▶ Zombie Countdown Surviving Till The Very End - Full EP (2026) - FULL ENGSUB [Full Movie] — Full Episode
Watch the full short drama. New episodes every day — follow drama.karma for more.
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Watch the full short drama. New episodes every day — follow drama.karma for more.
#shortdrama #fulldrama #fullepisode #microdrama #englishsub #romance #ceo #billionaire #werewolf #revenge #dailymotion #fyp #viral #trending #dramakarma
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00:16:54I glanced at it, glanced at Hugh, and let it go
00:16:57I didn't, and that was the point, let it go
00:16:59I watched the camera feed of the backfield
00:17:01The dirt of the new grave was still wet
00:17:04Beyond it, the wire hummed
00:17:06Beyond the wire, the city was quiet for the first time in his memory
00:17:10Even the dogs were not barking anywhere
00:17:13The compound goes silent
00:17:16The compound stays silent
00:17:20The compound stays silent for a very long time
00:17:25The first month of the world ending was, in some ways, the easiest
00:17:29The compound settled into a rhythm
00:17:31Diane managed the tents in the first ring
00:17:33The chickens, the goats, the four pregnant cows
00:17:36Marlene logged the camera feeds and the lake's water samples by hand
00:17:39Chloe and Faye sat in the radio room with two old laptops
00:17:42And the satellite uplink Roger had wired through the watchtower
00:17:45Talking to anyone they could find
00:17:46There were a lot of people, at first
00:17:48A woman in Phoenix who had locked herself in a parking garage with a generator
00:17:52Three brothers in a Wyoming basement
00:17:54A man and his husband in a converted school bus on a mountain
00:17:57A teenager whose voice came through clear and small from somewhere they could not place
00:18:00Faye and Chloe wrote them all down
00:18:02They told them about masks
00:18:04About sealed doors
00:18:05In the second week, the woman in Phoenix stopped responding
00:18:09In the third week, the brothers in Wyoming sent a final message that just said
00:18:12Time's there at the door, and then nothing
00:18:15In the fourth week, the teenager said times, thank you times, and went silent
00:18:19By the end of the first month, the chat windows were a graveyard
00:18:23Chloe stopped logging in
00:18:24She said it was because her chest was tight
00:18:27She said the air was making her cough
00:18:29She said it was not
00:18:31It was not
00:18:33I went down to the basement on the night of the 30th day and ran the inventory
00:18:37Three years of grain
00:18:38Two years of meat at current consumption
00:18:41Eighteen months of medication if no one got sick
00:18:43A water filter that would last a decade
00:18:46Eight people
00:18:48Including Big Sam if he ever came back
00:18:50I sat in the cold blue light of the storage room
00:18:53And looked at the math and thought about Brett Marlowe's daughter
00:18:55And could not feel my hands
00:18:58Survivors vanish, one by one
00:19:02Two years of rations
00:19:04Maybe
00:19:05Chloe coughed at the breakfast table on day 32
00:19:08Once
00:19:09Twice
00:19:10Three times, a little longer the third time
00:19:12With her napkin pressed to her mouth and her shoulders rising
00:19:14When she lowered the napkin, she gave the smile she always gave
00:19:17And folded the napkin neatly so no one could see the inside
00:19:19Hugh saw it
00:19:21Hugh did not look up from his plate
00:19:22I did not move
00:19:23I put another forkful of eggs into his mouth
00:19:26And chewed and swallowed and put the fork down
00:19:28How long have you been coughing?
00:19:31A couple of days
00:19:32It's nothing
00:19:33The air's dry down here
00:19:35How long, Chloe?
00:19:39Since Tuesday
00:19:40Faye looked at Kane
00:19:42I looked at Roger
00:19:43Roger set his coffee down very carefully
00:19:44Sweetheart, eat
00:19:45You barely eat
00:19:46I'm fine, Mrs. Sutton
00:19:47Look at me
00:19:50Chloe looked at me
00:19:52The whites of her eyes were the color of clean paper
00:19:54The skin under her jaw was the same skin it had always been
00:19:58There was small thing
00:19:59There was yet that you could tired point smile
00:20:03Stairs
00:20:05Hugh
00:20:07Now, please
00:20:08She followed me out of the dining room
00:20:10The door clicked behind them
00:20:13The room stayed quiet for a long time
00:20:18It could be anything
00:20:19Down here
00:20:20It could be the ducks
00:20:21It could be
00:20:21Yeah
00:20:22Roger
00:20:25It could be
00:20:29I stood up and went to the basement
00:20:31And unfolded the napkin
00:20:33Chloe had left on the table
00:20:36I flattened it under the desk light
00:20:39There was a small dark spot in the center of the cloth
00:20:41The shape of a comma
00:20:43The color of nothing he wanted to see
00:20:45I folded the napkin again
00:20:46I went and put it in the medical waste bin
00:20:48And did not say a word
00:20:49My stomach drops
00:20:52By the third day
00:20:53The lines were under her jaw
00:20:55Chloe lay in the small back bedroom on the second floor
00:20:58With a thermometer in her mouth
00:20:59And Hugh on the chair beside the bed
00:21:01His rifle across his knees
00:21:02I had not slept
00:21:04I had not eaten since lunch the day before
00:21:06My eyes had a shine to them I recognized from the last time
00:21:09In the parking lot outside the metro
00:21:11When I had watched his own life walk into Faye's mouth
00:21:14The veins ran from her clavicle up the side of her throat and disappeared under her ear
00:21:18Black
00:21:19Not blue
00:21:20Black with a faint purple bloom around the deep ones like ink moving through paper
00:21:25I forced myself to stand in the doorway with a tray
00:21:30I forced myself to stand in the doorway with a tray
00:21:31Try
00:21:31I'm not really
00:21:33Try
00:21:35She drank a spoonful
00:21:37She kept it down
00:21:38Her hand did not shake yet
00:21:41Get out Kane
00:21:43Hugh
00:21:44Get out
00:21:45I want to talk to her
00:21:50I stepped back and shut the door
00:21:53I stood in the hallway with his hand on the wood and he listened
00:21:56I did not mean to
00:21:57I did not move
00:21:58I could not make out the words
00:22:04It did not matter what the words were
00:22:10After a while Faye spoke
00:22:11Almost a whisper
00:22:12How long Kane?
00:22:14A week
00:22:15Maybe less
00:22:16And then?
00:22:18Then she changes
00:22:19Then she's not Chloe anymore
00:22:21Faye nodded against his shoulder
00:22:23She did not say anything else
00:22:25Inside the room
00:22:27Hugh started to cry
00:22:31Hugh refuses to leave the room
00:22:35On day 36
00:22:36Hugh's voice came over the watchtower radio at 614 in the morning
00:22:39Kane
00:22:39Up here
00:22:40Now
00:22:40I was in the basement reviewing the water filtration logs
00:22:42I set the clepboard down and took the doors opened on cold grey dawn light
00:22:45Hugh was at the east wall of the watchtower with the long telescope braced in the slot
00:22:48His eye against the cup
00:22:49Look
00:22:50I looked
00:22:50The eastern horizon where the city lay
00:22:52Where the river curved
00:22:53Where the avenues had been
00:22:53Was not grey
00:22:54Not still
00:22:54Moving
00:22:55A long dark wave was crawling across the floodwinter
00:22:57From this distance it had the texture of a swarm of insects on a gin floor of grain
00:23:00Pouring through a hand
00:23:01It moved at a walking pace
00:23:02And it was a half mile wide
00:23:03And where the light cut at the wave glittered
00:23:05I lowered the telescope
00:23:06My mouth had gone dry
00:23:09How many?
00:23:11I lost count
00:23:12At 5,000
00:23:12How long till they hit the wire?
00:23:14Two hours
00:23:16Wake everyone
00:23:17Hugh keyed the all call
00:23:18All hands
00:23:19Suit up
00:23:19Now
00:23:20This is not a drill
00:23:21The watchtower radio crackled with Roger's voice from the basement
00:23:24How bad?
00:23:26Bad
00:23:27How bad son?
00:23:28Bring everything we've got
00:23:30Below them
00:23:31And Faye came out into the front yard with a coffee in her hand
00:23:33And looked up at the watchtower and saw the look on my face
00:23:35The coffee fell out of her hand
00:23:37Marlene came up from the stairs into the watchtower behind them
00:23:39Oh god
00:23:40Oh god
00:23:41Hugh
00:23:41What is
00:23:41What is that?
