Surviving the Apocalypse With My Yandere Ex-Girlfriend

Chapter 241: Nothing else to hide

Harry didn’t stop walking until the campfire was nothing more than a dull orange glow between the trees.

Snow crunched beneath every step.

His jaw stayed locked.

His hands opened and closed at his sides, fingers flexing hard enough that the leather of his gloves creaked.

He didn’t hear Bill approach.

He only noticed him when the older man stopped beside him, struck a match against his boot, and lit another cigarette.

The flame burned for a second before the wind stole it.

Bill cupped the cigarette with one hand, took a slow drag, then exhaled through his nose.

Smoke drifted sideways through the trees.

For nearly half a minute, neither of them spoke.

Bill watched the forest.

Harry watched nothing.

Finally—

"What the hell’s got your panties in a twist?"

Harry didn’t answer.

Bill took another drag.

"You’ve been stompin’ around like somebody pissed in your cereal."

Still nothing.

Bill chuckled to himself.

"Didn’t know you were this sentimental."

Harry’s head turned just enough for Bill to catch the look in his eyes.

It wasn’t grief.

It wasn’t guilt.

It was frustration.

Raw.

Ugly.

"I should’ve been the one."

Bill didn’t react.

Harry swallowed once.

"I should’ve killed him."

Silence settled between them again.

Harry turned fully now.

Snow clung to his boots.

His breathing had steadied, but the muscles in his jaw still twitched.

"I had him."

He pointed toward a pine tree without even realizing he was doing it.

"Right there."

His finger remained fixed.

"He was standing right in front of me."

Another beat.

"My rifle was up."

He looked at his own hand as if seeing it for the first time.

"I could’ve ended everything."

His hand slowly curled into a fist.

"And I didn’t."

Bill finally spoke.

"So?"

Harry stared at him.

"So?"

Bill shrugged.

"You’ve missed shots before."

"I DIDN’T MISS."

The words exploded out of him.

Birds scattered somewhere deeper in the woods.

Harry immediately lowered his voice again.

"He...he baited me."

His breathing became uneven.

"I don’t know why I gave in..."

"I just..."

His eyes unfocused.

"For one second..."

"I wanted to prove something..."

The sentence died before it finished.

"Someone with a mind like that doesn’t die that easy."

Bill watched him carefully.

Then took another drag.

"So you’re mad because infected was the one to kill him and not you?"

Harry looked away.

"No."

Another pause.

"I’m mad because I don’t think he’s dead."

That made Bill’s eyebrow rise.

Only slightly.

Harry noticed.

"That bitch."

He nodded back toward Aubrey’s camp.

"She was hiding something."

Bill remained quiet.

Harry continued.

"I’ve watched people lie."

"I’ve watched prisoners lie."

"I’ve watched fathers lie to protect their kids."

He looked back toward camp.

"That wasn’t the face of somebody grieving."

Bill folded his arms.

"What was it?"

Harry answered immediately.

"Hope."

Bill smiled.

Small.

Almost amused.

"You really think so?"

"I know so."

Harry’s voice hardened.

"They’re feeding us pieces."

"They don’t know where he is."

"But they don’t think he’s dead."

He looked Bill directly in the eye.

"And that’s dangerous."

Bill scratched thoughtfully at the stubble along his jaw.

"So..."

"You think Boy Wonder’s still breathin’."

Harry nodded once.

"I do."

Bill let out a low hum.

"You know..."

"I was wonderin’ why she kept clingin’ to that jacket."

Harry frowned.

"They’re treating us like allies."

"They shouldn’t."

His voice flattened.

"They’re just as slippery as he is."

"They’ll run the first chance they get."

Bill smiled wider.

"There he is."

Harry frowned.

"What?"

"The smart one."

Bill flicked ash into the snow.

"I was wonderin’ when he’d show back up."

He pushed himself off the tree he’d been leaning against.

"C’mon."

Harry fell in beside him.

Neither man spoke as they walked back toward camp.

The fire had burned lower.

Nobody had added wood.

