With one final, heavy THUD, the apartment door finally gave way.
The refrigerator and wardrobe that had been blocking it were pushed aside as the door broke open.
The Protein Hunter slowly stepped inside.
He was bleeding from his head and hands, the price he'd paid to break into our world, but he didn't seem to care.
It lowered its body and began looking around.
Its maroon eyes moved constantly, searching for something.
Searching for us.
Aurora and I were standing against the wall beside the doorway. We didn't move. We barely breathed.
We had prepared everything before the Protein Hunter broke through. Our backpacks were on. Our homemade spears were in our hands. We made them with kitchen knives tied tightly to broomsticks. And we had taken off our shoes. Instead, we were wearing four pairs of socks each. It felt ridiculous, but shoes would make too much noise on every single steps. If we wanted to survive while surrounded by these sharp hearing abomination, we needed every bit of silence we could get. Being uncomfortable was far better than being heard by these non veg lovers.
My feet were already sweating inside the layers of socks. But it would give our feet some protection from the floor, especially from the road. I had walked barefoot on roads before. Trust me, concrete, broken glass, and small stones are not friendly to human feet.
Aurora was trembling so badly that I was afraid the movement itself might give us away.
I looked at her. She looked back at me, her eyes filled with fear.
I slowly nodded. Which meant, 'Stay still. Everything will be fine.'
At least, that was what I wanted her to believe.
I slowly looked down at my phone.That little piece of technology had been my closest companion for years.
It had been there when I was lonely. It had been there when I was bored. It had been there during countless sleepless nights.
I brought the phone close to my face, kissed the screen silently, and whispered, "Sorry, friend. One last favor." I smiled sadly. "Thank you for everything. Goodbye."
The Protein Hunter's head suddenly turned toward me.
I froze. My heart almost stopped. For a few seconds, its eyes stayed fixed in my direction. I didn't move. Neither did Aurora.
Then the creature slowly turned away. Maybe it had heard something else. Maybe there was a mouse in the kitchen.
I had my chance.
Then I took one careful step forward and threw the phone toward the sofa at the far end of the living room. It landed on the cushions with a soft thump.
The Protein Hunter immediately turned toward it. It stared at the glowing screen.
I held my breath.
Ten seconds. Twenty.
The creature slowly moved toward the sofa.
The countdown hit zero. Then....
The loud alarm exploded through the apartment.
The Protein Hunter reacted instantly.
It charged toward the sofa, its claws scraping across the floor.
Aurora instinctively moved. I grabbed her arm.
"Wait." I whispered.
We heard sounds of a army is coming.
The alarm had become a dinner bell.
Within seconds, the hallway erupted with clicking, scratching sounds.
One Crawler rushed through the broken doorway. Then another. Then another. They poured into the living room, all drawn toward the screaming phone.
The Protein Hunter attacked the first one that came too close, knocking it aside.
More Crawlers pushed past it. They weren't working together. They were simply following the sound.
Aurora looked at me. I raised one finger. 'Wait'. We stayed against the wall.
The living room became chaos. Pale bodies crashed into furniture. Claws scraped across the floor. The Protein Hunter swung wildly at anything that came near. The alarm kept screaming from the sofa. And more Crawlers kept coming.
When the stream of crawlers finally thinned, I looked at Aurora. She was ready. I gave her a small nod.
'Now.'
We slipped out of the apartment like ghosts, moving into the gore-slicked hallway.
The hallway smelled even worse than before. Blood, sweat, and something rotten filled the air.
Neither of us said a word. We ran toward the stairs.
Aurora glanced at the elevator. "Lift?"
I looked at her. "Electricity?"
She understood immediately.
We took the stairs.
The stairwell was a mess. Blood covered the steps and walls. Some of it was still wet.
I slowed down.
"Careful," I whispered. "Don't step on the blood."
Aurora nodded.
We moved carefully, focusing every ounce of our concentration. If we slipped, we were dead.
As we crossed the third-floor landing, the familiar sounds echoed from below.
I grabbed Aurora's wrist. "Stop."
She froze.
I looked down the stairs. Three Crawlers were coming up. They were moving quickly, their claws scraping against the concrete.
I tightened my grip on the spear. "Stay behind me."
Aurora moved back.
The first Crawler almost got too close. I prepared myself to strike.
Then something completely unexpected happened.
Its front claws landed on a patch of fresh blood. Its feet slipped. The Crawler lost its balance and crashed onto the stairs. It rolled down the steps, hitting the second Crawler on the way. The second one fell into the third.
Within seconds, all three were tangled together, rolling and struggling on the stairs.
Aurora stared, her eyes wide. "What? How?"
