Chapter 4: Chocolate And Catastrophe

JUNO'S POV

I thought eating a ten-year-old Snickers bar would kill me.

It didn't. It just tasted like sweetened cardboard and regret.

Vera ate her piece like it was a five-star meal. Eyes closed. Savoring it.

"You good, Error?" she asked me, without opening her eyes.

"I'm good," I said. My nosebleed had finally stopped. My head still throbbed behind my eyes, but I was trying to play it cool. "And my name is Juno. Not Error. Error sounds like my laptop when it crashes."

"Error fits you," Kai said from the corner. He was cleaning one of his giant guns with a rag, but he was watching me. Always watching me. Like I might explode or turn into a Rotter any second.

"It does not," I muttered.

Alice sat cross-legged on the cot across from me, studying me like I was a math problem she couldn't solve. "So, Juno. Spoiler. Explain your power again. In detail."

I had to be careful here. I knew what my power was from the system, but if I explained it too perfectly, they would ask how I knew the words ARK uses.

I rubbed my temples. "When I touch someone, I see like... ten seconds ahead. What they're about to do. Or what's about to happen right next to them. But it hurts. Like a really bad migraine. And I bleed."

"Limitation," Ren said quietly. Two words, but everyone listened. Ren never talked much in the book either. The author made him mysterious to make readers love him.

"Limitations are good," Vera said. "Means ARK didn't completely glitch. Unstable powers kill the host."

Kill the host. Great. Love that for me.

"How far?" Alice asked. "Can you see farther if you try harder?"

I thought about it. In the system message it said LVL 1. That meant it could level up. In the novel, powers leveled up with near-death experiences and trust.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "Right now it's just flashes. Ten seconds, maybe. And I have to touch you."

"Touch," Kai repeated, and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Skin contact!" I said quickly, my face heating up. "Not like that! Just... hand contact! For the power!"

Alice tried not to smile. She failed.

Vera stood up and stretched, her massive arms cracking. "We need to move before nightfall. This pharmacy isn't safe long-term. The herd you brought, pizza girl, I'm sure they will have friends."

"I swear I didn't bring them here!" I protested. "They were already hiding around! I just... fell into them. Literally."

"We're heading to the high school," Kai said. He strapped his guns to his back. "That's our temporary base. We have a kid there. And food."

The high school. Yes. Chapter 4 location. Roosevelt High. Where they kept 12 survivors, including a little girl named Maya who was Vera's adopted daughter in everything but blood.

In Chapter 12, Maya dies when Hex #1, Siren, lures the base with a child's voice.

My stomach twisted. I remembered that chapter. I cried on the subway.

I had to say something. But how? If I said "Hey, in two weeks a sound mutant will kill Maya," they would think I was a lunatic.

"You okay?" Alice asked me. She noticed my face.

I forced a smile. "Yeah. Just... high school. Bad memories. I was not popular."

Kai snorted. First time I heard him make a sound close to a laugh.

"Pack up," Vera ordered. "Ren, scout ahead. Kai, take point. Alice, you and Error in the middle. I'll take back."

Error again.

I stood up, wobbling a little. My legs were still shaky. My pizza bag was useless, so I left it. I kept the burn marks on my palms hidden in fists.

Ren was already up the ladder and gone before Vera finished talking. Ghost Step. One second there, next second air.

Vera followed, carrying the metal box with the antibiotics.

Alice climbed next, then turned to help me.

I was halfway up the ladder when a hand grabbed my waist.

Kai.

"Careful," he said low, his hand big on my waist, steadying me. "You fall, you make noise. Noise brings Rotters."

His hand was warm even through my dirty shirt. I could feel every finger.

"Thanks," I whispered, not looking at him. If I looked at him I would do something stupid like stare at his jawline. Or worse his lips.

He let go as soon as I was steady, but slowly. Like he didn't want to.

We emerged into the ruined pharmacy. Sunset light, red and ashy, came through the broken windows. The street outside was quiet now, except for the black blood drying on the pavement where Kai had saved me.

Thirty bodies. All gone still.

"Clear," Ren's voice came from the roof. How did he get to the roof that fast?

We moved.

I had never done stealth walking in my life. My entire exercise was running up three flights of stairs to deliver pizza.

I tried to copy Alice — light steps, staying in shadows, gun ready. But my sneakers squeaked. And yes, Alice handed me one of her guns. As if I knew how to use one.

Vera, at the back, put a hand on my shoulder. "Breathe. You're too tense. Rotters might hear that."

"How do you hear tense?" I whispered.

"You breathe loud when you're scared," she said.

Great. My fear had a sound.

We turned a corner. Roosevelt High was three blocks away. I could see its fence in the distance, barricaded with school buses.

We were almost there when Alice stopped dead.

She raised a fist. Stop signal.

We all froze.

I heard it too. A faint sound. Like... a lullaby? Humming?

