Chapter 142: You’re not dead

I kept my eyes on the window.

Outside, the infected moved through the trees and across the clearing like they owned it. Some crouched low over bodies, tearing into them with slow, steady movements. Others wandered without direction, heads twitching, mouths stained dark. The sounds carried through the wood of the cabin.

Crunching.

Wet tearing.

Low laughter that didn’t sound human anymore.

I folded my arms and muttered under my breath, then turned away.

Naomi was across the room, moving fast. She shoved supplies into a bag without much care for organization. Food, ammo, a half-empty bottle of water, and then my guns.

My eyes narrowed.

She looked up at me.

“Well?” she said. “Don’t just stand there.”

I didn’t move.

“Or are you too injured to lift a few things?” she added.

I ignored that.

“What are we going to do about outside?” I asked.

She paused and glanced past me toward the window. Her eyes scanned the shapes moving in the dark.

“They’re not rushing the place,” she said quietly. “That’s already weird.”

She stepped closer, peering out more carefully.

“They should’ve torn this place apart after that one broke in.”

My eyes drifted back to the body on the floor.

The woman lay where she dropped, blonde hair matted with blood, chest still exposed, face frozen in that same twisted grin. Up close, it was even worse. Her jaw looked tense, like she had died mid-laugh.

She didn’t feel like the others.

“Did you lead them here?” Naomi asked.

I didn’t answer. I kept looking at the body.

Something about it didn’t sit right.

She didn’t act like the usual ones. She talked. She moved with intent.

For a second, a thought crossed my mind.

Maybe she had been leading them.

I shook it off.

That didn’t make sense. The infected didn’t organize. Annie had made that clear.

“Hey,” Naomi said sharply. “I’m talking to you.”

I looked at her.

“I asked if you led them here.”

“Of course not,” I said. “There’s blood all over these woods. They didn’t just pick up on mine.”

She studied me for a second, then nodded once like she believed it enough.

She slung the bag over her shoulder and walked toward me.

I took a small step back without thinking.

She didn’t stop.

The gun came up and pressed flat against my chest.

“Arm yourself,” she said. “We’re going around them.”

I froze for a second.

Something in my spine tightened. It wasn’t fear. It was something else. Something that didn’t like being told what to do.

She raised an eyebrow.

“Take it,” she said.

I grabbed the gun from her hand.

She watched me like I was acting strange. I didn’t explain.

We moved to the window together.

“So what?” I asked quietly. “We’re just going to avoid them the whole time?”

Naomi started pulling the wooden boards off the window, one at a time. She worked fast, but careful enough not to make noise.

“Yeah,” she said. “That’s the plan.”

“We have guns,” I said. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to clear them out now instead of dealing with them later?”

She stopped.

Turned her head.

Looked at my leg.

Then back at me.

I opened my arms slightly. “What?”

She went back to work, ripping the next board loose.

“Gee,” she said, “with that big stunt you pulled back in St. Louis, I thought you were smarter than this.”

Something tightened in my chest.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She looked at me again, this time with no patience left.

“It means you can barely walk, cupcake,” she said. “You try to fight out there, you’re going to get yourself killed.”

I didn’t answer right away.

My hands curled slightly, then relaxed.

She wasn’t wrong.

I looked down at the floor for a second, then back at her as she pulled the last board free and set it down quietly.

The opening to the outside was clear now.

Cold air slipped in.

We both crouched.

She looked at me. I looked back and gave a small nod.

“Listen,” she said. “I’ve been in these woods a while. I know how to move through them. Just stay close.”

I stared at her for a second.

“Whatever you say, cupcake,” I said.

Her face shifted slightly in the dark. I caught it. Just for a second.

Then she climbed out.

I followed right after.

The ground hit harder than I expected. My leg flared with pain, but I kept it in.

For a second, everything was still.

Then heads turned.

It happened all at once.

Red eyes snapped toward us from every direction.

The ones crouched over bodies stopped eating. The ones wandering froze mid-step. Mouths hung open, dripping.

They saw us.

Every single one.

Naomi didn’t hesitate.

“Now we run,” she whispered.

And so, we moved.

Fast.

Branches snapped under our feet as we pushed through the trees. My leg protested with every step, but I forced it to keep up.

Behind us, the forest came alive.

They screamed.

Not loud at first. Then louder. Then all at once.

Footsteps crashed through the brush behind us. Too many to count.

“Left,” Naomi said.

I followed.

We cut between trees, ducked under low branches, pushed through thick brush. I could hear them gaining. Their movements were sloppy, but relentless.

One lunged from the side.

I raised the gun and fired once.

The shot echoed through the woods. The body dropped, but it didn’t matter.

More were already coming.

“Don’t stop,” Naomi said.

