DONE ✔️ (UNDER EDIT)

Chapter Fourteen.

Chapter Fourteen.
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"Thank you." I said, taking the small packet from the counter.

I slid it into my canvas bag and pushed my way back out onto the street.

Outside, the street felt calmer than it had days ago. Fewer people. Less noise. Across the road, the bar sat dark and locked, yesterday's chairs still stacked inside.

No Jack. And more importantly, no Brad.

Then I saw her.

She stood a few feet from the doorway, tall and composed, blazer crisp, microphone resting at her side like it weighed nothing at all. Katherine. The cameraman hovered farther back, half-hidden near a tree, lens already trained my way.

My stomach dropped.

"Miss Tadella?" She said, approaching and lifting the microphone slightly, "I'm Katherine, with the BBC. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

I hesitated. The street was quiet enough that pretending I hadn't heard her would look intentional.

"I don't really-"

"It'll only take a minute," She said, "And you don't have to answer anything you're uncomfortable with."

That should've been my cue to leave. Instead, I nodded. She held her microphone out to me.

"Thank you," She said smoothly, "You were one of the last civilians to exit Arcatia, correct?"

"I think so."

Her eyebrow flicked upward.

"You don't know for certain?"

"No."

I just know we were the last plane to leave the compound we were in. But I wasn't going to say that to her.

She shifted the microphone between us, but the camera never moved. It stayed locked on my face.

"And how long were you inside the infected zone, Miss Tadella?"

"A little over a year."

She absorbed that, eyes sharp, expression unreadable.

"And how would you describe that experience?"

"Hard." I shrugged.

She remained quiet for a moment, waiting for me to expand on that. But I didn't.

What was I meant to say? That the whole experience broke me? That I still woke up choking on fear?

"During that time," She continued, "Residents were evacuated, communication lines went dark, and military forces were gradually withdrawn. Would you say you felt abandoned?"

My jaw tightened.

I didn't answer.

"So, you don't deny feeling that way."