Chapter 124: The stench that follows you everywhere

Hale and Terri had been running for what felt like forever.

In reality, it had only been seventeen minutes.

Seventeen minutes of weaving through trees, doubling back, ducking behind rocks, and trying not to get shot.

The forest had turned into a maze.

Branches clawed at their clothes as they pushed through. Leaves crunched under their boots no matter how careful they tried to be. Every sound felt too loud.

Hale kept glancing back as they ran, gun raised whenever he thought he saw movement.

He fired when he had to.

Short bursts. Quick shots.

Nothing clean. Nothing controlled.

He was tired.

His aim showed it.

Still, it was enough to keep their hunters from closing in too quickly.

But it never lasted.

They kept coming.

Terri stumbled slightly ahead of him, one hand pressed against her stomach.

Hale noticed.

“Don’t,” he said under his breath as they ran. “Not now.”

Terri shook her head, trying to hold it in, but her face had gone pale.

Her breathing was uneven again.

She was close.

Too close.

Before Hale could say anything else, it happened.

A figure burst out from the side.

A hand grabbed Terri and yanked her backward.

She gasped as her body was pulled tight against someone else’s chest. An arm locked around her neck, holding her in place.

Hale stopped short, spinning toward them.

Another man stepped in fast.

A gun pressed against Hale’s head before he could raise his own.

“God damn…” the man said, breathing a little heavy. “You two were pretty hard to catch.”

Hale froze.

His eyes locked onto the man in front of him.

Amber glowed faintly in the man’s eyes. It pulsed slow and steady as he smiled.

Behind him, the man holding Terri tightened his grip. A gun pressed against the side of her head.

Terri winced but stayed still.

“Be good sports, yeah?” the man in front of Hale said. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

Hale said nothing.

He kept his breathing steady.

Watching.

Waiting.

“Our boss said we just needed your bodies,” the man continued. “But I think she’d appreciate it a lot more if we brought you in alive.”

The man behind Terri laughed quietly.

“This one’s cute,” he said, his voice low near her ear. “I wanna take a bite out of her.”

Terri’s face twisted in disgust.

The man in front of Hale let out a short laugh.

For a second, it almost felt casual.

Like they already had this won.

Then Terri moved.

She turned her head just enough.

And bit down.

Hard.

The man behind her yelled out as her teeth sank into his arm. His grip loosened instantly.

That was all Hale needed.

He drove his elbow straight into the man holding the gun to his head.

The impact knocked the weapon off target.

Hale grabbed it mid-motion, twisting it out of the man’s hand.

Two shots rang out in quick succession.

The man dropped before he even hit the ground.

Behind them, the second man staggered back, clutching his arm.

“You fucking bitch!” he shouted. “I’ll kill you—”

Hale did not let him finish.

He stepped in and drove his boot straight into the man’s face.

The impact snapped his head back and dropped him flat.

The man hit the ground hard and did not get back up.

For a moment, everything went quiet.

Hale stood there, gun still raised, breathing heavy.

Terri stood a few feet away, her chest rising and falling just as fast.

They looked at each other.

Neither of them said anything.

Then Terri stepped forward and kicked the unconscious man in the stomach.

“How do you like that!?” she said between breaths.

Her voice was shaky, but there was something else in it too.

Something sharper.

Hale watched her.

For just a fleeting moment, the quiet, hesitant version of her was gone.

Replaced by something tougher.

Something that had been buried.

Before he could say anything, there was ruffling in the bushes. Not far.

Hale’s head snapped toward the noise.

His grip tightened on the gun again.

“There’s more of them,” he said.

He did not wait.

He reached out and grabbed Terri’s hand.

“We need to move.”

This time, she did not hesitate.

They took off running again, pushing deeper into the woods. Branches snapped behind them as they moved. Voices followed, closing in.

But Terri kept running.

And despite everything, a small smile crept onto her face.

Like she had proven something to herself.

Even if just for a moment

—

The car slowed as we crossed into territory I told myself I would never see again.

The road changed first.

Less maintained. More cracks. More stains I did not want to think about. The air felt different too. Thick. Rotten in a way that stuck to the back of your throat if you breathed too deep.

I had gotten used to the smell.

That was the problem.

You get used to something like that, and it means you have been around it too long.

