Page 22 of Glass Rose (Where Roses Rot #1)

FIFTEEN

SOFIA

Gavin’s kiss lingers on my forehead like a brand as he turns away, his broad shoulders tense with the weight of what’s about to happen. My fingers curl at my sides, itching to grab him, to draw him back to me, to find another way that doesn’t involve splitting up.

But there is no other way. No magical solution that keeps us all safe, together.

This is survival. Messy, brutal, and unfair.

“Sofia.” Min-Ji hands me one of the emergency backpacks. “We need to move. Now.”

Right. Escape plan. SUVs. Rendezvous point.

I shove my gun into the waistband of my jeans, the metal cold against my lower back. I don’t know if I’m ready to shoot a human, but… My grandfather’s hunting knife remains strapped to my thigh, a constant reminder of what I’ve already lost and what I’m still fighting to keep.

“Stay close,” Marcus says. “Move fast.”

Min-Ji nods. Her pristine lab coat is gone, replaced by cargo pants and a dark jacket that somehow is still meticulously pressed despite everything. Even facing death, she maintains standards.

“They’ll be coming through the main entrance any minute.” I take a deep breath.

A deafening boom rips through the warehouse, the concrete floor shuddering beneath my feet. Shelves rattle violently, sending items crashing to the floor while dust cascades from above.

The diversion has begun.

“That’s our cue,” Marcus shouts over the ringing in my ears. “Go!”

We move as one, crouching low as we navigate the maze of shelving units. Another explosion rocks the building, this time closer. The crack of gunfire follows.

My heart squeezes.

What if those blue eyes never look at me again, those hands never touch my skin, those lips never?—

“That’s right, you corporate fucks!” John’s voice booms from the entrance. “Welcome to my house!”

Marcus takes point, rifle raised, checking each corner before waving us forward. The air grows thick with smoke—acrid, chemical, burning my lungs with each inhale, and my eyes water. It’s like we’re back at the facility, running for our lives.

“Down!” Marcus yanks Min-Ji to the floor as bullets pierce through the shelf above us, sending splinters of wood and metal raining down on our heads.

I plant my forehead against the cold concrete, arms covering my head as chaos erupts around us. It’s not just gunfire anymore, but screams. The kind that tears from a human throat when pain exceeds language.

“Alternate route,” Min-Ji says. “Through the storage area. Follow me.”

She leads us down a narrow corridor formed by stacked crates of survival supplies. John’s obsessive preparations now guide our escape… how fucking ironic. I crawl after her, palms collecting grit and splinters I’m too wired to feel.

The east service door, a small metal rectangle, is illuminated by an exit sign that flickers like a dying firefly. So close. Just a few more meters through hell, and we might actually make it.

Marcus reaches it first, molding his back to the wall beside it as he peers through the small reinforced window. “Clear. But we’ll be exposed the moment we step outside.”

Easy targets. Fish in a bowl. Dead if we’re not fast enough.

“On three.” Marcus grabs the push bar. “One. Two?—”

The door flies open with a metallic screech, cool night air rushing in to battle the smoke.

We burst outside like rats fleeing a sinking ship, lungs burning as we gulp fresh air.

Behind us, the windows flash orange with gunfire, black smoke billowing from the main entrance where John’s mines did their work.

My eyes dart to the parking area where Green’s SUVs sit unattended. This is too easy, or am I paranoid? Three vehicles, keys probably inside if we’re lucky.

“I’ll hot-wire the middle one.” Marcus moves forward.

Min-Ji and I follow, weapons raised, scanning the darkness and surrounding forest. My finger hovers near the trigger, a sick knot twisting in my stomach at the thought of actually using it.

Killing infected is one thing.

Killing people, even Green’s people, is another.

But Gavin and John are buying us time with their lives. We can’t waste it.

We’re halfway to the SUVs when a dark figure steps out from behind them.

Alex.

The camera still dangles from his neck, forgotten, while a pistol that looks too big fills his hand. Shadows obscure his face, but I know what I’d find there—that half-smile, that calculated charm that always got him what he wanted.

Including me, once.

I was so fucking stupid.

“That’s far enough,” he says. “But nice plan. Almost worked.”

Marcus shifts slightly, positioning himself in front of Min-Ji and me.

“Heroic, Marcus. Really?” Alex’s gun tracks to follow him. “Unnecessary. I’m not here to hurt anyone. Just making sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

“You’re with them?” Min-Ji’s voice drips with contempt. “Tell me, what’s the going rate for betrayal these days?”

“Green has resources. Shelter. Protection. What do you have?” Alex asks. “A warehouse that’s currently being overrun, and a wild-eyed survivalist who’ll probably shoot you himself when supplies run low.”

“You sold us out.” My voice shakes with fury. “You fucking sold us out!”

“I made a choice.” His tone turns cold. “The same choice anyone with a brain would make. Green’s group is organized, well-supplied, and has plans to rebuild society.”

“Built on what?” I spit back. “Human experimentation? Compliance viruses? The same shit that caused this entire apocalypse? The same you wanted to expose!”

Alex sighs like I’m a child who just doesn’t understand. “The old Green Industries died with the old world, Sofia. Gabriel’s starting fresh. Building something better from the ashes.”

“You really believe that?” I laugh, a harsh sound that scrapes my throat raw. “What if we refuse?”

“Look,” he says, “just surrender. Come back with me. Green needs you two—” he nods at me and Min-Ji, “—alive and cooperative. Your expertise. Your knowledge of the virus.”

“And Gavin?” I already know the answer.

He stays quiet.

“You’d let them dissect him? After everything he’s done to keep us alive?”

