Surviving the Apocalypse With My Yandere Ex-Girlfriend

Chapter 240: Where you were always meant to end up

It had been hours.

Or maybe it had been a day.

I couldn’t tell anymore.

The room never changed.

No windows.

No light.

No sound beyond the occasional groan of old pipes somewhere behind the concrete walls.

The cold had settled into my bones long ago. It wasn’t the kind that made you shiver anymore. It simply existed, wrapping itself around every joint until moving felt like an inconvenience.

I sat with my back against the wall, my knees drawn loosely toward my chest.

Honestly...

I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel anymore.

Everything had unraveled so quickly that my mind hadn’t been given the chance to catch up.

I didn’t know where Lila was.

I didn’t know if she was hurt.

I didn’t know if Aubrey and the others had survived the storm.

The last thing I’d seen of Carl was...

I shut my eyes.

No.

Don’t think about it.

It didn’t matter how many times I told myself that.

The image kept returning anyway.

His eyes closing.

The gun.

The sound.

The blood.

My chest tightened until it almost hurt to breathe.

Everything I touched ended up broken.

Carl believed in me.

Aubrey believed in me.

Lila...

God.

Lila loved me.

And what had I actually accomplished?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

For the first time since this nightmare had started...

I found myself wondering whether Miriam was right.

The thought made me sick.

Huxley had told me I was the cure.

That whatever was inside me could remove this disease entirely.

Miriam hadn’t said that.

She’d spoken about stabilization.

About control.

About creating more intelligent infected.

Not ending the infection.

Perfecting it.

Two people.

Two completely different visions.

Both convinced they were telling me the truth.

I laughed quietly to myself.

It sounded empty.

"...I don’t even know what to think anymore."

The words barely escaped my lips.

More than anything...

I just wanted to sleep.

In a room this dark, it hardly mattered whether my eyes were open or closed anyway.

Then—

Metal screamed.

The cell door slowly opened.

Light flooded inside.

It stabbed into my eyes so violently that I immediately squeezed them shut and turned my head away.

Footsteps.

Heavy.

Unhurried.

More than one person.

I recognized the first pair almost immediately.

Callahan.

Of course.

Even without looking, I knew the way he walked.

Like the floor belonged to him.

Like every step was trying to start a fight.

He stopped directly in front of me.

For several long seconds...

He didn’t say anything.

Then I heard him chuckle.

Low.

Mocking.

"Well..."

His boots shifted closer until the toes were inches from my legs.

"Would ya look at this."

He crouched in front of me.

"The mighty Adrian."

His laugh carried no humor.

"Look at you now."

I slowly opened my eyes.

The light still burned.

Callahan’s grin spread wider the moment he saw me looking.

"You’re all skin and bones."

His gaze traveled over my face.

"Pale as shit."

"You look like somebody already buried you."

He leaned closer.

"I still can’t believe this is the same little twerp that got one over on me."

His smile hardened.

"I’ve been thinking about that."

He tilted his head.

"Really gets under my skin."

His voice lowered.

"You know what I think?"

I said nothing.

"I think this..."

He spread one arm, gesturing toward the concrete room around us.

"...is where you were always meant to end up."

He reached forward suddenly.

His fingers buried themselves in my hair.

He yanked my head upward hard enough that my neck protested.

"Look at me when I’m talking to you."

His breath smelled like stale blood.

"And to think you actually believed you were somebody."

He studied my face for a second.

Then drove his fist into it.

Pain exploded across my cheek.

My head snapped sideways.

For a second everything blurred.

Honestly...

I barely felt it.

Compared to everything else...

It was nothing.

Silence settled over the room again.

Callahan waited.

He wanted something.

Fear.

Begging.

Anything.

Slowly...

I turned my head back toward him.

Looked him directly in the eyes.

Then I spoke.

Quietly.

"You’ve been replaying Texas in your head every day since it happened..."

His grin faltered.

"...because deep down you still can’t figure out how someone you thought was beneath you beat you."

The silence that followed was heavier than the punch.

Something changed in Callahan’s face.

Confusion came first.

Then embarrassment.

It flashed across his features before he could stop it.

