The days had grown colder.
The wind swept through the half-broken windowpanes of the safehouse with a voice of its own now—low, whistling, almost mournful. Like the ruins were still trying to tell their stories before they crumbled into dust.
Zane stood in the garden.
It was nothing special. A narrow patch of rooftop soil, boxed in by salvaged planks and reinforced wire mesh. Lily had started planting it a week before Mason died. Small things—beans, hardy greens, a single struggling tomato vine.
Zane knelt, checking the growth. It wasn't thriving, but it was trying.
And that meant everything.
Then Sierra called to him.
"Zane. You need to see this."
⸻
The Garden – Ten Minutes Later
She held something in her gloved hands.
It was small. Half-covered in dirt.
Not a tool. Not bone—at least not a clean one.
It was warped.
Organic. Veined like a mushroom stalk, but jagged, solid. Almost bone-like.
Zane crouched, examined the spot it had been buried in.
More pieces were beneath the surface—small, root-like tendrils branching from a central mass. Pale yellow, blood-dry.
[Alert: Mutated Biomass Detected – Variant: Sub-Root Type]
Origin: Unknown. Possibly dormant.
Risk Level: Medium (Pending Analysis)
Sierra stepped back.
"That was in the garden," she said. "Growing underneath us."
"How far down?"
"Hard to tell. But this wasn't a fluke. The roots twist deeper."
Zane stared at the soil, at the black damp beneath it.
It wasn't just infected that roamed anymore. The world was changing under their feet.
Maybe it always had been.
⸻
That Night – Barricade Wall
Lily was up late, sharpening her knife. Her hands still trembled slightly, but the haze was gone from her eyes. There was something steel-edged behind them now.
Zane sat beside her without a word.
After a while, she broke the silence.
"Benji asked where his mom was," she said quietly. "I told him she was looking for him. That she'd find us."
He glanced at her.
"That true?"
She shook her head, jaw tight. "No. Sierra found her. What was left of her. Clickers got to her near that old pharmacy on East 7th. She must've been trying to get medicine."
Zane let that settle between them for a moment.
"Sierra found Benji?"
"Yeah," Lily said. "He was hiding in the back of a busted van, wrapped in a coat three sizes too big. Didn't even cry. Just sat there holding a drawing of a dog." She looked away, blinking hard. "Sierra brought him back two nights later. Said he didn't speak for a full day."
Zane nodded. "And your family? Your parents? Are they still out there?"
Her sharpening slowed.
"I had two brothers," she said. "Eliot was the youngest. He was sweet—always followed me around like a shadow. When the outbreak hit, we were on the road. I told him to stay in the car. I thought it'd be safer."
She paused, drew the blade across the stone with a careful, measured pull.
"It wasn't."
Zane didn't rush her. Just sat in the dark, listening.
Lily gave a dry, humorless laugh. "Mom died before it all started. Dad… he tried. Made it three weeks in. Then the panic got worse and people got meaner. Last thing he did was get us out of a riot zone. Paid for it with a broken skull."
She finally looked at Zane, eyes hard but not empty.
"That's why I lied to Benji. Not because I think it'll change what's out there. But he needed hope more than truth tonight."
Zane didn't argue.
Some truths were just too sharp to hand to a kid.
Zane reached over, resting a hand on her shoulder. It was quiet, steady—something solid in a world that wasn't anymore.
"You did right by him," he said. "And by them. You kept going. That counts for something."
[Base Morale: +3]
[Personal Trait Progress: Leadership Tier 1 – 89%]
⸻
Midnight – Rooftop
The wind shifted.
Zane stood by the rusted railing, staring into the black distance. The infected hadn't come close in days. The area was too quiet. Not even stalkers.
That kind of silence in this world?
It meant something was wrong.
Then he heard it.
Soft. Fragmented. A voice, carried by the wind like an echo:
"…I got you… I got you, baby girl…"
Zane froze.
Not yelling.
Not screaming.
Not a survivor.
Singing.
A lullaby.
He scanned the perimeter. Nothing.
No movement.
Then the System flickered in his vision.
[Auditory Anomaly Detected]
Source Unknown. Not Local.
System Note: Playback Resembles Pre-Event Memory Echo. Proceed With Caution.
New Sub-Thread Unlocked: "The Hollow Choir" Some places remember what happened. Some voices never left.
Zane stood in the dark a long time.
And below him, buried in the bones of the city, something waited.
Something old, something he forgot.