CHAPTER 41: LEAVING LEXINGTON CHARTER [2]

"Wait for us!" Desmond called out, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

Somehow I felt just irritated as I watched the larger group spread across the rooftop. This was exactly what I’d been hoping to avoid. Our small, manageable group had been replaced by a mob of scared teenagers and young adults, each with their own opinions, fears, agenda and clearly no cohesion at all.

"Why do we have to wait for you?" Sydney asked her voice filled with disdain as she glared at him.

"I mean, we’re supposed to be together in this, right?"

Desmond shifted uncomfortably under her stare, his mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air.

"No, we aren’t," Sydney replied. "You were ready to throw us away like yesterday’s garbage, even though Elena was clearly not infected." Her gaze swept across the group of students huddled behind Tobias. "You shunned us. So no—we aren’t together in this anymore."

I watched Elena flinch at the reminder, her hand unconsciously moving to her hand where the bandages had been.

"We’ll be better off on our own," Sydney continued. "So just back off until we’re done here."

But Tobias wasn’t ready to give up that easily.

"It’s not about that," he said,. "You found the radio, right?"

Cindy crossed her arms. "So what if we did?"

"The radio belongs to all of us," Tobias declared. "You can’t just take it and leave. It could save every one of us—you don’t have the right to make a unilateral decision to snatch it for yourselves."

The audacity of this guy.

Here was someone who hadn’t lifted a finger to help, who had actively worked against us, now claiming ownership of something we’d nearly died to retrieve. Elena’s face darkened, and I could see her knuckles whitening as her hands clenched into fists.

"Are you kidding me?!" She snapped. "You didn’t even bother to help us! We’re the ones who gambled our lives to recover it—we have every right to keep it!"

"That doesn’t matter," Tobias said dismissively, waving his hand as if brushing away an annoying insect. "It belongs to everyone. If you want to leave on your own, so be it—but we’re keeping the radio."

"This bastard..." Christopher also seemed quite pissed off.

But before Christopher could move, Scott stepped forward with a smirk.

"You heard him," he said. "Just give it up."

Alisha stepped closer to us. "Otherwise what, exactly?"

Scott’s smirk widened, showing too many teeth. "Otherwise we’ll take it back ourselves. We outnumber you, and even without the others, I’m plenty capable of taking care of you bunch of wussies." He looked us up and down dismissively. "You’re definitely going to die down there anyway, so it would be a huge waste for you to keep that radio."

"No." The word came out harder than I’d intended, cutting through Scott’s arrogant posturing. "You aren’t taking it back."

They all looked at me.

"If you want so badly to be there when the radio saves us," I said, meeting Tobias’s gaze steadily, "then you can follow us if you want."

Scott’s face twisted into something ugly. "What did you say?"

He approached me, using his height advantage to try to intimidate me. This close, he looked down at me with eyes that promised violence.

"Repeat it," he said.

I held his gaze without flinching.

"I said we won’t give back the radio," I replied. "And if you want it so much, you can follow us like the dog you are."

Scott’s smirk returned, but there was something desperate about it now. Without another word, his fist came flying toward my face.

I should have just dodged it and de-escalated. That would have been the smart thing to do maybe. But watching him try to intimidate us—it all combined into a swirling vortex of anger that I couldn’t quite contain.

I tilted my head just enough for his fist to whistle past my ear, feeling the displaced air ruffle my hair. For a moment that stretched like eternity, I watched his arm extend fully past me, his body off-balance and committed to the failed strike.

Then I drove my own fist forward with surgical precision.

CRaaaak!

The sound of cartilage snapping filled the rooftop like a gunshot. My knuckles connected with the bridge of Scott’s nose, and I felt it give way completely under the impact. The force of the blow lifted him off his feet for a moment before sending him flying backward into the cluster of students behind him.

"Guh!" Scott’s grunt of pain was muffled by the blood now streaming down his face as he collapsed into his friends, taking two of them down with him in a tangle of limbs.

The silence that followed was deafening. Every person in that corridor—both groups—stared at me with expressions of shock. Even Christopher looked surprised, though there was definite approval in his eyes.

"I’m not here to fight," I said waving my bloodied fist. "And I don’t wish death on any of you. But the radio belongs to us because we’re the ones who put our lives on the line to get it."

We nearly died for it.

Elena nearly died because of it.

