David felt like a deer in headlights as Camila's glare burned into him from down the hallway. Heat spread across his cheeks under her accusing stare.

  He'd never even met Sarah, yet somehow this was his fault.

  "Well, I'm guessing that if nothing has happened to her yet, there are two possibilities." David's voice came out steadier than he felt. "Either there's some risk over time as she remains unconscious, or she's past the risk and just needs more time."

  "So you don't know anything!" Camila's voice cracked slightly before she started muttering in rapid Spanish.

  David pushed through his embarrassment, falling back on logic like a security blanket. "Look, it doesn't matter what we don't know. We should assume the worst."

  His analytical mind kicked in, building the argument step by step. "If there's ongoing risk, the evidence points to getting her to the obelisk ASAP. I'm not sure if the obelisk actively protects against transformation or just accelerates awakening, but you guys had been awake for hours when I arrived and literally nobody else has."

  The words came faster now, driven by nervous energy. "It took all of us two days to wake up. We have no idea if everyone else will take a few hours more or ten times as long. On balance, we need to move her."

  He took a breath, feeling the familiar relief of laying out a solid position. "I don't think there's particular risk in moving her, especially if someone looks after her."

  Camila looked slightly mollified and irritated by that fact. "OK, so we just need to move her to the obelisk ASAP. Why didn't you just say that?"

  She rolled her eyes. "Men!"

  David stepped forward, intent on offering to help. Before he'd taken a full step, Camila's hand shot up.

  "Stop. What do you think you're doing? She isn't decent. Go in there with the other boys. Katie will help me get her dressed."

  Camila whirled around and vanished back into the bedroom, shutting the door firmly. Mark shrugged helplessly at David while Carl did his best to stay out of the conversation entirely.

  Katie took a deep breath, put down the food she'd been sorting, and closed the fridge. "Don't take it to heart," she said softly as she walked toward the closed door. "Camila's a good person. She just gets protective when she's worried."

  The door closed behind her, leaving the three men staring awkwardly at each other.

  David moved into the living room and perched on the edge of the couch. The silence stretched uncomfortably until he broke it.

  "Look, we're going to need at least one more car to get Sarah back unless we want her draped across people's laps. That is, unless we split the party."

  He'd meant it half as a joke, but the others' faces grew serious.

  "Splitting the party is a bad idea," David added quickly. "That's horror movie 101."

  Mark leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed. "Look man, I know you think this is a horror movie. You tried to scare us with warnings about monsters. But we've literally seen nothing except people being knocked out and some funny stuff in a car you admit you stole. It could have been damaged when the owner transported their dog to the park or something."

  His voice grew more confident. "We haven't even seen Sarah yet and Camila is more worried about us finding out what her roomie does or doesn’t sleep in than monster attacks. Sure, it's creepy and the silence is weird, but this doesn't feel like a horror movie to me."

  Carl nodded agreement. "Yeah, I know you're freaked out, but the tension will break as soon as people start waking up. Then everyone will get this sorted and tidied up."

  He gestured toward the window. "I mostly want to go home and wait this out. My place isn't far from here. There's a reason I was passing that park on my way to work."

  David stared at them with growing disbelief. They were treating this like a temporary inconvenience. A power outage that would fix itself.

  "You accept that two days have passed, right?" The question came out sharper than he'd intended.

  Mark and Carl exchanged glances but didn't respond.

  David felt something tightening in his chest. "What about all the people who needed meds regularly? Diabetics, heart patients, people on blood thinners? There were millions of them."

  His voice gained momentum, driven by images he couldn't unsee. "How many of them are okay after lying around for two to three days with no medication? It'll be like the worst COVID projections all happening at once."

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  Fear and panic were starting to creep into his voice, but David couldn't stop now, the manic energy he felt when fighting with Camila even If only briefly needed an outlet and he couldn’t turn his brain off, there was no crisis to focus on.

  "What about people who need medical attention when they wake up? The hospitals won't be able to cope even if they still have power. What about food distribution? Cities are what, three days away from chaos if supply chains break down?"

  The apartment felt suddenly smaller, the air thicker. "I saw that in a documentary once," he added weakly, as if that could somehow make it less real.

  Carl and Mark shared another glance before Mark spoke carefully. "Look, I'm going to go wherever Katie goes. For her, we're home now. I can see her getting more comfortable as she starts taking care of everyone."

  His voice softened. "It's one of the things I love about her. Even if Sarah needs to get to the obelisk, Katie will want to stay and hold down the fort. She'll want to keep things normal."

  "I just want to get home," Carl said quietly. "I guess I'm like Katie that way."

  David watched them retreat into familiar patterns, seeking comfort in the known while maintaining there was nothing to worry about. The contradiction made his head pound.

  Part of him wanted the same thing. Wanted to go home, lock the door, and pretend the world would fix itself.

  But he'd seen too much.

