CHAPTER 4

Jude Barnard turned around slowly, and the industrial lighting caught the sharp angles of his face.

His deep brown eyes were cold and that thin scar through his left eyebrow made him look even more dangerous than usual.

For a moment, neither of them spoke, then the memories slammed into Violet cruelly.

The infected swarmed around her like a tide of rotting flesh and gnashing teeth.

She was on the ground, bleeding and dying, and through the haze of pain she heard someone screaming her name.

"Violet! VIOLET!"

A figure charged through the horde, his dark hair wild and his eyes desperate. It was Jude.

He fought his way through the infected with bare hands and fury. He reached for her even as teeth sank into his shoulder, his arm and his throat.

He had died trying to save her. They had died together.

Violet's vision blurred and tears burned hot trails down her cheeks before she could stop them. Her breath came in sharp, broken gasps.

Why? Why had he done that? Her husband's step-brother hated her. They hated each other. It had been years of bitter arguments and cutting remarks.

Years of avoiding each other in hallways and trading barbs across conference tables.

So why had Jude Barnard thrown away his life for hers in her past life?

"—listening to me?"

Violet blinked hard, the present snapping back into focus. Jude was staring at her with an unreadable expression, his dark brows drawn together.

His mouth was set in a hard line, but something flickered in his eyes. Concern? Confusion?

"What?" Violet's voice came out rough and broken.

"I asked if you were alright," Jude said slowly, like he was talking to someone who might bolt at any second. "You've been standing there crying for the past thirty seconds without saying a word."

Had he been speaking to her this whole time? She hadn't heard a single thing.

Violet scrubbed at her face with shaking hands, trying to erase the evidence of her breakdown. "I'm fine."

"You're clearly not fine," Jude's voice was flat, matter-of-fact. "Did someone die? Or are you finally having that nervous breakdown everyone's been whispering about?"

Right. The rumors. The entire company thought she had lost her mind.

"I need to tell you something." Violet said abruptly.

Jude's expression didn't change. "Let me guess. You've seen the future?"

Violet's heart stopped. She stared at him, mouth open and unable to form words.

"Don't look so surprised," Jude said dryly, leaning back against the railing. "The rumor's spread through the entire building by now. Dr. Ackland has officially lost it and thinks she's some kind of time traveler. Alicia made sure everyone heard about it."

Of course she did.

"It's not a rumor," Violet said quietly. "It's true."

Jude went very still. For a long moment, he just looked at her, his dark eyes searching her face slowly.

"You're serious." He said finally.

"Yes," Violet took a shaky breath and moved closer, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I know you're going to mock me. I know you think I'm insane just like everyone else does, but I need you to listen, Jude. Please."

She expected him to laugh. She expected that sharp, cutting mockery he was so good at. The sarcastic comment that would slice through her and leave her hurting.

But he didn't say anything. He just crossed his arms over his chest and waited, so Violet told him everything, but she didn't tell him about Harrison and Alicia's affair.

She didn't mention the locked door or the balcony or the way they had thrown her away like garbage.

And she didn't tell him about his death. About the way he had charged through a horde of zombies screaming her name and how they died together in the blood and chaos.

She couldn't bring herself to tell him.

But she told him everything else. Every horrible detail she could remember about the outbreak and the apocalypse that was coming for them in three weeks.

Jude listened without interrupting once. His expression remained unreadable, but his eyes never left her face. He didn't laugh, call her crazy or threaten to have her committed. He just listened.

When Violet finally finished, her throat was raw and her hands were shaking. She waited for the inevitable rejection and the cruel comment that would cut her down to size.

Instead, Jude said, "Okay."

Violet blinked. "What?"

"Okay," Jude repeated calmly. "I believe you."

She actually took a step back, staring at him in complete shock. "You... what?"

"I believe you," Jude said again, slower this time, like she was the one being difficult. "We need to find a way to reverse the LZ-7 Strain or stop the outbreak entirely, and we don't have much time to do it."

"You believe me?" Violet repeated dumbly. Her brain felt like it was short-circuiting. "Just like that? Without proof? Without…"

"Do you want me to not believe you?" Jude's mouth curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Because I can call you insane if that would make you feel better."

