6-Facing My Fears, And The Alphas

Fallon:

I slowly pushed myself off the road and brushed the dirt from my clothes, scanning my surroundings with panic building inside me.

I didn’t know if the world had always been this terrifying.

Maybe I had just never noticed it before. Back when my biggest concern was surviving another day as a neglected housewife.

Now, I was trying to survive an apocalypse under the watch of four military alphas.

Even without zombies nearby, the open air felt contaminated.

Every breath felt poisonous.

I glanced back at the bus and caught the alphas gathering near the front, watching me struggle alone in the field.

“Well, Fallon, you really do have terrible luck with men,” I muttered under my breath while making my way carefully toward the gate.

Tall walls stretched around it, making the entrance feel even scarier.

For a second, I considered suggesting they ram the bus into the gate, but the idea died quickly.

With zombies roaming everywhere, destroying one of the few barriers left would have been reckless.

And honestly, the bus probably would not have done much against the locked gate anyway.

The moment I reached the gate, I finally released the breath trapped in my lungs.

Then I spotted the lock.

Of course it needed a key.

“You idiot. Every lock needs a key,” I muttered under my breath while turning quickly toward the bus to alert the alphas.

“There’s no key!” I shouted.

Rome leaned against the dashboard, his hands planted on it as he watched me.

It was crazy how the man who had offered me his hand to help me onto the bus, sounding so cheerful and talkative, was now enjoying my misery so much.

Then he straightened and pointed toward the left side of the gate.

A small security room was built beside the wall nearby.

The longer I remained outside the bus, the more the fear crept under my skin.

The dark clouds overhead only made it worse.

Every rumble of thunder made me flinch.

Bracing myself, I moved carefully toward the door.

Not once did I spot a zombie heading in my direction, and I silently prayed it stayed that way until I reached the security room.

Then something shifted inside.

There was a faint movement inside, as if someone was in there, probably slamming something against the wall.

The sound was weak but rhythmic.

“Hello?” I called out, hoping a warrior had taken shelter in there.

Silence answered me.

At that point, I seriously started questioning every decision that had led me here.

I lifted my hand to knock, then stopped midway.

Right.

Because knocking politely on a door possibly hiding a zombie was obviously a brilliant idea.

My gaze darted back toward the bus.

The alphas had spread out along the windows, each one watching me from inside like spectators enjoying a show.

I rolled my eyes at them before scanning the area for anything I could use as a weapon.

I still had no idea how I survived the first encounter, and the thought of facing another zombie made my chest tighten.

A few steps away from the security room, something caught my attention.

A jagged piece of broken glass lay on the ground.

It was small.

Barely enough to defend myself with, but in a world like this, I could not afford to be picky.

I glanced back at the bus and caught Rome smirking faintly, one eyebrow raised as if he could already tell I was expecting a monster inside.

I let out a low grunt.

One of them could have easily passed me a weapon, but I had lost that privilege after pulling the trigger on Roam.

Their distrust made perfect sense now.

I faced the room again, tightening my grip on the broken glass.

The thing barely counted as a weapon.

Maybe I was panicking for no reason.

Maybe there actually was a warrior inside.

At that point, that was the only thing I wanted to find.

I walked over to the security room and stopped beside it.

My body shifted into a defensive stance, ready to fight back if anything came out.

If a zombie came at me, I would have to let it get dangerously close before I even had a chance to fight back.

Which also meant giving it every opportunity to bite me first.

As I approached the door, I wrapped my hand around the handle and shut my eyes.

I could hear the elves pushing open the bus windows while I stood motionless.

“You seriously think some random piece of glass is going to help?” Miguel sneered, disbelief dripping from his voice.

The remark felt more like an insult than a question.

The way he said it made it obvious he thought I had no idea what I was doing out in the field.

In an instant, every painful memory from the past few years crashed into me.

Every moment of cruelty.

Every wound I had buried deep enough to survive.

When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer hesitating.

The Fallon standing there was not the timid housewife who stayed quiet and endured everything.

She was the daughter of a man who had trained her to survive in the woods.

I shoved the door open.

The warrior guarding the security area had already turned into a zombie.

The skin around his mouth had peeled back, making his teeth look grotesque.

His jaw hung open like he was ready to bite at any moment.

Even the way he stood felt wrong.

Its nails were blackened with dirt and dried blood, as if it had spent hours clawing at the walls from inside the room.

The moment it saw me, it sprang to its feet and charged at me.