Chapter 1

"Please! I’m begging you!"

The man’s voice cracked, raw with desperation. He was on his knees in the dust, his clothes reduced to rags. Beside him, a boy no older than seven mimicked his posture, eyes rimmed red with terror.

"My camp is only a few miles out," the man sobbed, clutching at the hem of my pants but daring not to touch my boots. "We have elderly people, children... without a detonator, the blast doors won't open. When the radiation storm hits tonight, they’ll all melt. Please!"

The boy looked up, trembling. "Please, Miss... I have to save my mom. I’m the only man left to protect her."

Before I could even part my lips, a soft, trembling voice cut through the dry air.

"Vesper... we have to help them."

I froze. That voice.

Sienna Frost. My "best friend."

Tears were already pooling in Sienna’s doe-like eyes, shimmering perfectly to catch the light. She looked at the beggars with heartbreaking pity. "They say a man only kneels when he has nothing left. He’s throwing away his dignity for his family. Besides... we have two detonators, right? Surely one is enough?"

She turned to the rest of our squad, her voice quivering with righteous morality. "Why don’t we give him one? It’s the apocalypse, guys. If we lose our humanity now, are we any better than the zombies?"

Murmurs rippled through the team.

"Sienna’s right..."

"Maybe we can spare one. Even a small crack in the tunnel is better than nothing."

Humanity.

That word triggered a phantom pain in my left arm so sharp I almost gasped.

In my past life, Sienna had used these exact words to corner me. She had used the pressure of the group to force my hand. When I wasn't looking, she handed the detonator over.

The result? The tunnel didn't blow fully open. Our armored vehicles were stuck. The storm came.

I remembered the smell of burning flesh. I remembered charging into a zombie nest alone to find a backup. I remembered the teeth sinking into my arm.

I remembered hacking off half my own left arm with a rusty machete to stop the infection, screaming silently so I wouldn't attract more of them.

And when I staggered back, blood-soaked and dying, what did Sienna say?

"Vesper, you're covered in blood. It's scary. Couldn't you have cleaned up before coming back?"

Rage, cold and sharp as a blade, sliced through my memories.

Not this time.

I stared at Sienna’s sanctimonious, tear-streaked face. The corners of my lips curled into a chilling sneer.

"Lending a hand is kindness, Sienna. Suicide is stupidity."

My voice was calm, but it carried an authority that silenced the murmurs instantly.

"This tunnel was built to withstand nuclear blasts," I stated, my gaze sweeping over the team. "It requires two specific detonators to trigger the hydraulic release. Use only one, and all you get is a hairline crack. The twenty-three of us will be trapped outside, melting into puddles of radioactive sludge when the storm hits."

Sienna blinked, her mouth opening slightly. "But... maybe if we squeeze—"

"Squeeze?" I cut her off brutally. "Even if people squeeze through, the vehicles won't. That means a two-hundred-mile trek across the Dead Zone on foot. Tell me, Sienna, what moves faster—your delicate legs, or a radiation storm moving at eighty miles an hour?"

Sienna’s face paled. She opened her mouth to argue, but I didn't give her the chance.

I turned my gaze to the begging man. "If you want to save your people, I won't stop you."

I raised a finger and pointed East.

"Two miles that way. The abandoned subway station. There are backup emergency detonators inside the maintenance room."

I looked back at Sienna, my eyes gleaming with a predatory light. "Since you are so eager to be the savior, why don't you go get one for him? It’s only a few hundred zombies in there. You’re so kind-hearted and gentle... surely the monsters wouldn't have the heart to bite you, right?"

The color drained from Sienna’s face instantly. She stumbled back a step, her facade cracking. "I... I can't go. Vesper, are you crazy? I'm just a livestreamer! I've never had combat training!"

"Then why were you so quick to give away our only lifeline?" I stepped closer to her, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Were you planning to send me to clean up your mess again? Or were you planning to send one of them to their deaths?"

I gestured to our teammates. The sympathy they held for her evaporated instantly. They recalled the last time we passed that subway station—five people dragged into the dark, screaming.

The begging man looked between me and Sienna. He realized I was a stone wall. I wouldn't budge.

But Sienna? She was the weak link.

Desperation twisted the man’s face into something feral. He suddenly lunged forward, bypassing me entirely, and clamped his dirty hand around Sienna’s wrist.

"Miss! You said we have to help each other!" he screamed, his eyes manic. "You're the only one with a heart! Come with me! Help me get the detonator from the station!"