No.

No no no.

In Chapter 6, before Siren appears, the book describes this exact humming. A child humming a lullaby that no child should know after the apocalypse.

Siren. Hex #1. But she wasn't supposed to appear for another week in the book timeline. She appears after they settle in the high school.

Unless my being here moved her up. Unless that 5% divergence was already changing things.

"Do you hear that?" Alice whispered.

Kai nodded, guns up.

Vera tilted her head and whispered. "That's... that's her song. She hums that when she sleeps."

Vera's adopted daughter. Who was supposed to be safe at the high school base.

If Siren was already here, if she had learned Maya's song already...

My system flared, unprompted.

[WARNING: HIGH-LEVEL MUTANT PRESENCE DETECTED WITHIN 500M]

[IDENTITY: HEX #1 - SIREN]

[TIMELINE DIVERGENCE IMPACT: ACCELERATED ARRIVAL]

[ADVICE: RUN]

RUN in capital letters.

I grabbed Alice's sleeve without thinking.

"We need to run," I hissed. "Now."

"Why?" Alice frowned.

"I saw it!" I lied, using my power as an excuse. "I saw — if we stay on this street, we all die! Ten seconds!"

It was a gamble. Would they believe me?

Ren dropped from the roof next to us, silent. His face, half hidden, was pale.

"Siren," he said. One word. That was all he needed.

Kai's whole body tensed. "Are you sure?"

Ren nodded once. "Sound. On the wind. Mimic."

Vera's face changed. Fear, real fear, for the first time. "The child's at the base alone with Jonah. If Siren is here..."

Alice didn't need more. "Move! Now! Back to pharmacy!"

We ran.

I ran harder than I ever ran in my life. My lungs burned. My sneakers slapped.

Behind us, the humming got louder. It wasn't a lullaby anymore. It was turning into a child's voice, crying.

"Mama... mama where are you... wait for me..."

Maya's voice. But Maya was supposed to be at the high school. Siren was mimicking her to lure Vera.

"Don't listen!" I shouted at Vera, because Vera had stopped, her hammer halfway raised, eyes wide. "It's not her! It's not Maya! It's a mimic! It copies voices!"

Vera looked at me, tears in her eyes. "How do you know her voice? How do you know Maya's name? I never told you Maya's name!"

Oh shit.

I had messed up. In the book I knew Maya. But in this timeline, Vera never said her name.

"I — I heard you humming it!" I lied.

The crying got louder. Closer.

From the alley to our left, a figure stepped out.

It was not a Rotter.

It was tall, too tall, skin stretched too tight, throat swollen like a bullfrog, mouth open impossibly wide. And from that mouth came Maya's voice, perfect.

"Mama, I'm scared..."

Vera roared and swung her hammer.

The figure dodged, too fast, and laughed — now in Vera's own voice.

Siren.

Hex #1.

She was here a week early. Because of me.

Kai shoved me behind him. "Juno, down!"

He fired.

The bullet exploded where Siren had been, but she was already gone, up the wall, clinging to the building like an insect, humming that lullaby again.

My head started to pound again. The system screamed.

[TIMELINE DIVERGENCE: 8%]

[THREAT LEVEL: LETHAL]

[ABILITY UPGRADE TRIGGER: PROTECT YOUR TEAM]

I grabbed Ren's arm next to me without thinking.

Flash — ten seconds ahead — I saw Siren dropping from above, mouth open, aiming for Vera's neck.

"Above Vera!" I screamed, my nose bleeding instantly.

Ren was already moving. Ghost Step.

He appeared above Vera, katanas crossing, blocking Siren's jaws that had opened wide enough to swallow a head.

Metal screeched against teeth.

Siren screamed — not Maya's voice anymore, but a horrible high-frequency screech that made my ears bleed.

Alice fired. Kai fired. Vera swung.

Siren took three bullets and a hammer to the ribs and still stood, smiling with black blood dripping.

Then she looked straight at me. Past all of them. At me.

Her swollen throat vibrated and she spoke, not in Maya's voice, but in my voice. My own voice.

"Extra girl..."

Everyone froze.

Siren tilted her head, studying me with white eyes, and whispered in my voice, "You just pissed off my boss and he wants you now."

Then she jumped, crashed through a second-story window, and was gone, humming as she went.

Silence, except for our breathing.

Vera was shaking, hammer in both hands, looking at the spot where Siren stood.

Kai turned slowly to look at me.

Alice turned too.

Ren landed silently next to me.

Four pairs of eyes.

"How," Alice said, her voice barely a whisper, "did it know you? And how did it know your voice when you never spoke to it?"

I wiped the blood from my nose with a shaking hand. My new power had just saved Vera's life.

But it had also just painted a target on my back the size of the whole apocalypse.

I had changed the story by 8%.

And the villain had noticed.

~