That was their third time going through the sewers lately. It had never grown on Evan. As much as possible, he wanted to avoid it. But he would rather be there than above ground. High tier zombies were much easier to deal with than Tears.

Perhaps because they were far from the river, the sewers were much narrower than they were used to. While Evan, who was the tallest among them, could still stand up straight, his head would hit the ceiling if he so much as stood on his toes.

Naturally, the smell was horrible.

Because of the lack of space, Io was delegated to lead the group, followed by Evan and then Frank, as usual, held their six. If Evan led as usual, then if they suddenly encountered an undead, Io may not have enough space to get between it and Evan quickly enough.

It was difficult for Evan to scout their surroundings using anything but sight. The guttural moans of an unknown quantity of undead echoed at random across the tunnels. The terrible smell of rot, rat excrement, insects and other unpleasant things mixed together and made them tear up. Then, there was the humid, cold and eerie air that enveloped the group. Everything threw his senses awry. Though he could still do it despite that, Frank and Io insisted that they proceeded with light.

Before long, they encountered their first undead. It was extremely bloated and struggled to move. Because of the narrow space, Io had to completely rely on her fists to solve their problem.

Overall, the sewers hadn’t been as dangerous as Evan and Frank had thought it would be. Perhaps their first experience underground in that city had made a mark on their psyches, but after almost an hour of navigating the labyrinthine tunnels, they had only encountered three undead.

After a while, they decided to set up camp when they spotted an electrical room elevated from the main platform. Inside was equipment they were wholly unfamiliar with. Otherwise, it was completely empty, and even the shelves had an absence of tools.

Io stood guard over the door while Evan and Frank prepared some simple ration of grains stewed in coffee. Most of the prep time was spent in silence, which they took advantage of by resting themselves. Soon, the distinct smell of caffeine permeated the stale air of the room.

“You really like coffee, huh?”

Evan watched Io devour her plate with amusement. He didn’t even get a reply due to her focusing on the taste. With her face gear removed, he could see that her cheeks were flushed in delight.

“I wonder how Violet’s doing.”

“She’s fine. You know how she is. She could very well do what an entire team can besides navigation.”

That was one of their team leader’s few flaws. She was very poor with directions. Though she could brute force her way to their destination with instinct (guessing) alone, they were bound to run in a circle at least twice if she did. Their primary concern was whether or not they could meet up soon. It couldn’t be helped that they feared the worst case scenario, so they desired to see her alive and well with their own eyes.

“Did you leave something for her?”

“Yup. Left a note and a mark on the cover.”

Before they jumped down from the roof of the store, Evan left a note on the exhaust. Written on it was their route, which would be underground, and their direction. Of course, whether or not Violet would decide to pass through the mob of undead they had attracted due to the subsequent explosion would be her choice. Most likely, because of that same event, it would be safer for Violet to travel through the buildings. All she had to do was to avoid the Tear, which should be directly on their tail.

On that note, unless that monster directly saw them enter the sewers, it shouldn’t be able to follow them underground.

Knowing that calmed the two men immensely.

Suddenly, an empty bowl was thrust towards Evan’s face. Following the arm led to Io’s hungry expression.

“Seconds,” she said, the static in her voice slightly grating their ears.

The two laughed. They couldn’t help themselves. There they were, worrying about everything... Yet Io, the one who had to face the full brunt of the labor, who quite literally had the lives of all three of them in her small hands, was busying herself eating a strange mix of coffee and grains like it was the most delicious thing in the world.

It calmed their nerves somewhat. Though Evan was still worried about Violet, in the end all he could really do was trust in her ability to survive. And after managing to calm himself, he found no reason to doubt her.

She’d gone through much more difficult situations than that.

They continued through the sewers after Evan and Frank managed to rest for two hours. Io insisted that she wasn’t sleepy yet, and instead spent those two hours slowly drowning herself in caffeine. The one who benefited the most from it was Evan, whose ankle was already short of stabbing him due to the pain. They took a one-hour shift each, which resulted in a total resting time of four hours if they included the time spent eating.

