“Shit.”

Once again, they found themselves in a bad spot.

It’s been getting quite common recently, so Evan wasn’t really surprised at that point.

Frank cursed repeatedly to himself as he peered through the blinds. They were hiding inside a room three floors underneath the rooftop of building adjacent to where they had set up camp. Like the previous location, it was also an apartment building. Judging by the dust-covered décor and equipment, such as the posters, amplifiers, guitars and some such, the previous tenant must have been a musician. Normally, all of the items around Evan would have piqued his interest. But it was not the time.

“Hold still.”

Io raised his ankle and removed his boots clumsily. Evan had to cover his mouth to suppress a yelp of pain. Without minding him, she continued with removing his sock. She then raised the hem of his pants up to the base of his knees. Finally, she was able to see the state his ankle was in.

“How is it?” he asked anxiously. He hoped that she would at least nod and say “it’s fine.” But the pause in her reply told him that it wasn’t that simple.

“… Not good.”

Simply pressing lightly onto the affected area sent waves of pain through his legs. Evan doubted that it was because of Io’s strength, but regardless, he was aware that his ankle was in a bad state. It had already been acting up before when they were looking for Io, and intensified during their short crawl through the zombie-infested streets the day before. But their sudden, unplanned jump to the adjacent building was what finished it off.

Walking was difficult; running, impossible.

“Is it broken?” he asked. Io shook her head.

“Sprain. I think.”

That explained the pain. But at least it wasn’t a fracture. Or so he hoped. He wasn’t sure how accurate of a diagnosis Io could make without knowing her past experience or knowledge. It didn’t feel like a fracture.

Evan nodded his gratefulness to her. She stared at him in acknowledgment, but didn’t let go of his foot for some time. When she started to replace his shed footgear, she was awkward at it, like she didn’t know what how socks were worn or how shoelaces worked. Her efforts made him wince in physical pain until he told her that he would take care of it as nicely as he could.

“How’s outside?” he asked Frank. The latter didn’t reply for a while.

“Nothing yet.”

On their way there, Io eliminated the few undead that had populated the floors leading to where they were hiding. To stymie the inevitable surge of undead that would come from the streets, they then barricaded the main stairwell with as many heavy furniture as they could. However, they left the fire exit balcony open for two reasons. The first would be so they could run out at a moment’s notice if needed. The second would be…

Io peeked outside the window and down the fire exit. Evan and Frank held their breaths.

“No signs.”

“Shit!”

Frank managed to stop himself from hitting the wall with his fist. Evan wanted to lash out as well, but immediately reconsidered.

When the “Eye” opened, the group grabbed as much of the bags as they could and jumped towards the adjacent building. It was a decision they’ve pre-planned since long ago for just such an occasion. The reasoning was simple. Any kind of commotion they may or may not have made at camp would have attracted a small measure of undead to amass underneath them. There would be no time to check. Generally, unless the adjacent buildings were troublesome such as hospitals, hotels or malls where large numbers of people gathered, it was typically a safer alternative than to bet on the chance that they made absolutely no disturbance during their time resting. Just in case, Frank threw most of their glass bottles and jars to the opposite side right as Io, who had been instructed in a hurry, toppled the wire fence that bordered the adjacent rooftop. Frank jumped after her, followed by Evan. Upon landing, it took him a while to get a good footing on the metal mesh supported by the squirming undead underneath it. The weight of the much more athletic Io and Frank holding the frame down helped.

But right when Violet, who tried to pick up the remaining bags that the men left behind, tried to jump, a teardrop fell behind her.

Those were what they called the things that fell out of the sky.

It destroyed the rooftop in an instant. Violet, who was not able to get a good footing, plunged into the darkness. She didn’t even have enough time to yell out or scream.

“Damn it, why did she go back and get those bags? Didn’t we agree that if this shit happened, we’ll only take two each?”

Evan had nothing to reply to Frank. Even he wondered why she would do such a risky, stupid thing. It wasn’t like her precious cigarettes were left behind. Coincidentally, or maybe subconsciously, it was the first of the two bags that Evan snatched from the ground when he ran. Violet would know this; the bag with the smokes had a different color than the others. It also wasn’t because of Io; she had picked up her pelican case before she made her jump. Supplies weren’t comparable to the value of their lives anyway.

Admittedly, he had to consider the possibility that she did so impulsively. Though it was out of character for someone like her in such a situation, it was to be expected at any other time. It was difficult to say.

Regardless of the reason, Violet was gone. Everybody feared the worst. Hopefully, she had survived the fall and managed to find shelter from the Leak. The event only lasted a few moments after all. Likely, it was because it had opened again so soon, so the “precipitation” wasn’t as bad as it usually was.

“I don’t know. But, what do we do now?”

