Thunder rattled the house hard enough to make the walls groan.
Rain hamred against the boarded windows in uneven bursts, sotis sounding like fingers drumming against the wood and other tis sounding like the sky itself was trying to break its way inside.
The house wasn’t much.
Just another abandoned building sowhere in Maine.
The windows had been boarded up years ago. The wallpaper was peeling. Water stains crawled across the ceiling overhead. Dust coated almost every surface that hadn’t been disturbed by us moving through it.
Still, it was shelter.
After everything we’d been through lately, shelter was good enough.
I laid back against the couch and stared at the ceiling.
The storm outside reminded of another storm.
Not because it looked the sa.
Because it felt the sa.
A few months ago, people would’ve been looking at right now.
Waiting for to tell them what ca next.
I was their leader.
At least that was what everyone called .
The person who made the decisions.
The person who chose where we slept.
Where we scavenged.
Who stood watch.
Who stayed.
Who left.
I rembered sitting around campfires while people argued and looked at for answers.
I rembered pretending I knew what I was doing.
I rembered being trusted.
Then the lattice happened.
Then Annie happened.
Then Texas happened.
Sowhere along the way, things changed.
I wasn’t sure exactly when.
I wasn’t even sure I missed all of it.
There had been comfort in not carrying everyone’s lives on my shoulders anymore.
There had also been consequences.
The mory of every bad decision I’d ever made tried forcing its way into my head all at once.
People getting hurt.
People dying.
Mistakes I’d never get to take back.
The thoughts arrived so fast it felt like a blood vessel bursting.
I shoved them down imdiately.
No.
I wasn’t doing that today.
Across the room, Aubrey pressed a finger against her free ear while holding a walkie talkie close to her mouth.
"Adira?"
Static crackled.
Nothing else.
Aubrey frowned.
"Adira, co on."
More static.
"Is anyone there?"
Her voice grew tighter.
"Carl. Adira. Anybody. Pick up."
The silence that followed seed to fill the entire room.
The rain kept falling.
The thunder kept rolling.
Nobody answered.
A beat passed.
Then another.
"Still nothing?" Hale asked.
He sat down beside her.
Aubrey shook her head.
"No."
The answer ca out flat.
Like she’d already expected it.
Hale slid an arm around her shoulders.
Nothing dramatic.
Nothing performative.
Just enough to pull her closer.
Aubrey leaned into him slightly.
I looked away.
Not because it bothered .
Because it felt personal.
My eyes drifted upward toward the ceiling again.
Then down.
Toward Lila.
She was laying beside .
Head resting against my shoulder.
Completely relaxed.
Which should’ve comforted .
Instead it made my stomach hurt.
Because none of this made sense.
Not a single part of it.
A brain injury.
Days of torture.
Malnutrition.
Infection.
Near death experiences stacked on top of near death experiences.
She should’ve been worse.
Way worse.
Any normal person would’ve been.
Instead she’d marched through the borough like a damn machine.
Sharp.
Focused.
Dangerous.
She’d cut through infected.
Avoided soldiers.
Found routes nobody else noticed.
And eventually saved my life.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
No matter how hard I tried.
The more I replayed it in my head, the less sense it made.
Lila slowly sat up.
Her fingers lazily walked across my chest while she humd a familiar lody under her breath.
She seed content.
Comfortable.
Happy, even.
I watched her for a mont.
Then looked away.
Because the conclusion waiting for on the other side of those thoughts wasn’t one I wanted.
If she was getting better...
Then maybe I was worrying for nothing.
But if she wasn’t getting better—
If the infection was changing her instead—
Then I didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to do.
Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe she’d always been this capable.
Maybe she’d always been this protective.
Maybe I’d just never noticed.
There was only one way to find out.
I slowly sat up.
Imdiately, fingers wrapped around my wrist.
I froze.
Lila was staring at .
The change in her expression was instant.
The softness disappeared.
Sothing colder took its place.
Sothing frightened.
Her grip tightened slightly.
"...Where are you going, my darling?" she asked quietly.
The question sounded innocent.
The look in her eyes wasn’t.
"I just need to stretch my legs."
For a second she didn’t answer.
She just stared at .
Like she was trying to decide whether that answer was acceptable.
Then her shoulders relaxed.
"Oh."
Her grip loosened.
"Okay."
Relief imdiately flooded my chest.
I hadn’t even realized how tense I’d beco.
I stood up.
Turned around.
Started walking.
The couch creaked behind .
I closed my eyes.
Slowly turned back around.
Lila was halfway to standing.
"You don’t have to follow ."
She frowned.
I pointed toward the couch.
"Really. I’m okay."
She looked unconvinced.
"Be back soon, okay?"
I didn’t answer.
Mostly because my thoughts were already elsewhere.
Trying to make sense of things that didn’t make sense.
I originally left Chicago because I believed things could get better.
Because I believed there was a cure sowhere.
Because I believed Lila could beco normal again.
Or at least sothing close to normal.
Now I wasn’t even sure what normal ant anymore.
If the infection was improving her...
