Chapter 1

Four years into the apocalypse, Leah Young returned from a supply run with her team one evening.

They handed over their findings and completed the registration at the base gate, then dragged their exhausted bodies toward home.

As Leah walked down the familiar street, a faint sense of unease crept over her.

She frowned and tried to shake the feeling.

Her steps quickened anyway.

It was too quiet!

This road near the base gate was rarely crowded, but today the silence felt eerie.

Suddenly, Leah heard hurried footsteps.

She looked up.

At the far end of the street, Hayden Chase sprinted toward her, his face tense with alarm. He shouted until his voice cracked.

“Leah!”

“Get down!”

Before Leah could react, someone shoved her to the ground.

Gunfire erupted around her.

A heavy body landed on top of her. Leah struggled to turn her head and saw Hayden covered in blood. Blood poured from several bullet wounds.

She scrambled up and pressed her hands against the wounds, desperate to stop the bleeding.

Blood pooled beneath him.

Hayden struggled to tell her something, but she could no longer hear him.

Her thoughts stalled. Everywhere she looked, she saw blood.

Time seemed to slow.

Her teammates fell one after another, caught completely off guard.

Gunshots pounded in her ears.

“Leah, it’s an ambush! Get Captain Chase out of here!”

Wendy Shea’s scream pierced the silence. The next second, she collapsed.

Leah snapped back to her senses and heaved Hayden onto her back with all her strength.

She ran toward the security guards’ quarters near the base gate, the closest place they could take cover.

The team’s only two remaining members, Lucas Zeller and Liam Hutchins, rushed to her side to cover her. They drew their guns and tried to return fire.

But they couldn’t see the shooters. The attackers stayed hidden, and bullets kept whistling past them.

“Miss Young!”

“Over here! Hurry!”

Two security guards at the base gate, Martin Lewis and Patrick Quinn, strained to pull the heavy iron gate open just wide enough for them to escape.

They waved frantically.

But in the next instant, a bullet struck each guard between the eyes.

“Mr. Lewis!”

“Mr. Quinn!”

Leah screamed in despair.

With Hayden on her back, she could only stumble onward.

Suddenly, a searing pain shot through her calf.

A bullet struck her left leg.

At last, the three of them reached the guards’ quarters. The gunfire stopped abruptly.

“Put me down,” Hayden said weakly.

Leah lowered him to the floor and quickly tore her relatively clean undershirt into strips to bandage his wounds.

“Hayden, you’ll be all right. You have to be,” Leah said, her lips trembling.

“Leah, calm down... Listen to me...”

Hayden struggled to sit up and cut her off.

“Your parents and your uncle... Louis Kellan... killed them all.”

Hayden forced out the words between breaths as blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

“I... I couldn’t protect them. I’m sorry...”

“What? My parents... my uncle... They’re all... dead?”

Leah shook uncontrollably. Her trembling lips could barely form the words.

Suddenly, something cool touched her wrist. An emerald bracelet slipped over her right hand.

“Leah... I came back too late... It was already... too late for everything...

“This bracelet... has been in my family for generations. Now I... I want you to have it... so you’ll have something... to remember me by.

“You three... you have to... find a way to survive...”

Hayden’s hand fell limp, and he stopped breathing.

“Hayden!”

Leah cried out in anguish.

“Captain Chase!”

“Captain Chase!”

Lucas and Liam knelt beside him, tears streaming down their faces.

Leah could not accept what had happened.

Everything was fine when they left. Yet in a single evening, her parents, her uncle, the teammates who fought beside her, and her captain were all dead.

Liam wiped the tears from his face, his expression hardening.

“We can’t let them die for nothing. I’m going to make those bastards pay for what they did to Captain Chase and everyone else.”

Yes. She had to avenge them. She had to find out what had happened.

Leah gently lowered Hayden to the floor and stood. She wrapped the remaining strips of cloth tightly around the bullet wound in her leg.

“Leah, Lucas, I’ll go take a look outside.”

Liam picked up a wooden board, held it in front of himself, and slipped out with his head down.

They did not even have time to stop him.

“Bang, bang, bang... Bang, bang, bang...”

The gunfire resumed the instant he stepped outside.

With the board shielding him, Liam reached the base gate and shot through the chain securing it.

Lucas seized his chance. He grabbed another board, pulled the injured Leah with him, and ran for the gate.

