Chapter 8
Alejandro
The infected were always more dangerous after nightfall. Why that was, Alex couldn’t say. But experience had taught him that when darkness fell, you didn’t wander. You found shelter, you stayed quiet, and you prayed you weren’t caught out in the open when a horde of the Hollowed began to stir.
In daylight, the Hollowed were erratic, dangerous, and disorganized, but at night, they changed. They moved with purpose and they hunted in packs.
Alex had seen it enough times to know it wasn’t random.
There was always one of them at the center of their groups.
The leader was a bigger, faster, more vicious monster than the rest. And the others didn’t just follow it.
They obeyed. As if somehow, something in their warped, rotting minds recognized authority.
And they were getting smarter. In the early days, you could count on their clumsiness and their blind rage to slow them down, but now, they watched, learned, and adapted.
Alex didn’t know if it was evolution or something darker, but every night that passed, the Hollowed seemed a little less like mindless monsters and a little more like trained killers.
“You should probably be back there with her,” Myra whispered as they walked down a road less than a mile from the parking garage they planned to search. Her eyes remained fixed ahead, scanning the distance.
He glanced over his shoulder. Luci was still absorbing her surroundings, clutching the straps of her backpack while Luna paced at her side.
“Move up next to Grayson,” he called, his tone leaving no room for debate. He caught the roll of Myra’s eyes but didn’t comment, it had been her idea in the first place.
“Yeah, yeah, go be Mr. Lover Boy,” she shot back under her breath, quickening her pace just enough to bump into Grayson playfully as she caught up to him. Alex slowed until Luci could close the gap between them.
“Where are they?” Luci’s question came in a soft, almost trembling whisper.
“The Hollowed?” he asked. She gave a quick nod. “They’re out there,” he said, scanning the shadows between the collapsed storefronts. “They just prefer dark places.”
Luci’s brows furrowed, curiosity cutting through the anxiety in her eyes.
“Well,” she began, her voice just a touch louder now, “the virus embeds itself right above the occipital lobe. If that part of the brain is damaged or altered, it could make their eyes hypersensitive to light. Brightness might be painful for them, that’s probably why. ”
Alex glanced sideways at her. She was still gripping her straps and walking cautiously but there was something in her tone, a certainty that made the explanation feel less like speculation and more like truth.
He really did think she might be the brightest person he’d ever met.
“You know what? If you say so, then I believe it,” Alex said with an easy shrug.
The confession slipped out without hesitation.
Even if he did have the education to challenge her explanation, he knew he probably wouldn’t have bothered.
In truth, he liked the way she sounded when she talked about these things — so confident and certain, like she belonged in this strange new world.
Luci chuckled quietly under her breath and glanced at him, a flicker of amusement flashing in her eyes. “I guess I just thought it would be a little scarier out here but the fresh air’s nice. There’s something kind of freeing about seeing the city like this. No more tech, no more Triclopyr — ”
“No more what?”
“Oh—Triclopyr,” Luci clarified, adjusting her grip on the straps of her backpack.
“It’s a chemical the city used to spray everywhere to kill anything green — the trees, bushes and even the vines.
They thought it made things look cleaner.
But it was awful for people’s health. Not that they cared.
More sickness meant more patients, and more patients meant more money. ”
Alex’s jaw tightened slightly. “Yeah, well, they’re still obsessed with keeping things clean.
” His gaze drifted ahead to the cracked sidewalks and the rusting bridge they’d soon cross.
“At the start, it took us forever to clear the bodies of those who had died but never turned. They said it was something about keeping the disease from spreading. I didn’t understand it back then.
After seeing enough infected, I realized death and disease aren’t something you can keep out.
They’re already here, and they’re not going anywhere. ”
Luci lingered on his words and in that pause, Alex realized just how differently they saw the world.
She still carried a spark of hope. She believed in the possibility of restoration, of a cure strong enough to banish the Hollowed entirely.
He had always admired that about her. She was relentless, the kind of person who could coax a vaccine out of thin air if it meant saving even one life.
But in the back of his mind, he wasn’t sure the world they once knew would ever come back.
The Hollowed were everywhere — practically woven into the fabric of this new reality.
You could fight them, camouflage yourself and hide among them, even outwit them for a time.
But erase them completely? That was a dream he didn’t dare believe in.
Still, it broke something inside him to think of the moment she’d have to face that truth.
“We can still try,” he said gently, his voice carrying a quiet conviction meant for her alone. “The world can be ours again.”
She gave a small nod, and Alex didn’t press further. For now, letting her hold on to her hope felt like the only mercy he could give.
They moved in silence, boots pressing softly into the cracked pavement.
They couldn’t have been more than a mile away from their destination when suddenly, Luna broke formation.
She padded ahead of Luci, her ears high and muscles taut.
She came to a halt several steps in front of Grayson and Myra.
Without a sound she sat on her hind legs, alerting them of the presence of the infected while every fiber of her body remained rigid.
Alex’s gaze sharpened as he tried to find the Hollowed that Luna had scented. Grayson reacted first, one hand shooting up to halt the group while his stance hardened. In perfect sync, all movement ceased.
“It’s okay,” Alex mouthed to Luci. His voice didn’t carry, but he tried to reassure her with his gaze.