If it was making her stronger...
Sharper...
Then what exactly was I trying to cure?
The thought made uncomfortable.
I pushed it aside.
The further I moved through the house, the quieter everything beca.
Most people were occupied.
Talking quietly.
Resting.
Trying not to think too hard about what ca next.
Then I spotted Terri.
Alone.
She sat near one of the boarded windows with her hands folded in her lap.
Staring at the floor.
At first nothing seed strange about it.
Then I looked closer.
And realized she’d been sitting in the exact sa position for several minutes.
Not moving.
Not blinking much.
Just staring.
My steps slowed.
Sothing felt off imdiately.
Terri was anxious.
Awkward.
Nervous.
That wasn’t unusual.
This was.
Her eyes looked distant.
Not unfocused.
Distant.
Like she was sowhere else entirely.
I frowned.
Then started walking toward her.
Slowly.
Carefully.
When I stopped in front of her, she didn’t look up.
Didn’t acknowledge .
Didn’t react at all.
"Terri?"
Nothing.
I crouched slightly.
Then I noticed her lips moving.
Tiny movents.
Almost impossible to see.
Like she’d been talking to herself.
Sothing unpleasant twisted in my chest.
"Terri."
Still nothing.
"Terri, are you okay?"
She jumped.
Hard.
Her head snapped upward.
"Oh!"
A smile imdiately appeared on her face.
"Adrian."
I stared at her.
The smile looked wrong.
Forced.
Lost.
"No, I uh..." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I don’t have your biology howork from Ms. Watkins yet but I swear I can finish it before class."
Silence.
My stomach dropped.
Terri blinked.
The realization hit her.
Her smile faltered.
Then vanished.
"...Sorry."
I didn’t know what to say.
Because that wasn’t confusion.
That wasn’t distraction.
For a second she’d genuinely thought we were sowhere else.
Sowhere years ago.
Sowhere before all of this.
And judging from the embarrassnt on her face, she knew it too.
A beat passed.
Then another.
"So what’s up?" she asked.
I exhaled slowly.
"I was wondering if you still had that book."
Terri blinked.
"What book?"
"The notebook."
I made a vague gesture.
"The one where you docunted all your infected theories. Strains. Mutations. All that science stuff."
Recognition imdiately crossed her face.
"Oh."
She sat up slightly.
"Oh! Right."
A faint smile appeared.
"That book."
"Do you still have it?"
"Yeah. Hold on."
She imdiately began digging through her backpack.
The bag looked like it weighed half as much as she did.
Papers.
Pens.
Old wrappers.
Several notebooks.
At one point she pulled out an entire flashlight and stared at it in confusion before tossing it aside again.
I watched her search.
For a mont she looked normal.
Not terrified.
Not exhausted.
Just Terri.
Then she found it.
"There."
She pulled out a worn notebook and handed it over.
I imdiately opened it.
The pages were bent from years of use.
Notes filled nearly every available inch.
Terri shifted awkwardly.
"Is there a reason you wanted it?"
I didn’t answer.
Not imdiately.
I was already flipping through pages.
Dates.
Observations.
Theories.
Most of it dated all the way back to 2016.
Practically the beginning.
Back when nobody knew what was happening.
Back when we were all just scared kids pretending we understood the end of the world.
Baseline infected.
Mind-broken variants.
Intelligent strains.
I already knew most of that.
I’d lived through it.
I turned another page.
Then another.
Terri watched .
The longer I stayed quiet, the more nervous she beca.
"Adrian?"
I raised a finger.
She imdiately shut up.
More pages.
Amber.
I found several diagrams discussing the drug.
Predictions.
Effects.
Potential neurological alterations.
Old information.
Useful once.
Not anymore.
Then I reached another section.
And stopped.
My eyes narrowed.
The pages were different.
More detailed.
Far more detailed.
Entire sections had been dedicated to a single subject.
Lila.
There were diagrams.
Observations.
Behavioral notes.
Predictions.
Theories.
My eyes slowly widened.
Terri imdiately noticed.
Embarrassnt flooded her face.
"Oh God."
She rubbed the back of her neck.
"I know how weird that looks."
I looked up.
She shrank slightly.
"A few months ago you were really serious about finding a cure."
I said nothing.
Because I still was.
Terri noticed that too.
"So I just..."
She looked away.
"I collected data."
I glanced back down.
Pages and pages of it.
"What kind of data?"
"The tis we tested her."
Her voice grew smaller.
"The reactions she had to different compounds. Behavioral changes. Physical changes."
I frowned.
"And?"
Terri hesitated.
For a second she looked like she wanted the notebook back.
"Well..."
She reached toward it.
Then froze.
The notebook vanished from my hands.
Both of us looked up.
Lila stood there.
Holding it above her head.
A smile stretched across her face.
"Well, well."
Her voice sounded playful.
"What are you two lovebirds talking about?"
"Lila."
She ignored .
"Oh?"
She flipped open the notebook.
"What’s this?"
Terri imdiately went pale.
I felt my stomach sink.
