Surviving the Apocalypse With My Yandere Ex-Girlfriend

Chapter 244: My only concern

I couldn’t breathe.

Not because of the cold.

Not because Lila was still pinning me into the snow.

Because my mind refused to accept what she’d just said.

I’m not afraid to break your arm.

The words echoed over and over again, refusing to leave.

Flash after flash ripped through my head.

The warehouse.

Her smile.

The videotape.

If she ever have to physically disable you to keep me alive, she would.

Except, it wasn’t to keep me alive.

It was to control my autonomy itself.

That’s all it was and all it had been...control.

Back then I never took it serious enough.

But no one could tell me I was supposed to put a bullet in her head so she wouldn’t harm me, because I was just that foolish.

Oh God, Lila.

My stomach twisted.

Slowly...

Painfully...

I realized she hadn’t been joking.

Not then.

Not now.

This was the woman I loved.

The woman who claimed she loved me.

This hadn’t been the first scenario where I genuinely felt scared rather than appreciated.

The realization settled over me like wet concrete.

It became harder to breathe.

Harder to think.

Harder to look at her.

Lila’s dirty-blonde hair shifted with the wind as she leaned over me, strands brushing lightly across my face.

Her expression softened.

The certainty from moments ago disappeared.

"Adrian..."

She reached toward my cheek.

"...look at me."

I couldn’t.

My eyes stayed fixed somewhere beyond her shoulder.

Somewhere far away.

Somewhere safer.

Warmth suddenly ran over my upper lip.

I frowned.

Then another drop.

Something splashed onto the snow beneath my face.

Red.

Blood.

It streamed slowly from my nose, thick enough to drip steadily between us.

Lila froze.

Her eyes widened.

"...No."

She stared at it.

Actually stared.

Confusion replaced everything else on her face.

Jennifer had fixed that.

Hadn’t she?

That was one of the first things she’d done.

She swallowed.

"...Adrian?"

I barely heard her.

The world had become strangely distant.

Gunshots echoed somewhere behind us.

Another explosion.

People screaming.

Baseline infected laughing.

The sounds drifted across the snow like they belonged to somebody else’s life.

The blood wouldn’t stop.

My vision blurred.

Not with tears.

Everything simply became...

Heavy.

Pressure built behind my eyes until it almost hurt to keep them open.

A metallic taste flooded the back of my throat.

I blinked once.

Twice.

The snow beneath me wasn’t white anymore.

Little crimson droplets scattered across it.

Lila reached for my face again.

This time...

There wasn’t any hesitation.

She slid one arm underneath my shoulders and pulled me upright.

My legs barely responded.

"Come on, sweetie..."

Her voice had become almost painfully gentle.

"We have to leave."

I didn’t answer.

I wasn’t sure I could.

She wrapped one of my arms around her shoulders and began guiding me forward.

One step.

Then another.

I followed because my body moved.

Not because I’d chosen to.

The compound burned behind us.

The walls that had once seemed impossible to breach had become silhouettes beneath smoke.

Gunfire continued somewhere inside.

The screams hadn’t stopped.

Neither had the laughter.

I didn’t look back.

Not because I didn’t want to.

Because I couldn’t.

Each step felt disconnected from the last.

Like somebody else had borrowed my body.

"...What..."

The word barely escaped me.

Lila glanced sideways.

"What is it?"

I frowned.

Tried lifting my own hand.

It responded a full second later.

Weakly.

"...What..."

Another step.

"...the fuck..."

The blood continued dripping from my nose.

"...is..."

My voice sounded foreign.

"...going on?"

—

Bill stared at the trench.

Nobody spoke.

The wind moved through the trees, carrying snow across the road.

For several seconds, the only sound was the engines idling.

Then Harry finally broke the silence.

"What the hell did that?"

Bill didn’t answer.

He stepped closer.

His boots sank slightly into the disturbed earth.

The trench wasn’t just deep.

It was violent.

Trees had been dragged aside.

Branches snapped and twisted into the snow.

Whatever made it hadn’t walked through here.

It had forced its way through.

Bill crouched.

Touched the exposed dirt.

