Apocalypse: After Reanimation, I Became The Queen-Chapter 32: _ León

Bea squints at us like we’ve all collectively lost our minds. "Where are we going?"

Yara groans dramatically, waving a weak hand in the air. "Oh, I don’t know, Bea. Anywhere but this death trap of an apartment. We obviously can’t stay here anymore."

Bea crosses her arms, frowning. "Right. And we would move, so why am I hearing things like the road?" She huffs. "We’ve moved before, so we can do it again."

Huh? The girls told me something else.

"Moved before?" I look between them, baffled. "I thought you two said you’ve been holed up inside for a year and a half."

Yara nods. "Yeah."

Bea shrugs. "We never said it was this house. We’ve moved twice."

My brain takes a second to process that. "Wait. Hold on. You mean you’ve switched hideouts twice?"

"First time, zombies overran the place," Yara explains in a raspy but casual voice like she’s recounting a bad first date instead of a near-death experience. "Second time, it was people—worse than the zombies, if you ask me. We barely made it out."

I bet they also did some bad stuff to get their hands on the apartments they occupied twice. You don’t get things like this for free in an apocalypse unless you paid with blood.

Pretty Boy exhales, running a hand down his face. "Sounds about right. The violence is getting worse," he mutters. "Instead of fighting zombies, people are killing each other now. It’s everywhere.

Bea screeches, eyes bulging as she points an accusatory finger at Yara. "And that’s where you want us to go?! Are you insane?! No, nope, I’m out. I am not interested. I’d rather kiss a zombie."

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from laughing. I could arrange that, honestly.

Yara rolls her eyes. "Fine, stay here and wait for death, Bea. I’m going with them."

Bea gasps like Yara just declared she was running off to become a cult leader.

"You’re leaving me?" she whines. "I thought we were in this together!"

Yara starts to say something but then coughs... hard. And when she pulls her hand away from her mouth, I see it.

Blood.

A lot of it.

"Shit!" Pretty Boy is already pushing himself toward her, but he’s still weak.

Yara sways, her face losing what little color it had left.

I dart to her side, grabbing her arm. "Whoa, okay, let’s not collapse. That would be bad. Bad for everyone involved."

Bea, suddenly panicked, fumbles for the water and shoves it into her hands. "Here, here... drink this!"

We ease Yara back against the wall, and she greedily gulps down a few sips. Pretty Boy takes the bottle from her afterward and downs the rest in one go.

"Wow," Bea deadpans. "Thirsty, much?"

"You bet," Pretty Boy mumbles, wiping his mouth.

Bea sighs and rummages in the polythene bag she has returned with again. "This is all I found inside." She pulls out a handful of candies, unwrapping one and popping it into her mouth. "At least we have sugar. That’s something, right?"

She dumps the rest into the middle of us. The wrappers are faded, probably stale, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Pretty Boy takes one without hesitation. Yara, still recovering from her coughing fit, grabs another. Bea chews hers thoughtfully before glancing at me.

"Renata? You want one?"

Ah.

I hung back. This could go very wrong.

But I take one anyway. I stare at it for a moment before carefully unwrapping it. It’s a little too pink, but whatever. It’s just a candy. A small, stupid piece of candy.

I pop it into my mouth and immediately regret every decision that has led me to this point.

It tastes horrific. It doesn’t taste like sugar. It tastes like ashes. Like rotting fruit left under a blistering sun.

Suddenly, the system’s robotic voice comes booming in my head.

[DING!]

A notification flashes across my vision.

[WARNING: Feed within one hour, or skin decomposition will begin.]

I nearly choke.

"Shit."

Pretty Boy frowns. "What?"

"Nothing." I force myself to chew, to swallow—because spitting it out would be way too suspicious.

The system isn’t done with me, though.

[Reminder: Host must consume human flesh. Sugar intake does not qualify as sustenance.]

I grit my teeth. I KNOW.

The candy sits in my stomach like a rock. My body hates it. It’s wrong... so unnatural.

I can feel the others watching me.

"You okay?" Bea asks, narrowing her eyes.

I force a nod. "Yeah. Just... strong flavor."

Bea pops another into her mouth and shrugs. "Tastes fine to me."

Of course, it does. You’re human.

I swallow hard and pray my stomach settles.

Pretty Boy sighs. "We need to do something about Yara’s wound."

"And Pretty Boy’s too," I add, glancing at him.

He gives me an awestruck look. "Pretty Boy? That’s not my name."

I tilt my head. "I don’t know your name, so I settled for that."

A smirk tugs at his lips. "Pretty Boy? Really?"

I shrug. "It fits."

He huffs out a laugh, then suddenly... "Wait. Does that mean you think I’m pretty?"

My brain short-circuits. Damn it. I’ve had a slip of the tongue. This egocentric jerk will start to feel so highly of himself.

ABORT. ABORT. ABORT.

My face heats against my will. "I—I... shut up."

Bea cackles sarcastically. "Ohhh, this would have been fantastic if he wasn’t mine already."

Pretty Boy grins at me, clearly enjoying the moment. "You totally do."

"I don’t."

"You’re blushing."

"No, I’m not!" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Yara groans from where she’s half-draped against the wall. "Can you two flirt later? I’m dying here."

I throw my hands up. "We’re not flirting!"

Seriously?!

Pretty Boy finally stops grinning at me like he’s won some grand prize and leans back against the wall, exhaling.

"Alright, fine. Since we’re throwing names around like confetti, I guess I should give you all something to call me besides ’Pretty Boy.’"

Bea groans, still sucking on her candy. "Oh, thank God. I was about to start calling you ’Water Thief’ instead."

Pretty Boy smirks but ignores her. He tilts his head at me as if trying to gauge whether I’m actually interested in knowing his name or if I’m just going to keep calling him Pretty Boy to mess with him.

Well, knowing his name won’t be bad. I can’t imagine feeding his ego by calling him Pretty Boy all the time. Especially since it’s obvious that we are going to be stuck with each other for quite a while.

"It’s León," he finally says.

"León?"

"Yeah." He shrugs. "Like the animal."

I squint at him. "You don’t look like a León."

"And what exactly does a León look like?"

I tap my chin, pretending to think. "Scarier. More... I don’t know, gruff? You look more like a..."

"...a Pretty Boy," Bea finishes, cackling.

Have I mentioned how annoying Bea is?

León groans, rubbing a hand down his face. "You guys suck."

Yara lets out a weak laugh, which immediately turns into another round of coughing. The moment sobers us a little, reminding us that we’re still in a trashed apartment in the middle of an apocalypse, and she’s still bleeding out.

And we’ve got to do something real quick.