Chapter 150: What now?

The house didn’t feel like cover anymore.

It felt like a trap.

Aubrey stood near the boarded window again, but this time she wasn’t just watching. She was counting.

“…eight… ten… fuck,” she muttered under her breath.

“They’re still coming?” Hale asked through clenched teeth, pressing his palm harder against his bleeding shoulder. Blood had soaked through his fingers and down his arm, dripping onto the floor in slow, steady taps.

“They’re gathering more and more,” Aubrey said.

“Shit..”

“That’s not better,” Isabella said quietly.

Terri hovered near the back door, the one they had barely managed to block again. Her hands trembled as she adjusted the furniture pushed up against it.

“They’re gonna break through,” she said, her voice tight. “They’re gonna smell us, hear us—something—”

“They already know we’re here,” Hale cut in, wincing as he shifted. “That ship sailed the second I got shot.”

Aubrey turned, pacing once, then twice.

Think.

“Okay,” she said finally. “We’re not staying.”

Isabella blinked. “No shit.”

“I mean we’re leaving now,” Aubrey snapped. “Not waiting.”

Hale let out a dry laugh. “Through what? The front door? You seen what’s out there?”

Aubrey shook her head. “Not the front.”

She pointed toward the hallway. “Bathroom. There’s a window. Small, but it’ll do.”

Terri frowned. “That leads out back. There’s trees, but—”

“But less of them,” Aubrey cut in. “They’re mostly circling the front. Noise drew them there.”

Isabella stood up fully now, gripping her gun tighter. “And when we get out?”

“We don’t fight,” Aubrey said. “We move. Fast, quiet as we can, then break into a sprint once we hit the tree line.”

Hale exhaled sharply. “With this?” he gestured to his shoulder. “I ain’t exactly in sprint condition.”

Aubrey stepped closer, her voice lower now. “Then you keep up anyway.”

A beat.

“…or you die here.”

Silence fell heavy.

Terri swallowed hard, nodding faintly.

“…okay.”

Aubrey moved first, heading down the hallway. The others followed close behind. The house creaked around them, distant thuds hitting the walls as the infected outside began pressing closer.

The bathroom was cramped. Small. Barely enough space for all four of them.

Aubrey shoved the curtain aside and looked at the window.

Locked.

She didn’t hesitate. She smashed the glass with the butt of her gun.

The sound cracked through the house like a gunshot.

“Shit—!” Isabella hissed.

“Too late now,” Aubrey muttered, clearing the frame with quick, sharp movements.

Outside, the noise shifted.

The infected heard it.

“Go,” Aubrey said, grabbing Terri first. “You’re smallest. You’re first.”

Terri hesitated for half a second—

Then climbed through.

Hale went next, grunting as he forced himself through the tight space, biting back a groan as his shoulder scraped the frame.

“Fuck—!”

“Keep moving,” Aubrey snapped.

Isabella climbed out after him.

Aubrey went last.

The second her boots hit the ground, she heard them.

Closer now.

Too close.

“Move,” she said, low and sharp.

They pushed forward through the trees, branches snapping underfoot despite their efforts to stay quiet. Behind them, the house groaned.

Then—

A crash.

The door gave in.

A wave of sound followed. Screeches. Laughter. The sick, broken noises of things that used to be human.

“They’re coming!” Terri cried.

“Don’t look back!” Aubrey shouted.

They broke into a run.

Hale stumbled once, nearly going down, but Isabella grabbed his arm and hauled him forward.

“Come on, come on—!”

The infected burst from the house behind them, red eyes locking on instantly.

Fast.

Too fast.

Aubrey led them hard left, cutting between thicker trees, forcing the infected to funnel in tighter spaces. One lunged—

She fired once.

Clean.

Didn’t stop running.

“Keep going!” she yelled.

They pushed harder, lungs burning, legs screaming.

Then—

They broke through.

The trees opened up just enough, and the sounds behind them started to thin.

Not gone.

But farther.

Far enough.

Aubrey didn’t stop until her legs almost gave out.

When they finally slowed, it wasn’t relief that hit first.

It was silence.

Heavy. Real.

Hale dropped onto a rock with a grunt, breathing hard. Isabella bent forward, hands on her knees, trying to steady herself.

Terri stood a few feet away.

Still.

Aubrey looked at them.

Really looked this time.

They were alive.

All of them.

A shaky breath left her as something in her chest finally loosened.

“…holy shit,” she said quietly. “You guys…”

Her voice cracked slightly.

“I thought you all were dead.”

Hale let out a tired chuckle. “Yeah, well… you almost made that happen yourself.”

Aubrey ignored that, stepping closer.

“I—I missed you guys,” she said, more firmly now. “I mean it. I’m… I’m glad you’re alive. Both of you.”

Terri didn’t respond.

