The basement held only the steady beeping of the monitor.
Leon stood in the corner shadows, watching Lee Mi-ju swap out Rick’s IV bag with practiced ease , movements quiet, precise, no wasted motion.
She worked without a word.
He appreciated that.
Shane fished his cigarette pack from his pocket, shook one loose and held it out to Leon, then lit his own and pulled a long drag.
“What else did that master of yours…
say?”
Leon looked at him steadily.
“Do you trust me, Shane?”
“Do I have any other fucking choice?” Shane laughed at himself, smoke curling from his nostrils.
“I put my brother, my money, Lori’s house — everything — on you.”
“Good.” Leon took the cigarette and lit it.
“The master said there’s a strange sickness going around.”
“Sickness?”
“Think of it as a new kind of flu.” Leon leaned back against the wall, his voice dropping.
“High fever, dehydration.
But that’s not the bad part.”
He paused, watching Shane’s face.
“People who catch it become…
extremely aggressive.
They lose their minds completely.
Like something in them just breaks.”
“He treated a few of them himself.
Said what he saw in those patients couldn’t be called human anymore.”
“And it spreads easily.
Bodily fluids.
Bites, especially.”
Shane’s hand stopped halfway to his mouth.
His expression moved from confusion to something close to disbelief.
“Bites?
Leon, are you telling me a ghost story?
Did he mention vampires and werewolves too?”
“I said you don’t have to believe it.”
Leon’s tone didn’t change.
“But those were his words.
He said in forty years of medicine, he’s never seen anything like it.
Even he couldn’t do anything.”
“When a man who brought a vegetative patient back to life tells you he’s helpless , I’d suggest you take that seriously.”
The doubt on Shane’s face didn’t disappear.
It hardened.
Yeah.
A man who performs miracles.
His warning wasn’t nothing.
“He thinks it’ll spread?” Shane’s voice came out quieter.
“Widespread?”
“It already has.
The news just hasn’t covered it yet.
Or rather, doesn’t dare to.”
Leon looked toward the small window.
His tone went somewhere distant.
“Once it hits critical mass, cities go first.
Dense population, gridlocked roads.
When order breaks, it breaks fast.
You’d be looking at hell.”
Shane went quiet.
He’d handled riots.
Looting, arson, running gunfights , and half the time the spark was something stupid.
A limited-edition sneaker.
A parking spot.
He’d seen what people did when they stopped being afraid of consequences.
If there was a plague that stripped away everything else first…
He cut the thought off.
“What are you getting at?”
“Lori and Carl.”
Leon said it plainly.
Straight to the softest part.
“Where are they living now?”
“An apartment.
In the city.”
“Get them into the town near the prison.
Rent something small, get them settled.
Fewer people, less noise.
If anything happens, they’re a hundred times safer than the city.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Shane stared at him.
“How am I supposed to explain that?
Lori’s got a job.
Carl’s in school.
She’ll think I’ve lost it completely.”
“Then let her think that.” Leon’s voice hardened.
“The world you call normal is about to come apart.”
“Shane.
You cannot afford to be wrong about this.
What are you putting on the table , their lives?
Lori’s?
Carl’s?”
“If I’m wrong, you lose a few months’ rent.
People call you paranoid.
That’s it.”
“But if that old man is right?”
He stepped in close.
“The streets fill up with people who bite.
Your neighbor stabs you over half a loaf of bread.
Are you going to stand there holding onto your principles and try to reason with him?”
Shane backed up without realizing it.
His shoulders hit the doorframe.
Because the picture was real.
He could see it.
Fifteen years on the street had shown him exactly how thin the line was , between civilization and something much uglier.
How little it took to cross it.
“I…” He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Leon’s voice eased.
“Do it for Rick.”
“I’m near the prison too.
If Lori and Carl are close by and something goes wrong — if something happens to you , I can be there fast.”
That landed.
For Rick.
It was all for Rick.
“Okay.” Shane exhaled slowly.
