."
The response ca before either could argue.
"I’m serious."
Neither moved.
"I’m not letting you keep risking your lives for ."
Terri stared.
Aubrey looked offended.
Actually offended.
Like I’d personally insulted her.
"What are you about to do?" Terri asked.
I hesitated.
Then sighed.
No point hiding it.
"I’m looking for Lila."
Silence.
Aubrey’s stare sohow beca even flatter.
The look alone practically said:
Are you kidding ?
I pointed before she could speak.
"I already know what you’re thinking."
Her eyebrow rose.
"Do you?"
"Yes."
"Impressive."
"It sounds stupid."
"It is stupid."
"See?"
Aubrey pinched the bridge of her nose.
I continued anyway.
"I’m not leaving her."
The conviction surprised even .
But it was true.
Completely true.
No matter what happened.
No matter how insane the situation beca.
I couldn’t leave her behind.
Not after everything.
Not when I knew she was still out there.
Hungry.
Alone.
Broken.
Maybe dangerous.
Maybe beyond saving.
It didn’t matter.
Aubrey continued staring.
Long enough that I started wondering if she was actually angry.
Then she laughed.
Just once.
Softly.
The tension imdiately vanished.
I frowned.
"What?"
She shook her head.
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"You haven’t changed at all."
The observation wasn’t cruel.
Wasn’t mocking.
If anything it sounded strangely fond.
"Oh yeah?"
I crossed my arms.
"Maybe I haven’t."
Aubrey nodded.
"Yeah."
Sothing softened in her expression.
Barely.
But enough.
Then she pushed away from the wall.
"I’m not leaving."
My eyes widened slightly.
"What?"
"You’re the reason we ca down here."
"Aubrey—"
"No."
She cut off.
Firm.
Certain.
"If you’re doing sothing this unbelievably stupid..."
She pointed directly at .
"...then I’m doing it too."
The words landed harder than expected.
No hesitation.
No conditions.
No bargaining.
Just certainty.
The kind only Aubrey seed capable of.
I looked toward Terri.
She looked terrified.
Absolutely terrified.
But she nodded anyway.
A small one.
Almost invisible.
Still there.
Still real.
She agreed.
Despite everything.
The alley beca quiet.
For a second.
Just a second.
Warmth spread through my chest.
Followed imdiately by fear.
Because suddenly I had sothing to lose again.
Maybe I’d always had.
Maybe I just hadn’t realized it until now.
I smiled despite myself.
"Well."
I shook my head.
"Don’t say I didn’t warn either of you."
Aubrey rolled her eyes.
Terri laughed weakly.
Then the three of us stepped back into the chaos.
Together.
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