Chapter 4 The Dead Man Behind Me

 “Vespera, if you want to live, tell me why I should save you instead of shooting you with him.”

 

Lucien Dravik’s cold voice cut through the room.

 

Vespera could barely breathe.

 

The infected guard had both hands around her throat. His fingers felt like iron bars, and his rotten breath hit her face. Blood covered his uniform. One of his eyes had turned cloudy, while the other stared at her with a strange hunger.

 

She clawed at his wrists, but he did not loosen his grip.

 

Behind the infected man, Lucien stood with a gun pointed directly at them.

 

His expression showed no fear or pity.

 

He looked as if he were deciding whether killing two people with one bullet would save him time.

 

Vespera tried to speak, but only a weak sound came out.

 

Lucien raised his gun slightly.

 

“Five seconds.”

 

Her heart pounded.

 

This was not how she had planned to meet him.

 

In her previous life, she had spent the first days of the apocalypse running from the infected. She had watched people beg for help and seen others turn their backs on them. She had learned that hesitation could cost a person their life.

 

But she had never expected the world to collapse while she was standing in a room with Lucien Dravik.

 

The man she had come to find.

 

The man her Survival System had ordered her to make her protector.

 

And the man who seemed perfectly willing to let her die.

 

“Four.”

 

Vespera forced herself to look at Lucien.

 

She could not fight the guard with her bare hands. Her vision was already darkening at the edges.

 

She needed a weapon. Anything.

 

Her gaze moved across the office. A glass table stood near the wall. Papers covered Lucien’s desk. A heavy lamp sat beside his computer.

 

Too far. The guard tightened his grip.

 

Vespera’s knees weakened.

 

“Three.”

 

She remembered something from her previous life.

 

Not all infected were the same. Some were slow and clumsy. Others could move faster than healthy people. But during the early stage of infection, many still reacted to loud sounds and sudden movements.

 

She did not know whether this guard was still in the early stage.

 

She had no time to find out. Vespera lifted her foot and stamped down on his injured ankle.

 

The guard let out a terrible growl. His grip loosened for half a second.

 

That was enough.

 

Vespera twisted her body and drove her elbow into his ribs. She slipped from his hands and fell against the edge of Lucien’s desk.

 

Pain shot through her back. She barely noticed it.

 

“Now!” she shouted. Lucien fired.

 

The gunshot shook the office. The bullet struck the infected guard in the head.

 

His body jerked. Blood splashed across the wall behind him, and he collapsed heavily onto the floor.

 

For one brief moment, everything went silent.

 

Vespera pressed both hands against her throat and dragged air into her lungs.

 

She was alive. She was actually alive. Then the gun moved toward her.

 

Lucien was still pointing it at her.

 

“Stay where you are.” Vespera froze.

 

The dead guard lay between them. His blood spread slowly across the polished floor.

 

Lucien stepped around the body without taking his eyes off her.

 

“You knew what to do,” he said. Vespera swallowed painfully.

 

“I was trying not to die.”

 

“That is not an answer.”

 

“Would you prefer that I had let him kill me?”

 

His eyes narrowed.

 

“You knew the infection had started before my men confirmed it.”

 

Vespera said nothing.

 

“You came here claiming that something terrible would happen. You knew about the medical center. You knew that people who had died were moving again.” Lucien moved closer. “Now one of my guards attacks us, and you react as if you have seen this before.”

 

“I told you the truth.”

 

“No. You told me a story.” He stopped only a few steps away.

 

“Who are you working for?”

 

“No one.”

 

“Who sent you?”

 

“No one.”

 

“Then why did you come to me?”

 

Because you are the only person who can help me survive.

 

Because the system chose you. Because in my first life, I died while people like you were building walls around their power.

 

Vespera kept those answers to herself.

 

She could not tell him about her rebirth. She could not explain that she had lived through a future he had not yet experienced. If he thought she was insane, he might lock her away. If he believed her and discovered her abilities, he might decide she was more useful as a prisoner than an ally.

 

She had to give him enough truth to make him listen without revealing everything.

 

“I came because you have the resources to survive what is coming.”

 

Lucien’s face remained cold.

 

“And you expect me to believe that you risked your life to warn me?”

 

“I expect you to look outside.”

 

A sudden crash came from the corridor.

 

They both turned toward the office door.

 

Someone screamed.

 

Then came the sound of several people running.

 

“Get away from him!”

 

“Call security!”

 

“Someone help me!”

 

The screams stopped abruptly. A heavy object struck the wall outside.

 

Lucien raised one hand, warning Vespera to remain silent.

 

He moved toward the door and listened.

 

Something scraped against the other side.

 

Slowly. Then came three soft knocks.

 

Knock. Knock.  Knock.

 

Vespera’s blood turned cold. She knew that sound.

 

In her previous life, she had heard it outside the door of a small apartment where she had hidden with four other survivors. The infected had gathered in the hallway. They had scratched at the doors and pushed against the walls, searching for a way inside.

 

Sometimes they wandered away. Sometimes they waited.

 

The ones that waited were the most dangerous.

 

Lucien glanced at her.

 

“Do not move.” He reached for the handle.

 

Vespera grabbed his wrist.

 

“Don’t open it.” His gaze dropped to her hand.

 

For one terrible second, she thought he would shoot her simply for touching him.

 

“Remove your hand.”