Chapter 134: I hope you rot too

Cherie gripped the reins tighter than she needed to, her fingers stiff as the horse moved beneath her. Each step it took felt uneven to her, like she was always one wrong shift away from falling off. The dirt road stretched ahead, mixing into cracked asphalt in patches, dust kicking up around their legs as they moved forward.

It still felt wrong.

The motion. The height. The way the animal beneath her breathed and shifted like it had a mind of its own.

She was not used to it.

Not even close.

Nineteen years of living, and somehow this was what getting around looked like now. Not cars. Not buses. Not anything that made sense to her old life.

A horse.

She let out a quiet breath through her nose.

She used to drive.

Well…sort of.

Her mind pulled her back before she could stop it.

That night.

The panic. The shouting. The way everything felt like it was closing in. She had climbed into Adrian’s lap like she had lost her mind, her hands shaking as she slammed her foot down on the gas.

She barely even knew him back then.

And still, she trusted him enough to do something that stupid.

Or maybe she was just desperate.

The memory hit too fast.

Her body tilted with it, her balance shifting too far to one side as her grip on the reins tightened in panic.

The horse reacted instantly, snorting as it jerked slightly under her, its body tensing as it felt her lose control.

“Hey—!”

Cherie yanked the reins without thinking.

The horse bucked just enough to make her heart jump into her throat.

“Hey now, hey now. Keep her steady.”

Saul’s voice came from behind her, calm but firm. His horse moved up alongside hers, his hand reaching out to steady the reins without fully taking control.

“Easy,” he added, more to the horse than to her.

Cherie froze for a second, her breathing uneven as she tried to sit upright again.

The horse calmed slowly, its movements settling back into a steady pace.

She looked over at Saul, her face tight with embarrassment.

“This ain’t a car,” he said. “You can’t drift off like that. They feel everything you do.”

Cherie looked down at the reins in her hands, then ahead at the road. Jackson was already farther up, his figure getting smaller as his horse kept a faster pace.

“Yeah,” she muttered. “I know.”

Saul gave her a small smile, like he was not going to press her about it.

They kept moving.

The sound of hooves against dirt filled the space between them for a while.

Then Cherie spoke again.

“So…horses, huh?”

Saul glanced at her.

“Yeah,” he said. “Horses.”

“Where did you and your brother even learn how to ride them?” she asked.

Saul let out a quiet breath, his eyes shifting ahead toward Jackson for a second.

“Back home,” he said. “We grew up out in rural Dallas. Big property. Not much around except land and whatever we raised on it.”

Cherie listened.

“We had horses since we were kids,” he continued. “Our dad made sure we knew how to ride early. Said if anything ever went wrong, we would need to know how to move without relying on anything modern.”

He gave a small shrug.

“Guess he was right about that part.”

Cherie nodded slightly.

“So you just…rode around all the time?” she asked.

“Not for fun,” Saul said. “Most of the time it was work. Moving things. Checking fences. Helping out wherever we were needed. You fall off a couple times, you learn quick.”

Cherie let out a quiet huff.

“Sounds rough.”

“It was normal,” he said. “At least back then.”

There was a short pause.

Cherie looked ahead again.

“Then why leave?” she asked. “Seems like a place like that would be perfect right now.”

Saul’s expression shifted.

“It got overrun,” he said.

His voice was flatter now.

“I don’t even know how they found us,” he added. “Those red-eyed freaks must have picked up on something. Maybe a trail. Maybe waste. Something we missed.”

He shook his head slightly.

“They came in fast. Started tearing through everything. People, animals, buildings. Did not matter.”

Cherie swallowed.

Her grip on the reins loosened just a little.

“Were you and your brother the only ones who made it out?” she asked.

“No,” Saul said. “A few others got out too.”

He paused.

“But we didnt stay together.”

Cherie looked at him.

“Why not?”

“We had a disagreement,” he said. “About a bunch of stuff. Where to go next, how to handle things. It got…heated.”

He glanced ahead again.

“So we split up.”

Cherie frowned slightly.

“Disagreement about what?”

Saul let out a breath.

“Survival,” he said simply. “People get different ideas when things go bad.”

That made sense.

More than she wanted it to.

“Actually,” he added, “the reason we are heading to Canada is because of them. They kept talking about it. Said there might be something better up there. Safer.”

Cherie nodded slowly.

“So you might see them again?” she asked.

“Maybe,” Saul said. “If they made it.”

The conversation faded for a moment.

The road stretched on.

Cherie’s mind felt blank again, like it did not want to sit on any one thought for too long.

“Can I ask you something, Mary?” Saul said after a while.

Cherie flinched slightly.

“Yeah,” she said. “What is it?”

“What made you change your mind?” he asked.

She blinked.

“About what?”

“Coming with us,” Saul said. “You were pretty set on finding your friends before. It is a big shift, just dropping that and heading out with people you barely know.”

Cherie stayed quiet.

The seconds passed.

The sound of hooves filled the space again.

Then she spoke.

“I’m sorry, Saul,” she said. “I lied.”

