The grim determination in the bunker was shattered not by an Arbiter counter-attack, but by a sound everyone in this new world knew intimately: the guttural, ravenous screech of a Hunter-class Mutant, far closer than it should be.
Everyone froze. The data-screens and the soft blue glow of the Aethel reserve were suddenly trivial compared to that primal threat.
"A perimeter breach?" Celestia snapped, her hand going to her silver threads.
Zoe was already at the ventilation shaft, her nose twitching. "Not close. East. But… many. A large pack. And something else. A smell… sharp, chemical. Not natural decay."
Julian's eyes narrowed. The timing was too coincidental. He gestured to Beatrix. "Patch into any remaining public frequency, emergency channels."
Beatrix's fingers flew. The sterile silence was replaced by a cacophony of panicked, broken transmissions, filtering through the static of the dead city.
"—swarm at the river district! They're not shambling, they're coordinating—!"
