Chapter 3: Things That Don’t Make Sense

Chapter 3: Things That Don’t Make Sense

By Chapt

Kai didn’t remember the last time he’d eaten something warm. It made his chest ache.

The soup was simple—just canned beans and some dried vegetables, probably scavenged—but it tasted like a memory he couldn’t quite hold on to. Every spoonful anchored him, reminding him he was still alive.

He looked up occasionally at the stranger across the bunker—Ren. Dark-eyed, calm, guarded. The flickering lantern between them cast shadows on his angular face, making it difficult to tell if he was brooding or just… thinking.

“You always bring strangers into your shelter?” Kai asked after a few moments of silence.

Ren didn’t look up. “No.”

Kai raised an eyebrow. “So I’m special?”

“You were bleeding and limping. I don’t have time to bury bodies. You needed help.”

“Wow. You really know how to make a guy feel welcome.”

Ren glanced at him then, something almost like amusement flickering in his eyes. “You’re welcome.”

Kai set the bowl down and leaned back. “Where did you get all this? The bunker, the supplies, the reinforced steel door? It’s all too… clean.”

Ren didn’t answer immediately. He turned the soup pot over the fire and stirred it, like he was trying to avoid the question.

“No one just stumbles on something like this,” Kai pressed.

Ren finally said, “I didn’t stumble on it. I built it.”

Kai blinked. “You what?”

“I’ve been here since the early days.”

“But it’s barely been seven months since—”

“I know.”

Kai studied him. “You were prepared. Like… prepper-level ready.”

Ren’s mouth twitched into a half-smile. “Something like that.”

Something cold crept into Kai’s spine.

“I saw you yesterday. On the rooftops,” Kai said carefully. “You were watching me.”

Ren didn’t deny it. “You draw attention. That’s dangerous.”

Kai scowled. “I survived alone for months.”

“Barely.”

“Oh, and now you’re my savior?”

Ren didn’t bite back. He just looked at Kai with that unreadable gaze and said, “No. I just hate wasting resources.”

Kai narrowed his eyes. “You’re kind of a jerk, you know.”

Ren nodded slowly. “I’ve been told.”

They sat in silence for a while. The fire cracked quietly. Outside, the wind howled through the ruins like a mourning song.

Ren eventually rose and went to a shelf tucked into the wall. He returned with a folded paper map and handed it over.

“These used to be government safe zones,” he said, pointing at several red Xs marked across the region. “Most of them are overrun now. Others never existed.”

Kai examined the map. Some locations were circled, others crossed out completely.

“And this one?” Kai pointed to a red star on the edge of the map.

Ren hesitated. “It’s where I’m headed.”

Kai looked at him. “Why?”

“I think it’s still operational. Underground base. Real equipment. If there’s hope, it’s there.”

“And you want me to come with you?”

Ren’s gaze didn’t shift. “I don’t want anything from you. But you’re not going to survive out here alone. That’s a fact.”

Kai opened his mouth to argue—but he couldn’t. Not really. He’d been running on fumes for weeks. He was lucky to still be breathing.

Still, something didn’t sit right.

“You don’t act like a normal person,” Kai muttered. “You don’t move like one, either.”

Ren froze.

Kai pressed further. “You barely eat. You never seem tired. You killed those raiders without even flinching. What are you?”

Ren’s eyes darkened, unreadable.

Then a sound cut through the moment—a low, gurgling snarl from above.

Kai stiffened. “Was that—?”

“Infected,” Ren said, already grabbing a long blade from the wall. It glinted unnaturally in the firelight—too clean, too perfect.

“Wait, don’t go up there alone—!”

But Ren was already gone, moving fast and silent as a shadow.

Kai cursed under his breath and followed cautiously. When he peeked from behind the hatch, the wind hit his face like a slap. And there—just past the entrance—he saw them.

Two infected. Twisted things with gray skin, glassy eyes, and limbs that moved with sickening spasms.

And Ren, standing between them and the entrance, his blade already raised.

What Kai witnessed next wasn’t human.

Ren moved with impossible speed. His body twisted and dodged like he knew where every claw would land before it even swung. He slid behind the first infected, slicing clean through its throat. The second lunged—and Ren caught it mid-air, slamming it into the ground with a thud that echoed.

Then—silence.

Kai’s breath hitched. The infected twitched once… then went still.

Ren didn’t turn immediately. He just stood there, blade dripping, chest rising and falling far too evenly for someone who just fought off two monsters.

Kai’s heart thudded. The cold wind no longer felt like the worst thing in the air.

He whispered to himself, barely audible, “What are you?”

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