Chapter 9: Running with the LivingSam’s legs burned as he sprinted behind Carter through the maze of alleyways. The distant echoes of gunfire had faded, but Sam knew they weren’t safe. Not yet.

  The men they had escaped from—whoever they were—wouldn’t just let this go.

  Carter skidded to a stop near a rusted-out dumpster, his chest rising and falling as he caught his breath. Sam doubled over, hands on his knees, gulping in air.

  “You okay, kid?” Carter asked.

  Sam nodded, still panting. “Who… the hell… were those guys?”

  Carter rubbed his jaw. “Scavengers. Bandits. Call ‘em whatever you want. They take what they need, kill whoever gets in their way.”

  Sam swallowed hard. He had heard stories of groups like that. People who had traded their humanity for survival.

  And now, he had made himself their enemy.

  Carter gnced down the alley, his eyes sharp. “We need to move. They’ll send people after us.”

  Sam straightened. “Where are we going?”

  Carter gave a small, knowing smile. “Somepce safe.”

  The SafehouseSam followed Carter through a maze of abandoned streets, weaving between burnt-out cars and toppled streetlights. The deeper they went, the quieter it became. No groans of the dead. No signs of life. Just the eerie silence of a city that had long since died.

  Finally, Carter stopped in front of an old hardware store.

  The gss windows were covered with wooden pnks, and a steel chain was wrapped around the front entrance. It looked abandoned.

  Carter knelt by the lock, pulled out a key, and twisted it open. He pushed the door open just enough to slip inside, motioning for Sam to follow.

  Inside, the store was dark, but not empty.

  Wooden crates were stacked against the walls. A ntern flickered in the far corner. A cot sat near a makeshift kitchen, where a small propane stove rested on a counter.

  But what caught Sam’s attention was the gun rack near the back. Rifles, handguns, even a crossbow.

  Carter noticed his gaze and smirked. “Yeah. We come prepared.”

  Sam turned to him. “We?”

  Before Carter could answer, a voice came from the back of the store.

  “Carter?”

  Sam’s body tensed, his grip tightening on his bat.

  A figure stepped into the light.

  It was a woman, maybe in her early forties, with short dark hair and a pistol holstered at her hip. Her eyes flicked between Carter and Sam, studying him carefully.

  Carter grinned. “Sam, meet Grace. She runs this pce.”

  Grace crossed her arms. “And why is he here?”

  Carter shrugged. “Because he saved my ass.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  Carter chuckled. “Look, he stepped in when those scavengers tried to kill me. That makes him okay in my book.”

  Grace didn’t look convinced. “That was reckless.” She turned to Sam. “Do you have any idea who those people are?”

  Sam clenched his jaw. “I wasn’t just going to stand there and let them kill someone.”

  Grace sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Well, now they’ll be looking for you, too.”

  Carter smirked. “Then it’s a good thing we don’t pn on staying put, huh?”

  Sam frowned. “Wait—what do you mean?”

  Grace gave Carter a look before answering. “We’re leaving the city. In two days.”

  Sam’s stomach twisted. He had barely processed losing Riley. Now, he had to figure out whether he was willing to leave the only pce he had ever known.

  A Pn for SurvivalThat night, Sam sat on an old crate, staring at the ntern’s glow.

  The world outside was falling apart. The streets weren’t safe. The dead weren’t the only monsters roaming the city.

  Maybe leaving was the right choice.

  But something inside him hesitated.

  Riley had died here.

  Would leaving mean abandoning her memory?

  Carter sat down across from him, handing him a bottle of water. “You thinking about it?”

  Sam nodded. “Where are you even going?”

  “There’s a settlement,” Carter said. “About twenty miles west. Walled-off, self-sustaining. A real shot at survival.”

  Sam scoffed. “Sounds too good to be true.”

  Carter shrugged. “Maybe. But it’s better than staying here and waiting to die.”

  Sam exhaled. He knew Carter was right.

  Grace’s voice cut through the quiet. “We leave at dawn in two days. If you’re coming, be ready.”

  Sam met her gaze.

  Two days.

  Two days to decide if he was ready to leave his past behind.

  The Night RaidSam barely had time to sleep before it happened.

  A gunshot echoed through the night.

  He jolted awake, heart pounding.

  Then—BOOM!

  An explosion rocked the hardware store, shaking the walls.

  Carter was already up, rifle in hand. “They found us,” he growled.

  Sam grabbed his bat, adrenaline surging through him.

  Grace yanked open a hidden trapdoor behind the counter. “The tunnels. Now!”

  Another explosion blew out the front windows, sending shards of gss flying.

  Sam didn’t wait. He followed Carter and Grace down into the dark.

  The fight for survival had just begun.