MONSTER

A shambler? No, more like a monster from a horror movie. With an imposing build, more than two meters tall, the humanoid creature towered over anything Marcus had seen before. Its body was covered in what could only be described as organic armor, with plates of osseous appearance covering every inch of its skin. Luminous, pulsating nodules grew on odd places all over its body. Its face was adorned with not one, but two pairs of eyes, keenly focused on something on the upper level of the concourse.

'Shit…! This thing…! It's as mentioned in the report…! I think my suspicions were correct, after all! This is bad…!'

The armed people upstairs no longer felt like a tangible threat. Not in the presence of that creature. Marcus knew he had to act fast. If his suspicions were truly on the spot, things would soon take a drastic turn. He left his cover, rushing towards the opposite side of the concourse, where Claire and the other two survivors were hiding.

His steps were noisy and agitated, but the monster didn't care. Its attention was still fixated on the space above their heads. He was insignificant to it, trivial.

"M-Marcus…! W-What's…!?" muttered Claire. She looked scared as hell.

A man and a woman were beside her, crouching down behind a pillar. The man seemed familiar, but Marcus was almost certain he didn't know either of them. They also looked terrified, and stared at him as if expecting him to shoo the monster away.

He stopped for a moment and measured his words. He believed he knew what needed to be done. He had to stop that monster, somehow. And he'd need as much help as he could afford. But the risks… Those people looked up to him looking for help, but they might just find death instead. A very, very quick death.

A sweet, chirpy voice resonated in his head again, a memory settled in the deepest corners of his heart.

[You're like a superhero! Right!?]

[I wanna be able to save people, just like you!]

'Save people, huh…?'

…

"Leave…! You need to go away! Now! It's too dangerous!" he said.

The red-haired woman sprung up from the floor. "W-Wait…! Lilian is still up there!! And William…!"

"I'll go get them! I'll make sure they get out safely, I promise!"

"But—!"

A sudden outburst of noise interrupted their conversation. They all turned towards the center of the hall, just in time to witness the hulking beast sprinting towards the stairs leading up, taking huge strides of several steps at a time in its ascent.

Whatever it was looking for, it had found it.

"Go!!!" yelled Marcus, before going for the stairs after the creature.

******

William had heard them, loud noises coming from below, almost like explosions. He didn't know what to make of it, and he certainly wasn't going to abandon his cover to check them out. He thought they were strange; he hoped the others hadn't run into any unexpected issues. However, to have the noises run upstairs was even stranger. And the source of the noise? "Strange" didn't have a strong enough superlative to describe it.

It wasn't a shambler. No shambler was that big, no shambler could move that fast, and no shambler looked even remotely similar to that thing.

The creature knew of William's presence. Somehow, he knew it did. But it didn't mind him. The monster immediately turned in the direction of the poor devils panicking at the other side of the hall, and charged right towards them.

"F-Fuck…!! What it that thing!!!?"

"Shoot it…!!! Aaah, it's coming!!! Shoooot!!!!"

The following events might as well have been taken right out of a nightmare. A hail of bullets fell upon the monster, the deafening sound of the gunshots filling the air and making the eardrums vibrate as if they were about to explode. The projectiles hitting the body of the creature were as effective as a slingshot attempting to pierce a concrete wall. From William's perspective, it was a futile struggle; the bullets sounded like they were impacting stone rather than flesh. From the enemy's perspective, it was impending doom, quickly translating into terror.

"What the fuck is going on!!?"

"I-It's not working…!!!"

"Oh god…!! Oh god!!! Aaaaaaarrrgh!!!!"

William kept watching the scene, mesmerized and horrified on equal measure. There was no longer any risk of catching a bullet to the face, since they had run out of ammunition already. Their trembling hands insisted on pulling the triggers of their guns, despite nothing happening in response.

With gigantic leaps, the hulking humanoid approached one of the men and grabbed him by the torso with a single hand. The feeble human was lifted in the air like a child would lift a plushie. The creature grabbed his right leg with its free hand, and pulled hard. Then, it grabbed the right arm. Then, the head.

None of the men knew how to react at first. It was a horrific sight: their friend pulled apart limb after limb, his blood raining down on them, his lifeless body flung all the way across the hall… When panic struck them for real, they tried to run, but it didn't help them in the slightest. There was no running away. Their bodies were folding like made out of butter, their bones breaking like twigs, their spilling entrails decorating the floor and the walls.

That thing wasn't trying to bite, like other shamblers would. No, that monster was out to kill. And it was effective. Too effective.

Marcus emerged from the stairs, nearly tripping in the process. He looked at the creature as it finished disemboweling what little remained of Julien's men, and then turned around and rushed at William's position.

