Deadzone: Surviving The End of The World

Chapter 3

Caleb followed the winding road higher into the forest.

The air was thin and still. No insects. No wind. Only the slow creak of trees shifting in the cold.

He had not eaten since the night before. His throat burned from running.

Every few minutes he stopped to listen. The silence was never total. Far below, the river hummed in a voice that was not water.

He passed a gas tanker on its side. The cab was crushed against a pine. The driver’s seat was empty, but the door was open as if someone had climbed out.

The ground smelled of fuel.

He moved carefully around it, keeping his eyes on the woods.

A cry echoed from the next bend.

It was human.

Caleb lifted the wrench in his hand and moved toward the sound. A small bus had gone off the road and slid into a ditch. The front was buried in dirt. Smoke rose from the hood.

He heard another voice, weaker now.

He climbed down the slope and pulled the door open.

Inside, three people huddled near the back seats. A woman in a torn nurse’s uniform looked up first. Her face was pale and streaked with soot. Beside her, a man in a trucker’s jacket held a boy who could not have been older than sixteen.

“Stay back,” the man said, raising a tyre iron.

Caleb lifted both hands. “I’m not one of them.”

The woman’s eyes studied him. “You came from town?”

“Yes. It’s gone.”

The boy whispered something that sounded like a prayer. The woman reached out to calm him.

Caleb climbed inside. The smell of burned rubber and blood filled the air. Two other seats were empty except for backpacks and a pool of water that glowed faintly blue.

The man nodded once. “Name’s Dylan. This is Nora. The kid’s Luke.”

“Caleb,” he said. “We can’t stay here. The noise will bring them.”

As if answering his words, a faint rustle came from the trees. Then another.

Nora grabbed a metal rod from the floor. Dylan checked the window.

Shapes moved between the pines, thin and fast. Their eyes caught the dim light like glass.

“How many?” Caleb asked.

Dylan shook his head. “Too many.”

The first figure stepped into view. Its clothes were torn. The skin of its face looked grey and stretched tight. The eyes glowed the same cold blue as the river.

Another appeared behind it. Then more, until the edge of the forest shimmered with them.

Nora whispered, “They’re drawn to sound. Maybe we can slip away.”

Caleb pointed toward the back of the bus where the emergency hatch hung open. “Quiet and slow.”

They climbed out one by one. The ground was soft with moss and mud. Caleb led them up the hill away from the road. Each step was careful, deliberate. The air carried the low hum that had haunted him since the night before.

The hum grew stronger with every pulse.

They reached a fallen log and crouched behind it. The bus was twenty meters below.

The first of the infected reached it and began clawing at the doors. More followed, filling the ditch until the sound of their movements blended into a single heavy rhythm.

The boy made a small sound in his throat. The creatures stopped moving.

They turned their heads toward the hill.

Caleb whispered, “Run.”

The four of them broke from cover and pushed through the undergrowth. Branches tore at their arms. The hum rose until it felt like a heartbeat under the earth.

Behind them came the crash of feet and broken branches.

Dylan stumbled but kept moving. “There’s an old ranger station north of here,” he said between breaths. “Half a mile.”

They followed the narrow trail until the trees opened into a clearing.

A small wooden tower stood there, its roof half-collapsed but still standing. The metal sign near the door read Rivermouth Ridge Station.

Caleb pulled the door open. The hinges screamed. Dust filled his lungs.

Inside were old maps, a broken radio, and a generator with its fuel tank half full.

They pushed a cabinet against the door and fell to the floor, catching their breath.

Outside, the forest shook with movement. The sound circled the building, faded, then returned from another side.

Nora pressed her hand against the wall. “They can feel vibrations. They’re not blind.”

Caleb knelt by the generator. The starter cord was cracked but still intact. He poured the last of Dylan’s fuel into the tank and pulled once. The engine coughed and then caught. A weak yellow bulb lit the room.

For the first time since the blackout, they saw each other clearly.

Nora’s arm was scraped and bleeding. Dylan’s face was lined with exhaustion. The boy stared at the floor, rocking slightly.

“Any of you hurt?” Caleb asked.

Nora shook her head. “Just tired. I was in the clinic when it started. Everyone there…” She stopped and looked away.

Dylan leaned back against the wall. “Whatever this is, it’s spreading faster than fire. I saw animals turning on each other before the bus crashed.”

Caleb nodded. “It’s not just an infection. It’s something in the power. In the water.”

Nora looked at him. “You think it’s the river?”

He thought of the turbines spinning without power, of the blue light crawling through the cracks in the floor. “I think it started there.”

The boy lifted his head. “It’s calling them.”

The others turned toward him.

Luke’s voice was quiet. “The blue light. I can hear it sometimes. Like voices under the ground.”

Another pulse passed through the valley. The generator shuddered and died.

The single bulb flickered out, leaving them in darkness.

Caleb listened. Outside, the forest was no longer quiet. The footsteps had returned, many more this time.

Something brushed against the walls. The air inside grew cold enough to sting.

He whispered, “Stay still.”

The sound moved along the outer wall, then stopped at the door. A slow scrape followed, like nails on wood.

Then silence again.

Minutes passed. The silence held.

Dylan exhaled. “Maybe they’re gone.”

The moment he spoke, a heavy thud shook the door.

The cabinet jumped. Another hit followed, louder. Wood splintered.

The boy began to cry softly.

Caleb grabbed the wrench and motioned to the others to stay behind him. The next blow cracked the frame.

Light spilt through the gap blue and bright. The hum roared like a storm.

The creatures outside screamed in unison, a sound that seemed to come from the ground itself.

Caleb shouted, “Out the back window, now!”

He swung the wrench once, breaking the pane. Nora pushed the boy through first, then climbed after him. Dylan followed. Caleb was last. He dropped to the grass outside just as the door gave way behind him.

The four of them ran into the trees.

The blue light behind them flared, lighting the trunks like daylight. Shadows of dozens of figures filled the clearing.

The sound of their steps followed, steady and relentless.

They ran until their lungs burned. When they reached another ridge, they stopped and looked back. The station was a torch of blue fire. The light spread up through the trees, reaching the sky like a column.

Caleb watched it burn and knew the valley was lost. The pulse was no longer just sound. It was alive, and it was growing.

He looked at the others. “We head for the mountains. Stay quiet. Stay together.”

No one argued.

They turned north, following the trail into the deeper forest where the mist waited.

Behind them, the hum of the river carried through the trees, slow and patient, like breathing.