"Okay," Reyan agreed. "We'll meet you at the north exit. Give us ten minutes to get to the car and bring it around."
"Make it five," Karan said. "The gunshots will have drawn more infected. This area won't be safe for long."
They split up. Karan's group headed north toward their truck. Reyan's group headed back into the building, down to the basement, weapons ready.
Their footsteps echoed off concrete, and every shadow looked like a threat.
"Stay close," Reyan whispered.
They moved through the rows of parked cars—most abandoned, some with doors hanging open, one with what looked like claw marks on the windshield. His car sat in its spot, untouched, almost mocking in its normalcy.
Reyan unlocked it, the chirp of the alarm obscenely loud in the silence. He winced, waiting for the infected to come pouring out of the darkness.
Nothing. Just silence.
"That's weird," Vikram said, looking around. "There were dozens of them when we came through here earlier. Where did they go?"
He was right. The basement had been packed with infected when they'd first run through. Now it was almost empty. A few shambled in the far corners, but nowhere near the numbers they'd seen.
"Maybe they followed us upstairs?" Samir suggested.
"Maybe," Reyan said, but he didn't believe it. The infected didn't just leave. They stayed, they hunted, they swarmed. They didn't evacuate an area like they had somewhere better to be.
But there was no time to worry about it now. They piled into the car—Reyan driving, his daughter in the passenger seat, Vikram, Samir, and Taj crammed in the back. The engine turned over on the second try, coughing to life, and Reyan had never been so grateful to hear an engine's rumble.
He pulled out of the spot, navigated through the garage, and headed for the exit ramp. The garage gate was already up—someone had pried it open days ago—and they drove up into morning sunlight.
Karan's group was waiting in their truck, a beat-up flatbed with rust spots and a cargo bed full of supplies. Karan sat in the driver's seat, Meera beside him. Ravi and Dev in the back, weapons ready.
Reyan pulled up alongside them, rolled down his window. "Second exit. North side of the building. This way."
Karan nodded, gunned the engine, and followed as Reyan led the way around the building's perimeter.
The street was a warzone. Abandoned cars. Bodies. Infected wandering aimlessly, their groans a constant background noise. But nothing they couldn't handle. Nothing that would stop them.
"Nine kilometres," Samir said from the backseat. "Nine kilometres to my sister. We can do this. Right?"
"We can do this," Reyan confirmed, gripping the steering wheel harder than necessary.
His daughter was silent beside him, staring out the window at the dying city. He wanted to tell her everything would be okay. That they'd find Samir's sister, get out of Niraya, reach safety.
But he was done with promises he couldn't keep.
So, he just drove, toward answers, toward whatever came next.
Behind them, the building they'd escaped from stood silent and still.