Chapter 3

He ripped his arm away and wrapped a hand around my throat, choking the air out of my lungs. "Lynn, you want to be stupid, don't drag me to hell with you! What if you're wrong? What if the apocalypse is real, our home base gets overrun, and we have nowhere left to go?!"

"Lives are on the line! I don't give a damn about your pride—swallow it and get back to defend the compound!"

He shoved me to the ground and sprinted off with the squad. I watched their retreating silhouettes, then looked toward the coordinates—barely a mile away. I balled my fists, spun around, and ran headlong toward the truth!

I hadn't made it twenty yards when a blinding pain ripped through my calf. I crashed face-first into the dirt.

As my vision faded to black, Marcus's grim face floated above me.

"I can't let you ruin this for the rest of us..."

When I woke up, I was lying against the crumbling brick wall of an abandoned shed. Blinking through the haze, I saw Marcus sitting across from me. I moved my leg; thick white bandages bound my calf tightly.

"You're awake?" Marcus knelt beside me, handing me a canteen of water.

"You... you shot me?"

"The base radios pick up everything. If I didn't put a round in you and haul you back as a 'casualty,' I couldn't explain why we broke protocol."

"Relax. We're still out here. We're only three miles from the bread factory."

My eyes widened in shock. "We're still outside?! Then why did you chew me out earlier?!"

"Leo betrayed us. He squealed to the higher-ups. It took everything I had to slip you out."

The realization hit me.

No wonder he insisted the walker brain was real. He was putting on an act to throw Leo off.

"Then... what now?"

"We move. Right now. Sunset's coming."

A rush of adrenaline wiped away the pain. I hauled myself up, leaning on him. Outside, twilight was bleeding into ink.

"Hurry," he whispered.

He held my waist, guiding me along. Three miles. Five years ago, that was just my casual morning jog in Central Park. But now, starved and bruised, my legs felt like lead pipes.

Yet the further we walked, the more an uneasy dread gnawed at my stomach.

"Marcus, let me see the map. Are we heading the right way?"

I stopped, scanning the jagged skyline. The terrain... it felt eerily familiar.

A gust of wind whipped up gravel, swirling discarded trash toward my boots.

I snatched a piece of fluttering foil out of the air. My breath caught in my throat.

It was a protein bar wrapper. My dried blood was smeared right across the logo—the very one I had eaten an hour ago!

"Marcus... we're back where we started. You've been walking us in circles!"

Marcus stopped dead in his tracks. Without a word, he reached into his vest, pulled out a flare gun, and fired a brilliant crimson streak high into the night sky!

Within seconds, the roar of heavy engines tore through the dark. Several military-grade pickup trucks barrelled toward us, headlights blinding.

I froze in horror. "Marcus, what did you do?!"

"Nothing," he said smoothly. "I'm just not going back."

"Are you insane?! This whole apocalypse is a lie!" His calm demeanor confirmed every terrifying suspicion I had.

Marcus let out a dark, mocking laugh. "Go back to what? Being a nobody in a security uniform? You were right, Lynn. In the real world, you would never have looked twice at a guy like me!"

"God finally leveled the playing field. It took the end of the world for a dirty mall cop to pin an untouchable corporate queen to the mattress!"

"Remember back at the office tower? You strutted around with your nose in the air. Every time your luxury sedan rolled up to the gate, I lifted the barrier before you even honked. Did you ever say thank you? Did you even look at me?"

"Then the world burned, and you were begging on your knees beneath me. That's when I realized: only in this wasteland do I get to be a king."

"I'm never letting you leave. Never."

Rage roared in my ears. I lunged at him like a feral cat, driving my thumbs straight into his eyes!

Marcus shrieked in agony. In that split second, I snatched the radio, the combat knife, and the paper map from his belt, then spun and sprinted into the darkness!

I knew the road had to be ahead. I needed the truth. I was going home!