Extra's Guide To Surviving The Apocalypse

Chapter 94: Chapter 93: The First Loss

The road stretched ahead of the Hale family’s vehicles, filled with abandoned cars and debris from the chaos that had swallowed the city.

Iris watched the scene unfold in her memory.

She knew what was coming.

She had read these Chapters before.

Back then, Caleb’s death had been another tragic event in a novel. She remembered being shocked by it, but the feeling had been different. There had been no real fear attached to it because the person dying had only existed on a screen.

Now she knew him.

She knew his laugh.

She knew how irritating he could be when he got too excited about something.

She knew how easily he could turn something simple into a competition.

And yet the Caleb sitting safely inside Velaris wasn’t the Caleb from this memory.

That Caleb had already died.

The vehicles eventually slowed when they reached a stretch of road that was relatively clear.

Veronica looked through the window.

"How far are we from the city?"

"Not far," one of the bodyguards answered from the front. "But I don’t think going back is an option."

Nobody argued with him.

They had already seen enough.

The roads were becoming more dangerous by the minute, and they still had no idea how far the infection had spread.

One of the younger members of the family leaned forward from the back seat.

"Did anyone manage to contact Alexander?"

The question immediately changed the atmosphere inside the vehicle.

Veronica turned.

"Nothing?"

The bodyguard shook his head.

"No response yet."

She frowned.

"Keep trying."

"I will."

The memory shifted slightly.

Iris could almost feel the movement of the vehicle beneath her again, even though she was sitting beneath a tree in Velaris.

Alexander wasn’t with them.

He hadn’t been at the mansion when everything happened.

That was the problem.

The family had escaped, but one of their own was somewhere else in the middle of the collapsing world.

Veronica kept trying to call him.

Once.

Twice.

Again.

Nothing.

"Maybe his phone is dead," someone said.

"Maybe," Veronica replied.

But she didn’t sound convinced.

The vehicles continued forward.

They needed somewhere to stop.

Somewhere they could regroup.

Somewhere they could figure out what was happening.

And for a short while, it almost seemed like they might manage it.

The family still had their vehicles.

They had supplies.

They had trained bodyguards.

They had weapons.

They had each other.

Compared to most people on the road, the Hales were incredibly fortunate.

That was probably why the next part of the story had bothered Iris so much when she first read it.

The Hales didn’t lose because they were helpless.

They lost because the apocalypse kept finding ways to take pieces from them.

The vehicles eventually stopped near an abandoned building.

The bodyguards checked the surrounding area before allowing everyone to get out.

Caleb was one of the first to step out.

He looked around at the empty street and then at the others.

"That’s it?"

One of the bodyguards glanced at him.

"What?"

"We’ve been driving for hours, and we haven’t even killed one."

The bodyguard stared at him.

"That’s what you’re worried about?"

Caleb shrugged.

"I’m just saying."

Someone laughed.

Another person shook their head.

"You’re insane."

Caleb grinned.

"Maybe."

At that point, nobody fully understood what the infected were capable of.

They had seen them attack.

They had seen people bitten.

They had seen what happened afterward.

But there was still a strange disbelief surrounding everything.

It was too ridiculous.

Too impossible.

People were dead and walking.

The world had collapsed.

Yet part of them still wanted to treat the whole thing like something they could figure out with enough confidence.

Caleb picked up one of the weapons.

"I can handle one."

A bodyguard immediately frowned.

"Caleb."

"What?"

"Don’t be stupid."

"I’m not being stupid."

"You just volunteered to fight something that was attacking people ten minutes ago."

Caleb smiled.

"Exactly. So now we know what it can do."

Someone laughed from behind him.

"You’re trying to show off."

"I don’t need to show off."

"Then why are you smiling like that?"

Caleb glanced back.

"Because you’re all scared."

That earned him several annoyed looks.

The argument was almost childish.

Almost normal.

And perhaps that was why the scene had stayed in Iris’s memory.

For a few seconds, they were still behaving like themselves.

Not survivors.

Not people trapped in the apocalypse.

Just a family watching Caleb try to prove a point.

Then they heard it.

