Page 9 of Burning Love (The Lost World #5)

9

ALEX

T he first sign of trouble was the dogs.

Alex had been patrolling the perimeter, as she did every morning, when the compound’s two mutts—scrappy survivors just like the rest of them—began barking and whining at the eastern fence.

Why’d Miller let the kids keep those things? They’re probably desperate to get out of here. Someone should let them off the compound. Poor things.

Their hackles stood on end, teeth bared, their growls vibrating through the air. The pitch of their howls sent a shiver down Alex’s spine. The dogs were in a panic.

Then came the pounding.

A deep, resonating thud against the metal fence, followed by another. Then another. The rhythmic hammering of something massive and relentless. A sound so heavy, so unnatural, that Alex’s gut twisted with recognition.

They’re in .

The scent of rot hit her next—a sickly-sweet stench that made her stomach churn.

Then the moans drifted through the air—low, hungry, relentless. A chorus of suffering, of insatiable need. A sound that never stopped haunting her dreams. Alex’s heart clenched as dread slithered down her spine. She pivoted on her heel and sprinted toward the guard post, her boots hammering against the packed earth.

“Contact!” she barked, her voice sharp. “We’ve got a breach forming! Look! Eastern side!”

Henry was already sprinting toward her, rifle in hand, eyes wide with urgency.

“How many?” he demanded, skidding to a halt beside her.

Alex squinted into the light. The sky was a bruised orange, casting long, grotesque shadows over the land. The figures beyond the fence twitched and writhed, pressing forward in a tide of decay. Sunken eyes, hollow and clouded, stared hungrily from rotting faces. Torn lips peeled back over yellowed teeth, some blackened, others chipped down to jagged stumps. Their hands, some missing fingers, others reduced to gnarled bones, scraped against the metal in mindless desperation. Flies swarmed open wounds, crawling through congealed blood and gaping flesh. Some of the creatures had been dead for weeks, their bodies swollen with gases, skin stretched taut like overfilled balloons. Others were fresher, their deaths recent enough that their faces still resembled the people they once were.

“Too many,” Alex admitted, her throat dry. “We need everyone. Now! Move! Help!”

As she continued to scream, she watched as a growing number of survivors rushed out of the various hangars and outbuildings.

Then, with an earsplitting shriek of metal, the fence gave way.

The undead poured through the opening like floodwater through a broken dam. The first wave tumbled forward, limbs tangled, their decomposing bodies piling atop one another before lurching upright again. Some were missing eyes, their sockets black and weeping, while others had their jaws hanging loose, snapping ineffectively at the air. One had no lower half at all—just a trail of guts dragging behind as it clawed forward.

Alex’s felt like she was about to be sick, but there was no time. She had to act fast.

“Shit!” Alex roared, raising her rifle. “Hold the line!”

She squeezed the trigger. The recoil slammed into her shoulder, but she held steady. The first bullet cracked through a zombie’s skull, sending a spray of bone and gore into the air. The next hit a woman in a tattered floral dress, her ribs visible through a gaping hole in her side. She dropped, twitching as her fingers scraped the dirt.

Gunfire erupted. The air around her lit up in bursts of muzzle flashes. Henry’s shotgun blasted holes through torsos, sending chunks of rotting flesh flying. Dorian’s blade flashed as he fought at close range, slicing through tendons, severing limbs. The putrid smell of death mixed with gunpowder and blood, coating Alex’s tongue, burning in her nostrils.

She pivoted, dodging a grasping hand as a particularly large zombie lunged for her. Its skin sloughed off in sheets, revealing slick muscle beneath. Its breath reeked of decay, a putrid exhale of death and filth. Alex swung the butt of her rifle up, catching it beneath the jaw, then followed up with a bullet through its forehead. It crumpled instantly, but three more lurched forward to take its place.

She kept moving. Fire, pivot, fire again. Her hands worked on instinct, muscle memory taking over. But it wasn’t enough.

More kept coming.

To her left, Henry took down three in rapid succession, but a fourth lunged at him, and he barely had time to shove it off. Dorian stumbled, his blade slipping from his grasp as he tried to reload. Screams rose in the air as the compound’s defenses buckled.

Alex’s mind went to Sophia.

She wheeled around, scanning the chaos, her stomach dropping when she spotted her. Sophia was near the storage shed, frozen in place as a lone zombie broke free from the mass and lurched toward her.