Evan estimated that the sun should already be on its way up above their heads.

Normally, they would prefer exiting the sewers using the nearest ladder available because dawn was already in the horizon. But they wanted to avoid travelling under the watchful gaze of the Leak. Though the incident had passed, it normally took anywhere from half a day to a full one before the rift closed. Most importantly, they wanted to avoid an encounter with the Tear at all costs, despite all the measures they took to keep its attention one step behind. So they decided to push on until just before they become strangled.

Of course, they also had another fear at the back of their minds. The memory of encountering that abomination with Violet when they were looking for Io was still fresh in both of the men’s minds. Despite that, they continued to push through the dark tunnels, relying on their experience that it didn’t give chase to them in the past.

As they approached the general direction of the outskirts, the number of undead started to increase. Typically, the concentration of undead both above and below ground was the same. Scavengers who raided cities for supplies preferred going above ground where there were more options available, but during the early days it wasn’t surprising for people to prefer going through the tunnels. Some of them even made camp there, as evidenced by the occasional empty cans and bottles they encountered. However, as time went by, more and more undead managed to enter the sewers, making it impossible to be considered a “safer alternative”. And gradually, with later scavengers using the sewers as an emergency exit route, and those above ground creating loud noises as distraction, the distribution of the undead underground became similar to a donut shape similar to that on the streets.

There was another problem with travelling in such a narrow path, especially when they were so close to the outskirts. It was that garbage, debris, and bodies piled up. Sometimes it was due to some other group in the past who had dealt with the undead in their way, and sometimes, though rarely, it was due to deliberate barricading of the path.

They had to take multiple detours due to either reason already, which wasted precious time.

“I hate the sewers so much,” Evan complained in his mind.

With Evan’s expertise in navigation, they managed to find a way through the many blocked routes. But eventually, they caught sight of a path completely filled with active undead, which forced them to prematurely exit the sewers.

Unlike in games where defeated undead stopped mattering, in real life even when you’ve completely disabled them, their bodies would just hinder your movement. It was much worse with their undead, whose limbs still moved and tried to grab at anything nearby even when dismembered.

When they got out, the sun was already shining bright in the sky. By that time, the Leak had already closed.

Because of everything that had happened before, most of the undead that typically gathered on the borders of the cities had already been pulled towards the center. This left them with a relatively clear road ahead of them.

After a quick assessment of their location, Evan realized that they had deviated slightly from their planned route. But it didn’t matter much; they would be able to reach the woods within half a day, or a few hours if they ran for it.

Evan and Frank planned to take it easy and take every precaution necessary to ensure their safe return, leaving breadcrumbs along the way for Violet to follow if needed. They were still concerned about her, but they had already come too far to stop. If necessary, they could arrange a search party once they get back to camp if she wasn’t there yet.

But suddenly, Io told them that she was sleepy.

“Why didn’t you sleep earlier, then?”

“Can’t sleep, if not sleepy.”

So she was that kind of person?

Evan looked towards Frank and saw him merely shrug in response. Though they wanted to get back to camp as soon as possible so they could look for Violet, it was too dangerous to travel while looking after someone who looked too groggy to continue. Besides, they were tired too, so they might as well take the opportunity to get a few solid hours of sleep.

They chose a tall, skinny building to camp in. After they barricaded the entrances, they then proceeded to clear it of its already scarce undead population. Undead bodies littered the ground underneath its broken windows. Most of them were still active despite being flattened by the fall, which meant that they had all dove to the ground relatively recently before. It was the perfect place to rest in.

By the time they had finished clearing the building, it was already around midday and Io instantly collapsed on the bed after her regular... prayer.

Frank took a place on the fifth floor, which had only one spacious room so he could monitor the area around them. Evan stayed with Io on the third floor to prepare lunch and rest his ankles. The plan was for Evan, Frank and Io to take turns, but Io refused saying she likely wouldn’t wake up when it was her turn. After a few minutes of tense deliberation, the two men acquiesced and made it so that only they would be on watch while Io slept.

