Surviving the Apocalypse With My Yandere Ex-Girlfriend

Chapter 245: The wrong kind of laugh

The trench ended beneath the front tires.

The convoy stopped.

Nobody spoke.

Snow drifted lazily across the road, slowly filling the enormous groove carved through the earth.

It was far too wide to belong to a vehicle.

Far too deep to have been made by people.

Bill climbed out first.

His boots crunched into the snow.

For several seconds, he simply stared at the trench.

Harry joined him.

"So?"

Bill crouched.

Ran two fingers along the frozen dirt beneath the snow.

Fresh.

Very fresh.

Whatever made it...

It had crossed only minutes ago.

He stood again.

"...I don’t like it."

Harry looked toward the tree line.

"You don’t like anything."

Bill ignored him.

Behind them, Aubrey shifted against the ropes binding her wrists.

She watched the two men carefully.

For the first time since she’d been captured...

Neither of them looked confident.

That meant something.

Terri leaned closer beside her.

"What’re they looking at?"

"I don’t know."

Naomi sat bound in another truck a few yards away.

She was looking at the tires.

Then the ditch.

Then the forest.

Calculating.

Always calculating.

Hale saw it too.

His eyes met hers for only a second.

No words.

None were needed.

If something happened...

Run.

Bill finally straightened.

"We’ll go around."

One of his men frowned.

"Around where?"

Bill pointed toward the trees.

"We ain’t driving over that."

The man nodded reluctantly.

Two people climbed down to clear a path.

Axes bit into frozen branches.

Wood cracked.

The noise echoed farther than anyone liked.

Harry looked over his shoulder.

"...Little loud, ain’t it?"

Nobody answered.

Terri flinched.

"Did you hear that?"

Cherie raised her head.

"Hear what?"

"I..."

Terri swallowed.

"I thought..."

Silence.

Wind.

Nothing else.

"...Never mind."

But it wasn’t nothing.

Saul heard it too.

A low...

Wet...

Breathing.

Like someone laughing through clogged lungs.

He slowly turned toward the forest.

Nothing.

Just trees.

Snow.

Darkness.

Bill lit another cigarette.

"You people got lucky."

Nobody answered him.

He blew smoke toward Aubrey.

"Real lucky."

Aubrey stared back.

"If I’d known what kinda circus was waiting out here..."

He shrugged.

"I would’ve left you tied to the damn road."

She didn’t blink.

"You still can."

Bill chuckled.

"Nah."

He looked toward Harry.

"I still wanna know what happened to boy wonder."

Harry didn’t answer.

His eyes never left the trees.

Then—

A branch snapped.

Everyone froze.

One of Bill’s men turned.

"Who’s there?"

Nothing.

He relaxed slightly.

Probably a deer.

He took one step toward the sound.

The trees exploded.

An infected burst out so fast it barely looked human.

Its shoulder slammed into him.

Both disappeared into the snow.

He screamed once.

Only once.

Blood sprayed across the white ground.

"CONTACT!"

Harry’s rifle barked.

The infected’s skull burst apart.

Too late.

The man underneath it wasn’t moving.

Then another infected came.

Then another.

Then six more.

They weren’t charging in a straight line.

They came from different angles.

Vaulting fallen logs.

Sliding down small embankments.

Laughing.

Always laughing.

Bill dropped his cigarette.

"FORM A FUCKING LINE!"

His people reacted instantly.

Rifles came up.

Gunfire erupted.

One infected spun backward.

Another kept running despite half its face disappearing.

A third tackled one of Bill’s men into the snow, biting chunks from his cheek while laughing hysterically.

Aubrey’s heart slammed against her ribs.

Now.

Now.

She twisted violently against the ropes.

Nothing.

Beside her, Terri was already crying.

"I can’t—"

"You can."

Hale’s voice cut across the chaos.

"Terri."

She looked at him.

His expression never changed.

"When this goes bad..."

He pulled against his own restraints.

"...you run."

"But—"

"You."

He looked directly into her eyes.

"Run."

Something in his voice made her stop crying.

Not because she wasn’t scared.

Because she believed him.

Gunfire intensified.

Bill was shouting orders.

Harry was reloading.

Someone screamed for ammunition.

Someone else screamed for help.

Then—

A massive shadow moved between the trees.

Nobody fired.

Nobody breathed.

The forest itself seemed to shift.

Heavy footsteps.

Slow.

Patient.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Something impossibly large was walking toward the road.

And every infected around them...

Stopped fighting.

They all turned.

Smiling.

Waiting.

Like children expecting someone important to arrive.

—

The tree hit the ground with a crack that shook the forest.

The sound was enormous.

For a moment, it drowned everything else.

The screaming.

The gunfire.

The laughter.

Everything.

Snow erupted into the air like smoke from an explosion, swallowing the road and the surrounding trees in a white cloud.