00:23:42There's no end to it
00:23:44I see it
00:23:45I kept his eye to the scope
00:23:46My hand was steady on the brace
00:23:48The corner of his mouth lifted in something that was not a smile
00:23:52Hi Chloe
00:23:53You're coming
00:23:55How many
00:23:56Too many
00:23:58The thing in the middle of the swarm did not walk like the others
00:24:00I found it through the scope 20 minutes later
00:24:02When the front edge of the horde had closed to within a thousand yards of the outer wire
00:24:05The infected at the front shumbered
00:24:06They moved in the broken twisted gate I remembered from the sidewalk outside Faye's apartment building
00:24:10Last time
00:24:11They tilt a thing in the center
00:24:12Did not tilt
00:24:12It walked
00:24:13It walked with its head up
00:24:14It walked with a deliberate measured pace
00:24:16And the swarm around it broke and reformed around it the way a school of fish breaks around a shark
00:24:20Not it was a head taller than the tallest of them
00:24:21It was naked not grey green
00:24:23It skinned the green of mold
00:24:24The green of new leaves
00:24:25The green of moss in a clean stream
00:24:27It wore green skin like a coat
00:24:29I lowered the scope
00:24:29I could not feel the cold of the morning
00:24:31I could not feel my hands
00:24:32What?
00:24:34Look in the middle
00:24:35Hugh looked
00:24:35For a long moment Hugh did not breathe
00:24:37When he spoke his voice was something I had never heard from him in 20 years of friendship
00:24:42What is that Cain?
00:24:43A queen
00:24:44A what?
00:24:45A queen
00:24:45A mother
00:24:46The thing that runs them
00:24:47There's one in every city
00:24:48More in the big ones
00:24:48I read about them the last time
00:24:50Never saw one myself
00:24:52Until now
00:24:53Until now
00:24:55Roger's voice came over the radio
00:24:57What is it son?
00:24:58Dad
00:24:59There's a green one
00:25:00In the middle
00:25:00Tall
00:25:01It walks like a person
00:25:03Roger said nothing
00:25:04For five seconds
00:25:05Alright
00:25:06Tell your mother to load the magazines
00:25:10She's already loading
00:25:11Tell her I love her
00:25:13She knows
00:25:14Tell her anyway
00:25:19What the hell is that?
00:25:23The suits hung on hooks in the basement like something out of a museum that had not opened yet
00:25:26Roger had built them
00:25:27Silk inner later
00:25:28Chicken wire over canvas
00:25:29A steel exo did along the spine and females to take the weight
00:25:31Helmets of whelps and jigsaw line that ran 10 minutes before refill
00:25:34Gloves with nail mesh
00:25:35Boots with steel toes
00:25:36They were ugly
00:25:37They were heavy
00:25:37They worked
00:25:38Diane handed them out one at a time without speaking
00:25:40The way she had handed out plates at Sunday dinner for 40 years
00:25:43Hugh helped Chloe into hers
00:25:44I did not need to
00:25:45Her fever had been climbing for six hours
00:25:47Her hands shook on the buckles
00:25:49The veins under her nose had branched
00:25:51She tried to laugh when he tightened the chest strap
00:25:53Night in shining armor
00:25:55Damn right
00:26:00I'm coming up
00:26:01No
00:26:03I'm part of this
00:26:04I'm coming up
00:26:06Hugh did not argue
00:26:08Faye loaded magazines on the dining room table
00:26:10The motion of her hands was small and exact and would not stop
00:26:13Press
00:26:14Press
00:26:14Click
00:26:15Press
00:26:16Faye
00:26:16Don't
00:26:17I stood beside her and watched her do it and did not interrupt
00:26:19I love you
00:26:20I said don't
00:26:21I have to say it Faye
00:26:22Let me say it
00:26:23Faye stopped loading
00:26:24She looked up at me
00:26:25Her face was pale
00:26:26Her hair was tied back
00:26:28She was beautiful in a way that hurt his chest
00:26:30Then say it after
00:26:31I kissed her on the forehead
00:26:33Stay inside
00:26:34I won't
00:26:35Then stay close
00:26:35I will
00:26:39Roger came in with his suit half on and a rifle in his hand
00:26:42They're at 600 yards
00:26:43I fastened his helmet
00:26:45The clock over the basement door read 842
00:26:48Then it's time
00:26:52I picked up my rifle and walked toward the stairs
00:26:59The first wave hit the outer wire at 851
00:27:01Roger and Diane were on the watchtower with the heavy gun and the rocket tubes
00:27:04Hugh and Derek were on the second floor windows with rifles
00:27:06I was at the inner gate of the third round with Big Sam's submachine gun across my chest and his
00:27:10back against the steel
00:27:10Faye was on the master plane on the basement
00:27:12Both hands on the high voltage breakers watching 9 camera feeds at once
00:27:15Roger's voice came over the helmet radio
00:27:17Front edge 30 yards from the outer wire
00:27:19Permission to fire
00:27:20I keyed the mic
00:27:22Wait
00:27:23Kane
00:27:2420
00:27:2520
00:27:26Now
00:27:26The rocket left the watchtower and crossed the field in a short white line
00:27:30The first impact opened a hole in the swarm the size of a small pond
00:27:3360 bodies came apart
00:27:34The earth lifted and dropped
00:27:36The infected at the edges of the crater kept walking
00:27:38On fire
00:27:39Into the wire
00:27:40The wire took them
00:27:41A blue arc whipped along the outer fence with a sound I felt in my teeth
00:27:44The first rank
00:27:45140 bodies flew backward into the second rank in a single rolling spasm
00:27:49The fence held
00:27:50Freeload
00:27:50Freeloading
00:27:51Hugh's rifle started slow calm rhythm from the second floor
00:27:54One shot
00:27:55Pause
00:27:55One shot
00:27:56Pause
00:27:56I was hitting hedge at 300 yards
00:27:58The horrid did not slow
00:27:59A second rocket
00:28:00Then a third
00:28:01Two more craters in the field
00:28:02A second flash on the wire
00:28:04The wire held
00:28:05I stood in the gate with the submachine gun and watched the tide come on
00:28:08And in the middle of it
00:28:09Walking
00:28:09The green thing tilted its head
00:28:11It did not look at the bodies of its children
00:28:13It did not flinch at the explosions
00:28:15It looked at the watchtower
00:28:17It looked
00:28:18At Kane
00:28:19Through 900 yards of smoke and screaming meat
00:28:22With eyes I could not see
00:28:24It looked at me
00:28:24It opened its mouth
00:28:26The wire flared blue
00:28:29The horde did not stop
00:28:32The mother walked through the wire as if it were not there
00:28:35The blue arc hit her shoulders
00:28:36Ran down her green skin
00:28:37And went out
00:28:38She did not flinch
00:28:39She did not speed up
00:28:39She did not slow
00:28:40Her stride did not change
00:28:41She walked through 6,000 volts of fence the way a woman walks through tall grass
00:28:45Behind her the swarm came on as if a door had been opened
00:28:49She's through
00:28:50I see her
00:28:52Falling back to the second ring
00:28:53Faye kill the outer wire we're gonna lose it
00:28:56The basement intercom crackled
00:28:58Faye's voice was tight
00:28:59Outer wire down
00:29:00The hum of the outer fence dropped out of the air
00:29:02Half a second later it stopped mattering
00:29:04Because the second wave had piled into the cratered grass
00:29:06And the bodies were 30 deep against the steel posts
00:29:08And the steel posts were starting to lean
00:29:09Mother's 200 yards out
00:29:10Track her
00:29:11Don't engage
00:29:12Why?