Finally...

Anger.

Real anger.

Not the loud kind.

The dangerous kind.

His jaw flexed.

His nostrils flared.

For the briefest moment...

There was something else underneath it.

Fear.

Not of me.

Of the possibility that I was right.

His grip on my hair slowly loosened.

Neither of us spoke.

A voice finally broke the silence from behind him.

"That’s enough."

It wasn’t loud.

It didn’t need to be.

"Come on."

I looked past Callahan.

The tall man with the grey eyes stood in the doorway.

His black coat was spotless despite everything outside.

His expression hadn’t changed since I’d first seen him in the snow.

Calm.

Measured.

Almost detached.

"Miriam’s waiting."

Callahan didn’t move immediately.

He kept staring at me for another second.

Then clicked his tongue.

"Tch."

He let go of my hair before crouching lower to undo the restraints around my wrists.

The rope loosened.

Blood rushed painfully back into my hands.

He smirked without looking at me.

"Hope you’re happy."

He stood and jerked his head toward the hallway.

"You’ve got yourself a date today."

I barely reacted.

One thought pushed through everything else crowding my head.

A date?

...

Were they finally taking me to Lila?

—

I had already told myself there was no point fighting anymore.

No point resisting.

If cooperating with Miriam meant fewer people died...

Then maybe that was what I had to do.

At least, that was what I kept trying to convince myself.

Standing in front of her now, though...

Watching the calm way she carried herself.

Watching her thumb absentmindedly brush across the handle of Lila’s knife as though it belonged in her hand...

Something inside me refused to settle.

She looked less like a tyrant.

More like someone who had already won.

Then I saw her.

Lila.

But something about her made my stomach drop.

Her dirty blonde hair hung messily around her face.

Her skin was pale.

Too pale.

Her shoulders were tense.

Her breathing uneven.

Her eyes constantly flickered around the room.

The infected surrounding her.

The walls.

The people watching.

She looked afraid.

Actually afraid.

And that didn’t make sense.

Not Lila.

Not after everything.

Not after Canada.

Not after Jennifer.

I had watched her change.

I had watched the pathogen reshape her.

She wasn’t like the others.

The urges didn’t control her anymore.

They were there.

Always there.

But she controlled them.

She weaponized them.

She was the closest thing the infected had to something beyond their own hunger.

An alpha.

A predator.

So why...

Why did she look like she was barely holding herself together?

Miriam noticed where my eyes had settled.

"You’ve been thinking very hard," she said softly. "I can see it."

I didn’t answer.

She folded her hands neatly in front of herself.

"I want you to understand something, Adrian."

Her voice remained calm.

Measured.

"I have never wished to force you into anything."

I almost laughed.

She continued before I could speak.

"Force creates resentment. Resentment creates resistance. Resistance creates failure."

She slowly began pacing across the room.

"I do not build my people through fear."

She looked toward the infected standing along the walls.

"I give them purpose."

Then she looked back at me.

"You must choose."

Her eyes never left mine.

"You must decide, consciously, that saving people matters more than preserving an old world that has already died."

Silence settled over the room.

"If not for strangers..."

She tilted her head.

"...then perhaps for someone you love."

My stomach tightened.

Without another word, Miriam stepped to one side.

My eyes immediately found Lila again.

Then...

Everything inside me stopped.

"...No."

The word escaped before I could stop it.

My heartbeat stumbled.

Impossible.

She looked thinner.

Far thinner.

Her cheeks had sunk ever so slightly.

Fresh scratches lined both forearms.

Some were healing.

Others were still raw.

One crossed the back of her hand deeply enough that dried blood remained beneath her fingernails.

"No..."

I whispered again.

Miriam watched my expression carefully.

"As you know..."

She spoke almost gently.

"...this is what prolonged separation does."

I slowly looked toward her.

"I don’t understand."

"But you should."

She smiled sympathetically.

"You should know how much this affects her."

She gestured calmly toward Lila.

"She has gone far too long without her feed."

My brow furrowed.

"My..."

I stopped.

"...Feed?"

Miriam nodded.

"That feed..."

She looked directly at me.

"...is you."

