"Hey Ryan!" She called out, her voice carrying easily across the field. "Come to check up on me?"

I walked out onto the turf, shaking my head. "You are going to miss dinner, Sydney. The whole house is worried about you."

She jogged toward me at normal human speed, though I noticed that even her casual movements seemed more fluid and controlled than before. The virus was changing her at a fundamental level, like it did with me but that super speed she had clearly was her own unique ability like how Rachel was her ability to summon barriers.

"Sorry about that," she said when she reached me, not sounding particularly sorry. "I got caught up in testing some new parameters. You wouldn't believe what I can do now, Ryan. The speed, the control—it's incredible."

I looked her over carefully, noting the faint sheen of sweat on her skin and the subtle changes in her posture and bearing. She looked healthy, alert, and more confident than I'd seen her. But there was also something different about her eyes—a restless energy, more than before which was worrying somehow.

"How are you feeling?" I asked. "Any side effects? Fatigue, disorientation, anything unusual?"

She shook her head. "Better than I've felt in months, actually. It's like every system in my body has been upgraded. My reaction time, my strength, my endurance—everything is better than it was."

"And the risks?" I pressed. "What happens if you push too hard? What happens if you lose control at those speeds?"

For the first time, her confidence wavered slightly. "I'm being careful, Ryan. I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?" I asked, my exasperation finally showing through my calm exterior. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you're playing with forces you don't understand in a location where no one can help you if something goes wrong."

She crossed her arms defensively. "I need to know what I'm capable of. We all need to know. These abilities could be the difference between survival and death for our entire group."

I couldn't argue with the logic, but I could argue with the methodology.

"Maybe you're right about needing to understand your abilities," I replied. "But it's reckless of you to test your speed alone like this. If you lose control, you might crash into those concrete bleacher seats over there and break every bone in your body, or even die if you're unlucky enough to hit at the wrong angle. And if something happens to you out here, none of us would even learn about it until it's too late."

Sydney's defensive posture relaxed slightly, and she actually smirked at my concern. She leaned toward me, close enough that I could see the faint green-black tracery of viral changes spreading beneath her skin like living tattoos.

"You're overworrying about nothing, Ryan," she said with that confident tone that always made me want to shake some sense into her. "I'm quite in control already. I can feel exactly how fast I'm moving, exactly how much stress my body can handle. It's not like I'm just running blind and hoping for the best."

I studied her face, noting the flush of exhilaration in her cheeks and the bright, almost fevered gleam in her eyes. "You're overconfident and enjoying this too much," I replied dryly. "That's exactly when people make mistakes that get them killed."

Sydney's smirk broadened into a genuine smile, and before I could react, she reached up and pinched my cheeks with both hands, the gesture playful but firm enough to force my mouth into an unwilling smile shape.

"Smile a little, would you?" She said, shaking my head gently back and forth. "Your good looks are truly wasted on you when you're always wearing that serious, worried expression." She sighed dramatically, as if my lack of levity was a personal affront to her.

I reached up and gently pulled her hands away from my face, but I couldn't help the slight upturn of my lips at her antics. "My concern for you seems wasted as well, but since you insist on these solo training sessions, next time call me. I'll be there to watch over you, just in case you don't crash yourself into something solid."

Sydney raised an eyebrow, challenge sparkling in her eyes. "Oh? You think you're capable of following my speed?" The question carried a note of genuine curiosity mixed with amusement.

I had to admit that wouldn't be possible with conventional methods. She was clearly much faster than me now, which made sense—speed was her primary ability enhancement from the virus. I had my own abilities, different ones that manifested in other ways, but raw velocity wasn't among them.

"No, I can't match your speed," I admitted without any wounded pride. "But I can follow you with my eyes, and at worst I can stop time if I see you heading for a dangerous crash. That should be enough to prevent serious injury."

Sydney blinked, her playful expression shifting to something softer and more vulnerable. She sighed and wrapped her arms around my neck, looking up at me with an expression I couldn't quite read in the dim stadium lighting.

"Are you really that worried about me, Ryan?" She asked, her voice quieter now, more serious than it had been since I'd arrived.

"If I wasn't worried about you, I wouldn't be here," I replied honestly. "The whole house is concerned when you disappear like this. Rachel was about organizing a search party."

Sydney's smile returned, but it was warmer now, less manic than before. "That's so sweet of you," she said, and then before I could respond, she leaned up and pressed her lips against mine.

