The click of Harry’s pistol sounded louder than it should have.
Maybe it was because the town was so quiet.
Maybe it was because everyone was expecting sothing to happen.
Or maybe it was because Bill had dragged them this far north chasing ghosts.
Harry kept the weapon low as they moved between abandoned storefronts. Saul walked a few paces ahead. The others spread themselves out naturally, years of survival making the formation instinctive.
Bill led from the front.
Of course he did.
Harry watched him for a mont.
Bill never admitted what he was looking for.
Never said it out loud.
But Harry wasn’t stupid.
This wasn’t about supplies anymore.
Hadn’t been for a while.
Ever since Canada, Bill had been pushing farther and farther from familiar territory. Longer scouting routes. More dangerous roads. More unnecessary risks.
The excuse was always the sa.
"We need supplies."
"We need information."
"We need options."
Bullshit.
Harry knew better.
Bill was looking for Adrian.
And Lila.
The pair had slipped through his fingers once already.
Bill hated loose ends.
The fact they were still alive probably bothered him more than the apocalypse itself.
Harry adjusted the strap of his rifle.
Personally?
He thought Bill was wasting his ti.
The world was too big.
Too broken.
Too chaotic.
Finding two specific people now felt about as likely as finding a needle in a landfill.
Yet Bill kept looking.
Because Bill was bored.
And bored n were dangerous.
Especially bored n who enjoyed violence as much as Bill did.
The street stretched ahead.
Empty cars sat abandoned where they’d died years ago.
Store windows had long since shattered.
Grass pushed through cracks in the pavent.
At first glance, it looked like every other dead town they’d passed through.
Then Harry noticed sothing.
He slowed.
"The hell..."
Saul stopped beside him.
"What?"
Harry pointed.
Near the sidewalk sat a wooden marker.
Simple.
Crude.
Handmade.
A grave.
Saul stared.
Nobody spoke for a second.
Then they noticed another.
And another.
And another.
Bodies hadn’t been left to rot.
They’d been buried.
Properly.
The realization spread through the group imdiately.
Bill turned.
His eyes narrowed.
Now he was interested.
Harry already knew that look.
The look Bill got whenever he slled trouble.
A few minutes later they found sothing else.
The road.
It was clean.
Not perfectly clean.
But clean enough.
Abandoned vehicles had been moved aside.
Debris had been cleared.
Not by weather.
Not by ti.
By people.
Or sothing pretending to be people.
Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
The deeper they moved into town, the stranger it beca.
A grocery store sat partially intact.
The shelves inside were mostly empty.
Not looted.
Organized.
Whatever remained had been stacked neatly.
Sorted.
Catalogued.
It looked less like a scavenged ruin and more like sobody had been managing inventory.
Nobody liked that.
Especially not Harry.
Because chaos made sense.
Chaos was normal.
This?
This required planning.
Intelligence.
Ownership.
A watch platform sat atop an old pharmacy.
Another overlooked the main road entering town.
A third sat near the church.
All empty.
All positioned deliberately.
Watching.
Monitoring.
Protecting.
Bill stopped in the middle of the street.
"The fuck is this?"
Nobody answered.
Because nobody had an answer.
Human settlent?
Maybe.
Raiders?
Possible.
Military?
Doubtful.
Sothing else?
That possibility sat heavily in everyone’s chest.
Bill slowly smiled.
Harry imdiately hated it.
Because whenever Bill smiled like that, sobody usually ended up dead.
"Spread out."
The order ca instantly.
"Check everything."
Bill glanced around.
"Keep your eyes open."
The group moved.
Harry reluctantly followed.
The town seed abandoned.
Yet it never felt empty.
That was the problem.
Every building felt occupied by an invisible audience.
Like sothing was watching them from behind every curtain.
Every doorway.
Every rooftop.
Nothing happened.
Minutes passed.
Then Harry heard shouting.
He turned.
Bill stood at the far end of the street.