I thought she’d stayed on the couch.
Apparently not.
Lila began flipping through pages.
Slowly.
Casually.
The room suddenly felt colder.
Terri’s expression continued falling apart with every page she turned.
"Lila," I said.
No response.
"Lila."
Nothing.
She continued reading.
"Lila, give it back."
Her eyes never left the notebook.
Then she stopped.
The smile disappeared.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
The air in the room seed to change.
"’In the event that Subject L demonstrates further neurological divergence, euthanasia should be considered before additional mutations can occur.’"
Terri’s face imdiately drained of color.
I felt my stomach drop.
Lila kept reading.
"’Post-mortem examination of cerebral tissue may provide insight into the adaptive chanisms responsible for her unique condition.’"
The room had gone completely silent.
"’Dissection of the frontal and temporal regions is recomnded.’"
Lila lowered the notebook.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
Then she looked at Terri.
Just the, she stopped breathing.
I genuinely think she forgot how.
Lila slowly lowered the notebook.
Then looked at her.
There was nothing playful in her eyes anymore.
Nothing warm.
Nothing human.
The silence stretched.
Terri looked frozen.
Then Lila laughed.
A short sound.
Sharp.
Wrong.
"So."
Her head tilted.
"You wanted to kill ."
Terri imdiately shook her head.
"No."
"No?"
Lila repeated.
"No?"
She started walking forward.
Terri scooted backward.
Fast.
"No no no."
Lila smiled.
"You don’t get to do that."
Terri’s breathing started speeding up.
"Lila, I—"
"You don’t get to lie."
Lila pointed at the notebook.
"It says it right here."
Her voice began rising.
"Dissection."
Another step.
"Extraction."
Another.
"Termination."
Terri hit the wall behind her.
Nowhere left to go.
"I wasn’t—"
"Weren’t what?"
Lila snapped.
"Weren’t planning it?"
Terri looked like she was about to cry.
"Weren’t writing it?"
Her voice beca quieter.
Sohow that was worse.
"Weren’t talking about cutting my head open?"
The room had gone completely silent.
Everyone was watching now.
Nobody moving.
Nobody speaking.
Lila crouched slightly.
Like a predator getting eye level with prey.
"You were going to kill ."
"No."
Terri’s voice cracked.
"No, I wasn’t."
"You were."
"I wasn’t."
"You were."
"I wasn’t!"
Lila’s smile widened.
Then widened further.
"Oh."
She nodded.
"You’re scared."
Terri looked absolutely horrified.
Lila seed delighted by that.
The realization hit like a punch.
She wasn’t just angry.
She was enjoying this.
Enjoying watching Terri break.
"Lila."
Nothing.
"Lila."
Still nothing.
Terri’s hands were shaking violently now.
"I didn’t want to kill you."
"Then why write it down?"
"I didn’t know!"
Tears appeared.
"I didn’t know what you were!"
The second the words left her mouth, she regretted them.
I saw it happen.
Lila saw it too.
And her entire face changed.
Sothing ugly surfaced.
Sothing wounded.
Sothing vicious.
"What I was?"
Terri imdiately tried backtracking.
"No, that’s not—"
"What I was?"
Lila repeated.
Her voice had beco terrifyingly calm.
The kind of calm that exists right before sothing explodes.
"You people always do that."
Nobody moved.
"You decide what sobody is."
Another step.
"Then you decide whether they deserve to live."
Another.
"And sohow that’s science."
"Lila—"
Her hand shot out.
Fast.
Far too fast.
I grabbed for her shoulder.
The next thing I knew pain exploded across my face.
Sothing sharp tore through skin.
I stumbled backward.
Blood imdiately spilled down my cheek.
The room erupted.
Aubrey moved first.
She practically launched herself forward.
"Enough!"
She grabbed Lila around the waist and physically dragged her backward.
Lila fought her.
Actually fought her.
Thrashing.
Snarling.
Trying to get free.
Terri had curled into herself completely now.
Pressed against the wall.
Trembling.
Not crying.
Past crying.
The kind of fear that shuts everything down.
I pressed a hand against my face.
The sting was imdiate.
Hot.
Wet.
My palm ca away red.
Blood.
More than I expected.
Across the room, Aubrey was still struggling to restrain Lila.
Lila wasn’t even looking at .
She wasn’t looking at anyone.
Her eyes remained locked on Terri.
Like she’d forgotten the rest of us existed.
Like she still wanted at her.
That scared more than the scratch.
Slowly, my breathing started evening out.
The adrenaline remained.
Hamring through my chest.
Making my hands shake.
I wiped blood away again.
Then looked up.
And imdiately wished I hadn’t.
Hale was staring at .
Not Lila.
Not Terri.
.
His expression was completely calm.
Completely controlled.
But underneath it—
Sothing sharp had erged.
Sothing I’d seen before.
The look Hale got right before he decided sothing.
My stomach dropped.
"Adrian."
I flinched.
Just slightly.
That was enough.
Hale noticed.
"A word."
The room suddenly felt very small.
God fucking damn it, man.
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