Page 36 of Glass Rose
“Go!” Gavin jumps into the driver’s seat.
My hands won’t stop shaking. I shove them into my pockets and get in beside him on the passenger seat as Alex and Dr. Cho peel out of the parking lot. Gavin follows. The supermarket’s automatic lights flicker off behind us, another small piece of civilization winking out.
“Get some rest if you can,” Gavin says. “I’ll wake you if anything happens.”
“I just want to wake up from this nightmare.” A child’s teddy bear sits in the middle of the road, matted with something dark. I look away. “My whole life, I’ve been waiting for things to get better. Study hard, get good grades, and land aprestigious job. Pay off debts. Help my parents retire. I had this whole fucking plan.”
Gavin’s knuckles whiten on the steering wheel. “Plans are the first casualty in any disaster.”
“What about you? What was your plan before… before all this?”
“Before they attempted to make me a perfect soldier who wouldn’t question orders?”
I nod.
“Expose Green. Get justice for the people they hurt.” He gives a harsh laugh. “It worked. Just not in the way I wanted, but also not how they planned it.”
“How do you do it? Stay so… detached?”
“Practice.” His expression darkens. “Fourteen months of torture. You either break or you adapt.”
I study the tension in his jaw, the controlled breathing, and the quiet intensity in his blue eyes, focused on the street. He’s really something. How can he shift from deadly to gentle in the space of a heartbeat?
The faintest smile crosses his lips. “Sleep. We should take any opportunity we get.”
I nod and turn back to the window. The landscape is changing, becoming less concrete as we head west. More trees. Fewer buildings. Is that better or worse for survival?
One abandoned warehouse with a faded sign reading ‘OutdoorExtreme’ hangs crookedly from a post.
“That’s it?” I squint at it.
“What were you expecting? A neon sign saying ‘Apocalypse Supplies Here’?” Alex strides to what looks like the entrance. “The whole point is it doesn’t attract attention.”
“Who is he?” Gavin asks.
“John. We call him Crazy John, but like, affectionately. He’s a bit… intense.” Alex taps his temple. “Doomsday prepper type. Been stockpiling for years.”
“Guess he was right,” I say.
Alex knocks on the door. “Follow my lead.”
“Stay behind me.” Gavin matches my pace as we approach the door. “Anything feels off, we leave. Immediately.”
I nod. His body radiates heat in the cool morning air, and I fight the urge to move closer. I’m still reeling from earlier.
Dr. Cho crosses her arms tightly over her chest. “You sure he’s here?”
Alex knocks again, and the security camera mounted above the entrance swivels to us, its red light blinking to life.
“Smile for the camera,” Alex says through his teeth, waving at the lens. “Hey, John! It’s me, Alex Torres! From the urban explorer channel?”
Silence.
“John!” Alex throws his arms up. “Open up, man! We’ve got some serious shit going on out here!”
“This was a mistake,” I mutter. “We should try somewhere else.”
“Give it a minute.” Alex leans closer to the camera. “John! It’s the fucking zombie apocalypse, dude! This is your moment! Please!”