"Marcus…!! What the hell is that thing!!?" asked William.

"There's no time to explain…! I think it's going after the infected girl!! I need to stop it, somehow!! Run away!"

"What!!? Are you out of your mind!!? You don't stand a chance!! We both have to leave!!"

"I can't…!!"

"Marcus, that thing is bulletproof…!! I saw them try, and they are in pieces now!!"

Emitting a low grumbling noise, almost an incomprehensible muttering, the creature looked at a particular, nondescript store of the upper floor. It seemed to find it of special interest.

'Is that where the safe room is…?'

"You don't understand, William…! The girl must live, at all costs…! I'm sorry…!!" Marcus' voice was hysterical. It was the first time William had seen that man losing his temper.

He saw him lifting his pistol out of the corner of his eye. He tried to grab his arm, stop him from shooting, from dooming the both of them. But he wasn't fast enough. The handgun boomed, lighting up the entire hallway for an instant. The bullet traveled across the building on a clean, direct path towards the monster's head.

"Bloody hell…!!! You fucking psychopath!!! Didn't you hear when—!!?"

He wanted to throw more expletives at him, but a sudden barrage of increasingly loud noises stopped him in his tracks.

Both men reacted on pure, raw instinct. The imminent threat, crystal clear, made them forget about each other and seek their own survival instead. Marcus jumped back and retreated into a dark, abandoned store on the left side of the hallway. William lunged back as well, and fell through a door on the right side. A fraction of a second later, the creature charged past the spot where they had been standing just a moment ago, sinking its feet into the ground as it struggled to lose velocity.

As big as the thing was, one would expect it to be slower. Much slower.

'Damn you, Marcus…! I'll kill you if we make it out of this one…!'

William was still in the middle of standing up, when a massive armored claw appeared from behind the corner and wrapped itself around the doorframe he had just entered through.

'Shit…!!'

His legs moved faster than his thoughts, and before he noticed he had already moved deeper into the darkness, turning a corner and reaching a dead end. Even though the lack of light was almost absolute, he could barely make out the outlines and shapes of a male restroom.

…

He didn't bother closing the stall door. It would make unnecessary noise. As if a flimsy wooden door would be enough to shield him from that monster anyway.

He felt truly defenseless. He could hear the armor plates of the creature scraping on the walls, as it was probably too big to fit into the narrow corridor that granted access to the restroom. Still, the sound of debris scattering on the floor made it clear that the entity wasn't willing to stop. He heard its heavy breathing noises, deep and cavernous, as it brute-forced its way into the stall area with physical strength alone.

There was a moment of silence, then his stall was shaken as if hit by an earthquake. The vibrations propagated quickly, wooden panels and doors getting ripped to pieces and torn off like they were made of paper.

He had no chances left. No human could fight that thing and avoid being ripped apart in the process. Wait for the monster to be busy destroying his stall, and somehow slip away; that was the only possibility he saw.

William kneeled down. His entire body covered in dirt and sweat. The noise of splintering wood and bending metal deafening his ears. There was no need to fool himself, was there? He was scared.

He waited for the critical moment. He'd only have a single chance. If he missed it, he'd be dead.

…

Yet the critical moment never arrived. It took him a second to realize it, just how silent the restroom had suddenly become.

Even the creature's breathing was gone. But it was still there, William could still perceive strange bodily noises, which reminded him of heartbeats and stomach growls. Yet nothing was happening. What was it waiting for? He was right there, within arm's reach. Why wasn't it doing anything?

******

"No…!! Nooo…!!! Stay away!!!" Claire opened fire, overcome by panic. Surprisingly, it was a clean shot, and the shambler fell down like a rag, with a fresh hole in its cranium.

As if one less shambler made a difference.

She had built up a lot of courage in the previous minutes, she was ready to take action, but where had all that determination gone? "I'll save Lilian!", "I won't leave them behind!", those were the kind of things she told herself.

It was unfortunate that shambler hordes were damn efficient at deconstructing bravado.

They started rising in troves from the underground tunnels. They were no longer interested in the outbreak site down below, but on the events taking place on the surface. Dozens upon dozens of them, on the thin line between walking and running, as hungry and angry as ever.

Claire, Nora and Desmond had no way to contain them. They had blocked the access to the stairs. They had to go. They had to leave William and Lilian behind.

"Why is this happening…!!? Lilian…!! I just want my sister back…!!! Liliaaan…!!!" Nora was at her wits' end.

With no other options at their disposal, the group burst out through the main entrance of the concourse. Early evening rays of sun greeted them outside, but they were too busy to care about them, climbing the entrance stairs towards the street.

