Screech*
A loud, ear-piercing scream filled the area. It wasn't human. It had a strange, otherworldly quality to it—too loud, too primal to be anything that once walked this earth as a person. But that wasn't the real problem. The real threat was what that sound would attract.
The scream reverberated through the abandoned gas station, vibrating the glass and rattling the few remaining items on the shelves. Kael knew immediately what it meant. He'd seen it before. These creatures communicated, summoned each other. This one was calling for reinforcements.
"OH NO! WHAT CAN WE DO NOW?" Emily wailed in terror, her hands gripping her brothers' shoulders so tightly her knuckles turned white. "WHAT IF IT ALERTED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM? IT WAS BECAUSE OF ME, WASN'T IT? IF I HADN'T STEPPED ON THAT PIECE OF PAPER, WE COULD HAVE LIVED!"
Her face was pale, tears streaming down her dirty cheeks. The twins huddled against her, their small bodies trembling. Peter's eyes were wide with fear, while Henry had buried his face against his sister's side, refusing to look at the horror unfolding before them.
"EMILY! Stop blaming yourself," Kael retorted, his voice firm but not cruel. He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at him directly. "It isn't the time for that. If you want us to live, do exactly as I say."
Kael's mind raced, calculating possible escape routes, assessing threats, weighing options. The creature outside continued its piercing call, and somewhere in the distance—too close for comfort—came answering cries. They had minutes at most.
"Run out the back door as fast as you can," Kael instructed, his voice dropping to an urgent whisper. "Do you remember which manhole we came out from? Go there with your brothers. I'll try to buy you as much time as possible." His eyes darted to the front of the store where shadows were already beginning to move beyond the glass. "Look out for those creatures while you go, okay? Stay low, stay quiet once you're away from here."
Emily shook her head frantically, her grip on the twins tightening. "NO! I CAN'T LEAVE YOU ALONE! YOU SAVED US MULTIPLE TIMES!" Her voice broke, desperation etched across her young face. The idea of abandoning their protector seemed to hurt her more than the fear of what lurked outside.
"DON'T WASTE TIME, JUST GO!" Kael shouted, more forcefully now. He pushed her toward the back door, already reaching for the knife at his waist. The metal felt cold against his palm, grounding him, focusing his mind.
Emily hesitated only a moment longer. Then, with tears streaming down her face, she grabbed her brothers' hands and rushed to the back door. The twins stumbled after her, looking back at Kael with wide, fearful eyes. At the threshold, Emily turned back one last time, her expression a mixture of guilt, fear, and something like desperate hope.
"YOU'D BETTER LIVE AND COME FIND US!" she exclaimed, her voice breaking on the last word.
Then they were gone, swallowed by the darkness beyond the door.
Kael stood alone in the gas station, listening to the creature's continuing screams and the growing chorus of responses. Outside, shapes moved in the gloom, converging on their location.
What am I doing? Why am I risking my life for these kids?
The thought flashed through his mind as he positioned himself behind a shelf, knife ready. For nearly a year, he'd lived by one rule: survive. No attachments. No risks for others. Just cold calculation and forward movement.
Yet here he was, preparing to face death for three children he barely knew.
He glanced at the back door where they had disappeared, and something stirred within him—an emotion he thought had died with his mother and the friendly creature. It was... sadness. Not the hollow emptiness he'd carried for so long, but genuine grief at the thought of never seeing those children again.
He realized with startling clarity that somewhere along their journey together, something had changed. Those kids had done what nothing else could—they had broken through the walls he'd built around himself. Before he knew it, he had connected to them, thought of them as his own brothers and sister.
I guess it was worth it, he thought, a strange calm washing over him. They remind me of you, brother... are you alive? Are you safe? I know Dad will take care of you... I'm sure he will.
For the first time in nearly a year, Kael smiled—a genuine smile that reached his eyes. It was small, fragile, but real. Then, gripping his knife tightly, he dashed toward the front of the store, toward the screaming creature.
If he was going to die here, at least it would be for something that mattered.