Frozen branches snapped and scattered in every direction.

Aubrey instinctively raised an arm over her face.

It wasn’t enough.

Splinters tore across her cheek.

Tiny cuts.

Nothing serious.

But she barely noticed.

Not compared to the fact that the path in front of them had just disappeared.

The fallen trunk stretched across the entire trail.

A massive wall of frozen wood.

Its roots had ripped free from the earth, exposing dark soil beneath the snow. Smaller trees had been dragged down with it, their branches twisted together like tangled fingers.

There was no squeezing through.

No climbing around.

No running past.

The forest itself had closed.

Terri stared at it.

Her lips parted.

No sound came out at first.

Then—

"...No."

It was barely a whisper.

Aubrey looked at her.

Terri wasn’t looking at the tree anymore.

She was looking past it.

At everything behind them.

At the thing they had been running from.

Her chest began rising and falling faster.

"There has to be another way."

Nobody answered.

Terri looked around desperately.

"There has to be."

She turned toward Hale.

"Right?"

Hale didn’t answer immediately.

That was the answer.

His eyes were already moving.

Left.

Dense trees.

Too much snow.

Too many places for something to hide.

Right.

A steep decline covered in ice.

Almost impossible to move through quickly.

Behind them.

The sound of the horde.

Growing.

Closer.

Hale’s jaw tightened.

"There isn’t."

Terri looked at him.

Like she hated him for saying it.

Like she wanted him to lie.

But Hale never did that.

Not anymore.

Not after everything.

"You’re sure?"

Hale swallowed.

"I’m sure."

The laughter behind them grew louder.

Not because the infected were simply approaching.

Because they were enjoying it.

That was the part that made Aubrey’s stomach turn.

A normal infected attack was terrifying.

A normal infected chased because it was hungry.

Because it was instinct.

But this?

This was different.

This was anticipation.

The laughter came from everywhere.

One voice behind them.

Another far to the left.

Another somewhere deep in the trees.

Some were high-pitched.

Almost childish.

Others were deep and guttural.

Some sounded like they were choking.

Some sounded like they were crying.

Hundreds of voices.

All laughing.

The forest didn’t sound alive anymore.

It sounded possessed.

Like something had infected the land itself.

Aubrey’s breathing became shallow.

Her grip tightened around the knife in her hand.

Her fingers were already numb.

She hadn’t even noticed.

"We climb."

Nobody responded.

For a second, everyone just looked at her.

Cherie was the first.

"What?"

Aubrey pointed toward the fallen tree.

"We climb over it."

Cherie stared at the trunk.

Then back at the approaching sound.

"That’s your plan?"

"It’s better than standing here."

Hale looked at the tree.

His expression immediately told her he hated it.

"They’ll catch us halfway."

Aubrey looked at him.

"They’ll catch us here too."

Silence.

Nobody had a better answer.

Because she was right.

Hale exhaled through his nose.

Not agreement.

Acceptance.

Naomi was already moving.

She adjusted the rifle strap across her shoulder.

"I’m going first."

Terri blinked.

"Naomi—"

"If it breaks, I need to know before everyone else is halfway up."

She didn’t wait.

She planted one boot against the trunk.

The bark was slick with ice.

Her glove pressed against it.

Slid.

She cursed quietly.

Not loudly.

Not dramatically.

Just a frustrated breath through her teeth.

She tried again.

This time she found a branch.

Pulled herself upward.

The wood groaned beneath her weight.

Aubrey watched her carefully.

Naomi never moved quickly.

She moved correctly.

Every step had purpose.

Every decision had a reason.

Even now.

Especially now.

"Come on."

Hale grabbed Terri’s arm.

"Your turn."

Terri looked at the trunk.

Then behind them.

The laughter was almost deafening now.

Her eyes watered.

"I can’t."

Nobody said anything.

Because everyone knew she didn’t mean physically.

She meant mentally.

She had reached the point where her body wanted to stop.

Where fear was heavier than exhaustion.

Cherie stepped beside her.

"Yes, you can."

Terri looked at her.

"I can’t."

Cherie’s expression softened slightly.

Only slightly.

"You can."

A pause.

"Because if you don’t, they’re going to eat you."

Terri stared.

"...That was supposed to make me feel better?"

"No."

Cherie looked behind them.

"It was supposed to make you move."

Terri swallowed.

Then climbed.

She almost made it.

Almost.

Her hands reached the top.

Her fingers wrapped around a thick branch.

She pulled herself upward.

Then—

Something grabbed her ankle.

The scream that left her wasn’t controlled.

It wasn’t brave.

It wasn’t the scream of someone fighting.

It was the scream of someone who suddenly realized death had grabbed them.

Terri looked down.

An infected hand wrapped around her boot.

The creature was wedged beneath the branches.

Its body crushed awkwardly between the fallen tree and the snow.

