Chapter 42: It keeps us alive

I moved through the convenience store slowly, flashlight clenched tight in my hand. The beam cut through the dark in narrow slices, sweeping shelves, counters, shattered glass. Every step felt wrong—too loud, too deliberate—as if the building itself was listening.

That noise again.

Wet. Rhythmic. Like something being torn apart with patience.

My grip tightened as I followed it, heart pounding hard enough to make my ears ring. The air smelled coppery now. Sweet and rotten all at once.

I rounded the aisle—

—and froze.

The man in the flannel lay sprawled across the floor, limbs twisted at angles that didn’t belong to anything alive. His chest was torn open, ribs split apart like a broken cage. Deep stab wounds carved his neck, jagged and uneven. Blood pooled beneath him, dark and glossy, spreading until it mirrored my flashlight beam back at me.

My stomach dropped.

Infected..?

The word slammed into my head fully formed. My pulse spiked. I swung the flashlight wildly, breath hitching as I backed away—

Then I heard it again.

Closer.

I rounded the next corner.

The beam landed on her back first.

Dirty blonde hair— matted now, stiff with red. Shoulders hunched. Jaw working.

“Lila…?”

My voice cracked. Barely sound at all.

She was kneeling over Terri.

Eating her.

Teeth sank into flesh with a wet, tearing sound that echoed too loudly in the empty store. Terri’s body lay slack beneath her, eyes glassy and unfocused—already gone. Blood soaked the floor, smeared up Lila’s arms, streaked across her mouth.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t breathe.

Then Lila stopped.

Slowly—deliberately—she turned to face me.

Her eyes were wrong.

Bloodshot red, veins spiderwebbing across the whites like fractures in glass. Blood clung to her lips, dripping from her chin in slow, lazy drops.

She smiled.

“My love…” she said softly.

Something inside me broke.

I gagged, bile burning the back of my throat. My knees threatened to give out.

“It was for the greater good,” she continued, standing, stepping toward me. Her feet left slick prints behind her. “Now you and I… we can finally be alone together.”

She took another step.

“We don’t need distractions anymore,” she whispered. “Not Hale. Not Terri. Not—”

She stopped.

Silence fell heavy between us.

Her head tilted, expression shifting—almost curious.

“Adrian, sweetie,” she asked gently, “why are you crying?”

I hadn’t realized I was.

Tears blurred my vision, hot and unstoppable. She moved closer. I stumbled back, heel catching on something unseen.

In the corner of my eye, I saw movement.

Mrs. Graham stood in the shadows near the registers, her throat open with bullet wounds, blood pooling down her chest as she grinned at me— wide, knowing.

“It was gonna happen eventually,” she crooned. “I warned you, didn’t I?”

What the fuck…?

“Only matter of time, Cream Twinkie.”

A voice said.

My gaze snapped to the right. Aubrey leaned against a wall, blood smeared on her features, an eye gouged out.

I snapped my gaze back to Lila.

She was right in front of me now.

Her hands came up, cupping my face like she always did. Her thumbs brushed my cheeks, wiping away tears— smearing blood across my skin.

“Shhh,” she murmured. “Shhh. Baby, it’s okay. Everything’s okay.”

My hands were shaking so badly I could barely lift the gun.

I pressed the barrel to her forehead.

She blinked, confused.

For just a second, she looked like herself.

Then—

BANG.

—

I jolted awake with a gasp, lungs burning, heart hammering so hard I thought it might rip free.

Cold sweat soaked my shirt. My fingers trembled violently as I dragged in breath after breath, vision swimming.

Darkness.

Quiet.

I looked down.

Lila was behind me, her back pressed up against a wall. I’d been sleeping on her lap. Her chest rose and fell steadily, peaceful, untroubled. Her face— soft. Normal.

Alive.

Something in my chest melted and twisted all at once.

I carefully shifted away, standing on unsteady legs. My eyes adjusted to the dark as I scanned the store, silhouettes of sleeping bodies scattered across the floor.

My jaw tightened.

“Everyone get up,” I said sharply. “Now.”

Groans answered me.

“What the fuck, man…?” someone muttered. “It’s the ass crack of dawn.”

“That’s when I said we were leaving, didn’t I?” I snapped back, my voice cutting harder than I meant. “There’s no time. We leave. Now.”

Movement stirred around the room. Lila rubbed sleep from her eyes, looking at me through the dim light, confusion creasing her brow.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” I said quickly. Too quickly. “We’re wasting time here. We should be minutes away from Texas right now.”

Terri shifted nearby, rubbing her forehead, strands of hair sticking to her mouth as she yawned.

“Why the hell’s he in such a rush?” someone muttered.

I didn’t answer.

I shoved through the door, the bell shrieking as it slammed behind me.

My head snapped right.

Aubrey stood outside with a gun held loose against her torso, eyes heavy with exhaustion. She’d been on watch all night.

I looked at her a second too long, almost as if I was searching for something.

“What are you staring at—…? hey—!”

I ripped the rifle from Aubrey’s hands, raising it as I closed one eye.

The shot cracked the night open.

The bullet tore straight through the infected man’s forehead, a bloodied knife clattering to the ground before his collapsed body.

I turned back to Aubrey, my expression cold.

“Were you on lookout duty,” I asked flatly,

“or vacation?”

I shoved the rifle back into her hands. She stumbled at that, eyes wide.

“What the fuck is going on?” she stammered.

“We stayed a couple hours too long,” I said. “Infected nearby probably picked up on us.”

I met her stare.

“Get Hale,” I ordered. “Tell him to start the truck.”

“You’re fucking crazy, Adrian. Acting like a paranoid freak is just gonna make us all die faster—!”

I stopped at that, looking at her. My hardened gaze softened just a hair. My knuckles clenched.

I didn’t know why I was acting like this.

But deep down, I knew something was brewing slow and steady.

“Just get him and stop arguing.”

If paranoia keeps me alive, then I’d let it rot me from the inside.

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