00:29:12Because if you tag her with a round and she doesn't die
00:29:14Every infected on this planet's gonna know where we live
00:29:16Copy
00:29:18Roger sent the second rocket from the watchtower
00:29:20The crater opened where the mother was
00:29:21And where the mother was she also was not
00:29:23She had stepped around it
00:29:24Three feet sideways before the missile arrived
00:29:26The blast caught a hundred of her children
00:29:28And emptied them onto the dirt
00:29:29She walked on through the smoke without breaking pace
00:29:32The mother walked
00:29:34Roger's voice came through the radio
00:29:36Almost calm
00:29:37Fall back
00:29:39The yard between the second and third rings filled with the dead
00:29:42Bodies climbed the fence on bodies
00:29:43The wire took them in arcing, shivering pulses
00:29:45The bodies kept coming
00:29:46I stood at the third ring gate with my back to the inner wall
00:29:48And emptied a magazine and it emptied another
00:29:50My ears had stopped registering individual shots
00:29:51My shoulder was numb
00:29:52I was sweating into his oxygen helmet
00:29:54The yard between the second and third rings filled with the dead
00:29:57Copy
00:29:5881
00:29:58Watch it, Faye
00:30:01Bring the launchers down
00:30:02They're inside the rocket arc
00:30:03On it
00:30:04Hugh came down off the second floor at a run
00:30:06With two propane tanks under his arms
00:30:08And a roll of decod around his neck
00:30:10I had been a high school gym teacher
00:30:12Before I had been anyone's best friend
00:30:14I had no business knowing what to do with this
00:30:16I moved like I had been born to do it
00:30:19Kane
00:30:20Open the gate, I'm going through
00:30:22No
00:30:23I'm gonna set him in the second ring
00:30:24And crack him when she's on top
00:30:26No
00:30:28Kane
00:30:29I'm not asking
00:30:31I keyed the gate
00:30:32Hugh slipped through into the kill zone
00:30:34With two improvised mods
00:30:36I was back inside in 40 seconds
00:30:38I locked the gate behind me with shaking hands
00:30:40Mother at 60 yards
00:30:44Detonate
00:30:45Hugh hit the trigger
00:30:46The yard between the rings erupted in two white hot blooms
00:30:51Bodies came apart in pieces
00:30:53Her left arm was missing from the elbow
00:30:56It was already growing back
00:30:58I felt deep in my bones
00:31:01His stomach try to climb out of his throat
00:31:03Did you see that?
00:31:06I saw it
00:31:07Tell me you saw it Kane
00:31:09I saw it Hugh G
00:31:11Hugh laughed
00:31:12It was not a laugh
00:31:13It was the sound a laugh made
00:31:16The yard fills with bodies
00:31:20Faye
00:31:21How's the wire holding?
00:31:2267% and dropping
00:31:24We've got two big arcs left
00:31:25Save them
00:31:26I want them when she's on the third wire
00:31:28Copy
00:31:30The second ring's posts began to lean
00:31:32It happened slowly at first
00:31:33A tilt at the south corner
00:31:35The steel bowing under the weight of so many bodies pressing into it
00:31:37Then a snap
00:31:38Then the south span went down in a long, slow ripple
00:31:41And the dead came over the top of it like water over a dam
00:31:44Second ring is breached
00:31:45South span
00:31:46South span is down
00:31:47Mother's still tracking the watchtower
00:31:49She's not tracking the watchtower, Dad
00:31:51What?
00:31:52Look up
00:31:54I looked up
00:31:55Hugh was on the roof
00:31:57He had gone up the watchtower stairs while no one was watching
00:31:59He stood at the parapet with the long rifle on its bipod
00:32:02And his elbow on the wall
00:32:03And he had taken his oxygen helmet off
00:32:05And his cheek was on the stock
00:32:06And his eye was at the scope
00:32:07And he was not aiming at the storm
00:32:09He was aiming at the bedroom window
00:32:11He keyed the radio
00:32:11Hugh
00:32:13Hugh
00:32:13Stay off the channel, Kane
00:32:15Hugh
00:32:17Look at me, Hugh
00:32:17Get back inside
00:32:18She woke up
00:32:20About a minute ago
00:32:22She said my name
00:32:24And she said it again
00:32:26Different
00:32:26Hugh
00:32:29She's looking for me, Kane
00:32:31I started for the watchtower stair
00:32:33Don't you dare come up here, Kane Sutton
00:32:35You stay down there
00:32:37You do your job
00:32:38I stopped on the third step
00:32:41My hands stayed on the rail
00:32:42I did not climb
00:32:44I hear Chloe screaming downstairs
00:32:48I reached the second floor hallway
00:32:50With my rifle still slanged
00:32:51And the smell of gunpowder in his hair
00:32:52The bedroom door was open
00:32:53Chloe was on the bed
00:32:54Her hair was down, shoulders were against the headboard
00:32:56Her jaw was open at an angle
00:32:57A jaw is not supposed to open
00:32:58The veins under her skin were no longer black
00:32:59They were the color of an old battery
00:33:00Her eyes were full white
00:33:01Her hands had crossed in her lap
00:33:03And were still
00:33:03The thing on the bed was not Chloe
00:33:06She turned her head
00:33:07The neck did not move the way a neck moves
00:33:10She saw me
00:33:10She smiled
00:33:12I raised the rifle
00:33:13I had told myself for four days
00:33:15That when this moment came
00:33:16I would do it
00:33:16I had practiced
00:33:17I had walked through it in my head
00:33:18I had told myself that what was on the bed
00:33:19Would not be Chloe
00:33:20That it would just be the body
00:33:21The part that was Chloe was already gone
00:33:22The thing on the bed smiled with Chloe's mouth
00:33:24The rifle did not stay me
00:33:25Hugh's voice came from the doorway behind me
00:33:28Kane, out
00:33:30Hugh
00:33:30I said out
00:33:31Hugh was eye the doorway in his armor
00:33:33With his helmet off
00:33:34And a half-zip tactical vest over his suit
00:33:36The vest had ten clips on it
00:33:38The clips were not magazines
00:33:39Hugh
00:33:40No
00:33:41I'll walk her out
00:33:42Hughie
00:33:43She's right there, Kane
00:33:45Look at her
00:33:45She's right there
00:33:46I looked
00:33:47The thing on the bed
00:33:49Was looking past me
00:33:50At the doorway
00:33:51At Hugh
00:33:51Her smile changed
00:33:53Hugh stepped past me into the room
00:33:54He held out his hand
00:33:55The thing on the bed
00:33:56Put her hand in his without standing
00:33:58Come on, baby
00:34:00Hugh smiled at her
00:34:01The same smile
00:34:01The real one
00:34:02The same smile
00:34:03He had smiled at her every day for six years
00:34:05I raised the gun
00:34:05I can't
00:34:06I'll walk her out
00:34:09Hugh walked Chloe down the stairs
00:34:11I went with them as far as the basement door
00:34:13Roger met them there
00:34:14With my rifle sung
00:34:15And his face old
00:34:16Diane was behind me with both hands pressed over her mouth
00:34:18Facey was at the master panel
00:34:20Marlene and Derek were not in the room
00:34:23Hugh
00:34:23Don't, Roger
00:34:25There has to be another way
00:34:27There isn't
00:34:31Hugh stopped at the door
00:34:33I turned to Kane
00:34:34Open the gate when she gets on the wire
00:34:36Cut the power
00:34:38I want her to have a clear line
00:34:39Hugh
00:34:40One more thing
00:34:43Yeah
00:34:43When the mother comes in close
00:34:45When she leans down to look
00:34:47You put a rocket through her chest, Kane Sutton
00:34:49You put it right through her green ribs
00:34:51And you do not miss
00:34:53I won't miss
00:34:55Promise me
00:34:57I promise you
00:34:58Hugh nodded
00:35:00I looked at Faye
00:35:01I looked at Roger
00:35:02I looked at Diane
00:35:03I looked
00:35:04Last
00:35:04On the woman beside me