“I’ll talk to her.”
He leaned against the wall, working through the words in his head , then stopped.
“No.
I can’t.” He looked up.
“I have to report this, Leon.
That’s my job.
If this disease is real, I need to call it in.
The department.
The CDC.
People need to be warned.”
Leon looked at him.
No mockery.
Just a quiet, settled calm that had already seen the end of this conversation.
“And then?”
“What?”
“You report it.
And then what?” Leon pressed.
“How do you think they treat you?
A deputy who’s been a wreck since his partner got shot, now walking in with doomsday stories about people biting each other?”
“They won’t believe you, Shane.
They’ll put you on leave and hand you a therapist’s number.”
“But if they did, ”
“There’s no if.” Leon cut him off.
He moved forward until they were close , close enough that Shane could see his own face reflected in Leon’s eyes.
“Say they believe every word.
Say it goes public tomorrow.
You think people line up quietly for relief packages?”
“No.” His voice dropped low.
They beat each other bloody over half a case of water.
Every gas station in the state has lines going for miles until the last drop is gone.”
“That shopping list I gave you.
The hundred thousand dollars you paid me.
Gone.
Worthless.
You could have bought a truck full of supplies , by then you might not get a single box.”
“Everything I’ve put together, everything we’ve quietly built , gone overnight.”
Just the image of it made Shane’s skin go cold.
He’d seen Black Friday.
He’d worked the aftermath of hurricanes, watched supermarkets get gutted in hours.
He knew what panic looked like.
He knew exactly how much civilization weighed when people got scared enough.
Nothing.
It weighed nothing.
“You’re telling me to keep this from everyone.” The words came out rough.
“Just…
let them walk blind into it.”
“It’s the best outcome.”
Leon’s tone softened, but what he said next cut deeper.
“Shane, think about who gets there first when news breaks.
The people in those big houses who make one call and have groceries delivered to their door.
The politicians who can redirect resources before the public even knows what’s happening.” He let that sit for a moment.
“And Lori?
A single mother with a kid?
Who’s she going to outfight for the last can on the shelf?”
“Is that fair to her?”
Shane said nothing.
“Right now, nobody knows.
Everyone’s still asleep.
A loaf of bread costs a dollar.
A gallon of gas costs three.
Nobody has an advantage over anyone else.” Leon’s voice was almost quiet now.
“We have a window.
A small one.
And in that window, we can build something , for Rick, for Lori, for Carl.
At minimal cost.
A real shot at getting through this.”
“We’re buying them the right to survive, Shane.”
“When the flood comes , and it’s coming , when the streets are full of the infected and your neighbors are willing to kill for a meal, what are you going to tell Lori?” His voice went flat.
“That you had a chance to save her?
And you let it go because of a duty to a system that won’t exist anymore?”
Shane stopped moving.
He slid down the wall slowly and sat on the floor, face pressed into both hands.
Leon was right.
He’d always known he wasn’t a saint.
He’d never pretended to be.
He was a cop because he wanted to protect people , specific people, his people.
If keeping the secret was the price of keeping them alive, then fine.
He’d be the selfish bastard.
He could live with that.
Leon gave a quiet nod.
He’d chosen his words carefully for Shane.
He would never have used them on Rick.
Rick was built differently.
Too much of him lived in principle.
Though , if Rick hadn’t been shot, if he’d been the one evacuating with Shane these past weeks, grinding through the end of the world day by day…
the transformation would have come faster than anyone expected.
After a long moment, Shane looked up.
The conflict in his eyes was gone.
“I got it.” His voice was steadier now.
“This stays between us.
I’ll make sure of it.”
“Good.”
Leon nodded once.
“I’ll get Lori and Carl moved over as soon as I can.
And I’ll push things along on the supplies.”
Shane pushed himself up off the floor.
When he straightened, the efficient, capable deputy was back , like he’d never been anywhere else.
➤ Next: The Police Station’s Armory