Heat shimmered over the hood and turned the cracked stripes on the highway into snakes.

Sera kept the wheel steady with two fingers and let the truck eat asphalt. Weeds grew tall from the center seam and slapped the undercarriage every hundred yards. The windshield wore a spider of cracks in the top left corner that caught the sun and threw little stars into her eyes.

She narrowed her eyes and rolled her shoulders once. Everything held.

She had decided to take the truck that the General’s man had left behind after his unexpected death. None of them wanted to leave something so valuable behind, not when there was no guarantee that the other two vehicles would hold up on the trip to O City in Region O.

Luci occupied the bench beside her like a furry mountain, his chin on the window frame, and his nose taking in the world as if it had messages only he knew about.

His breath fogged a tiny patch of safety glass; each exhale scratched a crescent with condensation, then vanished.

His ears ticked in micro-movements at sounds she didn’t hear until a second later—the rattle of loose fence wire, the flap of a plastic bag caught on a sapling, a far crow that hadn’t learned to shut up in a land full of teeth.

Zubair’s truck ran in her mirror a car length back and a lane to the right.

He drove one-handed, elbow on the sill, posture loose. He wore that look he saved for roads—present, patient, full of small decisions.

The sun painted a line along his jaw and turned the scar on his forearm into a pale thread. Elias rode shotgun in his cab, a map across his knees, finger marking distances like a metronome.

Alexei had the third truck, keeping the same distance as Zubair’s vehicle, but keeping to her left instead. Lachlan sprawled in the bed of Alexei’s truck with a rifle tucked to his chest and one boot heel knocking the tailgate in a rhythm that would have driven normal people insane.

"I feel like I should say ’ducks fly together’," Sera grumbled under her breath as she looked out both her side view mirrors. "It’s almost like they don’t think I can handle things on my own."

She cocked her head to the side as she thought about what she had said. It wasn’t like it actually bothered her, their attention and protectiveness. After two lifetimes of trying to please everyone, it was a nice feeling to know that others understood your value.

She felt the creature inside of her rolling its eyes at her thoughts. We are the heart, it said. The center. Without us, they are nothing.

It was a nice idea, but Sera didn’t know if she actually believed it or not.

Time will tell, shrugged the creature before going back to looking outside of the window.

They had left the river behind an hour ago. The bridge smoke had thinned to a gray smear on the horizon, then vanished into sky and heat.

They had stopped in a barn for a bit of a break and for something to eat, and that was when they came across the scout.

It was a surprise on both sides, but Lachlan wasn’t about to let an opportunity for information go away.

When they left the dead body behind, they continued heading south, not caring about the General one way or another.

The lab had taught all five of them that they were impossible to kill, and something like the General wasn’t going to be able to do anything to them that the scientists couldn’t.

She ran her tongue over her teeth and tasted the perfectly cooked bear from two hours ago and ash from yesterday.

The creature under her ribs hummed steady as a generator. Calm. Alert. Content with the road, with the men, with Luci’s weight knocking her hip when the truck bounced a rut.

"Left in a mile," Elias’s voice crackled on the handheld clipped to her dash. Duct tape held the battery door closed. "County road. Puts us on a line east of the big towns."

"Copy," she returned, her thumb tapping transmit with the same economy she used on the wheel. It was weird, how much of their military jargon was starting to bleed into her everyday life. Or, maybe she had just watched too many police and military shows.

Luci pushed his nose harder into the gap of the window and drew a deep breath.

Hairs along his shoulders rose in a soft ripple. He didn’t growl; Sera already knew all the signs that her puppy wasn’t happy.

She lifted her eyes to the rearview mirror again. The road behind stayed empty for three bends, then showed a flash of something at the limit—light off glass or chrome, then gone behind scrub and a low rise.

"Guests?" she asked over the air.

"Maybe," Alexei answered on the radio, dry as the road dust. It was like he could see the same flash from where he was driving. "Low profile. Lazy tail. Confident or stupid."

"Or good at their job," Elias put in. "Assume competent."

"Assume hungry," Lachlan chimed from the bed, grinning at the wind like it owed him money. "Hungry men make mistakes." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Her hands didn’t tighten on the wheel.

The creature purred a fraction louder and rolled its attention to the mirror with her.

Stupid zombies in the ditches looked up as the trucks passed and then looked away again, interest falling out of their eyes the closer the horde rolled. One tried to stand and forgot halfway up, sat back down on its heels, hands hanging like it had lost the idea in the middle of the effort.

A mile marker lay facedown in the weeds. The county road showed itself as two lanes and a sunken shoulder with cattails.

She eased the wheel, took the turn, and let the tires find the least-broken line.

The new road dipped out of sight fast, then climbed. Corn once grew here; now head-high grass took its place, and corn’s ghost rattled somewhere else. She dropped the truck into a lower gear for the hill and felt the engine answer like a dog getting up.

"Eyes open," Elias murmured into the mic. "The Cartel likes choke points."