“Okay to come in?” Noah knocked on the open door of the infirmary. Jack had been hurt, so it seemed a sensible place to start. He had heard voices as he’d approached. When no one answered, he pushed the door and stepped inside. He was left disappointed when he found nobody but Jack and Emily in the white-painted room. Emily seemed to be teasing Jack, laughing as she wiped the bridge of his bloodied nose.

“Hey.” He felt bad about disturbing the couple, but if he carried on the hunt for Devin without a little help, given the scale of the prison building, he might be searching all day.

“Noah?” Emily checked. She followed the sound of his voice with her cloudy blue eyes.

“Yeah, it’s me.” He stepped forward. “How’s the patient?”

Jack leaned back in his chair. “I’ll live.” He winced. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I was after Devin. Thought he might have been with you.”

“He was here,” Emily confirmed. “Seems you’ve all had a tough day.”

Noah sighed, his mind playing over the events of the day. He preferred it when they only had his bad aim to worry about. “The family we brought in? How are they?”

“They’ll be fine.” She paused. “Well, the parents and the girl, anyway. We’re trying to get some fluids into the boy. It’s going to be a case of wait and see.” Emily rubbed at her temple. “We’ve put them with the men Lukas came in with for now. Until everybody is checked out for… You know?”

“Lukas was cleared already?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah. He’s fine. A little banged up and frustrated like the rest of us. Not quite the welcome home he’d hoped for I guess.”

“Where is he now? With Devin?”

Emily shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“I think he was heading for bed. Devin planned to see Hank I think,” Jack said. “Whether he did, I don’t know. He had a lot on his mind. Like what we’re going to do about Conroy.”

“I already told you.” Emily’s voice was stern. “You let him go. You let them all go.”

Jack set his jaw and stared at Noah. To lose four more of their number now wasn’t a hit they needed, or could take. So much had been lost already and not just people’s lives. Jonas Conroy and his men were good shots. They helped keep the monsters from their door.

“Jack,” Emily said and pressed her hand to his cheek.

“It’s not just them we’ll lose, is it? They’ll want weapons, supplies, fuel, and a car or two.” Jack was clearly frustrated as he pulled away from Emily’s touch.

“You give them their share.” Emily turned her head as if looking for Noah’s support.

Noah wasn’t sure he could give it to them. Jack was right. A share of very little was no share at all. Would they settle at what was considered fair? Or would they be out for everything they could get?

“I don’t know what the answer is.” Noah rubbed his arm, feeling the ridges of the scars across his skin. He stopped at the sleeve of his T-shirt and picked at a loose thread. Before today, he had been the answer. His immunity had given people hope, something to keep fighting for. But if Lukas was right and there was no one left to use what was inside him to find a solution, then he was of no use to anybody anymore.

Emily twisted the end of her plaited blonde hair around her fingers. She narrowed her eyes as if she disapproved of Noah’s non-committal answer. “If he’s not with Hank or in his room you might want to try the roof. He goes up there when he needs some space.”

“Because he knows I can’t follow him.” Jack tentatively pressed his finger to the cut on the bridge of his nose and patted the arm of his wheelchair with his other hand. “Sneaky bastard,” he added with a laugh.

“Thanks,” Noah said.

“If you do find him. Tell him he can’t stick his head in the sand over this.” Jack wore a stern expression.

With a short nod, Noah left. He could understand Devin wanting to stay safe and silent on the fence over this. Pissing people off wasn’t what anyone wanted to do right now and picking sides was going to cause tension and aggression. Noah could see it from both points of view. As much as Jack and the others wanted Jonas and his men to stay, they had no right to force them to. They might have each other, safety, and supplies, but things were already getting more difficult. Before the people they had brought in today, there had been around sixty people at the prison, and it had fallen to a fraction of those to venture outside, or keep the perimeter of the penitentiary secure.

Gabriel Corden might have been a manipulative asshole, and his methods questionable, but he had been in control. Despite his flaws, Corden had been the leader the survivors had needed at the time. He had gotten them organized and working together, and knew who and how to get people on his side. Noah thought of Devin and the pressure Corden had put on him, the threats he’d made to Emily’s wellbeing, to Noah’s. Corden had also known how to keep them at his side whether they liked it or not.

Stopping outside Devin’s room, Noah rubbed his stiff neck. He stared at the white sticky label that had Devin’s name scrawled on it. The window in the door had been covered with cardboard on the inside and the lock had been removed. Noah ran his fingers around the holes that remained from screws and the mechanism. It didn’t make for much privacy, but he could understand why Devin had done it. Nobody would want to find themselves locked in and trapped, unless by their own hand.

“Devin,” he said and knocked. He waited a moment before pushing the door.

Noah arched his neck to look inside. The afternoon light shone through the small window at the back of the gray room. The bed was unmade; an open book lay on the desk next to a sheathed hunting knife. He didn’t think it would still bother him, but Noah couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness over how empty and very much like a prison cell Devin’s room felt. He wasn’t sure what it was, because hell if anyone had anything that truly reflected who they were anymore. A few people had managed to rescue a memento or two from their old lives. Others had been keen to accept anything Devin and the teams sent on runs had salvaged from the wreckage of humanity. But it seemed that, apart from a couple of books and toiletries, Devin had nothing from their broken world to take comfort from.

