The house Nathan had confined her in was quiet—too quiet. The kind of silence that pressed against the skin, whispering secrets. Lexi sat on the windowsill, her fingers idly tracing patterns on the glass. Outside, the compound stretched wide, guarded by men who thought their loyalty to Nathan made them untouchable.
She smiled faintly. Men and their arrogance. They never realized the sharpest blade wasn't steel but wit.
Nathan had left at dawn, summoned to lead a supply raid. His absence was a gift she had no intention of wasting.
Lexi slid off the sill, her bare feet soundless against the polished floor. She moved like a shadow, graceful and deliberate. Every corridor of Nathan's mansion was familiar now—she'd memorized them in the days of her "captivity." It wasn't captivity at all, not in her mind. It was rehearsal. For every lock, there was a key; for every guard, a blind spot.
Her steps brought her to a door she had noticed before but never tested. Heavy steel, out of place amidst polished wood and velvet drapery. Unlike the other doors, this one bore no ornamentation, no attempt at beauty. Only purpose. The moment she first saw it, Lexi had known: secrets lived behind that door.
Now, her lips curved. Secrets were her favorite kind of prey.
She knelt, running her fingers over the lock. Nathan's men thought themselves clever, but Lexi's mind worked in patterns, and locks were nothing more than puzzles begging to be solved. Within moments, she felt the mechanism give way beneath her nimble hands.
Click.
The sound was small, but to Lexi it was thunder. She pushed the door open. A cold draft rushed out, carrying the scent of metal, disinfectant, and something darker—decay.
The stairs beyond descended into shadow.
Lexi hesitated only a moment, then slipped inside, closing the door silently behind her. Her heart pounded, but not with fear. No, it was excitement. The thrill of stepping where she wasn't meant to.
The air grew colder as she descended, and the dim hum of machinery began to pulse through the walls. At the bottom, the corridor stretched long, lined with panels that glowed faintly green. She moved along, her fingers brushing the smooth walls, her eyes devouring everything.
Then she saw it.
Through a thick glass window, a very huge chamber opened up. Inside, steel tables gleamed under sterile lights. Restraints dangled from their sides, slick with stains that told stories words could not. Tubes and monitors hummed, feeding data into blinking screens. And in the far corner, chained to the wall, were many figures, men, women, children now reduced to monsters.
She moved around, observing until she saw her—
Tori.
Lexi froze, her eyes narrowing. The girl who once tormented 'her' in school, who relished in cruelty and mockery, was now reduced to a husk of herself. Tori's skin was pale, her veins darkened with corruption. Her eyes, milky and unfocused, glowed faintly like those of the infected. A chained zombie.
For a moment, Lexi stared. Her heart didn't twist, didn't ache. If anything, it settled with cruel satisfaction.
How fitting, she thought coldly. The bully turned beast.
Tori groaned, jerking against her chains as if sensing Lexi's presence. But Lexi's gaze remained steady, devoid of pity. "You reap what you sow," she whispered under her breath, before moving on.
The deeper she went, the more horrors revealed themselves. Rows of containment pods filled with twitching, half-human creatures. Needles, scalpels, fluids—tools not of healing but of transformation. She pieced it together swiftly: the government had not only known of the apocalypse—they had birthed it.
They were turning humans into high-level zombies. Weapons dressed in flesh.
Her breath caught, but not from fear. From clarity. This was bigger than she imagined. If she held this knowledge, if she used it right, she could turn the entire board upside down.
But fate, cruel as ever, never let her linger.
"Hey!"
The shout cracked the silence. A guard rounded the corner, his rifle raised, his eyes narrowing as they locked on her. For a split second, both froze. Then the alarm screamed, a shrill wail that rattled the walls. Red lights blazed, washing everything in blood.
Lexi's lips curled into a grin. "So much for stealth."
She ran.
Her feet pounded against the metal floor as shouts erupted behind her. Boots thundered in pursuit. Bullets clanged against walls, sparks flying. She darted through corridors, her mind racing, calculating each turn, each shadow, each second. The scent of gunpowder and steel filled her lungs.
Up ahead, light spilled—the exit. But the forest beyond was no salvation. She burst through the door and scaled through the high fence with a lot of efforts, into the trees, the night air sharp against her skin. The forest was alive with movement, guards spreading like wolves on a hunt.
Lexi didn't falter. She pushed harder, weaving through the trees, her breath steady even as her muscles screamed. Each branch that whipped her face, each root that snagged her foot, was just another obstacle in her game.
But then she reached a dead end, a cliff's edge, her smirk faltered.
The drop yawned beneath her, endless, the river below a ribbon of silver under the moonlight. The guards closed in behind her, their shouts and gunfire filling the air. And then—
"Lexi!"
His voice cut through the chaos.
Nathan.
He emerged from the trees, his face a storm. His chest heaved, sweat glistened on his brow, but his eyes—those eyes—burned with something that made her chest tighten against her will.
Fury. Betrayal. Desire. Pain.
"Why?" His voice was raw, broken, as he stepped toward her. "Why would you betray me like this?"
Lexi tilted her head, her lips curving though her heart raced. Even here, even now, she wore her mask. "Betrayal?" she echoed softly. "Nathan, darling, you make it sound so personal. I was curious. That's all."
"Curious?" His voice cracked, rising. His fists trembled at his sides. "Do you understand what you've done? If they know you saw, if they know you escaped—Lexi, they'll kill you. And I—" His throat tightened, strangling the words. "I can't protect you from this."
For a heartbeat, silence reigned. Their eyes locked.
Then Lexi smiled, wicked and calm. "Maybe I don't need protecting."
The words sliced him open. He took another step forward, desperation bleeding through his anger. "Don't you dare," he growled. "Don't you dare think of—"
But she was already stepping back, her heels at the edge. The wind tugged at her hair, the river's roar echoing below.
She knew what would happen if she was caught—even Nathan could do nothing to save her even if he wanted too.
She would rather jump than be a lab rat, she scanned the numbers of guns pointed at her.
"Nathan," she said softly, almost tenderly. For once, her mask cracked, showing something real in her eyes. "You were fun to play with."
And then she jumped.
"NO—"
His scream tore through the night as she fell, swallowed by the darkness.
His world crashed with her.