Nobody wanted to wander into the trees alone.

Aubrey sat cross-legged near one of the logs, Adrian’s knife resting across her knee.

Slow.

Methodical.

Stone against steel.

Shhk.

Shhk.

Shhk.

The rhythm never changed.

She wasn’t sharpening it anymore.

It had been sharp fifteen minutes ago.

She simply needed something for her hands to do.

Terri sat with both knees tucked against her chest, staring into the flames without really seeing them.

Every time someone laughed from Bill’s camp, she flinched.

Naomi noticed.

She said nothing.

Hale remained standing.

He had been standing almost the entire time.

His rifle rested against his shoulder while his eyes continued making slow circles around the clearing.

Bill’s people.

The woods.

The ridge.

Back again.

Isabella quietly finished wrapping fresh cloth around the scrape on Saul’s forearm from the escape through the woods.

Neither thanked the other.

Cherie hadn’t spoken in nearly twenty minutes.

She simply watched the darkness.

Waiting.

Listening.

Then—

Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Heads turned.

Bill and Harry stepped back into the clearing.

Harry’s face looked carved from stone.

Bill looked...

Comfortable.

Too comfortable.

Like he’d just come back from a pleasant evening stroll.

He stopped near the fire.

Looked over Hale’s group one face at a time.

Nobody liked how long he took.

Finally—

"So."

He rubbed his hands together once against the cold.

"I’ve been thinkin’."

Nobody answered.

"I figure we’ve got ourselves a little problem."

Hale folded his arms.

"What problem?"

Bill smiled.

"The fact that none of you bastards are tellin’ me the whole truth."

Silence.

"You don’t know where Adrian is."

Aubrey didn’t blink.

"But..."

Bill continued.

"You don’t believe he’s dead either."

Her grip tightened almost imperceptibly around the knife.

Bill noticed.

Of course he noticed.

"So here’s what we’re gonna do."

His tone stayed almost conversational.

"So nobody gets any funny ideas."

Harry stepped quietly beside him.

Bill jerked his thumb toward Hale’s group.

"We’re keepin’ you."

Nobody moved.

"You’ll stay with us until we find Boy Wonder."

The smile disappeared from his face.

"And if we find his body..."

His shoulders lifted in an almost casual shrug.

"Well."

"Then I reckon your usefulness expires."

Silence.

"So whether he’s alive..."

"Or whether he’s rottin’ under six feet of snow..."

Bill looked each of them in the eye.

"You die either way."

Everything happened at once.

Aubrey moved.

The knife flashed silver as she exploded off the log.

No warning.

No scream.

Just movement.

Straight for Bill’s throat.

Bill’s eyes barely widened.

He stepped half a pace to the side.

Caught her wrist.

Twisted.

Pain shot through Aubrey’s arm.

The knife never came close.

Momentum carried her forward.

Bill used it.

One sharp turn.

One brutal shove.

Her feet disappeared beneath her.

She hit the frozen ground shoulder first.

The impact knocked every bit of air from her lungs.

Her vision exploded into white stars.

"AUBREY!"

Terri screamed.

Hale reached for his rifle.

Three rifles snapped toward his chest before his fingers even touched it.

Harry already had his pistol drawn.

Jackson covered Naomi.

Saul kicked Isabella’s weapon away before she’d fully reached it.

Everything dissolved into shouting.

Boots.

Snow.

Metal.

Hands forcing arms behind backs.

Aubrey tried to push herself up.

The world tilted violently.

Sound came back in pieces.

"...Drop it!"

"...Move!"

"...Hands!"

"...Don’t—"

Someone drove her face back into the snow.

Cold exploded across her cheek.

She couldn’t breathe.

She couldn’t think.

All she saw were flashes.

Hale wrestling against two men.

Terri crying.

Cherie with blood running from the corner of her mouth after someone struck her.

Then—

Darkness crept around the edges of her vision.

The last thing she heard...

...was Bill’s calm voice.

"I told you."

"She’s just like him."

—

The room had gone quiet again.

Not peaceful.

Just empty.