  "Look, guys, I get it." David tried to keep his voice level. "Maybe splitting up is more efficient. Daylight's burning and without power, night is going to be a real problem."

  His hands were shaking slightly. He pressed them together to stop it.

  "I'm just worried about what's out there. Not what could be out there, but what I've actually seen. I wish we'd gone by the main road so you could see those crashed cars. Maybe do a supply run and see what's happened to people."

  The words felt inadequate. How could he make them understand without dragging them through the horror he'd witnessed?

  "I don't think we should split up," he finished lamely.

  The bedroom door opened and Camila emerged, interrupting him mid-thought. "We need to split up," she announced. "There's too much to do. We don't know how long it'll take to get everything back to normal once everyone wakes up."

  She started counting on her fingers. "We need food, water, clothes. You guys need to go home at some point and..."

  Something inside David snapped.

  "Camila, stop!" The words exploded out of him. "Listen to yourself. WE ARE IN THE APOCALYPSE!"

  The room went dead silent. David felt his chest heaving as if he'd been running.

  "There are dead people everywhere," he continued, his voice cracking. "Even if it's only because people can't go days without their meds. Even if everyone wakes up and this is literally the only thing that happened and I'm wrong about the monsters."

  His vision was starting to blur. The weight of everything he'd seen, everything he'd been carrying alone, crashed down on him.

  "There are crashed cars and buses all over the place. The highway must be a nightmare with massive casualties. People didn't stop and take a nap, they were rendered unconscious mid-activity."

  The images flooded back. The woman in the car, dead from diabetic shock. The bus full of transforming passengers. The thing that had been a dog.

  "Every plane and every person on them is gone," David's voice broke completely. "Every boat coming into port has crashed. Every river barge. Every bridge that a boat was near is probably gone too."

  His analytical mind, the thing that had kept him functional through everything, was betraying him now. Showing him the full scope of the disaster with merciless clarity.

  Airports full of wreckage. Highways turned into graveyards. Hospitals where patients died while doctors lay unconscious. Nuclear plants running on automatic systems that would eventually fail. Chemical plants releasing toxins into empty cities.

  David's legs gave out. He collapsed back onto the couch, eyes squeezed shut as tears rolled down his face. His arms wrapped around himself as if he could hold the pieces together by force.

  "Oh God, why can't you see?" The words came out as a broken whisper. "This isn't just going to get better."

  The silence that followed was deafening. David couldn't look at them, couldn't bear to see pity or dismissal or worse, the dawning recognition that he was right.

  When Camila finally spoke, her voice was soft and shaken. "Madre mía. You're right, David."

  He looked up through blurred vision to see her face pale with understanding.

  "This isn't simple and it won't be over soon. We're awake and we can control our actions. I need to get Sarah to the obelisk. It's her best chance. You told me that."

  Her voice grew stronger. "We all need to get ready as though nobody is coming to help. As my abuela always says, 'hope for the best, prepare for the worst.'"

  The acknowledgment helped. Made David feel slightly less alone in the enormity of what they faced.

  Mark and Carl looked stunned, as if they were seeing the world clearly for the first time. Katie stood in the bedroom doorway, one hand pressed to her mouth.

  After a long moment, Camila spoke again. "I know you're overwhelmed, but could you help me? Drive your car?"

  The last part came out raw with emotion. "Please?"

  David looked up to see Camila watching him with an expression he couldn't fully read. Concern, fear, determination, and something else that made his chest tight.

  Still, this was something that needed doing. Something he could do. It wasn’t much but it was enough. String actions together and he would gain time to deal with this. String good actions together and he could help.

  He didn’t know how long it took him to process while everyone just watched before he nodded. Pulling himself together felt like the hardest thing he had ever done but he managed it. Mutely he nodded his head and started to get up from the couch.

  "Sarah is dressed and it'll take two of us to move her to the car. The rest of you help Katie."

  The other men nodded mutely, not trusting their voices. Mark patted David on the back awkwardly and Carl nodded firmly to him soundlessly conveying that he finally got it.

  Katie, taking pity on him, spoke “Let me make you a sandwich for the road." Her face was full of sympathy as she turned back to the kitchen. "Take a minute."

  Katie started telling Carl and Mark what she needed them to do; sending Mark downstairs for a camp stove, Carl cut vegetables while she fixed the sandwich. A couple of minutes later she pressed it into his hands.

  David stared down at the sandwich, this small act of normalcy in the face of everything. The mundane kindness of it nearly broke him all over again.

  At least the car had air conditioning. He focused on that irrational fact.

  He took a shaky breath and stood up. They had work to do, and for the first time since leaving the obelisk, he wouldn't be carrying the weight of the truth alone.

  The apocalypse was real. But he wasn’t alone and had something to do. It was like a story, there was a girl in distress, and he was riding to the rescue in his stolen car. A real tough guy like Mad Max.

  OK, that last part was bullshit.