Gun raised.
Looking toward an alleyway.
Harry imdiately started moving.
By the ti he arrived, Saul was already there.
Both n stared into the alley.
At first Harry didn’t understand.
Then he saw him.
A man.
Normal clothes.
Normal posture.
Normal movent.
For one brief second Harry almost thought he’d found another survivor.
Then the figure glanced back.
Red eyes.
Bright.
Unmistakable.
Infected.
The infected froze.
Like a deer caught in headlights.
Nobody moved.
Then the infected turned around.
And ran.
Harry blinked.
What?
Most infected charged.
Most attacked.
Most lost themselves the second they spotted prey.
This one ran.
Bill’s grin widened.
BANG.
The shot echoed through town.
The infected stumbled.
Its leg gave out briefly before it scrambled forward again.
Still running.
Still trying to escape.
"Saul."
Bill didn’t even look away.
Saul sighed.
Already understanding.
The two n took off after it.
Harry watched them disappear around a corner.
Then muttered quietly:
"Jesus Christ."
The chase lasted longer than it should have.
The infected moved through back streets and narrow alleys with surprising familiarity.
Like it knew the town.
Like it belonged here.
Blood marked its path.
Drops splattered across pavent.
Across fences.
Across abandoned porches.
Yet it kept running.
Bill loved every second of it.
Saul hated every second of it.
Eventually the infected collapsed near an old hardware store.
Its wounded leg finally gave out.
Bill approached slowly.
Gun in hand.
The infected tried crawling backward.
Its breathing ca ragged and desperate.
Fear filled its face.
Actual fear.
Bill stopped several feet away.
Then laughed.
The sound made Saul uncomfortable imdiately.
"Well I’ll be damned."
Bill shook his head.
"First ti I’ve ever seen one beg."
The infected stared at him.
Tears mixed with blood.
Its lips trembled.
"The revelation..." it whispered.
Bill frowned.
"What?"
"The revelation will co."
The infected swallowed.
"Miriam will be your cleansers."
Silence.
Bill and Saul exchanged a glance.
Neither understood a damn word.
"Miriam?"
Bill stepped closer.
"What the hell is this place?"
No answer.
The infected stared at the ground.
Bill grabbed its shirt.
Yanked it forward.
"Why’re you here?"
Nothing.
"Where are your people?"
The infected suddenly looked up.
"Kill ."
Bill blinked.
"What?"
"Kill ."
Its voice cracked.
"Please."
Bill’s expression darkened.
In a fit of rage, he lifted the infected up and slamd it against a wall before pistol whipping it with brutal force.
The infected’s body trembled violently against the wall.
Blood ran from his ruined leg.
From the cut above his eye.
From sowhere inside his mouth where one of Bill’s punches had loosened teeth.
Yet sohow he still seed more terrified than hurt.
Bill grabbed a fistful of his shirt and shoved him harder against the brick.
"Talk."
The infected winced.
His eyes squeezed shut.
"Please..."
Bill frowned.
"What?"
"Please kill ."
Saul exchanged a look with Bill.
The infected swallowed.
His entire body shook.
"You don’t understand."
"Then help understand," Bill snapped.
The infected laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because he sounded halfway to a breakdown.
"You can’t stop it."
"Stop what?"
The infected’s gaze drifted upward.
Toward the sky.
Toward nothing.
A strange smile spread across his face.
"The revelation."
Bill imdiately looked annoyed.
"What fucking revelation?"
The infected ignored him.
His lips moved almost reverently.
"As she awakened us..."
Bill’s brow furrowed.
"Who?"
"...we awaken others."
The infected began crying again.
Actual tears.
Mixing with blood.
"We were blind."
Saul shifted uncomfortably.
The man didn’t sound dangerous.
He sounded broken.
"We thought we were cursed."
The infected laughed weakly.
"We thought we were dying."
His eyes suddenly focused on Bill.
