When dawn broke through the small window of our cabin, it found us still entwined in peaceful slumber. Amanda had awakened before me and was curled into my body, her forehead nestled under my chin.

"Morning," she mumbled sleepily, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Hey." I nuzzled her hair gently. "You sleep alright?"

Amanda yawned and stretched before answering, her feline-like reflexes on full display as she arched her back in a way that made my ears burn. "Mmmm, yeah."

"Thanks for last night."

"God knows you can't take care of yourself when it comes to things like that." She hopped to the kitchen, where she put on a quick pot of coffee. The smell of the roasting beans brought their own warm comfort, and I pulled on some clothes as the drip started.

Amanda brought me a warm mug, and I grimaced as I took a sip. She laughed at the face. "What's wrong?"

"Always preferred my coffee like I like my women, a little tan." I bumped her with my hip.

"Well, ain't no milk out here, just honey, honey."

"I knowwww, it's the worst."

I stood by the window for a moment, blowing on the black brew. She joined me, resting her head on my shoulder. "Nice to have you back, Kendall."

We sipped our coffee in silence, watching the sun rise over the forest. It was peaceful here, away from the chaos of the world. It was easy to forget there was even a world out there, let alone one overrun by monsters.

A lone figure interrupted my reverie, crossing the clearing towards my - our - I reminded myself - cabin. Mathis.

I sighed and set my mug on the bedside table.

I swung the door wide just as Mathis raised a fist to knock, startling him. His eyes were bleary and bloodshot; he clearly hadn't slept.

"Stali and James got the footage all cleaned up. Some interesting shit on there, for sure," he started.

"Hi, Mathis," Mandy said, popping her head around me and waving at him, causing him to jump a little.

"Well, look at you two, all spry and sprockety," he said, eying Mandy. "You two kiss and make up?"

She giggled in response before asking, "You want a cup of coffee?"

"Sure!" Mathis brightened up, stepping across the threshold. "He done being a shithead? You fuck 'im til' whatever crawled up his ass came back out? Wait, wait, don't tell me. Did you have to reach up -"

"Yeah, no coffee for you," I said, pushing him back out of the doorway as he laughed, shutting the door in his face.

"I'll be out as soon as I have proper pants on," I yelled at him.

**************

As I stepped out into the morning light with Amanda by my side and Mathis leading the way, I felt an odd mix of dread and anticipation. The footage on that hard drive held the answers we needed.

Mathis led us into our makeshift command center — a small log building filled with scavenged electronics and various contraptions. Stali and James were already hunched over a set of screens, fingers flying over keyboards as they filtered through hours of surveillance footage.

I took a seat next to them, eyes scanning over the grainy images. The screen showed various shots of the woods around our settlement, trees swaying in time with breaths of wind. We had six angles from posted cameras and four from the team that had come in after me the previous evening.

Each frame held a possibility — a clue about what I'd encountered in the woods. As they moved frame by frame, it felt as if we were dissecting time itself, hacking away at its body to explore its innards.

Mathis was uncharacteristically silent, his gaze intent on the screens. I could see tension lining his face.

"Pause," he commanded suddenly, his pointed finger hovering over a dark figure caught fleetingly on one of the cameras. The screen froze, leaving a menacing silhouette lurking at the edges of our sanctuary. It had a vaguely human shape, but the distortions and static concealed many details. Mathis turned to me. "So, we have confirmation for sure that this thing was out there last night."

"Well, no, duh," I retorted. "We only had five witnesses."

He glowered at me and swiped my coffee mug from my hand, drinking deeply before setting it down with a loud thunk on the desk. "Not what I meant, shithead. This is Camera One."

My eyes widened in surprise as I glanced at the corner of the screen, the minuscule lettering confirming his statement. "So, this thing was in camp," I said.

"Keep watching," he said and waved at James. James pressed play, and I leaned in. The shape of it was muted in the shadows but familiar. Human. My heart raced. The figure snuck from building to building, looking in windows. Several times, it seemed to grab at its face or clutch at its hair, shake its head, hug itself, or throw its head back to look at the sky. Once, it froze as someone passed by, pressing their back against the wall. Finn, I saw, had walked within ten feet of the figure once and never realized it was there. A shiver ran down my spine.

No matter where they were, though, they never turned their face to look directly at the cameras - as if they knew where they were.

"C'mon," I growled. "Let's see that face."

"That's all we have from one, switching to two..." James muttered. The angle of the camera jumped as he spoke. My cabin was in view, and as I watched, the figure crept low and slow across the clearing. In the video, Amanda slammed the door open and stormed out, the door bouncing shut. I winced and looked at her. Her eyes were frozen on the screen as her own image passed within two feet of the mysterious figure lying in the grass. It waited another minute, and after she had gone, it climbed back to its feet and made its way to my doors.

