Ash hung in the air like snow, soft and weightless, but heavy with dread. Yu Ren stood at the rooftop edge of the abandoned district library, staring out at the horizon where the sun struggled to rise. A faint orange hue painted the clouds, but it offered no warmth—just the illusion of peace. Behind him, the others were still resting. Even Kai, ever watchful, had his eyes closed. But Yu Ren couldn't sleep.
The message blinked faintly at the corner of his vision. He didn't smile. He couldn't.
He looked down at his hands, grimy and scarred. There was a burn mark from yesterday's accident with the pipe bomb they disarmed. Another reminder of how close things were to spiraling out of control.
Silas was quiet, too. Since joining them, he hadn't spoken much—only short answers, blank stares. But he followed. He ate. He drank.
He survived.
That made him one of them.
Behind him, the rustle of cloth broke his thoughts. He turned. Kai stood there, arms folded, cloak fluttering in the morning breeze.
"You should rest."
"You should," Yu Ren replied.
They shared a look—tired, but understanding.
Kai stepped beside him. "The district map Silas marked… I double-checked it. There's something underground. Tunnels maybe. Could be supply routes, or just old maintenance shafts. But they lead east."
"East… toward the blackout zone?"
Kai nodded. "If there's any working lab left, or fragments of the original survival protocols, they'll be there."
Yu Ren exhaled slowly. "Or it could be a nest."
"Yeah."
For a moment, the only sound was the wind.
Then—
Boom.
A low, muffled explosion echoed from the south. A plume of dust rose in the distance.
They were both moving before it fully registered. Kai descended the stairs two at a time. Yu Ren grabbed his crowbar and roused Silas, who jolted awake in confusion.
"Movement. South block. We need to go."
Minutes later, they were on the move, slipping through the library's back exit. They moved like shadows, cutting through overgrown streets and shattered alleys. The closer they got, the more the air began to shift—thicker, humid, almost metallic.
They arrived at the collapsed building just as the dust began to settle. Rubble blocked the front, but part of the side wall had crumbled, revealing a deep shaft—jagged, old… unnatural.
"Wasn't here before," Kai muttered.
"Someone's digging," Yu Ren replied.
They didn't speak again. Kai went in first, slipping through the debris and scanning with his flashlight. Yu Ren followed, then Silas. The tunnel inside was narrow and damp. Mold climbed the walls. Old signage indicated it once led to underground metro access—long abandoned since the outbreak.
As they moved deeper, faint noises began to echo—dripping water… distant scraping… and something like breathing.
Kai raised a hand. Stop.
They listened.
A whisper.
"…kill it… before it sees—"
Then silence.
Yu Ren's breath hitched. That voice wasn't human. Or if it was, it had long since lost its mind.
A soft clatter behind them.
Silas turned, but it was too late.
A hand—no, a claw—snatched him by the shoulder and yanked him back.
"Silas!" Yu Ren shouted.
He lunged, grabbing the man's arm, pulling hard. The creature screeched, and the tunnel filled with chaos. Kai was already moving, slashing with his blade. The monster was humanoid, but grotesque—skin melted, limbs twisted, eyes glassy and white.
Yu Ren swung his crowbar into its neck. It shrieked and collapsed, thrashing violently before falling still.
They panted in the silence.
Silas was trembling, bleeding from the shoulder.
"I didn't see it…" he murmured.
Kai knelt, quickly dressing the wound. "They're evolving. Using shadows. Waiting."
Yu Ren wiped blood from his cheek. "We're not alone down here."
"No," Kai said grimly. "We never were."
Farther down the tunnel, a faint light flickered—unnatural and rhythmic.
Someone—or something—was still down there.
"Let's finish this," Yu Ren said.
Kai nodded. "Together."
---
What's Broken Can Still Bleed
The sky was bruised with the colors of dusk, an eerie palette of reds and purples smeared across a canvas of gathering clouds. Yu Ren had always hated this time of day since the world ended. It reminded him of the time before the infection spread—when he watched sunsets from his balcony with headphones on, a cup of tea cooling beside him. Now, that same light painted corpses in gold.
Kai was crouched beside the fallen deer-like beast they'd hunted—its mutated jaw still twitching from residual nerve spasms. They hadn't seen anything this cleanly mutated before. No rot, no pus, just smooth muscle, thickened limbs, and a second jaw splitting from its throat. Yu Ren didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified.
Kai didn't speak as he ran his knife across the hide with practiced precision. Blood pooled dark and thick beneath the creature's carcass.
[System Notification: You have acquired 1x Mutant Beast Meat]
[+2 Survival Points]
The notification flickered faintly before disappearing, but Yu Ren kept his eyes on Kai. The man moved with quiet efficiency, every slice purposeful. His sleeves were rolled up, exposing pale forearms smeared with crimson. And yet, he looked calm.
Too calm.
"You've done this before," Yu Ren muttered, crouching beside him.
Kai nodded. "Something similar. Not with a creature like this, though."
There was a silence that followed. Comfortable, almost.
They had found temporary shelter in what was once a hunting lodge—half its walls missing, roof caved in—but enough to give them cover for the night. The fire crackled low inside as Silas attempted to dry what remained of their damp clothes.
"I'm not sure we should eat that," Yu Ren muttered, watching the meat slide into a salvaged plastic bag.
"You want to starve?" Kai arched a brow. "I'll boil it for hours. Maybe add that packet of salt from the diner."
Yu Ren grimaced but didn't argue. "We could always feed it to Silas first."
"He might take that as affection."