As Evan tried to get some sleep, he caught a glimpse of Io’s form. The rising and falling of her chest was so minute that it looked like she wasn’t breathing at all. He still found it amazing that Io could sleep that well despite essentially being accompanied by two men she didn’t know.

But after giving it some thought, Evan realized that her exhaustion couldn’t be helped. She had been awake for almost an entire day, fighting on the front for almost the entire time. While the two men had been awake for longer, the effort they had exerted throughout the whole leg of that journey was arguably much less than a little girl did.

On a corner of the room, Evan spotted Io’s clothes, piled the same way as she had done the day before. She liked to sleep completely naked, which was still hard for him to accept. After that thought crossed his mind, he found it difficult for him to forget. His eyes started to wander around, trying to distract himself. This was ultimately futile.

He sighed and gave up. Sleeping on the corridor shouldn’t be too bad, he thought as he added a second blanket over Io’s body.

“Uwaa... that’s creepy, old man.”

A voice, clear as a bell, suddenly carried itself to his ear. Shocked, he turned around, not immediately believing what he heard. On the door, partially covered in darkness, was Violet’s lithe figure. Despite the lack of visibility, he could clearly see her long bangs that covered one side of her face, and the jacket she liked tied on her waist. Her facial protective gear hung on her neck, wet with dried gore. With her upper body only covered in a sports bra, he saw her skin mottled with old scars, sweat and blood all over.

There were wounds and bruises all over her body, but none of them looked like bite marks.

“Get away from her, dude. Or I’ll call the cops.”

She chuckled and walked forward, before stopping a few meters away from him.

“You’re alive!” Evan blurted unconsciously. He struggled to stop himself from running towards her, and only succeeded with the help of the pain that shot up from his ankle when he tried shifting his weight. But he was glad, truly glad, that she had survived. The time they've been separated might have been short, but it was too long for him.

“What happened?”

“Fell into the sewers when the building collapsed.”

Violet explained how she got where she was. According to her, she had fainted after the fall, and when she woke up she climbed out of the sewers through the debris. All of the bags she tried to retrieve had been crushed underneath. But right before she did, she noticed the fire that they had started, and a trail of smoke that headed towards one particular direction. So, she followed their heading underground, getting lost a few times along the way, until she found a trail left behind by them in the form of disabled undead bodies.

“When the trail ended, I just went up and out. I saw Frank up there, so I went in. I don’t think he saw me, though.”

She shrugged like the entire ordeal wasn’t that special. There were some parts of her story that didn’t sound real, but Evan didn’t think much of it. He was just glad that she was alright. The feeling was such that he wasn’t able to find the words to talk to her, so the entire conversation was led and sustained by Violet alone. But when he finally snapped out of it, the words that had been festering in his head escaped.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

Evan didn’t reply. He just looked down with a sour look on his face. After a while, Violet smiled warmly for a moment before a mocking look took over.

“Are you a moron? You really are a stupid idiot.”

She spread her hands and gave a toothy grin.

“We’re alive, so even if you did something bad, you were still right.”

“So, there was something like that, huh?” Violet murmured as she munched on a piece of hardtack. “Heartless bodies that didn’t turn undead... So it wasn’t just some freak case.”

“What do you think?”

She continued eating until an indescribable expression appeared on her face. She looked at the hardtack she was eating and threw it away, only to pull out some dried meat out of her pocket.

“No friggin’ idea,” she said. Evan’s jaw dropped slightly. “I mean, we can’t imagine what it all means without seeing it happen. I mean sure it looks like something straight out of a horror, but that doesn’t really make any difference considering we already live in a horror movie.”

“Huh, but, didn’t you want to talk about it the other day?”

“Yeah, but that was before everything else. Back then I thought this might have been a bandit-related event, but definitely not anymore. Crazed writings, empty chests, scratches on the walls; creepy shit. Drugs? No way. Undead? Maybe. Humans? Doubt it.”