The room seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

"You stabilize her."

"You always have."

"You simply never understood what you were doing."

My mouth had gone completely dry.

"You remove that instability with what lives inside your body..."

She spoke almost reverently now.

"...and she’ll never again have to suffer simply because you’re not beside her."

Her eyes drifted toward Lila’s arms.

"The scratching."

"The shaking."

"The deterioration."

"All of it ends."

I followed her gaze.

Only now did I notice the marks.

Some were old.

Some weren’t.

Some looked recent enough to have happened today.

Something cold settled inside my stomach.

Before I could say another word—

Miriam did something I never expected.

She walked directly to Lila.

Cut through the ropes.

Stepped away.

Lila moved instantly.

She slammed into me so hard I nearly lost my footing.

Her arms wrapped tightly around my back.

I froze.

Then instinct finally took over.

I hugged her.

She buried her face into my shoulder as though she’d been drowning.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

I looked over her shoulder toward Miriam.

Every question I had must have been written across my face.

Why?

How?

Miriam only smiled.

She offered no explanation.

Lila suddenly cupped my face between both hands.

Her palms trembled violently.

Her crimson eyes shimmered with tears.

"Don’t ever leave me..."

Her voice cracked.

"...Please..."

Another breath.

"Don’t leave me in here with these people."

Every word sounded smaller than the last.

"I won’t..."

The answer came automatically.

"I won’t, Lila."

She searched my face desperately, almost as though she were trying to convince herself I was actually standing there.

Behind us, one of the infected let out a mocking little laugh.

"Aww."

Another chuckled quietly.

Neither of us acknowledged them.

I started to pull away.

Then...

Her grip tightened.

Not around my shoulders.

Around my forearm.

My brows knitted together.

"Lila...?"

She didn’t answer.

I tried easing backward.

She wouldn’t let me.

"Lila..."

I smiled nervously.

"...come on."

Still nothing.

Her fingers dug harder.

My skin began protesting beneath her nails.

"Lila..."

My heartbeat sped up.

"...please."

Her nails bit deeper.

Sharp.

Hot.

Blood welled where they pierced my skin.

"I reckon she can smell your friend on you."

Miriam’s voice drifted across the room.

I looked up immediately.

"...What?"

She didn’t even acknowledge my confusion.

"Girlfriend or not..."

She watched Lila quietly.

"...she remains infected."

"And without your help..."

Her tone remained almost soothing.

"...those instincts continue to grow."

She folded her hands behind her back.

"They spread."

She smiled.

"Like fire."

Lila’s fingers tightened again.

Blood slowly rolled across my wrist.

Then...

She lifted her head.

Her pupils had swallowed almost all of the remaining red.

Her breathing changed.

Faster.

Shallower.

A smile slowly spread across her face.

Not Lila’s smile.

Something uglier.

Something hungrier.

It reminded me of the baseline infected outside the gates.

"You smell..."

She inhaled deeply.

"...so good, Adrian."

The whisper crawled beneath my skin.

"Lila..."

My voice shook.

"...No."

She leaned closer.

Eyes fixed on the blood running over my wrist.

Her lips parted.

"Lila, stop."

Nothing.

Her breathing became louder.

"Lila!"

She lunged.

"STOP!"

Before she could reach me, three infected surged forward at once.

They tore her away from me.

She screamed.

Not in rage.

In desperation.

She reached for me as they dragged her backward.

"Adrian!"

My chest tightened.

"Lila!"

She fought them with everything she had.

They barely managed to hold her.

I stood rooted to the floor.

Breathing hard.

Tears burned against my eyes.

For the first time...

I wasn’t afraid for her.

I was afraid of her.

Miriam calmly stepped beside me.

"You’ve seen enough."

I couldn’t answer.

My eyes remained locked on Lila as they pulled her toward another room.

"Think about what I’ve said."

The heavy metal door opened.

She disappeared inside.

Just before it shut—

Lila turned her head.

Looked directly at me.

Then...

She winked.

The door slammed shut.

Everything inside me dropped.

Because in that single moment...

I couldn’t tell whether that had been Lila...

Or something else entirely.