Yu Ren blinked. "You're joking."
Kai's lips curled into something very faint. Not quite a smile. But close.
---
They sat by the fire an hour later, the mutant meat boiling in a metal pot that Kai salvaged from the hospital's wrecked cafeteria. The scent was... strange. Gamey, but tolerable. Silas sat with his legs pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped tightly around his knees. He hadn't said much all day.
The lodge creaked with every gust of wind, but it was better than sleeping in the open. Outside, the howls had returned—those low, keening wails that meant either infected... or something newer.
"Do you think they're changing?" Yu Ren asked quietly. "The infected. Mutating, like this thing?"
Kai stirred the pot once. "Possibly. The system didn't predict the rate of evolution accurately. It's not as stable as it claims."
Yu Ren narrowed his eyes. "You keep talking like it's a real person."
Kai didn't respond.
But Yu Ren noticed the flicker in his expression.
"Kai," he said. "You told me once you weren't chosen by the system. But you act like you know how it works."
"I never said I wasn't chosen," Kai replied. "I said I wasn't meant to be."
Yu Ren stared. "That's not the same thing."
"No," Kai agreed, "it's not."
Silas looked between them, his eyes wide and tired.
"Is the world really ending again?" he asked softly. "I heard someone in the hospital say it wasn't just a virus. That there's something underneath it. Like... like something wanted this to happen."
Yu Ren exchanged glances with Kai.
And for the first time, Kai didn't dismiss the theory.
"It's possible," Kai said quietly. "The infection is the surface. But something deeper is rotting underneath."
Yu Ren felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cold.
---
Night fell harder than expected. Rain began to patter against the remnants of the wooden roof. Kai and Yu Ren took turns keeping watch, the fire reduced to embers. Silas had curled up in the corner, covered by a tattered emergency blanket.
Yu Ren leaned against the wall beside Kai during his shift, crowbar in hand. "Tell me something," he whispered. "If the system is broken—or corrupted—how do we survive this?"
Kai was silent for a long time.
Then: "By remembering what's still human in us."
Yu Ren swallowed hard.
Outside, the howling had stopped.
Too suddenly.
Both of them tensed.
A low scratching came from the outer wall.
Yu Ren stood. Crowbar ready. Kai pulled a knife from his boot. Both crept toward the door, every footstep muffled by instinct and fear.
Then, a whisper—not a voice, but like breath against the glassless window.
"Yu Ren..."
He froze.
Kai's eyes darted to him. "You heard that?"
Yu Ren nodded slowly, blood draining from his face.
The voice had used his name.
But it wasn't Kai's.
And it wasn't Silas's.
A new system notification blinked, this one stuttering as if struggling to load:
[??? ALERT: Interference Detected]
[System Error: Identity Conflict]
["Yu Ren"... Confirmed.]
His screen flickered with static before fading.
"Kai," Yu Ren whispered. "Something just tried to access my system ID."
Kai looked pale now, the first time Yu Ren had ever seen fear flash in his eyes.
"That's not supposed to be possible," Kai muttered.
Another sound outside. Something heavy moving just beyond the walls.
Not infected. Not mutant.
Something else.
And it knew Yu Ren's name.
—
The door creaked shut behind them, a final barrier between the world outside and the strange quiet that filled the apartment. Yu Ren could still hear the faint echoes of that earlier scream—sharp, desperate, and human.
They hadn't found the source.
Kai's brows were furrowed as he moved cautiously through the narrow hallway, every step calculated. Yu Ren followed close, crowbar raised. He hated this—the waiting. The uncertainty. The almost-too-quiet atmosphere.
The apartment wasn't large. A kitchen with broken cabinets. A small living room with overturned furniture. Two bedrooms. Empty. No signs of life… or undeath.
But the sound—
There. A closet door, slightly ajar.
Yu Ren nodded to Kai. Kai approached first, opening the door with a swift motion.
Inside, a boy. Maybe thirteen. Thin, trembling, eyes wide with fear. Clutching a knife too large for his hand.
Kai held up both hands in a non-threatening gesture. "We're not here to hurt you."
The boy didn't speak.
"We heard a scream," Yu Ren said gently. "Was that you?"
He nodded slowly, eyes darting between them.
"Are you alone?"
Another nod. Then, after a second: "My sister… she left to find food. She hasn't come back."
Yu Ren's chest tightened. He glanced at Kai. They couldn't ignore this.
"What's your name?"
"Rin."
Kai knelt down. "We'll help you, Rin. But we need to leave this building. It's not safe here anymore."
Rin hesitated, eyes full of suspicion. But then, maybe something in Kai's voice—or the exhaustion of waiting—made him nod.
They moved quickly. Yu Ren carried Rin's small backpack while the boy clutched Kai's jacket like a lifeline.
Down the stairs. Past the blood-stained walls and shattered glass. Back into the cold open.
The sun was lower now, shadows lengthening.
Kai's voice was steady. "We'll get him to safety. Then decide what to do next."
Yu Ren nodded. But deep down, unease lingered.
Who screamed first?
If it wasn't Rin—
Then who else was here?
They reached the alley behind the building, slipping into the narrow side streets. The sky was bleeding orange and violet as dusk began its slow descent.
Suddenly—
Static crackled in Yu Ren's ears.
[System Alert: Mutation Surge detected nearby.]
Kai stiffened. "Run."
Yu Ren didn't question. He grabbed Rin's hand and bolted.
Behind them, glass shattered. A roar echoed, low and animalistic.
It wasn't a zombie. Not anymore.
Something worse.
—
To be continued.