Chapter 252: Death sentence
The forest had become quieter.
Not because the world had finally decided to give us a break.
Because the violence was getting farther away.
Lila and I trudged through the snow in silence, our boots sinking several inches with every step. The trees around us stood black against the white earth, their branches heavy with frost. Every so often the wind shifted, carrying the smell of smoke through the pines.
Smoke.
Gunpowder.
Burning wood.
I didn’t have to look back to know the compound was still dying behind us.
The infected had gotten inside.
The hunters had gotten involved.
People who had survived the end of the world had probably just become another part of it.
I kept walking.
There wasn’t anything else I could do.
It was funny.
I’d spent so much time wondering why people were always chasing me.
The Crucible.
Amber Society.
Now Miriam and these intelligent infected.
Everyone wanted something.
Sometimes it was my blood.
Sometimes it was the lattice.
Sometimes it was just the satisfaction of watching me break.
Maybe there really was something special about me.
Or maybe the apocalypse just had a sick sense of humor.
Truth be told...
Even if none of them had ever existed...
My life still would’ve been hell.
The world didn’t need a reason to hurt you anymore.
It just did.
I glanced over my shoulder.
Lila walked several paces behind me.
That...
That was strange.
Usually she was beside me.
Sometimes in front of me.
Dragging me along by the hand like she already knew where we were going before either of us did.
She always walked with purpose.
With certainty.
Like every problem already had a solution waiting somewhere inside her head.
Now...
She barely seemed aware of where she was putting her feet.
Her shoulders were slumped.
Her breathing was uneven.
She wasn’t looking around for danger.
She wasn’t watching the tree line.
She wasn’t even watching me.
She looked...
Lost.
As though she were trapped inside a conversation that only she could hear.
I slowed my pace.
She didn’t notice.
Not until I’d stopped completely.
Her footsteps finally came to a halt several feet away.
"Lila."
She looked up.
The expression on her face stopped me cold.
I’d seen Lila furious.
I’d seen her jealous.
I’d seen her smile while doing things that still kept me awake some nights.
But I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen this.
Fear.
Not the kind that makes someone run.
The kind that settles deep inside a person because they’ve already imagined every possible outcome...
...and none of them end well.
"What’s the matter with you?"
She stared at me for a long moment.
"I love you, Adrian."
I blinked.
"...Yeah."
I tried to smile.
"I know."
I motioned farther down the trail.
"Come on. We need to keep moving."
She didn’t move.
"I love you so much that it hurts."
Something about the way she said it made my chest tighten.
There wasn’t any excitement in her voice.
No obsession.
No possessiveness.
Just...
Pain.
"So much," she whispered, "that I’d become anything if it meant keeping you alive."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"I’d do things that would make you hate me."
Another.
"I already have."
I frowned.
"Lila..."
"I know they’re ugly."
She laughed quietly to herself.
A miserable little sound.
"I know."
Her eyes searched mine desperately.
"But is loving someone that much..."
She swallowed.
"...really so wrong?"
I already knew what I wanted to tell her.
A conclusion I came up with on my own, but seemed to plausible not to say with confidence.
’The pathogen twisted something inside you, Lila.’
Was what I would’ve said, but she’d just get angry.
That her love had become tangled up with fear.
That somewhere along the line protecting me had stopped meaning protecting me and started meaning keeping me no matter the cost.
I wanted to say all of it.
Instead...
I hesitated.
Because she looked so broken standing there that every word suddenly felt cruel.
"Lila, I—"
"I watched him leave."
The sentence hit me like I’d walked into something invisible.
"...Who?"
She wasn’t looking at me anymore.
She was looking past me.
Toward the trees.
"He almost got away."
"...Who?"
"He made it farther than I thought he would."
My confusion turned into frustration.
"Lila."
She didn’t blink.
"He collapsed before he got very far."
"Lila."
Still nothing.
"Who are you talking about?"
She finally looked back at me.
"Your second conscience."
The words didn’t register.
"My...what?"
"The other Adrian."
She said it so matter-of-factly that for a second I wondered if I’d misheard her.
"The one that experiment created."
"The one that only cares about surviving."
"The one..."
Her voice cracked.
"...that looks at me like I’m something that needs to be thrown away."
I stared at her.
She believed it.
Every word.
Not metaphorically.
Not emotionally.
She believed another version of me existed.
A version she’d seen.
A version she’d spoken to.
"Lila..."
I took a cautious step toward her.
"I don’t think you’re a burden."
She laughed.
It wasn’t bitter.
It was heartbroken.
"Maybe you don’t."
She pointed a trembling finger at my chest.
"But he does."
Silence settled between us.
The wind sighed through the trees.
Snow drifted lazily from the branches overhead.
She wiped at her face with the sleeve of her jacket.
"Promise me something."
"What?"
Her voice became frighteningly small.
"Promise me you won’t let him take you away from me."
I frowned.
"Lila..."
"Promise me."
She stepped closer.
"Promise me you’ll stay."
"I am staying."
"Promise me!"
Her voice cracked into a scream.
"PROMISE ME!"
Birds exploded from the trees around us.
My heart jumped into my throat.
"Lila!"
She grabbed both sides of my jacket.
Her hands were shaking violently.
"Promise me!"
"I promise!"
The words left my mouth before I could think.
"I promise, okay?"
"I’m here."
"I’m not leaving."
"I promise."
She collapsed into me.
Her arms wrapped around my back with desperate strength.
"I’m sorry..."
She buried her face against my chest.
"I’m sorry for shouting."
