They walked through the afternoon, following the ridgeline back toward where they'd left the vehicles. The sun was still high when they started, but by the time they'd covered half the distance, it had begun to sink towards the horizon, painting the sky in shades of gold and pink. No one spoke. No one had spoken since they'd stumbled out of the emergency exit.
Jimmy led the way, his rifle slung, his flashlight beam cutting a narrow path through the underbrush. More for the shadows under the trees than for the darkness. Ashley was right behind him, her hand on his shoulder so she wouldn't lose him in the thick brush. Nick and Jenna followed, their boots crunching on dead leaves. Caitlyn brought up the rear, her rifle clutched in her hands, her eyes scanning the shadows behind them.
The silence was worse than the fighting.
They'd survived the trap. They'd killed their way back to the surface. But something had broken in the decoy facility. Something that hadn't mended on the walk back.
Jimmy was thinking about the empty room. The recording. The way Dr. Chen had smiled when she'd handed him the tablet. You're the one who could stop this. If anyone can, it's you.
"Fuck," he muttered.
Ashley heard him. "What?"
"Nothing."
"That's not nothing."
He didn't answer.
They reached the convoy as the sun touched the treetops. The Suburban was where they'd left it, covered in dust and pine needles. The Ford was parked behind it, the bus a dark hulk in the fading light. Everything looked untouched. No dead. No note from Dr. Chen. Just the mountains and the silence.
Jimmy walked to the Suburban, leaned against the fender, and stared at nothing.
"We need to talk," Ashley said.
"We need to move." Jimmy replied
"We need to talk first."
He looked at her. His eyes were red-rimmed, exhausted. "About what? About how we got played? About how we followed a woman we barely knew into a trap? About how we almost got killed because I trusted someone?"
"We trusted her together."
"Same fucking difference."
Nick slammed the door of the bus. The sound echoed across the clearing. "He's right. We were stupid." His voice was sharp, cutting through the evening air. "We had weapons, supplies, a defensible position. And we threw it all away because some stranger told us a sob story about her clone dying."
"She wasn't a stranger," Jenna said. "She was Lena Chen. Her name was in the files. She was real."
"Real people lie too." Nick kicked a rock. It skidded across the dirt and hit the Ford's tire with a sharp crack. "We should have stayed at the depot. We should have waited. We should have-"
"Should have what?" Jimmy pushed off from the Suburban, his hands clenching into fists. "What should we have done differently, Nick? Huh? You want to go back in time? You want to un-ring the bell?"
"I want us to stop trusting everyone we meet."
"We trusted one person. One."
"One too many."
Nick's voice was rising. Jimmy's was rising to meet it. Ashley stepped between them, her hands up.
"Both of you, calm down-"
"Stay out of this, Ash." Jimmy didn't look at her. His eyes were locked on Nick. "You have something else to say? Say it."
"I already said it."
"Say it again."
Nick dropped his pack. It hit the ground with a heavy thud. Dust puffed up around it. "Fine. You shouldn't have led us here. You should have known it was a trap. You should have-"
"Should have what?" Jimmy stepped closer, his jaw tight. "I'm not fucking psychic, Nick. I'm a mechanic who got lucky. That's what Marcus said, remember? That's what you're thinking right now. That I'm just a prepper with a truck and I don't know what the fuck I'm doing."
"I didn't say that."
"You're thinking it."
"Maybe I am." Nick took a step closer. His face was flushed, his jaw tight. "Maybe I'm thinking that we've been following you for almost two years and every time we get close to something good, it goes to shit. The cabin. The prison. The depot. Now this."
"That's not fair," Jenna said, her voice tight.
"Life's not fair."
"Nick-"
"Stay out of it." Nick's voice was cold. "This is between me and Jimmy."
The first shove came out of nowhere.
One second they were standing apart, faces inches from each other, breath hot and angry. The next, Nick's hands were on Jimmy's chest, driving him backward. Jimmy stumbled over a root, caught himself, and shoved back hard. Nick's boots slid on the pine needles. He went down on one knee, and came up swinging.
His fist connected with Jimmy's jaw.
