“Be careful with her, watch the step.”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry.” said Nora. “Come on, Lilian. Get down.”

Lilian dropped her entire weight on top of Nora, making her stumble backwards. With a slight huff, Nora got her down from the truck.

A dense mist flooded the streets, almost completely hiding anything more than three meters away; it was the same kind of white smoke she had seen back at the hospital. Beyond the fog curtain, the gigantic black silhouette of Kurtis Tower stood out in the sky.

“Come on, we have no time to waste! There’s no going back now!” said the captain as he got out of the vehicle. “Watch your step, miss! Our comrades have placed explosives on the streets leading to the tower. Follow our steps, and stay away from any suspicious object you spot on the ground.”

“U-Understood…”

The captain grabbed the radio while giving signs to his partner. “This is Charlie! We’ve reached the boundary of the explosive field! We’re approaching the evacuation point on foot! Over!”

Nora advanced blindly, dependent on the soldiers leading the way. Her left hand didn’t let go of Lilian for an instant, pulling at her with gentle determination, prompting her to follow her closely. If she lost sight of her, it might as well be impossible to find her again in the mist.

From time to time, they passed in between small square-shaped objects fixated on the road’s asphalt. Packages with numerical codes, with several wires protruding from them and laid out on the ground, disappearing in the tower’s direction.

Although Nora was unaware of the exact nature of those objects, she knew the slightest spark could cause a disaster down there. The military had spared no expense.

There were some steps nearby. Soft, timid. Both soldiers raised their weapons and scanned their surroundings, spotting a lone shadow approaching them.

“H-Hello…!? Anybody there!?” said a female voice from the mist.

“Halt!! Identify yourself or we’ll open fire!!” shouted the captain.

“N-No…! Wait, please, don’t shoot!! I heard something about an e-evacuation…!”

“Stay where you are!” the captain grabbed the radio again. “This is Charlie! We’ve found a survivor in the area, she’s been lured by the evacuation transmission! Over!”

“This is Alpha. Let her in, Charlie.” said a voice on the other side of the radio. “She’s not the only one, others have arrived. We’re grouping them up on the middle floors, we’ll perform a quick inspection before letting them ascend to the rooftop.”

“Can we even get them all out!?”

“Colonel’s orders.”

“Understood, Alpha.” he got his attention back to the silhouette. “Come on, let’s go. Stay close!”

Swift on her feet, the figure of a woman joined the group. “T-Thank you!”

The closer they got to the building, the more visible its crystalized façade became, but Nora couldn’t stop to contemplate it. She had other things in mind, like the strange noises she was perceiving in the distance. Many voices in unison, as if the entire city mourned the departure of a loved one.

‘How much time do we actually have…?’

******

“Contact! A group in the corridor on our nine!” said Isaac, opening fire on the stingers.

“Reloading!”

“There’s more ahead, watch out!”

“This is Echo, floor forty is clear! We’ll seal it up and ascend to your position, Alpha!” said another soldier on the radio.

“Understood!”

The sound of gunfire boomed around the hallways, along with the weapon’s clatter, the clanking of bullet casings on the floor, and the stingers’ mumbling.

There was no time to clear the entire building. They had left the civilians in a safe zone on floor thirty-four, and they focused on clearing only the upper floors. Unfortunately, that was where most of the stingers were concentrated. The commotion would agitate the nest, but it’d be a gradual process. They had to take advantage of the surprise factor and sweep it clean in one go.

He pulled the trigger, and neutralized the last targets remaining in the hallway. There was silence. With the rifle’s barrel still steaming, he sharpened his hearing. No footsteps were heard, and no movement was detected.

He lowered his weapon and went back with the rest of the team.

“That seemed to be the last one. Jameson, seal the stairwell’s door, block it with whatever you can find! Erik, with me! We’ll keep going up!”

“Yes, sir!” they replied.

The team retraced their steps to the stairwell.

“This is Alpha! We’re ascending to floor forty-one! Echo, forty-two is yours!”