She shrugged as if everything they had discussed was just details about a novel they’ve read and not something that decided between life and death.

“The other survivor groups might know something. We can just ask around in the next settlement. It’s better than just shooting wild guesses into the sky and hope one of them hits the moon. All we can do now is act more cautiously.”

As much as her demeanor annoyed Evan, a feeling that he was surprised that he missed, he had to admit that she was right.

He stifled a yawn and went into thought before Violet suddenly grabbed his hand. He raised his head. Her one eye looked straight at his. Beneath her slightly cloudy iris was concern and anxiety, though he couldn’t determine the subject for those emotions.

“You should sleep, dude. Have you been awake the entire night?”

“I took a nap earlier, but I was going to sleep before you came.”

“Ah. Good.”

“... Hungry? I made food.”

“No thanks, I’m quite full.”

She let go of his hand and continued nibbling at her snack. After a while, she raised her eye and told Evan to go to sleep.

“You’re not going anywhere anytime soon, so you should get as much rest as you can. You’re injured too, so you need it more than anybody else.”

“I know. We planned to go back on the road around two hours before sunset since there’s not many undead around. If everything goes well, we’d be back in camp before nightfall.”

Violet laughed.

“That’s a nice joke. Have you told Io that?”

“It was just me and Frank at that time. Io was already asleep. Why?”

She lowered her eyes and stared at Io with a complicated expression. After a brief moment of silence, she addressed Evan again; her voice mellow and meaningful.

“It’s nothing. But just in case, you should prepare yourselves.”

Without any warning, Violet threw a foil wrapper at his face, which cleanly landed on his nose. He narrowed his eyes. Annoying. Then, her eyes turned grave. The air around her became heavy.

What was it that got her this serious?

Another wrapper hit him on the face.

“... What the hell?”

The suffocating air instantly dispersed with Violet’s laughter.

“Careful, old man. You might get a heart attack. Don’t worry too much. It’s an idiot, and it has a pretty bad sense of direction.”

“Worse than you?”

It was his way of getting back at her. He didn’t think much of it.

“No idea. But, I’m quite sure it wouldn’t get here for several hours,” she elaborated with a carefree face. Reaching into a nearby bag, she tore open a teabag and just dumped the contents onto her mouth. “It seemed more interested in running over other undead than chasing after your tails. Oh, make no mistake though; it’s definitely coming closer.”

“... Have you seen it?”

Despite the fire in the apartments, the Tear looked to have been cloaked in bottomless darkness that prevented him from catching even a glimpse. He didn’t know if it was just because of the angle, but regardless, he had a really bad feeling that they were being watched at that time instead.

“Too dark. I tried to avoid using a flashlight because duh.”

So it seemed like they only had roughly seven to eight hours to take a break with. That seemed like quite a lot of time, even if Evan were to cut it down to five to be sure. Judging by the remaining distance they had to cross and the relatively thin concentration of zombies in the way, they could easily do it in just a couple of hours.

The problem was Violet’s reaction from earlier. She seemed to be implying something regarding Io. However, he had no idea what it was.

“Now, in case that thing catches up while you idiots are here relaxing, here’s the plan.”

She pulled out a combat knife from her boots and drew lines on the dusty floor. From the crude images, he could determine that the illustrations were that of the city and the forest.

“The circle marks where we are now, and the X is where the camp is.”

The way she drew the buildings and the trees were like that of an elementary schooler’s; it was actually kind of cute. Evan held himself back from laughing at it.

“I’m sure you know where the camp is even if you’re trying not to laugh at my drawing. But anyway, if you get chased by it, don’t run straight towards camp. Go through the road. It’s not that fast, probably, so you should be able to outrun it even if you’re over-encumbered. But just in case, you can leave as many bags behind as you want. Got it?”

“Uhh, sure.”

Evan tilted his head. There was something wrong with the way their conversation was heading, but he couldn’t quite point it out.