Usually, when they were separated, it was up to Violet and whoever was with her to reunite with the other party. Of course, that plan was made with the assumption that she was still alive. But at the same time, by her own orders, the two men were to make a judgment by themselves as to whether they would leave or not when her survival was either in doubt or…

Anyway, it had become their call.

“I think we should stay, at least until afternoon tomorrow.”

Frank’s consideration was sensible. If Violet survived, then there was no doubt that she would try to catch up to them at first light. At the very least, she knew which building they were in. Several hours was enough time for her to figure something out. There was one problem with his suggestion, though.

Io peeked out of the window again and shook her head.

“No time. Must go. Horde, coming.”

They didn’t have any time in the first place.

The only thing throwing all of those glass items did was to balance out the immediate threat of the nearby undead swarming around the location where they jumped. It didn’t do anything against the later event where they would be overrun from all sides from all the noise.

Frank bit his lips. He was a reasonable man. Despite his morals, he was also disciplined. He knew when to give up. So, all he could do was carefully consider his options realistically. But there was nothing else to.

He looked towards Evan, but conceded behind the logic. Bitterly, he nodded.

There was no need to see the state of the streets below. Everybody knew that there was a sea of undead had gathered there. Whatever it was that pulled them away earlier; it was either gone, or the commotion caused by the opening of the Leak attracted them more.

It was not a question of “if” they were going to be surrounded, but “when”.

Evan knew this as well. They had already experienced this several times. Because of that, they also knew exactly what to do in that kind of situation. Of course, being caught out in the open during a Leak did cross their minds at one point. However, they always scheduled their runs on days when it wouldn’t happen.

That said, it did. As such, it was only apt that they adopt the safest and most reasonable choice available to them.

They needed to get away as soon as possible.

“Evan? What’s up?”

“… No. We should… stay put. Violet will come.”

A stupid sound escaped Frank’s throat.

“Once she comes back, we can run. It’ll only take her an hour. Or two. Doesn’t matter.”

“We’ll die in that hour,” Frank thought. Io, who was looking on from the side, was visibly shocked at Evan as well.

As the one who was acquainted with Evan the longest, it was up to Frank to convince him otherwise. That was in spite of his own feelings regarding the matter. Io, hapless, stared expectantly at him as well. But he, too, wanted to wait as long as they could for their team leader. Yet that was simply his opinion as a long-time member. He knew that Evan’s reasons reached far deeper.

But what should he say? Should he appeal to his reason or emotion? Should he come up with a compromise? There wasn’t any. Before the apocalypse, he had also experienced similar things while he was deployed. If they stayed there, only death awaited them.

As for Io, she wasn’t actually surprised. If anything, she expected resistance.

She looked back down towards the dark streets. The sight made it look like the alleys were alive. There was a disgusting stench in the air. While she was already used to it, that didn’t mean she didn’t mind it. Then, she looked towards the direction where they had tried to camp for the night. The rooftop had basically been annihilated due to the size and weight of what dropped on it. It had destroyed the walls of two more floors before its energy couldn’t do so anymore. Regardless, she was quite sure that it had dropped all the way to the ground.

And right below where they were… just placing her sight there gave her a really bad feeling.

“… Is it coming?”

Frank suddenly appeared beside her. She wasn’t startled, since she felt him coming, but in her mind, she would have appreciated it if he minded her personal space better.

She looked down once again. She felt her heart tremble as she stared at the darkness below them. There was a pressure unlike what the weak undead could produce. Slowly, she nodded.

Frank acknowledged her reaction.

“I’ll check. Stay here and watch over that guy.”

Going on all fours, Frank started crawling on the metal balcony to avoid making any sound. Io watched as his figure slowly distanced itself from her until she couldn’t see him anymore.

She looked up at the sky, then back towards the room. Evan was still sitting on a dusty old stool, grinding his teeth. Io raised her hand to reach towards him, but quickly stopped herself.

Instead, she started to talk, to nobody in particular. But she hoped that Evan listened.

She talked about when she had first met the group. Her first impression of Violet was that of an idiot. Who would shout so loudly in the middle of a zombie-infested city? During that time, she also had an equally stupid-looking face on her. However, after just one conversation with her, Io immediately changed her view. She was more than just competent. Perhaps, her overreaction was simply due to affection?

Turning her head, she saw Evan was still hanging his head. Despite that, she continued.

“Sorry. Attacked her, on neck.”

“… Ah.”

He rubbed his temples and shook himself awake. Then, he forced himself to smile reassuringly.

“She didn’t mind. So, I guess it’s fine.”

It was simply a reflex on her part. Or perhaps it was deliberate? But she should have been considerate of Violet’s situation. It was actually admirable how strong-willed she was. It was Io’s fault for trying to coax a reaction.

“But you should apologize to her instead. I know I said she didn’t mind, but she would be glad to hear it anyway.”