“Understood, Alpha!”

There were still ten more floors to go. They advanced at a good pace, but any setback could jeopardize them. The transport helicopters would arrive in barely an hour. They had to hurry.

Isaac heard a voice on the radio. “This is Captain Ray, from Foxtrot team, talking to all units! Stingers approaching Kurtis Tower from all directions! I repeat, stingers approaching Kurtis Tower from all directions!”

‘Shit…! Already!?’

******

He could see them already. Beyond the cloud of inhibitor gas, a myriad of silhouettes dragged their feet towards the tower. Counting them was an impossible task. Dozens, perhaps hundreds. Ten minutes later they’d be innumerable.

“This is Colonel Rowan. Foxtrot, initiate the defense protocols.”

“Understood, sir!” replied Ray, before switching frequency. “Attention, Foxtrot! Everyone get into position and get ready for combat!”

He headed to his post on the window. Three different streets converged on Kurtis Tower. Three sides to defend, and hundreds of targets drawing closer on each of them. They might’ve been able to keep the position if they had more available personnel and resources. However, with just three soldiers per side, all they could do was buy time, delay the inevitable.

He fixated his gaze on the road. The flood of shadows began filling it up, leaving not a single gap in sight.

“Ready for detonation… Hold it… Hold it…! First line, now!!” he said, ducking behind cover.

A second after giving the order, a sequence of deafening explosions shook his eardrums. The resulting shockwave pushed a large gust of inhibitor gas inside the building, making every single window rattle violently.

Ray got up and assessed the situation. The explosion had dissipated some of the mist in the street. The asphalt had disintegrated from side to side, creating a severe pothole, and spreading corpses around the area. The explosives were loaded with flammable material and, in consequence, fierce flames devoured the detonation point and belched a thick black smoke. Ray soon perceived its acrid smell.

The first rows of stingers refused to penetrate the fire, but the horde preceding them pushed without rest, making them trip on the pothole, covering it with their bodies and mitigating the flames. In a matter of minutes, the stingers resumed their advance.

“Attention…! Second line, now!!”

He ducked, and there was another round of explosions, closer than the previous ones, followed by the sound of shattering glass on the lower floors.

He got back up. A new pothole had appeared from side to side, but Ray noticed how it was getting covered with bodies faster than the first one.

‘They’re speeding up!’

Alarmed by the mass murder of their own kin, the stingers began getting irritated, and their lethargic moans became a plethora of growls and gurgles. Many kept tripping over, but some of them were now reacting in time before getting buried by the others, and stood back up, ready to resume the march.

“All units, fire at will!!”

With cold sweat running down his forehead, Ray took position at the outer wall, along with the other two soldiers. High-caliber machine guns had been mounted on the windows. They had several boxes of ammunition, and he doubted they had enough time to burn it all. He took aim, and pulled the trigger.

The weapons roared all together, and their thunderous, rhythmical thumping suppressed all other sounds.

Aiming at the stingers in the front wasn’t a necessity. Any casualty would slow down the horde. Burst after burst, a rain of fire fell on the crowd. Limbs got torn from their bodies, heads shattered, entire groups stumbled under the powerful blows and took others down with them.

“Captain, they’re approaching sector three on the southern side!!” said one of his men on the radio.

“Attention, get ready for detonation of the third line…!!” ordered Ray.

He located the last line of explosives on the road, barely some meters away from the ramps leading up to the building. The horde would reach it in seconds.

“Hold it…! Hold it…!!”

“S-Sir!” shouted the soldier to his right. “Is that… a truck!!?”

‘What!? A truck!? What’s he talking about!?’

He raised his gaze. Speeding down the street, plowing through the stingers in his way, a large vehicle was headed for the tower. A massive tanker truck. What was a tanker doing there? Where did it come from? Ray needed a second to react, and his heart skipped a beat as soon as he sharpened his sight through the smoke and the mist.

There was no driver inside the cab.