"No, I just…" Violet pressed her hands against her face, trying to process what was happening. "Why? Why do you believe me?"

Jude was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was softer than she had ever heard it.

"As much as it pains me to say, you're the smartest person I know, Violet. And you're not insane, no matter what Alicia and the others say. If you're telling me the world is going to end in three weeks, then I believe the world is going to end in three weeks."

Something in Violet's chest tugged instantly. She didn't know what to do with that.

This was Jude Barnard. Harrison's step-brother. The man she had spent three years arguing with over everything from lab protocols to whose turn it was to refill the coffee maker. They weren't friends. They weren't allies.

They were enemies who happened to work in the same building and shared a connection through Harrison that neither of them wanted, and yet here he was, believing her when no one else would.

"I've been trying to work on a reversal," Violet said finally, her voice hoarse. "But I can't do it alone. The virus is too complex. It rewrites cells at the genetic level faster than I can counteract it."

"Then we work on it together," Jude said simply, pushing off the railing. "Starting now. Show me everything you've tried so far."

"Now?" Violet glanced at the time on her phone. It was nearly six PM. "Don't you have…"

"Nothing more important than stopping the apocalypse," Jude cut her off. His dark eyes were intense, focused entirely on her. "You said we have three weeks. That's not a lot of time."

No. It really wasn't.

Violet took a shaky breath and nodded. "Okay. Okay, yes. My workstation is in Lab Seven. I've been running suppression sequences and stabilizers, but…"

"Let's go." Jude was already moving toward the stairs, his long strides eating up the distance.

Violet hurried after him, her mind racing. This was insane. She and Jude barely tolerated each other on a good day, and now they were going to work together to save the world?

***

Lab Seven was empty when they arrived. Most of the scientists had gone home hours ago, leaving behind the hum of machines and the sterile smell of disinfectant.

Violet pulled up her workstation and gestured for Jude to take the seat beside her.

"I've been running suppression sequences here," She said, pulling up the data. "But every single one fails within the simulation. The virus adapts too quickly."

Jude leaned forward, his eyes scanning the screen with sharp focus. "What about stabilizers? Have you tried binding the mutation sites?"

"Of course I've tried that," Violet said, a hint of her usual irritation creeping into her voice. "I'm not an idiot, Jude."

"I never said you were," Jude shot back, his fingers already flying across the keyboard as he pulled up a secondary screen. "I'm just trying to understand what you've already attempted so we don't waste time repeating failed experiments."

Violet bit back a sharp retort. He was right, even if his tone grated on her nerves. "Fine. I've tried seventeen different stabilizer compounds. None of them can keep up with the mutation rate."

"Show me."

They worked in tense silence for the first hour, the only sounds being the clicking of keys and the occasional frustrated sigh.

"What if we approached it from a different angle?" Jude said suddenly, breaking the silence. "Instead of trying to suppress the mutation, what if we neutralized the trigger mechanism?"

Violet looked up from her screen, frowning. "The trigger mechanism is embedded in the viral RNA. We'd have to rewrite the entire base sequence."

"So we rewrite it."

"That's not how it works, Jude. The LZ-7 Strain is too complex. One wrong modification and we could make it worse."

"Could we make it worse than the apocalypse you described?" Jude's voice was dry, but his eyes were serious.

Violet opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. He had a point. "Fine. Pull up the RNA sequence and let's see what we're working with."

Two hours turned into three. Three turned into five.

"This is idiotic," Violet muttered, rubbing her burning eyes. "We're going in circles."

"You have a better idea?" Jude's voice had an edge to it now. "Because I'm all ears, Dr. Ackland."

"Don't use that tone with me," Violet snapped, spinning her chair to face him. "I've been working on this for hours before you even showed up."

"And you've made exactly zero progress," Jude shot back, his dark eyes flashing with irritation. "Maybe if you weren't so stubborn about your methods, we would actually get somewhere."

"My methods are sound!"

"Your methods have failed seventeen times!"

They glared at each other, the tension crackling between them like electricity. For a moment, Violet thought they were going to fall back into their old pattern of bitter arguments and cutting remarks.

Then Jude sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair. "This isn't helping."

"No," Violet admitted quietly. "It's not."