Chapter 108: Unhashed wounds

The air outside the car smelt weird. Almost like burning flesh and iron. A hint of something sweet and metallic.

It just smelled like infected resided here. Maybe they still did.

Which meant that we were gonna have to hunt them before they hunt us.

I glanced over my shoulder. “Lila—..”

I stopped.

She wasn’t looking at me. She was staring past me. Up.

A weight dropped into my chest.

Then she moved.

In one sharp motion, she lunged at me. Her body slammed into mine just as a shot cracked through the air. Gravel exploded where she’d been standing a second earlier.

The bullet buried itself in the ground.

We hit the pavement hard and rolled behind an old rusted car. Her weight pressed against me, chest to chest. Our breaths mixed. Too close. Too warm.

In any other moment, it would’ve meant something else.

Not now.

Her eyes locked onto mine. Calm. Focused. Serious.

“Shhh.”

She pressed a finger to her lips.

I nodded once. Slow.

Then a voice echoed from above.

“We still see you, assholes!”

A voice from above, echoing through the small abandoned neighborhood.

A sniper on the rooftop.

Looks like they beat us to the punch.

Glass shattered as another shot tore through the back window of the car. Shards rained down over us.

She tilted her head slightly, listening. Counting distance.

I swallowed. “How many?” I whispered.

The lattice still wouldn’t work. I wasn’t able to tell.

“More than one,” she breathed.

Another shot rang out. Metal screamed as the hood took the hit.

“Stay low,” she said.

Up on the rooftop —

—

The sniper clicked his tongue. “Damn it.”

“What’s the issue? It’s just two fleshers.”

“One of them ain’t.” His voice dropped.

“…Who?”

“The girl. First infected I’ve seen not losing their mind over Amber, too.”

A pause.

“She looks… clean.”

“Food is food.”

The sniper fired again. The bullet punched through glass, spraying shards into the street.

“If you can’t get the shot, I’ll send some guys down,” the other man muttered.

The sniper reloaded, eyes narrowing through the scope.

—

Below, behind the car, I felt it.

Movement.

Not just above us.

From the sides.

Boots crunching on gravel. Slow. Closing in.

Lila’s fingers wrapped around my wrist. Tight.

“They’re coming down,” she said quietly.

My heart pounded so hard it drowned everything else out.

We weren’t just being hunted from above anymore.

We were being surrounded.

The boots edged closer. Lila never hesitated to lift herself off of me, grabbing a gun from her waist and firing at whoever had been flanking her side.

My eyes squinted for a moment. I instinctively reached for my waist—

To find nothing there…

She had taken the gun I had. Of course she did.

I pushed myself up into a crouch, dust clinging to my palms. Lila kept firing beside me, empty shells bouncing off the pavement. The men who rushed us fell fast—

—but there were more behind them.

And the sniper wasn’t stopping.

Another crack split the air. Glass burst above us. A bullet punched through metal with a shriek.

“We’re being overwhelmed,” I muttered. “We need another car.”

Lila reloaded in one smooth motion. She glanced at me for half a second. Nodded.

She took my hand and ran through the crossfire. Bullets snapped past us, gravel kicking up at our feet.

For a second there— I felt naked. Especially since I had no gun.

Nothing humming in the back of my head giving me an edge either.

I’d gotten used to it over the past 8 months. Too used to it.

Now it was just me. My eyes. My brain.

I needed that edge back.

As we moved, I looked up. The sun caught on something metallic. A small flash from the rooftop.

There.

I couldn’t see his face. But I felt him watching.

We slid behind another rusted car. I dropped low, breathing hard, forcing my mind to slow down.

My pulse rang in my ears, sweat pooling in my eyes, stinging my corneas.

It felt hard to focus.

If we cut through the house on the left, came out the side alley, used the delivery truck as cover—

No…not that wouldn’t work.

Lila stopped firing and crouched beside me.

She smiled at me. Calm. Almost playful.

“We’re gonna get through this, alright sweetie?”

“I know.” I said, rubbing my eyes.

It wasn’t hope. It was math.

We’ve been through worse.

She frowned slightly, almost like she expected fear.

I didn’t notice.

“I need my gun back after this,” I said.

She didn’t answer.

Above us, the sniper fired again.

—

The flashlight flickered on, washing the room in weak light. Dust hung in the air. Metal cabinets stood open, drawers ripped out and dumped across the floor.

Isabella moved through the mess, digging through boxes of gauze and empty pill bottles.

“Hurry it up, will you? This place gives me the fucking creeps…” Aubrey muttered, keeping the beam steady.

Isabella didn’t answer. She was focused. Too focused. Supplies clattered as she searched.

It had taken them too much to get inside. Barricades stacked against the doors. Traps wired along the hallway. Someone claimed this place. That much was obvious.