With a sad smile, Noah remembered what Devin had told him. Devin had with him the only thing he needed. He had his sister, his twin. He had Emily.

Noah took a calming breath and pushed back the somber thoughts of his own siblings, of his brother and his sister. He missed them, and he wished he could focus on the good times. Instead, he was plagued with the recurring vividness of their deaths. No matter how many times he scrubbed his hands, he would always see their blood. He had tried everything to save them.

He pulled the door shut. The bang it made as it closed shook him from the mournful loop of memories he had fallen into. He twisted his hands together, wiping his sweating palms over the back of his knuckles before continuing his search for Devin.

The walk to the exit to the roof was not one Noah was familiar with. After a few wrong turns, he eventually found the stairs and headed up. He was relieved to find the door ajar and stepped out onto the flat roof. He paused, adjusting his eyes to the brightness of outside. He glanced around the space, then beyond. Folding his arms over his chest, he walked across the roof, stopping at the waist-high surrounding wall.

My God.

A dozen or so of the infected had congregated at the outer fence. Bulked together, their combined weight buckled the ten-foot high metal mesh, which separated the main prison wall from the road running alongside it. He looked around, trying to spot where the snipers were located. He couldn’t see anybody. Where were they?

“Hank is on it.”

Noah jumped when Devin spoke up. He turned around and leaned on the brick surround. Devin was sitting against the building behind the exit. “I thought Emily had sent me on a wild goose chase.” He smiled, then glanced at the crowding monsters. “Have they been there long?”

“They started showing up just after we got back.”

“Is it the same place as before?” He shifted his gaze, focusing on the area inside the main wall and the disturbed dirt. He chewed on his lip. “Do you think they know?” Grass had yet to grow back over the graves.

Devin shrugged. “We wrapped the bodies in plastic, buried them deep. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.”

The sound of digging had probably attracted the monsters that first time, Noah figured. If they had clawed and chewed at the fence, their blood may have remained, attracting other groups to the same location.

“Yeah. Coincidence.” Sighing, he pushed off the wall. He joined Devin. They sat in silence for a moment.

“Did you ever look for shapes in the clouds when you were a kid?” Devin interrupted the quiet. He set his mouth at an angle as he scanned the sky. “We used to lie together on the grass. Emily and me. Of course, she couldn’t see a thing. I used to lie about what I could see. Told her there were unicorns and rabbits in hats. Anything magical.” He exhaled and lowered his head. “I look around this place and it’s all a lie, too. We’re all liars.”

Noah shook his head. “That’s not true.” Devin was the most honest and decent man he had met since this whole mess began. He’d met the cheaters, the opportunists. People who would steal from and hurt others for something as simple as a can of soup.

Devin didn’t look convinced.

“We’re survivors. We might be a little lost right now, but we’ll get through this.”

“Maybe.” Devin rubbed his brow. “But how long ‘til we hit the next bump in the road?” He lowered his hand and stared at the bite between his thumb and index finger. “Maybe next time we won’t make it over to the other side.”

“Devin.” Noah didn’t know what to say. They had both held onto the possibility of a vaccine like some life preserver. It had kept them going. “Look, I know Chicago is a big loss, massive, in fact. But you can’t give up. There have to be others out there working on the same thing.” He met Devin’s eyes. “There has to be.”

It was late September. More than ten months had passed since the first cases of the mysterious virus had been reported. From what he remembered of the news reports, people had gotten sick with something, like a bad flu. Then the numbers being hospitalized had grown. The media had whipped the public into a frenzy with wild speculation of an outbreak. Was it Ebola, a new strain of Avian flu, SARS? There had been little to nothing to link the cases. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina—the eastern states had reported cases within days of each other. People were only getting sicker, quarantined. It hadn’t been until the first death was reported a week later that stranger stories started to emerge. Those who had gotten sick were going crazy, becoming violent, and attacking complete strangers and their own families.

Noah straightened. What kind of virus could bring the dead back to life? And the first cases? Why them? Why were they the ones to fall sick, to be infected? Were they chosen? Dumb luck? Christ, thinking about it would end up driving him insane.

Pressing his lips in a line, Devin narrowed his eyes. He seemed to scrutinize every inch of Noah’s face. “You’re always so damn positive.”

“Well, one of us has to be.” There was nothing they could do about Chicago. Right then, the one thing that was going to get them through this was each other.

Devin raised the corner of his mouth in a wry smile. “I do love that about you.” He looked away at the sound of a shrill whistle. “Excuse me.” Devin got to his feet, stretching his neck as he made his way to the edge of the roof. He raised a hand and pointed to the compromised section along the fence. With a nod, he returned.

“I’m going to give Hank a hand. We’ll keep the noise to a minimum and save on bullets.” He leaned down and kissed Noah on the cheek. “I’ll catch up with you later, okay?” He smiled, moved in for a second kiss. He pressed his lips to Noah’s. The kiss was firm but far too brief.

“Be careful,” Noah said in a low voice.

Devin quirked his head. “I always am.”