“S-Stop that truck!!”

The truck hit the tangled mess of bodies covering the potholes, shuffling from side to side and losing control.

“S-Sir, we can’t—!!”

It trampled the low stone walls bordering Kurtis Tower, skidding over blood and guts, up the ramp. It tilted dangerously to one side, overturning towards the building, without losing speed.

“Retreat!!! Everyone get back, retr—!!!”

******

He couldn’t hold back his laughter, he was overjoyed beyond belief.

Jacobs accelerated, closely following the trail of destruction the gas tanker had left behind. All those shamblers were agitated, swinging their arms in his direction, attempting to grab him. However, the motorbike was small and fast enough to maneuver among them. Many had been knocked down by the explosion’s shockwave, and those standing seemed to be confused, perhaps even scared.

The fireball still remained, illuminating the city with an intense yellow light. The façade of that side of the building fell apart, enormous pieces of rubble detaching from the heights, spilling onto the road like a landslide. Every piece of glass in the lower half of the tower and in the nearby buildings had shattered to pieces.

The spectacle was daunting, mind-boggling. He couldn’t have asked for a better result. It was a shame he couldn’t enjoy it properly.

He zigzagged around corpses and rubble, heading towards the cloud of burning fuel. The plan had gone swimmingly, but there were more things he needed to do. He wasn’t satisfied yet.

******

The building rattled from top to bottom, and chaos took hold of the room in the blink of an eye. William fell on his knees, surrounded by screams and unintelligible cries. The two soldiers escorting them found themselves overwhelmed.

“Foxtrot, come in!! Do you copy!!? What the fuck happened down there!!? Foxtrot!!!” shouted one of them on his radio, receiving no response.

Come on, we have to go down!! Charlie’s still down there!! The queen was with them!!”

‘Nora…! Lilian…!’

“B-But, the civilians—!!”

They ceased their bickering and listened to the radio. They must’ve gotten some kind of transmission, but William was unable to hear it.

“Attention, calm down!! Calm down!!!” said the soldier, gesticulating wildly to catch the attention of the scared crowd. “Everyone up!! We need to go up, now!! Come on, come on, come on!!!”

Everyone piled up around the exit door leading to the stairwell, almost fighting each other to break through. The tremors shaking the building only aggravated the situation. The entire tower seemed to be on the verge of collapsing.

‘What the hell was that explosion!?’

As he got up, Claire stumbled in his direction, open-mouthed and wide-eyed.

“W-William! Nora’s still… d-down there!!” she said.

“I know! Come!!”

They rushed the door. The crowd had formed a giant mass, arguing among themselves and ignoring the soldiers’ efforts to maintain order. William and Claire joined the group, shoved their way through, and accessed the stairwell. They intended to descend, when a shadow emerged from the lower floors and flew upstairs. For an instant, it made eye contact with them, before resuming its heated ascent with remarkable agility.

It was those unmistakable eyes. Small, dark, and possessed by an inhuman glow.

“L-Lilian!!? Wait!! Lilian!!!” screamed Claire. She tried to grab Lilian’s arm, but the girl scurried away before she had the chance.

‘Shit! What’s she doing up here, on her own!?’

“No, no, no, no…! N-Nora would never let Lilian go alone!! We need to go down!! B-But… we can’t Lilian go like this!!” Claire’s eyes began flooding with tears again, and she vigorously rubbed her head with one hand, about to pull her own hair out in nervousness.

“Calm down!!”

“How do you expect me to calm down!?”

“Go after Lilian, and take Eleanor with you!” ordered William. The kid was still clinging to him. She didn’t seem to mind the explosion at all. “I’ll go down and look for Nora!”

“B-But…!”

“Listen to me!! What did I tell you before!? If something goes awry, we need to cooperate if we want to deal with it! Let me take care of Nora! Besides, you’ll handle Lilian better than me!” Claire stared at him, trembling like a jelly. “I’ll bring her back safe and sound, I promise…! You hear me!?”