And she lost something precious to her.

So I won’t let these randoms think they deserve something.

"You can follow us if you want," I continued, letting my gaze sweep across their group. "But don’t expect us to come back for you if you get bitten or devoured alive."

I could see the shiver that ran through them at my words, the way they unconsciously stepped back as if I’d physically pushed them. Good. Maybe now they understood that this wasn’t a game, that actions had consequences, that you couldn’t just take what others had earned.

Tobias glared at me, but he didn’t do anything. He was a politician’s son, used to having influence and connections solve his problems. But those things meant nothing here, in this nightmare world where only strength and guts mattered.

"Y...you bastard!" Scott struggled to his feet, blood streaming down his face and staining his expensive shirt. "I’m gonna kill you!"

The threat might have been more intimidating if he wasn’t swaying on his feet like a drunk, one hand pressed to his ruined nose while the other groped blindly for support. But I was tired of this whole confrontation, tired of dealing with entitled bullies who thought they could take what others had earned.

"I’m warning you," I said, letting ice creep into my voice. "If you come at me again, I’ll break something that’ll make sure you can’t even run away when an infected comes chasing after you."

I let that threat hang in the air for a moment, watching Scott’s face pale as the implications sank in. Being unable to run in this place was essentially a death sentence, and we all knew it.

"Now unless you want to test whether I’m bluffing," I added, narrowing my eyes, "I suggest you stay back."

Scott flinched as if I’d struck him again, and I could see the exact moment when his bravado finally crumbled. His friends weren’t moving to help him, weren’t backing up his play. He was alone, injured, and facing someone who had just demonstrated that his reputation as a bully meant exactly nothing here.

I couldn’t believe someone this pathetic had ever been a student at Lexington Charter Academy. Then again, money could buy a lot of things—including admission to prestigious schools—but it couldn’t buy courage or character.

"Let’s go," I said, turning away from their group dismissively.

I walked toward the emergency stairs that led down into the ground below.

Looking down the fire escape stairs, I peered into the shadows below. Fortunately I didn’t see any movement.

"Christopher, go first just in case," I called back to our group.

"Got it," Christopher nodded, his expression serious as he moved past me to take point.

"Rachel, Elena, and I will go last," I said, glancing back at the two girls.

Both of them looked at me strangely—Rachel with curiosity, Elena with something that might have been concern. But I couldn’t tell them the real reason for the arrangement, couldn’t explain about the white lady’s warning in my dream.

The infected were attracted to my scent because I had the Dullahan Virus. I didn’t know the exact range of this attraction, but I knew it was dangerous. And while Rachel and Elena probably carried traces of the same viral infection that was changing me, their levels were much lower. They shouldn’t attract nearly as much attention.

By positioning ourselves at the back, we could ensure that if infected were drawn to us, the others would have time to escape safely. It was a calculated risk, but one I was willing to take.

As our group began to descend below, I took one last look back at Tobias and his followers. They seemed to be discussing seriously.

Anyway now it was my turn.

I descended.

"Could you hurry up?"

The voice drifted down from above. I paused on the metal stairs, my hand gripping the cold railing as I looked up through the gap between the flights.

Being the last one descending, I had a clear view of everyone still gathered on the rooftop above. But there was someone else there now—someone who wanted to follow us down.

Miss Ivy stood at the top of the stairwell, her pristine white nurse’s uniform somehow still spotless despite everything we’d been through. Her perfectly styled blonde hair was pulled back in its usual tight bun and her blue eyes seemed as calm as ever behind her glasses.

Right—she had mentioned having a car. As the school nurse, she could leave whenever she wanted, could abandon this nightmare and drive to safety without a backward glance. Part of me had expected her to do exactly that hours ago.

As a medical professional, I’d thought she would naturally take charge, would feel some responsibility for the students’ welfare or at least try to organize our survival efforts. But throughout this short moment we had been in the same place, she’d remained conspicuously absent from any leadership role, content to let us teenagers figure things out on our own.

Then again, maybe I was being unfair.

It was the apocalypse outside.

Who cares about duty or whatever responsibility anymore.

I couldn’t really blame her for that. In a situation like this, self-preservation wasn’t selfishness—it was sanity.

I nodded up at her and picked up my pace, taking the stairs two at a time until I reached the bottom where the others were waiting.