"You still think you’re alive."
Bill’s expression hardened.
"Careful."
The infected continued anyway.
"You still think humanity survives."
His smile widened.
"It doesn’t."
Bill shoved him again.
Hard.
His head bounced against brick.
"Humanity’s still here."
"No."
The infected shook his head.
"No, no, no."
His voice cracked.
"It ended already."
The tears returned.
"We’re what cos after."
Bill stared.
The infected’s breathing beca ragged.
"Miriam showed us."
There it was again.
That na.
Miriam.
Bill imdiately seized on it.
"Who the fuck is Miriam?"
The infected’s face changed.
Not fear.
Devotion.
Pure devotion.
Like Bill had just asked him about God.
"She’s our mother."
Bill rolled his eyes.
"Jesus Christ."
"She freed us."
The infected’s voice beca stronger.
"She showed us what we were becoming."
His smile widened.
"What we were always ant to beco."
Saul looked away.
Sothing about the conversation made his skin crawl.
Not because the infected sounded insane.
Because he sounded convinced.
Completely convinced.
The infected suddenly looked back toward the town.
Toward the empty streets.
Toward the rooftops.
Toward the watch posts.
And for the first ti genuine panic crossed his face.
"Oh God..."
Bill noticed imdiately.
"What?"
The infected started crying harder.
"Miriam is going to be so angry."
Bill froze.
The infected wasn’t afraid of dying.
He was afraid of disappointing sobody.
The realization made Bill’s stomach turn.
"You got friends nearby?"
The infected squeezed his eyes shut.
"Kill ."
Bill shoved him again.
"Answer ."
"Kill !"
The demand ca out almost hysterical.
"Please."
Bill’s jaw clenched.
The infected’s breathing beca erratic.
"You don’t understand."
"Then explain it."
"They’ll find you."
Bill stared.
The infected laughed again.
Blood ran down his chin.
"They always do."
The crying returned.
"Miriam sees everything."
Bill’s patience finally snapped.
The pistol crashed into the infected’s face.
The crack echoed through the alley.
The infected collapsed.
Bill imdiately grabbed him again.
Dragged him upright.
Then slamd him against the wall.
"WHO ARE YOU?"
The infected sobbed.
Not answering.
Just sobbing.
Bill shook him violently.
"WHO ARE YOU?"
The crying continued.
The infected looked completely shattered now.
Terrified.
Broken.
Human.
And sohow that made him more disturbing than any monster Bill had ever killed.
Bill drew his arm back.
Saul fired.
BANG.
The infected’s body went limp instantly.
Bill stood frozen for a second.
Blood dotted his jacket.
His face.
The alley wall.
Then he slowly turned.
"The fuck was that for?"
Saul lowered the pistol.
"He was infected."
Bill stared at him.
Saul shrugged.
"He was gone."
The alley fell silent.
Neither man spoke.
For so reason the town suddenly felt much larger than before.
Much less abandoned.
Saul finally started walking.
"There’s nothing out here for us."
Bill looked down at the body.
Then toward the rooftops.
Then toward the empty watch posts.
Then toward the church.
Sothing wasn’t sitting right.
Not fear.
Not yet.
Curiosity.
The dangerous kind.
The kind that usually got people killed.
After a mont he finally followed Saul.
Neither of them noticed the figure standing high above the town.
Motionless.
Watching.
Red eyes tracked them until they disappeared beyond the main road.
Only then did the watcher lift the radio.
Static crackled.
A voice answered.
The watcher pressed the button.
"They found the town."
Several seconds passed.
Then a calm voice spoke from the other side.
"Did they see anything?"
The watcher’s eyes drifted toward the body lying in the alley.
"Only enough."
The radio went silent.
Then:
"Good."
The transmission ended.
The watcher remained there for another mont.
Watching the road.
Watching the direction Bill’s group had gone.
And hundreds of miles away, a woman nad Miriam smiled.
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