“Would. Will. She’s…”

At that moment, Frank came back and disturbed Io’s flow. Her face contorted with displeasure. She knew that he was quick on his feet, but at that time it looked like he rushed back. Sweat covered his forehead and neck. Panic and confusion were painted on his face. He nodded towards both of them and said:

“It’s right below us.”

That was what she thought. Io quickly regained her composure. She leaned against the wall and placed her ears against it. While it was faint, she could hear the building creak irregularly due to the mass of undead slowly making their way up. However, against the backdrop of noise, she heard the deep rumbling of something large following them.

“Evan, man, we need to go.”

Frank walked towards Evan and spoke with urgency. It was clear that there was no way they were going to last by simply barricading the door. As more and more undead flooded in, the less likely they would be able to make it through in one piece.

Evan didn’t respond. Being effectively ignored agitated Frank. He snorted and—

“If not, can decoy.”

“How?”

She pointed at herself, and then tried her best to explain despite her problems with speaking. As she did, Frank’s eyes hidden behind his goggles got larger and larger. It came to the point where his agitation reached a certain peak and he interrupted Io’s strained explanation.

“Are you insane?”

Her idea was basically to run off to the side facilities and create noise there. She would continue to do so for at least five buildings or two to three blocks, which would pull out most of the undead within the area. The problems were obvious.

For one, if she did that, then the danger would just fall on her. While she was certainly much more capable than them, doing so would also block her way back. Without a vanguard, the two men would be left by themselves. Frank, despite having a gun, and being one of the essential members of a runner group that Violet had organized, only really had one major role: dealing with humans. After all, the most dangerous creatures right now were their fellow man.

The other problem was that Frank didn’t trust Io.

Unlike Violet, who seemed to have offered her complete cooperation for Io’s ends, Frank was only following the former’s orders. Without their leader, there was no way Frank was going to decide on something as ridiculous as that.

He battled with the advantages and disadvantages of her proposal for a short while, frustratingly without any answers.

Then, a small light attracted Frank and Io’s attention. Evan had suddenly lit a cigarette.

He sighed then scratched the back of his head hard. After blowing the smoke he had in his lungs, Evan faced the two-person crowd before him.

“I can hear her bullying me in my head already. “Stop sulking, moron”. What do you two think: is she still alive?”

The soldier and the nun-like girl looked at each other. The former had no idea what to say.

“Alive. Yes.”

It was Io’s turn to be stared at. She looked quite uncomfortable being looked at intensely by two grown men, for she shuffled in place for quite a bit.

But she didn’t elaborate any further. At least, not without being prodded. She responded by simply stating:

“Violet, strong.”

Her explanation ended at that. But despite the lack of merit in her words, she appeared supremely confident in her statement. In fact, her tone of voice suggested something like “why are you asking something so obvious?”

“Then… what should we do if she came by?”

They could leave a note. An easy way of getting her to read it was to leave a box of cigarettes on top of it. They were the hopeless kind of people whose eyes gravitate towards those things. What Evan likely meant was how they were going to convey where they were going to the absent one.

Should they leave a trail of bread crumbs, so to say?

While they could do that, there was no telling how long they could keep it up. They only managed to bring four bags of their supplies with them, and they wanted to avoid going back to camp empty-handed. Though of course they would rather do so than entertain the idea of losing a team member, especially their leader.

But once again, Io surprised both men by tilting her head in wonder.

“Come here? Won’t. Will die.”

It was the answer they feared to hear. Though it made sense considering the ground and the surroundings were being filled with the undead. The two men were being quite stubborn with the idea, but were well-aware of how absurd the premise itself was.

“But. Can hear… Can see. Have plan.”

It was midnight. Though the position of the moon didn’t exactly tell the time, both men had impeccable internal clocks. They were quite sure.

Over on the window, Io stood with her back towards them. She was carefully observing the state of the streets below. Without any update, it meant that nothing had changed.

“Ready?” she asked. Both men nodded.

Io nodded in return. She sighed, sucked out a decent length of her cigarette, and then threw the still-smoldering filter to the side. There, a pile of burnable waste was collected. Using some of the alcohol they had with them, the pile caught flame quickly, and slowly scorched the walls until it, too, was lit ablaze.

That was Io’s plan; to light up every last room they passed, preferably the entire building. It served many purposes. First, wherever Violet may be, she would definitely see where they were heading whether she wanted to or not. It was a signal that they did not have to let her see up close. Secondly, the noise and commotion would attract the undead around the vicinity, pulling them out of the adjacent buildings where they would be. Next, the zombies within those buildings and those in the surroundings would be fried and reduce the pressure to their rear. Most importantly, keeping the undead horde’s attention to places behind them would eventually thin out the ones ahead, giving them an opportunity to scout out a manhole.

They only had to be cautious about the thing behind them.

The only issue to this was whether they could continuously find things to burn. But the idea was too good to not adopt despite that minor premise. Just in case, they emptied half of one of the bags and stuffed as much wood and anything else combustible inside.

