Chapter 4 : Forest

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IAN

One and a half months ago

---

The rain hadn't stopped. For two straight weeks, it had battered the shelter without mercy, drumming endlessly against rooftops and windows, as if the sky itself refused to mourn in silence. Every rumble of thunder reminded me of that night.

Every flash of lightning dragged me back to the Marie Central Building. To Elena.

Two weeks. Fourteen days since she had thrown me through that doorway. Fourteen days since she had chosen everyone else's lives over her own. And somehow... The house next to mine still felt occupied. Not by a person. By memories. Every time I stepped into my bedroom, my eyes instinctively drifted toward the window overlooking hers. It had become a habit I couldn't break. Some irrational part of me expected to see the curtains pulled open.

Expected to see her sitting by the window with that worn little journal resting on her lap, scribbling down another thought before looking outside. But the room remained empty. Dark. Silent. Just like every day before. I tore my gaze away.

Stop looking. She's not there. Yet somehow... I couldn't convince myself to stop hoping. The guilt wouldn't allow it.

If I'd been faster... If I'd reached her sooner... If I'd ignored her and dragged her with me... Would she still be here? The questions never ended. Neither did the answers I never found. I adjusted the straps on my backpack, checking my equipment one final time. Extra ammunition. Knife. Medical kit.

Rope. Radio. Everything Katherine had recommended for the reconnaissance mission. Hog thought I was going on too many missions in such a short period of time . But sitting inside the shelter wasn't helping me. Searching was. Even if every search ended the same way. Empty handed. I reached the shelter gates.

"Ian." The gentle voice stopped me before I could push them open. I turned. Mary stood a few steps behind me, holding a small metal container wrapped carefully in cloth. The corners of her eyes softened the moment they met mine. Mary... She had been the only one who never questioned me when I insisted Elena was still alive.

Everyone else had accepted her death.

Mary never had. I walked over. She smiled warmly. "I made your favorite cookies."

She held the container out toward me.

"You can eat them on your way." For the first time in what felt like forever... A faint smile tugged at my lips. Barely noticeable.

But real. Mary had always looked at me the same way. Not as a soldier. Not as one of Caine's best fighters. Just... The frightened boy the squad had rescued years ago. The one who still needed someone to remind him to eat. I accepted the container carefully. "Thank you." I looked down at it.

"I'll definitely enjoy them." Her smile lingered, but worry quickly replaced it.

"Be careful, Ian." There was something almost motherly in her voice. Something painfully familiar. I nodded. "I'll come back."

I hoped I wasn't lying. Then I turned...

And left the shelter.

---

Two hours later The meilz forest greeted me with silence. An unsettling silence.

According to Katherine's radar scans, this place should have been crawling with infecteds . Thousands of abnormal heat signatures had appeared here over the past several days. Enough to classify the Meilz Hills Forest as a high risk zone. Yet...

I hadn't seen a single infected. Not one.

I stepped beneath the dense canopy, immediately swallowed by towering trees and thick vegetation. The forest smelled overwhelmingly alive. Wet earth. Rotting leaves. Fresh moss. The constant rain had transformed the ground into deep mud that clung stubbornly to my boots with every step. I kept one hand resting near my knife. Not because I feared the infected.

This forest was dangerous long before zombies ever existed. Poisonous sap seeped from countless trees. Leaves and seeds concealed toxins potent enough to kill. Sharp thorns lined nearly every shrub.

Tiny stinging hairs coated unfamiliar plants.

Invisible insects hide beneath damp bark, carrying venom capable of dropping a healthy adult within hours. And the forest itself... It was suffocating. The humidity mixed with relentless rainfall until every breath felt heavier than the last. Most people wouldn't survive here. Not for long.

Yet... The deeper I ventured inside... The stranger everything became. No growls.

No footsteps. No movement. Only rain dripping from branches. Too quiet.

My grip tightened around the flashlight.

One lesson life has taught me over and over again... Never trust silence. Silence usually meant something worse was waiting. I slowed my pace. Careful.

Deliberate. Every step was calculated.

The temperature continued to fall. Cold air slipped through my soaked clothes while floodwater pooled between the roots of ancient trees. Visibility worsened with every passing minute. Then.. My boot struck something. Soft. I immediately stepped back. The object was almost completely hidden beneath layers of wet leaves and mud. A black sleeping bag.

Mostly zipped shut. I frowned. Someone had been here. Recently. Or... Something.

I crouched carefully. Don't touch it. Every survival instinct screamed the warning.

Venomous snakes especially large constrictors like anacondas in suitable swampy environments could shelter inside enclosed spaces, and plenty of smaller dangerous animals as well. Opening it blindly was a terrible idea. But... Something felt wrong. Something told me to look.

Slowly, I reached for the zipper. Every movement was measured. The bag shifted slightly beneath my hand. My pulse quickened. I pulled the zipper open. Just enough to see inside. Then my entire body froze. A little girl. She lay curled inside the sleeping bag, completely unconscious.

Her skin was unnaturally pale. Dark bruises stained her face and arms. Her breathing was shallow. Painfully shallow. And...

My heart stopped. No eyebrows. No hair.

Not even a trace of stubble across her scalp. "No..." I whispered. My voice barely existed. Could it... No. There's no way...

My hands trembled as I reached into my pocket. The locket. The one I'd found inside the Marie Central Building. I opened it. Inside was the faded photograph. Two sisters. One of them... Elena. The other...

I looked from the photograph... Back to the girl.

Again.

Again.

Every feature matched. The shape of her face. Her eyes. Even beneath the bruises...

It was unmistakable. A curse escaped under my breath. "Holy cow..." Nowella.

After everything... After searching for so long... This was how I found her.  Broken. Someone had beaten her. My jaw clenched so tightly it hurt. Rage settled heavily inside my chest. I carefully unzipped the rest of the sleeping bag and lifted her into my arms. She weighed almost nothing.

Far too light. As though weeks of suffering had stripped away everything except bone and determination. I carried her deeper into a clearer patch of ground, searching for the safest place I could find. Even then...

Safe was only a relative word in this forest.

I inspected every nearby plant. Every branch. Every patch of moss. Watching carefully for venomous insects or toxic vegetation before finally kneeling. This would have to do. I laid her down as gently as I could. My mind refused to stop racing.

How long has she been here? Why leave her in this forest? Were there more children hidden nearby? Who put her inside that sleeping bag? How did she survive this place? Question after question flooded my thoughts. None of them had answers.

Not yet. I gathered fallen branches, searching for the driest wood I could find. Almost everything was soaked.  Lighting a fire felt nearly impossible. The first attempt failed. The second wasn't much better.

By the third... A tiny spark caught. I shielded it from the rain with my body.

Slowly... Patiently... The flame grew.

Small. Fragile. But alive. Its warmth spread through the cold air, flickering across the exhausted face of the little girl lying beside it. I looked at Nowella. "Come on..."

I murmured quietly. "Wake up." Because I had a thousand questions. And only one person left who might be able to answer them. 9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgakqpwYZV

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