They didn't know how long they've been running, maybe hours.
Their bodies nearly gave out to the storm and
muddy asphalt.
That was when Liam saw it... a light.
Not a streetlamp. Not the pale glow of a distant window. A faded green sign, hanging crooked above the road, flickering through the rain.
GAS.
He almost ran past it.
Then he looked again.
An abandoned gas station stood at the corner, its convenience store dark behind wide glass windows. Two rusted pumps leaned beneath the canopy. A delivery truck sat crooked near the far side of the building, its windshield shattered and its tires half-submerged in rainwater.
It was not safe. Nothing in this city was safe.
But it had walls. A door. Somewhere they could get out of the open street.
"That way!" Liam shouted.
Melissa glanced over her shoulder. "What?"
"The gas station! Move!"
Cas didn't question him. He was already stumbling after them, one hand pressed against his side, his breath coming in short, uneven bursts.
Behind them, the street was no longer empty.
Shapes poured out from between the abandoned cars and the narrow gaps between buildings. Some ran on two legs. Others moved with an awkward, dragging gait, their bodies jerking as if something inside them were pulling in different directions. Their cries carried through the rain, overlapping until it was impossible to tell how many there were.
Liam tightened his grip beneath Eddie's legs.
Eddie's head shifted against his shoulder, completely limp. His face was pale beneath the grime, his eyes closed. Each step sent another jolt through Liam's already aching arms, but he couldn't slow down.
"Come on!" Melissa yelled.
The gas station was still several yards away.
A Possessed lurched out from behind a parked car, directly in their path. Melissa barely had time to raise her axe before it reached them. She struck it hard enough to knock it sideways. Cas grabbed her sleeve and pulled her onward before it could get back up.
"Don't stop!" he gasped.
They reached the store entrance.
The glass door was locked.
Liam slammed his shoulder against it.
Once.
The impact sent a sharp pain through his ribs. The door rattled but held.
"Again!" Melissa shouted.
Liam stepped back and hit it a second time. The lock gave with a sharp crack. The door flew inward, striking a display rack and sending dusty packets scattering across the floor.
"Inside!"
Melissa shoved Cas through first. Liam followed, nearly losing his footing as he crossed the threshold with Eddie on his back. Melissa came in last and dragged the door shut.
Something struck the glass from outside.
The whole frame shuddered.
"Move the shelves!" she shouted.
Cas was already grabbing the nearest display rack. He dragged it across the floor, its metal feet shrieking against the tiles. Melissa seized a second shelf and shoved it toward the entrance. Liam lowered Eddie onto the floor behind the counter as carefully as his exhausted arms allowed.
Eddie didn't stir.
Liam crouched beside him for half a second, checking that he was still breathing. Then another impact shook the door.
"Help us!" Melissa snapped.
Liam got up.
They pushed everything they could find against the entrance: shelves, a refrigerator display, a heavy counter stool. It wasn't much. It wouldn't hold for long. But when the next blow landed, the barricade shifted instead of collapsing.
For one brief moment, they had bought themselves time.
Liam turned to Cas.
"Find a lighter. Check the counter."
Cas stared at him, still trying to catch his breath.
"What?"
"A lighter, Cas. Now."
Cas hurried behind the counter, knocking over a cup filled with old pens. He pulled open drawers, searching through receipts, dead batteries, and loose coins.
Another impact.
The glass door trembled in its frame.
Then came a sound from somewhere in the back of the store.
A low, wet growl.
All three of them froze.
It wasn't coming from outside.
Melissa slowly turned toward the dark aisle behind the refrigerators.
The sound came again.
Something scraped against the floor.
Liam's gaze moved from the rear of the store to Eddie, still lying behind the counter. He took one step toward him, then stopped. There was nowhere to go. The entrance was blocked by the things they'd piled against it, and whatever was making that sound was already inside.
"Cas," Melissa whispered.
He didn't answer. His hand had stopped inside the drawer.
A shape shifted at the end of the aisle.
At first, Liam thought it was a pile of overturned furniture. Then it moved.
The creature was enormous.
It had to be nearly three metres tall, though its shape made it difficult to judge. It was not built like a single body. It was a mass of Possessed bodies, human and animal forms crushed together into one uneven structure. Arms hung from places where arms should never have been. A long, bent shape that might once have been a leg dragged behind it, scraping over the tiles. Something resembling a dog's head protruded from its upper side, its jaw opening and closing without making a sound.
Other faces were caught within it.
Not all of them were moving.
Some were pressed into the mass with their features distorted, while others seemed to shift beneath the surface, appearing and disappearing as the creature dragged itself forward. Its weight made every movement slow, but the floor trembled beneath it.
Melissa took a step back.
The creature lifted what might have been its head.
Then it screamed.
The sound was so loud that the store seemed to disappear around them. It filled the narrow aisles, rattled the windows, and struck Liam with a force that made his vision blur. He clapped a hand over one ear. The other rang painfully. For a moment, he couldn't tell whether he was standing or falling.
