Chapter 3
When I woke up, my head felt like it had been split open.
The world was shaking.
Not literally.
The car was.
I was in the backseat of an SUV, jostling over broken pavement while ruins flashed by outside the window.
Ryan turned around from the front passenger seat and grinned at me.
“Your little catnap was impressive. Slept almost a full day.”
My hand flew to the back of my head.
Pain.
A lot of it.
“What happened?” I croaked. “Where’s Ethan?”
Maya was driving.
She glanced at me through the rearview mirror.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I only got you out.”
Only got me out?
The comments were already racing in front of me again.
Holy hell.
So the female lead didn’t reconcile with the male lead at all.
When she threw herself at him crying, she was actually checking his body temperature.
And those two guys? They were acting from the minute they sensed a zombie in the house.
They just couldn’t tell whether it was the male lead or the side character.
So they played along until they confirmed it.
And then the female lead abducted the side character and ran.
I sat up so fast my vision blurred.
“You left Ethan there?”
Ryan spread his hands helplessly.
“Maya said he was a zombie.”
He tilted his head at me. “Were you being held there against your will? Was he keeping you as food?”
Carter turned around too and, incredibly, looked almost apologetic.
“If we said anything rude before, don’t take it personally. And if you do take it personally…” He puffed his chest out like an idiot. “You can hit me twice to get even.”
Then, with total seriousness, he added, “Was he fattening you up? My grandma used to raise pigs. Same principle.”
I stared at him.
“No,” I said flatly. “He would never hurt me.”
Maya’s gaze in the mirror sharpened.
“You knew he was a zombie?”
“I know he’s my boyfriend.”
Her voice dropped.
“You know he’s a zombie and you still stayed with him? Do you want to die?”
I clenched my fists in my lap.
“Ethan has never hurt me. Not once. I trust him.”
Ryan looked horrified.
“Are you crazy? He’s a high-level zombie. He can think. He can talk. That makes him worse, not better.”
I turned to Maya.
“You were his ex. Don’t you trust him either?”
She was silent for a few seconds before she answered.
“In the apocalypse, plenty of people have been killed by someone who loved them.”
Anger burned behind my eyes.
“You already abandoned him once,” I shot back. “And now you’re abandoning him again.”
She slammed on the brakes so hard all of us jolted forward.
“Sienna, are you insane?”
Ryan twisted around in his seat.
“Staying alive isn’t enough for you? We finally got you out.”
Carter nodded grimly. “And if you go back now, he might not even still be there. You could get bitten before you even find him.”
Slowly, my clenched fingers loosened.
They were right about one thing.
If Ethan wasn’t there anymore, going back alone would just get me killed.
But then what?
Where was I supposed to go?
I sank back against the seat and stared numbly out the window.
Dusk deepened around us.
Ruins. Empty road. Overgrown medians. The occasional distant howl of a zombie.
After a long time, Maya said quietly, “How did you two meet?”
I hesitated.
Then I told her.
The power outage. Borrowing food. His confession. The apocalypse. The way he kept going out to bring me things to eat.
When I finished, she was silent long enough that I thought she might not respond at all.
Then she gave a tiny laugh.
“If this weren’t the end of the world,” she said, eyes on the road, “I might’ve wished you both well.”
I turned to look at her.
After a moment, I said carefully, “Back then… what happened between you two?”
The corner of her mouth twisted.
“There wasn’t really a misunderstanding,” she said. “There was a difference in power. That’s what happened.”
I waited.
She took a breath.
“I accepted twenty million dollars from his father and left the country.”
I stared.
“My mother was sick,” she continued. “His father said if I refused to leave, every hospital in the city would turn her away.”
My anger faltered.
“I donated every dollar Ethan gave me,” she said. “All of it. In his name.”
I blinked.
“I came back and explained. But by then…” She swallowed. “By then he had already become what he is.”
The comments rolled in.
So the money the male lead gave the female lead all got donated?
That actually makes the female lead pretty clear-headed.
Back then the male lead still wasn’t strong enough to fight his family.
Not taking the money would’ve ruined her mother.
I looked out into the darkening road and didn’t know what to say.
So it wasn’t that Ethan hadn’t loved her.
And it wasn’t that she hadn’t loved him.
They just lost.
That was all.
We stopped for the night at an abandoned roadside diner.
Ryan and Carter went in first with their guns and cleared two zombies out before waving us inside.
When I climbed out of the SUV, my legs buckled from sitting too long.
Carter caught my elbow quickly.
“You good?”
“I’m fine.”
But the moment I straightened, a chill skated over the back of my neck.
A feeling.
Sharp. Watching.
I turned around fast.
Nothing.
Broken cars. Empty street. Dark windows.
No one.
