The sun beat down on my face.
Cruel, honestly.
Winter was coming. I could feel it in the air already whenever the wind cut through my clothes, carrying that dry cold that settled into your bones before the season even officially arrived. But the sunlight still hit warm enough to make squint.
It felt wrong.
Like the world couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.
Kind of like everything else.
The tension in the camp was enough to make sick.
Nobody really spoke.
Not in the normal way.
People still talked, technically. There were reminders to grab supplies. Questions about routes. Soone asking if anybody had seen extra ammunition. Sobody else counting inventory under their breath. A distant argunt about ration distribution that died the second it started.
But there was nothing real in any of it.
No conversations.
No laughing.
No lingering.
Nobody looked at each other for very long.
And honestly...
Yeah.
I figured this would happen.
I wasn’t stupid enough to think yesterday would disappear overnight.
People didn’t magically stop being scared.
People didn’t magically stop being angry.
People definitely didn’t magically forget.
Not after yesterday.
Not after watching soone they’d already started treating like a threat get defended anyway.
Not after realizing things weren’t simple anymore.
My eyes drifted across camp until they landed on Terri carrying one of the supply bags toward the truck.
Before I could think about it, I moved.
"Let get that."
Terri jumped.
Not enough that soone else would notice.
Enough that I did.
Her grip tightened around the bag.
"N—no... I— thanks. I got it..."
She shifted quickly and set the bag inside. A little too fast, like she wanted distance more than help.
I slowed.
Sothing in my chest tightened.
I frowned.
"Well... uh..."
God.
Why was this awkward?
"How you holding up?"
Terri looked at .
Too fast.
Like she’d already been expecting to say sothing.
"Good!"
Imdiate.
Too imdiate.
She cleared her throat.
"Uh— great. Never been better."
I smiled a little.
Not because I believed her.
Mostly because she was trying.
"Oh."
I rubbed the back of my neck.
"That’s good to hear."
"...yeah."
Silence.
A few seconds.
Then more.
People moved around us.
Boxes shut.
Engines checked.
Soone laughed in the distance and imdiately stopped like they’d been slapped by the atmosphere itself.
"I—"
"Well—"
We both stopped.
Terri let out an awkward laugh that didn’t belong in the air.
I scratched my head.
"Y-you go first..."
I nodded.
"...yeah."
I looked away for a second. Then back.
"I just wanted to say I was sorry."
Terri blinked.
"Sorry?"
"For Lila."
Sothing changed in her face imdiately. Not fear. Not exactly. More like reflex—like her brain had already rehearsed this mont and didn’t like that it was finally happening.
"Oh!"
She waved her hand quickly.
"No no. That’s... ah..."
She swallowed.
"That’s water under the bridge."
I looked at her.
"You sure?"
"Yeahhh."
Her smile got bigger.
Too big. Too practiced.
"Trust , it’s fine."
Sothing ward in my chest.
Not because I believed her.
Because she was trying.
Trying for .
Trying to make things normal again in a world that clearly wasn’t interested.
And sohow that made it harder to breathe than honesty would’ve.
I stood there a mont.
Thinking.
Trying to move forward.
Trying to feel normal too.
"So..."
I looked at her.
"Friends?"
Terri looked surprised. Actually surprised, like the word still ant sothing clean.
Then she smiled.
Small. Real.
"Yeah..."
She nodded.
"Yeah. Always."
Sothing loosened in . Just a fraction. Just enough to notice it was there.
So I leaned in.
For a hug.
And for one second—
one second—
she looked like she was about to hug back.
Then—
everything disappeared from her face.
Color. Warmth. Presence.
Her eyes flicked behind .
She backed away imdiately.
I frowned.
"...Terri?"
She looked at . Then looked away.
"I..."
Her voice got quieter.
"I gotta go."
Then she left.
Fast.
Too fast.
I stood there confused before turning around.
Lila.
Standing a little ways away.
Watching.
Expression unreadable. Still.
She had probably watched the whole interaction.
Of fucking course.
I stared at her.
She smiled.
Small. Barely there.
Not angry. Not upset.
Just... watching.
Like she’d been waiting to see what I would choose to do.
Like I had passed or failed sothing I didn’t know I was being tested on.
Then she tilted her head slightly.
That was it.
Nothing else.
But for so reason it made my skin tighten anyway.
I looked away and ran a hand through my hair.
Before I could say anything—
"Hey, Adrian."
