What followed them in
Chapter 16
*That afternoon.*
"I guess great minds think alike," Sasha called out from across the hallway, directed at Leo's squad. Somewhere deeper in the mall, the sound of groaning echoed off tile and glass.
The two groups made their way down the stairs together, passing through an empty, creaking corridor. The air hung still, broken only by the low drone of flies swarming over a pile of corpses.
The sight of decaying flesh sloughing off bone was bad enough on its own. Combined with the stench, it was enough to make more than one of them gag as they pushed through.
"Oh my God, that smell's horrid," Sasha said, covering her nose with her hand.
"We'll be just like them soon enough if we stand around," Leo said, already walking past the pile.
This was reality now. There was nothing to do but push through, and none of it made the moment any easier — outside, they could still hear the dead groaning and slamming against the mall's outer walls, while inside, nobody knew for certain there weren't more of them already loose. The reanimation window was two weeks. Which meant there was a real chance a horde was already waiting somewhere in here with them.
The mall was big enough to rival a budget soccer stadium.
How many people had even been in here when it all went down? Had to have been hundreds, Sasha thought. Some instinct in the back of her mind was warning her about something, but all she could do was keep her eyes open and keep moving.
They made their way toward the food court. To their surprise, the other group hadn't shown up yet, which set everyone on edge.
"Something's wrong. Why isn't anyone here yet?" Alex asked, fear creeping into his voice. His mind wasn't built for this kind of situation — his whole life had been spent overshadowed by everyone around him, blending into the background, never pushing himself in anything. He'd ended up an IT engineer, quietly exploited by people who knew exactly how little he'd push back.
There was no denying something was wrong. Five minutes had passed, and the light was fading, little by little — the glass storefronts that had been catching the last of the sun now dimming into dull, lifeless color.
Then, finally, a sound.
Relieved at the thought of finally getting out of this, Alex called out. "Hey! We're over here! Hurry up!"
Silence answered him. They'd definitely heard something — footsteps, maybe — but it had stopped the moment Alex called out. Uneasy about the sudden quiet, the group ducked between the tables for cover, waiting nervously for whatever came next.
There it was — a dark silhouette emerging from the shadows into the light. At first they couldn't make out the shape, but it resolved fast enough: Kaito, carrying someone on his back.
Why's he walking like that? Just as they were about to reveal themselves, a low, guttural groan sounded from somewhere behind him, and Kaito went rigid.
A freak. Of all the horrors they could have run into, this was the one none of them had expected — and none of them were ready for.
