The scratching didn't stop.
It grew louder.
More aggressive.
More desperate.
Each scrape against the bunker door sent vibrations through the metal, echoing deep into the confined space. Stefan instinctively stepped forward, placing himself between the door and Nami, gripping a rusted metal rod he had picked up from the ground.
His heartbeat was no longer steady.
It pounded violently against his chest.
Stefan: "Stay behind me."
Nami didn't argue this time.
She quickly moved back, holding Rex close to her.
Even Rex seemed tense now, his body low, a faint heat building around him again as if reacting to danger.
The scratching suddenly stopped.
Just like that.
Silence returned.
But this silence was different.
It was heavy.
Unnatural.
Stefan narrowed his eyes, slowly approaching the door.
Stefan: "…Why did it stop?"
Then he saw it.
Through the thin gap beneath the bunker door—
A shadow.
Not the shape of claws.
Not paws.
Fingers.
Long.
Thin.
Twisted.
Nami's voice trembled behind him.
Nami: "That… that looks like a human…"
Stefan didn't respond.
Because deep down—
He already knew.
It wasn't.
The door suddenly shook violently.
BANG!
A loud impact dented the metal inward slightly.
Nami screamed.
Rex barked, a low growl forming as faint flames flickered around his mouth for the first time.
Another hit.
BANG!
A crack appeared near the edge.
Then—
Something forced its face into the gap.
Half of it.
The skin looked rotten, peeling away like burned flesh.
Its eye was sunken… but still moving.
Still alive.
Its mouth stretched unnaturally wide.
Mutant: "Hun…gry…"
The voice sounded broken.
Like multiple voices overlapping each other.
Stefan felt his body freeze.
Not from fear alone.
But from something else.
Something deeper.
Something instinctive.
The creature slammed into the door again—
But suddenly—
It stopped.
Its head tilted slightly.
As if… it sensed something.
Then slowly—
It backed away.
Stefan blinked in confusion.
Stefan: "…Why did it retreat?"
He carefully moved closer and opened a tiny slit in the reinforced window.
Outside—
The answer was clear.
Sunlight.
The creature had stepped into it.
And its skin was burning.
It screamed in pain, stumbling back into the shadows before running away at an unnatural speed.
Stefan exhaled slowly.
Stefan: "…They can't come out in sunlight…"
Behind him, Nami whispered—
Nami: "So… night is dangerous…"
Stefan nodded slightly.
But his thoughts weren't there anymore.
They were somewhere else.
On something else.
On the feeling he had just experienced.
For a moment…
When that creature was close…
He felt something strange.