In that moment, something deeper than fear struck Alex—something undeniable. Sophia wasn’t just a fleeting thrill, a bright spark in the darkness of this new world. What they had shared a few nights ago was the most passionate thing she had ever experienced, but it was more than that. Sophia was warmth, resilience, and sharp-witted kindness. She made Alex laugh when she believed she had forgotten how, challenged her in ways no one else did, and saw through the walls she had spent most of her life reinforcing. The thought of losing her now was unbearable.

Adrenaline surged through Alex’s veins, but beneath it was something even stronger—a desperate need to protect what she had barely begun to understand.

“Move!” Alex shouted, sprinting toward her.

Sophia snapped out of her paralysis at the last second, twisting away just as the thing reached for her. Alex reached her, grabbing her wrist and yanking her back. She drove her knife into the creature’s skull, shoving the body aside before turning to Sophia.

“Are you hurt?”

Sophia was trembling from head to toe, but she nodded. “I-I think I’m okay.”

Alex didn’t have time to process the relief that flooded her. “Go. Get inside. Find somewhere safe. Now.”

Sophia hesitated, eyes darting between Alex and the chaos. “But?—”

“Now, Sophia! Go!”

Finally, Sophia turned and ran, disappearing toward the nearest hangar where the women and children were taking shelter. Alex exhaled sharply, pivoting back toward the fight.

The battle raged on for what felt like hours. But finally, after what seemed like an eternity, even though it was probably no more than a few minutes, the last of the undead fell. The remaining bodies twitched before going still. They had won this battle, but just barely.

Alex started barking orders. “Secure the fence again with whatever we have. Check the wounded! Burn these goddamn stinking bodies.”

She was running on pure adrenaline when she heard a quiet, broken voice behind her.

“Alex.”

She turned.

Sophia stood a few feet away, her face pale, her hands stained a strange pinkish color. She looked down at her own arm, and Alex followed her gaze…

A bite mark. Ragged. Red. Deep.

Alex’s world stopped.

Sophia let out a choked sob. “I-I don’t know. It happened so fast. I didn’t even feel it. Not at first…”

Alex felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. Her knees almost buckled.

No. No, not Sophia.

The breath rushed from her lungs. The sounds around them faded into a dull roar in her ears. It was just her and Sophia, locked in this terrible moment.

Sophia met her gaze, and Alex saw it in her eyes—the acceptance. The quiet resignation. She knew what this meant.

“I don’t want to die,” Sophia whispered. “But if I—when I turn, you have to?—”

“No,” Alex cut her off, stepping closer, her hands clenching into fists. “You’re not going to turn. Stop, Sophia. We’ll—We’ll figure something out.”

Sophia’s eyes filled with tears. “Please, Alex. We both know what happens next. I really… I really just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for everything. Fuck. I can’t believe this happened to me. I thought I’d moved quickly enough.”

The words twisted in Alex’s chest like a knife. This was the moment. This was when she was supposed to do what she’d done so many times before—what had to be done. She had put down countless people after they’d been bitten. Friends. Fellow soldiers. People she’d lived and worked alongside for years.

But this was Sophia.

Sophia, who laughed when it all seemed so bleak. Who made Alex feel something real in a world that had stolen so much from her. Who had become the only thing that made this life worth living.

Alex’s fingers brushed the hilt of her knife. Her mind screamed at her to do it. To end it before Sophia became something else. Before she became something wrong.

Do it, Alex.

Now.

But she couldn’t.

Her body refused to move; her muscles were locked in place.

“Alex,” someone barked. She barely registered the voice.

A hand gripped her shoulder. She turned sharply to see Ellen staring at her with hard, expectant eyes.

“Alex,” Ellen said again, quieter this time, like she was speaking to a child. “You know what has to happen.”

Others who were now standing around the two women in a circle murmured their agreement.

“She’s already dead,” someone muttered. “Do it before it’s too late.”

“It’s the rules,” said Ellen.

Alex swallowed, her throat raw. She turned back to Sophia, whose face was damp with sweat, but her eyes were steady. Steady and afraid. This was a cut-throat ending. But it was a game of survival now.

She knew.

She was waiting for Alex to do it.

The pressure of the knife in Alex’s grip felt unbearable. This was her job. This was survival.

Sophia squeezed her eyes shut. Her breath came out ragged.

Alex raised the knife.

She stared at Sophia, memorizing every detail. The sharp curve of her jaw, the softness in her lips, the defiance in her posture even now, standing at the edge of the inevitable.

