All Chapters of The Zombies Apocalypse Brought Me Back To My Fiancee : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

"We need to call this in," Adrian said, staring at the building through the gap in the tent flap like it might vanish if he looked away. "Before we do anything else.""Call what in? We don't even know what this place is yet.""We know it matches the relay trace. That's enough to warrant backup.""Backup who? Hale, who's conveniently leading the official search? No thanks." Vanessa was already pulling her boots on, movements fast and certain despite the early hour. "We're already here. We look, carefully, and then we decide what to call in."He didn't love that logic. She could tell by the set of his jaw. But he didn't argue it either, which told her he'd already reached the same conclusion on his own, just slower, with more internal resistance along the way.They approached the fence first, low and quiet, the chain-link sagging in several places like something had pushed through it rather than climbed it. A section near the back corner had been peeled back entirely, the metal bent out

"That's her call sign," Vanessa said, already moving toward the corridor the sound had come from. "That's actually her call sign, Adrian, nobody else would use that—""Wait." He caught her arm, not hard, just enough to stop her. "It could be a recording. A trap. Someone using it to draw us in.""Or it could be her. I'm not standing here deciding which while she's somewhere in this building."She pulled free and kept moving, flashlight sweeping the dark corridor ahead, and after a beat of visible internal conflict, Adrian followed, weapon drawn now, covering her back the way he'd done since the safehouse without either of them needing to discuss it.The speaker crackled again as they walked, the same static-warped loop repeating, and Vanessa realized with a sick lurch that it wasn't live at all. It was a recording, looping on some kind of automated distress beacon, triggered probably days ago and never switched off."It's a loop," she said, voice tight. "Not live. But it means she was

Victor was waiting in the entryway when they pulled through the gates, which told Vanessa everything she needed to know about how this was going to go before a single word had been exchanged. He never waited in entryways. He summoned people to studies, to offices, to rooms with desks between him and whoever he was about to be disappointed in.He was standing in the open because he hadn't been able to sit still."Miriam." His voice cracked slightly on her name, the first real crack Vanessa had heard in it in longer than she could remember, and for one brief, hopeful second she thought this might actually go well.Miriam, barely conscious, managed a small, tired smile as Victor crossed the drive and pulled her into a hug that lasted a beat too long for a man who usually kept physical affection rationed like everything else. "I'm okay, Dad," she murmured into his shoulder. "I'm okay.""You're not okay. You're skin and bone and you've been missing for nine days." He pulled back, studying

Miriam was sitting up in bed when Vanessa found her that afternoon, color slowly returning to her face after a full day of sleep, fluids, and whatever Rosa had been sneaking into her soup that smelled suspiciously like an entire garden's worth of garlic."You look less like a ghost," Vanessa said, settling into the chair beside the bed."Thanks. I was going for 'recently escaped a secret lab,' so I'll take it as progress.""It's progress." Vanessa glanced at the data drive sitting on the nightstand, still within arm's reach of her sister even now, like old habits took longer than a day of safety to unlearn. "Are you up for talking about what's actually on that?"Miriam's expression sobered, the brief lightness from a moment ago draining away. "Yeah. I think I need to, honestly. I've been carrying it alone for too long."She reached for the laptop Rosa had quietly procured from somewhere, plugging the drive in with hands that only shook slightly now, a vast improvement from the night b

The service corridor split into two directions past the door, and Hale was already moving toward a smaller room at the far end, the man from the photo trailing a step behind him, both of them too deep in low conversation to notice two party guests hovering suspiciously near the kitchen entrance."We need to get closer," Vanessa whispered."We need to not get caught.""Those aren't mutually exclusive.""They're extremely mutually exclusive in a hallway with exactly one exit."She was already moving before he finished the sentence, scanning the corridor for cover, and found it in the form of a narrow coat closet tucked into an alcove roughly ten feet from the room Hale had disappeared into. She yanked the door open and slid inside without further debate, pressing herself back against a wall of expensive wool coats that smelled faintly of cigars and someone's overly aggressive cologne.The door swung shut a second later, considerably more crowded than when she'd entered it."What are you