The bar door smmed open as Hugo and Riley burst onto the empty street. The groans of the dead rose behind them, echoing between the ruined buildings.

  “Move!” Hugo barked, gripping Riley’s arm and pulling her forward. She stumbled but caught herself, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps. Salem darted ahead, his bck form barely a shadow against the cracked pavement. The bag of supplies Riley had grabbed earlier bounced against her side, but she kept her grip on it. Every step felt heavier, the city stretching endlessly before them as they ran. Hugo risked a gnce over his shoulder. The walkers poured in front of the bar’s entrance, shambling onto the street in a disorganized mass, their milky eyes locked onto their fleeing prey. Some were faster than others, driven by the scent of living flesh. A few stumbled over debris, but most kept coming, undeterred. Hugo pushed forward, scanning for an escape. The main street was too open. Running blind wasn’t an option. They needed somewhere defensible, somewhere they could break line of sight— Then he heard it. A screech. Not the mindless groan of a walker, but something sharper. More aware. His stomach twisted. Runners. He didn’t stop moving, but his pace quickened. Riley heard it too. Her steps faltered slightly. “Oh, come on,” she wheezed, barely keeping up. Hugo didn’t answer. There wasn’t time. The runners were fast—if they spotted them, there was no shaking them in the open. Another screech, this time closer. Salem bolted down an alleyway ahead, tail flicking wildly. Hugo didn’t hesitate—he followed. They burst into the narrow passage, weaving past rusted dumpsters and overturned crates. The air was thick with the stench of rot and mildew, the shadows pressing in around them. At the end of the alley, the ground sloped downward. A staircase. A subway entrance. Hugo’s chest tightened. It was a gamble. Going underground was risky. If it was blocked off, if they ran into something worse down there— The runners screamed again, too close now. “Down!” Hugo snapped. Riley didn’t argue. She practically threw herself down the steps, tripping on the st few in her desperation to get inside. Hugo followed right after, feet pounding against the concrete as he hit the nding. A massive set of metal security shutters loomed ahead, partially open—just enough for someone to slip through. Beyond them, the station stretched into darkness, the air thick and stale. Hugo grabbed the edge of the shutter and hauled it downward with all his strength. It barely moved. Riley threw her weight into it too, hands scrambling for leverage. The metal groaned, resisting. Above them, the runners reached the stairwell. Their screeches pierced the air. Hugo clenched his teeth, bracing his feet. With one final pull, the shutters smmed down. A sharp BANG echoed as something smmed against the other side. Then another. They could hear them now—cws scraping against metal, muffled snarls of frustration. Hugo stepped back, breath heaving, hands still gripping the shutter as if expecting it to be ripped away. The pounding continued for a moment… then faded. The runners weren’t giving up, but they were disoriented. They hadn’t seen exactly where Hugo and Riley had gone. For now, they were safe. Hugo exhaled, finally letting go of the metal. His arms ached. His pulse still pounded in his ears. Riley slumped against the wall, gasping for air. “Holy… shit.” Salem padded up beside Hugo, his fur bristling slightly. His yellow eyes flicked toward the darkened subway ptform ahead, ears twitching. Hugo followed his gaze. The station was dead silent. Dust hung thick in the air, the scent of damp concrete and rust seeping into his lungs. Rows of old turnstiles stood in front of them, some knocked over, others bent inward as if something had forced its way through. It wasn’t empty. Hugo wiped sweat from his brow. He didn’t like this. Trapped underground with no visibility. No easy exits. But outside wasn’t an option either. Riley straightened, still catching her breath. “Okay… next pn?” Hugo didn’t answer right away. Instead, he pulled his fshlight from his pack, clicked it on, and pointed it into the abyss. The tunnel stretched beyond, disappearing into pure bck. No movement. No sound. Yet. He turned back to Riley, voice low. “We keep moving.” And with that, they stepped into the dark. The air in the subway was stale and thick with the scent of damp concrete and rusting metal. Every step Hugo took sent small echoes bouncing down the long-forgotten station, swallowed by the vast emptiness ahead. The fshlight in his grip sent a narrow beam of light cutting through the darkness, illuminating the dust-covered floor, broken turnstiles, and old advertisements peeling from the walls. Riley moved beside him, quieter now, her earlier exhaustion momentarily repced by a different kind of tension. Neither of them spoke. Something about this pce felt wrong. They reached the far end of the ptform, where the tunnel yawned before them like a bck hole. Hugo swept his light across the tracks, checking for movement—any signs of the dead. Nothing. No walkers. No scattered bodies. No blood-streaked floors. Only bones. Hugo’s stomach twisted. They were clean. Too clean. Fragments of ribs, femurs, tiny finger bones—all stripped bare. No rotting flesh. No tattered clothes. Just the brittle, white remains of something that had been alive once. Riley swallowed hard. “That’s… weird, right?” Hugo didn’t answer immediately. He stepped closer, his boot nudging a small pile of bones, watching as they crumbled slightly from the pressure. They had been here a long time. “Maybe wild dogs or something?” Riley suggested, though her voice cked confidence. Hugo shook his head. “Dogs don’t do this.” She looked at him, brow furrowing. “Then what?” He had no answer. Every instinct screamed at him to turn back, to find another way. But there wasn’t another way. They were stuck underground, with runners still searching for them outside. The only way forward was through the tunnel. Hugo exhaled, adjusting the straps of his pack. “Let’s go.” Riley hesitated for a