Carter urged me toward the entrance.
“Come on. If we attract a horde, none of us are sleeping.”
Inside, Maya handed me a blanket from her backpack.
“It gets cold at night.”
I took it quietly.
“Thanks.”
Carter announced he was going to check the kitchen for water and disappeared around the corner.
The comments flashed so violently I nearly dropped the blanket.
This diner isn’t safe.
There’s a zombie hidden above the kitchen cabinets.
The male lead was supposed to save the female lead here.
But he’s not here now.
I opened my mouth to shout a warning, but before I could, the kitchen erupted with swearing.
We all ran in.
Carter stood frozen in place, gun up, staring at the ceiling.
A child-sized zombie was clinging upside down to the plaster above him, maybe five or six years old, tiny teeth bared as it prepared to lunge at his neck.
“Damn it!” Carter yelped. “Why is there a kid one too?”
His hands were shaking so badly he couldn’t fire.
“It’s too small! I can’t shoot a kid!”
He shoved the gun at Ryan.
Ryan shoved it right back.
“I can’t either!”
The little zombie leaned farther down.
Then Maya shut her eyes, and a pulse of invisible force shot out.
The child zombie dropped to the floor in a heap, curled up trembling.
And then we heard a thin, soft voice.
“Mommy…”
All of us froze.
Ryan’s eyes bulged.
“It talks?”
Carter looked sick. “Did we just kill its parents?”
The comments answered before anyone else could.
Not its parents. Just two random adults.
Its parents abandoned it here to lure zombies away while they escaped with the younger son.
This kid is a high-level zombie too.
A dangerous one.
The little zombie slowly pushed itself up, filthy face lifted, bright eyes searching the room.
Then it looked right at me.
Tilted its head.
“Mommy?”
The comments lost their minds.
Wrong mom, kid.
Why is this weirdly cute?
I crouched slowly, making my voice as gentle as I could.
“I’m not your mommy.”
Its mouth wobbled.
Then it started to cry while pointing at Carter.
“Mommy. That uncle hit me.”
Carter flailed his arms. “I did not! I just kicked once because it popped out and scared me!”
Maya’s expression hardened.
She was about to use her psychic ability again.
I caught her wrist.
“Wait. Let me try.”
She frowned. “Sienna. It’s a zombie.”
“I know.”
I looked at the child’s face.
Scared.
Hungry.
Watchful.
Lonely.
And something inside me cracked open.
“When I was little,” I said quietly, “I was the kid who got left behind too.”
No one spoke.
So I did.
“My parents only wanted my younger brother. They sent me to distant relatives and mailed a little money at first. Then even that stopped. I became unpaid help in their house. If I ate too much, I got yelled at. Sometimes worse. Sometimes they locked me up like an animal.”
The diner fell silent.
“I ran away the second I was old enough.”
Then I looked back at the child zombie.
That expression in its eyes—
that mix of fear and wanting—
I knew it too well.
Slowly, I held out my hand.
The little zombie stared at it for a long time.
Then, very carefully, it reached out and touched one fingertip to mine.
Carter inhaled sharply.
Ryan slapped a hand over his mouth.
I smiled.
“What’s your name?”
It seemed to think hard.
As if the answer had been buried somewhere deep and dusty.
Finally it whispered, “Luna.”
Maya stood beside me, watching with a conflicted look.
“If it attacks anyone—”
“It won’t,” I said.
From my pocket, I pulled a wet wipe and gently cleaned the dirt off Luna’s face. She stood perfectly still and let me.
When I finished, I pinched the corners of her mouth into a tiny smile and turned her toward Maya.
“Luna, say hi to Aunt Maya.”
Luna blinked.
Then her eyes lit up.
“Auntie.”
For the first time, Maya’s face softened.
Only for a second.
But it did.
Then she turned away and went to prepare our sleeping area.
That night, we built a fire in the middle of the diner.
Ryan took first watch.
Carter sat in a corner, sneaking uneasy glances at Luna, who was wrapped in the blanket Maya had given her.
Then Luna suddenly toddled over to me, shoved part of the blanket into my arms, and announced, “That uncle says the kitty is cute.”
She pointed straight at Carter.
He nearly launched himself into the ceiling.
“What? I did not say that! There isn’t even a cat here!”
He fled into one of the old booths and slammed the door behind him.
The comments cackled.
This little zombie can read minds.
Carter’s thoughts got exposed on the spot.
I stared at Luna.
She blinked at me, innocent as moonlight.
So that was her ability.
Mind-reading.
I leaned close and whispered, “What are you reading right now?”
Luna leaned right back and whispered in my ear, “Mommy is wondering what I’m reading.”
I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing.
This kid was dangerous.
And adorable.
Which honestly felt unfair.