After training wrapped, Chase circled back to his usual point self-reliance, growth, not leaning on him as a crutch. Adrian had taken full ownership of the instructor role, and his methods were unapologetically strict.Chase found himself genuinely pleased with the results.Lulu kept her head down through the whole recap, fully aware of how much slack Chase had always cut her. As the base's primary offensive asset, that kind of leniency wasn't sustainable anymore too much depended on her actually holding the line.She'd already decided: more reps with Vera, Cyrus running point on her training going forward. Foul mouth aside, the guy clearly had an eye for talent.Chase was on the verge of pulling Adrian and Cyrus aside to ask what either of them might know about Miles's whereabouts team captains at their level had access most operatives didn't when his senses caught something else entirely.Two gold-core signatures, closing in on his current position. And a substantial swarm of infect

After a few days settling into the base, Victor had come around to how genuinely fortunate their situation was.Luxury accommodations. Supplies to spare. A roster of seriously capable people standing between his family and everything outside these walls.He'd stayed vague about the specifics of his own ability, sticking to the surface-level version waking awareness of the exact time. Nobody pushed for more.Nina, meanwhile, had no such reservations about her bubble-blowing power, showing it off freely and to her genuine surprise, nobody treated it as a joke. If anything, people seemed to actively enjoy watching her work.Victor had also clocked a couple of residents running abilities that turned people around and forced them into planks and even they seemed to have carved out a comfortable place here.This whole place runs on something I haven't seen anywhere else since the outbreak started. An actual community.These past few days had easily been the happiest stretch either Ellie or

Pigeons started trickling back one by one, Palmer working through each report as it landed.One arrived visibly frantic, wings beating hard, clearly agitated."Whoa hey, slow down"Palmer struggled to parse the bird's frantic cooing."Coo-coo-coo-coo!""Wait what? Another zombie back there? What are you even""Coo, coo, coo!""It's coming HERE?"Palmer followed the pigeon's gaze and, sure enough, spotted a second bird inbound.This one was clearly wrong. Feathers matted dark red with blood, wingbeats stiff and mechanical."...What is that thing."As it closed the distance, Zoe's skin crawled hard enough to nearly buckle her knees. A ragged wound gaped in the bird's chest, ringed by a dense knot of tumorous growth. Its eyes had gone fully red, movements jerky and unnatural."RUN! Everybody RUN!"Something about it read to Zoe as personal a message, aimed directly at her."Zoe, it's a pigeon. We're fine." Ryan relaxed the second he confirmed it wasn't mutant-tier. He raised his sidearm,

"Director, I need to be direct with you Team Seven can't take another Riverside assignment. Send us back in, we don't come out."Ryan delivered it as plainly as he could manage, with no read on how Grant might actually respond.Whatever her decision, he had no intention of being part of it going forward. His only real priority now was keeping the rest of his people alive."He let you walk. Grayson died because he attacked first?"Ryan nodded. Full honesty, straight through no version of this conversation he wanted to navigate with half-truths.Grant sat with that, jaw tight. The pattern held consistent, at least: don't attack Subject One, and you walked away breathing. Every fatality on record traced back to someone striking first.But Adrian and Cyrus were still unaccounted for, actively in his custody. If he was harvesting their abilities if that process simply took time rather than being impossible the ceiling on what he might eventually become didn't just threaten this city.It th

"Is everyone accounted for? Vanessa what exactly are you doing in this room?"Grant's eyes narrowed slightly as Vanessa walked into the strategy meeting."Director, I pulled her over from logistics personally. She's had direct, firsthand contact with Subject One genuinely useful perspective to have in the room. She's my assistant now."Franklin caught Vanessa's grateful, admiring glance and felt something swell in his chest. He knew full well Grant wouldn't second-guess a staffing call within his own division."Let's get into it. I've formally briefed Chicago on Subject One's activity here, and given that we've already lost two special-tier captains to this thing, they've agreed to deploy combat support.""Today's agenda: assemble our own supporting unit to coordinate with Chicago's lead team and finalize a joint strategy. Second item logistics needs to handle housing and welcome arrangements for the incoming Chicago operatives."Renee, who ran logistics, cut a look toward Vanessa. Fr