Upon reaching my cabin, it stood in the dark for a long time. "Fast forwarding," Stali said, twisting a knob. I watched the minutes fly by. The figure stood in the clearing before my cabin for almost five minutes.

"How the fuck did we not see this guy," Mathis exclaimed.

I shushed him.

Suddenly, the man dived to the side, lying flat against my porch foundation, and again, my door banged open on the screen, only this time it was my own image storming across the clearing.

The figure followed me slowly.

"Moving to Camera Five..."

As soon as I saw the image on the screen, I blanched. "Can we skip this part?"

I felt Mandy's gaze touch the side of my head. "Why?" she asked.

"I... I wasn't completely honest about last night. Didn't tell you everything."

"It can't be that bad, can -"

"He shot a fuckin' kid in the face, Mandy. Like a kid, kid. Like Jared from Subway would have tried to save this kid for all the wrong reasons, kid."

Mandy gasped, and my mouth twisted into a grimace. "Thanks, Mathis."

"To be fair," Mathis said, "to be fair... The kid had a hole in his thigh the size of a coke can, right through the bone, so..."

Mandy slumped. "Not much choice, huh?"

I sighed in relief. Mandy was by far our best nurse and the closest thing we had to a doctor, so I was glad she understood. It made me feel better about my decision, too, hearing her confirm that even she wouldn't have been able to do much.

"I still don't want to watch this," I said, reaching over to hit the fast-forward button. James slapped my hand away. "Watch."

He pointed at a shadowy corner of the screen, away from the grisly scene unfolding. A pair of eyes —luminous, shining in the dark—just feet behind Finn and me as we argued over Liam's corpse. As my image stood, it blinked and disappeared.

"So, it was a Turned." I said. "Why wouldn't it attack, theories? Had us all dead to rights multiple times."

Mathis stared at me. "Well, not because it was Alec."

I swore at him.

"Jesus Christ, Kendall. No. It's some kind of scout."

"Okay, so... Let's test your theory. Just a scout? How the fuck did it know where all the cameras were? How did it stay just out of range of the Banshees?"

Mathis threw his hands up. "Fuck if I know. Maybe it's smarter than your average shithead."

I waved his comment off. "Let's see the body cam footage."

"It's a fuckin' weird one," Mathis said under his breath. "I'll hand it to you - if Alec was gonna become one of the Turned... That would definitely be his style."

It was Mandy's turn to lean in, suddenly curious. With a few deft strokes, James pulled up multiple camera angles at once, each one on a different monitor.

"Check this shit out," he said. "This thing is EPIC."

He clicked on the first screen, pressing play on the file.

The camera bobbed rhythmically, capturing fragments of the surrounding forest: twisted branches that reached out like grasping hands, layers of dead leaves carpeting the ground, and the dimly lit sky seeping through the dense canopy. Faint, metallic sounds wafted towards my ears - each distinctive crunch of leaves under boots, hushed breaths escaping clenched teeth, and gloved fingers running over the grip of a weapon.

The camera suddenly jerked sideways as its owner took a sudden turn. The lens was now facing a path that led deeper into the woods – a trail we used for hunting.

With each stride captured by the camera, I mentally retraced my steps. The images made me feel like I was back in those woods, plagued by unbearable guilt and terror again.

After a few minutes of silent watching, Mathis made an impatient grunt. "Fast forward," he ordered James. "Bring them all up to the incident point."

I didn't protest. The anxiety was killing me. Mandy smacked my arm. "Why were you out so far alone?"

The playhead jumped ahead by increments. Trees blurred into streaks of black and green. Then suddenly, it halted on a frame that made every breath in the room catch.

The frame showed...me. Crouched low, my palm resting in the upturned hand of a massive creature that appeared to be straight out of legend. "Pause," I said.

I reached for the knob, and Stali pushed back in his chair, allowing me access. I crept the scene forward, frame by frame. About ten frames past, a sudden flash lit up the screen, Finn doing what he had been trained to do - shoot at the scary monster. I twisted the dial again, settling on a frame that most clearly showed the creature. "Enhance the lighting?"

James tapped a few buttons and the shadows in the frame grew brighter. It was exactly as I remembered it. The great curved crown of thorns, the darkened skin, the swirls and points of light and constellations. The great, big, glowing eyes.

"Are there better angles than this?" I turned to James. He shook his head as Stali replied for him. "Of this moment? Not really, no. Finn was first on the scene. There are..." he tapped a few buttons on his keyboard, pulling up various images. "Better angles further into the encounter."

