Silence fell over the ruined house like a suffocating blanket, broken only by the distant crackling of flames still consuming what remained of their home and the harsh, ragged breathing of the survivors.
"Is... is it dead?" Cindy whispered. She stared at the motionless corpse of the Enhanced Infected, unable to tear her eyes away from the monster that had nearly killed them all. Part of her expected it to lurch back to life at any moment, to continue its relentless assault despite the catastrophic damage they'd inflicted.
Elena approached the fallen creature with cautious steps, her lightning-charged crowbar still raised defensively despite the obvious exhaustion written across every line of her body. She was trembling—not just from fear, but from the complete depletion of her energy reserves. Sweat poured down her face in rivulets. The Dullahan virus had burned through her stamina like wildfire through dry grass, leaving her feeling hollow and dangerously weak.