As the flames grew in strength, they exited the room through the balcony and immediately jumped towards the nearest window within reach. Because it was closed, they had to rely on Io’s armored body to break through it. Thankfully none of the buildings within each block were that far apart in the first place. Inside, it looked like what remained of a small publishing house, with massive quantities of paper scattered on the floor. A few zombies were trapped due to a locked door. Io made quick work of them quietly. Afterwards, they assembled near the door that led to the main hallway.

As usual, Evan would be at the head of the group. He was confident that his near-perfect eyesight and keen senses could at least alleviate their troubles with navigating in the dark. Io would follow him closely from behind as a temporary replacement for Violet. She had spent the last half-hour being drilled by Frank with their physical gestures, ensuring that she could understand and communicate at least very basic information between them in the dark. Though it was far from perfect, Frank was overall pleased with the progress. Lastly, Frank would hold the rear.

Why were they going to navigate in complete darkness? It was to avoid being noticed by that monster behind them earlier than planned. Regardless of how slim the chances were, they mustn’t be seen by it. Some of them were indeed slow, but they were aware that there were others that could run faster than humans.

People called them Tears. Despite the romantic name, they were fearful abominations that needed to be avoided at all costs. While they could be defeated, it was very difficult without heavy ordnance. Fortunately, they expired naturally, only lasting for a week at most. When they do, they disintegrate into a mist. However, they didn’t have a week to wait with everything that was happening around them. While they could run towards the outskirts and then stop burning down areas after some point, by that time they would already be too close to the forest to stop.

None of them have a fixed form, so describing them physically was a practice of futility. What they did know was that simple physical contact with it was enough to turn humans into undead.

Just in case, they had asked Io earlier; can she beat it? Her simple answer was:

“Might. But, I’ll die.”

Though there was a chance that continuously burning their trail meant having the Tear at their backs all the time, it shouldn’t make it run towards them in a rush. That was also the reason why they would only burn the last areas in every building.

Considering the situation, both Frank and Evan had removed the safeties on their rifles.

Ironically, the safest place in a city immediately after a Leak opening is where the most danger is out of it. However, because the lower floors and the streets were densely-packed with zombies, they couldn’t do so immediately. They also wanted to leave a trail long enough for Violet to get a general idea of where they were headed before stopping.

Frank nodded at Evan after checking his rounds. Io, who took another moment to ensure her case was secured firmly on her back with ropes, nodded as well. In return, Evan sighed deeply to psyche himself up.

There was no way he was comfortable with this kind of operation, especially not without Violet. But there was no choice. Despite being well-aware of that fact though, it still took him a while to accept it. He looked back towards the building where they had come from. The room they took shelter in started smoldering from the fire. But beyond the embers, there was a strange kind of darkness that loomed before it. There was something there; something writhing, vile and malevolent. Thank goodness, he thought, that they decided to leave. Despite his misgivings, not waiting for Violet was ultimately the correct choice.

Even she would tell him that he was right. At the very least, Io was sure that Violet was still alive. Even though he knew Violet the longest, while Io had only met Violet a few days ago, the opinion of the strongest person in the group somehow quelled his anxiety.

The moment they turned a corner, everything became covered in pitch darkness. There was nothing to see. He didn’t even know which direction was which. It didn’t matter. Right, left, up or down, there was only the black.

However, he knew where they were. He felt it. There was a wall to his back. There was the floor underneath his feet. Io held his left hand with her cold, gauntleted hands. Her body heat permeated through his clothes. His footsteps knocked on the wood gently. The smell of mold and rot filled the air. The taste of tobacco lingered on his tongue. The sounds of the distant undead conquered the background.

Slowly, he inched forward. He had nothing to guide him, just the senses he had trained for a decade. Losing the use of his eyes turned them sharper, more alert, more accurate.

He stopped. He thought. He contemplated. Finally, he tapped Io’s hand, careful to not hurt himself with the spikes on her armor. Twice, he did it. That was all.

She understood what he meant and released his hand.

Evan pointed his flashlight down the direction of the corridor. With practiced precision, he flashed the hall with a bright light. There were two zombies ahead of them, mostly inactive, but definitely... moving. That part of the building was completely blind and deaf to the blaze they had set on the other side. One was scratching the floor with its claws, and the other... simply spasmed on the opposite wall. The flash was brief enough to barely attract their attention. But most importantly, it was enough for Io to know what to do. Immediately after darkness returned to his eyes, the sounds of bones breaking and flesh tearing trespassed the mostly quiet night.

He waited as he stabilized his breathing in the meantime. A short while later, a cold hand, now damp with something, held his again.

There was no use complaining. He knew what it was. All he could do was be thankful the wound he got earlier that night had already closed. Just like that, they proceeded onwards.

