Morning light filtered through the grimy windows of the gas station, painting everything in shades of gold that felt too peaceful for what this place was. Levi stood in the main room, mentally dividing the space while Ariana sketched rough layouts on a piece of paper she'd found.
"Living room here," she said, gesturing to the larger area near the windows. "We can use that old couch someone left behind. And here-" she pointed to the space near the back, "-dining area. Small table, maybe four chairs if we can find them."
"Kitchen's already there," Levi added, nodding toward the tiny kitchenette in the corner. "Not much, but it'll work. We can set up a pantry in that closet, keep our supplies organized."
Ariana smiled, the kind that made his chest warm. She moved behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his head. "Not exactly the white picket fence dream."
"But I'm still grateful for what we have." She finished, tightening her hug for a moment. They stood like that for a moment, both pretending this was normal. That they were just a young married couple planning their first apartment, not survivors trying to carve out safety in a nightmare.
The front door opened, and Miguel stepped in with Elena beside him. Both carried small bags, personal items they'd brought from the house.
"We're going back for another load," Miguel said, setting his bag down. "Bedding, some kitchen supplies. Anything else you need?"
"We're good," Levi said, reluctantly releasing himself from Ariana. "Thanks."
Elena moved to her daughter, kissing her cheek. "We'll be quick. Maybe fifteen minutes." They left, and Levi watched through the window as they walked down the empty street, their figures growing smaller. The town had already woken up, people emerging from their hiding spots, and doing their routine, checking on each other, beginning another day of survival.
"Should we start moving the couch?" Ariana asked, pulling his attention back.
"Yeah, let's-"
Gunshots.
Three in rapid succession, echoing through the morning air with a clarity that made everything else go silent.
Levi's blood turned to ice. Ariana's hand found his, gripping tight enough to hurt.
"No," she breathed. "No, no, no-"
They were moving before conscious thought caught up, both of them running for the door, bursting outside into sunlight that suddenly felt wrong, too bright, too normal for what was happening.
The town center. Everyone had frozen, people who'd been walking, talking, checking on the animals, all of them standing perfectly still, staring at the figure in the middle of the street.
Abby Stevens stood there, gun raised, her face blank in a way that was worse than any expression. Empty. Mechanical.
And on the ground-
"MAMÁ!" Ariana's scream tore through the air.
Miguel lay crumpled on his side, blood spreading across his chest. Elena had fallen a few feet away, clutching her stomach, trying to crawl toward her daughter with shaking hands that left red trails on the pavement.
Time fractured. Became fragments.
Levi was running. Ariana was already on the move, already halfway to her parents. Other people were scattering, screaming, trying to find cover. Abby's gun swung toward-
"EVERYONE WAKE UP!" Abby's voice rang out, eerily calm. "WAKE UP! THIS ISN'T REAL!"
She fired again. Someone behind Levi cried out and fell.
"Ariana, get down!" Levi shouted, but she wasn't listening. She was almost to her mother, arms outstretched-
The gun swung toward her.
Levi's body moved on instinct, tackling Ariana from the side just as the shot rang out. They hit the ground hard, the impact driving the air from his lungs. Pain exploded through his left shoulder-white-hot and immediate.
He'd been hit.
"Levi!" Ariana's voice, panicked, her hands on his face. "Levi, you're-"
"I'm okay," he gasped, even though he wasn't. Blood was soaking through his shirt, warm and sticky. "Your parents-"
Ariana tried to get up, but Levi held her down, keeping them both low. Another shot rang out. Then another. Abby was still firing, methodical, each shot punctuated by her voice: "Wake up. Wake up. WAKE UP!"
"We have to get to them," Ariana sobbed, struggling against his grip. "We have to- Mamá!"
Elena had stopped crawling. She lay still now, one hand still reaching toward her daughter.
Miguel wasn't moving either.
