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“I said I saw you get shot, and you aren’t even reacting.”

“Probably because I just saw you turn into a zombie.”

I go still. “What?”

He backs up, looking down at me. “We both saw that old man on the ground. Only he wasn’t there. Couldn’t have been conscious and talking with his leg half missing. Then he started saying things…” Henry makes a face. “Things from my past, old memories, and he vanished and you were standing there with your hood drawn up, and when you lowered it, you changed into a zombie. Because…” He throws up one hand. “Zombies.”

I want to say I don’t understand. But I think I do. What is Henry afraid of? Zombies. What am I afraid of? Men with guns.

I look him in the eye. “Are we still saying nothing is wrong out here? Nothing that can’t be explained away?”

He meets my gaze. “No. Whatever is happening in this forest … I don’t know what it is. But it isn’t natural.”

“Agreed. So first step? Get out of this damn forest.”

A brief, humorless smile. “I was just going to say that.”

He extends a hand, and I take it. We reach the road without anything happening. The forest is still and silent and ordinary, so ordinary it feels like mockery.

You thought you saw what?

At the road, Henry leads us to the old man’s car. He lays his fingers on the metal. Then he murmurs “Wait here” and leans in to examine the leg.

“It’s real,” I say when he stands. “That’s what you’re making sure of. The car. The leg. It’s not another hallucination.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Hoping, even.” He exhales deeply. “Is there any point in turning on the hazards again?”

“No, but I’d still like to do it. So we’ve done what we can.”

He nods in understanding. While I stand guard with the flashlight, he turns the hazards on in the vehicles where they still work.

“Are we going back to the bar?” I ask.

“If it’s still there. At this point, I don’t know what to expect but…” He glances at me. “That woman, the one you saw on the road, do you think she has something to do with all this?”

“I think there’s something not right about her. She hasn’t done anything in the bar, though, and the others all seem…”

“Normal?”

I nod. “Whatever’s going on, I think we’re all caught in it. But I also think it’s about the forest, and the bar seems like…”

“Sanctuary?”

I nod again. “I’m not counting on that, but it feels safe there.”

“Just stay out of the forest?”

“Yep.” I glance at it. “I don’t know what’s happening in there. I just know we need to stop going in, no matter what happens.”

“Agreed.”

We walk in silence until we see that blinking red neon light.

“Well, the bar’s still there,” I say. “What are we going to say to the others?”

“Fuck if I know.” He gives a long, slow exhale. “We need to tell them what happened with the old guy. No matter what’s going on in that forest, once this is over, we’ll be facing real-world consequences. Our prints are on that vehicle, and if we didn’t mention it before the cops start investigating, that’s going to look really suspicious.”

“Okay. Tell them whatever you think is best.”