The road north was a jagged scar across the land.
No cars passed here anymore. No children ran barefoot on the paths. Just cracked asphalt, dried blood on old signs, and skeletal trees leaning like mourners over a grave no one remembered burying.
They traveled in silence—Li Wei in front, always alert; Rui behind him, her sharp eyes and blade never resting; and Chen Yu, dragging his feet deliberately at the rear, cracking jokes to the empty wind.
By noon, the trio came across a rusted billboard:
"REPENT. THE FLAME PURGES."
Below the faded words, someone had painted a black cross—long, crooked, and ugly. The paint was fresh.
Rui tilted her head. "We're near their territory again."
"Or something worse that mimics them," Li Wei muttered.
Chen Yu spat on the ground. "You'd think religious fanatics would at least have better slogans. 'The Flame Purges'? Sounds like a toilet ad."
They moved on, but unease clung to their boots.
By dusk, they found the first warning nailed to a tree.
It was a body. Male. Young. His chest had been carved with a single phrase in deep, jagged letters:
"INFECTED BY SPIRIT."
Below it, the same black cross.
Rui stepped closer, but Li Wei caught her arm. "Don't touch it."
"It's a message," she said coldly.
Chen Yu didn't flinch at the sight. Instead, he lit a cigarette and looked away. "Spirit, huh? So now we're purging ghosts? What next—demon dogs? Cursed chickens?"
"No." Rui was staring at the corpse's face now. "This one… was clean."
"What?" Li Wei moved beside her, squinting.
"No signs of mutation. Skin, eyes, nails—everything's normal. They didn't kill him because he was infected."
"They killed him because they thought he was."
A breeze passed. The trees creaked in disapproval.
That night, they camped in the ruins of an old filling station. The walls were blackened with soot, but the structure held. Rui took first watch, perched by a broken window with her blade across her lap.
Chen Yu couldn't sleep. He lay on his back, arms behind his head, eyes fixed on the cracked ceiling.
"Hey, Wei?" he asked in a quiet voice.
Li Wei stirred but didn't respond.
"Ever think we're the villains now?"
Still silence.
Chen Yu chuckled bitterly. "I mean, I laughed while we burned a preacher. Laughed. Rui didn't blink when she cut off that woman's hand last week. You haven't smiled in months."
He turned his head, watching Li Wei's motionless body.
"Just wondering who we're becoming."
Still no answer.
Outside, a wolf howled. But it wasn't a wolf. The sound was wrong—offbeat, hollow, like something trying to remember how to be a wolf.
Rui didn't flinch. She just stared into the darkness, her grip tightening slightly.
At dawn, they found more signs.
A tree etched with scripture. A small crucified corpse—this one was a deer, not a human.
And then: the sound of singing.
Not beautiful. Not soft. It was a hoarse, scratchy chant—voices carried on the wind like thorns.
"The flesh is wicked. The soul must burn. All who walk in shadow must be lit by flame."
The trio froze.
Chen Yu's face darkened. "Oh no. I know that song."
"You do?" Rui whispered.
He nodded slowly. "I heard it two years ago in a city called Hollowmouth. A place that doesn't exist on any map anymore."
"What happened?"
"They lit it. Lit the whole place like a candle. Men, women, children. Even the birds."
Li Wei motioned for silence.
Through the trees ahead, they saw them: a procession of figures in tattered robes, barefoot, holding torches and dragging chained bodies behind them—mutants, half-zombies, and even a few seemingly normal humans.
The robed fanatics chanted as they marched. In the center was a tall woman, face hidden beneath a veil of ash. She held a staff shaped like a cross, and her voice thundered louder than the rest.
"We are the Black Cross. We purge for peace. We burn to be clean."
Rui's eyes narrowed. "They're rounding up the mutated."
"Not just the infected," Li Wei murmured. "Look at that girl. She's a child. Perfectly human."
Chen Yu's grin was gone. His eyes were hollow now. "We're walking into Hell again."
Li Wei's jaw tightened. "Then let's bring matches."