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Chapter 34: The Road
The cold was terrible.Julie felt them in her fingers first, then her toes. A slow, gnawing ache that spread upward through her hands and feet until everything below her knees and elbows felt like it belonged to someone else.Beside her, Celeste trudged through the snow in silence. She'd stopped complaining. Now she just walked, her head down, her breath misting in short, ragged bursts. With the bag of supplies slung over her shoulder.Julie carried the rifle. It was heavy, but she didn't mind. The weight had a sort of peace to it. It reminded her that she wasn't helpless anymore.They'd been walking for what felt like years.The cabin was far behind them now. So was Cooper's body. Julie tried not to think about it. The way his head had snapped to the side. The way his eyes had gone wide. The dark pool spreading across the floor.She’d believed Cooper to be kind.Turns out he wasn't."Julie."She turned. Celeste had stopped walking. Her face was pale, her lips cracked."We need to res
Chapter 33: Wait
They called him Darius now.The name had been given to him after his initiation. He'd knelt in the small room with the red symbol on the wall while Lucian traced the mark on his forehead with something cold and wet. The others had chanted. Alyssa had smiled. Caleb had watched from the doorway, his eyes wide."Darius," Lucian had said. "It means 'to possess well.' To hold onto what is yours. That is what we do here. We hold onto what the god of the apocalypse has given us."Nathan had nodded. He'd said the words they wanted him to say. He'd let them call him by a name that wasn't his.It didn't matter. Names were just labels anyways. And labels could be removed.Nathan learned the rules of the compound in three days.The first rule was silence. No speaking unless spoken to. No questions. No idle talk. The believers moved through the halls like ghosts, their white clothes blending into the white walls, their voices low and careful.The second rule was obedience. When Lucian gave an orde
Chapter 32: Wolf and Sheep
The days at Cooper's cabin had started to feel almost normal.Julie woke each morning to the smell of woodsmoke and something cooking. Cooper was always up before dawn, tending the fire, checking the traps. He'd make breakfast—oatmeal, usually, sometimes with dried fruit or a bit of salted meat. He'd ask how they slept. He'd tell them stories about the woods, about hunting, about all sort of things.He was kind to Julie.She'd told him about Cameron. About Arnold. She hadn't meant to. It had just come out one night, when the fire was low and the wind was howling outside. She'd said she'd lost her son and her father. Cooper had listened without interrupting. When she'd finished, he'd put a hand on her shoulder and said, "I'm sorry."That was it. No questions. No prying. No look of pity.Julie liked that.He didn't know about the trial. About the videos. About the public turning on her. About Jacob. About Nathan. About any of it. To Cooper, she was just a woman who'd lost everything. An
Chapter 31: The Master Of The House
Nathan woke on the fourth day.Or maybe it was the fifth. The days had started to blur together in the white room. He'd stopped counting. Everything looked the same every morning. The silence was the same. The warmth was the same.He'd spent most of his time lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the door to open.Alyssa came every few hours. She'd clean him with a damp cloth, careful around the wound. She'd change the bandages, her fingers precise and steady. She'd bring the herbal mixture and a bowl of oatmeal. Then she'd sit with him for a while, answering his questions without answering them."How long have you been here?" he'd asked."A while.""How many people live in this place?""Enough.""What's the symbol mean?"She'd smiled faintly and changed the subject.Every time.The boy came too. He'd slip into the room with books under his arm—old paperbacks, mostly, their covers faded and torn. He'd sit on the floor and read aloud while Nathan listened. The boy's voice wa
Chapter 30: White Room
Nathan woke to a strange warmth.For a long moment, he didn't move. He just lay there, his eyes closed, feeling the softness beneath him. Clean sheets. A blanket that didn't have any weird smells. The air was warm and still.He thought, for one absurd moment, that he'd died.Then he remembered who he was.Nathan Hayes didn't go to heaven. And If there was a hell, he'd probably find a way to talk his way out of that too. But heaven? No. That door was closed to men like him.The delusion shattered when the pain hit.It came all at once. His side. His head. The deep, grinding ache in his muscles. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and opened his eyes.The room was small and white. The walls were bare. A single window let in pale light through thin curtains. The bed beneath him was clean, the sheets tucked tight around his body.He pulled the blanket back slowly.His shirt was gone. In its place was a loose white tee that hung off his frame. And around his torso, wrapped tight and ne
Chapter 29: Colors and circles
Nathan woke with a mouthful of snow.He didn't know how long he'd been out. His head was pounding. His side was on fire. The cold had seeped through his clothes and settled into his bones.He pushed himself up slowly, one hand pressed against the ground. The snow was stained red around him.The dagger was still in his side.He remembered now. The old man. The trap. The blade sliding in just below his ribs. His hands around the old man's throat. And then nothing. Someone had hit him from behind.He looked around. His bag was gone. The old man was gone. The only thing left was the blood in the snow and the knife still buried in his flesh.It had started three days ago.Nathan had woken to find his apartment ransacked. The door was open. The cupboards were bare. The safe in the bedroom was open too, but the money was still inside. Untouched. Worthless now.Dana was gone.She'd taken the food. The water. The medicine. Everything that mattered. She'd left the cash and the jewelry and the d
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