The tent slled like antiseptic and old fabric.
Lantern light flickered low, shadows stretching and shrinking across canvas walls as the woman’s needle moved in and out of Aubrey’s skin. Each pull tugged at the shallow wound along her neck—more irritating than painful, but enough to earn her exile from the fight.
She hated it.
Her fingers flexed at her side, restless.
Her eyes flickered to Jane for a brief mont, eyes narrowing.
Then to her daughter Isabella, her arms crossed as she stared off into the distance without a care in the world.
Across the tent, Lila stood half-hidden in shadow.
She hadn’t said a word since she ca in. Just leaned near one of the support poles, a gun resting loose in her hand. She rotated it slowly, absentmindedly, like she was thinking through sothing that didn’t require words.
Click.
Turn.
Click.
Her eyes t Aubrey’s for a brief second.
Cold.
Not panicked. Not scared.
Disdain.
Sothing about the look made her stomach tighten.
Then she looked away.
The gun stopped moving as she turned toward the older woman stitching her wound, attention settling there instead—like she’d already stopped existing.
What the hell even happened to her..?
"Your friend?" the woman asked gently, without looking up.
Aubrey didn’t answer.
The needle slid again. She hissed quietly through her teeth, shoulders tensing.
"I don’t get it," she muttered, more to herself than anyone else. "I should be out there. Fighting with the others." Her jaw clenched. "And you’re gonna put out of commission over one scratch?"
The woman’s hands never wavered.
She smiled instead.
"Not just because of that," she said softly. "It just isn’t our place."
She stilled.
She tied off the stitch, trimd it clean, then finally t her eyes.
"As won, we should let the n handle it," she continued, calm and certain. "They’ll protect us."
The words settled wrong.
Like sothing rehearsed.
Like sothing learned.
Her gaze flicked back to Lila.
She hadn’t reacted. Hadn’t disagreed. Hadn’t even pretended to listen.
She just stood there, gun hanging loose at her side, eyes unfocused— already sowhere else.
Planning.
Aubrey frowned.
No.
That wasn’t right.
In that mont, Lila didn’t look like soone waiting to be protected.
She looked like soone deciding who didn’t need to be.
Outside the tent, a distant gunshot cracked through the night.
She flinched.
Lila didn’t.
That’s when she understood—
Whatever was about to happen out there...
She already knew how it would end.
The machete went in clean.
Straight through the infected’s open mouth, steel punching through rotten teeth and the soft collapse of its throat. The thing jerked once—hard—before the camp mber yanked the blade free. Blackened blood sprayed the dirt. The body crumpled at his feet like it had finally rembered gravity.
"That’s the third one we’ve got down," he said, breathing hard. "Hale’s right. They’re spreading out."
I wiped sweat from my brow, eyes flicking instinctively to the treeline.
"As if to catch us by surprise," I finished.
My grip tightened around my gun.
Three down. Seven seen earlier. That still left too many unaccounted for.
Too many blind spots.
The camp mber wiped his blade on his pant leg and jogged off without waiting for orders. Everyone was moving now— quiet, fast, purposeful. The camp had stopped being a collection of tents and people. It was a system under stress.
And systems always failed at the weakest point.
A sharp crack echoed from the east.
It wasn’t a scream this ti.
A gunshot.
Too close.
My heart slamd against my ribs.
"East side!" soone hissed. "We’ve got contact—!"
Another crack. Louder this ti.
Then shouting.
I was already running.
By the ti I reached the eastern line, the damage was done.
A body lay slumped near the fire pit— one of the younger scouts. I didn’t know his na. I knew his face. Knew the way he’d nodded too eagerly earlier when Hale assigned him a post.
Blood soaked through his jacket, dark and spreading. Too much.
He wasn’t moving.
The infected that had done it lay a few feet away, skull caved in by rifle fire. Its hands were still curled like it had been reaching.
Too late.
I dropped to a knee beside the scout, fingers pressing instinctively against his neck.
Nothing.
A ringing filled my ears.
"No," I muttered. "No, no—"
"Adrian."
Hale’s voice cut through the noise. Flat. Controlled.
I looked up.
His jaw was tight, eyes sharp, sharpened by sothing cold.
"They slipped through the gap," he said. "The one you left open."
The words hit harder than the gunshots.
I opened my mouth. Closed it.
I had left it open.
I’d pulled two guards from the east to reinforce the clearing after the scream. I’d told myself it was temporary. That the west breach mattered more.
I hadn’t accounted for how patient the infected were becoming.
For how smart.
My stomach twisted.
"I thought—" I started.
"You thought you had ti," Hale finished.
Silence fell between us, thick and heavy.
Behind him, soone pulled a blanket over the scout’s body. Just like that. Like it was already decided.
Because it was.
A bitter laugh cut through the mont.
Cherie leaned against a nearby post, arms crossed, eyes flicking between the corpse and .
My eyes widened.
"Who let you out of your restraints...?" My voice was barely above a whisper.
"Well," she drawled softly, "guess that answers the question of whether they’d go for the edges."
My gaze snapped to her.
"This isn’t the ti—"
"When is it ever?" she shot back, stepping forward. "You’re fighting sothing that learns, sweetie. And you’re still treating them like animals."
Hale didn’t stop her.
That scared more than if he had.
"They probed," she continued. "You reacted. They adapted. That kid died because they figured you out faster than you figured them out."
My hands curled into fists.
"Enough."
"No," Hale said quietly. "She’s right."
The words landed like a final nail.
I stared at him.
He t my gaze without flinching.
"They weren’t testing us anymore," he said. "They were mapping us. And now they know where you bend."
Sothing cracked in my chest.
Not panic.
Resolve.
Sharp. Ugly. Necessary.
I stood.
"Everyone," I said, voice carrying farther than I expected. "Fall back. Full periter collapse. We regroup at the central ridge."
A murmur rippled through the camp.
Hale’s brow furrowed. "That puts the vulnerable closer to the treeline."
"I know."
Cherie’s smile widened slightly.
"It puts closer to the treeline too," I added. "They want my reactions? Fine."
Hale studied my face for a long mont.
Then he nodded.
"Alright," he said. "Then don’t hesitate this ti."
I looked once more at the covered body on the ground.
The mistake had already been made.
Now I’d have to live with what fixing it would cost.
And sowhere beyond the firelight, branches snapped again.
Closer than before.
They were learning.
So was I.
"Fighting in the dark makes no sense anymore." I whispered quietly.
Hale’s eyes landed on .
"I have a plan. It’ll be risky, but it’s gonna work." My eyes darkened at the last sentence.
"It has to."
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