After he finished memorizing the crude diagram on their feet, a sudden drowsiness overcame him. A yawn escaped his throat, and his eyelids dropped like lead. Violet’s hand caught him as he swayed slightly from light-headedness.

“Not used to long operations, huh old man?”

Most of their operations only lasted a couple or so days. They originally prioritized safety above everything else, and spending time in an undead-infested urban area was antithetical to it. Of course, there were instances where they had to spend more time than usual in their tasks. During those cases, the camp had different ways to handle the worst case scenario depending on which team didn’t meet the deadline. But because of Violet’s reputation, the group had given her a much laxer time frame.

If he was remembering it correctly, the longest operation they’ve had was a two-week repair job at a major seaside city. Back then, they obtained information on several abandoned military vehicles that might still be serviceable. So, they set out with any spare parts they thought they needed to get it running. It had been quite the brutal ideal. But then again, it didn’t involve having to experience a Leak and going underground three times, particularly in the span of just a few days.

“Make sure to stick to the plan, alright?

He nodded, both in confirmation and due to tiredness.

Before he knew it, night came to him alone.

“See you later then.”

There was an earthquake.

The first thing that came to mind was the time when his parents took him to Japan as a child. It was the first time he had experienced the phenomenon. The most striking part about the event was seeing the difference between how his parents and the locals acted. In their panic, his father kept yelling at them on what to do, and her mother kept screaming at everything that made a loud sound. In comparison, the locals simply marched in order, hid where it was sturdy, and calmly directed everyone else to safety.

He didn’t know where the memory rose from, since his parents’ passing was peaceful and due to natural causes.

“Wake up!”

A dull pain on his right cheek caused him to open his eyes in a snap. But contrary to his expectations, the surroundings were completely dark, with no trace of sunlight remaining.

Turns out the earthquake was just Frank trying to wake him up.

After rubbing the dirt out of his eyes, Frank opened a flashlight to his face. He recoiled in pain and surprise.

“What’s happening, Frank? What time is it?”

“Around midnight.”

“The hell? I was asleep for almost eleven hours?!”

“It doesn’t matter now. We have a problem.”

Frank beckoned him to come to the window. He pointed towards the distance. Judging by the tall building visible through the backdrop of stars and the wisps of smoke, it should be the direction they had passed through.

There was nothing immediately alarming there. As far as he could tell, the only difference was that those areas were particularly darker than their surroundings. But it didn’t take a genius to realize what was happening.

“It’s here, huh?”

Frank nodded.

“We need to get out of here, quick.”

Fortunately, they were already close to the outskirts of the city. A quick look at the streets below showed that there were little to no undead around them. They would be able to move very quickly despite the lack of illumination. Once they were in the woods, it would be easy to lose it. They were typically large monsters, so they didn’t do very well in narrow places

“... That’s the second problem.”

Frank illuminated the room. There, still sleeping on the bed, was Io.

“I tried waking her up already, but she wouldn’t budge at all.”

“... Are you sure?”

Evan walked towards Io and started shaking her awake. After a while, he increased the intensity. But she showed no signs of rousing from her sleep.

Did they need to hit her?

“I’ve tried almost everything to wake her up, but nothing worked. Is she sick?” Frank said with urgency.

Though Evan was aware that Frank had already tried it, he pressed the back of his hand to her forehead and her exposed neck. She was at a normal temperature. There was no fever involved. Perhaps it was something else, then? Frank had more medical training than him, but he wasn’t a doctor. None of them had the expertise needed to even speculate.

“That’s a nice joke. Have you told Io that?”

If Io truly didn’t wake up, then they would be forced to carry her out.

“Go and call Violet,” he told Frank. There was a hope in him that she would know how to wake Io up. If she didn’t, then they would need to discuss the matter either way. Having to carry bags of supplies, a heavy pelican case, and an unconscious person needed some planning regardless of how close they were to the woods.

