The pickup's tires crunched over broken glass as Abhi swerved around a bus abandoned sideways across the highway. Its windows were shattered, luggage still stuffed in the overhead racks. No people. Seatbelts buckled as if still holding passengers that no longer existed.
RV pressed his forehead against the glass, eyes wide. "Look out there."
In the fields, hundreds of cattle wandered aimlessly. With no farmers, no fences, no order, they crashed into each other, lowing in confusion. Some had broken into the fields, trampling the stalks until the harvest lay wasted.
A little farther, a fuel station sat silent. Its sliding glass doors hung cracked and crooked. The smell hit them even from the road—spoiled meat rotting in powerless freezers, sour milk leaking onto tile floors, sugar bags torn open and scattered across the ground like spilled entrails.
Kriti gagged and rolled up the window. "So much wasted."
RV didn't look away. "The world's… unraveling. It's not just us. It's everything."
Abhi gripped the steering wheel tighter, his eyes hard on the horizon. "Then we move faster before it unravels completely."
They made camp in the shell of a small town that night. Streetlamps flickered above them, then one by one blinked into darkness. A power grid that had fought to stay alive for days finally breathed its last.
The silence that followed wasn't peaceful. It was suffocating.
Kriti hugged her rifle to her chest, eyes flicking to every shadow. "It's dying. The whole world. Piece by piece."
Abhi crouched by the fire they had coaxed from scavenged wood, sparks rising into the cold night. "All we can do is keep going."
RV scribbled into his notebook by firelight, his handwriting jittery. "But if it's failing everywhere… then Germany might not even be there when we arrive."
Abhi's hand slid over the katana at his waist. His gaze never left the fire. "Germany's the only chance we've got. Whether it's standing or ashes—we find it."
"How far are we though?" Kriti questioned
"We have only crossed around 300kms by now. Driving isn't exactly easy with all the shit lying around."
"At this pace it might even take us a month just to reach our border." Kriti rumbled annoyingly
"It won't take a month, we will probably reach within 15 days. From there maybe more than 2 months at this pace." Abhi remarked, scavenging through his bag.
Kriti Sighed "With monsters around, I don't know."
RV jumped in "Yeah, they are definitely not making it easy for us. And Rexon also has to survive."
"Dont go back to that." Abhi almost snapped. Then he paused and held back for a moment. "As I said its the only chance. Don't over think this just go to sleep, I'll take the watch."
The next morning, they drove through empty suburbs where swings swayed in playgrounds, pushed by winds that carried no laughter. Cars sat at intersections, engines off, doors open, groceries spilled across the asphalt. A little girl's shoes sat neatly outside one house. No girl inside.
Kriti kept her eyes down. RV scribbled faster. Abhi drove in silence.
At a crossroads, the silence broke.
A figure stood in the road. Tall. Armored. Rust-eaten plates clinging to bones. An undead knight. It dragged a sword behind it, the metal screeching as it cut into the asphalt.
Abhi hit the brakes, the truck groaning.
The knight's visor turned toward them, glowing faintly with unnatural blue light. Behind it, shambling figures spilled out of nearby buildings—civilians, soldiers, all rotten flesh and gnashing teeth.
"Not again…" Kriti muttered, cocking her pistol.
"Again and again until we stop breathing," Abhi said, sliding out of the truck with a pistol in his hand.
The knight raised its blade. The others charged.
Bullets cracked through the air. Kriti fired with precision, every shot snapping heads back. RV panicked but managed to hit a target, stumbling as the recoil shoved him backward.
Abhi moved like a storm—his katana guiding through undead, pistol in other hand clicking with presicion when the katana moved faster. The knight swung its jagged sword down. Abhi met it with the side of his katana, sparks flying as the katana deflected the rusted metal. With a roar, he shoved it back, driving the katana through the hollow visor in a flash of dark light.
The knight collapsed, its armor clattering across the pavement.
The others stopped moving, like puppets with their strings cut.
Abhi spat into the dirt. "They're getting smarter. Organized."
Kriti reloaded. "Don't say that."
RV's eyes gleamed with both fear and fascination. "How are they getting organized?"
"That's a good question." Abhi looking at the ashes of the undead knight.
