“That’s not what I asked.”
My voice was tighter now, almost breaking.
He held my gaze.
“No,” he affirmed.
Always honest, even when the truth had claws.
“We’re not safe here anymore.” His voice dropped.
“I know,” I whispered.
He shifted an inch closer, his hand rising to grip my arm—firm, grounding.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The promise settled within me, heavy, warm, and terrifying, because he meant it completely, with everything he had.
And we both knew he couldn’t guarantee a single word.
I swallowed hard.
“Okay,” I said, not because the fear had vanished, but because staying meant a slow death.
Behind us, Fiona stepped forward, peering over the roof’s edge. Her face, rarely expressive, betrayed a quick, barely visible swallow. “What does it look like?” she asked.
Finn’s eyes tracked back to the street, to the shapes moving below, to the creature in the driveway that had stopped tearing and started eating—jaw unhinging, throat distending, a sound rising from it somewhere between a moan and a gurgle.
“Bad,” he stated flatly.
Lily stood silently behind us all, her fingers cramped around the frying pan handle.
Finn straightened, checked his weapon one last time, and looked at each of us—Fiona, Lily, me. Whatever he found in our faces, he accepted it.
“Get ready,” he said.
As morning swallowed the last of the dark, the street below groaned, shuffled, and hungered—
And it stopped being tomorrow’s problem.
Twenty Eight
As If We Drilled It -Finn
The girls moved fast, no hesitation, just as if we’d drilled it.
They slipped down the stairs. From the roof, I caught the faint scrape of the couch shifting away from the front door, then the soft click of deadbolts easing back. Not released. Not yet.
Ready.
Holding.
Waiting on me.
Everything came down to seconds now.
I stepped back from the edge, rolled my neck once—felt the vertebrae pop. The Glock sat heavy in my right hand, familiar weight, familiar grip. The one thing in this entire nightmare that made sense, that I understood, that did exactly what I told it to.
