The bus jolted as it rolled over a pothole in the cracked asphalt. That was when Bakta realized where they were.
Impossible.
Her hands tightened around the steering wheel. She was certain she hadn't taken any other turn. She had simply continued down the dirt road, yet somehow ended up back in the same town.
Behind her, the murmur grew, low and uneasy, like a restless swarm.
"Hey, why are we back in the same place?" a young man in a track jacket asked.
Glancing at the rearview mirror, Bakta forced herself to stay composed.
"Everyone, calm down. I must've taken a wrong turn without noticing. I'll get us back to the highway."
Tillie, an elderly woman with short white hair, smiled with an oddly serene expression.
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"Since we're back, why don't we stop for a bit? I saw a diner that looked quite charming. I'd love to stretch my legs."
The suggestion was met with immediate protests.
"Stop here?" A woman several rows ahead spun around in disbelief. "Did you see this place? No sane person would want to get off in a town like this."
"I agree. Just step on it, driver."
"We're not making any stops," Bakta declared firmly, turning her attention back to the road. "We're getting out of here right now."
A young man sleeping halfway down the bus suddenly jolted awake, as though he had been violently ripped out of a nightmare.
His chest rose and fell in short, panicked breaths as cold sweat streamed down his forehead.
Elgin's frantic gaze swept across the faded streets beyond the windows.
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He got to his feet so quickly he nearly stumbled into the narrow aisle.
"We have to turn around." His voice came out hoarse. "Now. We have to get out of here!"
"Calm down, kid. We're not stopping here," Bakta replied, raising her voice to be heard over the growing commotion.
"You don't understand!" Elgin pushed his way toward the driver's seat. "We have to go back! Bad things are going to happen!"
Before he could take another couple of steps, a heavy hand stopped him. Randall, with his naturally aggressive posture, shoved him back with unnecessary force.
"Easy there, man. Get back and park your ass in your seat."
The argument was about to start when one of the passengers near the front pointed out the window.
"What are they doing?"
Boyd, Kenny, and Father Khatri were standing in the road, waving both arms to block their path. Beside them, Julie and Daniel watched in silence.
"What the hell..." Bakta muttered under her breath as she hit the brakes.
The bus stopped just a few meters from the trio.
Boyd walked forward. His eyes swept across the bus windows before he raised his badge in front of the windshield.
The moment Bakta recognized the metallic emblem, her guarded posture relaxed ever so slightly.
The passengers nearest the front quietly let out sighs of relief as well. It was the police. There was some kind of order here, after all.
She pulled the lever, and the doors opened with a hiss of compressed air.
"Good evening, everyone. I'm Sheriff Boyd Stevens," he announced, projecting his voice with the stern authority of someone who didn't have a second to waste.
"We're looking for a wanted criminal in the area. We received a security alert, and I need to identify everyone before allowing anyone to leave town. The suspect may be using a bus to escape. Everyone, step off the bus."
It was an improvised lie, but a believable one.
A wave of dissatisfied murmurs rippled through the bus. Even so, with the possibility of a dangerous criminal nearby, self-preservation won out.
People began gathering their backpacks, handbags, and jackets.
Elgin, however, shook his head in desperation as he backed farther into the rows of seats.
"No! Don't get off! You have no idea what's out there!"
No one listened to him. A few even shot him suspicious looks.
Hidden along the side of the sheriff's station, Donna kept her breathing steady. Her men gripped their shotguns tightly against their chests, waiting for the moment to act.
Closer to the bus, Daniel, Julie, Kenny, and Father Khatri remained in plain sight, forming a loose semicircle around the door as the first passengers began stepping outside.
From the porch of their house, Jim and Tabitha had been watching the whole scene. Behind them, Ethan lingered in the doorway, craning his neck to see the bus despite Tabitha repeatedly telling him to stay inside.
Then, movement at the edge of the forest caught Jim's attention.
Humanoid figures slowly emerged from the darkness between the trees, advancing without the slightest hurry.
"Move! Hurry!" he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. "The creatures are coming! Move!"
