Chapter 37: Come Alone

Midday light filtered down through the mountain forest, breaking into shifting patches across the dirt and roots.

Ethan stood under the old locust tree on the eastern hilltop, one hand resting near the walkie-talkie in his pocket. From here the underground casino was invisible. A thick canopy swallowed that part of the woods, and nothing about the trees suggested a facility buried beneath them.

He looked down at his arm.

The wound was real enough, but not as bad as it needed to look. He pulled gauze from his space and wrapped it loosely, leaving part of the cut exposed on purpose. Then he smeared a little blood along the edge until the whole thing looked worse than it was.

Static cracked through the walkie-talkie.

Daisy’s voice came through tight with worry.

"Ethan? I hear you. Where are you?"

"Eastern hilltop. Under the old locust tree."

He kept his voice low and tired, like he had just crawled out of a fight.

"Come alone. Don’t let Debbie and the others start panicking."

A pause.

"Nothing serious. I just wanted to talk to you privately."

"Are you hurt?"

Her voice sharpened at once.

Ethan didn’t answer.

He only smiled.

A few minutes later, light footsteps moved up the mountain path.

Daisy appeared between the trees in a light gray windbreaker, a machete in one hand. The second she saw the blood-darkened gauze on his arm, she stopped.

Her eyes went wide.

"What happened? Why didn’t you come straight back and let Debbie look at that?"

She closed the distance fast, worry written all over her face.

"It’s nothing. Ran into a few mutant crows."

Ethan shifted the injured arm on purpose. Fresh blood seeped through the gauze.

"They were fast. I didn’t move clear in time. Just a flesh wound."

Daisy frowned and reached for his arm, stopping just short of touching it.

"Anywhere else? Your back? Does the old injury still bother you?"

"I’m fine."

He looked down at her. Her eyes were already a little red at the edges, and something in his chest pulled tight before he could stop it.

He reached into his space and brought out the dual-colored core.

Silver and gray light moved across its surface in the afternoon sun.

"Here."

He set it in her hand.

"I called you out here because I wanted to give you this."

His fingers brushed her palm.

Then his voice dropped.

"And... I missed you a little. I wanted to see you alone."

Daisy blinked.

"Missed me?"

Ethan swayed forward like his balance had slipped.

She caught him on instinct.

Before she could straighten the moment back into something safer, his arms went around her waist and pulled her in.

"You pervert."

Color rose hard in her face.

"You just finished messing with Debbie, and now you’re coming after me."

She muttered it under her breath, but she didn’t push him away. After a second her arms came up around him too.

Then she looked down at the core in her hand.

"You should take it."

She tried to give it back.

"If your ability gets stronger, you’ll be safer out here."

Ethan closed her fingers over it and pushed her hand gently toward her chest.

"I got it for you."

He met her eyes.

"If your range improves, you can warn everyone before danger gets close. That keeps you safer too."

Daisy hesitated.

Whatever she saw in his face made the argument die.

She swallowed the core.

Energy surged through her at once.

Her spiritual power flared outward. The forest opened. Thirty meters became fifty. She could feel the zombies drifting through the brush below the hill. Within ten meters, objects registered with sharp clarity, almost like they had been laid out inside her head.

At the same time, a system notification cut through Ethan’s mind.

[Detected: Evolved Zombie Core gifted to a female with Beauty Score 96.]

[Base Return: 100x.]

[Target emotional state: Worry + Joy + Gratitude.]

[High Return triggered.]

[Return: Survival Space expanded by 100 cubic meters.]

[One-Way Teleportation daily limit increased to 3 uses.]

[Maximum single-use teleportation distance increased to 250 meters.]

[New function unlocked: Spatial Spiritual Perception.]

[While inside the Survival Space, the host can perceive the surrounding area within a 10-meter radius.]

[Daisy Miller’s Spiritual Power perception range increased to 50 meters.]

[New ability unlocked: Perception Shielding.]

[Perception Shielding can temporarily prevent zombies within 10 meters from detecting the user.]

Energy flooded back into Ethan’s body, restoring what he had burned earlier.

Beside him, Daisy kept her eyes closed. Her lashes trembled as she pushed her senses outward.

After several seconds she opened them again, stunned.

"I can feel everything so much farther now."

She looked down the slope.

"And... I can make zombies ignore me."

She pointed.

"That one down there was facing this way. It should have noticed me. It didn’t."

"Perception Shielding," Ethan said.

"When you’re outside, turn it on before you get close. It’ll keep you safer."

Daisy nodded slowly.

Ethan slid an arm around her waist and focused.

The air warped.

The forest vanished.

In the next breath they stood inside the Survival Space.

Daisy turned in a slow circle. The place was bigger. Openly, obviously bigger.

"What happened?"

She shut her eyes again, then opened them with fresh excitement.

"I can sense what’s happening outside. Even from in here."

Ethan smiled.

"The space unlocked spiritual perception. From now on, you’ll be able to watch the area around us while you’re inside."

Daisy stared at him for a long second.

"Thank you, Ethan."

Her voice was quiet and real.

"You’re always giving me the cores you risk your life for."

She stepped in closer, rose onto her toes, and aimed for his cheek.

Ethan saw it coming.

Before she could settle for something safer, he turned his head.

Their lips met.

The kiss was not rushed. It landed soft at first, then deepened when neither of them pulled away. Daisy’s breath caught against his mouth. Her fingers tightened in the front of his shirt like she needed something solid to hold while the moment tipped past the line she had meant to keep.

Ethan kept one arm around her waist and used the other to steady the back of her head. The Survival Space was quiet around them. No wind. No birds. No distant groan of zombies on the slope. Just the two of them, the expanded air of the space, and the heat building between mouths that had started as a near-miss on the cheek.

When they finally broke apart, Daisy’s face was flushed hard.

She stared at him, lips parted, eyes still searching his like she was deciding whether to scold him or kiss him again.

"You did that on purpose," she whispered.

"Yes."

The honesty left her with nothing clean to throw back. A weak sound left her throat, half protest and half laugh, and she dropped her forehead against his shoulder for a second to hide the rest of her expression.

Outside the space, the forest continued without them. The mutant-crow blood on his gauze, the zombies under the hill, the hidden casino beneath the canopy ~ all of it could wait a little longer.

For now, Daisy stayed close.

And Ethan, arm still around her, let the silence hold.