The kiss was soft, lingering, tasting faintly of the mint gum she'd been chewing earlier and something else—something that might have been the metallic tang of adrenaline or the subtle change in her body chemistry from the viral enhancement. I found myself responding despite my better judgment, my hands moving to grasp her shoulders.

After a moment, I pulled back, creating some distance between us while still keeping my hands on her shoulders to steady her.

"Stop worrying about the Screamer situation," she said, her forehead resting against mine. "We'll figure it out. We always do."

I shook my head slightly, feeling the weight of all the information I'd been carrying around settle back onto my shoulders like a familiar, unwelcome coat. "That's going to be more complicated than you think."

The Screamer problem wasn't just about the immediate threat they posed. I knew from the visions I'd experienced that a Screamer could call massive hordes of infected from every direction within miles, potentially flooding our entire area with more undead than we could possibly handle. But killing the Screamer wouldn't necessarily solve anything—it might just make us targets for whatever alien intelligence was coordinating these attacks. And if the infected were actively hunting us as a result, they would pursue us relentlessly until we were all dead.

In that case, leaving the Municipal Office and abandoning Jackson Township seemed like the most logical solution, but even that wasn't simple. It had been nearly two months since we'd settled here after the initial outbreak. We'd clearly built a home here, established trade relationships with the municipal office, created routines and connections that gave our lives structure and meaning. Leaving would mean destroying all of those connections, and it would also force everyone at the municipal office to evacuate as well, because after the Screamer's call, Jackson Township would be completely flooded with infected.

"Hey." Sydney pinched my cheek again, lighter this time, trying to get my attention back to the present moment.

I looked down at her, refocusing on her face rather than the spiral of worst-case scenarios playing in my head.

"I told you to stop thinking about it every single second, otherwise you're going to drive yourself mad, you know?" She said, her tone gentle but insistent. "You can't solve everything by worrying about it constantly."

I started to explain. "Sydney, in the visions I saw—"

"I don't want to hear it," Sydney cut me off firmly, her expression suddenly serious. "Not right now. Not here."

I looked at her, genuinely surprised by the interruption. She'd always been interested in my experiences with the virus-induced visions before, always wanted to know what I'd seen and what it might mean for our survival.

Sydney sighed when she saw my expression, and her features softened again. "Look, I know the visions are important, and I know you've seen things that could help us prepare for what's coming. But right now, in this moment, I just need you to be here with me. Present. Not lost in some future catastrophe that might or might not happen exactly the way you saw it."

She may be right, I realized. I had been letting the weight of future knowledge consume my present awareness, spending so much mental energy on problems I couldn't solve immediately that I was missing the life happening right in front of me.

"You're probably right," I admitted. "I have been obsessing over things I can't control."

"I know exactly how to shift your mood," Sydney said with a mischievous glint returning to her eyes. "Something to help you focus on right now instead of tomorrow's disasters."

Before I could ask what she meant, Sydney suddenly dropped to her knees in front of me, her hands moving to the hem of my shirt and then lower, toward the waistband of my pants.

"Sydney?" I said, genuinely startled by the sudden shift in her behavior and the intimate direction this was heading.

She ignored the hesitation. With a fluid tug, my pants were down, and my cock sprang out into the air between us, thick and already stiffening under her gaze.

Heat scalded my face. "H..hey, what are you—" The words stumbled out, half warning, half plea, but the way her eyes glowed up at me, sharp and sweet all at once, cut them short.

"Relax," she murmured. Her hand was already there, small and warm, wrapping around me in a confident stroke that made my hips twitch.

"Hhhgn…" I groaned despite myself, my breath breaking raggedly in the hush of the night.

Sydney tilted her head, lips curling into that knowing smirk. "You've never had a handjob or a blowjob, judging from the way you're shaking."

My throat bobbed. "…Yeah."

"Mmm." She stroked me slowly, thumb brushing over the slick bead forming at the tip. "Rachel and Elena have been slacking, then… or maybe you're just too damned noble, always holding back, afraid to ask for what you want. You'd never push, never take, even though deep down… you crave it." Her words slithered into me, not just teasing but exposing, as if she had pulled back a curtain on something I hadn't admitted even to myself.

I couldn't answer. My voice was gone, choked off by the pulse hammering through my cock under her palm.

Sydney's grin softened into something more sultry as she leaned in closer, her breath warm against the head. "Then for once, just… enjoy."

Her lips descended, plush and wet, sealing around me in one smooth motion.

"Ha—fuck," I gasped, eyes rolling back, the sound spilling raw from my chest as her mouth closed tight around my cock. The heat, the slick glide of her tongue swirling inside—it was like being swallowed by something molten and alive.

