After taking the mutated zombie core, Ren wiped the dark ichor from his hands and forced himself to stand.
Every step pulsed with pain, but the heavy weight of the core in his pouch gave him a grim sense of purpose.
He limped toward the location where Claire and Brian run up to, the tension hanging thick in the stale air.
Then a cracked door appeared in his view as he saw the two peeking out of the door.
Seeing him, They rushed at him as they help him toward inside of the room where is the cracked door.
As they reached the place and helping him down.
Claire's eyes locked onto his, "Ren… are you okay?and what happened to that thing?"
Ren shook his head slightly and forced a terrible smile, as he replied.
"I'm fine, and that thing is gone now."
Then he didn't elaborate further nor replied with their other question, but they soon stop seeing him exhausted.
Brian glanced toward the darkened garage behind them, still catching his breath.
"That thing.. It was a monster.. If a like of that thing still roam around or something even stronger roam around outside, The world would be almost impossible to save."
Claire nodded, biting her lip. "We should keep moving.."
Ren ignored the ache in his ribs and adjusted the pouch inside his pocket, feeling the faint pulse of the core.
'I should reach a new level once, I consumed it.. but first i find a place where i could be alone first.'
"We'll find a safer place," Ren said, voice low but steady. "But first, we get out of here."
The three moved toward the half-open garage door, stepping into the uncertain light outside, hope and danger waiting beyond.
The cold air hit them as they stepped outside, a sharp contrast to the stale basement.
The world beyond was quieter than expected, the usual distant groans and shuffles of infected oddly absent.
Claire glanced around, eyes sharp. "Too quiet."
Brian nodded, his hand clenched tighter on the metal bat in hand.
Ren's gaze flicked over the broken streets and ruined buildings, every shadow suddenly looking like it could conceal a threat.
He pushed the pain in his ribs aside, focusing instead on the steady pulse of the core tucked safely inside his coat.
"We move fast," Ren said quietly, voice tight with warning. "No stopping. No distractions."
Claire swallowed and adjusted her grip on her makeshift weapon. "Where to?"
Ren scanned the area. His eyes landed on a quiet dark street, a few blocks away.
"That way," Ren said, nodding toward the street. "We find some place there to rest there. I need to think... alone."
Brian exchanged a glance with Claire but didn't argue. They both knew better than to question Ren right now.
As they quickened their pace toward the street alley, the uneasy silence pressed down on them again. Ren's mind churned, consuming the core was the next step, but he had to prepare.
The world outside was growing darker by the day, and he knew whatever came next could change everything.
They slipped through the wreckage, shadows watching from the edges, as hope and danger stretched out before them in equal measure.
Then, within a distance. Just beyond the alley's mouth, came a sound.
A faint metallic clatter. Quick. Sharp. Followed by silence.
The three of them froze.
Ren's hand instinctively went to the handle of his knife, while Brian raised his bat slightly, knuckles white. Claire's eyes narrowed as she leaned forward, trying to catch another noise.
Nothing.
"Could be just debris," Brian whispered, though his voice betrayed doubt.
Ren didn't respond. He took a slow step forward, positioning himself near the edge of the alley. His eyes scanned the street beyond—a collapsed storefront, shattered glass, a long-abandoned vehicle rusting into the pavement. Nothing moved.
But the feeling in his gut told a different story.
The core inside his coat gave a faint pulse, stronger than before. Not a warning. A reaction.
Something is nearby.. something... Dangerous.
Ren raised a hand, signaling the others to hold. Then, just as he was about to step out.
A blur shot past the edge of the alley. Too fast to track, too quiet for a normal infected.
Brian sucked in a breath. "You saw that, right?"
"Yeah," Claire murmured. "That wasn't normal."
Ren's eyes narrowed.
It wasn't. It moved like it was hunting and worse, it knew how to stalk. Unlike the mutated zombie from before, this one.. It felt like it was watching us..
"We keep moving," Ren said, voice like steel. "But from now on, stay low. If it comes at us, aim for the neck or the joints. Slowing it down is better than trying to kill it outright."
Claire and Brian nodded, tension writ across their faces.
They ducked out of the alley and hurried along the wall of the next building, sticking to shadows.
Every step was measured, every sound examined. That distant quiet no longer felt like safety, it felt like the calm before a storm.
As they reached the warehouse and slipped through a side entrance, Ren cast one final glance over his shoulder.
The street behind them was empty.
But the feeling of being watched hadn't gone away.
Inside the warehouse, the air was heavy with dust and the faint stench of rot. Shafts of pale light filtered in through cracks in the boarded windows, casting long, fractured shadows across the concrete floor.
Ren closed the door behind them, quietly sliding the rusted latch into place.
They were safe for now.
Brian exhaled sharply, lowering his bat but keeping it close. "This place gives me the creeps," he muttered.
"It'll do," Ren said. His voice was rougher now, strained.
The core's pulse was stronger more insistent, Like it was calling for him to consume it.
But, with the core pulse, also came the feeling of danger increased by minute.
Claire glanced at him, concern etched deep into her brow. "You need to rest. You're pale."
"I'll be fine," Ren muttered, already moving toward a set of rusted stairs leading to an elevated office room.
He needed space. Privacy. The unknown danger wasn't going to wait much longer.
Brian started to follow, but Claire held him back again. "Let him go," she whispered. "He's holding something in. Whatever that fight did to him… it's not just physical."
Ren climbed the stairs slowly, his vision swimming at the edges. The core's energy pulsed through him now, a rhythm that didn't match his heartbeat. It was deeper.. and older.
He reached the small office at the top and stepped inside. Broken glass crunched beneath his boots.
A cracked desk, a toppled file cabinet, and faded blueprints littered the floor. The door creaked shut behind him, and for the first time since the fight, he was alone.
He pulled the core from his pouch.
It was dark and jagged, yet its surface shimmered faintly, veins of pulsing crimson light snaking across it.
"You will be nothing, but another source of my strength.. I was still weak."
With that, He put it in his mouth as another transformation within him came.
But this time, It was a bit different. The one transforming is not him, But his internal organs.