The impact was wet, solid. Jimmy's head snapped sideways. Blood welled up from a split in his lip, hot and copper-tasting. He spat red onto the ground.
"That's it," Jimmy growled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "You want to fucking go?"
He swung. His fist caught Nick in the ribs. A dull, meaty thus. Nick grunted, doubled over, and drove his shoulder into Jimmy's chest. They went down together, rolling in the dirt and pine needles, fists flying, curses spitting.
"Fuck you!" Jimmy roared.
"Fuck you, you arrogant son of a bitch!"
"You think you could do better? You think you could lead?"
"I know I could!"
Ashley grabbed Jimmy's arm, trying to pull him off. Nick threw an elbow blindly and caught her in the forearm. She cried out, stumbled back, clutching her arm. "Fuck!""Ashley!" Jimmy's head snapped toward her, and in that moment of distraction, Nick tackled him again. They crashed into a pile of rocks near the edge of the clearing. The impact was brutal. Jimmy's back hit something hard, something that wasn't rock. It crunched and gave way.
But Nick didn't stop. He was on top of Jimmy, his fist raised, blood on his knuckles, his face a mask of rage. "You don't know everything, Jimmy! You never did! You just fucking pretend!"
"Nick, stop!" Jenna screamed. She grabbed his arm, and tried to pull him back. He shook her off. She fell to the ground, hard, scraping her palms on the rocks.
Jimmy bucked, twisted, got his knee up between them. He shoved Nick sideways, scrambled to his feet. Nick was up just as fast, lunging again.
"Nick! Jimmy!" Jenna was on her feet, her voice desperate. "Stop it! Both of you!"
They didn't stop. Jimmy threw a punch that caught Nick in the shoulder. Nick answered with a wild swing that connected with Jimmy's ear, sending a shock of pain through his head. He staggered, and Nick followed up with a punch to the gut that doubled him over.
"Fuck!" Jimmy gasped.
"Stay down!" Nick shouted.
"No!" Jimmy straightened up, blood dripping from his lip, his ear ringing. "You want to fucking kill me? Then kill me! But I'm not staying down!"
He lunged again. This time his fist connected with Nick's cheek. Nick's head snapped sideways. Blood flew. Nick stumbled, caught himself, and came back with a punch to Jimmy's ribs that made him see stars.
They were both bleeding now. Both breathing hard.
Ashley tried to get between them again. Nick shoved her away, harder this time. She hit the ground, her elbow taking the impact. "Fuck!"
"Ashley!" Jimmy's attention flickered, and Nick drove a fist into his stomach. He doubled over, gasping.
"Stay down!" Nick screamed. "Stay the fuck down!"
Jimmy straightened up slowly, his eyes blazing. "No."
He grabbed Nick by the collar of his shirt and headbutted him.
The crack of bone on bone echoed through the clearing. Nick's nose broke. Blood gushed down his face. He staggered back, clutching his nose, roaring in pain and fury.
"You broke my fucking nose!"
"You started it!"
They circled each other again. Jimmy's lip was split, his ear was bleeding, his ribs were screaming. Nick's nose was pouring blood, his eye was swelling shut, his knuckles were shredded.
"You're my brother," Jimmy said, his voice raw. "You're my fucking brother, and I love you, but I will beat your ass into the ground if you don't stop."
"Then beat my ass," Nick said. "Because I'm not stopping."
They lunged at the same time.
And then Caitlyn screamed.
"DAD! STOP!"
The word cut through the chaos like a blade.
Jimmy froze mid-swing. Nick froze with his fist raised. Ashley froze where she was trying to get up. Jenna froze where she was trying to pull Nick back.
The clearing went silent except for the ragged breathing of five, exhausted, terrified people.
Caitlyn stood at the edge of the clearing, her face pale, her hands shaking, tears streaming down her cheeks. She hadn't moved to stop them physically. She hadn't tried to pull them apart. She just stood there and screamed.
And it had worked.
Jimmy stared at her. His chest heaving, his split lip bleeding. His head throbbed. His ribs ached. He looked at Nick, then back at Caitlyn. His hands unclenched. He lowered his fists.