Her breathing hitched.
"You just..."
Another sob.
"You mean so much to me."
"I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you."
I rested a hand against the back of her head.
"Lila."
She didn’t answer.
"You’re spiraling."
She slowly looked up.
Her eyes were swollen and red.
I forced myself to meet them.
"Nothing’s going to happen between us."
I spoke as firmly as I could.
"I’m not going anywhere."
"Not unless one of us dies."
For the first time since we’d stopped walking...
She smiled.
A small one.
Fragile.
Real.
"...Really?"
I nodded.
"Really."
The smile grew just a little wider.
She opened her mouth to answer—
A rifle cracked somewhere beyond the trees.
The bullet screamed between us.
So close that the wind of it whipped strands of Lila’s hair across my face.
The tree behind us exploded into splinters.
Lila’s smile vanished.
Mine did too.
They’d found us.
—
The infected coming toward them might as well have been a death sentence.
They didn’t sprint.
They didn’t stumble.
They came at the same measured pace as everything else the fat infected had done since revealing itself.
Deliberate.
Patient.
Certain.
Like they already knew how this ended.
"...We’re fucked."
The voice barely carried over the valley.
"We’re fucked..."
Another laugh echoed somewhere below.
"...We’re so fucked."
Nobody told him to shut up.
Nobody had the energy.
Bill stood at the edge of the ridge, his face unreadable.
His eyes weren’t on the infected climbing toward them.
They stayed fixed on the valley.
On the fat infected.
It hadn’t moved.
Blood still streaked across its face from Jackson.
Its enormous stomach rose and fell slowly as if this were all just another afternoon.
It watched.
Waiting.
Like it had all the time in the world.
Jackson...
Bill’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
He’d known Jackson for eleven years.
Long before the world had ended.
Long before people started eating one another.
He remembered the kid throwing rocks into rivers because he thought he could make them skip farther than anybody else.
Remembered him getting drunk off cheap whiskey and insisting he could beat Bill in a fistfight.
Remembered laughing.
Now...
There wasn’t enough of him left to bury.
Saul stood a few yards away.
His hands shook around his rifle so violently the barrel rattled.
He kept staring toward the valley.
Not blinking.
Not speaking.
His younger brother had died screaming.
And the thing that killed him hadn’t even looked angry while it did it.
Harry leaned against a tree, blood soaking through the torn shoulder of his jacket.
The bite hadn’t broken skin.
They all knew that.
They’d checked twice.
Still...
He hadn’t said a word since Jackson died.
His eyes remained fixed on the valley below.
Cold.
Empty.
Like something inside him had quietly gone out.
Across the ridge, Aubrey’s group watched the same scene unfold.
Neither side pointed a weapon anymore.
Nobody was thinking about prisoners.
Or revenge.
Or settling scores.
Not now.
Cherie folded her arms.
She hadn’t taken her eyes off Saul once.
Naomi swallowed.
"...Wasn’t that his brother?"
Cherie stayed quiet.
Naomi looked back toward the valley.
"...Damn."
The silence stretched.
Then Harry finally broke it.
"What now, old man?"
Bill didn’t answer.
Harry pushed himself off the tree.
"What?"
"You finally run outta miracles?"
One of the remaining men let out a hollow laugh.
"Seems like the end of the road to me."
Nobody argued with him.
They all tightened their grips around their weapons anyway.
Not because they thought it would matter.
Because people needed something to hold when they were afraid.
Bill crouched.
He ignored the infected.
Ignored the fat infected.
Ignored the valley.
Instead...
He looked at the snow.
Harry frowned.
"The hell are you doing?"
Bill brushed away a thin layer with the back of his glove.
Frozen dirt.
Broken branches.
Compressed footprints.
His own.
Aubrey’s.
The infected.
His eyes moved slowly across every mark.
Every indentation.
Every snapped twig.
Then...
He looked farther.
Beyond the valley.
Beyond the infected.
Toward the mountains disappearing into the distance.
Something shifted behind his eyes.
Not hope.
Calculation.
He stood.
"...They’ve made one mistake."
Harry barked a humorless laugh.
"They?"
Bill nodded toward the fat infected.
"It."
Harry followed his gaze.
"I don’t think it has."
"It has."
Bill’s voice stayed calm.
"It thinks it already won."
Nobody understood.
Bill continued.
"If it wanted us dead..."
He pointed toward the hundreds of infected below.
"...we’d already be dead."
Nobody answered.
Because...
He wasn’t wrong.
Bill slowly turned toward Aubrey’s ridge.
His eyes met hers across the frozen valley.
No hatred.
No anger.
Only necessity.
"You."
Aubrey frowned.
"Me?"
"I need every person over there who can still pull a trigger."
Harry looked between them.
"...You’re joking."
Bill ignored him.
He kept looking at Aubrey.
"It wants us divided."
"It herded you."
"It trapped us."
"It walked right through the middle because it knew neither side would risk crossing the valley."
He let the thought settle.
Then his voice dropped lower.
"So..."
A faint smile tugged at one corner of his mouth.
"...let’s do the one thing it clearly doesn’t expect."
Aubrey stared at him.
"...What’s that?"
Bill looked once more at the fat infected standing proudly in the center of its kingdom.
Then he answered.
"We stop acting like two groups."
The first infected reached the ridge.
Bill raised his rifle.
Not toward Aubrey.
Toward the valley.
Toward the thing watching them.
And smiled.
"Let’s make the ugly bastard improvise."
The fat infected’s smile didn’t disappear.
But...
For the first time...
It tilted its head.