That night, they stopped at a gas station to rest. The air was too quiet, the kind of quiet that hummed inside the skull.
RV froze first. His voice was barely audible. "Something's watching us."
Abhi stepped out, katana unsheathed. The shadows at the edge of the light weren't still—they pulsed, shifting, writhing.
It emerged.
Tall. Thin. Limbs stretched too far, ending in claws that scratched the concrete. Its skin looked like smoke trapped inside flesh. Its face had no features, only a blur of shifting shadows.
When it opened its mouth, hundreds of voices whispered at once. Words they couldn't understand, but words that clawed at their minds.
Kriti fired, bullets tearing through its body, but the holes closed like water healing around stones. It lunged, tendrils whipping outward.
Abhi slashed, the katana glowing faint in the moonlight, cutting clean through. The wound sealed instantly.
"Molotov!" he barked.
RV hurled one they'd scavenged, flames wrapping the creature in a cloak of fire. This time, it screamed—not one scream, but hundreds, overlapping in shrill agony. The sound rattled their bones. Everyone held their ears.
When the flames died, nothing remained but ash.
They stood frozen, the night air still vibrating with phantom whispers.
Kriti's voice cracked. "What was that?"
RV's notebook trembled in his hands. "That wasn't even human."
Abhi stared at the ashes, his reflection flickering in the shards of glass. His stomach twisted with the realization he had been denying for days.
"No. That thing was definitely not human by any measure."
"My head kinda hurts." Kriti holding her head
"Those whispers, you both also heard it right?"
"Yeah" Kriti and RV echoed together, still holding their head.
"It was not in the ears it was more in the head, creepy whisperer." RV pinching his forehead.
"Did you see his hands and those claws." Kriti still startled by the look.
"Well good thing that we know how to deal with one. That creepy fucker can be a problem."
"I agree, I don't want to deal with that again." Kriti looking in the general direction where the Whisperer once stood.
"Let's take a break." Abhi commanded
They didn't sleep that night. The whispers lingered, echoing in their skulls, chasing them into the dark.
The pickup roared back onto the road at dawn, its engine fighting against the silence. But the silence was changing too. It no longer felt empty. It felt alive. Watching. Waiting.
Abhi drove on, his eyes fixed on the horizon. His voice was quiet, but sharp as steel.
"Guns won't be enough anymore. Not against things like that."
Kriti shifted uncomfortably. RV's pencil froze mid-word.
Abhi's grip tightened on the wheel.
"We need to get stronger. Smarter. Ruthless. Or we don't make it to Germany."
Silence followed as Kriti turned her gaze to the passing fields. RV started scribbling and Abhi continued driving.
And with that, the road stretched on—long, dark, and hungry.
The pickup carried on, its headlights slicing through endless stretches of highway. They didn't talk much after the whispering shadow-creature. Every mile made it feel less like Earth and more like a foreign land painted over its bones.
Then Abhi broke silence with a question "Any thoughts on what these monsters are?"
RV stopped between the scribbling and looked in the rearview mirror to glance at Abhi. "You mean why they are here or why them?"
"Both" Abhi's gaze still fixed on road ahead.
"My theory is that maybe the human population that vanished has been replaced with these monsters like a summoning."
"Interesting…" Abhi glanced in the rear view mirror "What about you K?"
"I have no clue…"
"Its not summoning because summoning does not leave any residue, after any undead or wolf or that creepy whisperer dies there's dust and ash left like remains."
"Hmm… I think they don't respawn also like games." RV commented still scribbling.
"Yeah, so its not replacement, it more like a balancing act. When people vanished, lots of energy must have released, these monsters may have been…" Abhi let his thoughts sink in a little.
"Exchanged…" Kriti finally let here inner thoughts out.
"Like someone sent them here…" Abhi still holding the steering wheel tight.
"For what?" RV blurted out instantly.
A shrill silence followed and windmill farm turned lazily in the distance, its blades screeching without power. Cars littered the roadsides like forgotten toys, some with doors flung open, some crashed into guardrails, others simply parked mid-lane, engines cold.
The world wasn't just abandoned—it was mutating.
