The makeshift barricade groaned under the weight of the undead pressing against it. Arin wiped the sweat from her brow, her eyes scanning the dimly lit corridor. Tasha stood nearby, clutching a makeshift spear, her knuckles white.
Suddenly, footsteps echoed from the hallway. Not the shuffling of the infected, but purposeful strides. Arin tensed, signaling Tasha to stay alert.
A figure emerged from the shadows, her silhouette familiar. Long black hair, confident posture it was Zara.
"Well, isn't this a surprise," Zara drawled, her eyes locking onto Arin's. "Fancy meeting you here."
Arin's grip tightened on her weapon. "Zara."
Kael stepped forward, his eyes narrowing. "You two know each other?"
Zara's smile didn't reach her eyes. "We go way back. Family ties."
Arin said nothing, her gaze cold.
Zara turned to Kael, her tone sweet. "I was out scouting, found some supplies. Thought I'd share with the group."
Kael nodded slowly. "Appreciated."
Zara's eyes flicked back to Arin. "Didn't expect to see you here, Arin. Small world."
Arin remained silent, her expression unreadable.
As the group settled for the night, Zara approached Arin, her voice low. "Still holding a grudge? I did what I had to do."
Arin's eyes flashed. "You betrayed me."
Zara's smile faded. "Survival changes people."
Arin stepped closer, her voice a whisper. "Some things don't change."
The tension between them was palpable, a storm waiting to break.
And with that Arin walked out
The silence didn't last long.
It never did.
Around midnight, the power flickered across the school's west wing just a short pulse of dying light before the emergency batteries finally bled out. Then… darkness.
Arin sat with her back to the lab door, her blade across her lap. Every breath was slow. Measured.
She wasn't sleeping.
She never really slept anymore.
Tasha was curled on a blanket of coats near the overturned supply shelf, twitching slightly with nightmares she didn't talk about. Kael's team took turns on watch by the barricaded entrance, whispering in a language Arin didn't recognize.
Zara?
Gone again.
Out, supposedly to check a nearby vending hall for drinks they could boil down into sugar fuel.
She was always so helpful lately.
Too helpful.
The system chimed in her head.
[Incoming Threat Detected]
Location: East Wing
Entities: 9+
Status: Aggressive
Variant Signature: Unknown
Arin stood.
Cold air brushed her skin as she slid the lab door open just enough to slip out. She didn't wake Tasha.
Didn't say a word to the guards.
The hall was darker now coated in that strange, almost oily shadow that only true blackout could create. Her boots didn't echo.
Only the moaning did.
It started low. Muffled.
Then the smell hit her wet copper and decay.
At the corner where the hall bent toward the east wing, something slammed into a locker. Hard.
Arin froze and pressed her back to the wall, blade already drawn.
Her system pulsed again.
---
[Entity Identified: Splitters]
Infection Type: Hive-class
Behavior: Pack hunting
Warning: Do not engage alone
Advise: Retreat or trap
---
A low snarl vibrated the walls.
Then a scream sharp, male, full of terror ripped through the dark.
Gunfire.
Too close.
Her heart dropped.
It was Kael's team.
---
She didn't wait.
She moved.
Her blade hummed softly, the edge already coated with the anti-coagulant formula she'd made with stolen lab chemicals earlier that day. She'd been planning to test it. Guess the test just arrived.
As she reached the corridor junction, a shape came flying past her a body.
Arin didn't flinch.
It hit the wall with a crunch and dropped.
One of Kael's boys. Eyes wide. Neck torn open.
Still twitching.
She heard a yellKael's voice this time, sharp and commanding.
"Fall back! Regroup in the lab!"
More snarls. Wet footsteps.
No time for fear.
Arin threw a canister down the hall one she'd rigged to combust on chemical contact. It hit the floor and burst, flames licking across the linoleum like wild, angry tongues.
The Splitters howled.
Thin, fast, skeletal things too many arms, bones jutting out of flesh like broken glass. Faces peeled open in jagged vertical maws.
They hated light.
She ran past the burning hall, grabbed Kael's arm as he stumbled from the east stairwell, blood on his cheek.
"Move!"
He didn't argue.
Together, they half-dragged one of his men barely conscious back toward the lab.
Inside, chaos had already taken root.
Zara had just arrived from the opposite hallway, looking winded and "conveniently" shaken. She froze when she saw Arin and Kael dragging in the wounded.
"Oh my god, what—?"
"Shut the door!" Arin snapped.
Tasha sprang up and slammed it shut, driving a chair under the handle just as something slammed into the other side.
Growls. Scratching.
Kael dropped the bleeding boy by the wall and knelt, checking his pulse.
"Flesh wound," he muttered. "We were ambushed. They're too smart."
Zara hovered near him, face pale. "I—maybe I saw something i thought I heard…"
Arin stared at her.
The mud on her boots was dry.
Too dry to have come from the flooded vending hall.
She hadn't gone where she said.
Zara caught her eye and looked away, fast.
Arin's system lit up again.
[Side Quest Generated]
Zara Liren – Suspicion Level: 84%
Objective: Expose betrayal without direct confrontation
Reward: [Memory Fragment – Death Sequence Unlocked]
Warning: Public exposure may lead to faction disruption
---
Arin didn't react.
She turned to Kael. "These walls won't hold them. We need to evacuate."
Kael frowned. "To where?"
Arin already had the map out. "There's a maintenance tunnel behind the auditorium stage. Leads out to the field. Could buy us time to regroup. But it's crawling."
"How do you know that?"
"I don't," Arin said. "I just believe in being lucky."
Kael stared at her.
Zara stepped in. "Are you sure we should trust—"
"I wasn't talking to you," Arin cut her off, voice sharp enough to freeze the room.
Everyone went silent.
Kael stood. "We move in ten. Everyone packs light. We go fast. If they follow us down there, we'll need to split them."
Arin nodded once.
And just before she turned, she whispered quietly, where only Zara could hear:
"You poisoned me once. Try it again, and I'll slit your throat before your smile fades."
Zara flinched. Just a twitch.
But Arin saw it.
She walked off, leaving the others to wonder what she was really made of.