00:35:05With the white eyes
00:35:06And the wrong jaw
00:35:07Hey baby
00:35:08The thing in Chloe's body
00:35:09Tilted her head against his shoulder
00:35:11Let's go for a walk, sweetheart
00:35:13I opened the door
00:35:14I stepped out into the air talk
00:35:16The thing in Chloe's body
00:35:18Followed me without resistance
00:35:19Her hand in his
00:35:20The outer door cycled
00:35:22Cold morning came in
00:35:23Full of smoke
00:35:24And the smell of meat
00:35:25Roger turned to Kane
00:35:26I could not speak
00:35:28Faye
00:35:30Cut the inner wire
00:35:32Kane
00:35:32Cut it
00:35:33Now
00:35:36The inner wire died
00:35:37Hugh walked Chloe
00:35:38Through the gate
00:35:39And out into the yard
00:35:40Between the rings
00:35:41And the swarm parted
00:35:42Around the green woman
00:35:43In the middle
00:35:44And the green woman
00:35:45Stopped walking
00:35:46And turned
00:35:47And looked at Hugh
00:35:48And Chloe
00:35:49And her green head
00:35:51Tilted with curiosity
00:35:52Hugh kept walking
00:35:54I squeezed Chloe's hand
00:35:56Once at 30 yards
00:35:58I pulled the first pin
00:36:00At 20
00:36:0210 pins
00:36:0310 chances
00:36:05I was on the watchtower
00:36:07With the rocket on my shoulder
00:36:08When Hugh pulled the second pin
00:36:09The mother was leaning down
00:36:10She was reaching out
00:36:11A long green hand
00:36:12Almost gentle
00:36:13Toward the man and the woman
00:36:14Walking up to her
00:36:14In the wreckage of the yard
00:36:15Her face had no expression
00:36:17It was watching Hugh's eyes
00:36:19Hi
00:36:19The third pin
00:36:20Look at me
00:36:21The fourth pin
00:36:22Right here
00:36:24The mother looked
00:36:25The fifth
00:36:26Sixth
00:36:26Seventh
00:36:27Eighth
00:36:27Ninth pins
00:36:28Hugh let go of Chloe's hand
00:36:31I winked at her
00:36:32The tenth pin
00:36:34The world went white
00:36:35The blast picked up the yard
00:36:37And put it down somewhere else
00:36:38It picked up the second rain posts
00:36:39And folded them
00:36:40It picked up 200 infected
00:36:41At the front of the swarm
00:36:41And turned them into a cloud
00:36:42Of blood vapor
00:36:43That hung in the air
00:36:43And did not fall
00:36:44It picked up the green woman
00:36:45And lifted her off her feet
00:36:46For the first time
00:36:46In any record I had ever heard of
00:36:48She was already healing
00:36:49I fired
00:36:50The last rocket left his shoulder
00:36:52With a single hard cough
00:36:53And crossed the yard
00:36:55In a flat line
00:36:55And went into the green woman
00:36:56Where her sternum had been
00:36:57Before Hugh's grenades
00:36:58Had taken it apart
00:36:59And it did not come out
00:37:00The other side
00:37:01It detonated inside her
00:37:03The green skin
00:37:04Came apart in petals
00:37:06She made a sound
00:37:07I would hear
00:37:08For the rest of my life
00:37:09And
00:37:10She did not make any sound
00:37:12Then there was no green
00:37:14Where she had been
00:37:15Then the swarm
00:37:16Every infected
00:37:17Within a half mile
00:37:18Stopped
00:37:18All at once
00:37:19As if a wire
00:37:21Had been cut
00:37:22They turned
00:37:23Slowly
00:37:24In unison
00:37:25Away from the compound
00:37:26And began to walk back
00:37:27Toward the city
00:37:29I fell to his knees
00:37:30On the watchtower
00:37:32I couldn't
00:37:33God
00:37:33I couldn't be
00:37:35A purple rain
00:37:36Began to fall
00:37:37Fine
00:37:37Wet
00:37:38And acid cold
00:37:39In the wet ash
00:37:40Where Hugh had been standing
00:37:41There was nothing left
00:37:45I came up from the dark
00:37:46A week later
00:37:47The light hurt
00:37:47The ceiling was the ceiling
00:37:49Of his old bedroom
00:37:50There was a bag of saline
00:37:51On a hook
00:37:51There was a small plastic clip
00:37:52On his finger
00:37:53My chest hurt
00:37:54With a hurt that was new
00:37:54The deep splintered hurt
00:37:56Of ribs that had been broken
00:37:57And were trying to remember
00:37:58How to be ribs
00:37:58I could not raise my arms
00:37:59Diane was beside the bed
00:38:01Her hair was uncombed
00:38:04He's awake
00:38:05Her hands held his hand
00:38:07Faye was in the doorway
00:38:08In two seconds
00:38:09She was crying
00:38:10Before she got to the bed
00:38:11You stupid
00:38:12Stupid
00:38:13Stupid
00:38:13Stupid
00:38:14I'm sorry
00:38:16You stupid
00:38:17Stupid
00:38:18She climbed up beside me
00:38:20And pressed her face
00:38:21Into his shoulder
00:38:22And stopped trying to talk
00:38:23I lay there a long time
00:38:25Before he asked
00:38:27You
00:38:29Diane could not speak
00:38:32He didn't come back
00:38:33Baby
00:38:34I closed my eyes
00:38:35The tears went into his hair
00:38:39How long have I been out?
00:38:41Eight days
00:38:43Where is everyone?
00:38:45Your mom's downstairs
00:38:46Marley and Derek are next room
00:38:48Your dad's on the watchtower
00:38:50Faye
00:38:51They're all alive Kane
00:38:53We're all still here
00:38:55I held that for a long minute
00:38:57I didn't
00:38:58And that was the point
00:38:59Deserve it
00:39:02I took it anyway
00:39:03Roger appeared in the doorway
00:39:05I looked at Kane
00:39:06My jaw worked once
00:39:10Welcome back son
00:39:12Dad
00:39:15Hugh saved us
00:39:18I know
00:39:19We had a service
00:39:20Faye said the words
00:39:23Thank you
00:39:25When you can stand
00:39:27I want to walk the perimeter with you
00:39:29Yeah
00:39:31Take a day
00:39:33Hell take two
00:39:36I left
00:39:37Diane kissed my forehead
00:39:39And followed me
00:39:40Faye stayed against his shoulder
00:39:41Until she fell asleep
00:39:42I lay awake in the dim room
00:39:44And listened to the wire hum
00:39:46And to the breathing of the woman beside me
00:39:48And to the silence where
00:39:49A week ago
00:39:50Hugh Sterling had still been breathing too
00:39:53I didn't come back
00:39:56Marlene coughed at breakfast on my third day up
00:39:58Once
00:39:59Twice
00:40:00Three times
00:40:01The third with a napkin pressed to her mouth
00:40:03And her shoulders rising
00:40:04When she lowered the napkin
00:40:05She gave the smile she always gave
00:40:07And folded the napkin neatly
00:40:08So no one could see the inside
00:40:10Marlene
00:40:11It's the air down here
00:40:12It's so dry
00:40:13Marlene
00:40:14Don't
00:40:14Derek's hand tightened on his fork
00:40:16I did not look at anyone
00:40:18Diane stood up to get more bread
00:40:20That no one was eating
00:40:21I looked at the napkin Marlene had folded
00:40:23I could see the dark spot on the cloth
00:40:25From across the table
00:40:26I had seen this exact spot before
00:40:27On a different cloth
00:40:29In a different mouth
00:40:30On a morning that had ended a friend
00:40:31I stood up
00:40:32And for a moment
00:40:32The only sound was
00:40:33Faye's quick breath beside me
00:40:34Marlene
00:40:35I'm gonna take that
00:40:36Please
00:40:38Kane
00:40:38She handed me the napkin
00:40:40Without unfolding it
00:40:41Her hand was warm
00:40:42Too warm
00:40:43I took it down to the basement
00:40:45And put it in the medical waste bin
00:40:46Without opening it
00:40:48When I came back upstairs
00:40:50Derek was already kneeling
00:40:51Beside her chair
00:40:52His hands on her hands
00:40:54We don't know yet
00:40:55I know baby
00:40:56We don't
00:40:59Hold my hand
00:41:01Derek held her hand
00:41:03Faye came up behind
00:41:03I in the kitchen doorway
00:41:05And slipped her arms
00:41:05Around his waist
00:41:06How long?
00:41:08A week
00:41:08Maybe
00:41:09How do you know?