Cas dropped the drawer.
Melissa staggered into a shelf, catching herself before she went down.
The creature moved forward.
Slowly.
But it was coming.
"CAS!" Liam shouted.
His voice sounded distant even to himself.
Cas blinked, shaking his head. He looked at the creature, then at Liam. His expression had gone blank with terror.
"Cas! The lighter!"
That seemed to reach him.
He turned back to the counter and started searching again, this time with frantic, clumsy movements. A drawer came out too far and spilled its contents across the floor. He dropped to his knees, sweeping through the mess.
"I found them!" he yelled.
He held up several old lighters, his hand trembling so badly that they nearly slipped through his fingers.
"Good. Get over here!"
The creature struck a shelf.
The metal frame bent beneath its weight. Packets and dusty bottles scattered across the aisle. It didn't rush. It didn't need to. It simply kept coming, pushing everything in its path aside.
Melissa grabbed her axe.
"We can't leave through the front."
"There's a back door," Liam said.
"Then find it."
Cas was already moving. He darted along the narrow aisle beside the counter, keeping as far from the creature as the cramped store allowed. Liam hurried to Eddie and crouched.
The moment he lifted him, pain flared through his arms and across his ribs. His breath caught. Eddie's weight seemed heavier than before, and Liam had to adjust his hold twice before he could stand.
"Can you carry him?" Melissa asked.
"For now."
It wasn't an answer she liked.
She looked toward the creature. It had reached the middle of the store. Its bulk scraped against the shelves, knocking them aside one after another.
"Go," she said. "I'll hold it."
Liam hesitated.
"Don't," Melissa snapped. "Just go."
He turned and followed Cas toward the rear of the building.
The back aisle was narrow and cluttered with cardboard boxes. Cas reached a metal door and grabbed the handle.
It didn't move.
"No, no—"
He pulled again.
The door rattled but remained shut.
"Cas!" Liam called.
"I know!"
Cas planted both hands against it and shoved. Nothing. He tried the handle again, harder this time, then struck the door with his shoulder.
It shifted.
"Help me!"
Liam couldn't put Eddie down without risking another painful movement. He leaned his weight against the wall, keeping Eddie secured with one arm while Cas struggled with the door.
From the front came a crash.
Then Melissa shouted.
The barricade was giving way.
"Cas!"
"I've got it!"
He shoved once more. The door finally lurched outward, opening just wide enough for a person to squeeze through.
Cold rain swept into the store.
"Go!" Cas shouted.
Liam turned sideways and forced himself through the opening with Eddie in his arms. His shoulder struck the frame. He nearly stumbled on the other side, but managed to keep his footing.
Cas followed.
Melissa was still inside.
Liam looked back through the narrow gap.
She stood near the front counter, axe raised, facing the entrance. The barricade had collapsed. One of the shelves lay on its side, and smaller Possessed were forcing their way through the broken doorway.
Behind them, the enormous creature filled the entrance.
It could barely fit.
Its mass pressed against the frame, forcing the remaining glass out in a series of sharp cracks. The smaller creatures scattered around it, crawling over the wreckage and pushing into the store.
"Melissa!" Cas screamed.
She struck at the nearest Possessed and backed away, trying to keep the counter between herself and the others.
"Get away from the door!" Liam shouted.
Melissa glanced toward the rear exit.
For a second, she looked as if she might not make it.
Then she turned and ran.
She reached the back of the store just as something crashed into the shelves behind her. Cas caught her arm and pulled her through the doorway. Liam moved aside, barely keeping himself upright as she stumbled into the rain.
"Move!" she gasped.
They were behind the station now, in a narrow service area littered with broken crates and rusted equipment. The canopy stretched over the pumps on the other side of the building. Beyond it, the road was almost invisible beneath the rain.
A heavy crash sounded inside the store.
The creature had reached the rear of the building.
Liam looked toward the pumps, then toward the road.
There was no clear way around the station. The street behind them was crawling with movement, and the creature was already forcing its way through the building.
"We can't go back out there," Cas said.
"We can't stay here either," Melissa replied.
Another crash shook the wall.
Liam's arms were beginning to tremble. Eddie's head rested against his shoulder, his body still unresponsive. Liam could feel the uneven pull of his own breathing and the sharp ache spreading through his side.
"There's a way around the canopy," he said. "We cross the forecourt and keep going."
"With that thing behind us?"
"We don't have another choice."
They moved.
The service area opened onto the fueling forecourt. Rainwater ran across the concrete in shallow streams, reflecting the flickering sign overhead. The pumps stood in a row beneath the canopy, their metal casings rusted and stained. A car had been abandoned beside one of them, its driver's door hanging open.
Cas glanced toward the store.
The rear door was still open.
Something moved in the darkness beyond it.
"Don't look," Melissa said.
But the sound made it impossible not to.
The creature was coming through.
Its enormous shape forced the doorway wider as it emerged, scraping against the walls. Smaller Possessed spilled out around it, moving faster, spreading across the forecourt.
