The woman's name was Sarah. The limping man was Derek. The third was a teenager named Kyle who couldn't have been older than fifteen.
They devoured the food like animals. Sarah cried as she drank water, her hands were shaking so badly that she spilled half of it.
"How long have you been out there?" Lena asked softly.
"Five days," Derek said between bites. "We've been hiding in basements and sewers and eating rats when we could catch them."
"You survived five days without playing any games?" Maya's voice was sharp with suspicion.
Sarah looked up, her eyes was hollow. "We didn't choose to skip the games. We got separated during the Game of Riddles. There were over a hundred passengers at the start. When the killing began, we ran. We just... kept running."
"The maze doesn't let people just run," Maya said, moving closer. Her hand was near her knife. "Everyone plays. That's the rule."
"We didn't know!" Kyle's voice cracked with fear. "We were just trying not to die!"
Joe stepped between them. "Maya, back off."
"You don't understand," Maya barked. "The maze doesn't make mistakes. If they've been out here for five days without playing, there's a reason."
"What reason?"
"They're bait."
The word hung in the air like a venom.
Sarah scrambled backward. "No! We're not bait! We're just scared! We're just trying to survive like everyone else!"
"The maze uses people," Maya said, not taking her eyes off them. "It corrupts them and turns them into traps. For all we know, you three are already compromised."
Derek stood up despite his injured leg. "We're not your enemy."
"Then prove it." Maya pulled out the glowing stone. "This shows the truth. If you're clean, you have nothing to fear."
She held it up. The stone pulsed with pale light.
For a moment, nothing happened. Sarah, Derek, and Kyle looked normal. Human.
Then Kyle's shadow moved wrong.
It stretched across the wall, too long, too dark. The edges rippled like something was crawling underneath.
Lena gasped. "Joe, look at his shadow!"
Kyle's face went white. "I don't know what that is! I swear I don't know!"
The shadow grew, spreading across the ceiling. Something inside it writhed and twisted.
"Get away from him!" Maya shouted.
Kyle backed toward the door, tears streaming down his face. "Please, I'm not doing this! I don't know what's happening!"
The shadow lunged.
It came off the wall like black oil, forming into a shape with too many arms and a mouth full of teeth where teeth shouldn't be.
Goldy threw her knife. It passed straight through the shadow creature and stuck in the wall.
"Physical attacks won't work!" Maya yelled. "It's not fully real yet!"
The thing wrapped around Kyle's legs. The boy screamed as it pulled him toward the floor, toward the darkness.
Joe didn't think. He grabbed Maya's glowing stone and shoved it against Kyle's chest.
Light exploded.
The shadow creature shrieked—a sound like nails on glass mixed with a child's scream. It recoiled, smoking where the light touched it.
Kyle collapsed, gasping. The shadow was gone.
For now.
"What the hell was that?" Leo whimpered from the corner.
Maya snatched the stone back from Joe. "A tracker. The maze marked him. Probably happened when they were running through the sewers. There are thin spots down there—places where the maze bleeds through."
"Is it gone?" Derek asked, helping Kyle to his feet.
"No," Maya said flatly. "It's just hiding and waiting. As long as he's marked, it can find him. Which means it can find all of us."
Sarah's face crumpled. "We didn't know. We didn't mean to bring it here."
"Doesn't matter what you meant," Goldy said. Her voice was cold. "You're a liability now. You need to leave."
"We can't!" Derek protested. "The hunters are out there! We'll all die!"
"Better you die than us," Goldy shot back.
"No." Joe stepped forward again. "We're not throwing them out."
Maya turned on him. "Joe, don't be stupid. That thing will lead the hunters right to us."
"Then we deal with it," Joe said. "Together."
"You're going to get us all killed!"
"And what happens if we start sacrificing people every time things get hard?" Joe's voice rose. "We become exactly what the maze wants us to be. We become monsters."
Silence fell. Everyone stared at Joe.
Even Maya looked uncertain.
The howling outside grew louder and closer. The scouts were circling the house now.
Lena moved to Joe's side. "He's right. If we start abandoning people, we're no better than the maze."
"I agree," Leo said quietly from the corner. "We stay together."
Goldy shook her head but didn't argue.
Maya's jaw clenched. Finally, she nodded. "Fine. But if that shadow comes back, Kyle stays between it and the rest of us. Understood?"
Kyle nodded frantically. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Don't thank me yet," Maya muttered.
She walked to the window. The timer in the sky glowed red through the broken glass.
22:47:09
"We have less than twenty-three hours," she said. "We need a plan. A real one."
Joe joined her at the window. The shadows between buildings were moving faster now they are more organized. Like they were preparing for something.
"The Industrial District," he said. "You said it has factories and warehouses. What else?"
Maya pulled out the map and spread it on the floor. Everyone gathered around.
"Here," she pointed. "The old steel mill in the center. It's tall—five stories. If we can reach the top, we'll have a view of the entire district. We can see the hunters coming."
"And if they trap us up there?" Derek asked.
"There's a bridge," Maya continued, tracing a line on the map. "It connects the steel mill to the water treatment plant across the river. If things go bad, we can cross to the other side."
"That's a lot of open ground to cover," Lena said, studying the map. "We'll be exposed."
"Better exposed and moving than cornered and waiting," Maya said.
A loud crash echoed from upstairs.
Everyone froze.
"What was that?" Sarah whispered.
Goldy was already moving toward the stairs, knife in hand. "Something's in the house."
Another crash with footsteps. Heavy ones.
"We cleared the house when we got here," Maya said, pulling out her own knife. "There was nothing upstairs."
The footsteps moved across the ceiling directly above them it was deliberate and slow. Like whatever it was wanted them to hear.
Joe's heart hammered. "The scouts. They got inside."
"Impossible," Maya said. "We've been watching the doors."
The footsteps stopped.
Then the ceiling cracked.
Plaster rained down as something heavy slammed into the floor above them. Once. Twice.
"It's coming through," Lena breathed.
The third impact broke through. A hole opened in the ceiling and something dropped into the room.
It looked human. Almost. But its movements were wrong—joints bending in directions they shouldn't, head tilted at an impossible angle.
Its eyes were completely black.
"Scout," Maya whispered. "But they're not supposed to attack before the game starts."
The thing's head snapped toward her. Its mouth opened, wider than any human mouth should open.
And it smiled.
"RUN!" Joe screamed.
The scout lunged.
They scattered. Joe grabbed Leo and pulled him toward the door. Lena dove behind the couch. Goldy slashed at the creature with her knife, but it moved too fast.
Maya threw the glowing stone.
It hit the scout's chest and stuck there, burning. The creature shrieked and stumbled backward, clawing at the stone.
"Out! Everyone out!" Maya yelled.
They crashed through the door into the street. The cold air hit Joe's face as they ran.
Behind them, the house exploded with black smoke.
More scouts poured out of the windows and doors. Seven. Eight. Ten of them.
All with the same black eyes. All with the same twisted smiles.
"The countdown!" Derek shouted, pointing at the sky.
The timer had changed.
00:00:00
Below it, new words appeared in burning red letters:
"THE HUNT BEGINS NOW"
"No," Maya breathed. "It's not supposed to start for another twenty-two hours."
But the maze didn't care.
The scouts charged.
And in the distance, a new sound rose—the moaning, hungry sound of dozens of zombies waking up.
The Hunt had begun early.
And they had nowhere to run.