Meanwhile, the siblings ran through the darkened streets toward the manhole, Emily constantly checking over her shoulder for any sign of pursuit. The twins struggled to keep up, their small legs pumping desperately as they clutched their sister's hands.
"Almost there," Emily whispered, more to herself than to the boys. "Just a little further."
They rounded a corner and saw the manhole cover where they had emerged earlier. Relief flooded through Emily, but it was short-lived. The cover was heavy—designed to be moved by adult maintenance workers, not a malnourished twelve-year-old girl.
Emily crouched beside it, frantically searching for any groove or edge she could use to pry it open. Her fingers scratched against the metal, breaking nails, drawing blood that she didn't even notice.
"I can't—" she began, panic rising in her voice.
Henry and Peter, seeing their sister struggle, moved forward without being asked. They knelt beside her, their small hands joining hers at the edge of the cover.
"Together," Henry whispered, his voice barely audible.
The three siblings strained against the weight, muscles trembling with effort. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the cover began to move. The scraping sound it made against the concrete seemed deafening in the quiet street, and Emily winced at each screech of metal.
Finally, they managed to shift it enough to create an opening. Emily quickly helped the twins down into the darkness below, then cast one last desperate look in the direction of the gas station.
Please be okay, Kael, she thought. Please live.
Back at the gas station, Kael moved with purpose. He knew he couldn't defeat whatever horde was approaching, but perhaps he could distract them, lead them away from the siblings' escape route.
"AAAAAAA!" he shouted, his battle cry echoing through the empty store as he rushed forward. His knife was gripped tightly in his hands, the blade pointed forward like a spear. He needed to end this quickly—silence the screaming creature before it attracted too many of its kind.
The creature stood just outside the shattered front door, its misshapen form silhouetted against the night sky. Kael studied it with calculated precision, looking for any unguarded spots, any weakness he could exploit. His eyes locked onto something unusual—in the center of its chest, something bulged outward, a mass of what looked like melted flesh. It pulsated rhythmically, like a heart exposed to the air.
There, Kael thought. That has to be it.
He adjusted his grip on the knife and sprinted toward the creature, aiming directly for the pulsating mass. If he could strike it in one blow, maybe the creature would stop its infernal screaming. Maybe he'd have a chance to escape and find the siblings again.
But as his knife descended toward the creature's chest—
CLANK*
The blade struck something hard beneath the flesh, the impact jarring Kael's arm all the way to the shoulder. The knife didn't penetrate. Instead, it glanced off whatever lay beneath that pulsating surface, nearly flying from Kael's grip.
NO! WAS I STUPID ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THAT IT WOULD BE SO EASY TO KILL? The thought flashed through his mind as realization dawned.
The creature, apparently enraged by this attack, let out an even louder roar. The sound was deafening, causing Kael to stagger back, one hand instinctively moving to cover his ear while the other maintained its desperate grip on the knife.
ROAR*
That's when he heard it—not just one response, but many. Too many. Kael turned his head slowly, disbelief washing over him as his eyes confirmed what his ears had already told him.
In his entire year of traveling through this ruined world, he had never seen this many creatures gathered in one place. They emerged from alleyways, from broken buildings, from shadows he hadn't even noticed. Some crawled on all fours, others lumbered on twisted legs, and a few moved with terrifying speed on limbs that shouldn't exist in nature.
But they all had one thing in common—they were converging on the gas station. On its prey.
I am going to die here, Kael thought, a strange calm washing over him as he accepted his fate. Part of him—the cold, calculating part that had kept him alive for so long—screamed at him to run, to abandon this hopeless stand. But another part, the part that had begun to awaken in the presence of Emily and the twins, told him this was right. If his death bought them time to escape, it would be worth it.
On the other side, the kids manage to get in, Emily who was standing on the ladder to let them get down, and then close the manhole cover, sees something, something coming towards them, it wasn't clear what it was, but one this was clear it was drenched in black colored blood and raw flesh and organs, it was quite a disturbing sight, just when she was about to close it
Thud*
It dropped in.