Chapter 7(iii) – Shots and Smiles [iii]
POV: Blair
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We were halfway down the slope when the second roar split the air. Louder. Closer.
Micah raised a fist. We both froze.
"Back," he said in a low voice. "Now."
I didn't argue. The birds had stopped chirping. Even the wind felt still—like nature itself was holding its breath.
Something was coming.
We dropped low and moved through the underbrush, feet careful not to snap twigs. My pulse thudded in my throat.
Half a minute later, we saw it.
Down in the clearing, hunched over a carcass, was a thing. Not just undead—twisted. Leaner. Elongated limbs. Its spine arched unnaturally, head twitching like it couldn't settle into its own skull.
Its breathing was erratic. Too fast. Almost like…
…it was excited.
Micah whispered, "That's new."
I swallowed. "You think it saw us?"
"No," he said, eyes narrowed. "But it will. Let's not be here when it does."
---
POV: Luke
Our sweep of Zone F had gone mostly quiet—too quiet.
Jane and I moved through a collapsed parking structure. Every footstep echoed.
"Whatever did this," she said, "wasn't scavenging. It was hunting."
I nodded. The cars were torn open, not just rusted out. Claw marks, metal peeled back like tin.
"Jane," I said, "what was that dream you had last night?"
She looked at me, startled.
I shrugged. "You mentioned something."
She hesitated, then said, "There was this hallway. I kept hearing someone crying behind a locked door. Every time I tried to open it, the crying got louder. But… it wasn't fear. It sounded like pain. Like they were being changed."
My stomach twisted.
Changed.
I didn't say anything after that.
Didn't need to.
---
POV: Jonah
I don't usually shut up, but this place had me clamped tight. Scarlett didn't talk either—eyes scanning constantly, rifle always up.
We found a small alley between two bakeries. Looked untouched. No bodies. No rot.
But there were claw marks on the second floor window. Deep. Parallel. Higher than any of us could reach.
"What the hell climbed up there?" I muttered.
Scarlett didn't answer. She was looking at the floor. At a pile of bones.
Clean.
Like they'd been stripped.
Something clicked in the distance—like a can kicked across pavement.
I raised my gun. "We need to go."
Scarlett nodded once, and we moved. Fast.
---
POV: Scarlett
We regrouped an hour later near the rendezvous line. The others came in one by one. No one spoke at first.
Blair and Micah showed up with scratches across their jackets.
Luke and Jane looked rattled.
Grey arrived last. Quiet. Distant.
"See anything?" Luke asked him.
He shook his head. "Nothing worth chasing."
Liar. I could see it in his eyes—he saw something. Probably more than all of us combined.
Micah lit a cigarette. "Whatever's out there, it's not waiting for nightfall anymore."
We all stood in silence, the city behind us too still.
Then Jonah muttered, "Whoever designed this recon mission can kiss my ass."
---
POV: Grey
Later that night, back at the checkpoint, I sat alone near the edge of the tents, a piece of paper in hand.
It was a map—roughly sketched from what I'd seen.
But I wasn't planning to turn it in.
Not yet.
Some places… some things weren't for them to find.
Behind me, laughter drifted from the others. Jonah and Blair were trading jabs again. Luke and Jane were polishing weapons.
Scarlett stood apart, watching all of them. Then, after a long minute, she looked my way.
I didn't move.
Didn't need to.
She didn't smile.
But neither did I.
---
POV: Scarlett
After the debrief, no one said much.
The walk back to camp was silent, boots crunching over dry earth and broken glass. I kept glancing at the others—at Blair's tight grip on her rifle, at Jane's far-off stare, at the subtle tremble in Jonah's fingertips he tried to hide.
Whatever we saw today—whatever we felt—it wasn't just fear. It was shift. A realization that the rules were changing. Again.
Even Grey looked… off. Not shaken. Just… further away than usual. Like he'd stepped through a door none of us could see, and part of him stayed behind it.
Back at camp, we split. Jane went to check supplies. Luke lingered at the perimeter, watching the dark like it might answer back. Blair lit a small fire in the training pit, trying to distract Jonah with dumb card tricks.
I just sat.
Sometimes silence was easier than pretending.
---
POV: Blair
I didn't say anything to Micah when we got back. Didn't need to.
He gave me one nod, then disappeared toward the command tents. Probably writing a report that would get half-censored by morning.
I dropped near the fire pit and started messing with the deck I swiped from the supply cache last week.
Jonah sat across from me, gaze distant.
"You good?" I asked.
He nodded, but it was automatic. Empty.
"You're lying," I said, flicking a card into the dirt.
He cracked a smile, barely. "Yeah. That obvious?"
I shrugged. "You're too loud to be quiet for this long."
He leaned forward, elbows on knees. "Whatever that thing was… it wasn't scavenging. It wasn't searching. It knew we were there. I felt it. Like it was just… waiting."
I said nothing.
Mostly because I'd felt the same.
---
POV: Luke
Hours passed. Midnight right behind the ridge and left us in it's grey shadow. Most of the camp was already turning in, but I stayed outside the barracks.
At least where i could.
Jane was inside, staring at her boots.
I didn't blame her.
Today felt like we touched something raw—something half-awake.
I looked across camp.
Grey was sitting alone near the old radio tower, legs drawn up, some map in hand. Scarlett watched him from a distance, not moving. Just… watching.
I'd known Grey a long time. Long enough to notice the difference between his usual quiet and whatever this was.
And I'd learned to trust my gut.
Something in him was cracking.
---
POV: Grey
I folded the map and slipped it into my jacket.
They'd ask what I saw.
I'd lie.
Not because I wanted to—but because truth was a weight no one else here knew how to carry. Not yet.
The world was evolving.
And some of us had been left behind in that process—by design.
I glanced toward the camp.
Scarlett turned away just as our eyes met. She didn't pretend to be casual about it. Just walked.
I looked up at the night sky, cloudless and still.
Then, quietly—to no one—I said,
"I remember this feeling."
A wind passed. Cold. Familiar.
By past 3am the camp was still, lax patrols ..sleepy security
I moved
Out of base
To the location I marked on the map
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