Chapter 7: Someone to Worry

Thud*

The mass of darkness dropped into the sewer tunnel, landing with a wet, sickening splat on the concrete floor. Emily's heart nearly stopped. Whatever had followed them—whatever had found them—was now trapped in the narrow confines of the tunnel with them.

"GET BEHIND ME!" Emily screamed, pushing her brothers further down the dark passage. She positioned herself between the twins and the writhing mass, her arms spread wide like a human shield. Her mind raced with recriminations and regret.

This is my fault. If I hadn't made that noise in the gas station... if I hadn't left him behind... if I had been faster with the manhole cover...

The thing on the ground wriggled and convulsed, making wet, sucking sounds that echoed off the damp walls. Black viscous fluid—blood?—pooled beneath it, spreading across the concrete in an ever-widening circle. The stench of copper and rot filled the enclosed space, making Emily gag.

But then, through her terror, she heard something. A voice. Faint, muffled, but unmistakably human.

"Remove... it..."

Emily froze, her eyes widening as she stared at the mass. It wasn't a creature. It was... covered in something. Her hands trembled as she took a hesitant step forward.

"Emily, what are you doing?" Henry whispered, his voice quavering with fear.

"Shh," she replied, not taking her eyes off the thing on the ground. "I think... I think someone's in there."

With shaking fingers, she reached out and grasped what appeared to be a sodden edge of fabric. It came away with a sickening sound, peeling back to reveal—

"KAEL!" The twins' voices rang out in unified shock and joy.

There, covered in black blood and entrails, his face barely recognizable through the gore, lay Kael. His clothes were torn, his skin lacerated in multiple places, but his eyes—those cold, calculating eyes—were open. Alive.

The twins rushed forward before Emily could stop them, their expressions transforming from horror to elation in an instant. They dropped to their knees beside him, their small hands hovering uncertainly over his battered form, afraid to touch him but desperate to confirm he was real.

"You made it!" Peter exclaimed, his voice cracking with emotion.

"You really came back!" Henry added, tears streaming down his dirt-streaked face.

Emily remained where she stood, her body rigid, her face a mask of conflicting emotions. Relief warred with anger, joy with bitter resentment. She watched as Kael struggled to sit up, wincing with each movement.

"How?" she finally managed, her voice tight and controlled. "How did you survive that? There were so many of them."

Kael looked up at her, his eyes meeting hers through the mask of filth and blood. There was something different there—something she hadn't seen before. A warmth, faint but unmistakable.

"I played dead," he said simply, his voice hoarse. "After I killed the screamer, I covered myself in its... parts. The others couldn't tell the difference. They thought I was just another dead thing."

Emily's face contorted, anger finally winning the battle of emotions. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW STUPID THAT WAS?" she exploded, her voice echoing off the tunnel walls. "YOU COULD HAVE DIED! YOU ALMOST DID DIE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

She stormed toward him, fists clenched at her sides. "WE WERE SUPPOSED TO STICK TOGETHER! YOU MADE US LEAVE YOU BEHIND! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT FELT LIKE? DO YOU?"

Tears spilled down her cheeks now, cutting clean tracks through the grime on her face. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! I THOUGHT I'D GOTTEN YOU KILLED! AND IT WAS ALL MY FAULT BECAUSE I STEPPED ON THAT STUPID PAPER!"

Her voice broke on the last word, dissolving into sobs that shook her entire frame. The twins looked between her and Kael, uncertain, caught between their joy at his return and their sister's obvious distress.

As Emily continued her tirade, she suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Something about Kael's expression made her pause. He was... smiling.

It wasn't his usual cold, calculating expression or the grim determination they'd glimpsed before. It was genuine—small and cautious, like someone testing a muscle they hadn't used in years, but real.

"Why are you smiling?" Emily demanded, wiping angrily at her tears.

Kael's smile didn't falter. If anything, it grew slightly wider, though it clearly caused him pain to do so.

"I'm happy," he said softly, the words sounding strange in his mouth, as if he were speaking a foreign language.

"Happy?" Emily repeated incredulously. "You're covered in monster guts and blood! You nearly died! How can you be happy?"

"Because there's someone to worry about me," he said quietly. "I haven't had that in... a long time."

Emily stared at him for a moment, processing his words. Then her eyes narrowed.

"So you like to make other people worried?" she asked accusingly.

"No, you misunderstoo—" Kael began, but Emily cut him off.

"Shut up," she said firmly.

"Shut up?" he repeated, confusion evident in his voice.

"I'm older than you, remember? So I can say whatever to you. I am your older sister now, okay?" Emily declared, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kael looked at her for a long moment, then at the twins who were watching the exchange with wide eyes. Something shifted in his expression—a subtle change, but profound.

"Okay... sis," he replied, the corner of his mouth twitching upward.

Emily's stern expression softened slightly. "Okay, I'm letting you off because it's the first time. Don't do it another time," she warned, though there wasn't much heat behind her words. Then she tilted her head, studying him. "And... just correct me if I'm wrong, but... are you smiling?"

The twins watched this exchange with wide eyes before Peter piped up, "Does this mean Kael is our brother now?"

"Even though he's younger than Emily?" Henry added with a slight giggle, the sound incongruously bright in the grim setting.

Kael's expression softened at their words. He hadn't expected to find a new family in this ruined world—hadn't expected to ever want one again after what happened to his mother.

Emily glanced at Kael's face, surprised by the genuine emotion she saw there. She'd never seen him look anything but cold and calculating before. For a moment, she glimpsed the eight-year-old boy beneath the hardened survivor.

"I guess it does," she said, her voice gentler now. She reached out tentatively, then pulled back, grimacing at the black ichor covering Kael. "But first, we need to get you cleaned up. And check those wounds. Some of them look deep."

Kael nodded, allowing her to help him to his feet. He swayed slightly but remained standing.

"I know where we can go," he said, his voice stronger now. "There's a place not far from here. Underground pumping station. Should have clean water."

Emily frowned. "How do you know that?"

"I studied the maintenance maps on the walls while we were down here before," Kael explained. "Always good to know the layout of your escape routes."

Despite herself, Emily felt a grudging admiration. Even in the midst of fleeing for their lives, Kael had been planning, observing, preparing.

"Fine," she conceded. "But no more heroics, okay? No more sacrificing yourself. We survive together or not at all."

Kael looked at her for a long moment, then at the twins who were watching him with unwavering trust in their eyes.

"Together," he agreed softly.

As they made their way deeper into the tunnel system, Emily supporting Kael's weight while the twins scampered ahead, she couldn't help but notice how different he seemed. The cold, empty shell of a boy she'd first met was changing, thawing like ice under the first tentative warmth of spring.

He's coming back to life, she thought. Just like we all are.

None of them knew what horrors still awaited them in this broken world. But for the first time since everything had changed, they faced those unknowns not as isolated survivors, but as something that resembled a family.

And for now, in this moment, that was enough.