No.

No, she couldn’t. Of course she couldn’t.

She let out a shaking breath and lowered the knife.

“Alex,” Ellen snapped, what little patience she had thinning.

“No.” Her voice was firm. Strong. “I won’t.”

A beat of silence.

Then chaos.

“She’s a risk?—”

“You’re putting all of us in danger!” yelled Ellen. “Someone else has to do it!”

“She’s one of them, Alex!” shouted a small child who Alex didn’t even recognize.

“I said no,” Alex snarled, stepping in front of Sophia like a shield.

Then they waited.

Every second that passed felt like an eternity.

The tension was suffocating. The people around them kept their weapons drawn, watching Sophia like a predator waiting for its prey to make one wrong move. Alex felt the weight of their stares, the pressure of their expectations. Usually the signs of infection spreading would happen fast.

She held Sophia’s gaze, searching for the first sign of change.

She should have changed a little by now…

The clouding of the eyes. The twitch of fingers. The tremor of breath that would eventually turn into a growl.

The minutes continued on.

Sophia didn’t change.

She remained herself—breathing, warm, alive.

The whispers continued.

“She should be different. She should be changing by now.”

“She should be one of them.”

“But she’s not.”

Sophia stood in silence. Shocked. Confused. Terrified of her fate.

Someone ran to inform Henry.

Henry arrived in what felt like a flash. He paced in front of Alex and Sophia, his expression unreadable. “What the hell is going on? We need to test this.”

Sophia’s hands curled into fists. “Test? Huh?”

“She’s not changed at all? How long has it been? What’s going on? If she’s immune, we need to understand why,” Henry continued. “We need to know if this is real.”

The murmurs of agreement spread through the gathered crowd.

Alex’s shoulders tensed. “And how exactly do you plan to do that?”

Henry’s gaze was cold. Calculating. “We need confirmation. A controlled bite.”

A wave of nausea crashed over Alex.

“ Are you insane? ” she barked. “She’s not a fucking experiment.”

Henry didn’t flinch. “This is bigger than her, Alex. This could change everything. Look at that bite! She should have shown signs of change about ten fucking minutes ago!”

Sophia let out a sharp laugh, brittle with disbelief. “Henry? You want to throw me back to them? Just to see if I live?”

“You’re alive now, aren’t you?” Henry said simply. “We need to know if it’s a fluke.”

The words made Alex’s blood run cold.

Others were nodding. Whispering. If Sophia was the answer they’d been waiting for, they couldn’t afford to waste the opportunity. This hadn’t been seen yet. There had been the odd whisper about stories of the rare few who didn’t change. But everyone thought it was fake hearsay.

“Maybe we should contact Redford. There’s stuff going on out there. Government scientists or something, I heard,” snarled Ellen, who was still towering over Alex, her arms folded across her chest in defiance. “They’d know what to do with her.”

Alex moved closer to Sophia, her body taut with fury. “She is not some miracle cure for people to poke and prod at. She is not going anywhere. She’s staying here. With me.”

Henry met her gaze, his jaw tightening. “I knew it. I could tell you were a?—”

“A what?”

“Listen. This isn’t your call. We’re going to have to get Miller here and…”

“Miller’s been gone for days,” a younger soldier said.

“That’s right. I guess it is my call then, Henry. Until Miller gets back, I’m in charge, right?”

The days following Sophia’s survival were suffocating.

Alex had spent years building her reputation, solidifying her command through trust, discipline, and sheer force of will. Now, with every whispered conversation, every sideways glance, she felt it all crumbling beneath her. They didn’t trust her anymore.

She saw it in the way Henry spoke to the other soldiers in low tones just out of her earshot. In the way Ellen had started lingering outside Sophia’s quarters with the guards, their hands resting a little too casually on their weapons.

The members of the compound had made their stance clear—Sophia was a variable. She needed to be that contained, controlled. Studied.

“If we can figure out what makes her immune, we could save lives,” Henry argued in front of Major Miller when he’d come back from a fruitless expedition looking like someone who’d escaped a concentration camp. “We can’t afford to let sentiment cloud our judgment.”

Sentiment. As if Sophia was just some specimen. As if she weren’t a person.

“You want to keep her locked up like some lab rat?” Alex had shot back, barely keeping the snarl out of her voice.

Miller had given her a long, measured look. “We need to keep people safe. You can see that, can’t you, Alex? It’s what you used to want too. I need to get some rest.”