The smell reached them before the sight. Acrid, sharp, like burning tar mixed with charred meat.
Abhi slowed the truck, squinting at the horizon. "Smoke."
Kriti leaned forward, hand on her pistol. "Please tell me that's just a fire."
It wasn't.
Figures stumbled along the road ahead—shapes that burned but did not crumble. Their bodies were engulfed in orange flames, skin crackling like charcoal, eyes glowing white-hot like molten steel. They didn't scream. They didn't falter. They just walked.
"Holy shit…" RV whispered, voice shaking. "They're… still alive in there?"
"Not alive," Abhi muttered, pressing the brake.
The nearest one lifted its head at the sound of the engine. The flames along its body flared brighter, almost roaring, as it charged with terrifying speed.
"Go, go!" Kriti shouted.
Abhi gunned the engine, the pickup roaring forward, but the flaming corpse leapt, claws slamming onto the hood. The windshield spiderwebbed under the impact, smoke pouring into the cabin.
"Shoot it!" Abhi barked.
Kriti fired through the glass. Bullets ripped into the chest, the arms, the neck—but the thing didn't stop. It smashed its head against the windshield, cracks spreading like veins.
RV's hands shook. "Why isn't it going down?!"
Abhi saw it then—through the shifting fire, a skull glowing faintly like a coal. Its head. Always the head.
"Headshot!" he roared.
Kriti steadied, breath held. She fired once more—straight between the molten eyes.
The bullet punched through, the skull cracked, and the body collapsed instantly. The fire sputtered and died, leaving only smoking ash across the hood.
The road ahead came alive. More of them stumbled out of the dark—ten, twenty, maybe more, their bodies lighting up the night like walking torches.
Abhi swerved hard, the truck skidding sideways as flaming corpses hurled themselves at the doors. One smashed against the back, leaving a smear of molten flesh across the tailgate.
"Keep them off us!" Abhi shouted, as he fought the wheel.
Kriti leaned out the window, firing controlled bursts. Every headshot dropped one instantly, flames extinguishing in an eerie hiss. Miss, and the thing kept coming, clawing until the truck shook with the impact.
RV fumbled with the spare rifle, panic in his eyes. "I can't—I can't hit the head!"
"Then learn now!" Abhi snapped, swerving again. "Or we're dead!"
RV swallowed hard, braced the weapon awkwardly, and fired. His first shot tore through a shoulder. The thing barely noticed. Second shot clipped the jaw, spraying embers but not enough. Third shot—finally—a crack straight into the skull. The flaming corpse dropped, sparks scattering like fireworks.
RV's hands trembled, but his eyes locked onto the next target. "Okay… okay… I can do this."
The truck roared through the gauntlet of fire. Kriti and RV shot with rhythm, flames snuffing out one after another. The last of them clung to the roof, burning claws scraping for purchase.
Abhi braked hard, jerking the wheel. The truck spun, momentum throwing the flaming corpse off into the ditch. Kriti finished it with a clean shot to the head.
Silence returned, broken only by the hiss of cooling metal. The truck stank of smoke and blood, its hood dented, windshield cracked nearly opaque.
Kriti slumped back in her seat, chest heaving. "What the hell were those?"
"Another kind of nightmare," Abhi muttered, eyes scanning the dark highway. His knuckles were white on the wheel, and his voice was low, edged with something dangerous.
"This world is out here to get us.."
As they drove on, the firelit corpses still burning in Abhi's mind, his thoughts turned sharper.
The Whisperer that healed from bullets.
The undead knight that led zombies.
The white wolf, elegant and relentless.
Now, flaming corpses that burned until only their skulls broke.
Patterns. Signs. A chain of evolution, as though something—or someone—was deliberately designing these monsters.
"None of this is random, all of this is a game or at least planned" he muttered under his breath.
RV, scribbling frantic notes again, glanced at him. "What do you mean?"
Abhi's eyes stayed on the road. The broken, burning, hungry road.
"I mean someone wanted this. Someone's building a new world. And we're trapped inside their design. Just like we were discussing, the only question is why?"
No one argued. The silence was too heavy for denial.
The pickup roared deeper into the dark, carrying them toward whatever came next.