I gripped at the edge of a crumbling wall behind me, knuckles whitening as my knees nearly buckled. My gaze dropped helplessly to watch her—Sydney's pink lips stretched around my thickness, cheeks hollowing as she drew me deeper, then pulling back just enough to let her tongue lash at the slit, teasing, lapping up precum like it was nectar.

"Ffffuck, Sydney…" My hips jerked forward despite myself, nearly spilling into her mouth then and there.

She pulled back with a lewd pop, stroking me with her slick hand as a string of spit glistened between her lips and the swollen tip of my cock. Her eyes gleamed with wicked amusement. "So sensitive… I could make you cum right now, couldn't I?"

I could only groan in answer, chest heaving, cock throbbing violently in her grip.

Sydney chuckled low, then leaned back in, taking me deep again—deeper this time, until her nose nearly pressed against my abdomen. Her throat flexed around me, tight, wet, swallowing every inch.

"Ghhhaaahhh—" I cried out of pleasure. My hands flew to her head, tangling in her black hair, not to force but to anchor myself against the overwhelming tide of sensation.

"Sluuurp~~gluuurrp~~gluuurrrp~~"

She bobbed her head, rhythm smooth and unhurried, her tongue a constant slick caress beneath the shaft. Each time she pulled back, her saliva coated me in glossy wetness, her lips reddened and swollen from the stretch, her eyes never leaving mine.

When she slowed, she used her hand in tandem, twisting strokes paired with quick flicks of her tongue across the crown, making me twitch and gasp and stammer curses into the night.

But Sydney wasn't content with just driving me to the edge. She let her free hand drift lower, cupping my balls, massaging with a tender pressure that had me whimpering like I was about to fall apart in her mouth.

Sydney's lips glistened, parted just enough for her hot breath to caress the swollen head of my cock before she whispered against it, voice low and teasing: "Do you like it?"

My throat worked around a rough swallow, and all I could do was nod, my voice wrecked. "Y..yeah…"

The answer only seemed to fuel her. That smirk curved across her face for a heartbeat, and then her mouth descended again, lips sealing tightly as she took me deeper, bobbing with a steadier rhythm.

The field filled with obscene music—the wet suction of her mouth, the messy glide of spit, the lewd squelch each time she pulled back only to swallow me down again.

"Sluuurp… glllrrk… hnnfff—" She moaned around me, her cheeks flushing crimson from both the stretch and her effort to take more of me, pushing herself until the thick crown nudged against the back of her throat.

"Ohh f…fuck, Sydney—uhhh…" My head fell back as a ragged groan ripped free, hips bucking forward, unable to control the raw instinct. My hand threaded into her hair, gripping tighter than I meant to, needing something to hold onto while she milked every ounce of control out of me.

Her gaze shot upward, eyes glistening, and for one delirious second she looked feral—beautiful, greedy, determined. She understood what was coming, could feel the tension coiling inside me. I loosened my hold on her hair, giving her every chance to pull away, to let me spill somewhere safer.

But she didn't.

Instead she grabbed my thighs, nails digging in, grounding me as she closed her eyes and pushed forward, swallowing me as deep as she could.

"Nnnghh—fuuuckkkk!" The sound tore out of me as my body convulsed. My orgasm ripped through with brutal force, cock twitching violently in her throat as I erupted.

Hot, thick ropes of cum surged into her, spilling directly down the tight squeeze of her gullet.

"Mmffhh… hhhhmmmppff—" She moaned around the flood, the vibrations only milking me harder, each pulse wringing more out of me until my knees were buckling.

Her throat worked rhythmically as she swallowed again and again, refusing to pull back until every last spasm had passed.

Only then did she finally ease off, my cock slipping from her mouth with a wet pop, strings of saliva and seed stretching between her swollen lips and my shaft.

I stared, panting, chest heaving, as she tilted her head back and opened her mouth just enough for me to glimpse the creamy mess I had painted her tongue with—before she gulped it all down, throat bobbing in a deliberate swallow.

The sight alone nearly made me dizzy.

Sydney licked her lips with the tip of her tongue, savoring the last traces, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Hmmm." She sighed almost theatrically, then grinned, wiping her chin. "I hope that'll make me stronger somehow… since I drank it."

I blinked at her, still trying to catch my breath, utterly dumbstruck. My cock was still twitching, slick and gleaming from her spit, my body trembling from the violent release she had wrung out of me.

"Stronger," I managed to rasp, voice half-choked with disbelief. "You really have become a musclehead, haven't you?"

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