Chapter 1408: Story 1408: Territory
The sound outside didn’t fade — it multiplied.
One shriek beca two. Two beca four. The air seed to vibrate with the noise, each cry slicing the night like glass through skin.
Mira glanced at Elena, who already had her hand on the strap of her pack.
“We move,” Mira said. “Back door.”
The injured man laughed — low, rasping. “You think there’s a back door? They already know you’re here.”
Sothing in his voice crawled under Mira’s skin. She stepped forward, fire poker raised.
“What are you?” she asked.
His smile faltered. “A survivor… until I’m not.”
A crash shattered the mont — boards splintering at the front of the shop. Elena cursed under her breath. Shadows sward against the gap in the barricade, hands — or claws — probing through.
Mira yanked Elena toward the back, ignoring the man’s sudden cry. “Wait! Don’t leave !”
“Then get up,” Mira snapped.
He tried — and scread. The thing in his leg pulsed harder, as if sensing the chaos outside. Veins near the wound darkened, branching up toward his thigh like a spreading map.
The pounding at the front grew frantic. The air slled of wet rot and sothing sharper, tallic.
Mira spotted the ergency exit sign above a warped door near the stockroom. “Go!” she shouted to Elena.
But before they reached it, the man’s voice dropped into a chilling growl.
“You shouldn’t run. They’ll chase.”
Elena froze. Mira turned back just in ti to see his eyes — black now, swallowing the whites — lock onto her.
He lunged.
Mira swung the poker, catching him across the jaw. He crumpled, but not before his fingers brushed her wrist — cold, almost numb. Sothing tingled beneath her skin.
“Mira!” Elena’s scream tore her focus away.
The front barricade gave way in a single, explosive crack.
Figures spilled through — not stumbling like the infected they knew, but moving low and fast, their limbs too long, their movents too precise. Hunters.
One of them froze mid-stride, head cocked, as if sniffing the air. Then it darted sideways, vanishing into the shadows of the shelves.
“They’re circling,” Mira said, voice tight. “Go!”
They shoved through the back door into a narrow alley, the rain now a thin mist. Sowhere above, a rooftop gutter rattled. Shadows shifted along the brick walls.
The Hunters didn’t roar or groan — they clicked. Soft, rapid clicks that bounced off the alley walls, disorienting. One landed in front of them in a blur, its skin pale and stretched, its mouth split wide with needle-like teeth.
Mira raised her weapon, but the Hunter didn’t charge.
It just stared — then turned its head toward the injured man still inside, who was now screaming.
“They’re not after us,” Elena whispered.
“No,” Mira said, backing away, “but we’re in the way.”
From both ends of the alley, more clicking approached.
There was no way out.
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