Saul frowned slightly.

“…Those people died,” she continued. “When our compound got overrun a few weeks ago.”

The air shifted.

Quiet.

“After H—…my friend died…I realized too late that I don’t really have anyone…not anymore.” she added.

Saul did not respond right away.

Cherie swallowed.

“I guess the real reason I’m here is because I don’t want to be alone,” she said. “Not after all that.”

The words felt forced on the way out, like it pained her to admit the truth.

But she swore she wasn’t gonna lie to herself anymore.

Saul nodded once, slowly.

He did not question it.

He did not push.

“Anything else you want to tell me?” he asked.

Cherie hesitated.

Then she said it.

“My name is not Mary.”

Saul looked at her.

“What is it, then?”

She met his gaze.

“Cherie.”

—

Everywhere Annie went, it was chaos.

She ran through the halls with uneven steps, her breath coming out sharp and fast as gunshots echoed behind her. Screams followed. Some were filled with pain. Others were worse, twisted into something that sounded like excitement. Order had collapsed completely, like it had never existed in the first place.

And all because of one, stupid kid.

More tears blurred her vision as that thought looped in her head. Her foot slipped on something wet and she nearly went down, catching herself against the wall with a shaky hand. When she looked down, she saw blood smeared across the floor, thick and dark. She forced herself to move again.

She did not know who was chasing her anymore. It could have been anyone. It could have been everyone.

They all knew now.

The truth had spread faster than she could control. It always would have. The moment doubt entered their heads, it was over. That was how they were wired. That was what she had tried to manage, tried to suppress, tried to pretend she understood.

She did not.

Her limp got worse as she pushed forward, one hand dragging along the wall to keep herself steady. By the time she reached her quarters, her chest burned. She shoved the door open, stumbled inside, and slammed it shut behind her before locking it with shaking hands.

The noise outside did not stop.

It bled through the walls.

She backed away from the door slowly, then her legs gave out. She hit the floor hard and curled into herself, her hands clutching at her hair as the tears finally broke free.

What was she thinking?

Her whole body trembled as she cried, shoulders shaking, breath uneven. She pressed her palms against her head like she could force the thoughts out.

Trying to control monsters like them with a drug that only made it worse.

It was only a matter of time.

She knew that.

She always knew that.

Her mind drifted, dragging her back to the moment everything could have ended differently.

She should have just cut her losses and quietly left when Yasmine died.

She should have taken what she had and disappeared before any of this got out of control.

But she stayed.

Her fingers dug into her arms as she rocked slightly.

Why the hell did she stay…?

Was it because of Adrian?

Because she needed to hurt him the way she had been hurt?

Or was it something worse?

Did she stay because she liked it?

Because she liked having people around her who listened, who followed, who made her feel like she was in control of something in a world that had taken everything else?

Her breath hitched harder at that thought.

She curled tighter into herself, her forehead pressing against her knees as the sobs came faster.

Then the sound cut through everything.

A gun cocking.

It was close.

Too close.

Annie froze.

Her breath caught in her throat as her head slowly lifted. Her vision was still blurred with tears as she looked up.

The girl standing there had dirty blonde hair, strands stuck together with dried blood. Her stance was steady. Her grip on the gun did not shake.

Lila.

Annie’s stomach dropped the moment she saw her eyes.

They were red.

Not just red, but alive with something violent beneath the surface. Something barely contained. Something that made it clear that the calm look on her face did not mean safety.

It meant the opposite.

“Where is he?” Lila asked.

Her voice was low, but there was pressure behind it.

Annie’s lips parted, but nothing came out at first.

“W— w—…” she stuttered, her voice breaking as her throat tightened.

“Where’s who…?” she forced out, even though she already knew.

“My boyfriend, bitch.”

The words hit harder than they should have.

Annie’s expression went blank for a second, like her mind had stalled. Everything around her felt distant. The noise outside. The pain in her body. The fear sitting in her chest.

It all blurred together.

“I—…I—” she tried again, but the words would not come.

Lila’s grip on the gun tightened slightly. Her patience was thinning.

Annie saw it.

Felt it.

For a brief second, something inside her shifted.

Snapped.

The fear twisted into something else. Something unsteady. Something close to laughter.

Tears were still running down her face as her lips slowly pulled into a smile that did not match anything in her eyes.

“Hell,” she muttered.

Her voice trembled, but she kept going.

Lila’s brow lifted slightly.

“He’s in hell, that’s where he is…” Annie said, her smile widening just a little as a broken laugh slipped out.

Lila looked at her then.

The look in her eyes…it had been something awfully similar.

“There’s no way he survives all of this. There’s no way. You’ll never—..”

The shot rang out.

It was loud enough to cut through everything.

Annie’s body jerked, then dropped to the floor.

The sound of her hitting the ground felt dull compared to the gunshot.

Lila stood there for a second, her arm still extended, the gun steady in her hand.

Then she slowly lowered it.

Her expression did not change much.

But there was something in her eyes.

Dark.

Frustrated.

Like even that had not been enough.

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