"You..." Jimmy's voice was barely a whisper. "You really do think of me as a dad."
Caitlyn nodded, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Yes. I do."
Nick stepped back, his fists dropping to his sides. His face was covered in blood, his nose crooked, his eye swelling fast. He looked at Jimmy, then at Caitlyn. His anger drained away, replaced by something else. Shame.
"Caitlyn..." Nick's voiced cracked. "I'm sorry. I didn't-"
"You were fighting." Caitlyn's voice was shaking, but she held her ground. "You were really fighting. Like you wanted to kill each other."
"We didn't mean-" Nick started.
"You didn't mean to?" Her voice rose. "You didn't mean to?" She stepped forward, her fists clenched at her sides. "I watched my father walk away. I watched him leave because he couldn't handle being here. And now you two are going to do the same thing? You're going to tear each other apart? You're going to tear this family apart?"
Jimmy shook his head. "No."
"Then act like it." She pointed at him. "You." Then at Nick. "And you. Figure it out. Because I'm not losing anyone else. I can't."
Nick looked at Jimmy. Jimmy looked at Nick. Both of them were bleeding. Both of them were broken.
"She's right," Nick said.
"She is." Jimmy agreed.
Nick held out his hand. Jimmy took it. They shook, and then Nick pulled Jimmy into a rough, one-armed hug. They stayed like that for a moment, two battered, bleeding men holding each other up.
"I'm sorry," Nick said. "I shouldn't have said you shouldn't lead."
"I'm sorry too," Jimmy said. "I shouldn't have pushed."
They sat down on the ground, too exhausted to stand. Jenna knelt beside Nick, pressing a cloth to his nose to stop the bleeding. Ashley did the same for Jimmy's split lip. Caitlyn sat between them, her arms wrapped around her knees.
Jimmy started at the ground for a long moment. Then he spoke.
"I never wanted to be the leader."
Nick looked at him. "What?"
"The leader. I never wanted it." Jimmy's voice was quiet, tired. "You think I asked for this? You think I wanted to be the one making the calls, taking the risks, carrying the weight?" He shook his head. "I became the leader because I had to. Because I was the only one who had any idea what was going on."
"Because of your prepping?" Nick asked.
"Because of the prepping." Jimmy looked at him. "I spent years stockpiling supplies, building the Suburban, running scenarios in my head. I thought I was paranoid. I thought I was crazy. But when the world ended, all that crazy turned into knowledge. And someone had to use it."
Nick was quiet.
"I didn't choose this," Jimmy continued. "It chose me. And I've been doing the best I can ever since. Sometimes I'm right. Sometimes I'm wrong. But I'm always trying." He looked at Nick. "That's all I can do."
Nick nodded slowly. "I know."
"Do you? Because it felt like you didn't."
"I do now." Nick reached over and put a hand on Jimmy's shoulder. "You're a good leader, Jimmy. You're not perfect. Nobody is. But you've kept us alive. That's more than most people could do."
Jimmy looked at him. "Thanks."
"Don't let it go to your head."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
They almost smiled.
The adrenaline faded, and the pain hit.
Jimmy's ribs screamed. His split lip throbbed. His knuckles were raw, torn open, bleeding. The back of his head was wet where it had hit the rock. His ear was still ringing. He pressed a hand to his side and winced. "Fuck me."
Nick was worse. His nose was definitely broken. It was crooked, bleeding, already bruising. His left eye was welling shut. His ribs were bruised, maybe cracked. He limped as he walked, favoring his right leg. "Son of a bitch," he muttered. "You hit hard."
"You hit harder."
"Fuck you."
"Fuck you too."
They didn't smile, but the tension was gone.
Jenna helped Nick to a rock and made him sit. She pulled out a bandage and started trying to stop the bleeding from his nose. "Hold still."
"This hurts."
"Good. Maybe you'll think twice next time."
Ashley pulled out the medical kit and started cleaning Jimmy's lip. He flinched when the antiseptic hit.
"Hold still," Ashley said.
"It burns."
"Well, maybe the two of you will think twice next time."