00:41:11I've been through this
00:41:12With someone
00:41:14Faye understood
00:41:15Without asking who
00:41:16Roger came in from the garden
00:41:18With the dirt of the morning
00:41:19Still on his hands
00:41:20He stopped in the doorway
00:41:21He looked at Derek
00:41:22And Marlene at the table
00:41:23He looked at me
00:41:24I'll take the watchtower tonight
00:41:25Dad
00:41:27I'll take it tonight
00:41:30I went outside
00:41:31And shut the door behind me
00:41:34My stomach drops
00:41:36Again
00:41:38Marlene turned on the fourth night
00:41:40Derek sat with her every hour
00:41:43Diane brought broth
00:41:44He did not eat
00:41:46Faye changed the wet cloth
00:41:48On Marlene's forehead
00:41:49I stood in the hallway
00:41:50With his hand on the door frame
00:41:51And listened to Derek
00:41:52Talk to her
00:41:52About the camping trip
00:41:53They had gone on
00:41:54The year they got married
00:41:55And the dog
00:41:56They had buried in the backyard
00:41:57The year my mother had died
00:41:58And the kid
00:41:59They had been thinking about
00:42:00Having for two years
00:42:01And could no longer have
00:42:14Marlene fell asleep
00:42:15Around midnight
00:42:15She woke up at 1.42
00:42:17The thing in Marlene's body
00:42:19Sat up against the headboard
00:42:20With the sheets bunched in its fists
00:42:22And turned its head slowly
00:42:23And looked at the man
00:42:24Kneeling beside the bed
00:42:25And opened its mouth
00:42:27Marlene
00:42:27It was not Marlene anymore
00:42:29It came off the bed
00:42:30Roger had been waiting in the doorway
00:42:31The shot was clean
00:42:33The thing went sideways
00:42:34Across the headboard
00:42:35And did not move anymore
00:42:36Derek did not move either
00:42:39Dad
00:42:41I know son
00:42:43She was right there
00:42:46I know
00:42:48Derek did not stand for a long time
00:42:50When he finally did
00:42:51I walked past his father
00:42:52In the doorway
00:42:53Without looking at me
00:42:54I went down to the basement
00:42:55I sat on the basement floor
00:42:57With my back against the gun rack
00:42:58Where Hugh had sat
00:42:59Eight nights ago
00:43:00And he stayed there until morning
00:43:01Roger came out of the bedroom
00:43:03With Marlene in a sheet
00:43:04I went with me
00:43:05Through the airlock
00:43:06And out into the night
00:43:07They buried her
00:43:08Beside Brett and Hugh
00:43:10The ground was soft from rain
00:43:13Roger did not speak
00:43:14The whole walk back
00:43:15In the basement
00:43:16Faye sat down
00:43:17Beside Derek on the floor
00:43:19And took his hand
00:43:20And did not say a word
00:43:21She was right there
00:43:24Derek began coughing
00:43:25Eleven days after Marlene
00:43:26I did not tell anyone
00:43:28For two days
00:43:29Faye found out
00:43:30Because she walked
00:43:30Into the laundry room
00:43:31At the wrong moment
00:43:32And saw me bent over the basin
00:43:33With a towel against his mouth
00:43:34Derek
00:43:36Don't
00:43:36Derek
00:43:36Derek
00:43:37I said don't
00:43:38I went up to the room
00:43:39I had shared with Marlene
00:43:40And shut the door
00:43:41Roger came in an hour later
00:43:43And did not come out
00:43:44For the rest of the day
00:43:46I forced myself
00:43:47To stand in the hall outside
00:43:49He's asking for the gun
00:43:51Dad
00:43:52He's asking me
00:43:54Don't
00:43:56He doesn't want it
00:43:57The way she had it
00:43:59Dad
00:44:00Please
00:44:01Roger came out of the room
00:44:03My face was the face
00:44:04I had seen
00:44:04At his grandfather's funeral
00:44:06I brushed past him
00:44:08And went down to the basement
00:44:08I came back up
00:44:10With a pistol
00:44:10I recognized as Big Sam's
00:44:12The one Roger
00:44:13Had taught Derek
00:44:13To shoot
00:44:14With the summer
00:44:14Derek turned 12
00:44:17Don't come in
00:44:18Dad
00:44:19I'm asking you son
00:44:20Don't come in
00:44:24I went into the room
00:44:26I stood in the hallway
00:44:28With my back against the wall
00:44:29And slid down to the floor
00:44:31Faye sat down beside me
00:44:32She did not take his hand
00:44:34She put her arm
00:44:35Across his shoulders
00:44:36And held me against her
00:44:37The shot was very quiet
00:44:39Through the door
00:44:41Roger came out
00:44:41A long time later
00:44:42I did not look at Kane
00:44:44I went to the basement
00:44:46And got the second sheet
00:44:47They were not going to need again
00:44:48And he and I
00:44:49Walked Derek
00:44:49Through the airlock
00:44:51And out to the backfield
00:44:52The ground was harder
00:44:55This time
00:44:55They buried Derek
00:44:57Beside Marianne
00:44:58Inside
00:44:58Diane was sitting
00:45:00At the dining room table
00:45:01With her hands flat
00:45:02On the wood
00:45:02Breathing through her mouth
00:45:05Dee
00:45:09I felt it last night
00:45:10Eyes asking me
00:45:14Diane lasted four days
00:45:15Roger sat with her
00:45:16Through every hour of it
00:45:17I fed her broth
00:45:18She could no longer keep down
00:45:19I brushed her hair
00:45:20I read her the book
00:45:22She had been halfway through
00:45:22On her night stay
00:45:23The morning the world ended
00:45:24Picking up exactly
00:45:25Where her book card sat
00:45:26When the fever turned
00:45:27And she could no longer
00:45:27Answer me
00:45:28He kept reading
00:45:29I forced myself
00:45:30To stand outside the door
00:45:31I would not come in
00:45:32I could not come in
00:45:33On the fourth night
00:45:34Roger came out
00:45:36My eyes were dry
00:45:38My hands were not
00:45:41I'll handle it
00:45:43Dad
00:45:45I said I'll handle it
00:45:47Roger took Diane
00:45:48Roger took Diane out
00:45:48Through the airlock
00:45:49At 314 in the morning
00:45:50I did not let anyone
00:45:51Go with me
00:45:52I came back inside
00:45:53An hour later
00:45:54And sat down
00:45:54At the dining room table
00:45:55And put my head down
00:45:56On his folded arms
00:45:57And did not move
00:45:58For a long time
00:45:59Faye and I sat with me
00:46:00Without speaking
00:46:01The outer wire
00:46:02Fell on the next afternoon
00:46:03Not from infected pressure
00:46:04But from a dead branch
00:46:05That finally rotted through
00:46:06And dropped onto the south span
00:46:07The wire came down
00:46:08And a long slope
00:46:09Hangul had to put back into it
00:46:10The hydro generator
00:46:11Was running the basement air
00:46:12And the basement lights
00:46:12And nothing else
00:46:13The second ring had been brooched
00:46:15Since the day of the battle
00:46:16The third ring was the only line
00:46:17That mattered
00:46:18The third ring still hummed
00:46:19I and Faye and Roger
00:46:21Lived inside the third ring
00:46:22Like three people
00:46:23On a small rooms of the compound
00:46:24And did not speak much
00:46:25In a dead sea
00:46:25They ate from cans
00:46:27They did not turn on the radio
00:46:28On the morning of the second month
00:46:30Faye went up to the watchtower
00:46:32With Cain
00:46:32She had not been up there
00:46:34Since the day of the battle
00:46:35She put her hands on the parabate
00:46:37And looked out at the world
00:46:38The river to the east
00:46:39Had gone dry
00:46:40The tree line to the west
00:46:42Was black
00:46:42The sky overhead
00:46:44Was the color of an old wound
00:46:46I can't see hope anymore Cain
00:46:48I had no answer
00:46:50A small island in a dead sea
00:46:53I didn't
00:46:54And that was the point
00:46:55See the figure first
00:46:56Faye saw it
00:46:57She had been standing
00:46:57At the paramedic for a long time
00:46:59Her hand on his back
00:46:59Her cheek against his shoulder
00:47:01I had been counting
00:47:01How long it had been
00:47:02Since either of them
00:47:02Had said anything
00:47:03The number kept getting bigger
00:47:04I kept losing it
00:47:05She did not move her hand
00:47:06She did not change her tone
00:47:07She just said his name
00:47:08Look
00:47:08I looked
00:47:09Out past the second ring wreckage
00:47:10Out past the burnt edge of the field
00:47:12Out on the gravel road
00:47:13That led back to what was left of the city
00:47:14A figure was walking
00:47:15Wah person
00:47:16Upright
00:47:16Two-legged
00:47:17Walking
00:47:18Not strumbling
00:47:19Not tilting
00:47:19A jacket
00:47:20A hand raised
00:47:21Palm out in the air
00:47:22I raised the rifle through reflex
00:47:23My hands were steady
00:47:25Before my brain had caught up
00:47:26Cain
00:47:27He's waving
00:47:30I see him
00:47:32Cain
00:47:33I see him
00:47:34Faye
00:47:35The figure stopped at the edge of the dead field
00:47:37I did not come closer
00:47:38I cupped his hand around his mouth
00:47:39My voice came up to them on the watchtower
00:47:41Thin and clear
00:47:42Faye made a sound
00:47:43I had not heard her make in months
00:47:44A laugh
00:47:44It was high and shocked
00:47:45And cracked across the middle
00:47:46And immediately turned into something else
00:47:47But it was a laugh
00:47:48She gripped his arm
00:47:49Cain
00:47:49There's somebody out there
00:47:51I lifted the binoculars
00:47:52The man was tin
00:47:53I was middle age
00:47:54I had a salt pepper beard
00:47:56I wore no helmet
00:47:57I wore no oxygen tank
00:47:58My face was bare in the purple air
00:48:00I was waving
00:48:00I was alive
00:48:01I keyed the radio with his free hand
00:48:03Dad
00:48:03Watchtower
00:48:04Now
00:48:05I lowered the binoculars
00:48:07I looked at Faye
00:48:08The wind moved her hair
00:48:10A figure on the horizon
00:48:13Walking
00:48:14Alive
00:48:15A figure on the horizon
00:48:19The stranger held both hands up at the third ring
00:48:22And waited for permission
00:48:23I and Roger came down to the gate in their suits
00:48:26Faye watched from the watchtower with the rifle
00:48:29Roger stayed five steps back
00:48:31I stopped at the wire
00:48:33The man on the other side was older than I had looked from up high
00:48:35Sixty
00:48:36Lean
00:48:37A mark like a black star out of his neck
00:48:39I had a soldier's stillness
00:48:41Name's Mac Harper
00:48:42World Rescue Corps
00:48:43I'm not infected
00:48:44I've got a vaccine
00:48:46Don't shoot
00:48:48How are you breathing the air?