It shouldn’t have been able to reach her.

But it had.

Its fingers tightened.

Its face lifted.

And it smiled.

Not wildly.

Not angrily.

Just happily.

Terri kicked.

"LET GO!"

The infected laughed.

The sound was wet.

Broken.

Wrong.

It pulled.

Terri slipped backward.

Her fingers scraped against the bark.

"HELP!"

Cherie was already moving.

She dropped into the snow.

Slid beneath the branches.

Her coat caught.

The wood tore at the fabric.

She ignored it.

The infected turned toward her.

Still smiling.

Cherie stabbed.

Once.

The blade cut through the wrist.

The hand fell away.

Terri collapsed onto the trunk, gasping.

The infected stared at its missing hand.

For a moment...

It looked confused.

Almost curious.

Then it looked back at Cherie.

Still laughing.

Like it couldn’t understand why everyone else wasn’t having fun.

Cherie’s face hardened.

She drove the knife through its eye.

The laughter stopped.

"Move."

Terri didn’t argue.

She crawled over the tree.

Gunfire erupted behind them.

Not random.

Controlled.

Bill’s people.

Harry had found a position beside one of the trucks.

He stood behind the metal frame, using it as cover.

His rifle moved calmly.

One shot.

One infected dropped.

Another.

Another.

No wasted bullets.

No panic.

No shouting.

The world could be collapsing around him.

Harry still looked like Harry.

Until—

Click.

The rifle went silent.

His eyes lowered.

Empty.

For the first time...

A crack appeared.

Not fear.

Annoyance.

He reached for another magazine.

His hand stopped.

Nothing.

Only one left.

Jackson slid beside him.

"They’re everywhere!"

Harry inserted the magazine.

"I noticed."

"They’re getting around the trucks!"

"I noticed."

Jackson stared at him.

"You notice a whole lot."

Harry looked at him.

"But you don’t panic."

An infected launched itself around the truck.

Harry fired.

The muzzle flash lit his face.

The infected dropped.

Its blood sprayed across him.

It laughed until the last second.

Harry stared down at it.

Then slowly looked toward the forest.

Toward where Aubrey disappeared.

His jaw tightened.

"...Lucky bitch."

Bill wasn’t watching the prisoners anymore.

He wasn’t watching the trucks.

He wasn’t watching the infected.

He was watching the thing responsible.

The fat infected stood in the middle of the road.

Still.

Silent.

One massive hand rested against the stop sign.

Like it was holding a cane.

Like it was an old man watching a performance.

Its pink eyes moved.

Following everything.

Every shot.

Every person.

Every escape attempt.

It wasn’t rushing.

It wasn’t charging.

It was waiting.

And Bill hated that.

Because waiting required patience.

Patience required thought.

Creatures didn’t wait.

Animals didn’t watch.

They reacted.

This thing was choosing.

Bill slowly raised his rifle.

"...You ugly bastard."

The infected tilted its head.

Almost confused.

Almost offended.

Then—

Its mouth slowly opened.

And it smiled wider.

Aubrey dropped into the snow on the other side of the tree.

Her knees nearly gave out.

"Keep moving!"

Hale landed beside her.

Naomi was already ahead.

Scanning.

Choosing.

Planning.

Terri stumbled after them.

She wasn’t crying anymore.

Not because she was okay.

Because her body had run out of room for fear.

The forest swallowed them.

Pine trees surrounded them.

Branches scraped against their faces.

Snow dragged against their boots.

The world became smaller.

Quieter.

The gunfire disappeared.

Bill disappeared.

The trucks disappeared.

For the first time since the escape began...

They were alone.

Then Aubrey heard it.

Crunch.

She stopped.

Another.

Crunch.

Her blood ran cold.

Not behind them.

Beside them.

She slowly turned.

"Hale."

He looked over.

He heard it too.

His expression changed.

"They’re not following."

Aubrey frowned.

"What?"

Hale listened.

Another step.

Another.

Slow.

Controlled.

"No."

His voice dropped.

"They’re not chasing us."

The group went silent.

Naomi slowly lowered her rifle.

Another crunch.

Left.

Another.

Right.

Not running.

Walking.

Matching them.

Keeping pace.

Cherie stared into the trees.

"They’re surrounding us."

Nobody answered.

Because they all knew.

The infected weren’t trying to catch them.

They were guiding them.

Naomi suddenly stopped.

"There."

She pointed.

Between two trees.

A figure stood there.

Watching.

Then it disappeared.

Another silhouette appeared farther away.

Then another.

Never close enough to attack.

Never far enough to escape.

Aubrey felt the cold settle deeper than the snow.

"They’re driving us somewhere."

The words barely left her mouth.

Nobody disagreed.

Because every person there had reached the same conclusion.

The worst part wasn’t that the infected were smarter.

The worst part...

Was that they had been smart enough to let them run.