Chapter 17: I can behave

I folded my arms as the terrain outside the window shifted into something sickeningly familiar.

Hyde Park.

The drive had stretched for hours— long, cramped, and suffocating with the stranger sitting in our backseat like some glitter-dusted grenade waiting to go off. Most of the silence wasn’t even because of the mission.

It was because of her.

But the closer we got, the harder it became to ignore what waited beyond the dusted cracked glass.

The infected were everywhere.

Not in swarms— but enough that you could feel their presence like a fever crawling under your skin.

Some were curled into fetal lumps against broken storefronts, trembling or twitching, like they were waiting for nightfall.

Others…

Others were tearing into whoever they could catch.

The streets were a bloodbath. Hyde Park wasn’t as bad when I got here before. It used to be a ghost town.

Now it was like a graveyard in motion.

The CPD? Well…I guess they gave up on this neighborhood too.

Whenever I looked too long, bile crawled up my throat. Terri didn’t even try to fight it. She’d thrown up into a paper bag Aubrey had tossed her earlier. The sound alone made my stomach churn more.

Aubrey exhale was sharp through gritted teeth.

Lila barely reacted to the carnage surrounding her, her eyes cold, calculating.

But the blonde girl?

Her expression didn’t shift even once.

Not at the bodies.

Not at the screaming.

Not at the infected ripping someone apart right outside her fucking window.

I stared at her too long, trying to piece together the equation that didn’t add up.

Why the hell would she be hitchhiking alone trying to get a ride to the south side?

To this?

Did she have people up here or something?

Further more, no one walked a world gone to shit with perfume still clinging to their skin.

Something was off about her.

Way off.

But my mind didn’t have time to linger—because the Land Rover was slowing, tires crunching over shattered glass and dried blood.

We were at the warehouse.

The exact spot where me and Lila had almost gotten killed by Sheldon and his little posse.

The memory slammed into me like a punch to the ribs— the screaming, the guns, the ropes tight against my limbs, the smell of blood and metal.

Aubrey parked beside the 2 humvees. My mouth went dry.

I didn’t even look at her when she spoke.

“First thing we do is check if the Crucible got here first,” She said through a mask of calm. “You keep an eye on our stranger, alright? Make sure she doesn’t try anything.”

I couldn’t even nod.

Couldn’t breathe.

Aubrey’s eyes lingered on me— just long enough for her face to soften before she sighed and stepped out. Terri followed, still pale, still trembling.

Lila stayed.

For a second, she didn’t move, a shadow cast over her expression—her gaze fixed on the blonde girl beside her.

The tension thickened instantly.

Then Lila leaned forward, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Try anything, and I’ll kill you.”

She meant what she said.

The car door slammed as she stepped out

The blonde girl didn’t look frightened.

Infact, she just smiled— like she’d been waiting for Lila to say that.

A moment passed as I watched figures disappear into the warehouse.

My stomach began to churn as i suddenly felt pathetic.

Even Terri— a terrified and trembling Terri— had stepped out of the car, and I was still glued to my seat.

Aubrey had noticed. I knew she had.

And she didn’t push me.

Because she thought I was—

“Your girlfriend’s pretty cute.”

Her voice snapped through the quiet, disrupting my thoughts.

I sighed, my brows tightening.

I didn’t owe this weirdo a response.

Silence stretched between us, heavy enough to press against my lungs.

In the rearview mirror, I caught her frown as she realized she was being ignored.

“Think you’re too cute to give me response, douchebag?”

I breathed in. She continued.

Of course she did.

“Boys like you… always gotta play hard to get unless the girl’s showing a little skin, huh? Can’t even answer a simple question unless she’s in a bikini????”

The hell was she even talking about?

“You’re fucking scum.”

I’d had enough. I turned to tell her to shut the hell up—

—but froze.

A gun aimed right at my face.

Where the hell…?

Where the fuck did she even pull that from?

“Get in the front seat and drive,” Her tone was eerily calm after her weird little tantrum.

“Now.”

My blood turned to ice. My lip quivered, face growing pale like I’d lost my tan.

A blush bloomed on her face like this was some twisted romance.

Then she laughed.

“That fucking face you’re making… it’s making me so horny.”

She cooed the last word.

My breath hitched.

“What? Playing nice now that your life’s on the line all of a sudden? You’re just a shallow slut, aren’t you?”

She pressed the gun to my head, her fingers teasing the trigger. I closed my eyes.

“Maybe I’ll play along if you behave.”

Then—

BANG.

She fired a shot into the ceiling. My ears rang. My vision flickered. She laughed harder at my reaction, like my fear was a toy she was shaking.

Tears welled up in my eyes without permission. This was so pathetic. I was gonna die to this nutjob.

This was how it ended.

“You deaf? Drive! NOW!”

My body moved before my brain did. I scrambled over the console, hands shaking as I slammed the gas pedal.

Through the rearview mirror—

Aubrey burst out of the warehouse with a panicked expression as she saw her land rover speeding off.

Only to freeze as a gun pressed to her skull.

The figure behind Aubrey holding the gun…she was oddly familiar.

Liberty spikes.

Bleached…at the tip. The same ones I saw on the metro to Hyde park.

Metal glittered across her face like a joke.

She tilted her head, a slow, eerie smile spreading across her lips as she waved at me— mocking, deliberate. My stomach twisted into knots.

I could hear the faint rattle of the land rover’s engine over the distant echo of gunfire inside the warehouse.

Despair hit me like a freight train as I realized this was a blatant set up. My palms clenched the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.

“Eyes on the fucking road, cutie.”

Everything went to shit faster than I realized.

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