The kind of empty that made every distant sound seem louder than it really was.

Lila sat against the far wall with her knees tucked beneath her chin.

Her dirty blonde hair hung over her face in tangled strands, hiding most of her expression.

Her breathing came in uneven pulls.

Sometimes too quick.

Sometimes so slow it almost disappeared.

Outside her cell, two intelligent infected lingered near the iron gate.

One leaned against the wall, absentmindedly scraping dried blood from beneath his fingernails with the tip of another nail.

The other stared through the bars.

Watching.

Waiting.

Neither spoke.

They’d been watching her for hours.

Making sure she stayed exactly where she’d been left.

Lila’s fingers twitched against her sleeve.

Once.

Twice.

Then they became still again.

"...I’m so sorry, my love.."

The words barely left her lips.

Soft enough that they almost dissolved into the silence.

Her forehead rested against her folded arms.

"I’m sorry I scared you..."

Her voice cracked.

Not loudly.

Just enough.

"...I know you were scared."

Her fingers curled tighter around the fabric covering her knees.

"You looked at me like..."

She swallowed.

"...like you didn’t know who I was anymore."

For several seconds she said nothing.

Only breathed.

Slowly.

Quietly.

"...I know."

Another long silence settled over the room.

When she finally spoke again, there was something strangely calm beneath the exhaustion.

"So just..."

Her eyes remained hidden behind her hair.

"...wait for me."

A tiny smile almost formed.

Almost.

"We’re gonna leave this place."

Barely above a whisper.

"...Really soon."

BANG.

The iron gate shook violently.

The impact echoed through the concrete room.

One of the infected shoved the bars with an irritated snarl.

"What the fuck are you whispering about?"

Lila didn’t answer.

Another shove rattled the hinges.

"I asked you a question."

Silence.

The infected frowned.

His bloodshot eyes narrowed.

Then—

Lila’s shoulders began to shake.

Small at first.

Then harder.

A quiet giggle slipped between her lips.

Another followed.

Higher.

Sharper.

Her breathing became ragged.

The laughter dissolved into frantic muttering.

"No..."

She shook her head violently.

"No, no, no, don’t leave me—"

She pressed both palms against the sides of her head.

"They’re inside..."

Her voice rose another octave.

"They won’t stop talking..."

She rocked back and forth.

Faster.

Faster.

Her fingernails scraped against her own scalp.

"They’re hungry..."

The infected outside exchanged a glance.

"There she goes again," one muttered.

"Told you."

The other rolled his eyes.

"She’s getting worse."

Lila suddenly lunged toward the bars.

Both infected instinctively stepped back.

She slammed into the iron with enough force to make it ring.

Her pupils were blown wide.

The veins around her reddened eyes stood out beneath pale skin.

Her lips stretched into an unnaturally wide grin.

"They’re gonna eat you first."

She whispered it.

Softly.

Then burst into hysterical laughter.

The sound bounced off the concrete walls until even the infected outside looked uncomfortable.

One clicked his tongue.

"Crazy bitch."

He turned away from the cell.

"She ain’t escaping anywhere."

The other gave the cage one last glance before following him down the corridor.

Their footsteps gradually disappeared.

Lila remained pressed against the bars.

Laughing.

Laughing...

Until the sound of their boots could no longer be heard.

The instant the corridor fell silent...

The laughter stopped.

Completely.

Her breathing steadied.

The smile disappeared.

Without haste, she stepped away from the bars and looked toward the corner of the ceiling where the camera sat.

She stood perfectly still.

Counting.

One beat.

Two.

Three.

Her eyes drifted toward the corridor.

Then to the rust beginning to spread along the lower hinge of the cage door.

Then to the loose screw protruding just enough from the feeding slot.

Just enough.

Her gaze lingered for less than a second.

Then she smiled again.

This time, only for herself.

"...Soon."

The word was almost soundless.

Then, as footsteps echoed faintly somewhere beyond the corridor, she let her shoulders slump, her breathing hitch, and the vacant smile returned to her face as though it had never left.