The people though… I never got used to them.

If you could even call them that.

Shapes moved along the sides of the road as we drove in deeper. Some walked. Some stumbled. Some just stood there watching like they had been waiting.

I remembered the last time I came here.

A man had thrown himself at my car like an animal. He slammed his head against the window again and again until the glass cracked. He did not even flinch when it split his skin open.

He just kept going.

That was the kind of place this was.

Monsters pretending to be people.

Or maybe it was the other way around.

They started gathering around the car.

One by one at first.

Then more.

By the time I rolled to a stop, they had surrounded us completely.

Hands dragged along the sides of the vehicle. Faces pressed close to the windows. Eyes glowing faint amber in the dim light.

They did not attack.

They never did.

They just stared.

Smiled.

Taunted.

One of them lifted a glass bottle filled with Amber and splashed it against my window. The liquid streaked down slowly, leaving behind a faint glow.

Before it could even drip to the bottom, another one leaned in and licked it clean off the glass.

“Disgusting,” Aubrey muttered from the back seat.

I said nothing.

Lila stayed quiet too, her posture calm, like none of this bothered her.

I kept my eyes forward.

“What are we doing here, Adrian?” Aubrey asked after a moment.

Her voice was tense.

“They’ve got us surrounded. We can’t even get out of the car.”

My grip tightened on the steering wheel.

I did not answer.

I already knew that.

A few seconds passed.

Then movement broke through the crowd.

Two armed men pushed their way toward us. The infected parted for them without protest, like they knew better.

The men reached the car and yanked the doors open.

I stepped out before they could drag me.

“Where’s Annie?” I asked.

Neither of them answered.

One grabbed my arms and forced them behind my back. Plastic bit into my wrists as they tightened zip ties around them.

Not tight enough to cut circulation.

Just enough to remind me they were there.

They did the same to Aubrey and Lila.

Lila resisted.

She twisted, shoved, tried to stay close to me despite the rifles pointed at her.

“Relax,” I muttered under my breath.

She stilled, but her eyes stayed sharp.

We were pushed forward.

The crowd watched us go.

Some laughed.

Some whispered things I did not care to hear.

Others just stared like we were already dead.

We walked toward a building at the center of it all.

Concrete. Tall. No windows I could see from this angle.

The closer we got, the worse the smell became.

Rot.

Not the kind you get used to.

The kind that hits you fresh every time.

Inside, it was worse.

We were forced up a set of stairs.

Every step came with something new to look at.

And every time, I wished I had not.

People… infected… whatever they were now… tangled together in corners. Laughing. Biting. Feeding.

Doing things that made no sense outside of whatever sickness was running through them.

Aubrey looked away more than once.

Lila did not.

I kept my focus forward.

But I saw enough.

I felt the lattice again. It started as a faint hum in the back of my spine, like something waking up after being dormant. It was already working, already running through possibilities, measuring threats, and looking for angles to keep me alive.

It always showed up when things got bad. Quiet. Patient. Ready.

I pushed it down for now. I did not need it taking over completely. Not yet.

As for Aubrey and Lila, I trusted my own instincts to handle that. It had to be enough.

We reached the top floor a moment later. A single door stood at the end of the hall, thick and closed, like it was meant to keep something in rather than out.

One of them opened it without a word and shoved me forward.

The smell hit immediately.

Stronger than anything below.

Rotting flesh.

Old blood.

Something that had been sitting too long.

I stepped inside.

Aubrey came in behind me.

“What the fuck…” she muttered.

I looked down.

Two body bags lay on the floor.

They were not even zipped all the way.

Arms hung out.

A leg twisted at an unnatural angle.

My chest tightened.

No.

My mind tried to reject it.

But the shapes… the size… the clothes…

“Don’t tell me…” Aubrey whispered behind me.

Carl.

Adira.

My jaw clenched.

Something heavy settled in my chest.

For a second, everything else faded out.

The room.

The guards.

The noise outside.

All of it.

Was I too late?

Was this it?

Was this what she called a negotiation?

My hands tightened against the zip ties.

Grief hit first, like a knife to my heart.

Then something else followed right behind it.

Something colder.

My eyes stayed locked on the bodies.

And for the first time since I got here, I stopped thinking about getting out.

And started thinking about what I was going to do to her if this was real.

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