Cas backed away.
"Run."
They ran.
Liam could not move as quickly as the others. Every step jarred his arms, and Eddie's weight dragged at his shoulders. He heard Melissa shouting something ahead of him, but the rain and the noise behind them swallowed her words.
A Possessed came around the abandoned car.
Melissa turned sharply, blocking its path long enough for Cas to get past. Liam tried to follow, but his foot slipped on the wet concrete. He went down hard on one knee.
The impact jolted through his ribs.
Eddie slipped in his arms.
Liam caught him before his head struck the ground, but the movement left him gasping.
"Liam!"
Melissa was already coming back.
"Get him up!"
"I've got him."
He tried to stand.
His leg shook beneath him.
Melissa grabbed his arm and pulled while Cas moved to support Eddie's other side. Together, they managed to get Liam upright, though his breathing had become ragged.
Behind them, the creature let out another shriek.
The sound rolled over the forecourt.
Cas flinched and nearly lost his grip.
"Keep moving!" Melissa shouted.
They reached the edge of the canopy.
Then something happened behind them.
A sudden, violent flash swallowed the station.
For an instant, the rain, the pumps, and the abandoned cars vanished behind a wall of white light. A tremendous blast followed, shaking the ground beneath their feet. The force threw them forward. Liam twisted instinctively around Eddie, taking the fall against his own shoulder as the world filled with noise.
The windows of the store burst outward.
Flames surged through the building, climbing into the darkness beneath the canopy. The enormous creature disappeared behind the sudden brightness, its silhouette swallowed by smoke and fire. Smaller shapes scattered across the forecourt, some vanishing into the smoke, others thrown aside by the force of the blast.
Liam couldn't hear anything.
He lay on the wet concrete, one arm locked around Eddie, his other hand pressed against the ground. For several seconds, there was only a high, thin ringing in his ears.
Then the rain returned.
Not that it had ever stopped.
"Liam."
Melissa's voice sounded far away.
He lifted his head.
She was kneeling beside him, one hand gripping his shoulder. Cas stood a few steps away, staring back at the burning station. His face was pale, and rain ran down his forehead into his eyes.
"Can you stand?" Melissa asked.
Liam looked down at Eddie.
His eyes were still closed.
He shifted his hand beneath Eddie's neck, checking his breathing. A faint movement against his palm.
"Yes," he managed.
It took longer than he wanted to get upright. Melissa helped him, keeping one hand around his arm while Cas moved close enough to support Eddie's legs.
The three of them stumbled away from the station.
Behind them, the fire roared through the building. The sign above the road flickered once, then went dark. Smoke rose into the rain, thick and black, while the sounds from inside the store faded beneath the crackling flames.
They didn't stop until the station was several streets behind them.
Only then did Melissa turn.
She looked at the burning building for a moment, her axe hanging loosely at her side.
"Are they gone?" Cas asked.
No one answered immediately.
Liam lowered himself against the wall of an abandoned building. His arms were shaking too badly to keep holding Eddie. Melissa helped him ease Eddie down onto a dry patch beneath the narrow overhang.
Liam pressed two fingers against Eddie's neck.
A pulse.
He leaned closer, watching the slight movement of Eddie's chest.
Still breathing.
"He's alive," he said.
His voice was barely audible.
Cas bent forward, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Melissa looked from Eddie to Liam, then toward the street they'd come from.
"We can't stay here."
Liam didn't argue.
He tried to straighten, but his body refused for a moment. His ribs hurt with every breath, and his arms felt almost useless. Melissa noticed.
"Give me a minute," she said.
She crouched beside Eddie and carefully adjusted his position.
"I'll take some of his weight. You don't have to carry all of him."
Liam looked at her, too exhausted to protest.
Cas glanced back toward the distant glow behind the buildings.
"That thing..." He swallowed. "It was still moving when I saw it."
Melissa didn't look at him.
"Then we're lucky we didn't wait to find out what happened next."
A distant cry rose somewhere beyond the burning station.
All three of them turned toward it.
The sound came again, farther away this time, but unmistakably alive.
Melissa picked up her axe.
"Inside. Now."
They crossed the street and entered the nearest building through a broken doorway. Liam kept one arm around Eddie while Melissa supported his other side. Cas went ahead, checking the dark hallway before waving them in.
The apartment they found on the ground floor was small and almost empty. A table lay overturned near the kitchen. The curtains had been torn from their rails, and rain had seeped beneath the window.
It wasn't safe.
But the walls were still standing, and the door could be closed.
They got Eddie onto the old sofa.
Liam remained beside him, one hand resting near his shoulder. He watched the steady rise and fall of Eddie's chest, barely blinking.
Melissa moved to the entrance and listened.
Cas stood near the window, looking through a narrow gap in the curtains.
For a while, none of them spoke.
Then Liam lowered his head, his hand still resting beside Eddie.
Outside, somewhere beyond the rain and the smoke, something moved through the streets.
The gas station was burning.