Alive

20

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~~~~~~⚫️Chapter 20⚫️~~~~~~
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The inside of Sub Zero reeked of smoke, sweat, and something older — rot, maybe. Not the kind you smell on the dead, but something human. Moral. A rotting kind of soul that clung to the walls and refused to leave.

Koda didn't say a word as we crossed the threshold. The guards parted reluctantly, their eyes following us like they'd been waiting years to sink knives into his back. Drex brought up the rear, his long steps loud behind us, jaw tense, head on a swivel. He didn't like this place. I could feel it in the way he moved — alert, coiled, ready.

And me? I felt like prey.

The fortress's main building loomed ahead, constructed of stripped-down steel and old-world wood. Towers flanked each side like prison watchpoints, and the walls were scarred with scorch marks and bullet holes. It didn't scream safe. It screamed captive.

The men inside were worse — rough-cut and sharp-eyed, like every one of them had blood on their hands and liked the way it felt. No smiles. No welcomes. Just tension stretched tight like old rope.

Koda leaned close to me, his breath brushing my ear as he muttered, "As far as anyone knows, you're human."

I nodded once, swallowing the lump in my throat. I didn't miss the way Drex's head tilted slightly, catching the words with his unnatural hearing. His face gave nothing away, but I saw his nostrils flare as we stepped into the main chamber.

At the end of the room sat a man on a makeshift throne of salvaged car seats and polished scrap metal. He was huge — built like an avalanche with shoulders that looked capable of snapping spines and hands too big to ever be clean. Tattoos wrapped around his neck and slithered up his jawline. A fresh scar split his lip. His dark eyes, like the barrel of a gun, pinned Koda first... then flicked past him.

To me.

But nothing in his face changed. No recognition. No smirk. No questions.

Good.

Koda stepped forward, calm but coiled. "Roake."

"Koda." Roake's voice was deep — not smooth, but gravel dragged across concrete. "Didn't think I'd see you again."

"Didn't plan to come back," Koda replied simply.

There was a pause, heavy and humid. The two men stared at each other like they were reliving a history no one else in the room knew. I felt Drex shift behind me. He was watching everyone, not just Roake. Smart.

"She with you?" Roake asked casually, jerking his chin toward me, like I was just some straggler Koda found under a rock.

"She's nothing to worry about," Koda said, his tone sharp enough to discourage more questions. "We just need a place to stay."

Roake studied me for a moment longer, then looked away. "Fine. She stays on the third floor. Empty room at the end of the hall. Drex knows the one."

Koda's jaw tightened — barely — but he nodded.

Roake didn't smile. He stood instead, walking past us like a king inspecting his kingdom. He stopped beside me, the air heavy with sweat and steel.

"You hungry, girl?" he asked, voice slow and strange.

"I'm fine," I replied, my voice steady even though my insides were crawling.

"Suit yourself," he said, moving on. "But if you start feeling friendly, you let me know."

Koda stepped forward instantly. Not aggressively — not quite — but enough that Roake noticed. Their eyes met.

Roake grinned at him, all teeth and malice. "Relax, Koda. You always were touchy."

"Just don't test me," Koda said, voice low.

The tension hummed like a live wire. I wanted to speak. I didn't.

Roake laughed under his breath and disappeared through a side door, muttering something to one of his lieutenants — a wiry guy with a scar down one eye and a permanent twitch in his jaw.

As soon as he was gone, I turned to Koda.

"You're really leaving me here?"

He didn't answer right away. Just stared after Roake, something unreadable etched into the lines of his face.

"Koda."

He turned. His jaw was clenched, his shoulders stiff. "You'll be fine."

"That's not what I asked."

His voice dropped, a flicker of frustration in it. "It's safer here than out there."

"With him?" I gestured vaguely toward where Roake had vanished. "He looked at me like I was meat."

"He looks at everyone like that," Drex said, cutting in with a snort. "Relax. Roake's just posturing. Koda's the one he actually wants dead."

"Thanks," Koda muttered.

Drex grinned.

I looked between the two of them, my chest tightening. "I don't understand. I don't understand anything. Why me? Why are you both so... weird about me?"

"Don't start," Koda growled.

I stepped toward him. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing you need to know."

"Do I get to know anything? Who I am? Why I woke up in a grave next to a skeleton and black goo in my lungs? Why zombies run from you?"

Silence.

I exhaled a shaky breath, trying not to let it show how much that silence hurt.

Drex looked away, the amusement gone from his face now.

Koda turned to him. "Watch her."

"She's not a puppy."

"Just do it."

Koda didn't say goodbye. He walked straight out the way we came, boots pounding on the floor.

I stood there, surrounded by shadows and metal and the slow creep of dread.

I didn't know what this place was, or what I was, or why Koda hated that man so much. But I knew one thing for sure.

I was being hidden in plain sight.

And whatever they were afraid of... it had everything to do with me.

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