Ahead of him, Myra’s rifle rose almost at the exact moment his did.
It was a testament to their years spent fighting back-to-back long before the world had rotted.
In tandem, their breathing slowed and their fingers brushed the triggers.
On the surface, the street looked clear.
There were no shifting shadows or dragging feet, but Luna had never been wrong before.
If she scented the Hollowed, they were here somewhere, just waiting to catch them off guard.
A dry, rasping moan tore through the still air followed by another.
Bodies began to emerge from the shadows between two crumbling buildings. There were three…no, five of them and more were coming. Their pale, torn faces lifted toward the group, their blood shot eyes landing on fresh prey.
“Contact!” Alex barked, his voice snapping like a whip. Gunfire split the air a heartbeat later as bullets shredded through the closest Hollowed. Myra dropped one with a clean shot to the skull, while Grayson’s rifle went off, dispatching another.
“Parking garage! Move — now!” Alex ordered.
He could feel Luci’s pulse racing as he grabbed her wrist and shoved her forward. She stumbled, barely finding her footing as chaos erupted behind her.
Luna snarled and snapped at an infected that lunged too close.
Another round cracked and ricocheted off the buildings as they ran, and Alex fired over his shoulder to buy them a few seconds of breathing room.
But the Hollowed didn’t slow. The wounded ones crawled on injured limbs while the uninjured sprinted with animal-like ferocity.
They ran and shot until the parking garage entrance came into view no more than what felt like a few impossible strides ahead. But the pounding footsteps behind them promised that their safety was still not guaranteed.
“Go, go, go!” Alex’s voice was raw now, his weapon barking until the magazine clicked dry. He ditched it for his sidearm without a second thought.
The stench of rot was everywhere. Luci didn’t dare look back, but he knew she could hear them. The guttural snarls were closing in even as their little group burst into the dim interior of the parking garage.
Paxton and Sable fell into formation without hesitation, moving like a well-oiled machine to ensure nothing could come at them from behind. Up front, Myra, Grayson, and Alex poured round after round into the infected still closing in, but the hoard was relentless.
Luci was bent over in between them, still too winded to speak. Alex was relieved she didn’t look too terrified. Still, the realization that, in moments like this, he couldn’t watch her and the enemy at the same time hit him hard. The thought alone made his pulse spike.
But it was too late now. Whether they pushed forward or fell back, Alex knew one thing. If they didn’t make it to Arizona, he would lose her but if they made it then maybe she could be free of the responsibilities she’d never asked for.
Myra’s final shot rang out, dropping the last Hollowed. The group didn’t relax immediately. They held formation for a moment longer, scanning the rooftops and shadows between broken cars. One mistake out there could mean all of their deaths.
Only when the silence truly settled did Grayson lower his rifle. He glanced over, a faint grin cutting through the tension, and said to Luci, “You just survived your first ambush.” His tone was almost playful.
Luci straightened just enough to speak, clutching at her chest. “Fuck, they’re fast.”
Alex couldn’t help but laugh, mostly because he’d almost never heard her swear aside from when he’d quite literally broken into her apartment a few days earlier.
“Oooh, she knows bad words,” Myra teased, a burst of laughter spilling out from her. “What would the Institute have to say about that?”
“You do realize I’m more than just an Institute doctor, right?” Luci replied, her tone flat as she cut through the humor and snuffed out every smile in the group.
A quiet tension settled over them until Grayson broke it. “We’ll clear this floor. You two, do whatever you need to.” He motioned the others ahead.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Alex leaned toward her. “You okay?” he whispered.
“I’m useless out here,” Luci whispered. Her eyes skirted away until Alex caught her chin and forced her to meet his gaze.
He could see she meant it. He’d warned her before about how brutal the outside world had become, but words could never prepare someone for the truth. Still, Alex knew she was stronger than she believed, he just needed her to see it.
“You’re not,” he said firmly. “You’re learning. You stayed in formation. You ran. You did fine, Luci.”
“You’re lying,” she said, but there was the faintest spark in her eyes.
“I’m not,” Alex responded with a certainty in his tone.
“I wouldn’t lie to you.” His gaze shifted toward the others before returning to her.
In a swift, almost instinctive motion, he dipped his head and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.
“It’s okay,” he added softly. “We can trust everyone here. They won’t say a word. ”
She seemed to believe him until Sable and Myra let out matching whistles and a round of laughter, shattering the fragile smile on Luci’s face.
“They hate me,” she whispered, and despite Alex’s best attempt at keeping a straight face, a chuckle escaped him.
“They don’t,” he assured her, leaning in closer. “This is just how they bond. They’re teasing you because they like you. I know your world is serious, and ours is too. But out here, it’s different. You can give it back to them, they’ll respect you for it.”
Luci wasn’t convinced. “No, I’m pretty sure Myra hates me.”
Alex smirked. “Myra hates everyone but I think she hates you a little less than you think.” He brushed a bead of sweat from her forehead and lowered his voice. “C’mon, let’s go find a car. The faster we move, the less chance we have of another ambush.”
Luci gave him a half-hearted nod and tried to mimic a smile as she fell in step beside him. Despite all her doubts about being useless, she had survived her first ambush. And the first time was always the hardest.
The second time, you knew exactly what you were running from.