Laura stood by the cracked window, the thin slivers of daylight filtering through the grime-streaked glass. She barely noticed the dust motes swirling in the beams of light, her eyes fixed on the endless stretch of rubble outside. It had been almost 10 hours since they last saw Xander. She didn't know what had happened to him—only that he wasn't anywhere to be seen. They had searched the floor he was supposed to be on but there were no signs of him but also no signs of someone leaving , almost as if he vanished into thin air.
Where is he?
She tried not to show it, to not let the panic leak through, but inside, it gnawed away at her like a worm burrowing into her brain. Xander was more than just another survivor. He had been the one who guided them through the worst of the chaos, the one who kept them going when everything seemed lost. Now, he was gone—and no one knew where he was.
Laura had tried to hold it together, to make decisions, to lead. But it was hard when the weight of every choice seemed to stretch on endlessly.
"Laura." The voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
She turned to find Jared, one of the survivors, standing in the doorway. His face was drawn, the worry in his eyes mirrored in the exhaustion of everyone else in the room. The survivors had made camp in what remained of a safehouse on the second floor, a place with better shelter than the crumbling ruins below, but the atmosphere was thick with uncertainty.
"How much longer do you think we can stay here?" he asked, his voice low. "We're running out of food, and the things out there... they're only getting worse. We can't just sit tight forever."
"I know," Laura muttered, shaking her head. "But we can't just go charging into the unknown without a plan. Not without Xander."
Jared's eyes softened, but he didn't push her further. He knew what Xander had meant to her—what he still meant. It wasn't just his leadership or his abilities that made him stand out. It was the trust they'd built, the bond that had formed between them in the hell they'd lived through together.
"Everyone's getting restless," Jared said quietly, his voice carrying more concern than he meant to show. "Some of them want to move out. The ones who aren't looking to follow Xander's plan... they're starting to wonder if they should take matters into their own hands."
Laura's heart sank. The survivors were scared, and when people were scared, they made desperate decisions. She couldn't let them fracture now, not when things were already so fragile.
"I'll talk to them," she said, her voice firmer than she felt. "But they have to understand, without Xander... we're just stumbling in the dark. The best we can do is stick together, wait for him to come back."
But even as she said the words, a creeping doubt slithered into her chest.
What if he doesn't come back?
Greg stood at the far corner of the room, arms crossed, his gaze locked on Laura as she spoke. Her words were soft, too soft for someone in her position. It wasn't about patience or waiting for the impossible to happen—it was about survival. And survival didn't wait.
Greg's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "They're not going to wait forever, Laura," he said, his tone harsh, frustration evident in every syllable. "You can't keep hiding behind the hope that Xander's coming back. People are starting to break."
Laura felt the sharpness of his words cut into her chest, but she fought to stay steady. "I'm not hiding behind hope," she replied, her voice tight. "We wait. We stay together."
Greg stepped closer, his gaze piercing. "And do what? Wait for Xander to come back, or wait until we all starve?" His jaw clenched, a vein in his neck pulsing with barely contained anger. "You know it's just a matter of time before the rest of them turn on each other. If we don't make a move, we'll die here. Slowly. You're too focused on him to see that."
The words stung, but Laura stood firm. She couldn't lose herself to the same desperation he had. "I won't abandon them. Not now. Not like this."
Greg's face twisted with a bitter smile, his eyes filled with a cold certainty. "Then you'll lead them into a grave. A slow, painful death. And when that happens, you will have to live with that."
Laura's breath hitched at his words. Her mind flashed back to the abandoned second floor—the empty room, the locked door. Where was he? She hadn't been able to understand it then, and the doubt was gnawing at her now. What if Greg was right? What if Xander really wasn't coming back?
But she pushed that thought aside, forcing herself to hold onto the belief that Xander was out there, somewhere. She wasn't ready to let go. Not yet. Not without knowing what happened.
"We can't just give up on him , you've seen those things , he's the only one of us who stands a chance," Laura said, her voice quieter now, but resolute.
The tension hung in the air like a heavy storm cloud. Jared shifted uncomfortably by the doorway, but didn't speak. His eyes flicked between them, as if waiting for the storm to pass.
But before the silence could settle any deeper, the sharp sound of movement outside the room broke through, and Mark's voice came from the hallway, panic lacing his words.
"Something's coming" he said, his face pale as he hurried into the room.
Laura's heart skipped a beat. For a moment, everything else—the argument, the uncertainty, the fear about Xander—faded into the background. They had company. And recently company meant trouble.