CHAPTER 7: THE WOMAN ON HER KNEES

"Open the outside camera," I told EVA.

Killian looked at me, his gun still in his hand, his eyes dark. He didn't say no. He just nodded once at the ceiling. "EVA. Outside camera Gate 3. Main screen. Audio on."

The wall that was concrete a second ago flickered and became a screen. A big, clear, night-vision screen.

And there they were.

Damian Reid. My husband for three years. The man I cooked for, cried for, waited for. He was on his knees in the mud outside our steel door. His designer suit was torn, covered in mud and blood. His arm was bleeding badly, a deep bite mark. Not infected bite. Human bite. Someone had bitten him fighting for food, maybe.

And next to him, Bianca Cole. My former best friend. Pregnant. Seven months, big belly. Her pink dress, my pink dress that she stole from my closet, was dirty and torn. She was also on her knees, crying, banging her small fists on our 10-inch steel bunker door that would never open from outside. Her makeup was running down her face like a clown.

They looked like the end of the world. They looked exactly like I looked when I died in my last life. Freezing, bleeding, begging.

"ELENA! ELENA I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE!" Damian was screaming, his voice hoarse and broken on the speaker. "ELENA PLEASE! THAT DRONE! I SAW IT! I KNOW IT'S THORNE'S BUNKER! PLEASE OPEN! BIANCA IS BLEEDING! SHE'S PREGNANT! FOR GOD'S SAKE, ELENA, YOU ARE A DOCTOR! YOU TOOK AN OATH!"

A doctor. He remembered I was a doctor now. When I was useful.

Bianca was screaming too, but her voice was different. "Elena! Elena please, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please, we have nowhere to go! The house is gone! The infected are everywhere! Damian's bunker never opened! We have no food! Please! Sister, please!"

Sister. She called me sister now.

I felt Killian's hand on my lower back. Steady. He leaned close to my ear. "Your choice, wolf. Say the word and EVA opens the outer gate. Say the word and she plays the lockdown alarm and never opens."

I looked at the screen. At Damian's face. At the man who told me I was barren for three years, who made me go to five different doctors, who told me it was my fault we had no child. Who then got his mistress pregnant in two months. Who left me to die in the cold while he took my bunker and my helicopter.

I remembered the cold. I remembered my feet turning blue. I remembered banging until my knuckles broke. I remembered his helicopter leaving me behind. The wind from it pushing me down.

And I remembered Bianca's laugh. "Sorry Elena, Damian said no extra space. And you are barren anyway, why save you?"

My hands stopped shaking. The black diamond on my finger caught the light from the screen.

I pressed the audio button. My voice, when it went outside through the bunker speaker, was cold and loud and clear. It echoed in the dead night.

"DAMIAN REID."

On screen, both of them jumped. They looked up at the camera, at the speaker, hope exploding on their dirty faces.

"ELENA! ELENA THANK GOD! OPEN THE DOOR! PLEASE!" Damian shouted, crawling closer to the camera on his knees. "I KNEW YOU WERE ALIVE! I KNEW YOU WOULD FORGIVE ME!"

"Forgive you?" My voice laughed, but it was not a nice laugh. It was a cold laugh I had never heard from myself before. Killian's hand tightened on my waist, proud. "Damian, you left me to die two days ago. In my last life, you left me to die on June 19th. I froze to death banging on this exact door. My blood is still on the concrete outside if EVA doesn't wash it. And you want me to forgive you?"

Damian's face went white. Even in night vision I could see it. "What... what are you saying? Last life? Elena you are confused! You are in shock! Please open!"

Bianca pushed him aside and put her face to the camera, her pregnant belly in the mud. "Elena! I know I was wrong! I was jealous! I know I stole your husband! But I am pregnant! The baby! You are a doctor! You cannot leave a baby to die! Please! Have mercy!"

Baby. She used the baby like a weapon, like she always did.