Caitlyn stood apart, watching them. Her face was still pale, her eyes red, but she wasn't crying anymore. She looked at Jimmy's split lip, at Nick's swollen eye, at the blood on both of their knuckles.
"You're both idiots," she said.
"Yeah," Jimmy said.
"I know," Nick said.
Jenna was the one who broke the tension. She was kneeling by the pile of rocks that Jimmy and Nick had crashed into, her hand on something.
"Jimmy. Nick. Look at this."
They limped over. The rock formation was cracked open, hollow inside. Not solid at all. A fake. A hiding place.
And inside, a metal box. Weatherproof. Locked. Stamped with the HELIX logo.
"What the hell," Nick said.
Jimmy knelt, groaning as his ribs complained, pulling the box out of the hollow. The metal was cold, the lock heavy. He examined it, then stood, took a step back, and shot the lock off.
The box opened.
Inside, a map. A real map, paper, marked with routes and coordinates. And a USB drive. And a handwritten note.
"If you're reading this, you're smarter than Mercer gave you credit for. The Nexus is real. The coordinates on this map are real. I couldn't tell you. He was watching. He's always watching. Im sorry. - L.C."
Jenna read it aloud. Her voice was flat at first, then rising with anger. "She set us up. She knew. She knew the whole time."
Ashley grabbed the note, read it herself. Her face darkened. "She's sorry? She's fucking sorry? She almost got us killed!"
Nick snatched the note from Ashley's hand, read it, and crumpled it in his fist. "I don't want her apology. I want her head."
"She played both sides," Jenna said.
"Or she played us against him." Jimmy looked at the crumpled paper, then at the others. "She knew we'd come looking. She knew we'd find this. She left us a way out, but she also sent us into a trap."
"A trap that could have killed us," Ashley said.
"A trap that almost did kill us," Nick added, gesturing at his broken nose.
Caitlyn picked up the map, studied it. "The coordinates are real. At least, they look real."
"Could be another trap," Jenna said.
"Could be." Jimmy took the map from Caitlyn, traced the route with his finger. "But it's the only lead we have."
"I hate her," Nick said. "I fucking hate her."
"Join the club," Ashley muttered.
"We'll find her," Jimmy said. "When this is over, we'll find her, and we'll make her answer for what she did."
Nick nodded, wincing as the movement sent pain through his face. "I get first crack at her."
"Deal."
The attack came as they were loading the vehicles.
Runners. A dozen of them, pouring out of the trees, their gray faces fixed on the convoy. Jimmy grabbed his rifle, fired. The first runner dropped. Ashley fired, dropped another. Nick's shotgun roared, taking out two. Jenna's carbine chattered, dropping three more. Caitlyn fired from the Ford, her father's rifle steady, each shot a kill.
One runner got through. It leaped at Jenna. Nick tackled it mid-air, drove it to the ground, and put his knife through its eye. Black blood sprayed across his already bloody face. He shoved the body aside, breathing hard, clutching his ribs.
"Fuck," he gasped. "Fucking fuck."
"You okay?" Jenna helped him up.
"Fine." He wiped his face, wincing. "Just peachy."
The runners were all dead. The clearing was quiet again. Jimmy stood in the center of it, his rifle hanging from his hand, his split lip still bleeding. He was limping. Nick was limping. They looked like hell.
"Everyone sound off," Jimmy said.
"Good here," Nick answered, though his voice was tight with pain.
"Good here," Caitlyn echoed.
"I'm good," Jenna added.
Ashley walked to Jimmy, touching his face. "You're bleeding."
"I know."
She kissed him, soft and quick. "Don't scare me like that again."
"I'll try."
They loaded the rest of the supplies, climbed into the vehicles, and pointed the convoy toward the new coordinates. Jimmy's ribs ached with every bump. Nick's nose throbbed with every breath. But they were alive. They were together.
Caitlyn drove her Ford, her rifle on the seat beside her. She kept glancing at the map, at the route, at the mountains ahead.
Jimmy watched her in the rearview. Ashley reached over and took his hand.
"She's going to be okay," Ashley said.
"I know."
"So are you."
"I know."
He squeezed her hand and kept driving.
The road ahead was long and dark and uncertain. But for now, that was enough.