From outside, Salisbury appeared to be heavily fortified. Its perimeter was protected by tall metal walls made from various scavenged materials reforged together and further reinforced by barbed wire fences. Black Hand members stood watch from eight guard towers on the walls and also patrolled outside. The only way in was through a small entrance guarded by two menacing machine gun turrets. Before entering, visitors had to park their vehicles outside and pass through various security and medical checks.

Once inside, Markus was greeted with a bizarre sight. Houses were built entirely from scrap metal instead of wood or brick. Three of them were stacked on top of one another to form a house block. A network of ramps, rope bridges and water pipes connected these blocks, turning the whole town into a metal jungle. In the middle of the town was a tall tower of esoteric design, like something out of a lovecraftian novel.

"Has Salisbury always been this strange?" Markus asked as they walked along the main street, illuminated by the serene glow of the streetlights.

"I swear Salisbury was just a normal town three weeks ago. They must have rebuilt it after erecting those metal walls." Sabrina answered while observing the townspeople around them.

Unlike the town, its residents were quite normal. Apart from Black Hand members with their eye-catching armours and robes, almost everyone else on the street wore plain clothes. A few of them wore tattered cloaks, military riggings or ballistic vests over their clothes and carried guns, but it was understandable given the fact that they were in a zombie outbreak. If anything, they looked a bit too normal and carefree.

Before long, Markus's group were stopped by a squad of nine Black Hand members wearing gilded armours and carrying ghostly blue lanterns.

"Esteemed guests, we of the Azure Templars were ordered by His Excellency to escort you to your residence. Please follow us." Their leader bowed and said respectfully.

While not forceful, these people looked like the type who would not take no for an answer. To avoid any unnecessary trouble, Markus followed the templars to a house block located near the town center. Their house was on the third floor, while from the ground up were a family restaurant and a general store respectively.

"Please enjoy your stay, esteemed guests. Here are your living expenses for tonight and tomorrow. After that, you will need to earn money by taking commissions at the Job Center." The leader handed Markus a key and a cloth bag filled with bottle caps. Then they all bowed and left quickly.

"Bottle caps? Are we in some kind of post-apocalyptic survival game now?" Alan scratched his head in confusion after taking a look at the cloth bag's content.

"Fellout? If that's the case, I just hope China won't drop a nuke on us like in the game." Markus said as he opened the door.

From outside, the house looked more like a big room than an actual house, which turned out to be true once they entered. But the interior was more spacious than expected, with two bunk beds, a closet and a round table. In the back were a small kitchen and a toilet.

"Let's get this done so we can take a bath and have dinner." Sabrina started unpacking the luggages. 

"Agreed." The two men followed suit. Once done, they woke up Dandelion and followed the map to the nearest public bathhouse.

The bathhouse itself was no less bizarre than the town. It was actually a stack of more than forty small shipping containers piled on top of one another. Each container served as a bathroom for one person with all necessary facilities inside. The entry fee was two bottle caps per person per thirty minutes, plus ten minutes for changing. All in all, it was a neat and creative way to make use of discarded shipping containers.

There were only a few other customers at the moment, but according to the manager, it was very crowded in the afternoon. Men and women were not separated so Markus and Sabrina took two adjacent rooms on the ground floor, while Alan and Dandelion took the rooms above them. Everything went smoothly, except for when the attendants believed that Dandelion was a child and refused to give her a separate room from Alan's for lack of "adult supervision". Only after she showed them her ID did they reluctantly agree.

Markus was very surprised when he entered the bathroom. The air ventilation and lighting were surprisingly good thanks to a small window on the far end of the container with a light bulb hanging outside. Waterproof materials were used to line the inside surface of the container to prevent corrosion amd make it look cleaner. Each room came with a changing area and a bathing area equipped with a shower head and a bathtub of average size.

That was when nightmare started. The earliest signs were a throbbing headache and darkened vision. When Markus opened his eyes, the room was filled with a hazy red mist. Then he turned on the tap to wash his face, but what came out of the shower head was not water but a viscous dark red liquid. He knew it was not blood since it did not smell like rust when smeared on his skin. It was not even a viscous dark red liquid to begin with. Just plain normal water. He knew it all, but he could only endure.

Then he heard them. The voices of his dead comrades, calling for him to end it all. And he saw them. His own two hands, covered in their blood. And they appeared before him. Benjamin, David, Taylor, Thomas, even those whose names had faded away from his mind. And there she stood. Sabrina was among them, not screaming like others but silently looking at him with incredibly sad eyes.

Ignoring the shouting in his head, he called out to her, "I'm sorry, Sabrina. Please tell me, what is our promise?"

"Forget it." She said.

"What did I forget?"

"Forget it." She said. Again, again and again.

The shouting got louder and louder each passing second, to the point where he could not endure anymore.

"Silence!" He too shouted.

Markus fell backward into a vast expanse of darkness. He could see nothing, hear nothing and feel nothing. Only a suffocating black silence remained. He stayed still, wondering how much longer he had to endure.

Then suddenly, he heard her voice, bright and cheerful yet warm and gentle like the morning sunshine. It shattered his silent world, pulling him back to reality. He found himself sitting in the bathtub with cold sweat streaming down his face.

"What happened, Markus? I heard you shouting just now." From the other side of the wall, Sabrina asked.

"No, nothing. I'm just a bit tired." He replied evasively.

"Want me to sing a song to help you relax? We still have plenty of time left."

"Sure, but keep your voice down so as not to bother other customers."

Sabrina started singing. But what reached Markus's ears was a distorted, esoteric song not in human language. Part of it sounded like sea waves crashing against a cliff, another part sounded like the chimes of a bell, and if he listened carefully, they all actually sounded like the screeching of metal on glass. But even more bizarre was the fact that he somehow found the song to be beautiful and calming. He also felt like this was not the first time he heard it. But he could not remember when, only a vague sense of nostalgia remained.

"Beautiful. What is this song called?" Markus asked when Sabrina stopped singing.

"Aw, you forgot. I sung it all the time when we were kids. It's called White Noise."

"I'll remember. Can you...sing it again?"

"Of course, as many times as you want." Sabrina laughed happily and sung again. Markus listened carefully, mesmerised by her otherworldly voice.