00:48:50The mark on my neck
00:48:51It's a marker the swarm can't see
00:48:54Paired with an antiviral
00:48:55Ten of us got dropped into this city six weeks back
00:48:58I'm what's left
00:49:00Why are you here?
00:49:01Because somebody on this property
00:49:03Fired a wire-guided munition
00:49:05Into a mother three weeks ago
00:49:06And we tracked the heat pump from orbit
00:49:08We thought it was an artillery error
00:49:10Then we got ground readings
00:49:12Then we got a satellite image
00:49:14Of three central fences
00:49:16And a working oxygen rig
00:49:17And a watchtower
00:49:18And command sent me to find out
00:49:20Who the hell was still alive
00:49:22Step back ten spans
00:49:25Mac, step back
00:49:26Lift your shirt
00:49:29Mac lifted his shirt
00:49:30There were no bites
00:49:31There were three old scars
00:49:33And a fresh field dressing
00:49:34Across his ribs
00:49:35Empty the pack on the ground
00:49:37Mac emptied the pack
00:49:39Two protein bags
00:49:41A pistol
00:49:42A satellite radio
00:49:43Three small unmarked vials
00:49:45A fold of papers
00:49:46A handheld device the size of a phone
00:49:49And a thin strip of metal
00:49:50That looked in the cold light
00:49:51Like nothing I had ever seen
00:49:53The strip's a nano suit
00:49:55Skin bonded
00:49:56Combat radio
00:49:57Single charge
00:49:58It'll get you through about 200 of them
00:50:00Then it dies
00:50:01One charge
00:50:02One shot
00:50:03I keyed the gate
00:50:04Get inside before the rain hits again
00:50:07Mac picked up the pack
00:50:08I stepped through the wire
00:50:10The gate closed behind me
00:50:12With a soft, heavy click
00:50:13I stood inside the perimeter
00:50:15For the first time
00:50:16And let out a breath
00:50:18Like I had been holding it
00:50:19For six weeks
00:50:20Brother
00:50:22We've been tracking the mother
00:50:24We've been tracking the mother
00:50:27They sat around the dining room table
00:50:29For the first time in two months
00:50:30Mac laid out the map
00:50:32Between the salt and pepper
00:50:33It was a city map
00:50:34A real one
00:50:34Paper
00:50:35Not satellite
00:50:35With red ink in the center
00:50:37And a black star
00:50:37Drawn over the largest metro station downtown
00:50:40This is our girl
00:50:41Downtown
00:50:43Right under the central terminal
00:50:45She doesn't move more than 100 yards
00:50:47In any direction
00:50:47The whole hive feeds her
00:50:50She doesn't have to walk
00:50:52Her hive walks for her
00:50:55Then how do we get to her?
00:50:57Through the tunnels
00:50:57I tapped the lines that mark the metro
00:51:00Trains aren't running
00:51:01The hive cleared the platforms
00:51:02In the first week
00:51:03After that the tunnels went quiet
00:51:05They don't bother with anything
00:51:06They can't smell
00:51:07We slip in at the west side station
00:51:09Walk the line east surface
00:51:10At the H tower
00:51:11Across from the central terminal
00:51:12Three hours on foot
00:51:13Why a tower?
00:51:15Because she has to see you
00:51:17Wait
00:51:17She has to see you
00:51:19The vaccine works close range only
00:51:21And only if she's looking
00:51:22We need her to break cover
00:51:23We need her to climb
00:51:24So we have to be high enough
00:51:25That she sees us
00:51:26Far enough she has to come for us
00:51:28And inside enough cover
00:51:29That the rest of the hive
00:51:30Can't drown us
00:51:31Before she gets there
00:51:32That's a lot of ifs
00:51:34It is
00:51:35I looked at the red ink
00:51:36I looked at the black star
00:51:38At the dotted line
00:51:39Between the west side station
00:51:40And the H tower
00:51:41Across the page
00:51:41I had walked that line last time
00:51:43With Faye
00:51:44On her last day
00:51:45They had been trying to find
00:51:46A checkpoint that did not exist
00:51:47I knew exactly how many
00:51:49Infected were waiting
00:51:51We go tomorrow
00:51:53Tomorrow
00:51:55Faye took his hand under the table
00:51:57There's more than one?
00:52:01Mac laid the nano suit strip on the table
00:52:03It looked
00:52:04In the lamplight
00:52:05Like a band-aid made of mercury
00:52:07Six inches long
00:52:09Half an inch wide
00:52:10It moved when you weren't looking
00:52:12When you looked at it
00:52:13It stopped
00:52:13Press it to the back of the neck
00:52:15Skin contact
00:52:16It bonds in two seconds
00:52:19After that
00:52:19It lives where you live
00:52:21Activate by intention
00:52:23Think the word suit
00:52:25The plates flow
00:52:26You'll have a full kit in 90 frames
00:52:29Charge
00:52:29100% at start
00:52:31A heavy weapon
00:52:32Energy blade
00:52:32Beam
00:52:33Burns it down fast
00:52:34Conservative
00:52:34You've got a half hour fight in you
00:52:36Aggressive
00:52:3710 minutes
00:52:38How many of these you got?
00:52:39Four
00:52:40One for each of us
00:52:41They were calibrated to my unit's bio signatures
00:52:43But the bond protocol accepts new hosts
00:52:45You'll be the first non-corpse personnel to ever wear one
00:52:48Faye picked one up
00:52:50It clung to her finger
00:52:51Then her palm
00:52:52Then settled
00:52:53It feels warm
00:52:55It's already reading you
00:52:57Faye looked at Cain
00:52:58One charge
00:53:00One shot
00:53:01One shot
00:53:03I pressed his strip to the back of my neck
00:53:06The cold lasted half a second
00:53:08Then a warmth ran down his spine
00:53:10Clean
00:53:10Sharp
00:53:11Almost pleasant
00:53:12It stopped at his hands
00:53:13My fingers tingled
00:53:15Something behind his eyes opened
00:53:17I thought the weight of it crushing me
00:53:19Suit
00:53:20100 small plates flowed out from his collarbone
00:53:22His shoulder blades
00:53:23His hips
00:53:24And a featherweight skin of liquid metal
00:53:25Closed over me in less than 2 seconds
00:53:27My vision sharpened
00:53:29The aches in his ribs went quiet
00:53:31A small status panel ghost into the corner of his eye
00:53:33Battery 100%
00:53:36God
00:53:37Roger and Mac and Faye stood up around the table in their own gleaning armor
00:53:41Roger laughed once, a stunned laugh, and looked down at his hands
00:53:46I'm 61 years old
00:53:49Tonight you're not
00:53:51The last night
00:53:53Faye won't sleep
00:53:56Faye climbed into the bed in the dark
00:53:58She had not done that in a month
00:54:00Since Hugh had walked Chloe into the yard since the burial
00:54:03Since the third ring had started humming alone
00:54:05They had slept in the same room
00:54:07But she had stayed on the cot under the window
00:54:09And I had stayed in the bed by the door
00:54:10Each of them grieving in a different language
00:54:12Tonight she came to me
00:54:14She put her arms around me under the covers
00:54:18She put her forehead against his collarbone
00:54:21I could feel her eyelashes against his skin
00:54:23Cain
00:54:25Yeah
00:54:27Are we gonna make it back?