Yet for some reason, Frank didn’t move from his spot. Evan was too busy trying to wake Io for him to react immediately, but when he did, he saw the large man was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s the matter?” Evan asked. Frank’s expression tensed up in concern.

“Violet? What are you talking about? She’s not here, remember?”

It was Evan’s turn to be baffled.

“No, she was just here earlier, before I went to sleep. We talked about what the plan was from here on. She even drew—“

As he tried to point at the floor where Violet drew her game plan, he found that the dust had been disturbed by their boots.

“Wait, she didn’t go up to you? You didn’t see her when she came in?”

Frank shook his head in confirmation.

“I was upstairs the whole time and didn’t sleep. I didn’t see nor hear anyone come here.”

“What the hell...”

He recalled that Violet’s plan involved her going to camp ahead of them so she can notify the group of the Tear. Did she perhaps take off without as much as greeting Frank?

Or was he dreaming?

“Are you okay, dude?”

“... Yeah, I’m fine.”

A sudden bout of dizziness hit him. It only lasted for a moment, brief enough that Frank didn’t notice.

Just in case, Evan decided to prepare for the worst case scenario. He wrapped Io’s torso and lower body with the sheets she was sleeping under, making sure that her arms and legs were free to make carrying her easier. After that, he equipped her with the facial protection gear Violet had lent her, making sure to handle her as roughly as possible in the hope that she woke up. Failing that, he then dumped the flammables they kept inside one of the bags and stuffed Io’s clothes inside. He was especially cautious of her gauntlets, as they had caused him a wound before.

He had preferred to place it inside her case, but he found himself unable to open it. There were no zippers or latches on it. For a moment he thought that it might have been magnetically-sealed, but after groping around he also found no buttons or anything that looked like a mechanism.

How the hell did it open, then?

In his hurry, he gave up after just half a minute of trying and just kept her armor inside the same bag as her clothes. Hopefully the sharp spikes on it wouldn’t puncture her attire.

“Are we really carrying her while she’s unconscious?”

“What else can we do? She can’t walk while she’s sleeping.”

He gritted his teeth. With Violet gone and him having to carry Io, they have effectively reduced their combat-capable members to just Frank. Furthermore, Evan was even more of a dead weight with all of his hands occupied and him being weighed down.

Because guns were useless on the undead, Frank carried the bat instead. In order to ensure Frank had as much mobility as possible as their temporary vanguard, Evan decided to carry everything, including Io’s items.

Surprisingly, despite how it sounded like back when they were underground, the large pelican case Io had started carrying around wasn’t as heavy as he thought it was.

With everything, including Io on his back, affixed to Evan’s body with ropes, he felt as if his body weight had increased by around three to four times. He could still run, but there was no way anybody could expect any graceful maneuvers from him.

That done, Evan disclosed the plan to Frank. He was worried that his encounter with Violet had been a dream, but something in his gut told him that it was real. So instead of repeating their original plan, he gave a slightly modified version of Violet’s. He said it as if it was his own, because he doubted Frank would believe him if he insisted that Violet had discussed it with him.

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous? We’re gonna be out in the open. Going straight to the forest is much safer.”

Reasonable arguments like that always got him in a pinch. Usually, he was the one giving those points. But for someone else to use it against him was something he wasn’t used to.

“It will be fine. It’s night out right now. Unless we use a flashlight, nothing can see us move.”

Evan himself didn’t believe that. He recalled the time when they had made the first jump the previous night. Despite being in a completely dark room, he was sure that whatever it was that followed them was staring right at him.

In the end he managed to convince Frank of the “benefits” of revising their move. However, he couldn’t help but think that the man who spent many years of his life in the military was eyeing him suspiciously. It couldn’t be helped, really. For him, Evan must have been acting strangely.

Seeking to cover as much ground as they could before the monster arrived, they soon began to move with Frank taking the lead. Before they left, Evan gave the room one last glance.

He didn’t notice it earlier because of the urgency of the situation he awoke to, but he recognized something on the ground.

There were two foil wrappers near the foot of the bed.