Fresh.

His fingers came away dark.

Harry noticed his expression.

"You know something."

Bill looked up.

"No."

A pause.

"I know enough."

He stood.

"Everybody off the road."

That was when Aubrey noticed.

Something she hadn’t seen since they were captured.

Bill wasn’t watching them.

Nobody was.

Every weapon had shifted toward the forest.

Every pair of eyes was looking for whatever created the trench.

And for the first time in hours...

The ropes around her wrists didn’t feel like a death sentence.

They felt like a problem.

A problem she could solve.

She looked toward Cherie.

Cherie was already looking back.

No words.

They didn’t need them.

Hale noticed too.

Of course he did.

His eyes moved from Bill’s people.

To the forest.

Then back.

A silent calculation.

Aubrey whispered.

"Can you get free?"

Hale looked down at his restraints.

"No."

A beat.

"Not quietly."

Terri swallowed.

"So what, we just wait?"

Aubrey looked toward the trees.

The disturbed snow.

The fear on Bill’s face.

"No."

She lowered her voice.

"We run."

The first scream came from the forest.

Everyone turned.

A shape slammed through the trees.

Fast.

Too fast.

An infected stumbled onto the road.

Then another.

Then ten more.

Bill’s people immediately raised their weapons.

The first shots cracked through the air.

The sound echoed between the trees.

The infected fell.

Then more replaced them.

Bill cursed under his breath.

"Everyone back!"

The convoy erupted.

Drivers scrambled.

People shouted.

Weapons fired.

The neat order that had existed seconds ago collapsed instantly.

And Aubrey moved.

She threw herself sideways.

The rope around her wrists caught against the edge of the truck.

Pain shot through her arms.

She ignored it.

Again.

Again.

The fibers began tearing.

Terri stared.

"Aubrey—"

"Help me!"

Terri immediately grabbed the rope.

Cherie moved too.

Even Harry’s group noticed.

One of Bill’s men turned.

"Hey!"

Too late.

Aubrey ripped her hands free.

The skin around her wrists was torn raw.

She didn’t care.

She grabbed the closest weapon she could find.

A knife.

Not a gun.

Not enough time.

Just enough.

A gunshot rang out.

Everyone froze.

Harry had raised his weapon.

Not at Aubrey.

At an infected charging toward them.

The creature dropped.

Harry stared at the body.

Then at Aubrey.

A complicated expression crossed his face.

Hate.

Confusion.

Something else.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Aubrey didn’t answer.

She cut Cherie’s restraints.

Then Terri’s.

Hale was next.

The entire world was screaming around them.

The infected were getting closer.

Bill’s people were being overwhelmed.

And Aubrey realized something horrible.

The fat one wasn’t sending them randomly.

It wasn’t throwing infected blindly.

It was pushing them.

Toward the humans.

Toward the trucks.

Toward the exact place where everyone was trapped.

Like it understood.

Like it knew.

Then the thing appeared.

The fat infected stepped out beyond the horde.

Dragging the stop sign behind it.

Watching.

Aubrey froze.

Bill saw it too.

And for the first time...

They both had the same thought.

This wasn’t a normal infected.

Bill raised his rifle.

"Everybody move!"

Aubrey looked at him.

For one second, they were on the same side.

Not allies.

Not friends.

Just two survivors who understood the same thing.

Stay here.

Die.

Aubrey grabbed Terri.

"GO!"

The two groups split.

Bill’s people fought toward their vehicles.

Aubrey’s group ran the opposite direction.

Freedom was right there.

Almost.

Then—

The fat infected picked up something from the snow.

A body.

One of Bill’s men.

And smiled.

Aubrey watched in horror as it turned.

And threw him.

Straight toward them.

The impact knocked everyone off balance.

The world became screaming, blood, snow, and gunfire.

And in the middle of it...

Aubrey realized something.

They hadn’t escaped.

Not yet.

They had only changed the way they were going to die.

—

The compound had never been quiet.

Not truly.

Even during the worst nights, there had always been something.

Footsteps.

Voices.

The dragging of bodies.

The hum of generators.

The constant movement of something alive.

But now...