They could only move at a snail’s pace. His was an extremely difficult job. He needed to know what they were doing, what they were stepping on, what they were leaning on, what he was smelling, what he was hearing; everything. Then, he needed to isolate all the relevant stimuli from everything else. It was quite a bit more difficult than usual because of his ankle.

Thankfully that building wasn’t very large. They only needed to engage once to arrive at the opposite side of the building. It was an office space, seemingly. Simply put, they could easily burn it.

They waited until black smoke started to accumulate densely before they jumped to the next building. The gap between them was quite wide, but they conveniently found a ladder long enough to bridge the distance. It was a restaurant. And clearly, it had been used as a temporary base many years ago.

Sleeping bags, lanterns, empty food packets, toilet paper, improvised weapons, as well as garbage of all kinds littered the floor messily, each covered in a thick layer of dust. The smell was atrocious and made Evan want to gag. It was definitely not only fecal matter, but more of just rot. He opened his flashlight and checked. There, in the middle of the room, was an undead struggling to free itself from a noose.

The last occupant had committed suicide.

“Kill it?” Io asked. Evan nodded solemnly. She finally drew her sword for the first time that day. The black blade cleanly sliced through its joints, severing its arms and legs off its bloated body. Finally, she lopped off its head. The body dropped to the floor with a muted thud.

He grimaced. The corpse looked like it belonged to a young man. The poor thing might have died right at around Io’s age. In order words, he was too young.

The stench in the room was coming from his body. Since nobody wanted to touch the corpse, they decided to just drape one of the sleeping bags over the body. Soon, the fumes of the burning building near them had replaced the stink of decay.

“What do you think, Io? Did we kill that thing?”

Evan was obviously referring to the monster that was following them earlier.

“No,” was the immediate reply. She didn’t elaborate any further.

Evan and Frank inspected the room briefly for anything they may be able to use, while Io stood guard on the only door inside. They found nothing except a flare gun with no flares to use with. Just in case, Frank decided to keep it with him.

All of the food inside had been consumed, leaving only the cans and packets behind. Empty water bottles were the most common waste there. Evan could roughly guess what had happened.

There must have been an entire group that stayed there for a while. Eventually, they ran out of food and almost everybody left, leaving the young man alone. There must have been a reason for him staying. In the end, after he ran out of food and water, he decided to end it himself.

On the wall, right next to the place where the noose was set up, a message painted in blood read: “DO NOT TRUST THEM.”

It was a strange message. The usual ones he’d seen were things like “THERE IS NO HOPE,” or “GOD HAS ABANDONED US.” There were many other things, of course, but generally the messages always depicted the despair of those who had left them. The one there, on the other hand, was weird.

Who should they not trust? Each other? Themselves?

As Evan was wracking his brains, they heard Io call out to them. Her static-like voice almost blended in with the background of burning timber. When the two men got back, they saw that she had opened the door. Normally, they would have chastised her for it. But they both refrained from doing so knowing that she alone could likely deal with whatever it was that may have entered anyway.

She crouched down low, turned on her flashlight and pointed it outside. There, the corpses of several other people were laid out on the ground.

Their faces were contorted in rage, and their fingers were reduced to mangled flesh. Claw marks were visible on the walls and on the back of the door. And on the opposite side, there were numerous messages written in blood.

“LET US IN.”

“YOU ABANDONED US,”

“BASTARD.”

The two men felt the hairs on their arms and neck rise, while Io released an audible groan.

Just in case, the two men checked the halls. They confirmed that there were no undead within earshot. The light from the burning building behind them didn’t reach far into the corridor since door was right in front of it. For the time being, they were safe.

“The hell happened here?”

It was the question everybody wanted to ask. For some reason the two men looked towards Io, who shook her head with a visibly spooked expression.

“... Don’t know. Never happened; where I come.”

“Have you been here in the past?”

“No... didn’t go out... much.”

Apparently, Io hadn’t seen much despite having set up multiple bases within the short months she’s spent in that city. Though sketchy, Evan believed her for some reason.

“I wonder what Violet would have thought about this.”

She always had some enlightening insight whenever it came to human nature. But there was no use trying to imagine what she, who even Evan couldn’t understand at times, would say.

“Evan, hey. Look.”

Frank called out to them and pointed towards one of the corpses lying on the floor face-up. In particular, he was illuminating the chest area where there was a fist-sized hole on the left side. It wasn’t that notable in Evan’s opinion. It was easy to imagine a zombie biting into someone’s chest. However, Frank then started turning the face-down corpses one by one with his feet. That was when he noticed the similarities.

Every single body had the same wound on the same location.

“Me and Violet, we’ve seen this before,” he said.

“Oh, by the way. Their hearts were gouged out.”

Evan recalled Violet mentioning it back in the sewers. That time, he dismissed discussing the matter with Violet because he wanted to avoid attracting any stray undead. He figured that whatever it was, then it could wait if Violet didn’t push talking about it. While he did remember her being displeased about being brushed off, he was too tense at that time to really mind it. In hindsight, he regretted not bringing it up when he had the opportunity.

