Chapter 167: Human or Not?

I made sure to shut Lila up before she could say anything else.

My hand had covered her mouth the second Jennifer’s shadow stayed too long outside the door. Lila bit me for it on instinct. Not hard enough to break skin. Just enough to say she could.

Now Jennifer was finally moving away.

I stood at the peephole, one eye pressed to it, watching the hall. The lights outside buzzed low and yellow. Her boots clicked against the concrete floor, slow and steady, until she turned the corner.

Then nothing.

A crackle came through the wall from her radio. A muffled voice. Her voice answering back.

I couldn’t make out words.

Didn’t matter.

My stomach still tightened.

What a strange woman.

When the hall stayed empty another few seconds, I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

I turned around.

And froze.

Lila stood in the middle of the room staring at me.

Her hood was off now. Red eyes bright and wet. Veins spread through the whites like broken glass. Her chest rose and fell too fast. Both hands were balled into fists so tight her knuckles trembled.

“Lila—”

“Who is she?” she muttered.

Not even to me.

To herself.

Like she was trying to solve a murder.

“I don’t know,” I said quickly. “I swear, I don’t.”

“Then how the FUCK did she know your name, Adrian?!”

Her voice cracked loud enough that I looked at the walls.

Other people nearby.

Great.

“Keep your voice down.”

“Oh, now you care about volume?”

She took a step closer.

I hated that my body reacted before my brain did. I took one back.

“Lila, just listen to me.”

“And when did I become your sister?”

I blinked.

“What?”

She laughed once. Ugly. No humor in it.

“No. Answer me.” She jabbed a finger at her own chest. “Because last I checked, my name is Lila Graham. Not Carter.”

“That was for the guard.”

“That was for her.”

She stepped closer.

I stayed put this time, though every nerve in me wanted space.

“You stood there smiling at her.”

“I was trying not to get us killed.”

“You smiled twice.”

I stared at her.

She stared right back.

Then tears filled her eyes so fast it caught me off guard.

“…why?” she asked, voice breaking. “Why can’t you just be loyal to me?”

“But I am!”

“THEN WHAT WAS THAT?!”

“Saving our asses!”

“NO!” she screamed. “That was you liking attention from some bitch in a uniform because she looked clean and normal and I’m just—”

She cut herself off.

I saw it hit her before she said it.

“—and I’m just me.”

The room went quiet for a second.

I rubbed both hands over my face.

“This is insane.”

“There.” She pointed at me. “That look. You do that every time. Like I’m embarrassing you.”

“You are not embarrassing me.”

“Then what am I?”

“—..”

I had no answer fast enough.

Wrong move.

She surged forward, hands reaching.

I flinched so hard my shoulder hit the wall. Eyes shut.

Nothing came.

When I opened them, she was frozen in front of me, hands halfway raised. Her face had changed.

She looked hurt.

Then ashamed.

Then angry at herself for feeling ashamed.

She slowly lowered her arms and gave a shaky laugh.

“Wow,” she whispered. “You think I’d hit you now?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

I swallowed.

She wiped under one eye hard enough to redden the skin.

“That woman wanted something.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know women.”

“She let us in.”

“She lied for you.”

“She lied for both of us.”

“No.” Lila shook her head. “Don’t do that. Don’t bundle me into your little moment with her.”

I felt heat rise in my neck.

“There was no moment.”

“You liked it.”

My temper snapped.

“FOR FIVE SECONDS I talked to someone who didn’t have blood on their hands!”

The words landed like a gunshot.

Lila stopped moving.

I wanted them back instantly.

Her lips parted.

Then closed.

When she spoke again, her voice was quiet.

“So that’s what I am to you.”

“No.”

“A knife.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you meant.”

She turned away from me and laughed again, softer now.

“I bite men for touching you. I gut people for cornering you. I drag myself across states half-dead for you.”

She faced me again, eyes wet and burning.

“And you’re tired of my attitude.”

“I’m tired of blood!” I shouted. “I’m tired of running! I’m tired of every problem ending with somebody dead!”

“People die every day, Adrian!”

“I DON’T WANNA BE LIKE YOU!”

Silence.

Real silence.

Even the pipes in the walls seemed to stop.

Lila’s face emptied out.

I watched every bit of fire leave it.

“The blood excites you,” I said, breathing hard now, unable to stop. “The guts, the violence, all this sick shit—maybe you can live in that. I can’t. I’m human.”

The second I said it, I knew.

Too far.

Too deep.

Lila looked at me carefully.

Like she’d never seen me before.

“…human,” she repeated.

“Lila—”

“No. I get it now.”

I reached for her arm.

She jerked away so fast I grabbed air.

“No, go ahead,” she said, nodding to the door. “Go find someone normal. Someone warm. Someone who doesn’t scare you.”

“That is not what I meant.”

“Then what DID you mean?”

I opened my mouth.

Nothing came out.

Because every answer sounded ugly.

She smiled through tears.

“Exactly.”

I forced words through a dry throat.

“It’s—…”

A beat.

“It’s not your fault.”

She scoffed.

“That’s your rescue line?”

“I’m serious.” I stepped forward slowly. “I still want to help you. Find a cure. We almost had something before. Here, maybe they have doctors, labs, people who know what they’re doing—”

“They kill people like me.”

“We don’t know that.”

“I know that.”

“…We could show them another way.”

She stared at me with pity so sharp it made me feel small.