"No." The word came out broken. "No, please, no-"
Levi pulled Ariana to him with his good arm, pressing her face into his chest so she wouldn't have to see. His shoulder screamed in protest, blood running down his arm in steady streams, but he didn't care.
"Don't look," he whispered. "Don't-"
More gunshots. More screaming. The sound of Boyd's voice shouting something Levi couldn't process. Ellis crying out for his mother. The whole world collapsing into chaos and blood and-
A different kind of pain, sharp and deep, radiating from Ariana's side.
She gasped, her body going rigid against him. When he pulled back to look, blood was spreading across her shirt, just under her ribs. Not her shoulder, lower. Worse.
"No." Levi's voice cracked. "No, Ariana, no-"
"I'm okay," she whispered, even as her face went pale. "I'm- Levi, my parents…"
"I know. I know." He pressed his hand to her side, trying to stop the bleeding even as his own shoulder pulsed with agony, and she gasped in pain. "But you're hurt. You're-"
He couldn't finish. Couldn't think past the blood on his hands- hers, his, her parents'- all of it mixing together until he couldn't tell whose was whose.
The gunshots had stopped. The sudden silence was almost worse than the noise. He could hear someone shout and try to talk, but to Levi, it was all a blur as his eyes remained fixed on the three collapsed bodies that were barely breathing.
Levi looked up, his vision swimming. He didn't know when he had stood up, but he had. Abby was on the ground, Ellis kneeling beside her, sobbing. Boyd stood a few feet away, his face gray with shock and a smoking gun in his hands, yet no bullet hole on her. And everywhere, everywhere… people were down. Some moving, some not.
"We need help," Levi managed, his voice barely audible. "Someone- Ariana's hurt-" He could barely hear his own voice, not feeling anything as if he was dreaming or submerged under water.
Donna appeared, her face streaked with something dark. Blood or dirt, he couldn't tell. "Let me see." Her hands were on Ariana immediately, checking the wound with practiced efficiency. "It's bad, but she'll live if we stop the bleeding. You- " she looked at Levi's shoulder, "You too. Come on, we need to move you both."
"Her parents-" Levi tried to turn with the same blank face, to look, but Donna's hand stopped him.
The words hit like another bullet. Ariana made a sound- something between a sob and a gasp- and tried to pull away from Donna's grip.
"No! I need to- Mamá! MAMÁ!"
"Ariana, please…" Donna pulled her back, "Please, you're bleeding, you need-"
"I don't care!" She was fighting now, trying to crawl toward her parents' bodies. "Let me go! Let me-"
Father Khatri appeared, helping Donna hold her down. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm so sorry. But you'll bleed out if you don't let us help."
Ariana's struggles weakened, not because she'd given up, but because she was losing too much blood. Her eyes found Levi's, wide and desperate and broken as they remained fixed on her parents, tears falling down his cheeks. And then they moved to hers.
"They're gone," she whispered. "They're really- Levi, they're-"
"I know." He fell to his knees and pulled her close again, ignoring the screaming pain in his shoulder. "I know. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
She collapsed against him, sobbing into his chest while Donna worked to stanch the bleeding. Levi held her with his good arm, his own tears mixing with hers, both of them covered in blood that wouldn't stop flowing.
Around them, the town was in chaos. People were calling for help. Someone was screaming that Abby was dead.
But Levi couldn't hear it. Couldn't process anything past Ariana's weight against him, her parents' bodies on the ground, and the knowledge that everything- everything that he was afraid of- had just happened. Time moved in strange jumps after that.
Donna and Khatri got them to the diner. Laid them on tables that became makeshift medical beds. Someone, Levi didn't see who, was checking his shoulder, cleaning the wound, wrapping it. The pain was distant now, muffled by shock.
Ariana was on the table next to him, her side exposed while Donna worked with steady hands. She wasn't screaming anymore. Wasn't even crying. Just staring at the ceiling with empty eyes that looked too much like Abby's had.
"Ari." Levi tried to reach for her, his voice raw and throat dry, but someone pushed his arm down.
"Stay still," a voice said. "You'll make it worse."
He didn't care about worse. He only cared about the fact that Ariana wasn't looking at him. Wasn't responding. Just... gone, even though she was right there.
"She's in shock," Donna said quietly, to him or someone else, he didn't know. "Both of them are. Just- give them time."
…
…
More people were being brought in. The diner was filling with wounded, with grief, with the aftermath of Abby's psychotic break. How many had she shot before Boyd- no… He remembered picking a pebble and then a cry.
He'd killed her.
The realization hit, delayed, sluggish. He'd picked up a rock and thrown it, watched it hit her temple, watched her fall and didn't know how he had done so. He'd killed someone's mother. Ellis's mother. Boyd's wife.
He'd murdered someone.
"You saved lives," Khatri said, somehow reading his thoughts. The priest stood between the tables, his hands clasped. "What you did, what you had to do- it saved people. Ellis included."
Levi closed his eyes. Didn't matter what Khatri said. Didn't matter that it was true. All he could see was that he had failed. His nightmares, his fears had become real. They died because of him. Miguel's blood on the pavement. Elena reaching for her daughter with dying hands.
"Levi."
Ariana's voice. Weak, but there.
He turned his head, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. She was looking at him now, tears streaming down her face.
"They're really gone," she whispered.
"Yeah." His own voice broke. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should have- I should have done something- " Her hand found his across the space between tables, fingers threading together weakly. Her action stopped his spiral, and she moved.
Someone tried to lay a hand on him, and he pushed it away. "Let them." Donna, or someone, muttered as Levi grabbed her hand, kissing the back of it just to shut his own mouth.
They lay there, hands joined, both of them bleeding and broken, while Donna worked to keep them alive. Around them, the diner filled with the sounds of grief- people crying for the dead, calling for loved ones, trying to understand what had just happened.
"Levi." Ariana squeezed his hand, pulling his attention back. "Stay with me."
"I'm here." He squeezed back, ignoring how his shoulder screamed. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
Donna finished wrapping Ariana's side, her face grim. "You're lucky. Another inch and it would've hit something vital. As it is, you'll be weak for a while. Need to rest, let it heal."
"My parents- " Ariana's voice cracked. "Where are they? Can I- can I see them?"
Donna's expression softened. "Not yet. Let us... Let us clean them up first. Make them presentable. Give you time to-" She stopped, swallowed. "Just give it a few hours."
"A few hours," Ariana repeated numbly. "Like that'll make it better."
"It won't," Donna said gently. "But it'll give you time to process before you have to say goodbye."
Goodbye.
Such a small word for something so final.
Levi closed his eyes again, his hand still holding Ariana's, both of them lost in the wreckage of the morning. Around them, the town picked up pieces, counted the dead, tried to understand how they'd survive this.
The diner had gone strangely quiet.
Not peaceful, never peaceful, but stunned. People moved like their dead selves, whispering to one another, checking the wounded, counting the dead. Chairs scraped. Someone sobbed openly in the corner. The air smelled like blood, metal, disinfectant, and something else he couldn't name.
Something hollow.
Levi drifted somewhere between consciousness and blackout, Ariana's fingers barely curled around his, both of them anchored to that tiny point of contact.
Donna stepped away for a moment, speaking to Khatri in hushed words. Ellis cried somewhere behind them, a sound that felt too small for the size of his grief. Boyd hadn't spoken since they'd dragged him inside. He just stared at his hands like he didn't recognize them.
Silence took the room again in a long, trembling breath.
And then, without warning, the diner's jukeboxes crackled to life.
Static buzzed through the speakers. A few people turned, startled, confused. The machine had no reason to work.
The static sharpened, caught, and then-
A piano chord.
Soft. Familiar. Wrong. The opening of that song. The one everyone in the world knew before theirs ended by coming to this nightmare.
A voice crackled in, warped by the machine, lilting almost gently:
Mama… just killed a man…