Cold. Detached.
I looked up.
Aubrey.
She tossed a key.
I caught it.
"Everyone else is tired."
She turned away.
"So you’re driving."
Not a question.
I frowned.
"Yeah."
I looked at her.
"Sure."
She kept walking.
Then quietly—
"Inconsiderate prick."
Not quiet enough.
I heard it.
I looked after her.
What the fuck was her problem?
Terri.
Aubrey.
Nobody was acting normal.
I just hoped to God this wasn’t becoming the new normal.
—
The road looked dead.
Rotten.
Trees stripped thin.
Old abandoned cars.
Road signs with faded paint, half-buried in vines like the world was trying to erase itself.
Things that used to an sothing.
Now they just ant distance.
I drove.
Map spread between and the gear shift.
The engine humd beneath us, steady in a way everything else wasn’t.
In the back—
Isabella asleep.
Cherie asleep.
Naomi too.
Hale awake.
Of course.
I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen Hale sleep. Not once. Like rest was optional for him in a way it wasn’t for anyone else.
Aubrey was awake too.
And...
I don’t know.
Maybe I was imagining it.
But I could’ve sworn she looked at through the rearview mirror.
Once.
Twice.
Then looked away.
Not angry. Not exactly.
Just...
looking.
Like she wanted to say sothing.
Like she hated herself for wanting to.
Seriously.
What the fuck was her problem?
Beside —
Lila sighed.
Soft. Satisfied.
Like the silence itself was sothing she enjoyed filling.
I looked over.
She was smiling.
Not normal smiling.
Content.
Like she’d finally gotten sothing back that she wasn’t sure she’d ever see again.
"Ugh..."
She stretched.
"I’ve fucking missed this..."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Missed what?"
She looked at .
"These road trips with you, obviously."
I blinked.
She smiled wider.
Then added—
"...and company."
Right.
Everyone else.
I looked back at the road.
Sothing settled weirdly in my chest.
I kept forgetting.
She rembered things.
Not all of them.
But enough.
Enough to miss things.
Enough to sound normal in monts like this.
Enough to make it easy to forget what wasn’t normal about her in the first place.
"Oh yeah?"
She lit up.
"Oh yeah."
She leaned toward the window.
"The scenery."
"The wind."
I snorted.
"And by scenery you an dead bodies."
She laughed.
Actually laughed.
"There’s more to see than that."
I smiled despite myself.
Looked back at the road.
"Yeah."
Quiet.
"I guess there is."
Then—
BANG.
The sound detonated through the truck like sothing physical.
Everything jolted.
My hands nearly slipped off the wheel.
Everybody got thrown upward.
Soone shouted—
"FUCK— WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"
People woke instantly.
My heartbeat spiked hard enough that it felt like it filled my ears.
Okay.
Think.
Back tire.
Wrong sound.
Puncture.
Shot.
Soone shot us.
Not a pistol.
Too heavy. Too clean. Too controlled.
Hale was already moving.
Gun loaded.
Turning in one smooth motion toward the back.
The truck pulled slightly left.
I corrected.
Too fast.
My grip tightened until my knuckles hurt.
I checked the mirror.
And—
my blood went cold.
A vehicle.
Close.
Too close.
Not swerving.
Not desperate.
Following like it had already calculated the exact distance it needed to keep.
And standing through the opening at the top—
a blonde woman.
No shirt.
Markings across her face.
Her shoulders.
Her body.
Military—maybe. Or sothing wearing the idea of military like a skin it hadn’t fully learned to move in yet.
She calmly reloaded.
Then looked directly at .
And smiled.
Not confused.
Not feral.
Not mindless.
Aware.
Like she knew exactly how afraid she was supposed to make us feel.
Like she enjoyed asuring it.
My stomach dropped.
"God..."
My voice ca out quieter than I ant.
"What the fuck is going on?"
The vehicle was armored.
Couldn’t see inside.
Couldn’t see how many.
But suddenly—
I didn’t want to.
Because if she was infected—
then whoever else was inside probably was too.
And sohow—
that was worse than anything I could properly na.
Not because she looked stronger.
Not because she had a gun.
But because she looked patient.
Like she wasn’t chasing us in anger.
Like she was following us the way sothing follows a sound it knows it will eventually reach.
Like she already knew she was going to catch us.
Then she lifted the gun again.
Looked straight at through the windshield.
And smiled wider.
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