Wesley checked the time and slipped out past the base's perimeter. Vanessa had asked to meet him in the wooded stretch just outside the walls.The request struck him as odd, but he chalked it up to privacy some things a person doesn't want overheard, especially a young woman still fresh off losing her whole family. Made sense she'd want to keep this off the record.He got to the treeline right on schedule. Vanessa hadn't arrived yet, so he lit a cigarette and waited."Captain Quinn."Her voice, right behind him. He dropped the cigarette and ground it out underfoot."So what exactly did you need from me?" he started to ask then stopped, confused, because that was *his* line. Why was she saying it first?He figured she was just repeating back the question she wanted answered and let it go."Why'd you tell me you didn't know Chase Ryder?""Captain Quinn have some self-respect!"Vanessa's voice cracked, trembling and her phone, angled discreetly, was already recording.Wesley froze. "What

Twelve people made up Roman's crew, and every single one had been hand-picked for one thing only: offense.That was the whole filter. If it couldn't kill zombies or people, it didn't earn a spot on his team no exceptions, no matter how "useful" the ability sounded on paper.That philosophy had paid off. While plenty of other survivor groups were still debating whether it was even safe to go outside, Roman's crew had been sweeping entire blocks clean, hunting for a real stronghold the whole time.The infected out here barely registered as a threat anymore. Not one mutant-tier zombie in the bunch, despite everything circulating online about them.His people threw everything they had at anything that moved thrown blades, arcs of electricity, compressed air blasts, sheets of fire and the horde dropped in waves under the barrage.Kyle watched the display with something close to awe. He hadn't expected this level of raw combat output. Yeah. This is exactly the muscle I needed.Vince Porter

Chloe seemed to catch herself mid-hug and pulled back fast, cheeks going pink.She was also still propping up Ethan, the college kid who'd thrown himself at a gang member with nothing but a basic leaf-blade strike to buy her an opening. He'd never in his life stood this close to someone who looked like Chloe. His whole face went scarlet, and he just shook his head mutely when she thanked him, too tongue-tied to form words.With the fighting clearly over, Denise hurried across the courtyard carrying Ellie, Sean jogging alongside to help his frame doing most of the actual lifting."Ellie what happened here?" Chase frowned, confused. From what he could tell, they'd never even made it fully into the fight, and Ellie showed no visible wounds. So why was she out cold?Denise filled him in fast, and understanding clicked into place.Right. I already suspected her ability went beyond party tricks. Purple-tier doesn't hand out cute dolls for nothing."Overexertion, probably. She's still young

"Vanessa's always been Wesley's number-one open case, but he never actually filed a progress report on it. So from your side, what can you tell me about Subject One?"Vanessa met Director Grant's gaze with carefully manufactured guilt. Something about this woman's stare always felt like it saw straight through whatever performance was currently running.Subject One the base's working name for Chase, the only documented case of an infected retaining full communication and reasoning. A category of one, as far as anyone knew."Director, he's a monster. He killed my boyfriend. He killed my parents. He was about to finish me off too, and the only reason I'm alive is because your team got there in time and even then, he still came after me and nearly killed me in the process. Captain Quinn barely knew anything real about Subject One. Mostly he just kept finding excuses to talk to me..."Vanessa let her voice catch, playing the same card again Wesley's supposed infatuation, framed as the rea

Dylan arrived at Chase's base and found the outer wall considerably more imposing in person than anything the internet chatter had prepared him for.Taller than the footage suggested, and cleaner too the direct result of Chase's newly acquired metal-resize ability, which had made the whole reinforcement job dramatically faster than manual construction ever could have.Dylan's own power leaned support over combat, so rather than force his way through a crowd of infected, he found a quieter stretch of wall and activated his ability. A thick vine rose beneath his feet, lifting him steadily upward until he reached the top, climbed over, and dropped down safely inside the perimeter.Jason clocked the intrusion almost immediately recovered enough from his earlier injuries to be back on monitoring duty."Unknown human entered from the southeast, scaled the wall directly. Reads as a plant-type ability." He relayed it over the intercom without delay.Lulu's expression hardened, and she headed