Fractured Escape

Marcus gestured toward the far edge of the roof. “There’s a ladder,” he murmured. “We can climb down to the next building, then head back to the shelter.”

Penelope’s eyes followed his gesture, spotting rusted rungs disappearing into shadow. “What about the guards?” Marcus’s jaw tensed. “We handle them if we have to.” The time for hesitation was gone. The guards were ruthless, and the undead swarmed below like a rising tide. Penelope couldn’t risk the others—couldn’t let fear dictate her choices. She gave Marcus a firm nod. “I’ll lead them off,” she said, her voice low but resolute. “You get the others home.”

Marcus’s eyes flared with alarm, but she silenced him with a quick shake of her head. “It’s the only play. They won’t expect it.” She glanced down at the knife in her grip, moonlight tracing its edge. “And I’m not helpless.” Before he could protest, she spun and sprinted toward the roof’s edge, lab coat snapping behind her like a banner. The dead below stirred at the sound, hungry eyes snapping upward. Marcus stood frozen, heart hammering. He knew she was right. This was the only way. Penelope launched from the rooftop, landing hard on a metal dumpster. Pain cracked through her ankle like a gunshot—something had snapped—but she bit down a cry and pushed forward, ignoring the searing fire in her leg. The clang of her landing echoed like a beacon. Booted feet thundered above—guards. They were on her.

She bolted down the alley, gritting her teeth against the pain, shadows flying past as her labored breath turned ragged. The city blurred around her, a twisted mess of jagged walls and debris. Shouts rang out behind her—rage, hunger—and she ran faster.

Every nerve screamed as her ankle throbbed with each step, but she refused to falter. She knew these streets like a map etched in her bones. Long before the fall, she had studied the city—its design, its faults, its secrets. She didn’t need brute force. She needed strategy. Brute force had limits. Intelligence didn’t. Her days in the lab came back in flashes—conservation of motion, redirection of force, biology and leverage. She didn’t need to outrun them forever. She just needed one trap. One move to buy time. Up ahead, the hollow skeleton of a construction site jutted from the street like a broken ribcage. It was a gamble—but maybe the only one she had. She sprinted toward it, the guards’ snarls growing louder behind her. She scanned the rubble: bent rebar, concrete slabs, rusted beams.

Her mind snapped into motion. Physics, fulcrums, gravity. She could make this work. She dove toward a heap of debris, eyes searching. A thick pipe lay beneath some fallen planks, and her hands moved instinctively. She wedged the pipe beneath a broken slab and weighted the other end with rocks and metal. A crude lever—but it would do. Her fingers trembled as she worked, but she didn’t stop. Closer. The guards were closing in. Their footfalls beat like war drums, echoing through the skeletal frame of the building. She reached into her coat, gripping her knife again, but it was the lever that mattered now. Her breath hitched. She had one shot. Then—shadows moved. Guards burst into view, eyes empty, teeth bared.

Penelope slammed down on the end of the pipe. It cracked upward with a sharp metallic shriek, hurling debris in a wave of chaos. Dust and metal rained down, blinding and violent. The guards stumbled, momentarily disoriented. She didn’t wait. She tore through the cloud, eyes locked on a narrow gap between two half-built walls. Pain shot up her leg with each stride, but she didn’t slow. The moment was now or never. She hurled herself toward the opening—and screamed as something caught her. Her coat snagged. It tore violently—and then cold fingers clamped around her ankle, yanking her back. Agony exploded up her leg. She twisted, kicking wildly, her heel slamming into the guard’s face. Its grip didn’t loosen.

Panic surged. Another figure loomed behind him, jaws wide in a grotesque grin. Penelope thrashed, striking with her knife, clawing at the rough concrete, but the dead weight pulling her didn’t falter. To them, she was nothing more than prey. The king’s bite had marked her as something different, but these drones didn’t care. Her strength ebbed. The guard’s snarl grew louder, closer. Then—an explosion. The world lit up with fire and sound. The shockwave rocked the alley, sending tremors through the ground. The grip on her ankle loosened as the guard’s attention snapped to the blast. She didn’t wait. With a scream of raw defiance, Penelope wrenched herself free, the torn skin and broken bone forgotten. She ran. Or limped, or hobbled—she wasn’t sure. Her legs were jelly. Her ankle screamed with each step, but adrenaline drowned it out. The alley blurred past. The taste of dust and blood choked her.

She didn’t look back. She couldn’t. Every breath was fire. Every heartbeat thundered. Still, she ran. The explosion had bought her seconds—maybe less. But she clung to them with everything she had. Her mind narrowed to one thought: get to the shelter. Get to them. The pain returned, fierce and hot, but she locked it away. She had to. Her body was a storm of agony, but her will was iron. She would not be caught. Not tonight. Not now. Ruins flanked her on all sides. Once-familiar streets now loomed with shadows and rot. But she knew this place. She had studied every inch of it. And she would survive it. For them.

Her lungs begged for air, but she pressed on, the pulse in her ears louder than the screams behind her. This city had become her battleground. And she wasn’t ready to fall.

Not yet.

A flicker of movement made her veer right—an instinct, nothing more. A collapsing wall behind her sprayed concrete dust across her back. Another explosion? No—maybe something burning, maybe just the old world dying a little louder tonight. She ducked through a broken fence, tripping on twisted wire. Her hands hit gravel, tearing skin from her palms, but she scrambled up. She couldn’t stop. Not even to scream. Ahead, a flicker of warm light—so faint it almost didn’t feel real. The shelter. Her heart lurched. Her ankle buckled beneath her weight, and she crashed against a brick wall. She pushed off it, dragging herself forward on sheer determination. Closer. Just a little farther. She could almost hear their voices.

She could almost believe she was safe. Almost. When the city collapses into darkness and the dead close in, how far would you go to protect the ones you love? Penelope is running—limping, battered, and hunted—her every breath a battle against pain and despair. With shattered bones and a mind racing for survival, she faces impossible odds and ruthless enemies that want her broken and consumed. But in a world where hope feels like a distant memory, can one woman’s fierce determination be enough to save her—and those counting on her? What sacrifices will she make when every step could be her last?