The Unfortunate Master Of The Apocalypse

Chapter 7: Survival First, Then Revenge

The figure could have been a man or a woman. Ethan couldn't tell from the silhouette. Then it took a step out of the shadow, and Ethan saw the shredded hoodie. The ghoul that had taken Priya. Had it come back for him? He wasn't under any streetlight, but he hid behind a dumpster anyway. It took a few more steps. It wasn't looking at him. Ethan followed its line of sight and it led to the dead ghoul. The one he had killed.

It stopped in front of the dead ghoul and crouched. It knelt there with an almost human stillness, head bowed low over the corpse. The quiet was worse than any sound. Ethan's forearm kept burning, low and insistent, and he understood without being told that whatever this was, his body had recognized it before his eyes had. It reached out and closed a hand around the dead ghoul's wrist. Turned the arm this way, then that. Then it lifted its head and turned toward where Ethan was hiding. Like it had known exactly where to look before it bothered looking. The world stopped. Or he did. The bite on his arm throbbed once, harder than before. It looked back down at the body. Lifted one arm under the shoulders, the other under the knees, and rose. It didn't glance back. It walked away down the street it had come from.

Ethan stayed where he was after the footsteps faded. Counted his own pulse because it was the only thing he trusted to be steady. When he finally believed it wasn't coming back, his knees nearly gave out. He put a hand against the dumpster to stay upright.

It looked right at him and left anyway. He didn't understand why. He filed the question behind everything else he didn't understand and made himself keep moving. Staying still wasn't going to fix his thirst or the hunger digging a hole in his stomach. None of his wounds were going to close on their own.

He found a corner store two blocks over. The place looked like it was occupied by someone but he didn't care. He forced himself up through the broken window and when he got inside, it was devoid of any human. He could see bags though. He went straight to the shelves and drank water straight from a bottle until his stomach cramped. Ate whatever was still sealed and didn't smell wrong. Took plasters and antiseptic from the medical section and dressed his injuries the way he had seen Caroline do it. It wasn't much but it was enough. He sat in the back of the store afterward, in the dark, back against a shelf. Let himself think about Nomy for the first time without flinching. He had carried the shape of her, the weight of her arm no longer around his shoulders, a silence where her voice should have been without letting the memory surface. Surfacing it meant looking straight at it. He hadn't had the room.

He had the room now. His back against the shelf, he thought about the first time they met. She was trapped inside a building. Ghouls had entered through the main entrance, cutting off the way she had come in. He was nearby when he noticed. He didn't know her then. He didn't belong to any group. His copy talent was still useless, and there was no strength he could offer her. But he watched the building. Found another route through the back, one the ghouls hadn't reached yet. Narrow and far from safe. But better than forcing their way past the ghouls. He showed her the route and led her through it. They didn't get what they came for neither did they defeat the ghouls. They barely got out but they were safe. She saw what he could do without a useful talent. His willingness to try even when he failed. That was enough for her to suggest he come with her.

The group was small then. Leon, Caroline, Tram and Nomy. They hadn't been eager to add someone whose talent seemed useless but Nomy convinced them anyway. Later, when he suggested they take in other survivors, Nomy supported that too. The group grew. Four became five. Then more, until the small group had become twelve. Nomy had been the first person to choose him when there was no reason to. Then she agreed with the group. Sat in that room and let them decide his fate. That was the part that didn't fit, no matter how many times he turned it over. Everything else about her, he could explain. That, he couldn't.

He thought about the way nobody had looked at him on the way out. Except Priya. And even she had nothing left to say. He thought about all the times he had been wronged. He wasn't going to let it be over. Not this time. First he needed to survive. Then he would get stronger. Then he would find them. He hadn't decided what he would do to them. But they would face the consequences. He didn't know where they had gone. He only knew where they were headed. The Asylum. He didn't know how to get there. Didn't know if it was real. He hadn't even heard of it before. But Leon had been serious when he said it. So it had to be true.

A light flashed at the front of the store. Voices low and careful. The specific hush of people trying not to be heard and doing an imperfect job of it. He stayed where he was and listened.

“...days out if we keep the pace we kept today,” a man's voice said. It sounded older. “Maybe three if the roads are as bad as Carl says.”

“And we're sure about the route?” A woman. Younger and sharper.

“Same one Yusuf's cousin used. And he got to the Asylum safely,” the man's voice answered.

“Just wish we didn't have to go through ghoul ground to get there.” A second male voice. Quieter than the other two.

“We don't have a choice. Not anymore.”

Ethan sat in the dark, not making a sound, listening to three strangers talk about a place he had only ever heard named once. They believed it was real. More importantly, they knew the way. Something settled in him. Quiet. Certain. It wasn't hope but something else. He had just found the next piece of whatever he was going to become.