Julian watched the carnage unfolding above and understood exactly what was at stake every second mattered now.The data compression had hit its floor. Pushing it further risked corrupting everything they'd worked to preserve."How much longer?" His voice was taut, clipped."Forty-eight minutes.""Tell Lieutenant Lewis we move in fifty. No later.""Understood, sir."He turned to face his grandchildren.Ethan and Naomi his pride, and the last hope the Morrison name had left."Ethan. Naomi.""Grandpa," they answered together, resolve steady in their eyes, fitted into their custom armor like generals stepping onto an ancient battlefield."This breakthrough rides on the two of you."Absolute trust colored every word."You don't need to worry, Grandpa.""Don't get reckless. We have no idea how many are still out there.""Twenty-five minutes. The second that clock runs out, you're back in the vehicle. Understood?""Yes, Grandpa."Word reached Lewis that he only needed to hold fifty minutes,

Ryan had watched the entire fight unfold through the monitor.He had no idea whether Naomi was still alive.But when he redirected the monitor to sweep the exterior of the estate, something became immediately clear.The infected outside had gone into a frenzy agitated in a way that suggested something inside the villa was pulling at them.He remembered exactly what had happened last time the gray-armored one got shredded by gunfire how the surrounding infected had swarmed in to feed on it, madly, indiscriminately.Between that and everything he'd seen from the red-muscled ones, the pattern wasn't hard to piece together. He had a decent theory now on what was actually driving this evolution.This shelter was where he planned to hole up for a while. He had zero interest in discovering, weeks from now, that he was trapped inside it surrounded by an army of gray-armored horrors.Bottom line if he wanted this place to stay a shelter instead of becoming a tomb, he needed to deal with the bo

Yesterday, Jake had rationed himself half a sleeve of crackers for the entire day.He'd treated the coffee grounds like candy letting a pinch dissolve slowly on his tongue before finally just drinking the whole bag dry.This morning, hunger won. He caved and ate half a pack of instant ramen.Then immediately started beating himself up over it."Why didn't I pick a room with an actual bathroom attached?""Sneaking out through the door crack was fine when I was just going to the bathroom.""I've barely eaten anything, why does my body think this is an emergency?"He'd considered shoving the wardrobe aside and heading out.Then remembered the infected he'd personally watched wander into this exact building yesterday, and reconsidered hard."This is on those six idiots from yesterday. Couldn't be bothered to shut the door behind them."Day four in the shelter.Ryan woke up and checked his phone out of habit.81 points banked.He pulled up Naomi's profile the "Weakened" tag had vanished fr

Once every infected in the house had been picked clean, Jake bolted straight out of the villa.A fresh round of hunting started immediately.Ryan, meanwhile, had been half-watching the monitor feed out of boredom.At first, the chaos on screen looked like standard infected-devouring-infected territory evolution in progress, same as before.Then the camera caught a good look at the thing howling like some kind of feral animal.Jake's face smeared with god knows what filled the screen, and Ryan's brain simply stopped working for a second."...What. Jake?""Oh my god. Is he is he eating them?""He just tore that thing's head clean off with his bare hands!"Ryan's shocked outburst pulled Naomi and Mia over immediately."That's him that's Jake!" Mia said, a note of relief mixed into her surprise. She still had a soft spot for him he was the one who'd carried her to Ryan in the first place.Naomi tilted her head. "Friend of yours?""Guess so. Genuinely decent guy, as far as I know.""He tur

It took a bit for Jake to fully compose himself.The moment he caught his breath, his first coherent sentence was: "Steak. Now. Feed me."Someone made a small retching sound in the background.Watching Jake eat was, at this point, genuinely harder to stomach than the horror show that had caused all this."Ryan, come on, untie me. I swear I'm done with... whatever that was.""How exactly do you plan on guaranteeing that? I watched you rip a no, watched you rip an infected apart with your bare hands.""Okay, hard to explain, but I think eating actually stores energy for me now.""Like, the more I take in, the stronger I get physically.""Fine. But if you go feral again, don't say I didn't warn you.""Relax, I've got a handle on it. I'm not exactly a regular guy anymore.""Sure, most 'regular guys' don't treat a crime scene like an all-you-can-eat buffet, but okay.""Alright, alright, point taken."Once Ryan untied him, he walked Jake straight over to Naomi.Jake, still working through h