Once I joined them, we instinctively huddled together in a tight circle, our voices dropping to barely audible whispers.

"The parking lot is just around the left corner," Rebecca began, her voice so quiet I had to strain to hear her. "We’ll have to climb through the same portal we used before since we don’t have a staff key card to—"

She froze mid-sentence, her eyes widening as the same realization struck all of us simultaneously. As one, our heads turned to look at Miss Ivy, who had just finished her descent and was smoothing down her white coat.

"Do you perhaps have one?" Rebecca asked hopefully.

Miss Ivy reached into her pocket. "This? Yes." She held up a small plastic rectangle—a staff access card that gleamed like a golden ticket.

Thank God.

At least we wouldn’t have to waste precious time and energy climbing through the gate and hoping we didn’t attract attention in the process.

"Wait for us, Miss Ivy," Rachel said, stepping closer to the nurse with an earnest expression. "We should all go together."

Ivy nodded without hesitation. Maybe she did care about our welfare after all, or maybe she simply recognized that traveling in a group was safer than going alone. Either way, I was grateful for her cooperation.

"I know where my car is parked," Sydney said, "but the Director’s vehicle could be quite far from us. We need to decide how we’re splitting up before we get out there."

"Yeah, we need to choose our group now." I extended my hand toward Sydney, palm up.

Sydney didn’t hesitate, fishing the heavy key ring from her pocket and dropping it into my palm.

"I’ll take Rachel and Elena with me," I said. "What about the rest of you?"

Once again, both Rachel and Elena fixed me with those searching looks that seemed to see right through me. I could practically feel their curiosity radiating outward like heat from a fire. This was the second time I’d specifically requested their company, and I could see the questions forming behind their eyes.

Am I being too obvious?

To anyone else, it probably looked like I was trying to monopolize the two girls, maybe for reasons that had nothing to do with survival strategy. But it wasn’t that.

We were all potentially walking magnets for the infected, drawing them like moths to a flame. It made strategic sense for us to stick together, to present a single target rather than spreading our dangerous appeal across multiple groups.

Beyond that, I was fairly confident in my ability to protect them if things went sideways. My reflexes had been getting faster, my strength increasing, and my instincts sharpening with each passing hour. Whatever was happening to me, it was giving me advantages that could mean the difference between life and death for all of us.

Thankfully, both Rachel and Elena seemed to trust my judgment, even without understanding my full reasoning. Maybe they’d picked up on the changes in me, or maybe they’d simply developed faith in my ability to keep us alive. Either way, they didn’t question my decision.

Alisha and Rebecca, however, gave me suspicious looks.

"I’ll stay with my sister," Rebecca said, raising her hand.

"I’ll go in Sydney’s car then," Christopher said right after.

"Same here," Cindy added quickly.

"I... I..." Daisy stammered, her gaze flickering back and forth between Elena and Alisha like a tennis ball caught in an endless rally. Her internal conflict was written clearly across her face—she wanted to stay with her friends.

The poor girl had been through enough trauma already. The last thing she needed was to feel abandoned by the people she cared about most.

Alisha sighed, her expression softening as she recognized Daisy’s distress. "I’ll go in Sydney’s car with Daisy," she said gently.

"Then Jason, you’re with us," I said.

"O..okay," he nodded quickly.

"Then we’re all set—"

"Hmm, it stinks down here."

A new voice cut through our planning session—distinctly feminine, with a slight accent that marked it as belonging to someone who wasn’t a native English speaker. We all turned as one toward the emergency stairs, where a figure was just emerging from the shadows above.

Liu Mei descended the final few steps with the fluid grace of someone who was used to moving quietly. Her long black hair was pulled back in a practical ponytail, and her dark eyes swept over our group.

"Don’t look at me like that," Liu Mei said with a casual shrug, apparently amused by our surprised expressions. "I have more trust in your little group than those idiots up there."

"You’ll have to take Miss Ivy’s car then," Alisha pointed out. "We don’t have room anywhere else."

She was right, of course. Even though there were no traffic cops around to enforce vehicle capacity laws, it was still more comfortable—and safer—to respect the normal limits of how many people could fit in each car. Overcrowding would just make us all more vulnerable if we needed to move quickly.

Liu Mei’s gaze shifted to Miss Ivy.

"I don’t mind," Miss Ivy said.