"Miracle." I replied. "Now go."
We moved past them as quickly as we could, keeping to the side of the stairs.
A few seconds later, we reached the ground floor. The main entrance was right ahead. The door was already open.
We stepped outside.
For the first time in five days, my feet touched the outside world. I stopped for half a second. The city was right in front of me. But I didn't have time to look. We stepped away from the entrance.
Then I turned around.
The street-level door was still open. I couldn't risk leaving it that way. I grabbed the handle and pulled the door shut. And locked it.
I looked around and found a piece of broken metal near the entrance. I jammed it through the handle.
I took a step back.
I didn't want the "Protein Hunter" or his new friends coming for our autographs.
Then, I turned around.
And for the first time in a week, I really looked at the city.
I had seen it from the rooftop. I had seen the streets from windows. But this was different. I was standing in it.
The city looked nothing like the place I had left a week ago.
A thin layer of grey ash covered the roads, cars, buildings, and everything else. Smoke still hung in the distance, rising from somewhere between the buildings.
The silence was worse than anything else. This city was supposed to be loud. Cars should have been honking. People should have been talking. Buses should have been passing by. Somewhere, someone should have been shouting at a taxi driver.
Instead, there was almost nothing. Only the sound of a loose plastic bag being pushed along the road by the wind.
I slowly looked around.
Hundreds of cars had been left in the middle of the road. Some had crashed into each other. Some had their doors open. A few had smashed windows. People had clearly abandoned them in a hurry.
I could see the dark, smeared handprints on the glass, the final, desperate signatures of people who realized too late that a car is just a metal coffin when the Crawlers arrive.
Aurora's fingers tightened slightly.
I looked at her.
She wasn't crying. She wasn't trembling either. But there was something in her eyes.
Maybe she was feeling guilt. For still being alive.
She was looking at everything. The abandoned cars, the blood on the road, the broken windows, he empty buildings. Her eyes moved slowly from one place to another, as if she was trying to understand how the world had changed so much in only a few days.
She swallowed.
"Aryan…." she said softly.
It wasn't a question. It wasn't a statement. It was just my name. And in that one word I heard everything:
Are we alone? Is this the whole city? Is this permanent? Can we survive this?
I didn't answer her. Because I didn't have any answer. Instead, So I simply squeezed her hand. She squeezed mine back.
I looked down at the asphalt. It was covered with strange scratches. Long marks ran across the road in different directions. Crawler tracks.
I had seen them before, but seeing them everywhere made my stomach tighten. They had been running through these streets. Hunting.
I looked toward the buildings around us. Most of the shops were dark. Some doors were broken, while others were hanging open.
The Crawlers seemed to gather wherever they could find prey. That meant every building, every alley, every dark corner could be dangerous. I made a mental note of it.
"Aryan....where do we go now?" Aurora asked.
I adjusted the straps of my backpack. We had packed the things we thought might help us survive and easy to carry.
But we couldn't take everything. If our bags became too heavy, running would become impossible. And right now, being able to run was more important than carrying every useful thing we owned.
The problem was food and water. We had very little left.
"We can't go back. And our rations are too much low." I said. "We need to find a resource abd a shelter soon."
"Should we....check the other apartments?" she asked, glancing at the neighboring buildings. "Maybe someone left something behind?"
"No," I shook my head. "Too risky. We'd be clearing rooms and climbing stairs for a fifty-percent chance of finding leftovers of rats. Every door we open can have a Crawler waiting behind it."
I looked at the buildings around us. Then I remembered the mall.
"If we're going to risk our lives, we do it for a jackpot." I pointed toward the road ahead. "Grand Plaza Mall. Three blocks from here."
Aurora followed my finger. "Do you think there'll still be food?"
- "Almost certainly."
- "And Crawlers?"
I looked at the empty streets. "Almost certainly."
She sighed. "Great."
I smiled. "Welcome to my plan."
She gave me a tired look.
I said softly, "We don't have many choices."
"Okay," she whispered, stepping closer to me.
My mind was calculating the safest route through the Boneyard of cars.
I took a deep breath. "Stay in my shadow. If I drop, you drop. Don't look at the sky, and for God's sake, don't step on anything that crunches. Always remain alert."
- "Aryan."
- "Yes?"
- "You're becoming annoying."
- "Good. That means you're feeling better."
She almost smiled. Almost.
I looked toward the mall in the distance.
Three blocks. It didn't sound far. But in this city, three blocks could be the longest journey of our lives.
I raised my spear slightly. "Let's move. Before Sun decides to hide."
Aurora nodded.
And together, we stepped into the dead city.