As the others call out my name, I can’t help but wonder if I should go along with Lucas. What would be the point in living without him? He was all that I had left. My family and all my friends from before the time of the greyskins are gone. What’s the point of living? Is there any purpose in merely existing in this rotten world?

I feel like the infected, once-human greyskins are on top of me. When a pair of hands grab my shoulders, I expect a set of teeth to sink into my neck and end my life where I sit.

But when I turn my head, it’s Ethan.

“Waverly!” he says. “I know what he meant to you, but we’ve got to go now!”

“I can’t leave him,” I say. “I could have saved him. I knew this was going to happen!”

“Waverly! Come on!”

Despite my resistance, Ethan reaches down and pulls my legs off the dirt, and carries me toward the SUV. Gilbert revs the engine, warning us to get in the vehicle or get eaten. The greyskins are closing in.

I should have saved Lucas. The warning was there. I saw his future.

Ethan shoves me into the back seat and yells for Gilbert to drive. If we had been seconds later, the greyskins would have torn us apart. I look out the back of the shattered window and see a herd of greyskins chasing the SUV, and all the others chasing the smell of blood.

After today, there will be nothing left of Lucas. In the same way, I feel there is nothing left of me.

Chapter 2 - Remi

“Remi,” Gabe calls out to me as I walk toward my apartment. The sound of his voice makes me grin, but I quickly make my lips fall into a straight line before I turn to look at him. I hate that my heart skips a beat when I see his face. It’s a feeling I don’t want or need, but it’s there regardless. He has shaggy, brown hair that falls down the sides of his cheeks. His strong jaws are covered by several days of stubble and it suits him. His blue eyes never leave mine as he walks toward me carrying a rifle slung over his shoulder.

“You aren’t here to arrest me, are you?” I ask as he walks toward me. The sound of my voice comes across as flirtatious, but I don’t mean for it to. He is very handsome, but I decided a while ago that love was out of the question for me - at least until someone finds a cure for this greyskin problem.

“I don’t really have that power,” Gabe says.

“You have a gun,” I answer back to him as I start walking again. He keeps the slow pace next to me. “That’s already a lot more power than I have.”