I slumped into my chair. "No, no, it won't do. I know what it looks like. I was looking for... Well, never mind, I guess."

I scooched my chair back and stood up. Mathis grabbed my arm. "Kendall. Wait. There is one more thing you should see."

I frowned and returned to my seat. Mathis inched his chair towards the console and set his fingers on it. "Uh, how do I... Um... Fuck. Dammit. Stupid... Yeah, James, you do it."

James rolled his eyes and pulled the keyboard towards him. "What am I pulling up?"

"Camera thirty."

"Thirty?" James' eyebrows shot up. "What's on thirty? We just put that camera up last week."

"Something Lilly showed me..." Mathis' voice trailed off.

"Alrighty..." James scrolled through the interface. "Thirty, thirty, thirty... Got it. Okay. What am I looking for?"

Mathis glanced at his hand, and I noticed a few notes written on it. "Three forty-three am."

"Okay. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand... Here."

I looked at the screen. Nothing happened at first, but a dark shape entered the screen after a few seconds, crossing softly across the forest floor. It was the same creature, but as we watched, it began to... Shrink?

The tendrils and horns which sprouted from its spine and head sucked back in. It stumbled and fell to all fours as the knees audibly cracked and popped in the camera feed, twisting and contorting into a more familiar shape. The blades on its wrists withered and pulled back into their forearms. Hair sprouted from their head, drifting slightly in the breeze before settling back across their scalp and neck. It took only seconds, but afterward, there in the clearing lay what was obviously a human being - where before had stood a creature of nightmares.

Naked and vulnerable, they curled into a ball, and a whimper echoed through the speakers.

It was soft at first but then turned into a full-blown, choking sob. It rocked back and forth in the dirt, burying its face in the leaves. "I'm sorry," they said, "I'm so sorry." I stiffened. I knew that voice.

They lifted their face to the forest canopy and let out a scream. It was a scream of grief. Raw and unfiltered and filled with anguish. It was a scream I had heard only once before. The day our father had died.

The man pulled himself to his feet, glancing to either side, and then, without another sound, disappeared into the woods.

"Back it up," I shouted. James jumped. "Jeez, alright." He grabbed the dial and twisted it back, going over the scene frame by frame.

With mechanical precision, James wound the scene backward, frame by frame. Each movement unfolded in reverse; a macabre dance rewound. The creature's sobbing blurred and twisted into an eerie series of distorted gulps and hisses that gripped the room.

"Too far," I said. "When he shakes his head."

James progressed to the requested point.

"Enhance the lighting and zoom in."

More clicks.

Mathis swore under his breath.

Alec's side profile, unmistakable in the wash of enhanced lighting, sent a jolt of shock through my veins.

The room fell into a suffocating silence. My heart pounded against my ribcage, making it difficult to breathe. Mathis stared at me, his usually stoic features etched with concern and confusion, while Mandy's hand found my own, gripping it tight enough to hurt.

"Kendall," she murmured, her voice barely rising above a whisper.

I ignored her. All I could do was stare at my older brother's face on the screen. My mind struggled to piece together the puzzle which lay before me - Alec transforming from a nightmarish creature into his human form right before our eyes.

"Rerun it," I ordered, my voice hoarse.

James obliged silently, rewinding the footage back to where the creature had first entered the frame. Stali adjusted the contrast and brightness again, illuminating every minute detail hidden beneath the shadows - Alec's transformation from beast to man, replaying in front of us again.

Each moment was captured with excruciating clarity - every contortion as his body realigned itself into a human shape and every whimper that escaped him when he collapsed onto the forest floor afterward.

"We need to find him," I said, finally breaking away from the screen.

Mathis turned towards me. "Kendall..."

"No," I cut him off before he could say more. "We find my brother."

The room fell silent once more; even the steady hum of electronics seemed to hush. Everyone stared at me, their faces a mix of shock and apprehension as they let my words sink in.

Alec was alive. He was alone and tormented by what he had become, out somewhere in the wilderness. And as I looked back at the screen, at the last frame of Alec's face contorted in anguish, there was no doubt about what needed to be done next.

"Has Lilly seen this," I asked.

James shook his head. "No. Well. Yes. But not with that enhancement. We all just saw his face there for the first time..."

"Tell her. We're going after him." I rose to my feet, and as I strode towards the door, I could feel their eyes on me - perhaps wondering if they'd found the ember of Alec inside of me that they'd been looking for all along. I felt them following me until the last possible second before the door closed behind me with an echoing slam.