00:54:29I held her
00:54:30I didn't
00:54:31And that was the point answer for a long time
00:54:33I had thought about this question for a long time
00:54:36I had practiced answers in my head a hundred times
00:54:38I had believed
00:54:39In the worst weeks
00:54:41That if he ever got the chance to answer it again
00:54:43I would lie
00:54:44I was going to lie
00:54:47I don't know, Faye
00:54:49Faye nodded against his cola stain
00:54:51Okay
00:54:52I want to
00:54:53I want to so badly
00:54:54Okay
00:54:56But I don't know
00:54:58Okay
00:54:59She did not cry
00:55:00She did not move
00:55:03She held me
00:55:04And she breathed against my neck
00:55:06And she listened to me breathe
00:55:08The room kept breathing around them
00:55:12I love you, Cain Sutton
00:55:14I love you, Faye Mitchell
00:55:17I have loved you since the second week of senior year
00:55:20I know
00:55:23I want you to know that no matter what happens tomorrow
00:55:26I have already had a whole life with you
00:55:28I had it
00:55:29It was mine
00:55:31Even if it ends
00:55:32Good God, I couldn't speak
00:55:34Okay
00:55:36Okay
00:55:38Good, now sleep
00:55:41She fell asleep against me in twenty minutes
00:55:43I did not sleep
00:55:46I lay awake and listen to her breathe
00:55:48And he memorized it
00:55:51The way a person memorizes something they intend to carry for a very long time
00:55:55I lies
00:55:56She knows
00:55:59They left the compound at six in the morning
00:56:01Roger walked once around the basement before he locked it
00:56:03I touched the workbench
00:56:04I touched the master burker
00:56:05I touched the doorframe of the room where Diane had lived for the last week of her life
00:56:09I stood there for a moment with his hand on the wood
00:56:11Then I came out and shut the door
00:56:12And did not lock it
00:56:14In case anyone needs it
00:56:19Yeah
00:56:19I Mac drove, Roger shotgun
00:56:21I and Faye sat in the back
00:56:22The truck was a black suburban Mac had hidden in a service garage two miles south from the compound
00:56:27The roads downtown were empty
00:56:28But empty did not mean clean
00:56:29A car had crashed into a power pole on twelfth
00:56:32There was a dog asleep in the medium
00:56:34The dog was not asleep
00:56:35There was a man at a bus shelter on Henderson with his face side of paper bag
00:56:38And a little girl on a tricycle outside a hair salon on fourth
00:56:41And a couple at a sidewalk cafe on ninth holding hands across a stained tablecloth
00:56:44None of them moved
00:56:45None of them were alive
00:56:47Faye looked at the little girl as they drove past
00:56:49She's never going to grow up?
00:56:52No
00:56:54I would have wanted one
00:56:56Eventually
00:56:58I took her hand
00:57:00I would have wanted one too
00:57:02The truck stopped at the west side station entrance
00:57:04A granite arch over a stairway down
00:57:05Surrounded by abandoned newspaper boxes
00:57:07Lights on
00:57:07Move
00:57:08They climbed out
00:57:09Mac threw a pebble at a steel grit twenty feet down the avenue
00:57:11And a half dozen drowns the infected at the station's mouth
00:57:13Turned and chambered toward this noise
00:57:14Roger took Faye's elbow
00:57:16And they slipped past the entrance
00:57:17I and Mac threw a second pebble in the opposite direction
00:57:21The remaining infected at the entrance turned and drifted away
00:57:27Lights on
00:57:28Move
00:57:32The tunnel was very dark and very wet
00:57:34The air was cold
00:57:35The air was full of a smell I had no name for
00:57:37Something like old meat
00:57:38Something like a swimming pool that had not been cleaned
00:57:40Something like the inside of a refrigerator that had lost power for a month
00:57:42The nano suit filtered most of it out
00:57:44Most was not all
00:57:46The four of them moved in a tight diamond
00:57:47Mark took point
00:57:48Roger held the back
00:57:50I took the right
00:57:50Faye took the left
00:57:51With my hand on her elbow whenever the floor was uneven
00:57:53Which was always
00:57:54The suit lit the tunnel for them
00:57:56A soft cone of cold light from each shoulder
00:57:58There were things in the dark
00:58:00Some of them were animals
00:58:01A rat scurrying along the rail
00:58:03A bird that had gotten in somehow
00:58:04Dead on a beam
00:58:05Some of them were not animals
00:58:06Once
00:58:07Mac stopped and actioned
00:58:08And they all stood very still
00:58:09While something on the far side of the tracks
00:58:10Dragged itself a hundred feet through the gravel
00:58:12And then
00:58:13Finding no sound to follow
00:58:14Lay back down
00:58:16I felt deep in my bones
00:58:18Faye's pulse through her elbow
00:58:22It was very fast
00:58:23Mac
00:58:25How far?
00:58:26Two and a quarter miles to the central platform
00:58:28We'll scurp it
00:58:28H-Tower entrance is half a mile past
00:58:30How long?
00:58:31Forty minutes if we keep this pace
00:58:33Then we keep this pace
00:58:37They walked
00:58:38They walked
00:58:41They walked
00:58:42A subway car came out of the dark
00:58:44It was tilted
00:58:45It had jumped the track at some point in the chaos
00:58:47And it lay across the rails on its side
00:58:49Its lights long dead
00:58:50Its windows broken in long jagged shapes
00:58:52Black red blood streaked the inside
00:58:54The smell here was different
00:58:56Worse
00:58:56I stopped six feet from the car
00:58:58I swung his cone of light along the windows
00:59:01Something inside moved
00:59:02A soft, dry sound
00:59:04Not loud
00:59:05Like fabric being pulled across stone
00:59:06It came from low
00:59:07From the floor of the car
00:59:09Faye's foot was beside the broken out edge of the car door
00:59:13A hand came out of the dark and closed around her ankle
00:59:16Scream
00:59:20I shot the hand off
00:59:22The infected attached to it dragged itself out of the dark with a piece of its own arm in its
00:59:25other hand
00:59:26And Roger stepped past I and put a knuckle plate through its forehead
00:59:29And then the subway car came open in three places at once
00:59:31Five, then ten, then twenty
00:59:35They poured
00:59:36There had been a packed train at the moment everything had ended
00:59:40Commuters, students, a stroller, a man with a guitar
00:59:42And they had all been turned into a sealed steel box for two months
00:59:46And now the box had cracked
00:59:53Sprint
00:59:53Roger was second
00:59:54I took Faye by the wrist and ran
00:59:55The nano-suit saved them speed they had not earned
00:59:58A feather glide along the rails
00:59:59The small wheels at the heel skating them forward at thirty miles an hour
01:00:02I heard the swarm behind them
01:00:04As a single unbroken sound
01:00:06A roar that did not breathe in
01:00:07So far!
01:00:08Quarter mile to the 8th tower stairs!
01:00:11Kane!
01:00:13Yeah!
01:00:15I've got an idea
01:00:18Mack!
01:00:19The tower stairs!
01:00:22I see them!
01:00:24Get to them
01:00:25Listen to me
01:00:26I built this city, son
01:00:27I built three of these damn stations
01:00:29The roof of this tunnel is held up by a load-bearing beam every two hundred feet
01:00:33If we drop the next one behind us, the swarm can't follow
01:00:36Dad!
01:00:37No!
01:00:38Dad!
01:00:38Please!
01:00:39We can take her down together!
01:00:40I can't do this without you!
