[Best – Military Camp Quarters – 2:47 p.m.]
The announcement hadn't even faded when the first scream ripped through the camp.
Not distant.
Not muffled.
Right outside.
I was already moving before the echo died.
My heart slammed hard enough to hurt. Jack's metal shard slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a dull clang. Emily flinched back into the canvas wall like she could disappear into it. FahFah's whip uncoiled with a quiet, lethal hiss—her limp forgotten.
Namtan stayed frozen for half a second longer.
Then she pushed herself up, like the motion physically hurt.
Outside, everything broke.
Shouts overlapped—sharp, urgent, panicked. Gunfire cracked in short, violent bursts. And underneath it—
That sound.
Low.
Wet.
Hungry.
Too many of them.
"Lock it down!" a soldier shouted.
Another voice cut through, strained and rising. "They're inside the wire—Locusts on the east side!"
My stomach dropped.
Locusts.
I could still see them—twisted bodies, crawling wrong, fingers bending in ways they shouldn't. Fast. Climbing anything. Hunting like animals that enjoyed it.
I looked at the others.
Five of us.
Still breathing.
Still here.
Barely.
"We're not staying here," I said.
Namtan snapped toward me. "Are you serious? The Major said stay in quarters. Lockdown means lockdown."
Her voice was tight. Controlled.
Fear, wrapped in anger.
"Orders got Kao killed," I shot back.
The words came out harder than I meant—but I didn't take them back.
"Win and Palm are still out there. Somewhere. If they're alive—"
"If," Jack cut in, already moving toward the flap. His voice was rough but steady. "That's a big if."
He glanced at me.
"But sitting here waiting for Locusts to crawl in isn't a plan. That's just waiting to die."
Emily shook her head quickly, panic creeping into her voice. "We can't just run out there. There are families—kids. Soldiers will shoot us before the zombies even get close."
FahFah tested her whip once. It snapped softly through the air.
"We don't run blind," she said.
Her eyes lifted—sharp, focused.
"Best is right. We owe them."
A pause.
"Win and Palm went out there for all of us. Lin chose to draw the horde."
Her grip tightened.
"Kao…"
She didn't finish.
She didn't need to.
Namtan crossed her arms tighter, jaw clenched.
"Kao was a risk," she said. "I did what I had to."
Her voice didn't shake.
But something underneath it did.
"You all saw it. The black fluid. The way the dead looked at her."
She met my eyes.
"If we go chasing ghosts now, we're just throwing ourselves into the same grinder."
I stepped closer.
Lowered my voice.
Steadier.
"We already left them once."
The words hung heavy between us.
"On that roof. We climbed the ladder and let the chopper take us while they were still fighting."
My throat tightened.
"I'm not doing that again."
"Not this time."
Silence.
Then—
"If they're alive," I continued, "we bring them back."
My voice dropped.
"And if they're not… we make sure it meant something."
Jack nodded first.
Short. Certain.
Emily hesitated—but then gave a small, shaky nod.
FahFah didn't say anything.
She didn't have to.
All eyes went to Namtan.
She stared at the ground.
A long beat passed.
Then another.
"You're going to get us killed," she said quietly.
"Maybe," I replied.
A breath.
"But staying here gets us killed slower."
That got her.
She exhaled sharply through her nose.
"…Fine."
Her voice was tight.
"But if this goes wrong, it's on you."
Fair.
The plan came together fast.
It always did when death was close enough to breathe on your neck.
One guard.
Young. Distracted.
Watching the chaos instead of us.
Jack stepped up first, voice shaking just enough to sound real.
"Hey! Guard! My friend—she's bleeding. She fell on something. Please—we need help!"
The soldier hesitated.
Then stepped closer.
"Stay inside—"
FahFah moved.
The whip snapped around his ankle—tight—and yanked.
He hit the ground hard.
I was on him before he could shout, hand clamping over his mouth, knee pressing into his back.
Jack helped pin him.
Struggling.
Breathing.
Then—
Still.
Thirty seconds.
That's all it took
We left him unconscious, bound with his own belt.
Uniform stripped.
Rifle taken.
I pulled the jacket on.
We didn't even leave his underwear.
The helmet hid my face well enough.
The rifle felt wrong in my hands.
But it would do.
Namtan handed me a sidearm.
Didn't meet my eyes.
"Go," she muttered. "Before I change my mind."
I slipped out.
The camp was already falling apart.
Smoke curled up from the east fence—thick, black, choking.
The wire had been torn open.
Not broken.
Torn.
Basics pushed forward in waves—slow, relentless, impossible to stop.
Behind them—
Locusts.
Crawling over bodies.
Over tents.
Over everything.
Gunfire rang out in broken patterns. Soldiers tried to hold formation, but it was collapsing fast.
Too many targets.
Too fast.
Too close.
I moved low.
Between crates.
Past overturned supplies.
A Basic lunged from behind a generator—
I fired.
Once.
Center mass.
Kept moving.
Another came from the side.
Too close.
I swung the rifle.
Bone cracked.
It dropped.
Then—
Movement above.
Three Locusts.
Perched on a supply truck.
Still.
Watching.
Then they dropped.
Toward a group of civilians scrambling toward the med tent.
I raised the rifle.
Fired.
Once.
One dropped.
Twice—
The second twisted mid-air—
Still coming—
I fired again.
It hit the ground inches from a screaming child.
"MOVE!" I shouted, waving them back.
They ran.
Didn't look back.
Good.
I turned—
And froze.
"Drop the weapon."
The voice cut clean through the chaos.
I turned slowly.
Major Rattanakorn stood ten feet away.
Pistol raised.
Not quite aimed at my head.
Not yet.
Two soldiers flanked him.
Rifles steady.
Ready.
I lowered mine slowly.
Kept my face shadowed.
"It's me," I said. "Best. From the school group."
His eyes narrowed.
Then recognition hit.
"You're supposed to be in quarters."
"Quarters aren't safe anymore."
I met his gaze.
"Win and Pal— I mean my freinds are still out there."
A breath.
"I'm going to find them."
His jaw tightened.
"The east side is overrun. Locusts are inside the wire."
A pause.
"You go out there and you die."
"I know."
My grip tightened slightly.
"But we left them once."
A beat.
"I'm not doing that again."
Something shifted in his expression.
Not agreement.
Not yet.
Something… heavier.
"Major," I said quietly, "you ordered the bomb on our school."
His eyes flickered.
"You know what it's like to make a call that costs people."
A step closer.
"Help me make this one right."
Something dropped between us.
A Locust.
It hit the ground with a wet, clicking sound.
Too close.
Rattanakorn fired first.
I fired second.
The body twitched.
Then stilled.
He exhaled sharply.
Then—
"…Fine."
The word was quiet.
But it changed everything.
"You stay with me," he said. "We move together."
A beat.
"Or not at all."
"Deal."
We ran.
Side by side.
Gunfire cutting through the chaos.
Breathing uneven.
Steps fast.
Another Locust lunged from the shadows of a latrine block—
We fired together.
His shot—clean.
Mine—messier.
Still enough.
The thing dropped.
I kept scanning.
Every face.
Every movement.
Looking for—
Anything.
Win.
Palm.
A sign.
A trace.
Nothing.
Just smoke.
Blood.
Screams.
Then—
A gap opened near the east fence.
And through it—
A child stepped out.
Small.
Maybe not more than twelve.
Walking through the dead like they weren't even there.
The zombies didn't touch him.
Didn't lunge.
Didn't bite.
They moved around him.
Like he belonged there.
Like he was—
In control.
The boy looked straight at us.
And smiled.
He..... He was.... He was Dean?