The night air was thick with the stench of blood. They had escaped the hospital, but the screams still clung to their ears like cobwebs. Every footstep sounded too loud on the cracked pavement as they staggered down an abandoned street, the moans of the undead echoing faintly in the distance.
Kelvin led the way, his shoulders heaving, his jaw tight. His shirt was torn and spattered with Sasha's blood. He hadn't spoken a word since the moment she was dragged under.
Tori and Lisa limped behind him, pale and trembling. They looked like ghosts themselves — eyes wide, lips cracked, faces hollowed by hunger and fear. Lisa kept glancing at her hands as if expecting them to be stained red, though there was no blood on them.
Lexi trailed last. Her breaths came steady, her eyes sharp. She hadn't screamed when Sasha was taken. She hadn't even reached for her. She had simply watched. Calculating. Waiting.
They finally collapsed inside the shell of an abandoned car repair shop. The rolling metal shutter was already half-closed, giving them enough cover to catch their breath. The silence that followed was suffocating.
Kelvin broke it first. He slammed his fist into the wall so hard the plaster cracked.
"Damn it!" His voice shook with rage. "She was right there! I could've—" He stopped himself, chest heaving. His fists trembled.
"You could've saved her," Tori whispered, her voice brittle. She sat with her knees drawn to her chest, rocking slightly. Her eyes shone with tears that refused to fall. "You pushed her off… Kelvin… you pushed her."
Kelvin's head snapped toward her, fury flashing across his face. "Don't you dare! Don't you dare put that on me! If I hadn't let go, we'd both be dead!"
Lisa buried her face in her hands, muffling a sob. "She trusted us. And we left her. We just left her."
Lexi leaned against the cold wall in the corner, watching them. She said nothing, but a small, unreadable smile tugged at the corner of her lips. They were breaking apart already — faster than she'd even predicted.
"You think I don't hear her screams?" Kelvin snarled, his voice cracking under the weight of guilt he was trying to hide. "Every time I close my eyes, I hear it. I see her face. But this is the world now. You hesitate, you die. You're weak, you die. That's how it is."
Tori flinched. Her tears spilled at last. "Then what's the point of surviving if we have to become monsters?"
Kelvin turned away, pressing his forehead against the wall. His knuckles were white, his chest rising and falling like a storm. He didn't answer.
The silence that followed was broken only by the distant groan of the infected outside, shuffling endlessly in the streets.
Lexi closed her eyes, listening. Sasha's scream replayed in her mind — but unlike the others, it wasn't guilt she felt. It was clarity. The group was weak. Fear had already poisoned them. They'd tear each other apart long before the dead finished the job.