There was only fire.

Smoke curled into the gray sky, mixing with the snowfall until everything looked like a painting left unfinished.

The gates were broken.

The walls that had once represented safety were nothing more than twisted metal and shattered concrete.

The infected wandered through the remains of what was supposed to be a sanctuary.

Some limped.

Some crawled.

Some simply stood there.

Lost.

Confused.

Waiting.

And watching from a distance...

Miriam stood.

Still.

Unmoving.

The people around her expected something.

Anger.

Grief.

Fear.

Anything.

But she gave them nothing.

Her eyes moved across the destruction slowly.

A fallen watchtower.

A destroyed medical station.

The remains of the room where conversions had taken place.

The place where she had promised people salvation.

A younger intelligent infected approached carefully.

"Miriam..."

She didn’t respond.

The infected swallowed.

"The eastern wall is gone."

Silence.

"The baseline are inside."

Still nothing.

"We lost almost half the compound."

That finally made her look over.

Not angry.

Just disappointed.

"Lost?"

The infected hesitated.

Miriam tilted her head slightly.

"Is that what you believe happened?"

The infected didn’t answer.

Miriam looked back toward the burning compound.

"No."

Her voice was quiet.

"We failed."

The infected frowned.

"Failed?"

"Yes."

She walked forward slowly.

Snow crunching beneath her boots.

"We created a place where the lost could be protected."

Her eyes moved toward a baseline infected stumbling through the wreckage.

"We promised them they would not be abandoned."

A pause.

"And then when they needed us most..."

She looked at the broken gates.

"...we abandoned them."

The infected beside her looked uncomfortable.

Because that was the strange thing about Miriam.

Even now.

Even after everything.

She wasn’t blaming the infected.

She wasn’t blaming Adrian.

She wasn’t blaming the people who attacked.

She was blaming herself.

A gunshot echoed.

Several intelligent infected immediately turned.

Weapons raised.

Miriam didn’t move.

"Don’t."

The infected lowered their weapons.

A baseline infected had wandered too close.

It was injured.

Confused.

Bleeding.

One of Miriam’s soldiers stared.

"We should put it down."

Miriam looked at him.

"No."

"But Miriam—"

"No."

Her voice was firmer this time.

The infected stopped.

"Every time humanity becomes afraid, it chooses destruction."

She looked around.

"That cannot be us."

The soldier looked around at the bodies.

The destroyed walls.

The burning buildings.

"With respect..."

He swallowed.

"It doesn’t look like we’re winning."

For a moment...

Nobody spoke.

Then Miriam smiled slightly.

Not because she was amused.

Because she understood.

"Winning?"

She repeated.

"We were never fighting for victory."

She turned.

"We were fighting for proof."

A wounded intelligent infected approached.

"Miriam."

She looked at him.

"We found signs."

Her expression changed slightly.

"Of what?"

The infected hesitated.

"Adrian."

The entire area seemed to freeze.

"His blood was found near the northern exit."

Miriam stared.

"Alive?"

"We don’t know."

A pause.

"But there was a trail."

Miriam looked toward the destroyed compound.

Then toward the snow-covered wilderness beyond.

For the first time...

Something almost human crossed her face.

Concern.

Not for the compound.

Not for herself.

For the experiment walking away from her.

The one thing that could prove she was right.

Or prove she was wrong.

Then she turned.

"Prepare a search party."

The infected around her exchanged looks.

"Miriam..."

One stepped forward.

"We just lost the compound."

She looked at him.

Calmly.

"We lost walls."

A pause.

"We did not lose the future."

Nobody argued.

Because they knew that tone.

The same tone she had when she first built this place.

The same certainty.

The same terrifying conviction.

She looked out into the snow.

Somewhere out there...

Adrian was moving.

And somewhere out there...

Lila was with him.

"Find them."

Her voice carried through the ruined compound.

"Bring Adrian back."

A beat.

"And bring Lila back."

The infected nodded.

Then Miriam added:

"Alive."

The search party began gathering.

Not a revenge mission.

Not a massacre.

Something worse.

A rescue.

Because Miriam truly believed she was saving them.