Chapter 1: The Liability of Hope
The silence that followed the engine's cutoff was the first thing Jin analyzed. It was unnatural. He exited the Lexus, not with the frantic energy of a lost man, but with the focused calm of a soldier entering a hostile zone. The few visible townsfolk stared, not with shock at a flashy car, but with a deep, unnerved suspicion at the menacing, tactical vehicle and the intensely serious man who emerged from it.
His eyes settled on the town diner. Large windows—a critical weakness—but its central location offered a panoramic view. It was the best of a bad situation.
"Hey! You!" a man's voice called out. A man with a sheriff's star jogged toward him, his face a mask of weary concern. "Son, you need to calm down."
Jin ignored him, striding into the unlocked diner and immediately beginning to drag heavy tables toward the windows to create barricades.
"What in God's name are you doing?" the Sheriff, Boyd Stevens, demanded as he followed Jin inside, a priest and a tough-looking woman at his heels.
"Fortifying my position," Jin stated flatly. "A logical first step."
Boyd quickly and urgently explained the town's horrific truth: they were trapped, and monsters came at night. He held up a strange stone talisman. "You have to be inside a building with one of these on the door by nightfall."
Jin listened with the unblinking focus of a predator, his expression unchanging. "Evidence?"
"The evidence is that we are still alive!" Boyd said, exasperated.
"Anecdotal," Jin countered. "Show me proof of their capabilities. Weaknesses? Movement patterns?"
Before Boyd could answer, a new sound cut through the air—the screech of tires, followed by a thunderous, metallic crash. A large RV had careened into the town square and tipped onto its side.
The town exploded into frantic action. Boyd and the others bolted out of the diner to help. Jin did not. He watched from his half-finished barricade as a panicking family was pulled from the wreckage. A young boy had a grievous leg injury, the bone clearly visible.
New arrivals. Vehicle compromised. Multiple injuries, one critical. High emotional distress. They are a catastrophic liability.
He turned and strode back to his Lexus. He keyed a sequence on his watch, and a concealed compartment in the rear hissed open, revealing a comprehensive trauma kit. He took it, along with rolls of industrial tape and a pair of high-powered binoculars, then returned to the diner to continue his work.
As the sun began to set, a deep bell began to toll, turning the town's frantic energy into raw fear. People scrambled for their homes, doors slamming shut, heavy bolts echoing in the twilight.
Jin was already inside his fortified diner, the talisman Boyd had left hanging from the door. The night fell like a shroud, and the world went utterly quiet.
He sat in a booth, perfectly still, the binoculars to his eyes. He scanned the tree line at the edge of town. Then, he saw it. A figure stepped out from the trees, looking like a milkman from a bygone era, a wide, friendly smile on its face.
The gait is wrong, Jin's mind analyzed. The joint movement is too fluid. The smile is fixed. A predatory mimic.
The milkman strolled down the center of the street, humming. It stopped directly in front of the diner. Slowly, its head turned, its neck rotating just a few degrees too far. Its dark, hungry eyes locked directly onto Jin's window. It saw him.
The creature raised a hand in a friendly, beckoning wave, the smile never faltering.
Jin lowered his binoculars, his face an unreadable mask.
Hypothesis confirmed. The variable is hostile.
He rested his hand on the Glock by his side, the cold steel a familiar comfort. The night had just begun.
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