Morning had already settled in properly by the time I opened my eyes.

I’d meant to be up earlier, had intended it, lying down the night before with the plan fully formed in my head. Wake up early, speak to Marlon before the others arrived, get moving. Instead my body had apparently decided that it had opinions about the schedule and had exercised them thoroughly. The light coming through the glass front of the shop was already past the thin quality of early morning and into something warmer and more committed.

I pushed myself upright, sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, and let my head catch up with the rest of me.

Right. Today was the day.

I got dressed quickly, doing up my shirt as I stepped out through the glass door into the morning air. The light hit me full in the face and I squinted against it, stronger than I’d expected.

Atlantic City in the morning had a particular quality to it. The sea smell was in everything, salt and brine and something clean underneath the decay that the city hadn’t entirely managed to smother yet. It was a better smell than the alternative. Considerably better than the particular one that hung in the air wherever the Infected had been gathering for too long.

I stood there for a second just breathing it in.

"Finally up?"

I turned left. Maribel was there, leaning against the wall of the adjacent building with her arms crossed in the comfortable, load-bearing posture of someone who had been standing there for a while and wasn’t in a hurry to move.

"Were you waiting out here for me to wake up?" I asked.

"Don’t flatter yourself," she said, scoffing.

"Long day yesterday," I said, by way of explanation for the hour.

Her eyes dropped to my right hand. "What happened there?"

I raised it and looked at it properly for the first time since the previous day. The lacerations ran across the back of my hand and up toward my wrist in the irregular, overlapping pattern of something that had struck more than once from different angles. Penny’s tentacles, two separate hits that I’d caught while trying to cover ground between her and somewhere else, the skin broken and the tissue underneath bruised dark at the edges. The regeneration had already been working on it through the night, the edges of the wounds had started to close, the color pulling back from the worst of the bruising but it wasn’t the kind of thing that disappeared overnight. The marks were still clearly there.

"Fight with Penny," I said, tugging the sleeve down slightly. "It’s nothing serious. It’s already closing."

Maribel looked at it for a moment longer than the comment probably warranted. "Right," she said. "I keep forgetting you’re not—" She paused. "Well. Normal."

"I’m still human," I said. "Just different."

She tilted her head, something shifting in her expression. "You said the Symbiote has been in you since you were born?"

"Since I was a baby, yeah," I said. "It entered me then. Dormant. I grew up with it just... sitting there, not doing anything. When I got bitten, it woke up."

She stared at me. "You didn’t die?" She asked, and there was something in the question that was trying very hard to sound casual and wasn’t quite making it. "You were an infant. And a... a Symbiote entered you, and you just... lived?"

"Apparently," I said. "I don’t remember it clearly, for obvious reasons. My read on it is that Symbiotes don’t inherently destroy the bodies they enter, they bond with them. And since I was that young, there was no resistance. It just became part of me before I was old enough to know the difference. By the time I was old enough to notice anything, it had been sitting dormant for years and felt like nothing at all."

"And then the bite woke it up," she said.

"And then the bite woke it up," I confirmed. "And it healed me."

"Healed you from a bite?!" Maribel replied shocked.

"I mean, yeah, I didn’t mention that? I am immune to Infected bites," I said.

"No, you didn’t...but that’s actually unreal...so is that why you don’t fear any Infected and rush into them like a reckless mad man?" She said.

My lips twitched in displeasure at her words.

"It’s not like I am throwing myself into them. I may be immune to bites but these things don’t bite to Infect us but they devour us alive," I reminded her.

Most people once getting bitten manage to run away still, of course by sheer adrenaline, but there were a lot who died devoured alive by Infected, which was something still a very real threat for me, Rachel and the others no matter how immune to bites we were. That wasn’t the point.

"Right..." Maribel nodded. "But still with how fast and strong you are, on top of immunity you really have nothing to worry about do you?"

"No," I replied shortly.

I had an entire alien race hunting me down.

Maribel was aware of the Starakians since I’d explained it to her, but she didn’t realize yet how terrifying these guys actually were. Infected were nothing against Starakian technology. If they really tried, if they committed to it I wouldn’t survive. I knew that clearly. All I could do was take advantage of the time I had to get stronger, smarter, and find a way to still be standing when it mattered.

I looked out at the street and started moving.

Maribel caught up to me the moment she noticed I was heading somewhere with purpose. Her footsteps quickened behind mine until she fell in step beside me, voice sharp.

"Wait! Where are you going? You’re supposed to, you know, work with us."

"I know," I said, not slowing down much. "But that’s going to have to wait this afternoon. I managed to plan a hostage exchange with Callighan."

She stopped dead. I felt it more than saw it, that sudden absence of her presence beside me.

"W... what?!"