The thought pressed against Aubrey’s spine.

Then she heard something that wasn’t Isabella.

She shut the flashlight off and dropped into a crouch.

“Hey, I was using—”

“Shhh.”

Aubrey held her breath. The room fell into thick silence. She counted without meaning to. Five. Ten.

There it was again. A faint squeak.

She turned the flashlight back on.

A rat froze in the beam, whiskers twitching, then bolted into a crack in the wall.

Aubrey exhaled.

Isabella shot her a glare.

The bat came out of nowhere.

It swung hard. Aubrey threw her arms up and blocked with her elbow. Pain shot down to her wrist as she stumbled back and hit the floor. The flashlight slipped from her hand and rolled away.

“Shit! SHIT!” Isabella fumbled for her gun, trying to get an angle.

Aubrey and the attacker wrestled on the ground. The other person had the bat wedged between them, trying to force it down toward her throat.

Aubrey shoved back, teeth clenched, muscles shaking.

The beam from the fallen flashlight spun across the floor, catching flashes of skin, hair, eyes—

A face.

Familiar.

The struggle slowed.

Aubrey grabbed the flashlight and shoved it up into the woman’s face.

The woman hissed and covered her eyes. Dark skin. Locs tied back.

They both froze.

“Wait… is that—?”

“Julia?”

“Fucking Aubrey??”

The bat clattered to the ground.

Julia dropped to her knees and pulled Aubrey into a tight hug.

“No fucking way…” Aubrey muttered, her hands slowly raising to embrace Julia as well. It was like she was barely able to tell if she was real.

The hug lasted for quite sometime.

“God—you don’t know how glad I am to see you, girl.”

Something warm settled in Aubrey’s chest.

“Yeah. Likewise.”

They pulled apart. Julia cupped Aubrey’s face, turning it side to side under the light.

“Ohhh shit—! your hair??? It’s longer for a change! Apocalypse did a number, huh?”

Aubrey let out a small laugh. “I’m uh— yeah.. I’m trying something new.”

“I like it though.”

“You don’t look too bad yourself.” She said after a beat.

Isabella cleared her throat. Arms folded.

Aubrey straightened. “Oh— this is Julia. We went to high school together. Before everything.”

Julia smiled and held out her hand.

“Isabella.” She shook it, firm but brief.

“Ohhh, I like your hair. It’s hard to find good quality dye with everything ransacked, where did you—”

“It’s natural.” Isabella cut in.

Julia blinked. “Oh.”

Aubrey laughed under her breath. “So… you wanna tell us why you’re sitting in the dark like a vampire?”

Julia grinned. “It isn’t just me.”

She motioned for them to follow. They stepped over scattered supplies and moved toward the back hallway.

“I’m here with some other folks,” Julia said. “When everything started in Chicago, it happened fast. The people screaming. The red-eyed freaks. The smiling ones. A lot of people froze…including me.”

Aubrey noticed something flash in Julia’s face for a brief moment.

“By the time we decided to leave, it was too late. Nothing calmed down. Shit got worse.”

Aubrey’s jaw tightened.

“There’s a new type,” Julia continued. “Orange in their eyes. You’ve probably seen them.”

They walked deeper into the building.

“They started locking the city down. Blocking roads. Hunting people. We tried to escape a few times. The last time they ended up taking some of us and did God knows what…”

She didn’t finish the sentence.

She didn’t need to.

Julia tilted her head as they walked.

“On another note though, where’s Lila and her lil boyfriend? I expected them to be with you. You and Lila been bench and ass since middle school.”

Aubrey went quiet.

Isabella noticed it immediately.

Julia’s smile faded. “No… don’t tell me—”

“No, they’re alive,” Aubrey said quickly.

The relief on Julia’s face was instant.

“But we split up. It was messy. We’re planning to look for them after this.”

Isabella didn’t say anything, but something warm settled in her chest. The way Aubrey said it. Not if. After this.

They reached a steel door at the end of the hall.

Julia gave them a reassuring smile before pushing it open.

“False alarm, people. They’re friendlies.”

The room inside was dim but lived in. Lanterns sat on crates. Blankets were spread across the floor.

Aubrey stepped in slowly, her eyes scanning. Isabella followed a step behind.

There were old people sitting against the walls. A woman with a swollen belly lying on her side. A man with a missing leg propped up on pillows. Two kids huddled together under a coat.

And others. Faces that looked familiar in a distant way. Like people you passed in hallways years ago.

Then Aubrey’s gaze stopped.

Dark hair. Sharp jaw. Eyes that always seemed a little too small for his face.

Rat eyes.

The air left her lungs.

Memories forced their way back. Locked doors. Laughter that wasn’t funny. The feeling of being cornered.

He looked up. Recognition dawned slowly.

“Damien…?”

Her voice barely carried across the room.

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