Seraphina's Revenge: A Rebirth In The Apocalypse Novel

Chapter 449: The Heart’s Last Beat

The truck rolled over another stretch of broken highway before the road turned into something more controlled.

The dirt smoothed out. The ditches deepened. Fences appeared again, taller this time and built with intent instead of desperation. Zubair’s hands stayed steady on the wheel, but the creature inside Sera watched the way his shoulders shifted.

This was guarded land... Apparently, someone still cared about this stretch for some reason.

Her creature stirred in her chest. Order. Control. They are trying to hold the disease under a lid. They always forget the lid is weaker than what it covers.

She let her head rest against the window and watched the horizon.

The shapes ahead rose out of the haze in slow layers. Low walls first. Then taller structures. White panels flashed in the sun. Antennas and towers speared upward in clean lines. Vehicles sat in neat rows along one side, none were rusted or abandoned.

It was the CDC again.

Sera snorted to herself. If anyone was a parasite or a pandemic it was the people who offered a cure to something that they, themselves, created.

Lachlan whistled under his breath as the view sharpened. "Well," he said. "That looks friendly."

Alexei scanned the perimeter. "Outer fence. Inner fence. Guard towers. Corner cameras. Secondary cameras mid-run. They’ve upgraded since the world ended."

Aerenyx drew in a slow breath through his nose and let it out. "Bleach and burned tissue," he said. "And something else. Old strain. New work. They’ve been busy."

Sera did not care about the buildings as much as the sound beneath them.

Engines hummed. Air units cycled. Voices crackled over a loudspeaker with codes and instructions. Under it all, like something trapped below a floorboard, came a different noise.

Laughter.

It rolled in uneven bursts. Sometimes it broke off mid-sound. Sometimes it warped into a low moan. Sometimes it scraped at the edge of a word. It was not happy, not sane, but it was deliberate.

Her creature leaned closer to it. That must be the one they stole. The homesteader they brought here. I want to see how they ruined him.

"I want to see that, too," Sera agreed out loud.

Zubair guided the truck off the main strip and brought it to a stop behind a thick patch of scrub and rock. Luci shifted his weight in the bed and let out a quiet breath, ears tilting forward.

They watched for a moment.

The outer gate sat ahead, a wide metal frame with a sliding barrier, backed by chain-link topped with razor wire.

Two guards stood outside a small booth, rifles slung across their chests. Another two walked a slow path along the fence line. A camera on a pole tracked the approach lane. A red warning light flashed a steady, dull pulse above the gate.

"How do you want to do this?" Lachlan asked.

Her creature pressed against her ribs. We are hungry. You have meat walking in front of you. Not rotten strain...not spoiled experiments. Fresh muscle. Warm organs. Take what you need and let them be grateful when you stop coming for them.

Sera opened her door and stepped down.

Heat rolled off the packed ground as dust clung to her boots. Zubair came around the front of the truck to stand at her right. Lachlan dropped down beside Luci and fell into step behind her. Alexei and Aerenyx slid out last, their creatures already awake and more than ready to take on whatever came for them.

They walked toward the gate together.

One of the pacing guards spotted them first. He stopped, lifted his hand, and held his palm out. "This area is restricted," he called. "Turn around and return to the civilian corridor."

But instead of following orders, Sera kept going.

The guard’s stance tightened. His partner mirrored him. The two at the booth leaned forward behind the glass, one of them reaching for a phone, the other toward a panel.

"This is a containment facility," the first guard said. His voice tried to be firm, but there was strain around the edges. "Civilians are not allowed access. Turn back now."

Sera smiled without showing teeth. "I’m not a civilian," she said.

He blinked, thrown off by the simple answer. His hand twitched on his rifle.

Lachlan shifted just enough to be ready, but not enough to crowd her. Zubair’s weight settled into a stance that could move in any direction. Alexei’s creature stirred, testing the angles of the line-of-sight. Aerenyx watched the guards’ throats, not their guns.

The guard tried again. "Weapons down. Hands where I can see them. Identify yourselves."

Her creature rolled in lazy amusement. He thinks names matter. He thinks paper and numbers are the difference between life and death.

Sera let her gaze slide over the four men, weighing muscle, fat, age, and fear. Two had solid builds. One was thinner, with hollows under his eyes. One had a small, fast pulse beating in his throat.

"I’m hungry," she announced like she was standing at a Micky D’s counter, looking at the menu. "I’m going to eat that one."

Her chin tipped toward the nearest pacing guard.

The man’s face drained of color. "What did you just—"

He did not have time to finish his sentence before she moved.

The distance between them vanished in a smooth surge.

One second separated them; the next, her fingers hooked into the front of his vest. The fabric bunched under her grip. His rifle barely started to rise before she slammed the weapon sideways with her other hand. The barrel carved an empty line across the dirt.

He sucked in a breath to shout.

Her teeth hit his shoulder first, just above the joint where muscle was thickest. Flesh tore under the force. The taste in her mouth was salt, heat, and the live tension of a body that still believed it had time to fight.

He screamed.

She bit again, lower this time, where the muscle tied into the chest. The crack of bone came as she twisted her jaw, tearing a thick chunk of him away. Hot meat filled her mouth. She chewed twice and swallowed. The warmth spread down her throat and settled in her stomach.

Her creature sighed with deep satisfaction. Better. This is real food. This is what you need. It’s cute for Zubair to feed you human food... but you aren’t human. WE aren’t human.

The guard’s legs buckled.

His hands pawed weakly at her arm and slid away. Blood soaked through his uniform in spreading patches. She shifted her grip and let him drop, already looking for the next piece that mattered.

Heart. Lung. Not intestines. Intestines were messy and wasteful unless there was nothing else left.

His vest straps cut across his chest as he uselessly tried to put up a fight, not realizing he was already dead.

She grabbed the webbing of his straps and ripped it away. The cloth tore. Plastic buckles snapped. She drove her hand into the wound she had already opened, her fingers parting bone with more force than finesse, and dug for the dense weight under the ribs.

The heart thudded once against her hand before it stopped beating forever.