AVERY’S POV
My heart was racing and I kept my voice low enough that only Joel could hear me.
“Drop it.”
His brows pulled together.
“Avery—”
“I mean it.” I glanced past him toward the others.
Declan had already folded the map and was handing it back to Derek.
Hannah was tightening Nadia’s backpack because she’d somehow managed to tangle both straps together.
Nobody was paying attention to us.
Good.
“You don’t bring that up again unless you have something more than a theory.” I warned.
Joel hesitated, then leaned closer.
“You don’t think it’s possible?”
“I think we’ve been surviving for so long and we’ve already got enough reasons to lose our minds.”
“That wasn’t an answer.” He buried his face in his hands.
“No.” I shifted my backpack higher on my shoulder and stepped around him.
“It wasn’t.”
Joel lifted both hands in surrender.
“Fine. Forget I said anything.”
“I plan to.”
But that was the problem.
I couldn’t.
His words had planted themselves somewhere deep enough that I couldn’t simply ignore them.
They kept circling back no matter how many times I tried to dismiss them as paranoia.
What if it was looking for one of us?
It sounded absurd and it also explained too much.
The scanner Rig hadn’t behaved like something hunting randomly.
It had ignored easier movement.
It had kept sweeping until it’d found us again.
At the time I’d convinced myself it was coincidence because that was the only comforting answer.
Joel had taken that comfort away with one sentence and I hated him a little for it.
By the time we started moving again, I’d already decided not to tell the others.
If Joel was wrong, all I’d accomplish was making everyone suspicious of each other.
We’d fracture faster than any monster could manage.
If he was right…
Well— I didn’t know which outcome scared me more.
The damage we’d walked through earlier looked old now, almost settled.
These buildings were different.
Fires still burned inside shattered offices, orange light flickering through blown-out windows while thick columns of smoke climbed lazily into the grey sky.
The smell hit long before we reached the intersection— burnt concrete, melted plastic.
A bus had crashed sideways into a pharmacy, both vehicles blackened until they were barely recognisable, and shell casings glittered across the road where somebody had obviously made a stand that hadn’t lasted.
We detoured around our first blocked street after spotting movement between the wrecked cars.
I never got close enough to tell whether it was Fractured or survivors.
I didn’t particularly care.
We doubled back through an alley instead, climbed over a collapsed garden wall and came out three streets over.
Twenty minutes later we had to change course again after spotting another scanner Rig in the distance.
Oh, they were back up.
It had been a while since we had seen one.
It was barely more than a silhouette against the haze, towering over rooftops with impossible height, moving in slow deliberate arcs.
Every few seconds its head— or whatever passed for one— rotated before another pale blue beam swept across entire blocks.
Nobody needed me to tell them to get down when we saw it, we all froze instinctively.
Even from this distance I could hear it.
A low mechanical hum rolled through the city like distant thunder.
I watched it complete another sweep before disappearing behind a cluster of high-rises.
Was it looking for someone?
I clenched my jaw.
Stop it.
Joel’s theory was infecting every observation I made.
But I also found myself paying more attention to the people around me.
I caught myself watching Derek for longer than I meant to.
He was walking near the back with Hannah and Nadia, his shoulders slumped beneath the weight of his backpack.
Every now and then he’d glance over his shoulder before looking away again.
Last night he’d killed someone.
And the look in his eyes.
That was a lot.
Did it mean anything?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Joel had ruined the idea of “maybe not.”
A few minutes later I realised I was doing the same thing to Declan and that irritated me even more. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Mostly because I genuinely didn’t know him.
Everyone else had history now but he was still a walking mystery.
He noticed things constantly, just like me, which would’ve been less annoying if he wasn’t good at it.
By late afternoon the streets narrowed enough that only two of us could comfortably walk abreast.
Before I could tell everyone how we were moving through, Declan stepped past me.
“I’ll take point.”
Not ‘can i’, nor ‘should I’, Just telling me like he knew I wouldn’t argue.
And fuck, he was right.
I couldn’t argue.
Instead I watched him scan the street ahead once before moving forward.
Damn it.
He was better at it.
I fell in behind him without thinking.
A few minutes later I realised I’d started matching his rhythm and I frowned at myself.
When had I started doing that?
Declan glanced back once, catching me watching him.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I grunted.
“Eyes forward.”
Declan muttered something akin to a curse under his breath and kept walking, then slowed so abruptly that I nearly walked into him and his fist rose without a word, signalling for everyone to stop.
The group froze behind us and I followed his line of sight.
Someone lay in the middle of the road.
Bodies were nothing new by now, but this one made my breath catch.
Military.
And fresh enough that the blood hadn’t dried.
The uniform was filthy, torn open across the chest, but the shoulder patch was still intact.
HAVEN.
Nobody moved for a second and Declan approached first, cautiously, knife firmly in his hand, while I covered the opposite side.
The others remained where they were.
Then I saw it — the piece of paper.
It had been pinned neatly to the soldier’s chest with a combat knife.
My stomach tightened and I stepped closer until the handwriting came into focus.
HAVEN knows you’re coming.
Turn back.