“He’s not even human anymore.” Alex’s face softens with what looks like genuine pity. “He’s got you wrapped around his little finger. You’ve seen what they did to him. What he can do. He’s a weapon, not a person.”

“He’s more human than you’ll ever be.”

“You’re angry. I get it. But think logically. That’s what you’re good at, right? The rational scientist.”

“There’s nothing logical about what Green is doing,” I say. “He’s collecting assets, not saving people.”

“So it’s join or die?” Min-Ji asks. “Not much of a choice.”

“It’s the only choice that matters now.” Alex adjusts his grip on the gun. “So, don’t be stupid.”

A burst of gunfire erupts from inside the warehouse, and Alex’s attention wavers for a split second.

Marcus dives forward, but Alex’s gun is faster. It discharges.

Once.

Twice.

Marcus stumbles, momentum carrying him forward two more steps before his knees buckle, his hands clutching at his chest where dark stains bloom across his shirt.

“No!” Min-Ji drops beside him as he collapses face-first onto the gravel, body convulsing.

Alex looks genuinely shocked, as if he didn’t mean to pull the trigger.

Min-Ji rolls Marcus over, her hands assessing the damage. “Missed the heart, but punctured lung, possible arterial damage. I don’t—I’m not a doctor. ”

Marcus coughs, pink froth bubbling at the corner of his mouth. “Always the optimist.”

“Shut up.” She increases the pressure on the wound. “Just—shut up and breathe shallow.”

Alex approaches, gun still trained on him. “Stupid. So fucking stupid.”

Marcus’s hand comes up, cupping her face. “It’s?—”

“Tough son of a bitch.” Alex raises the gun and fires a single shot directly into Marcus’s heart.

Min-Ji kneels beside Marcus’s body, her hands still covering the wound that no longer matters. Her face is blank, expressionless in a way that terrifies me more than any display of grief.

Bile rises in my throat. How—He didn’t even hesitate.

“It was mercy,” Alex says. “He was dying anyway.”

“Mercy?” Min-Ji’s voice is ice. “You don’t know the meaning of the word.”

I risk a peek at her. “Min-Ji, we need to?—”

She rises slowly from Marcus’s side, the small handgun aimed at Alex. “You killed him.”

“Dr. Cho.” Alex doesn’t back down. “Be reasonable?—”

“That’s what I’m being.” Her voice is perfectly calm. “Reasonable. Logical. A bullet to the frontal lobe will cause instantaneous death. No suffering.”

“Put the gun down,” he says. “This isn’t you.”

“You don’t know me.” She tilts her head. “None of you ever did.”

I take a careful step backward, tugging Dr. Cho with me. She moves without taking her eyes, or her aim, off Alex.

“Check the cars,” she says. “Find keys. Quickly.”

I rush to the nearest SUV, opening it up. The interior light illuminates leather seats, a high-tech dashboard, and—thank fuck—keys still in the ignition. “Got them.”

I drop my backpack inside and glance back at them. What the… At first, I think it’s a trick of the light, a shadow cast by the chaos still unfolding at the warehouse.

Then I see it again.

Marcus’s fingers are twitching.

Not the random spasms of a body shutting down. His hand flexes, then flattens against the ground as if trying to lift himself up.

“Min-Ji.” Horror skitters up to my neck, raising the little hairs. “Something’s wrong.”

“Everything’s wrong,” she says.

“No, I mean—Look.”

Her eyes flick toward Marcus, then back to Alex. Then back to Marcus again. His head turns, cheek scraping against the rough gravel, neck bending ninety degrees, and his eyes snap open…

Milky white.

“He’s…” How is this possible? He didn’t get bitten. “…turning.”

The man who helped us, who tried to protect us, who shared meals and stories and flirted with Min-Ji over inventory lists, is gone.

“That’s not possible.” Alex’s face drains of color. “You said—The incubation period?—”

Marcus claws his way to his knees, movements stuttering and broken. Black blood weeps from his chest wounds, but pain means nothing for him. His head swivels toward us, nostrils flaring.

Only hunger remains. Raw, insatiable hunger.

“What the fuck.” Alex’s gun switches between us and the advancing infected. “What the actual fuck is happening?”

The virus doesn’t kill you to reproduce. It waits until you’re dead from any cause, then hijacks your nervous system. The ultimate parasite—patient enough to wait for its host to die naturally before taking control .

It doesn’t matter how you die.

Everyone turns.

The gunfire from the warehouse intensifies, shouts echoing across the concrete yard, and through it all, the low groan coming from Marcus’s throat as he hurls himself toward Alex.

They collide like wrecking balls, Alex’s gun skittering across the pavement, and his camera, his precious fucking camera, smashes against the ground, lens shattering with a satisfying crunch.

“Get off me!” He thrashes beneath Marcus’s weight, hands braced against the dead man’s shoulders, fighting to keep snapping teeth from his throat. “Help me! For fuck’s sake, help me!”

Black fluid drips onto his face from the bullet wounds in Marcus’ chest. My body refuses to move even as my brain screams at me to do something.

This is wrong?

The man who betrayed us is about to be torn apart by the man who protected us. There’s a fucked up symmetry to it that my scientist brain can’t help but appreciate as my human heart recoils.

“Sofia, please!” Alex’s eyes find mine, wide with desperation. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry!”

Min-Ji steps forward. The gun in her hand doesn’t waver as her fingers curl around the trigger. Her face is a mask, tears streaking her cheeks, but her expression is utterly devoid of emotion, as if some essential part of her shut down the moment Marcus’s heart stopped beating.

“Min-Ji, let?—”

The crack of her gun drowns out my words.