“I’m not,” I shot back.

My breathing got heavier. My vision tightened slightly at the edges.

We broke through a patch of trees into uneven ground. Rocks and roots stuck out of the dirt.

I stumbled.

Caught myself.

Kept going.

Naomi glanced back once, then grabbed my arm and yanked me forward harder.

“They’re faster than usual,” she said.

“I noticed.”

Another one came from the front this time.

She shot it clean through the head without slowing down.

We kept moving.

The sounds behind us didn’t fade.

If anything, they got louder.

More joined in.

More footsteps.

More voices.

“Shit,” Naomi muttered.

Ahead, the trees thinned slightly.

A slope.

Steep.

She pointed.

“We go down.”

I didn’t argue.

We ran toward it.

My foot slipped as we started descending, dirt sliding under my boots. I nearly lost balance, but Naomi stayed ahead, steady, fast.

The infected didn’t slow down behind us.

If anything, they threw themselves down the slope without care.

Bodies hitting dirt.

Rolling.

Getting back up.

Still coming.

We reached the bottom hard.

I staggered, catching myself against a tree.

Naomi turned, gun raised.

“Keep moving,” she said.

I nodded, pushing off the tree.

We ran again.

And the sounds followed.

—

It had been hours since Lila left the car behind.

The engine had sputtered once, then twice, before dying completely. She had sat there for a moment, hands still on the wheel, staring ahead like it might come back if she waited long enough.

It didn’t.

So she stepped out and kept moving.

On foot.

The woods stretched on in every direction, thick and uneven, branches catching at her clothes, roots threatening to trip her with every step. Her legs were tired, her wounds not fully healed, but she didn’t slow down.

She couldn’t.

At some point, she found blood.

Not a lot at first. Just a few dark drops on dry leaves. Easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it.

She was.

So she followed.

The trail wasn’t clean. It came and went, sometimes smeared, sometimes dotted like whoever left it had been moving fast and uneven. It led her deeper into the woods, farther from anything that looked familiar.

Her grip on the gun tightened as she walked.

“Come on…” she muttered under her breath.

The trees began to thin.

And then she saw it.

A cabin.

Old. Worn. Sitting alone in the middle of the woods like it had been forgotten.

Her pace slowed, but only slightly.

Something moved near the front.

An infected.

It crouched low over something on the ground, shoulders jerking as it fed. The sound carried faintly through the still air.

It heard her.

Its head snapped up.

Red eyes locked onto her.

It started to rise—

The shot rang out.

Its body dropped before it could take a full step.

Lila didn’t hesitate. She approached, stepping over it without a second glance.

She entered the cabin.

The smell hit her first.

Rot.

Blood.

Something burnt underneath it all.

Her nose wrinkled slightly, but she didn’t react beyond that.

Her eyes moved instead.

The front door had been torn off its hinges and lay flat on the floor. The wood around the frame was splintered, like something had forced its way through.

To the side, a window stood open. The boards that had once covered it were stacked neatly on the floor beneath it.

Not broken.

Removed.

Her eyes narrowed.

Someone had left through there.

Recently.

She stepped further inside.

Slow. Careful.

Her boots barely made a sound against the wood.

That was when she saw the body.

It lay near the center of the room.

A woman.

Blonde hair. Pale skin. Blood pooled beneath her head.

And nothing covering her chest.

Lila stopped.

For a second, she just looked at her.

Then she crouched down.

Her hand reached out, turning the body slightly to the side. The skin was still warm enough to tell it hadn’t been long.

Her eyes dropped.

Studied.

The shape. The size.

Her expression didn’t change, but her hand moved without thinking, briefly cupping her own chest as if comparing.

A second passed.

Then she let go and stood back up.

She stepped past the body.

Her foot caught something on the floor.

It slid with a soft scrape.

Her body tensed immediately.

She looked down.

Something small.

Metal.

She crouched again, slower this time.

Her fingers closed around it, lifting it off the ground.

A lighter.

Dirt clung to it. A faint smear of blood along one side.

She wiped it clean with her thumb.

The design.

The scratches.

Her breath caught.

She flipped it open.

The motion was automatic.

Click.

The small flame flickered to life.

Her heart skipped.

“…Adrian.”

The word came out quieter than she expected.

She stared at it for a second longer, then snapped it shut.

Her grip tightened around it.

Her eyes moved again, sharper now.

The open window.

The missing boards.

The broken door.

The blood trail that led here.

And then… out.

He was here.

Not long ago.

Her chest rose and fell slowly as something settled deep inside her.

Relief.

And something darker right behind it.

Her jaw tightened.

“You’re not dead,” she said under her breath.

She turned toward the window.

Stepped over the boards.

And climbed through.

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