The shift felt palpable. She wasn’t just fighting for Sophia anymore—she was fighting to keep herself from being pushed out entirely.

Tromer and Henry came to Alex’s quarters at dusk.

“She’s coming with us,” Tromer said, his voice flat.

“No, she’s not.”

Henry sighed. “Alex, you know how this goes. Miller’s orders.”

She shifted her stance, tensing. “Miller’s orders? What does he know? He looks half dead! If you want her, you’ll have to go through me.”

The two men exchanged glances, uneasy. They clearly didn’t want to fight Alex. Not directly. But they didn’t need to—because she was already losing. She could see it in their faces.

The Alex they followed had been a leader. A protector.

Now? Now she was just a woman who had let her emotions cloud her judgment. A woman who cared a little too much about Sophia.

“I won’t let you take her,” Alex said again, but this time, her voice lacked the weight it once carried. The threat sounded empty, even to her own ears.

Henry studied her for a long moment. Then, with something like regret, he nodded to Tromer, “We’ll be back. You keep her in your quarters, Alex. We’ll be back in the morning. Make sure you put security outside in case she turns on you or something.”

And then they left.

But Alex knew they’d be back with reinforcements.

She knew they couldn’t wait around to see how the next confrontation would play out.

* * *

“Fuck. You’re my savior. I can’t believe this. I feel fine,” Sophia’s voice was raw, urgent as she lay back on Alex’s cot, examining the bite mark that seemed unchanged.

“Of course I am.” Alex sat down next to her, her hands finding Sophia’s hips, fingers digging in as if to reassure herself that this was real, that she hadn’t already lost her. “Listen, we’re going to have to make a run for it. You can’t stay here. You can’t become a lab rat to those fuckers.”

Sophia sat upright suddenly and swung her leg over Alex, pinning her down on the mattress. Her head fell forward as their lips met. The kiss was bruising, full of desperation, of everything they hadn’t said, everything they didn’t know how to say. Sophia’s tongue brushed against Alex’s lip, and when Alex opened her mouth, she was immediately met with a fierce, consuming heat that sent a shudder down her spine.

Alex had spent years being in control. She knew how to take charge, how to command, how to dominate. But now, with Sophia pressing her down, forcing her to yield, she found herself unravelling.

When Sophia’s hands slid down, gripping Alex’s wrists before pinning them above her head, Alex let out a quiet, surprised gasp.

“Oh,” Sophia murmured against her lips, her voice laced with amusement. “I’m not going anywhere tonight. I’ve been through hell and back. I’m going nowhere. New plan. I want to do this instead. I want to feel alive with you.”

Alex’s breath hitched. “I don’t?—”

But she didn’t get the words out before Sophia rolled her pants down, the friction sending a shockwave through her, making her arch up with a sharp intake of breath.

“You don’t what?” Sophia teased, but there was something darker in her tone, something almost possessive.

Shit? What’s happening here? Is she a horny zombie?

Alex turned her head, trying to catch her breath, but Sophia wasn’t having it. She leaned in, lips brushing the shell of Alex’s ear. “You don’t like letting someone else take control, do you? But I want to try this. I need it…”

Alex’s pulse pounded in her throat. “Sophia? Are you still… you? I just never imagined you like this?—”

“Don’t panic. I’m still me. But today reminded me how short life is, and I’m still alive somehow.”

Sophia bit down gently on Alex’s neck, and Alex whimpered . The sound was foreign to her own ears. She had never whimpered for anyone.

Sophia moved one of her hands, dragging her fingers down Alex’s stomach, slow, deliberate. Alex felt her entire body tense in anticipation, heat pooling low in her stomach. She wasn’t used to this—to being the one under someone else’s power.

And yet… she wanted it. More than she could admit.

“Say it,” Sophia murmured, her fingers teasing Alex’s wet inner labia. “Tell me you want this. Tell me you want to see this side of me.”

Alex swallowed hard. Her pride warred with her desire, but there was no winning this fight. Not against Sophia. She already liked her a lot, but this was making her wild for Sophia.

“Oh God, I want it,” she admitted, barely above a whisper.

Sophia smiled against her skin. “Good.”

She didn’t let Alex hide, didn’t let her retreat into the safety of dominance. She made her feel every touch, every stroke, every slow flick of her tongue, every deliberate motion designed to keep her right on the edge, trembling, desperate. Determined to feel alive.