After some seconds of hesitation, Claire nodded.

“Take Eleanor and go up! I’m counting on you!”

Claire crouched beside the kid and grabbed her hand.

“C-Come on, sweetie! You can’t go with him now, come with me! It’ll be much better up there! Come!”

Eleanor didn’t resist, and let go of William’s jacket. As soon as she did, William ran downstairs. Luckily, none of the soldiers saw him go down. They must’ve been too busy keeping the panic under control.

It came as a surprise, but he didn’t hesitate to jump into action. He thought he couldn’t find a reason to move forward anymore, but his hot-headed side didn’t share the same opinions. To be honest, it was a relief. Those impulses were everything he needed.

He shook his head, cleared his mind, and plunged towards the lower floors, into the smoke column ascending up the stairwell.

******

Nothing could drag Claire away from her internal conflict. Not the tremors coursing through the building, not Eleanor’s weight on her arms, not the stale, bitter air coming from below faster than she could ascend. She didn’t want to stop; she knew that, if she did, she might not have the courage to get moving again.

With every step she climbed, a new memory came to mind. She remembered placing the alarms on the lower floors in order to lure the shamblers. She remembered the moment Liam noticed what she had done. She remembered pushing him down the stairs because he wouldn’t let her go. She remembered the background screams while she attempted to convince a very confused Nora.

Eleanor looked at her inexpressively, but Claire couldn’t bring herself to reciprocate. Although William had trusted her with getting that child to safety, she lacked any kind of self-confidence. How did Eleanor and Lilian end up depending on her? Wasn’t there a better choice?

With those questions bouncing around in her head, she found herself in front of a door leading outside. It was open wide, and sunlight created a blinding curtain obscuring the outside. Without barely realizing it, she had reached the rooftop. A sudden painful sensation ran through her legs, almost making her lose balance, and all of the exhaustion took its toll at once.

Panting, sweating, and fighting to catch her breath, she walked outside.

“Come on, this way, everyone!” one of the soldiers yelled from the metal stairs leading up to the helipad, a massive, elevated space occupying most of the rooftop. “Stay away from the stairwells and stay calm!”

Claire’s gaze scoured the area. She found the person she was looking for, fairly hidden behind one of the air conditioning units scattered around the roof.

“L-Lilian!!” she said, rushing to her side. “Lilian! Lilian, what happened!? Why are you here!?”

Lilian stared at the floor, trembling, with teary eyes. She was terrified. Claire let Eleanor off her arms and, with caution, crouched beside Lilian.

“Lilian, sweetie… Is everything okay? Where’s Nora!?”

In response, Lilian pinched the sleeve of her shirt.

‘Shit, I think Nora might be the only one who can talk with her at this point…’

She stood up and hugged her. Lilian cuddled her and buried her face into Claire’s chest.

‘Oh god, she’s so frightened… Is it because of that explosion from earlier?’

While caressing her hair, she took a deep breath and scoured the rooftop again. The soldiers didn’t seem to notice their presence, they were too occupied managing the civilians crowding around the helipad, shouting stuff on their radios, and running all over the place.

“Come on, Lilian, let’s head that way. They must know you’re here.” she said, giving her small, gentle pushes to prompt her to walk. “Eleanor, you come as well, you can’t sta—”

She saw something out of the corner of her eye, something disturbing. A new group of people had gotten to the rooftop. Most of them ran towards the helipad, but an unknown man stood still. He was looking at them. He had raised his arm in their direction. He was holding something. A small, dark object, overflowing with bad vibes. For a fraction of a second, Claire’s perception appeared to slow down, and she felt her heartbeat hammering inside her head.

It was a pistol. That man was pointing a pistol at them.

‘Eh? What is it? W-Why is he…?’

Her body reacted on pure instinct. Holding Lilian with everything she had, she jumped aside, hoping to take cover behind the machinery.

*Bang!*

It had been quite some time since she last heard Lilian’s voice.

That wasn’t how she expected to hear it again.