"Wait… W-What…? Why…?" Claire made an attempt to raise her gun once again, but gave up halfway through. There was no point.

More shamblers approached the area. Both sides of the street were full of them. The alleyways leading into the street were packed full as well. They crawled over cars, they fell from the windows of nearby buildings, they surfaced from every possible corner. It was a wall of walking corpses, closing in on the subway station from every direction.

She truly felt like giving up entirely.

"Why…?"

'What have we done to deserve this…?'

******

Nora couldn't bear to focus on anything. She had seen the sea of shamblers getting closer, but her senses were suddenly confused. What was going on? Her knees failed her. She dropped down, grabbing her head with both hands.

That headache had been present for a while, but over the previous minute it had intensified to an unprecedented magnitude. It had gone from mild discomfort to making her head feel like it was about to blow up. Her sight was blurry. She smelled weird things, which she shouldn't be smelling. Her hands had lost their sense of touch. Her hearing seemed impaired; she knew Claire was saying something by her side, but she couldn't tell what it was.

'W-What's… happening to me…!?'

Then, her sight flashed white for an instant, a loud ringing noise drilled her brain, and she heard a voice. Distant, soft, and familiar.

******

William physically flinched when the creature went from complete silence to a frenzied outburst of rage in a matter of seconds. But it wasn't directed at him. All he heard was a grave growl and an extremely loud breaking noise, followed by heavy footsteps getting away at a rapid pace.

He took a look outside the stall. Shy rays of light shimmered through a huge dust cloud filling the room. His eyes fell upon the massive hole in the wall, leading back into the hallway.

A wrecking ball would've done less damage.

******

"Hurry the fuck up!!! Leave that shit behind, we don't have time!!"

"What the hell was that!!?"

"Get moving!! Hurry!!!"

Logan heard a lot of noise at the back of the van. They were arguing among themselves instead of getting things done, as usual. He took a quick look at the mirrors. Julien was sitting in the back compartment, holding Lilian right by his side. He seemed calm, but the nervous drops of sweat on his forehead made it quite obvious that he was concerned. That Jacobs guy… he was sitting calmly on the front seat, not even caring about the situation that much. He was difficult to read, but at least he was capable and coldblooded, which made him useful.

All the rest were scaredy-cats that merely followed orders in hopes of not getting left behind. He couldn't care less about them. He knew they needed as many people as they could get, but they wouldn't really miss them if they lost one or two more. He kept his foot on the pedal.

A loud crashing sound startled everyone in the van, with the exception of Jacobs. Logan watched the side mirror, just in time to spot a gigantic humanoid bursting through the wall of the subway station and jumping down to the street.

"Mr. Logan…!" Julien's voice was an order in itself.

He didn't bother replying. He also didn't bother waiting for the people still on the ground, loading sacks of supplies onto the back of the van. They didn't have time for that.

He stepped on the accelerator.

******

Nora's head turned as if moved by an unseen force. For a while, she didn't control her own actions, it felt like she had become a spectator of her own body. She looked at herself in third person, like someone who watches a character in a movie or a videogame. She turned right, and she stared down the street, past the wall of shamblers, all the way to the nearby intersection.

A vehicle emerged from behind the subway station building. Was it running away? It seemed like it. It ran away from the strange monster from before. But that wasn't important.

She felt like time itself slowed down. In that period of almost ethereal consciousness, her vision travelled through empty space, up to the moving vehicle, then past its outer body, and into the back compartment.

Those eyes again. Dark like an empty void, yet full of light at the same time. A soothing, relaxing light. A light that saw beyond all her inner turmoil, dispelling it away.

[…ay…]

[…way…]

[…hi… wa…]

[…th… ay…]

Her voice was nothing but a distant murmur at first, but it kept repeating itself, looping again and again. It became easier to hear every time, until it was loud and clear.

[This way.]

'L-Lilian…? I-Is that… you…?'

Nora's vision retracted all the way into her physical body again, and time seemed to resume its usual flow. Her head didn't hurt anymore. Her senses came back to her. She was left with nothing but utter confusion. She had heard about people having out-of-body experiences before, but she didn't really believe in it. But that experience she just had… It felt like a connection, a direct connection. A connection with her little sister, something that only she could comprehend.

"H-Huh…?" Claire also sounded confused. Had she seen something as well? Nora looked at her, but she wasn't staring in the direction of the van. Instead, she just looked around in disbelief.

Nora's eyes combed their surroundings. The sea of shamblers were no longer approaching them. They were walking past them. Dangerously close, almost running into them, but ignoring them. They were heading somewhere else. They were heading in the direction the van had left.

'What… what is going… on…?'

Nora didn't even notice her eyes closing on their own, and her own consciousness fading into nothingness.