Gunfire echoed through the crumbling streets of Lanshiang. Leon moved with precision, wiping sweat and blood from his brow, barely catching his breath between the infected hordes. His earpiece crackled—Hunnigan’s voice, urgent.

“Leon. It’s DC. There’s been an outbreak.”

He froze. “What?”

Hunnigan’s voice wavered. “Your wife—she’s trapped in a mall. An elevator. She’s in labor.”

The world stopped moving.

Leon’s chest tightened like a vice. “She’s… what? Why the hell wasn’t I told sooner?”

“We tried. Communications were down. She went into early labor—she was heading to the hospital when the outbreak hit. We traced her phone. She’s trapped on the third floor elevator at Capital Heights Mall. It’s crawling with infected.”

“Hunnigan, I need to be on a plane. Now.”

“Leon—”

“I don’t care what the protocol is,” he growled. “That’s my wife.”

Half a world away, you sat hunched on the floor of the elevator, one hand pressed to your belly, the other clutching Leon’s old jacket—his scent still clinging to it. You tried not to cry out with each contraction, tried not to hear the screams and shuffling just outside the thin metal doors.

You whispered to the baby, voice shaking. “Daddy’s coming. I know he is…”