The door creaked open on rusted hinges, the sound slicing through the stillness like a blade.
Beyond it stretched the hallway long, dim, and wrecked.
The floor was littered with overturned furniture, shattered picture frames, and the remnants of a life that used to be.
Blood was smeared in streaks along the walls. A toppled bookshelf lay in the middle of the corridor like a barricade never finished. Strips of wallpaper clung to damp plaster, curling like dried leaves.
The air was heavy with old decay and the copper bite of blood.
Ren stepped out first, sword drawn, his movements sharp and calculated. He scanned the corridor, his senses honed to every creak and distant sound.
Claire followed, kitchen knife in hand, eyes sweeping every corner. Brian brought up the rear, metal bat gripped tight, his jaw locked in silent determination.
They moved slowly, boots crunching over debris, broken glass, empty cans, torn fabric. Someone had fought here. Maybe several. But nothing moved now.
Not yet.
Then came the first noise. A low, wet rasp from around the corner. Something dragging, stumbling.
Ren raised his hand to halt them.
Three infected staggered into view, thin and twisted, their movements jerky, as if their limbs didn't quite remember how to function. One wore a blood-soaked bathrobe. Another had a large piece of rebar jutting from its side.
Ren stepped forward quietly, sword raised.
He didn't wait.
With a clean strike, he drove the blade through the neck of the first one, severing the spine. Its body dropped instantly.
The second growled loudly as it lunged at him, jaws open in a wheezing snarl. Ren twisted, bringing the sword down into its shoulder and tearing free. The creature collapsed, twitching.
Brian stepped past him and swung his bat hard. The last infected's face crumpled under the blow, and it hit the ground with a wet smack.
"That's three too many already," Claire muttered, eyes flicking toward the far end of the hall.
Ren nodded. "We keep moving. Fast. More'll come."
But before leaving, Ren stabs his sword directly at the grotesque body as he pick a tiny marble like orbs inside it.
Then they weaved through the cluttered hallway, stepping over bodies and broken furniture.
One door to their left was shredded down the middle, claw marks gouged deep into the wood.
Another apartment was wide open, the walls inside streaked with blood and old handprints.
As they reached the halfway point, they heard it shuffling behind them. More infected.
Closer this time.
Brian swore under his breath. "They're tracking us."
"No choice now," Ren said. "We fight through."
They pushed ahead, then turned a corner and nearly ran into a fresh group of infected.
Five this time.
And they were faster then the last.
The first charged at Claire with a howl. She ducked, swung her kitchen knife upward into its throat. It gurgled, clawing at her arm, before she ripped the knife free and shoved it back.
Ren spun to cover her flank, his sword slicing precisely through another infected's midsection. The body hit the ground in two pieces.
Brian swung wildly, clearing space around him. He smashed one infected into the wall, then brought the bat down again with a crunch.
Another jumped at him from the side, but he turned just in time, catching it with the end of the handle and slamming it to the floor.
Blood splattered the wall. The hallway floor was a wreck of limbs, shattered drywall, and gore.
"Keep going!" Ren barked.
They ran.
Past scorched apartments, burst pipes leaking brown water, furniture jammed in doorways like makeshift barricades. They hurdled over a broken couch.
Claire nearly slipped in a pool of blood, but Ren grabbed her arm and pulled her upright.
A horde wailed behind them more had joined the chase.
We're not making it to the stairs like this!" Brian shouted.
"We don't need to!" Claire pointed. "Maintenance door, there!"
At the far end of the hall, a narrow gray door stood half open.
They sprinted for it, feet pounding the soaked floor. Just as Ren reached it, two more infected came lunging from a side room.
Ren spun, sword arcing cutting both down in a blur of steel.
Claire threw open the maintenance door and stumbled inside. Brian slammed it behind them, jamming a piece of pipe into the handle.
Then...
The sound of fists and snarls thudded against the other side of the maintenance door, muffled but insistent.
The infected were relentless, hammering at the barrier with blind rage, their nails clawing against the metal like animals desperate for blood.
Ren stepped back from the door, chest rising and falling with steady breaths.
His sword dripped with gore, its black steel blade glinting faintly under the flickering overhead light.
The hallway they'd entered was narrow, lined with rusted pipes and electrical conduits.
The walls were water-stained and grimy, and the overhead bulbs buzzed faintly, their light too weak to fully illuminate the passage.
A broken emergency light blinked red in the corner, casting an eerie pulse like a heartbeat.
Claire leaned against the wall, wiping blood off her knife with the hem of her sleeve. She said, breathless. "They're grouping faster now."
Brian let out a rough breath and flexed his fingers on the metal bat, now dented and stained. "It's like they're starting to.. know where we are."
Ren crouched, pulled a rag from his belt, and wiped the blood from his blade. "No. They don't know.
But they remember scent.
Sounds.
Movement.
We've been too loud."
Claire's brow furrowed. "That orb you picked from that zombie, what was it?"
Ren held it up between two fingers. The tiny orb was slick and dark, faintly translucent, like a black pearl that shimmered in odd light.
"I've seen them before. Embedded deep in their core, I was also a bit of curious so i picked them up."
Brian leaned in, frowning. "So what do you think is it? A parasite? A mutation?"
Ren shook his head as he lied between his teeth as he said. "I don't know, yet."
Then Ren looked at them then shook his head once again.. 'Not yet.. or should I say, Not now. It was hard to reveal much with them, I can't just trust randomly.'
For now.. you should remain a bit ignorant for few things, and this would also reveal in a month.
I should grown a lot stronger then..