“And that,” she said softly, “is why you scare me more than they do.”

I frowned.

“What?”

“You still think the world bends for good hearts.”

She touched my chest with two fingers.

“It doesn’t.”

Then she tapped her own sternum.

“And there is no cure in here.”

My eyes dropped to the red in hers.

The veins.

The thing spreading.

I looked back up.

“We have to try.”

“You always need hope even when it’s killing you.”

“And you always need violence.”

“At least violence works.”

She turned and walked toward the bedroom.

“Lila—”

She stopped at the doorway without looking back.

“If that woman touches you again,” she said calmly, “I’ll peel her face off in front of you.”

Then she shut the door.

Not slammed.

Just closed.

I stood there in the middle of the room, chest still rising too fast.

My hands were shaking.

I didn’t know if it was anger.

Or guilt.

Or the fact that part of me knew she was right about Jennifer.

Outside, a radio crackled somewhere in the night.

—

Windsor Intake Sector — Macro Housing Block C (Northern Dominion Containment Zone)

Multiple soldiers stood at the entrance of the macro housing unit, watching as Bill’s group was led inside.

The place had clearly been sitting unused for a while. Too clean in places, too stripped in others. Like it had been waiting for bodies to make it feel real again.

People moved slowly through it, dropping packs, looking around like they didn’t trust comfort anymore.

The soldiers stayed at the door.

Not guarding aggressively.

Just observing.

One of them kept his eyes locked on a boy near the middle of the group.

Harry.

At first glance, it looked like makeup smeared across his face. Uneven. Dark around the eyes. A strange attempt at covering something.

The soldier narrowed his eyes slightly.

Then he realized it wasn’t makeup.

It was damage control.

Bruising. Old swelling. Maybe something broken and reset wrong. The kind of face someone tried to hide because it told too much of a story.

The soldier didn’t say anything.

It wasn’t his job to care.

Eventually, they all left.

Bill stepped further inside.

The group naturally followed him.

He stopped at the center of the macro quarters and turned slowly, taking in the space like a man evaluating distance rather than comfort.

“Alright,” Bill said. “Listen up.”

Everyone’s movement slowed.

Even unpacking hands paused.

“This has been a long road,” he continued. “And none of us got here clean.”

A few quiet exhales. A couple of tired nods.

“But we’re still standing. And that means we stay together now.” He said.

” No wandering off. No solo decisions. No hero thinking.” Bill continued. “That’s not optional. Not after everything that’s happened.”

His eyes moved across the room as he said it.

And for a fraction of a second, they landed on Harry.

Long enough to mean something.

Harry noticed.

So did Sheryl.

She looked down immediately.

Bill continued, tone steady but shifting slightly now.

“There’s something else I need to address.”

That change in his voice tightened the room.

The soldiers at the door straightened a little.

Bill exhaled once through his nose.

“Most of you already know about Harold.”

A few heads dipped.

“Yeah,” Bill said. “Infected got him. That part’s true.”

He paused.

“But that’s not the whole story.”

Silence sharpened instantly.

Harry’s head lifted slightly.

Bill’s expression hardened.

“Harold was shot.”

Immediate reaction.

Confusion. Murmurs. Someone whispering no way under their breath.

Bill raised a hand.

“Not from inside the group,” he added.

That killed the room completely.

Harry’s brow furrowed.

Bill stepped forward one pace.

“I’m saying this clean,” he continued. “Because I don’t want rumors doing the talking for me.”

He looked around.

“There was a person we encountered before we got here.”

A pause.

“Someone who tried to interfere while we were trying to bring Harry through safely.”

That made heads turn again.

Harry’s eyes narrowed.

Bill didn’t stop.

“And during that encounter, we lost people.”

A beat.

“Carson included.”

A few people shifted uncomfortably at that name.

Bill’s jaw tightened for a second.

Then he continued.

“I had to put Carson down myself.”

That landed heavy.

Not dramatic.

Just final.

Bill’s voice stayed level, but something in it sharpened.

“That same person is responsible for Harold. For Carson. For what happened out there.”

Now the room was fully locked in.

No movement.

No noise.

Bill’s gaze hardened.

“And they’re here.”

That broke the air.

People started whispering again, faster now.

Harry’s expression changed.

Confusion first.

Then realization trying to catch up.

Bill looked directly out into the room.

“They made it into Canada,” he said. “And they didn’t come alone.”

A pause.

“There’s two others traveling with him. Two women. One of them infected.”

More gasped had exploded from the others, many disbelieving, others unable to fathom how someone had been able to travel with a monster like that.

Unless they had been a monster themselves.

Harry’s breath slowed slightly.

Not fear.

Processing.

Bill’s eyes moved again.

“And I don’t need anyone guessing what we do next.”

His voice dropped.

“We find them.”

The room tightened again.

“And we make it clear what happens when people think they can bring chaos into a system that’s trying to hold.”

And with that, Harry’s recognition slowly turned into heat.

“I don’t care if he’s running or hiding or pretending he belongs here now.”

A pause.

“He’s not safe.”

Harry’s jaw clenched harder.

Bill finished:

“And neither is anyone who was with him when it happened.”

That was the final line.

The room went quiet in a different way now.

Not fear.

Direction.

Harry stood still.

But his eyes had changed completely.

Deep seated anger now settling in properly.

Focused.

Cold.

Not loud.

Not chaotic.

Just decided.

And across the room, people were already deciding where to hunt first.

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