But as soon as they came out, the gunfire grew even heavier. Bullets poured toward the three of them.

Several bullets finally punched through Lucas’ board and struck him. With the last of his strength, he shoved Leah toward the gate.

“Go!”

Lucas roared and turned to fire into the shadows. But there were too many attackers hidden there, all armed with submachine guns.

“Lucas!”

Tears blurred Leah’s vision.

She fought through her grief, grabbed Liam, who was also dazed with sorrow, and dragged him through the gate. They stumbled toward their team’s SUV parked outside.

They climbed in and were about to start the engine.

“Bang!”

A bullet struck the vehicle. A burst of arrogant laughter followed.

Leah looked up.

A group emerged from the base gate, with Louis leading them.

“Think you can run? Not so fast!”

Louis gave her a vicious grin.

“Tell me where the Young family’s warehouse is and hand over the key, or I’ll tear them to pieces!”

The crowd parted.

Leah saw her aunt Lillian Blake and her cousin Connor Kane tied up.

Two injured teammates, Avery Dawson and Evan Foster, were dragged forward and thrown to the ground.

They even brought out the bodies of Hayden, Cyrus Foster, Wendy, Shawn Jensen, and Leah’s parents and uncle...

“Ahhhhh...”

Leah pounded the steering wheel. She opened her mouth and tried to scream, but no sound came out.

“Leah, don’t worry about us! Just go!” Connor shouted with all his strength.

“I’m sorry, Connor. I can’t leave. I don’t want to anymore. Everyone I care about is here. Where would I even go?”

Leah spoke so softly she could barely hear herself.

“Leah, let’s get out of the car,” Liam said. “We’ll join the captain and the others.”

A smile of resignation touched Liam’s lips.

“But dying like this is so damn humiliating. If I’m going down, I want to take a few more of those monsters with me!”

“Yeah...”

Leah wiped away her tears and climbed out of the SUV, dragging her injured leg.

Liam followed and supported her as they slowly approached the group.

“Be a good girl, Leah. Mark down the locations of every Young family warehouse, then give me the keys.

“Your parents were too stubborn to see sense. They chose to die rather than hand over the keys. They said they wanted to leave you a way out.”

A middle-aged couple stepped out of the crowd. They were Leah’s uncle Raymond Young and his wife.

A bitter smile curled Leah’s lips.

“If my parents had told you, would you have spared them? If I tell you now, will you spare me? Will you spare my aunt and cousin? Will you spare my two injured teammates?”

Leah’s questions dripped with scorn.

She slowly walked over to her aunt and cousin.

“I’m sorry!”

“Leah, they won’t let any of our family live. They want more than supplies. They want complete control of the base. They’ve even killed the base leader!”

Lillian glared at Raymond and Louis, hatred in her voice.

Suddenly, a sharp gunshot split the gloomy sky. A dull pain struck Leah’s back.

She turned slowly, almost mechanically, and saw a face twisted into a smug grin.

It was Megan Swan, the woman Leah once thought was her best friend. The face she knew so well was now full of malice.

“Megan? Why? What did I ever do to you?”

Leah’s voice came out hoarse and shaky. The betrayal felt bitterly absurd.

“Why? Because... I hate you!”

Megan bent close and spoke through clenched teeth, stressing every word.

“You were born a rich girl, Leah Young. You’ve always had everything you wanted.

“You were so full of yourself, acting kind to me as if I needed your charity. Everyone loved you, and you never even had to try.

“And Hayden...

“He rejected and humiliated me over and over because of you, you two-faced bitch. And now he’s dead because he tried to save you?

“Hahaha... If I can’t have him, no one can! Even when you’re both dead, I’ll burn your bodies and scatter your ashes in opposite directions!”

She burst into wild laughter again.

“You’re insane!”

Leah raised her hand and slapped her hard.

“Enough! If none of you will talk, you can all die!”

Louis gave a sinister smile and spat on the ground before snapping impatiently.

“Get rid of her. I’m tired of listening to this.”

“Bang!”

Megan pulled the trigger again. This time, the bullet struck Leah between the eyes.

Blood sprayed across Connor’s face and Leah’s wrist, staining the emerald bracelet she wore as her hand rested against his cheek...

Blood ran into the emerald bracelet’s carved grooves, tracing an eerie red pattern!

Leah slowly fell backward.

“Leah!”

Several more shots rang out, and their cries faded into the wind.