Sure enough, when they inspected all of the bodies, the hearts were missing from every single one.

“What should we do?”

There was nothing they could do. Not one of them knew what they were facing. They didn’t know where... whatever that thing that gouged out their hearts was, or if it was a thing in the first place. So, all they could really do was to proceed onwards with added caution.

But for some reason, the mere thought haunted Evan. The darkness seemed to swallow him as he inched his way forward. Not having Violet behind him only added to his anxiety. This clouded his mind. His heartbeats, wild in his chest, deafened his ears. The smell of his own sweat suffocated his nose. His drenched clothing stuck to his skin, making him feel more claustrophobic than usual. He tried his best to keep it out of his mind, but there was only so much a human could block out.

He clutched his chest. He figured that the event that had transpired in that room wasn’t something that should be ignored. He once again regretted not discussing it with Violet.

He missed her.

But then he felt pain from his hand. Io had tightened her grip on him abruptly. It snapped him out of his stupor almost instantly. Despite being slightly annoyed, he shook his head and focused. Then, he tried to proceed as usual. Io’s hand didn’t budge.

The size difference between them didn’t help. Her hands were as sturdy as iron chains and her arms were as heavy as a block of concrete. His annoyance gave way to irritation. “What’s her problem?” he thought. He was about to chastise her when he felt a pat on his hand.

Through his tumultuous thoughts, he realized that it was a signal.

With a blank mind, exhausted from the exertion and the sudden shock, he pointed his flashlight down the hall and flashed.

“Corpse. Safe,” Io said. “Light please.”

He set the flashlight to its lowest output, which served to only illuminate the space a few feet ahead. Just a couple of paces away from him was the rotting body of a young woman. Io let go of their hands and went to inspect it. Just in case, she pinned it down with her boot after turning it over to face up. Immediately, everybody noticed its chest. Similar to the corpses earlier, it had a massive cavity where its heart was supposed to be. But despite the body looking mostly intact, it had not become an undead.

As they sat there uselessly trying to figure out what happened in vain, Io grabbed Evan’s flashlight and pointed it inside the room. Through the doors, they saw another deserted restaurant. It was much smaller than the previous one. The only objects left inside were equipment and furniture that had been ravaged by time. Most of the tables and chairs had been dismantled, likely for use as firewood, which made it appear like a storm had passed through it rather than the zombie apocalypse. But, in keeping with the theme, there was blood everywhere.

There was a message written in blood, but the penmanship was so bad that they couldn’t even make out a word.

“What the hell is this place?” Frank asked. Nobody could answer him. For Evan, it felt like some sort of elaborate setup. He touched the writing and judged that it had been written several years ago, possibly an entire decade. This was likely something that had occurred during the first year of the apocalypse. There was no reason for so many people to bring camping supplies in the middle of a zombie-infested city. Small towns and villages could be reclaimed, but cities generally couldn’t. The exceptions Evan could think of was that the group was composed of an inexperienced bunch that had planned to scavenge the city for supplies for an extended amount of time, or that they were a group that had secluded themselves in the city awaiting rescue from some organization like the army.

And Io. She was also an exception, though for a wildly different reason.

“I don’t know, but whatever it was, it’s been a long time since it happened.”

But something didn’t quite add up.

They didn’t encounter any undead besides the one hanging since they had entered that building, which wasn’t an issue by itself. That was the reason why they started a fire on every building they passed through after all; to pull the undead from the surrounding areas towards the places they’ve already been. While it may mean that they would always be tailed by zombies, it was much better than potentially having to run into them.

Evan decided to not ignore the issue that time and elected for them to return to the first room they came in. That meant having to go through the dark halls again. Since they had already passed through once, it should have been easier the second time around. But because they let their voices out in the halls earlier, there was a chance that any idle undead had been pulled out from the other rooms. Fortunately, or rather as he expected, there were none.

“Now that I think about it, encountering a lot of undead up so high might be more uncommon.”

If Violet was right about something pulling the undead towards the center of the city, then whatever remained should be less susceptive of stimuli. And for sure, after seeing the staggering number of undead that washed over the streets that early evening, there shouldn’t be a lot left on the upper floors of the surrounding buildings. Of course, the lower floors should still be death traps, but they should be mostly safe from being mobbed after they started leaving a burning trail behind them.

The only things they had to be worried about were the monsters that the Leak released.

Upon returning to where they started, Evan inspected the bodies on the floor one by one. First, he checked their skin. He also checked their clothes, the hole in their chest, their eyes, the nails on their hands and feet, and others. Then, he walked back into the room and checked the writing. His face twisted in confusion.

“Got anything?” Frank asked. Io also came with a questioning look.

“Well...” Evan started, unsure of what he was thinking. “I mean... this blood-writing looks old, right?”