moment longer before nodding. She pulled her fshlight from her bag, flicking it on, and stepped beside him. Salem lingered at their feet, tail flicking sharply, his body tense. Together, they descended onto the tracks. The tunnel swallowed them. It was different than walking through the city ruins. The silence here wasn’t just the absence of sound—it was suffocating. The darkness pressed in from all sides, the fshlight beams only cutting through so much before they were swallowed by the endless bck. The air smelled of old mildew, oil, and something else—something faintly metallic. Salem stayed close to Hugo, his ears twitching, his tail low. The tracks beneath their feet were warped with age, rust creeping along the steel rails. Their footsteps were muffled on the dirt-covered path between them, every so often crunching over small pieces of debris—old paper scraps, bits of fallen concrete, even a shattered phone screen reflecting the dim light. Every few minutes, Hugo gnced back over his shoulder, scanning the darkness behind them. Still nothing. Still too quiet. Riley cleared her throat softly. “You ever been in a subway like this before?” “No.” Hugo didn’t look at her. She gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, me neither. Would’ve liked my first time down here to be, y’know… less creepy.” Hugo kept his pace steady. “Don’t waste your breath talking.” Riley huffed but didn’t argue. Minutes stretched on. The oppressive silence only grew heavier. Then, Salem stopped. Hugo nearly walked into him, but the cat didn’t move—just stood there, staring into the darkness ahead, his entire body stiff. His tail flicked once, twice. Riley noticed too. “What’s with your cat?” Hugo narrowed his eyes. Salem’s ears were ft against his skull, his body low to the ground like he had just spotted something he did not want to mess with. Hugo had seen him cautious before. Hell, Salem was cautious by default. But this? This was fear. A faint prickle crawled up Hugo’s spine. “Let’s move.” Riley frowned. “But—” “Now.” His voice left no room for argument. They started walking again, Hugo subtly increasing their pace. But the further they went, the worse Salem got. He stayed closer to Hugo’s legs, his tail puffing out slightly, his movements jerky. His ears flicked toward the ceiling, the walls, the floor, as if listening for something only he could hear. Then— A sound. Soft, rapid skittering. Riley stopped mid-step. “What the hell was that?” Hugo didn’t answer. He strained his ears, trying to pick it apart from the low hum of the underground. Then it came again. A rustling, scurrying noise—small but fast. Not just one. Dozens. Salem tensed. Then, without warning, he leapt into Hugo’s arms. Hugo instinctively caught him, his cws digging into his jacket. The cat buried his face against his chest, his tiny body trembling. He had never done this before. Never. Riley took a step closer. “Hugo—” Skitter. Skitter. Rustle. It was coming closer. Hugo clicked his fshlight up, sweeping it across the tunnel ahead. For a moment, he saw nothing. Just endless darkness, old tracks, shattered debris. Then something moved. A shadow. Low to the ground. Quick. And then another. The light caught something small, scurrying. A rat—no, rats. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. And then he saw what was wrong with them. Their flesh hung in tatters, patches of fur missing entirely, revealing bckened veins and raw, pulsing skin. Their eyes, once tiny and beady, were milky white, opaque. Their limbs moved with unnatural sharpness, too fast, too twitchy. Hugo barely had time to react before the horde of zombie rats surged forward. “RUN!” Riley didn’t need to be told twice. She bolted, nearly tripping over herself as she spun on her heel. Hugo followed, clutching Salem against his chest as they sprinted back the way they came. The rats swarmed after them. The sound of their tiny cws scraping against the concrete sent a shiver of revulsion through Hugo’s spine. It was endless. Like a living flood of twitching bodies, their tiny mouths snapping wildly as they surged closer. Riley gasped. “WHAT THE HELL?!” Hugo didn’t waste breath answering. He pushed harder, forcing his legs to move faster. The tunnel stretched on forever. The dim glow of the subway station they had come from was still far away. Too far. The rats were gaining. Then, up ahead—a side passage. A service tunnel. A chance. “Left!” Hugo barked. Riley veered sharply, nearly slipping as she followed him into the smaller passageway. The air grew colder, the space narrower. Pipes ran along the ceiling, rusted metal lining the walls. It didn’t stop the rats. They poured in after them, scrambling over each other, a wave of twitching, undead flesh. Hugo’s pulse pounded in his ears. They needed a door. Anything to block them. Then—up ahead. A rusted metal door, slightly ajar. “There!” Riley got there first, smming into it, shoving her weight against the rusted hinges. “Help me!” Hugo threw himself forward, pushing with everything he had. The door barely budged at first—but then, with a loud shriek of metal, it gave way. They stumbled inside. Riley spun, grabbing the door handle and smming it shut. The second it closed, the sound outside erupted. Hundreds of tiny bodies smmed against the metal, their screeches deafening. The door rattled violently, the frame groaning under the weight of the swarm outside. Riley panted, staring at the door with wide eyes. “Jesus Christ.” Hugo exhaled sharply, finally setting Salem down. The cat bolted to the farthest corner of the room, tail fluffed, ears ft against his head. Hugo scanned their surroundings. The room was small—some kind of old maintenance area. A rusted desk sat against one wall, a broken chair beside it. Some faded blueprints were tacked onto a bulletin board, long forgotten. The door rattled again, the rats still frenzied on the other side. Hugo pressed a hand to his forehead. They weren’t safe here. Riley leaned against the desk, still catching her breath. “Okay,” she huffed. “I take it back. I definitely prefer the city.” Hugo almost ughed. Almost.