Aubrey’s smile faded slightly as she looked at her.

“…Terri?”

Terri’s eyes stayed on her.

There was something off about the way she looked.

Tight.

Careful.

“…why did you leave your walkie?” Terri asked.

Aubrey blinked. “What?”

“The walkie talkie,” Terri said, her voice quiet but steady. “Why did you leave it?”

Aubrey frowned. “I didn’t—what are you talking about?”

Terri let out a small, breathy laugh.

Not amused.

“Yeah,” she said. “That’s what I thought you’d say.”

Isabella glanced between them, uneasy. “Hey… what’s going on?”

Terri ignored her.

“I tried calling you,” she said, her eyes never leaving Aubrey. “When everything went to shit. When the compound got hit.”

Aubrey’s stomach dropped.

“…Terri, I didn’t have it—”

“It was on the table,” Terri cut in. “Right next to where we were talking when you said you were gonna leave.”

Aubrey went quiet.

“I saw it,” Terri continued. “I saw it when an infected was trying to break through the door to kill me.

Hale ran a hand through his hair, looking off to the side.

“…Terri,” he muttered.

“No,” she said, sharper now. “No, I wanna hear this.”

Aubrey shook her head, stepping forward slightly. “I didn’t know. I swear to you, I didn’t—”

“I almost died,” Terri said.

The words hit harder than anything else.

“If I stayed there longer than I should’ve. If kept trying to reach you…”

Her voice wavered slightly, but she held it together.

“I would’ve been dead if it hadn’t been for Hale.”

Aubrey felt it then.

The guilt.

Heavy. Crushing.

“I didn’t know,” she said again, quieter this time. “Terri, I wouldn’t just—”

“Wouldn’t you?”

Aubrey stopped.

Terri took a small step back.

Her expression didn’t break.

But something in it had changed.

“I used to think you wouldn’t,” she said. “Back then.”

A beat passed.

“But now?”

She shook her head slightly.

“…I don’t think I know you like that anymore.”

—

Who was I fucking kidding?

I wasn’t a superhero.

There was no version of this where I somehow held everything together and made it work. Not with Lila. Not with Naomi. Not with anyone. I had seen it already, in small moments that kept stacking up whether I liked it or not.

Lila didn’t do “coexisting.”

Not anymore.

It didn’t matter who it was. It didn’t matter how calm things seemed at first. Sooner or later, something in her snapped. That infection twisted things inside her head, sharpened them, made everything more intense than it should’ve been. Possessive. Paranoid. Violent.

All centered around me.

I let out a breath and stared at the river in front of me, watching the current drag leaves and bits of dirt along like they had somewhere better to be. The sound of water moving over rock filled the silence, steady and simple in a way nothing else was anymore.

It was one of the few quiet moments I’d had in a while.

No arguing. No tension thick enough to choke on. No red eyes staring at me from the dark.

Just…this.

I had told Lila I didn’t need her hovering over me every second. Told her I could handle stepping away for a minute without something going wrong.

She had smiled when I said it.

Agreed a little too easily.

Which probably meant she was somewhere nearby anyway, watching from a distance, making sure nothing even had the chance to go wrong.

That was just how she worked now.

People used to say she was a lot, even before all this. Too intense. Too attached.

I used to brush it off.

Now I found myself wondering when it would finally be too much for me.

Not in theory. Not as some passing thought.

For real.

My jaw tightened slightly at that, and I pushed it away just as fast. There wasn’t any point in sitting on it. Not when I already knew I didn’t have a clean way out of any of this.

Behind me, back at camp, Naomi and Lila were probably one wrong word away from tearing into each other again.

And honestly?

I wasn’t even sure I cared enough to stop it this time.

That thought sat heavy in my chest.

What was the point?

I looked down, adjusting my pants as I finished up, trying to focus on something simple, something normal. Anything that didn’t involve the mess waiting for me the second I walked back.

That’s when the lattice in my spine kicked in.

A faint pulse.

Subtle, but enough.

My body went still before my mind caught up. The system picked up movement behind me, feeding me just enough to know something was there without giving me anything useful.

Not Lila.

If it was her, I wouldn’t have caught it at all.

This was…sloppy. Careful, but not practiced. Like whoever it was didn’t fully understand how loud they were being.

Human.

I exhaled slowly, finishing with my zipper and straightening up without turning around. My shoulders stayed loose, but my muscles were ready. Every sound behind me felt sharper now. Leaves shifting. A footstep that tried too hard to be quiet.

Clumsy.

Determined.

I dragged a hand down my face, already tired of whatever this was about to turn into.

Then I heard it.

The click of a gun being cocked.

Close enough that I felt it in my chest more than I heard it.

I closed my eyes for a second, then raised my hands slowly, palms open.

What now?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep