No one spoke for a while after that.
The bodies lay still near the barricade, dark and broken. Smoke drifted through the street, carrying the smell of blood and ash. Phileo sat where they had left him, rope still tight around his wrists.
Mara was the first to move.
She wiped her hands on her jacket and walked toward him slowly, like he might explode if she got too close. "They didn't even hesitate," she said. "They went straight past you."
"I didn't do anything," Phileo replied. His voice felt dry. "I swear."
"I know," she said. That scared him more than if she had accused him.
Ben kept his weapon lowered but ready. "That doesn't mean you're safe."
Jax kicked a loose stone, eyes wide. "Or that you're human."
The word hit hard.
Phileo looked down at the rope around his wrists. "I didn't ask for this."
Mara knelt in front of him and studied his face. "You said your name is Phileo. Where were you headed?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "Away from Moss. Away from… everything."
Ben frowned. "Why leave? There are groups forming. Safer places."
Phileo swallowed. Images flashed through his mind—his house, the back room, the sound he would never forget. "Nothing left there."
The silence that followed was different. He could tell they understood more than they wanted to.
Mara stood and looked down the street. "We're heading east," she said. "There's a radio tower outside the city. We heard a broadcast two days ago. Someone's still sending signals."
Jax scoffed. "Or bait."
"Or hope," Mara shot back.
Ben looked at Phileo. "And what about him?"
Mara didn't answer right away.
Phileo met her eyes. "You don't have to keep me. Cut me loose somewhere. I'll go."
"That's the problem," Ben said quietly. "We don't know what you'll turn into."
Mara took a knife from her belt.
Phileo stiffened.
Instead, she cut the rope.
His hands fell free.
"You walk with us," she said. "In front. Always in sight."
Ben frowned. "Mara—"
"If he turns," she continued, not looking away from Phileo, "we put him down. No debate."
Phileo nodded once. "That's fair."
Jax crossed his arms. "I don't like this."
"No one does," Mara replied.
They moved out as the sun dipped lower, keeping distance between them. Phileo walked a few steps ahead, feeling their eyes on his back.
A line had been drawn.
Not between the living and the dead—
—but between him and everyone else.
And he didn't know which side he truly belonged to anymore.