Kai led the group past the shattered outer perimeter of Sector 9, his eyes sharper than before. Every shadow was a threat. Every sound, a potential death sentence.
There were no birds. No cars. No wind. Only the low hum of tension and the echo of silent footsteps.
Behind him, Aarav limped with his rifle slung over one shoulder. Riko and Lina carried Tara on a makeshift stretcher, her fevered breathing shallow beneath the tattered cloth that shaded her face. Renji, dead-eyed and quiet, covered the rear, his blood-stained knife never leaving his hand.
The world had changed.
Not slowly, like disease. But violently—like war.
And in the ruins of their city, they were the last embers of a dying fire.
The entrance to the metro tunnel was hidden behind a half-collapsed government building. Ivy had grown through the stone, almost like the earth was trying to bury its own scars. Kai stepped forward, brushing the vines aside. A rusted steel door revealed itself, set into the crumbling concrete like a portal to another world.
Lina squatted beside the frame. "Still sealed. No scratch marks. That's good."
Kai nodded. He gripped the handle. It was cold. Too cold.
Click.
The door groaned open. A draft of stale, metallic air rushed past them.
Darkness waited below.
The moment they entered, the world shifted.
Light faded. Walls narrowed. The oppressive stillness of the metro pressed on their lungs like invisible hands.
Their boots echoed off tiled floors smeared with soot and dried blood. Abandoned posters fluttered in the drafts—faded warnings about hygiene and quarantine procedures. One showed a smiling family in gas masks. The irony was suffocating.
Riko shined her flashlight along the ceiling. Cracks spread like veins. Wires dangled like vines from above. Somewhere in the dark, water dripped—steady. Maddening.
Kai's system interface flickered.
[New Environment Detected: Subterranean Sector 3-B]
[Threat Probability: High]
[Perception Boost: +1 While Underground]
His vision sharpened slightly. The faint outlines in the dark became clearer. He didn't mention it to the others. They didn't need to know the system favored him.
Yet.
Lina checked the map etched into her arm guard. "Four tunnels. One main, three service routes. The central platform is about 800 meters ahead."
"Any reason we're not sprinting through it?" Aarav grunted.
Lina glanced at Kai.
"We don't know what's down here," Kai answered. "But something is."
They continued slowly.
Tara stirred on the stretcher, mumbling. "...they're crawling... under the walls... under the skin..."
Renji tightened his grip on his knife. "She keeps saying things like that."
"I know," Kai said quietly.
He didn't tell them that every time she spoke, the system whispered too.
They reached the first stairwell. It descended in a wide spiral, leading to the lower subway level. The light from above barely touched the bottom.
Kai led the way.
Step. Step. Step.
Each footfall felt heavier than the last. As if gravity wanted to drag them into the ground.
At the base of the stairwell, the smell hit them.
Rot.
Old, wet, moving rot.
A cluster of corpses lined the tunnel wall—at least ten, bound together with barbed wire. Their faces were bloated and gray, but none had turned fully.
A message.
Lina backed away. "What the hell...?"
"They weren't infected yet," Kai muttered. "They were executed before they could turn."
"Who would do that?" Riko asked.
Aarav's jaw tightened. "Someone who knew what was coming."
Kai knelt beside the corpses. Blood pooled beneath them—thick, oily, fresh.
Too fresh.
He stood up, back rigid. "Eyes open. Weapons ready."
The darkness pulsed.
The first attack came without warning.
A scream ripped through the tunnel—high-pitched, inhuman.
A blur of pale limbs and open jaws surged from the side corridor.
Mutant. But not like before. Faster. More intelligent.
Kai moved on instinct.
[Critical Alert — Hostile Detected]
He ducked beneath the leaping creature's claws, twisted, and rammed his blade into its side. Blood sprayed across the tiles.
The thing screeched and thrashed, teeth snapping wildly.
Renji stabbed it from behind—once, twice, until it collapsed.
[+60 EXP]
[Kill Count: 18/25]
More came.
Five. No—six. Crawling on walls. Moving in packs.
Kai shouted. "Form a line! Protect the stretcher!"
Aarav fired. The shotgun blast echoed like thunder.
Mutant flesh exploded. A second one tackled him, jaws gnashing against his arm guard. He punched it in the throat, then fired again.
BOOM.
Blood. Bone. Screams.
Riko slashed with her machete, carving open a creature's neck.
Kai danced between them. His blade was an extension of his rage now. One head flew. Another spine split.
[+60 EXP]
[+60 EXP]
The system pulsed.
[New Trait Unlocked: Predator's Focus]
[Your precision and lethality increase while outnumbered.]
Kai's breathing slowed.
Every movement became sharper. Cleaner. Brutal.
He kicked one mutant into the wall, then drove his weapon through its eye. Another lunged—he rolled, came up behind it, and slashed the tendon behind its knee before finishing it off.
[+60 EXP]
[Level Up — Level 4 Achieved]
He didn't feel joy.
Only necessity.
Blood pooled at their feet. Mutant corpses twitched, then fell still.
Then silence.
Only the sound of dripping blood and heavy breaths remained.
Tara moaned again.
Kai turned.
Her eyes were open. And glowing.
"Lina," he said urgently.
Lina rushed over. "Her pulse is erratic. She's... heating up."
"Not like before," Kai whispered.
Tara sat up slowly. Her pupils were silver.
Everyone backed away.
"Tara?" Riko said cautiously.
She looked at them. Her gaze flickered. She tilted her head.
Then smiled.
Not Tara's smile.
Something else.
"I see it now," she whispered. "The Tower. The Shattered Throne. The hunger that watches. He's coming."
Then she collapsed.
Unconscious. Alive.
For now.
Kai looked down the tunnel.
They had another 600 meters to go.
He wiped the blood off his blade.
"Let's move."
Nobody argued.
As they disappeared into the dark, the shard in Kai's pocket pulsed again.
And somewhere—beneath stone and blood and bone—something watched.