I stopped too, turning to face her. She looked genuinely floored, eyes wide, like I’d just told her I was planning to moonwalk through a horde.

"I’m going to give him back Lucy," I said plainly. "In exchange for getting one of our own back."

She stared at me for a beat. "And he accepted?"

"Yeah."

The look on her face shifted from shock into something more pointed almost like a glare. Well, Callighan was mentioned after all.

"And you trust him? Just like that? Naively and stupidly?"

"Not really," I replied. "That’s why I’m going to ask Marlon for some backup, just in case things go sideways. Do you know where he is?"

She crossed her arms, not quite ready to let the first part go. "Who knows. But are you actually serious about this?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Dead serious." I held her gaze. "I have to get Mei back."

"Mei?" Her brow arched. "Another woman?" She gave me a sharop look from head to toe, tinged with critisizing "Are there only women around you or something?"

I frowned. "Where did that come from?"

"Nothing," she said, shrugging with exaggerated casualness. "Just find it interesting that you don’t seem to have any male friends."

"I do have male friends. They just aren’t here right now." I tilted my head. "What about you? You don’t seem to have any friends at all, if we’re being honest."

"I have friends!"

"I’m not talking about the guys who follow your orders out of fear and infatuation."

She shot me a hard glare. "I’m not talking about them either!"

I let that hang in the air for a second, then moved on.

"Alright. Can you please get Marlon for me? I really need to talk to him."

She looked at me, jaw tight, then exhaled slowly through her nose, the sound of someone choosing their battles. "Alright. Follow me."

"Actually, just tell him to meet me in Brighton Park," I said, already turning and walking.

"Hey! Who do you think you are!"

I didn’t answer. Just kept walking.

It wasn’t about playing the boss or making a point. I just liked it over there. Brighton Park had a kind of quiet that was hard to come by these days, the kind that didn’t feel like the silence before something bad happened, just... actual peace. Green things growing, birds if you were lucky, air that smelled like dirt and life instead of ash and rot. No wonder Marlon had pushed so hard to clear it out first. The man had good instincts about what kept people sane.

I made my way through the settlement, exchanging greetings with the early risers already up and moving. A woman hauling water gave me a nod. Two guys talking near a pile of supply crates raised their chins. I returned all of it and immediately felt the familiar awkward heat crawl up the back of my neck every single time.

God, I was terrible at this. Always had been. I never knew how much eye contact was too much, never knew whether to smile or just nod, whether to say something or just let the gesture stand on its own. Back with Margaret’s community it had come easier somehow, worn smooth by repetition and familiarity. Here with new faces, the introvert in me was loud and unhelpful as ever.

I picked up the pace and made it to Brighton Park before the self-consciousness could get worse.

Stepping inside felt like crossing into a different world. The noise of the settlement fell back and the green closed in around you, not in an overwhelming way, but in a way that made your shoulders drop an inch without you deciding to. Someone had done real work here. The paths between the planted parcels were neat, the beds tended with actual care. Flowers pushed up between the vegetable rows, small splashes of color that had absolutely no survival value and every kind of human value. Someone had understood that distinction and acted on it.

I walked slowly along the rows, taking it in. We were going to need our own garden plot sorted out soon, proper ground, proper planning. I already knew Margaret was turning it over in her head. She had a gift for that kind of thing, the slow patient work of making something grow. She’d done it beautifully with Clara back at the Municipal Office. I could leave that piece to her.

I was still looking at the plants when I noticed someone crouched near one of the far parcels, moving quietly with a small watering can, attention entirely on what was in front of them.

Carmen.

I hesitated, weighing it. She looked focused, settled into her own morning rhythm. The kind of moment you didn’t really need to interrupt. I decided to leave her to it and started to turn back the way I came.

"Oh, Ryan. Good morning."

She’d already spotted me. I stopped.

"Good morning," I said.

She straightened up, brushing her hands against her sides, and smiled gently.

"I heard you’re staying with us for at least the next week." She tilted her head. "Well, welcome then."

"Thanks." I nodded. "I hope I am not throwing things off too much. It was Marlon’s call."

"Not at all," she said, and she seemed to mean that just as genuinely as the smile. "I’m actually glad you’re here. Please, if there’s anything you need help with, just ask, I’m happy to. And food too, don’t be shy about it. Come eat with us. Shannon would love that, I’m sure."

Looking at her kind smile, or simply kindness, I found myself smiling.

She was one of those people. The kind that made you feel like the world was maybe still worth the trouble.

"Thanks," I said again, nodding. "I appreciate it."

"Oh, Ryan!"

Something hit me from behind, arms wrapping around my waist, sudden and tight before I could react. I turned, startled, and found Shannon smiling up at me.