Apocalypse Days: I Rule with Foresight and a Powerful Son
Chapter 128

Chapter 128: 128

The door slammed shut behind them with a heavy clang, the sound reverberating through the small, dimly lit supply room. Winter braced his shoulder against it while Zara scrambled to secure the barricade—an old metal shelf, a crate of rations, anything they could push against the door to keep the horrors outside at bay.

For a long, breathless moment, they just stood there, listening.

The distant, wet groans of the infected. The occasional scrape of something against the walls. But nothing trying to break in. Not yet.

Zara exhaled, arms shaking as she slowly turned away from the door. "That was too fucking close."

Winter said nothing, just slid down against the wall, exhaustion pulling him to the floor. His rifle rested loosely against his knee, but his grip was tight—knuckles white, muscles tense, like he still wasn’t sure they were safe.

Zara glanced down at Leo. He was quiet. Too quiet. His small chest rose and fell rapidly, fingers twisting into the fabric of her vest.

"Hey, baby," she murmured, kneeling and running a hand over his back. "You okay?"

Leo nodded, but it was mechanical. Like he didn’t even know what he was agreeing to.

Fuck. Her voice wavered. She sank onto the cold concrete floor, cradling him tighter against her chest, rocking him slightly, pressing her masked face to his curls. "It’s okay now. I’ve got you."

She wished she could kiss his forehead, feel the warmth of his skin against hers. But the mask was in the way.

Winter watched her, silent for a long moment. Then, with a grunt of effort, he reached over, brushing a few stray strands of hair from her face. His fingers were rough, calloused—but gentle.

"You good?" he asked, voice low, careful.

Zara huffed a dry, humourless laugh as she leaned against his warm palm. "I don’t know. Are you?"

Winter leaned his head back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. "Not even close."

They sat in silence for a while, just breathing.

Then, Zara murmured, "Thanks for coming in when you did. We were definitely fucked otherwise."

Winter didn’t answer right away, just let out a slow exhale. "Yeah. Well. Couldn’t let you two have all the fun."

Zara shifted, adjusting Leo’s weight against her. He’d stopped trembling, his body finally relaxing against her. Asleep. Thank God.

She swallowed hard. "He’s out."

Winter cracked one eye open, glancing at the kid. "Good. He needs it."

They tensed as they suddenly heard a rush of feet thunder past their hiding spot.

It sounded like people, probably trying to make their way to the safe zone.

Like they should be.

Winter shifted, too, wincing slightly.

Her eyes immediately dropped to his side. "You’re hurt."

"It’s nothing."

"Don’t bullshit me."

He exhaled sharply, tilting his head to look at her. His expression was unreadable in the dim lighting, but his jaw clenched. "I’ll live."

Zara frowned but didn’t push—at least, not yet.

Instead, she let herself sag sideways, her shoulder brushing against his. The contact was warm, and grounding. Neither of them pulled away.

"I hate this," she muttered after a while. "All of it. The running, the fighting. I hate that we can’t even stop to breathe without wondering if something’s coming to kill us."

Winter didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was softer than she expected. "I know."

She turned her head slightly, her forehead almost resting against his shoulder.

"But we’re alive," he murmured. "That’s gotta count for something."

Zara closed her eyes. "Yeah."

Then she added softly, like an afterthought. "What if we had our own place? Where we didn’t have to worry about other people causing issues for us?" A face flashed in her mind, disappearing into the mist.

"What do you mean?" Winter’s brows furrowed.

"Like our own base or hideaway. Just not some overcrowded nonsense,"

"That would be a little hard, we’d need others who could help scout, gather, protect," winter listed off the things that had kept his first base running.

"It’s just us three, we are able to protect ourselves. Leo’s space-I entered it today."

"What?" He shifted to look at her properly.

"Yeah, I think he did it in the heat of the moment but I got dragged on too. Winter, there’s a shit ton of things in there. It could last us for months..."

"Is that so?" He mused, looking down at the sleeping child. "Kid really is a super hero."

Zara smiled down at Leo.

They were startled out of their little mood by a sudden slam on the door. The handle shook as something tried to get in.

Zara shifted back, knife at the ready. Winter put himself between her and the door, signalling for her to be quiet as he aimed his rifle.

If whatever came in was human or not, they’d be tasting his bullet. This wasn’t the time to make confirmations before attacking.

Then again, a person would probably be cursing the hell out of the door to open by now.

The jiggling stopped after a while and the sound of stomping was heard making its way down the hall, away from them.

"That was close," Zara breathed, wiping the cold sweat that had broken out on her forehead.

Winter frowned at the door. "We can’t stay here any more, let’s go before it comes back."

"What if it’s waiting?" she murmured. "What if it’s just around the corner? We know there are some smart things walking around this nightmare."

Winter hesitated, watching her.

He understood. The moment they stepped outside, the fragile illusion of safety would be gone.

Still, they couldn’t stay.

"Come on," he said, softer this time. "Have a little faith in me."

Zara exhaled slowly. Then, reluctantly, she nodded.

Winter moved first, carefully pulling the barricades out of the way. He cracked the door open an inch, listening. Nothing.

No moans, no scuttling of claws.

It felt wrong.

They stepped out.

The silence was wrong.

Zara had expected moans, the telltale shuffling of infected, or even distant screams—but there was nothing. Just the faint crackle of broken glass underfoot and the low hum of emergency power barely keeping the flickering lights alive.

Leo clung to her even in his sleep, strapped tightly against her chest in the harness, his little body flush against hers. Winter moved ahead, his rifle raised, sweeping left and right at all the shadows.

Zara kept pace beside him, knife gripped tight in one hand, her other arm bracing Leo against her chest, covering the blind spots as they navigated the wreckage-strewn corridor.

Everything was wrecked.

Corpses, too torn apart to tell if they’d been civilians or soldiers, littered the floor. Some bore deep gashes, their bodies split open by something far stronger than humans.

Others were slumped in corners, their faces frozen in agony, black veins snaking beneath their skin—a clear sign they had succumbed to the mist before turning on each other.

Zara exhaled slowly, adjusting her grip on the knife in her hand. "Where the hell is everyone?"

Winter didn’t respond right away. His gaze swept the hallway, the deep shadows cast by the flickering lights playing tricks on the ruined metal walls.

"They’re either dead, tucked away safely," he murmured, "or worse."

She swallowed hard.

Leo whimpered softly, his breath fogging the inside of his mask. Zara placed a hand on his back, murmuring, "It’s okay, baby. I got you."

She didn’t know if it was a lie.

They moved in careful steps, skirting around collapsed ceiling panels and puddles of congealed blood. The smell was thick—coppery, rotten, and something else. Something chemical.

Winter paused at a junction. The corridors branched off into three directions, the signage barely legible under the grime and soot. One way led deeper into the base. The other led to collapsed rubble, impassable. The third—

"The safe zone is that way," Winter whispered, nodding to the right. "Two more halls down, we hit the decontamination sector. If we’re lucky, the military will have secured it."

Zara frowned. "If we’re lucky?"

"Luck hasn’t exactly been on our side," he muttered.

She couldn’t argue with that.

They pressed on. The air was thick with dust, making it harder to breathe even with their masks. Zara fought to keep her steps light, to avoid making any unnecessary noise.

Something skittered above them.

Both of them froze. What the fuck was that?

A faint tapping. Not footsteps. Not the dragging sound of the infected.

Was something crawling around up there? People hoping to escape from the creatures notice?

Zara clenched her jaw. Winter slowly looked up.

The overhead vents rattled.

Before either of them could react, the metal grates burst open.

A mass of limbs and too-long fingers dropped onto Winter.