Frank nodded in confirmation.

“It’s got to be at least several years old.”

They judged that figure using the paint around it and the consideration of the general trend of survivors in recent history. While the range was too large to estimate accurately, it was barely good enough for their purposes.

“So, these bodies... they didn’t turn undead.”

Evan walked back towards the bodies and explained.

“The undead horde is a mix of old and new. Some of them turned all the way back when all this shit started, and some of them are survivors who screwed up somewhere. Whatever the case is, they all look the same, right?”

Frank nodded immediately, while Io sank into thought. The difference in experience between them clearly showed.

“They all stop rotting when they turn, even though they all smell like decay. Well, they do rot, but stop after a certain point, yeah? Otherwise, we’d be facing more skeletons now than ‘zombies’. Now look at those bodies. They haven’t decayed, and they haven’t mummified either.”

“So… they’re undead?”

Frank immediately pointed his rifle at corpses while Io took a fighting stance. But Evan immediately held the latter’s fist down with a shake of his head.

“I don’t know. They haven’t rotted, but they aren’t moving either. Remember that time when we were separated? You and Violet saw similar bodies where you stayed at.”

He received a bitter nod in response. It looked like the memories weren’t pleasant.

“... Anyway, Violet said the bodies looked like they were relatively new, like just months new. But I think she was talking in terms of a zombie’s decomposition. Nowadays, that’s all people know,” Evan laughed. “Otherwise, you’d mostly only see skeletons, right? Or the smell would be so bad you wouldn’t bother staying there.”

The most important piece of the puzzle was the knowledge that everybody became undead, regardless of how they died. But for some reason, those bodies didn’t start walking. They only stopped decomposing. Evan was also curious if their body fluids could infect someone, but he had no interest in experimenting.

“What are you trying to say?”

That was the question, right? Evan hung his head.

“... I don’t know,” was the answer. “But something went wrong here many years ago. Just thought you guys needed to know.”

They’ve never heard of such a thing happened throughout their ten-odd years of travelling and gathering information. Was that incident an isolated case in an area that coincidentally hasn’t been explored by other scavengers? Perhaps that was so.

What Evan did know was that he needed to consult with Violet soon.

They managed to clear a couple more blocks in the same fashion, burning down rooms or entire buildings as they went. During that time, they hadn’t encountered any more bodies with heartless cavities on them. It must have been a local event, Evan thought. But the idea continued haunting him all the same. Fortunately for them they managed to successively collect flammable items on the go. Their current location was a multi-story facility that looked to have been a business-related building at the end of a city block.

There weren’t many undead inside the building, which made their crawl towards the other end quite easy. Because they had to travel between city blocks, they had to move to the second floor for safety. There was only one room at that side, which was an abandoned call center. It remained relatively clean despite the years of neglect. All of the computers and equipment were intact. If anything, the only symptom of age the room had was the thin layer of dust that had accumulated on every surface.

It was obvious why. The door was sealed with a thick chain with a sturdy padlock. For some reason the door and frame were quite robust as well, and were definitely not the weak points. But as they explored the room, they couldn’t judge it as anything but a normal office. Perhaps the owners thought the evacuation was just temporary? Most people did, sure.

Frank was able to open the room because he was already an experienced lockpick by that time. As he was doing so, Io watched intently from the side with childish curiosity. If one didn’t know how to pick open locks, then they would be forced to open the door by breaking the chains, which would require tools that quite frankly nobody wanted to carry all the time.

There were no supplies worth pocketing, and no equipment worth carrying. That out of the way, they gathered as much of the flammables as they could and stashed them along a wall made of what they assumed was gypsum. Regardless of where they placed it, the floors were made of wood anyway.

They checked the state of the streets below them. There were a number of undead loitering around, but thankfully none of them were directly in their way. The building directly in front of them looked like a gun store, but the doors were open and the glass was already shattered. None of them expected to get anything from there. Guns and bullets were one of the first things to go during the apocalypse, and after a certain event, there had been a mass scarcity of weapons, so it would only make sense for gun stores to be completely empty.

The problem is that it only had one floor.

After hesitating for a bit, Evan pointed his sight to the sky.

The Leak was still open. It was like an eye, beholding the world from the heavens. Quite frankly, Evan couldn’t stop feeling an eerie sense of dread from rising as he ‘met’ eyes with it. Despite already having to walk underneath its massive gaze more than a few times in his life, the feeling refused to abate even slightly. But despite being open, it had stopped dropping its tears. In total, it probably only had several teardrops rain down. That was to be expected. It had opened way too soon since the last time. If it opened again in a month as scheduled then he expected the same amount of rainfall.

For sure, one of its teardrops fell on them. He hoped that the others fell somewhere else.

“I’m lighting it now.”

Frank ignited the pile of garbage and then positioned himself near the window. Evan continued observing the streets after making sure the doors were barricaded, but not closed. Once the furniture caught on fire, it would only be a matter of time until they choked to death, so they had to move out before then.