01:00:46You can
01:00:49You will
01:00:50I didn't
01:00:51And that was the point
01:00:52Slow down
01:00:56Get to the tower
01:01:01I felt my father's hand on the back of his neck
01:01:03It was a brief, hard squeeze
01:01:06I'll be right behind you, son
01:01:09Then I was not
01:01:11I saw, out of the corner of his eye, my father break stride and pivot
01:01:14The way Roger had pivoted in Sonart on a job site fifty thousand times
01:01:18And raised the rocket to aim at Balong at the tunnel ceiling at a point I could not see
01:01:22The rocket left
01:01:23The blast was a long, rolling, geological sound
01:01:26I did not look back
01:01:27Faye did not look back
01:01:28Mac did not look back
01:01:29They ran
01:01:30They reached the H tower stairwell door
01:01:32Mac threw the door open
01:01:34They went up
01:01:35They went up
01:01:36I waited at the next landing
01:01:38I did not speak
01:01:39After a long moment, Mac spoke
01:01:41I lost a whistle
01:01:42I was a good man
01:01:44He was the best man I ever heard
01:01:46I'm sorry, brother
01:01:48They climbed
01:01:48Eighty-three stories
01:01:50Take us ups did most of it
01:01:51By the fortieth, my grief had narrowed to a single high point behind his ribs
01:01:54And I was using it the way a runner uses a stitch
01:01:56By the seventieth, his face was dry
01:01:57By the rooftop access door, his hands were steady
01:02:05Some things, somebody has to do
01:02:12The H tower was actually two towers
01:02:14Twin glass slabs joined at the base by a parking deck and a lobby
01:02:17From the rooftop of the south tower, I could see straight across the gap to the north tower's rooftop
01:02:21And below the gap, I could see down into the canyon between them
01:02:24Where the wind moved trash and slow circled
01:02:27I taught you the suit ten hours ago, kid
01:02:29I learned fast
01:02:32Faye went to the other tower with the long rifle the suit gave
01:02:35A gauss needle, slim, almost beautiful
01:02:37That printed itself into existence in her hands when she thought it
01:02:40I kissed her at the elevator
01:02:42When I opened my chest piece, the second you see green, you fire
01:02:44I won't miss
01:02:46I know you won't, baby
01:02:47She crossed the parking deck and entered the north tower and went up
01:02:51I stood beside him
01:02:54Mack flicked the cigarette over the edge
01:02:56Mech mode, Kane
01:02:57They both said it at once
01:03:00Mech mode
01:03:01The nano suits expanded
01:03:02The plates thickened
01:03:04The shoulders broad
01:03:05Servos that had not existed five minutes ago hummed in the metal
01:03:08Cold weapons folded out of forearms
01:03:10Battery readouts from 95% to 40% in a long unbroken slide and stopped
01:03:16In the canyon between the towers
01:03:18Something began to climb
01:03:21Some things
01:03:22Somebody has to do
01:03:26The mother climbed straight up the glass
01:03:28She did not need a foothold
01:03:30Her hands moved up the smooth face of the building like a spider's hands
01:03:33Behind her on the plaza
01:03:34Her swarm was funneling into the H tower lobby in a single black red column
01:03:37Above her
01:03:38In the gap
01:03:39Only I and Mack stood on the parody
01:03:41She looked up
01:03:42She looked at Kane
01:03:43She remembered me
01:03:44I saw it in her face
01:03:45The same look the green woman had given me from across the field last time
01:03:48The same look from the moment Hugh had pulled the seventh pin
01:03:50She remembered
01:03:51She knew exactly which one of them had killed her sister six weeks ago on the west side
01:03:55She had been waiting for me to come down
01:03:56I waited until she was three floors below the paramount
01:03:58Then I opened his chest plate
01:04:00The compartment in the nanosuit's chest was an emergency power well
01:04:02A core
01:04:03A tiny nuclear ember meant only for catastrophic last resort use
01:04:06The interior glowed a sickly clean green
01:04:09Now
01:04:09Faye fired
01:04:10The round left the north tower like a star
01:04:13It crossed the gap at hypersonic speed
01:04:15It went into the mother's open mouth and through the back of her head
01:04:18And continued for another 200 feet before it lost altitude
01:04:21The mother fell
01:04:23Not far
01:04:23She caught the parallel of the floor below with one hand
01:04:26She hung there
01:04:27Her eyes
01:04:28Her one remaining eye did not stop looking at Kane
01:04:31She began to climb again
01:04:33She isn't dying
01:04:34She isn't dying
01:04:35I stepped up onto the parapet
01:04:37Mack caught his arm
01:04:38Mack caught his arm
01:04:54Mack caught his arm
01:05:04The flash threw I off the rooftop
01:05:06The mother caught the explosion at point blank range on the side of the building
01:05:10With Mack's body wrapped around her
01:05:11The white green light filled the gap between the towers
01:05:13The glass on 20 floors went
01:05:15I fell 10 feet
01:05:16And the nanosuit spent the last of its battery to keep me alive
01:05:19I hit the parachute of the floor below
01:05:21The suit cushioned the impact with a sound like a balloon popping
01:05:23The chest plate sealed
01:05:24The HUD went red
01:05:25This emergency reserve reserved 4%
01:05:2720 feet below me
01:05:28Bent across the side of the building like a thing flung by a child
01:05:30Speaming
01:05:30The green woman was not green anymore
01:05:32She was not moving
01:05:33She was not healing
01:05:34I put both hands flat against the side of the building and he breathed
01:05:37Across the gap
01:05:38On the north tower roof
01:05:40Faye stood up
01:05:41Even at this distance I could see her hand in her mouth
01:05:44I was alive
01:05:46I was warm in the lobby, the plaza, on the avenues for miles around
01:05:49Every infected with a half mile slope
01:05:51Then stopped
01:05:51Then sat down
01:05:52All of them
01:05:53All at once in the streets, in the lobbies, in the stairwells
01:05:55They put their hands on their laps like children at the end of a long game
01:05:57And the wind moved
01:05:58The wind that had been thick and purple and acid for two months
01:06:00Moved
01:06:02I lifted my head into it
01:06:05I didn't and that was the point deserve it
01:06:08I was going to take it anyway
01:06:11The sound came from very far away
01:06:12I did not know what it was at first
01:06:14A thrum low growing
01:06:15Copters
01:06:16Three, then ten
01:06:17Coming up the avenue
01:06:18Gunship low
01:06:19Faye on the radio crying
01:06:21Cain
01:06:25I'm here
01:06:26You're here
01:06:29I'm here
01:06:30I put my face up to the warm clean light
01:06:33I thought the weight of it crushing me
01:06:35About Hugh
01:06:36I thought the weight of it crushing me
01:06:38About Roger
01:06:40The light warmed his face
01:06:42Thank you
01:06:46Six weeks later
01:06:47I sat and stood on the back porch of a small white house
01:06:49In a small white town
01:06:50Three hundred miles west of the city
01:06:51The town had been a rescue crew's location cation site
01:06:54Since the third week of the recovery
01:06:55A prefag cluster of housing for many times in a way that felt like a cage
01:06:58There were children on the lawns
01:06:59There was a coffee shop
01:07:00With a hand painted sign on the corner
01:07:01The trees still had leaves
01:07:03Faye came out onto the porch with two mugs
01:07:06She handed me one
01:07:07How's the shoulder?
01:07:09Stiff
01:07:10How's the rest?
01:07:11Also stiff
01:07:13She sat down on the porch swing
01:07:14Pulled me down beside her
01:07:15The morning was cold
01:07:16The sun was real
01:07:18The helicopter went over very high
01:07:20They flew me over the city last week
01:07:22While you were still in the hospital, did I tell you?
01:07:23No
01:07:24They're rebuilding the central terminal
01:07:25That's good
01:07:26They haven't found anyone else from our block
01:07:28I know
01:07:30She was quiet for a while
01:07:32I wanna go back
01:07:33Eventually
01:07:34Yeah
01:07:34I wanna bury Hugh next to your dad
01:07:36And Marlene
01:07:37And Derek
01:07:38I wanna put markers down
01:07:39I want them to be in the same row
01:07:41Yeah
01:07:41They found her?
01:07:42She'd been in a rescue camp in Denver the whole time
01:07:44They told her last week
01:07:45I closed my eyes
01:07:46A bus pulled up to the curb across the street
01:07:48A woman climbed off with a small girl in her arms
01:07:51The girl had Mac's eyes
01:07:53I gotta go say something
01:07:55I reach for Faye's hand
01:07:56I'll come with you
01:07:57Stay
01:07:57I won't be long
01:07:58I'm coming with you Kate's son
01:08:00I looked at and felt something break inside me
01:08:02Her in the morning sun
01:08:03I had her
01:08:04I had this
01:08:05I had everything Hugh and Roger and Mac had bought me with the rest of their lives
01:08:08They went down myself porch steps together
01:08:10She stood
01:08:11The light warmed his face
01:08:13The world was waiting
01:08:14The end
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