Nyra ran.
Not the controlled, measured stride of a scout or hunter. This was raw, desperate flight. Boots pounded cracked asphalt, each step jarring up her spine, Morgana's weight heavy across her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Morgana's arms dangled limp, her face pressed against Nyra's back, silver-streaked hair whipping in the wind. The settlement's glow had long faded behind them, replaced by open darkness and the distant orange flicker of fire on the horizon.
Nyra's lungs burned. Blood from the shallow cut across her ribs had soaked through her tank top and was now dripping steadily down her side, warm and sticky. Her thigh wound, deeper than she'd admitted, throbbed with every stride, muscle protesting, threatening to give in. She ignored it. She had to.
Morgana had stopped struggling miles ago. Stopped crying. Now she was just silent. Dead weight. Nyra didn't know if she was unconscious, in shock, or simply too broken to speak. She didn't ask. Asking would have meant slowing down.
The road stretched ahead, empty, endless, moonlight turning the cracked pavement silver. They had been running for nearly two hours. Nyra's vision tunneled, edges black, legs numb. She knew she was close to collapse. Knew she wouldn't make it much farther.
Then headlights.
Twin beams cut through the dark ahead, steady, approaching fast.
Nyra's heart lurched, hope and terror colliding.
The pickup truck, their pickup, materialized out of the night. Shane behind the wheel, Cassia in the passenger seat. The undead sentries still stood rigid in the bed, rifles at port arms, silhouettes against the moon.
Nyra staggered, knees buckling, but forced herself forward three more steps before her legs gave out completely.
She dropped to her knees, Morgana sliding off her shoulder, both of them hitting the asphalt hard.
Nyra tried to stand, failed, body finally betraying her. She pitched forward, catching herself on shaking arms, then collapsed fully, face against the road, breathing ragged, vision spotting black.
Morgana rolled to her side, coughing, scrambling toward Nyra, hands shaking as she turned her over.
"Nyra, Nyra, stay with me."
The truck screeched to a stop, doors flying open, Shane leaping out before it fully halted, Cassia right behind him.
Shane reached them first, dropping to his knees beside Nyra, hands gentle but urgent, checking her pulse, her wounds.
"She's bleeding bad," he said, voice tight. "She has lost too much blood."
Cassia knelt beside Morgana, eyes wide, taking in her daughter's torn shift, tear-streaked face, the way her hands glowed faintly violet-green even now.
"What happened?" Cassia asked, voice cracking. "The settlement, the fire, we saw the glow from miles away."
Morgana's breath hitched, tears spilling anew.
"They came," she choked. "First the horde, then the raiders. Someone let them in. Cutting the fence for them. They knew exactly where to hit and they killed everyone."
Cassia's face drained of color.
"Everyone?"
Morgana shook her head, sobbing now, words tumbling out.
"Reyes. Lena. Elliot. Mira's friends, Sofia, Priya, they're dead. Children, mothers, they just kept shooting. Nyra fought as much she could. I drained as many as I could, but there were too many. The gym, the dorms, it was a slaughter. Nyra carried me out. She wouldn't leave me. She ran, carried me the whole way, and now, now she's."
She broke, curling over Nyra's body, forehead pressed to her chest, sobbing uncontrollably.
Shane's face had gone blank, dangerously blank, the manic light in his eyes extinguished, replaced by something colder. Harder.
He looked at Nyra, at the blood soaking her side, at the shallow rise and fall of her chest, then at Morgana, at Cassia, then back at the burning horizon.
Cassia's hands clenched, knuckles white, vines already creeping up from the roadside ditch, curling around her ankles, trembling with her fury.
"Who?" she asked, voice low, lethal. "Who let them in?"
Morgana shook her head, tears dripping onto Nyra's tank top.
"We don't know, exactly how many, but one of them was Tyler."
Cassia's eyes closed, breath shuddering out.
"My people," she whispered. "My family, my garden all gone"
Shane stood, slowly, and walked towards the truck bed. He reached in, pulled out one of the rifles, checked the magazine, then slung it over his shoulder.
"We find out who," he said, voice flat. "We find out how and why. Then we kill them. Slow"
Cassia's vines tightened, thorns lengthening, but she forced them down, forced herself to breathe.
"We need to save Nyra first," she said, voice cracking. "She's dying."
Morgana looked up, eyes wide, glowing brighter now, violet-green light pulsing under her skin.
"I can heal her," she whispered. "I can help. I can push vitality into her. I've done it before, small amounts, with plants, with you, the same I can do with her."
Shane dropped to his knees beside Nyra, hand on her cheek, voice soft.
"Do it, Mom. Save her. Please."
Morgana nodded, trembling, crawling to Nyra's side. She placed both hands-on Nyra's chest, over her heart, closed her eyes, reached.
She felt it, the thread, the pulse, the life-force flickering in Nyra's veins, weak, fading. She gathered her own, the stolen vitality she had taken from raiders, from Shane, from the earth itself, and pushed.
Warmth flowed, violet-green light flaring under her palms, sinking into Nyra's skin, into her blood, into her wounds.
Nyra gasped, body arching, eyes snapping open, color flooding back into her face. The cut on her ribs knit closed, skin smoothing, the gash on her thigh sealing, blood drying, vanishing.
Morgana kept pushing, pouring more, until Nyra's breathing steadied, strong, until her eyes focused, until she reached up, weak, fingers brushing Morgana's cheek.
"Morgana…" she rasped. "You… you came back."
Morgana sobbed, collapsing over her, forehead pressed to Nyra's, tears dripping onto her face.
"I couldn't leave you," she choked. "I couldn't lose you."
Nyra's hand found hers, squeezed, weak but real.
"Never," she whispered. "Never leaving you."
Shane watched, eyes wet, then looked at Cassia.
"She's alive," he said, voice rough. "She's going to be okay."
Cassia nodded, vines retreating, thorns retracting, but her face was stone.
"Whoever did this," she said, voice low, lethal. "Whoever opened the gates to those murderers… they will pay. Slowly. In front of the garden. In front of the vines. They will feed the roots with their blood."
Shane stood, rifle slung, eyes fixed on the burning horizon.
"We go back," he said. "We find the traitor, kill the raiders and take our home back."
Nyra struggled to sit, Morgana helping her, both women trembling but resolute.
"Together," Morgana said, voice steady now. "We do it together."
Shane looked at them, his mother, his grandmother, his lover, all of them bloodied, exhausted, alive.
"Together," he echoed.
They loaded Nyra into the truck, Morgana beside her, Cassia in the passenger seat, Shane behind the wheel.
The engine roared to life.
The undead sentries climbed back into the bed, rifles ready.
They turned south, toward the fire, toward the blood, toward home.
And the night, heavy with smoke and promise, swallowed them whole.
XXXX
Want to stay ahead of the story?
If you don't want to wait for updates, you can read ahead on Patreon.
Get 5 chapters early for Reborn Sovereign and From Beta to Billionaire, plus 2 chapters early for Zombie Apocalypse Harem.
You'll also unlock exclusive series like Love Rewritten, Reborn Business Emperor (2 completed volumes), Shadows of Dominion (2 volumes), and Hero's Slave Harem (Vol. 1).
Bonus content includes preview images for every chapter and NSFW character reference art.
Read everything here:
https://www.patreon.com/Alaric_Lock
(18+ only)