Ryan stayed braced against the door, the paring knife trembling slightly in his grip.Someone was slamming a fist against it from the other side, hard enough to rattle the frame."Open the door, you bastard! Open it right now!"Ryan sucked in a few slow breaths, forcing his hammering pulse to settle."You think I'm stupid? Get lost.""You son of a bitch if we starve, you're not walking away clean either.""Don't tempt me to drag those things up here and let them sort us all out together."That landed. Ryan's eye twitched."...Together, huh?""Think it through before you get us all killed. You'll turn first. Then you'll go after your own parents. Your wife. Your kid.""You really want that?"The pounding on the door stopped cold."...Man, I don't have a choice.""I can't just sit here and watch my kid starve. That's not something I can live with.""So your solution is to rob me and let me starve instead?""I already gave you food.""I know what I'm doing is messed up, man. But nobody k

If he lost this standoff, one pack of ramen would buy him another day the exact value of one Survival Point.There was no version of this where Ryan let that happen."Fine hold on, I'll open it. I'm trusting you'll actually keep your word.""Don't overthink it. Play nice and you'll get fed."Ryan shut his eyes and took a slow breath. He needed a second to steady himself.He was about to kill someone.He checked the pistol, thumbed off the safety, and told the crowd outside to back up before he cracked the door.The second it opened, their faces lit up right up until they registered the barrel pointed straight at them."Ha! You think a toy gun's gonna scare us? Where would a guy like you even get a real"BANG.The firing pin answered for him.That gun was real. And so was the man now bleeding out on the hallway tile.The ones who'd surged forward scrambled back, ducking behind each other.Ryan swung the muzzle toward the big guy who'd been running his mouth the whole time."Go ahead. E

For a while after that, Ryan kept up his daily training just without pushing himself to total exhaustion anymore. He needed his body ready for anything, not wrecked from overtraining.He also spent more time watching the street below. It wasn't just the human infected that had changed the cats and dogs down there had bulked up well past anything natural.He'd watched, once, as an infected cat caved in another infected's skull with a single swipe of its claws. The thing never got back up.Twelve more days passed while Ryan waited for his window.In that stretch, he'd bought nutrient formula four separate times. His balance now sat at 81 points.He'd started to think the day was winding down like any other until the sound of heavy, sustained gunfire cracked through the air nearby.Every infected on the street below immediately took off toward the noise.Ryan understood instantly: this was his shot.In this country, nobody outside the military produced gunfire with that kind of volume an

Ryan was directed onto one of the buses.The infected had switched targets, and the convoy used the opening to push forward again.He'd barely settled into his seat when a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him, his whole body suddenly aching, hunger crashing over him all at once.Whatever lingering caution he had about wasting the nutrient formula evaporated. He dug a bottle out of his bag and drained it in one go."Hey man, what is that stuff you're drinking?""Some kind of electrolyte drink. Never seen it before?"The bottle genuinely did look like something off a gas station shelf."Got any more, man? Let me get a taste. I've almost forgotten what sweet even tastes like.""Nah, that was my last one. And honestly it's probably expired anyway.""So hey, you know where this convoy's actually headed?""No clue. I asked. Nobody's talking. Just heard it's some kind of shelter.""Guessing you joined mid-route too, huh?""Yeah. Everybody on this bus did.""See those armored trucks up front?

Compared to the strange calm settling over Clearwater Cove, the rest of North America was still a nightmare in motion.Mutated creatures tore into each other constantly, locked in an endless cycle of hunting and devouring.The thing that had chased Ryan through the streets wasn't rare, and it certainly wasn't the worst of what was out there.Somewhere out past the harbor, in the shadow of a great copper statue holding its torch aloft, two monsters were locked in battle.One stood over ten feet tall, humanoid, its entire body studded with pulsing tumors. Every swing of its arms sent gouts of green fluid splattering from the growths a corrosive slurry that hissed and smoked wherever it struck the ground.Its opponent looked like something dragged out of old mythology a massive three-headed hound, its fur pure white, each of its three mouths exhaling a constant plume of pale mist.Where the green acid met the white mist, the air itself sizzled, both substances seeming to eat away at each