The Cybertruck barreled down the highway at a speed that was illegal even there.

The highway was mostly empty, no jam of cars clogging every inch of the road.

The previous timeline had given people a few days to panic, pack, and flee. This one gave nobody any warning at all, which meant the highways stayed clear, and I was currently exploiting that fact with my foot buried in the accelerator.

And as I did, my phone rang.

"Nora."

"N-Nikki..."

"Five more minutes!" I said through clenched teeth. "Did you stack the heavy stuff against the door?"

"Y-Yes! Leo moved the storage racks and the desks, b-but he says they’re not heavy enough! The latch won’t hold much longer, a-and he’s holding it himself too!"

Some tension left my chest. Leo weighed over 120 kilograms, and him physically reinforcing the barricade from inside mattered considerably more than the furniture.

"That’s good... The second I’m there, I’ll handle everything..."

"But Nikki, you-"

"Leave it to me, kid." I cut her off before another spiral could build. "Don’t think about anything except getting out alive and doing exactly what I tell you."

"O-Okay..."

The line ended, and I pushed the accelerator harder while I did the final Inventory check.

Ten slots, all loaded with Buckshot in slot one, slugs in slot two, double drum magazines for the DDM4 in three. M110A2 magazines in four, the rifle in five. HEAP grenades for the launcher and C4 in six and seven. The miscellaneous chest in eight, the grappling launcher in nine, slot ten was kept empty and reserved for the Cybertruck.

The Diavel remained back at the penthouse.

The motorcycle looked excellent, was fast, but it would take just a single infected, and I’d be rolling across the asphalt.

Five minutes later, the Cybertruck rolled to the highway shoulder at the base of a forested hill, and I killed the lights.

The university sat directly on the other side.

"System.. need night vision compatible with my helmet."

-Ding!

{

Item: AGM PVS-14 NW1 Night Vision Monocular Package

Generation: Gen 2+

Magnification: 1×

Detection Range: 250 meters

Field of View: 40°

Helmet Mount Included: Yes

Weight: 350 grams

Battery Life: Up to 50 hours

Compatibility: Ops-Core FAST Helmet Compatible

Contents:

AGM PVS-14 Monocular

Wilcox-Style Dovetail Mount

Helmet J-Arm Adapter

Protective Lens Protector

Cost: 3,500 Credits

Confirm Purchase?

}

Two minutes later, the world had gone flat and green, and I was moving uphill in a straight line, DDM4 slung on my back and shotgun in both hands.

The trails wound around the hill in long curves, and I didn’t have that kind of time, so I took the direct route.

I knew these trails like the back of my hand, having spent enough hours in these trees skipping lectures that the terrain going straight up had become something close to instinct.

Awareness extended fifteen meters in every direction, which covered barely a fraction of the forest around me. That’s where the NVG came to the rescue. Depth perception was all messed up, but the Awareness compensated for it better than I had hoped.

Halfway through, a lone infected wandered directly across the path, shaking with adrenaline, its snarls giving its position away way before I had visual on it.

-Dich-!

The suppressed round put it down instantly, and I moved on without so much as another glance.

Two more met the same outcome before the summit.

And by the time I reached it, the waist wound had increasingly clear opinions about the climb. My bruised chest agreed with all of them. Both got ignored.

At the top, I let the shotgun hang and brought the M110A2 up and began the recon.

Buildings. Walkways. Open courtyards. Most of it was swarming with Infected.

Especially the Electrical and Civil Engineering building.

The entire front courtyard had disappeared under packed bodies, infected, hammering every entrance and window in an absolute frenzy that had clearly been running for a while now.

Fresh arrivals kept joining from surrounding areas, feeding the mass from three different directions.

And my heart hammered harder than it had any right to at this distance.

"Just hold on a little longer, kid..."

The soccer field between me and the campus was completely empty, so there was that silver lining at least.

I covered it at a sprint, went over the mesh fence without stopping, landed low, and pressed against the rear wall of the library.

And almost instantly, Awareness caught movement on the other side of the wall, followed by snarls wafting in from almost every direction.

The layout of the area I was in was ’U’ shaped, with the Library in the center, Mechanical Engineering to the right, and the Electrical and Civil Engineering to the left, directly adjacent to where I crouched.

And those two were in the third-floor janitor’s room inside the Electrical and Civil Engineering building. Exactly where I had told them to wait.

Easing to the library’s corner, I looked around it toward the Engineering building front.

"Okay..." Every single Infected in the courtyard faced the entrance with complete, singular attention. Which meant every Infected was faced directly away from me.

I crossed the walkway between the two buildings fast and crouched, and reached the Engineering building’s side wall without anything turning before moving to the back.

Two Infected stood there, clawing at the wall, and before they snaped their eyes at me-

-Dich-!-Dich-!

And I was already pulling the phone out before their bodies hit the floor.

"Nikki!" Nora answered before the first ring finished.

"Kid. Look out the window."

"T-The window doesn’t open! No latch, I can’t-"

-CRACK-!

Glass shards instantly burst outward above me as a large bleach jug came through the opening, landing several meters away, and exploding across the concrete.

"Atta boy." I grinned up while a deep, unhurried voice came through the phone.

"You got rope?"

"Ladder."

"Even better..."

Buying a telescoping ladder, I pulled it out of the Inventory and got it set up against the wall beneath the broken window in under a minute while a pair of large, tanned hands appeared at the frame and cleared the remaining glass without wasting a single motion, tossing the pieces inward.

Then Nora appeared.

Brown hair halfway out of its ponytail from the cap I had bought her, a denim jacket over a large grey hoodie, tear tracks running freely down both cheeks as she looked down at me while she slowly and awkwardly climbed down.

"One step at a time," I said quietly, holding the ladder in place until her sneakers hit the ground.

Nora stood completely still for a long second, looking at me with big brown eyes while her chin began to shake.

"Fine," I chuckled, opening my arms. "Come here."

She crashed into my chest hard enough to send one of the worst ripples of agony my bruised chest had felt tonight.

"It’s okay, kid," I said, hand patting her head. "Just... keep the volume down. I’m here now."

Leo came down behind her, and we both exchanged a nod.

Six and a half feet of broad shoulders and tanned skin, black shirt and cargo pants and boots, callused hands that had spent a lifetime doing actual work at farms his family owned.

"You want a hug too?" I asked.

"No." His response came with absolute seriousness, making Nora laugh into my jacket before she stepped back, which was a genuinely good sign.

I extended the suppressed shotgun toward Leo, and he took it without hesitation, his fingers wrapping around the grip naturally, and the check he ran through came fast and practiced: action, tube, safety, weight.

He had been going hunting with his brothers for years, and even though the 1301 was semi-automatic, he had only ever used pump actions. Leo was a smart chap, so I wasn’t really worried.

"Other side of the hill," I said, removing my helmet and handing it over. "A Cybertruck on the highway shoulder... It’s unlocked, get in there and wait for me. The hill is dark, so use the helmet... Don’t use any lights, you’ll draw them in."

Leo nodded once, while I pressed a fistful of shells into his free hand. "Fire only when you absolutely have to."

"What about you?" he asked.

"I’m gonna go top off on credits." I grinned.