The cold air hit Kenzie like a shove.
It didn't just sting — it stripped the heat from her skin in an instant, dragging sweat into ice along her spine. For a heartbeat she staggered, vision tunneling, the world narrowing to breath and motion and the frantic thud of her pulse. The night smelled wrong — smoke, wet asphalt, and the faint metallic tang drifting from behind them like something freshly broken open.
It didn't feel like freedom. It felt like exposure — sharp wind slicing into sweat-soaked clothes, lungs burning as she stumbled out of the back exit with Barbie crushed against her chest hard enough that the small body inside the pack shifted with every step.
Noise followed them.
Not just screams from inside the bank.
Something else.
Low. Wet. Wrong.
The sound crawled along her spine, vibrating through her ribs like something alive, something listening. It wasn't one voice — it was many, layered and uneven, a chorus of hunger threading through the alley.
Rebecca nearly collapsed into Daniel, sobbing, Sofia wrapped around her neck like she might fall apart if she let go. Lucas stumbled over cracked pavement, and Daniel yanked him upright, scanning the alley with wild eyes.
Kenzie barely registered any of it.
Her focus tunneled.
Shadows moved.
Too many.
Shapes shifting at the far end of the alley — not walking, not running. Dragging.
The noise from the bank had carried.
Of course it had.
Every scream. Every crash. Every desperate breath.
They had rung the dinner bell without meaning to.
"Over here!" Aaron shouted.
Kenzie turned toward the dented sedan where Lila and Alyssa waved frantically. Caleb hovered behind them, breathing hard, one hand still half-raised like he expected to have to fight something any second.
Kenzie dropped into a crouch and shoved Barbie deeper into the carrier, fingers trembling as she zipped it halfway. The dog whined softly, sensing her fear, but Kenzie kept one hand pressed against the fabric to steady both of them.
Rebecca reached them seconds later, gasping.
"You made it," Kenzie whispered, though the words felt fragile and useless.
Daniel didn't answer.
His eyes were locked on the alley mouth behind her.
A shape lurched into the dim light.
Then another.
The first corpse dragged one leg behind it, head jerking sideways as if pulled by invisible strings. Its mouth hung open, jaw dark with blood.
Kenzie's stomach dropped.
"They heard us," Caleb said hoarsely.
More movement appeared behind the first figure — silhouettes spilling into the alley like a slow flood.
Aaron's voice snapped sharp. "We don't stay. Move."
A crash sounded behind them.
The bank door buckled inward.
Hands slammed against the metal from the inside.
Rebecca flinched violently, shielding Sofia's face. Lucas started crying again, the sound high and terrified.
Jade and Monica rushed up with Eleanor and Frank, breathless. Eleanor clutched Monica's arm but didn't slow.
"Street's not clear," Jade warned. "We've got movement coming from both sides."
Kenzie turned.
At the far end of the alley, more bodies staggered between parked cars — drawn by the noise, the light, the smell.
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
There was no space to think.
Only move.
Aaron grabbed Alyssa's wrist. "This way — now!"
They ran.
Kenzie ran because everyone else ran — because standing still meant dying.
Her boots pounded against asphalt slick with old oil and broken glass. Barbie shifted inside the carrier, weight bouncing against her ribs, breath hot through the mesh.
Behind them, the bank doors finally gave with a metallic scream.
The sound turned the alley into chaos.
Snarls erupted.
Not human.
Not anything she could pretend wasn't real.
Daniel shoved Rebecca forward. "Don't stop!"
Rebecca stumbled but kept moving, dragging Sofia while Lucas clung to Daniel's sleeve. Caleb fell into position behind Kenzie and Lila, glancing back constantly, jaw clenched.
"They're faster now," he muttered.
Kenzie risked a glance.
Three figures broke into an uneven sprint — arms jerking, heads lolling, feet slapping wetly against pavement. One slipped in something dark near the doorway and slammed into the wall, rebounding without slowing, driven by something that didn't feel like pain anymore.
Too close.
Way too close.
"Left!" Aaron shouted.
They veered around a dumpster just as something slammed into it from behind — metal ringing loud enough to make Kenzie's ears ache. The vibration shot through the ground beneath her boots, a jarring reminder of how little space separated them from teeth and hands.
A hand caught the edge of her jacket.
Cold.
Wrong.
The touch burned through fabric like frostbite. She felt the tug, the weight, the sudden drag backward that threatened to rip her off balance.
She yanked free, stumbling hard into Lila.
"Keep going!" Lila yelled, voice breaking.
They burst into the open street.
It wasn't empty.
Car alarms screamed somewhere in the distance. Smoke curled from a building down the block. Farther off, more shapes wandered aimlessly — until the sound of running feet turned their heads.
Kenzie felt it happen.
That moment when attention shifted.
When the dead noticed them.
Heads turning.
Bodies angling.
Movement aligning with purpose.
"No, no, no—" she whispered.
Aaron swore. "They're converging!"
Daniel grabbed Lucas and hauled him off his feet entirely, Rebecca running beside him with Sofia half-carried.
Caleb shoved a trash can into the street behind them without slowing, buying seconds they couldn't afford to lose.
Kenzie's lungs burned.
Her legs screamed.
Barbie whimpered, nails scratching against the inside of the pack.
The alley behind them filled with bodies.
More than before.
Too many.
They were closing the distance.
A scream erupted behind Kenzie — someone tripped — but hands grabbed them up again, dragging them forward before the sound could fully form.
"Don't stop!" Aaron yelled.
Kenzie didn't look back again.
She couldn't.
The growls grew louder.
Closer.
Right behind them.
And as they ran into the dark street — chased by the sound of tearing breath and dragging feet — one terrible truth settled into her bones:
There was no escape from the noise they carried with them.
And the dead were coming faster every second.