Chapter 1: Betrayed

BOOOOM!

The explosion came without warning, sending Nami Bennett flying.

One moment, she was walking along the settlement’s main road. The next, an enormous force struck her from behind, lifting her off the ground and hurling her several feet away.

Her body slammed against the side of a parked vehicle before crashing onto the concrete and for a moment, there was nothing, just silence.

Then came the ringing.

A terrible, high-pitched sound filled her ears. Nami’s fingers twitched against the ground, but the rest of her body refused to move. Her head throbbed, and something warm trickled down the side of her face.

She tried to open her eyes and finally managed to lift her eyelids slightly.

Everything was blurry. Smoke drifted across the road, and dark shapes moved through it.

“What… happened?” Her voice strained, chest heaving.

She tried to raise her head, but she groaned as pain shot through her body.

Then the sounds began reaching her. She began to hear screaming, gunfire, and more explosions.

Nami’s eyes widened.

With a strained expression, she forced herself onto one elbow, coughing as dust entered her throat.

Then she looked around in horror.

“Oh my god,” she breathed out.

The settlement was in chaos. Buildings were burning, vehicles had been overturned, and bodies lay scattered across the road.

A man was crawling towards a fallen woman, desperately calling her name. A few metres away, someone was screaming for help.

Nami stared, unable to understand what she was seeing, her chest rising and falling hard.

‘What is… what is going on?’

Another series of gunshots rang out, causing her to flinch violently and drop back to the ground, trembling in fear.

Then she heard someone familiar shout.

“Get down! Get down!”

Nami turned her head towards the sound. Several people she'd known for a long time were running down the road, but armed men emerged from behind the smoke and opened fire.

The people scattered.

Some managed to reach the nearby buildings, while others fell before they could get far.

Nami’s breath caught, horrified at the realization.

They were being shot!

She scrambled towards the nearest vehicle and dragged herself behind it. Her injured body protested every movement, but she forced herself to keep going until she was completely out of sight.

A bullet struck the vehicle above her.

She screamed and pressed herself against the ground, gripping her ears.

“Please… please…”

Her hands trembled uncontrollably.

She had survived the apocalypse for so long. She had witnessed infected attacks, food shortages and fights between desperate survivors. But this wasn't supposed to happen.

They were being attacked by unknown people. Why?

Confused, Nami cautiously raised her head.

Through the gap beneath the vehicle, she could see several armed men advancing along the road. They weren’t shooting randomly. They moved in groups, covering one another as they entered buildings and dragged survivors outside.

‘An organized attack,’ she thought as she watched. ‘Someone must have planned this.’

Her stomach tightened at the thought.

Then her eyes widened as she remembered something.

‘Oh no, Daniel… and Chloe… where are they?’

They were supposed to be nearby. She remembered seeing Chloe earlier, and Daniel had said he would be around the residential section.

Did they manage to escape?

Nami pulled herself further behind the vehicle, thinking about what to do. She needed to find them as soon as possible.

They were the only family she'd ever known.

A loud crash made her duck again and she gasped instinctively, trembling in fear.

An armed man had entered the nearby building and a moment later, a woman stumbled out, holding a little girl in her arms.

“Please! Don’t shoot! Please, I beg you!”

Nami knew her, but she remained there, watching the crying woman in horror, tears welling up at the sight.

The armed man raised his rifle and Nami’s eyes widened. “No, no, please…”

The gunshot cut through the air, Nami clamped a hand over her mouth as she almost screamed.

The woman fell, and the little girl rolled from her arms, crying.

She wanted to move. She wanted to do something. But the sight of the armed men and the bodies lying around her made her too frightened to leave her hiding place.

A second attacker approached the little girl and Nami shut her eyes. She couldn’t watch. She wished she could do something but she couldn't.

She remained crouched behind the vehicle until the footsteps moved away. Then, with tears gathering in her eyes, she carefully looked towards the road.

She had to find Daniel and Chloe.

They might be in danger or they might have been injured or kidnapped. Perhaps they were looking for her too.

That thought gave her enough courage to move.

She waited until the attackers turned towards another building before crawling out from behind the vehicle. Her knee nearly buckled when she tried to stand. She grabbed the side of the car, gritted her teeth and forced herself upright.

Pain spread through her side.

She glanced down and noticed that her clothes were torn and stained with blood. She couldn’t tell how badly she was injured, but she knew she couldn’t keep moving like this for long.

Still, she started towards the residential section.

She stayed close to the walls, ducking whenever gunfire erupted. Whenever she heard approaching footsteps, she searched for somewhere to hide.

Nami watched people get killed by their fellow men, people she'd lived with for so long but she could do nothing as they cried for help, as they got gunned down.

She lowered her head, keeping herself calm as she could and waited until the shooting stopped before moving again.

The residential section was just ahead.

As she approached and hid, she noticed something strange.

Several of the settlement’s defensive barriers had already been destroyed. The attackers were moving through the compound as though they knew exactly where to go. They weren’t wasting time searching for buildings or supplies.

They knew where everything was.

Nami frowned, wondering how possible it was.

Their settlement shouldn't be an easy target and as someone who'd helped it grow, she knew that well. The entrances were reinforced, the watchmen were stationed at specific points, and the locations of their storage facilities were not public knowledge.

Someone must have given them information.

She shook her head, pushing the thought aside. Now was not the time to start pondering things. She needed to find Daniel and Chloe first.

A man suddenly rushed around the corner.

Nami almost screamed before recognizing one of the settlement’s guards.

“Where are you going?” he demanded, grabbing her arm.

“Daniel! I’m looking for Daniel and Chloe. Have you seen them?”

The guard looked at her as though she had lost her mind.

“You need to get out of here!”

“But where are they?”

“Forget them! The attackers are already inside. We can’t hold them back!”

He released her and hurried away.

Nami stood there for a second. Then another explosion shook the area and she quickly ducked with a gasp, covering her head as pieces of debris scattered across the ground.

When she looked up again, the guard was gone.

Nami swallowed hard to calm her racing heart and continued.

She was beginning to feel dizzy. The ringing in her ears had not completely disappeared, and every movement sent another wave of pain through her body.

But she kept searching.

Finally, she heard voices coming from behind one of the large supply buildings. As she walked further in, she suddenly stopped upon hearing a familiar voice.

It was Daniel.

Her face brightened in disbelief. She almost called out, but something made her hesitate.

There was another man speaking with him.

Nami moved closer, keeping behind the corner of the building and she carefully peered around it.

Daniel was standing a short distance away with Chloe beside him. In front of them was a tall man surrounded by several armed men. Unlike the others, he seemed completely relaxed, as though the chaos unfolding around them was nothing more than an ordinary day’s work.

“…And what about the supplies?” the man asked.

“Everything is exactly where I said it would be,” Daniel replied. “Your men should have no trouble getting into the storage facilities.”

“Good. And the security arrangements?”

“I gave you the details. The western entrance is the weakest point, and most of the guards were stationed near the main gate. You should have been able to get through without much resistance.”

Nami’s eyes widened.

Why was Daniel telling him all this?

She leaned closer, hoping she had misunderstood. But then the man glanced at Daniel and let out a low chuckle.

“So, is this the stupid girlfriend you were talking about?”

Nami froze, realizing she had been caught when her eyes and the man’s eyes met.