Eventually the fire grew to the point where the light became clearly visible from the streets. A few undead noticed the fire and started moving towards the building, followed by those around them. Some of them saw the two men just advertising their existence on the window, which caused them to speed up. After the ones on the street were cleared, they immediately jumped down in front of the walls where they wouldn’t be seen by the undead that had entered. A couple of undead exited the gun store late, but they were quickly taken care of by Io.

Just in case, the two men swept through the room to look for usable equipment or ammunition while Io stood guard at the door. As they had expected, everything useful had been pillaged already. It was normal to think that stores like that had a safe somewhere, but they didn’t even find a hidden basement. The lack of sufficient lighting certainly didn’t help.

Fortunately. the floors were made of wooden panels and the ceiling was covered with plywood so it was easy to set the entire building ablaze. The group went up the roof and jumped to the adjacent building – a grocery store.

They were tired, but didn’t have the luxury to rest. Directly ahead of them was a massive expanse of asphalt; the parking lot adjacent to the road. There were numerous undead roaming the area, many of them unaffected by everything that was happening around them. Because it was dark, it was quite difficult to see the black smog rising from the burning buildings behind them, and the wind direction prevented the smell from reaching that area.

While Io could very easily punch through them, Evan decided to wait until the flames behind them reached their peak. Though the chances were low, they might mess up and cause some kind of commotion that would attract the undead too soon. Additionally, they still had to be wary of the monster behind them. They didn’t know if it had died from the fire they started or not. He hoped that, due to the age of the building, the fire would grow large enough to attract the undead ahead of them despite its low height.

Somewhere along the way they realized that continuously burning rooms and buildings had an additional benefit; it spread out the undead chasing after their trail. In particular, the old apartment building they had taken refuge in burned spectacularly, almost entirely engulfing the building in a bright blaze. They could see its embers rise through the many buildings they had already gone past. It had attracted the majority of the undead around the area, and left the latter part of their travel almost trouble-free. Of course, if some burned better than others, then it followed that some were complete disappointments. For example, the fire they had set in the office building just earlier looked to have almost died out. Frank guessed that the walls must have been insulated against fire, and perhaps even the ceiling.

Thankfully, it seemed that the gun shop was a hit. Soon, they saw tongues of flame escape through the stairwell that led to the rooftop. Moments later, the fire inside caused the roof to collapse, letting the blaze escape and reach for the sky.

Almost immediately, the undead on the parking lot noticed the fire and started towards it in their normal, slow, staggered pace.

“Like moth to a fire,” Frank whispered. Evan stifled a laugh after remembering something from the internet a decade ago.

Io readjusted her gauntlets on the side and wiped the gore with a blanket. She looked calm despite the situation, as if unfazed by the giant eye that stared down at her from above. Rather, it seemed like she was avoiding the fact entirely.

After a quarter of an hour, the parking lot had been emptied of most of its stragglers. None of them wanted to go inside the store; having to navigate through long aisles inside a zombie hotspot in complete darkness was the exact opposite of a good time.

Io jumped down on the right side of the rooftop where there were little to mess with. She quickly dispatched the one remaining undead in the area with her sword. Though her spiked fists could crush bones, severing limbs and heads was undoubtedly much quieter. When she gave the signal, the two men jumped down after.

They had judged that it was a good opportunity to enter the sewers. There were no undead around of them, and since they were in an open space, they would notice it immediately if any zombie started towards them. They've set enough places on fire so Violet, if she was behind them, would easily know where they were going. Because the area was almost empty of any cars or debris, it didn’t take them long to find a manhole, with Frank being the one to spot it. Io used her sword to pry the heavy lid out, and the two men held it up so it wouldn’t make any noise. Evan then looked around inside. Much to his delight, he didn’t see any undead within range of his flashlight.

He nodded towards the two and gave them a thumb up. Being the most athletic of the three, Io jumped down first. In case of an emergency, she would be able to climb back up the ladder the fastest. After a few seconds, Frank followed after her, carrying all four bags with him. Both of them had the two flashlights, leaving Evan with none. That was fine; the fire on the gun store was still burning, providing him with a limited amount of light to work with.

He started the motion of jumping in when the sound of an explosion knocked him slightly sideways.

Shocked, he turned his head towards the source, only to find that the fire on the gun shop had risen higher, with embers reaching towards the sky. His first thought was that they might have missed a gunpowder cache or something.

Then, he was surrounded by the groans of the undead. They started to pour out of the nearby buildings, towards the inferno blazing behind him. Some of them have noticed and targeted him instead, which in turn influenced the others around it. But they were still quite far away, so he was still safe.

He gave the approaching horde and the store one last look before he climbed down and sealed the opening.

“See you there.”

They were on the home stretch. Soon, they’ll be out of the city.