The silence snapped like a wire pulled too tight.
Then everything happened all at once.
The zombies didn't groan. They didn't shuffle. They simply moved. Without warning, they tore through the broken windows like a wave, hands clawing over shattered glass and metal. Dozens of them. Maybe more.
The moment the first one touched the floor, Zubair opened fire.
"Contact!"
Elias and Alexei joined him instantly, shots ringing out one after the other as the horde swarmed through the wrecked entrance. Bullets tore into skin, split faces, shattered ribs—but nothing slowed them.
If anything, it made them worse.
They roared.
Twisted.
Split.
Where heads exploded, new ones formed within seconds. Where limbs were blown off, the arms cloned completely new creatures that dragged themselves forward like sentient vines before they got to their feet.
One dove straight at Elias, missed by inches, slammed into the floor, and twisted upright like a marionette with tangled strings.
