Night swallowed the city whole.
By the time they reached the railway depot, London's fires were just dim glows behind the fog ... dying stars over a broken skyline. The air was cold, thick with ash, and every sound felt too loud.
They stood before the depot's gate: a rusted wall of iron, its faded letters reading London Central Railway Storage & Maintenance. Beyond it stretched rows of silent trains, warehouses, and the metallic scent of oil and old blood.
Kazuma scanned the fence, flashlight beam slicing through the gloom. "We'll climb. The side gate's welded shut."
Mike squinted up. "You sure? Maybe the zombies left a doorbell."
Dan shot him a flat look. "Climb."
Leina hesitated, anxiety flickering in her voice. "It's… high."
Mike smirked. "Short people get a pass. I'll boost you up."
Her glare was sharp, but her blush gave her away. "I'm not short."
"Right, right. Vertically efficient," he muttered, kneeling to help.
Kazuma was already halfway over, movements precise and quiet. "Keep it down," he said. "Sound carries."
They dropped to the other side, boots thudding softly on the ground.
The silence that followed was too still.
Then came a faint scrape ... metal dragging against metal.
Dan raised his crowbar. "We're not alone."
~~~ line break ~~~
Inside, the depot loomed like a cathedral of steel.
Rows of massive locomotives sat dead under a shroud of dust. The air was heavy ... oil, rust, and the faint sweetness of decay.
Leina swept her light across the vast hall. "It's huge… It could take days to search."
Kazuma nodded. "Then we'll start small. Warehouse first. Clear one sector at a time."
Mike frowned. "And if there's, you know… residents?"
Kazuma's voice was calm. "Then we evict them."
They found the west-side warehouse with its doors ajar ... a dark streak trailing inside.
Mike wrinkled his nose. "That's not paint, is it?"
Dan's quiet tone was grim. "No. It's not."
They entered cautiously. The flashlight beams caught chaos ... toppled crates, scattered tools, and bodies. Dozens. Workers in uniforms, engineers, all in varying stages of decay.
Leina turned away, voice breaking. "We shouldn't... shouldn't look."
Kazuma crouched beside one. His gloved fingers brushed the sleeve; the skin was gray, veins black. "Infection pattern matches. Bite marks along the forearm. But look..." He pointed to the skull. "Fractured inward. Not blunt force. Crushed."
Dan leaned in. "You're saying something pressed it in?"
Kazuma nodded slowly. "Or someone."
Mike's voice tightened. "Okay. Officially voting we never meet that someone."
The Sound in the Dark
They swept through the warehouse in silence. Each step echoed too loud. Dust drifted through the flashlight beams like ash.
Leina whispered, "I hate this place. It feels like it's watching us."
Kazuma didn't look up. "Places don't watch. People do."
Then came a sharp clatter from above.
Everyone froze.
Mike whispered, "Tell me that was a rat."
Kazuma's beam flicked upward ... catching movement.
A figure dropped from the catwalks. Fast. Too fast.
It landed in a crouch, head tilting in eerie mimicry of thought.
Half-rotted face, cloudy eyes ... but aware. It hissed and lunged.
Mike barely ducked as it blurred past him. Kazuma fired his improvised nail gun; a bolt hissed through the air, embedding into its shoulder. The creature screamed ... not pain, but rage.
Dan stepped forward and swung. The crowbar cracked skull. Silence.
Leina trembled. "That wasn't normal."
Kazuma knelt, examining the corpse. "Motor function intact. Neural activity higher than baseline infection. It's… evolving."
Mike exhaled. "So now they get upgrades?"
"Adaptation under stress," Kazuma said. "Evolution always finds a way."
Leina's voice was small. "There are more like it?"
"Yes," Kazuma murmured. "And worse."
~~~ line break ~~~
By dawn, they'd barricaded the main warehouse doors. The depot became their fortress ... at least for now.
They gathered around a metal table beneath flickering lamps. Everyone looked drained.
Kazuma spread his notes. "Patterns are forming. The infected are differentiating."
Mike groaned. "Oh good. Zombie taxonomy."
Ignoring him, Kazuma continued. "Runners ... enhanced speed, coordination. Retain basic neural function."
Leina nodded. "That's what we saw tonight."
"Second ... the Blind. Optic decay, heightened hearing. Sound triggers them instantly. Silence is survival."
Dan added, "I've seen one. Didn't move till a can fell."
Kazuma marked another note. "Third ... Brutes. Massive muscle hypertrophy. Slow but extremely strong. Avoid direct engagement."
Mike frowned. "And the rest?"
"Standard infected," Kazuma said. "Shamblers. Erratic, slow, predictable… but still fatal in numbers."
Leina shuddered. "So four kinds of nightmares."
Mike sighed. "We're gonna need a bigger coffee pot."
Dan murmured, "Coffee won't fix extinction."
Kazuma looked up. "Preparation might."
The First Night
They made camp in a side office. The walls were thick, windows barred. The hum of distant moans filtered faintly through the steel.
Mike sat by the door, fiddling with a dying flashlight. Leina sat across from him, sketchbook in hand.
"You're drawing?" he asked softly.
"It helps," she said. "If I don't put it somewhere, it stays in my head."
He leaned over. Her sketch showed the depot ... vast and ghostly ... with four small figures dwarfed by shadow. "You made me taller."
She smiled faintly. "You're welcome."
For a moment, the world felt almost normal.
Across the room, Kazuma scribbled equations in a notebook. Dan sat still, half-dozing but never asleep.
Outside, something dragged against the wall ... a whisper of weight and claws. Mike whispered, "They're still out there."
Kazuma didn't look up. "They always will be."
Leina's voice was soft. "Then we just keep going… right?"
Kazuma finally met her eyes. "Until we can't."
~~~ line break ~~~
Pale daylight seeped through the grime-streaked windows. Smoke rose over distant ruins.
Kazuma spread a map on the table. "We're low on supplies. There's a residential block half a mile north ... small shops, houses. We move in pairs. Quiet and quick."
Mike frowned. "You sure splitting up's smart?"
"No," Kazuma said. "But necessary."
Leina squared her shoulders. "I'll go. I can carry things."
Mike grinned. "You just don't trust my shopping list."
She smiled. "You'd bring back biscuits and batteries."
"Hey," he said, mock-offended, "biscuits are critical survival tools."
Dan checked his crowbar. "Move before the Runners wake."
Kazuma nodded. "Ten minutes. Quiet and clean. No mistakes."
Leina hesitated. "If we find others?"
Kazuma paused ... too long. "Then we decide if they're worth saving."
The room fell still.
Outside, the wind carried faint, distant groans ... reminders that peace here was a fragile illusion.
They had a plan.
But the world beyond the gates was already changing.
And when they opened those gates again, the dead were no longer just walking.