A low, broken sound came from somewhere beyond the building.

Everyone turned.

A figure stumbled into view.

Its clothes were torn.

Blood covered one side of its face.

It moved strangely, dragging one foot behind it.

Caleb tightened his grip on the weapon.

"See?"

One of the bodyguards stepped forward.

"I’ll handle it."

Caleb shook his head.

"I’ve got it."

"Caleb, wait."

But Caleb had already started moving.

The others watched.

The infected turned toward him.

For a moment, neither moved.

Then the zombie lunged.

Caleb swung.

The weapon connected.

The zombie staggered backward.

Caleb laughed.

"See? It’s not that hard."

"Caleb, get back!"

He should have listened.

Instead, he stepped forward again.

The zombie recovered faster than he expected.

It rushed toward him.

Caleb swung again, but this time he moved too quickly.

His foot caught on a piece of broken concrete hidden beneath the dirt.

He stumbled.

The smile disappeared from his face.

His body hit the ground hard.

The weapon slipped from his hand.

"Caleb!"

The zombie was already on him.

He tried to push it away.

For one second, he managed to hold it back.

Then another figure appeared behind it.

Then another.

Iris remembered this part.

The original Iris had been there.

She had been standing among the others.

She had seen Caleb fall.

She had seen the zombies rushing toward him.

And she had frozen.

Not because she didn’t care.

Not because she wanted him dead.

She had simply been terrified.

Her body refused to move.

Someone screamed at her.

"Help him!"

But she couldn’t.

Another zombie reached Caleb.

Then another.

The bodyguards opened fire.

The shots echoed through the street.

"Get them off him!"

They tried.

They really did.

But there were too many.

The zombies had already surrounded him.

Caleb disappeared beneath them.

The sound of his struggling became harder to hear beneath the gunshots and screaming.

Veronica shouted his name.

One of the family members tried to move forward, but a bodyguard grabbed them.

"Don’t go!"

"That’s Caleb!"

"I know!"

"Let me go!"

"We can’t reach him!"

The scene became a blur of movement.

Gunfire.

Screaming.

People backing away.

The infected pouring from the surrounding streets.

The bodyguards were forced to concentrate on keeping the rest of the family alive.

And when the first wave finally moved away, Caleb was no longer moving.

His weapon lay several feet from where he had fallen.

His body was still.

The original Iris stared at him.

She couldn’t move.

Someone pulled her backward.

"Come on!"

She stumbled after them.

She didn’t look away until they were already running.

That was Caleb’s death.

Not a heroic sacrifice.

Not some grand final stand.

He had simply tried to prove that he could handle one zombie.

He had made one mistake.

And the apocalypse had punished him for it.

Iris opened her eyes.

The memory vanished for a moment.

She stared at the branches above her.

Her fingers tightened around the fabric of her clothes.

Caleb had died because he had been careless.

Because he had been trying to prove something.

Because there had been too many zombies.

Because the bodyguards couldn’t reach him in time.

And because the original Iris had frozen.

MC Iris didn’t know what it felt like to stand there and watch her brother die.

She hadn’t been that girl.

But she had read the scene.

She knew the original Iris had carried that moment with her.

Perhaps that was why seeing Caleb alive now felt different.

Saving him hadn’t simply changed one event.

It had erased a death that had once been carved into the story.

Iris closed her eyes again.

The memory continued.

The Hale family didn’t have time to mourn.

They had to leave.

The gunshots had attracted more infected, and staying in one place was becoming impossible.

The bodyguards rushed everyone back into the vehicles.

Nobody complained about leaving supplies behind.

Nobody argued about the route.

Nobody cared about anything except getting away.

Veronica sat in the vehicle with a blank expression, her hands shaking slightly.

"Caleb..."

No one answered her.

She looked toward the road ahead.

"Where is Alexander?"

The question came again.

One of the bodyguards checked his phone.

"Still nothing."

"Keep trying."

"Yes, ma’am."

The vehicles moved again.

One member of the family was dead.

Another was missing.

And the people who remained were beginning to understand that surviving the first day didn’t mean they were safe.

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