I leaned closer to the mic. Killian was right behind me, his chest against my back, his gun still up, watching me become something new.

"Bianca," I said softly, so soft the mic had to work hard. "Do you remember what you told me on the phone when I was freezing to death? When I called you begging for help because my husband locked me out?"

Bianca froze. Her eyes wide.

"You said... you said 'Sorry Elena, Damian said no extra space. And you are barren anyway, why save you?' Do you remember?"

On screen, Bianca started crying for real. Not fake tears. Real fear tears. "Elena... I... I didn't mean..."

"I was barren," I continued, my voice getting louder, stronger. "You were fertile. You were better. So tell me, fertile Bianca, how does it feel to be on your knees in the mud begging the barren woman to save you? How does it feel to be the one with no space now?"

Silence outside. Only wind.

Damian tried again. "Elena, please, I was wrong! I was scared! The helicopter only had two seats! I had to make a choice! I chose my child! Any man would!"

"Two seats?" I laughed again. "Damian, Killian's helicopter has six seats. You saw it yesterday. You chose not to save me. You chose to save her and your bastard child over your wife of three years. You chose to let me be eaten. So I choose now."

I looked at Killian. He nodded, understanding. He reached over and pressed another button. A different sound went outside. Not my voice. EVA's voice, loud and robotic.

"OUTER AIR IS TOXIC. INFECTION LEVEL CRITICAL IN THIS SECTOR. ESTIMATED TIME BEFORE HORDE ARRIVAL: 12 MINUTES. PLEASE SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS BUNKER IS SEALED."

The horde. EVA was lying to scare them, but they didn't know.

On screen, Damian and Bianca looked at each other in pure terror. The horde. Everyone knew what the horde meant. Hundreds of infected moving together, eating everything.

"ELENA NO! PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE US!" Bianca screamed, banging harder, her hands bleeding now on the steel.

Damian did something I never thought I would see. He put his forehead on the steel door, on the ground, full kowtow, like a beggar. "ELENA I BEG YOU! I WILL DO ANYTHING! I WILL DIVORCE HER! I WILL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING! THE HOUSE! THE COMPANY! PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE LIKE THIS!"

I watched him. My husband. On his knees. Begging.

Three years ago I would have opened the door. I would have forgiven. I would have taken him back and let Bianca in because I was a good woman, a forgiving wife.

But that Elena Voss died freezing on June 19th.

This Elena Voss was wearing a black diamond from another man, standing in a bunker with 10,000 bottles of wine, with a monster who loved her.

I pressed the mic one last time.

"Damian Reid," I said, clear and cold. "You told me I was barren. You told me I was useless because I could not give you a child. So let your fertile one save you. Let her baby save you. Because the barren one is done saving people who left her to die."

"EVA," I said, turning away from the screen, not wanting to watch anymore. "Cut audio. Cut video. Seal Gate 3. And wash the concrete."

"Yes, Ms. Thorne," EVA said.

Ms. Thorne. Not Voss.

The screen went black. The screaming outside was cut off. Silence returned to the bunker.

My legs gave way. I collapsed. Killian caught me before I hit the floor. He picked me up, holding me tight.

"You did it," he whispered into my hair, his voice full of pride and love and something dark. "My wolf. My queen."

I was shaking, but not from cold. From power. "Are they going to die?" I whispered.

Killian carried me back to bed. "Everyone outside dies, Elena. That's the world now. But they made their choice when they left you to die. You just made yours."

He laid me down and covered us both with the blanket. He turned off the light. He held me while I cried, not for Damian, but for the old Elena who would have opened the door.

Outside, somewhere far above, 100 feet of concrete above, two people were screaming for a door that would never open.

Inside, I was finally warm.

And at 4:00 AM, EVA spoke again, very quietly.

"Ms. Thorne, you have a medical alert. Your temperature is elevated. And... your hCG levels. From your last blood test yesterday. You are pregnant. Approximately 3 weeks."

The bunker went completely silent.