"Julie! Daniel! Run back here!" Tabitha cried, joining her husband's voice as she waved both arms frantically.
The passengers who had already gotten off looked toward the house, staring at the scene with unmistakable judgment.
"Do you think they've got some kind of mental problem?" a middle-aged man commented as he adjusted the backpack on his shoulder.
Hearing the comment, Julie's eyebrows drew together almost imperceptibly, but she couldn't blame them. If she had been in their shoes, arriving in town for the first time, she probably would have thought her parents had gone insane too.
When she turned her attention back to the creatures emerging from the shadows, a chill ran down her spine. Instinctive apprehension threatened to quicken her heartbeat, yet all it took was a sidelong glance at her boyfriend for the anxiety to begin melting away.
Daniel stood with his hands in his pockets, his posture completely relaxed.
Remembering his absurdly high attributes—and her own recent growth—Julie felt her fear dissolve like smoke.
Daniel, meanwhile, had silently activated Danger Wi-Fi seconds earlier.
A small translucent map appeared at the edge of his vision, where red dots began popping up one after another. One detail stood out, however: they weren't moving as fast as they should have been.
On the porch of the Matthews house, Tabitha's desperation finally reached its limit. Seeing that the people from the bus were barely moving and that Julie and Daniel were still standing in the middle of the street as though they were waiting for a movie to start, her maternal instinct crushed every last trace of self-preservation.
"I'm going over there! They're not coming!" she exclaimed, already heading toward the wooden steps.
"No! Have you lost your mind?!" Jim grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back to the safety of the porch.
Without another word, he pointed with his chin toward the dark passage between the side of the house and the sheriff's station.
From the shadows, a creature wearing a white 1950s nurse's uniform advanced methodically, each step as unhurried as it was disturbing.
With the monsters rapidly closing the distance, Donna decided she couldn't wait any longer. She came out of hiding with her shotgun resting on her broad shoulder, followed closely by her three men.
When the passengers saw armed strangers appearing out of nowhere and walking toward them with grim expressions, panic began spreading through the crowd.
Some women backed away, bumping into one another, while the other passengers simply tensed up, assuming they were hunters returning from the woods or something along those lines.
"What the hell is this now?" Randall stepped forward, chin raised as he realized they were being surrounded. "Are you robbing us? Is that it? Are you after our stuff?"
Just as expected, Daniel thought. He'd barely arrived, and he was already starting trouble.
Father Khatri intervened, raising a hand in a peaceful gesture.
"I know this looks bad, and we don't have time to explain everything right now, but you need to come with us to the sheriff's station. It's a matter of life and death."
Boyd came down the bus steps dragging Elgin by the arm. The young man was still mumbling incoherently as he struggled in vain to break free.
"Everyone, stop where you are and follow me!" the sheriff ordered.
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" a woman shouted. "What do you really want from us?!"
Realizing words were no longer working, Boyd gave Donna a subtle signal. She understood immediately.
With a quick, practiced motion, she lowered her shotgun and racked it. The sharp metallic clack-clack echoed through the street like a thunderclap. Her men did the same without hesitation.
Kenny drew his pistol from its holster and kept it pointed at the pavement.
That was enough.
The passengers fell silent and began moving, albeit in a disorganized fashion, toward the sheriff's station.
Jim and Tabitha let out long sighs of relief.
"Let's get inside," Jim whispered, wrapping an arm around his wife's waist.
Tabitha nodded, but the moment the door was locked, she hurried to the window and peered through the gaps between the wooden boards.
Boyd had just reached for the sheriff's station door when something unexpected happened.
Elgin suddenly collapsed without warning. His body began convulsing violently, his pupils lost focus, and white foam gathered at the corners of his mouth.
"Hey! Kid!"
Boyd dropped to his knees beside him, cradling his head, while Father Khatri helped restrain the young man's trembling arms.
A woman with blonde highlights pushed her way through the crowd.
"Move aside! Let me help!"
Boyd looked up.
"Are you a doctor?"
"I'm a pediatric nurse," Marielle replied with professional composure, dropping her bag onto the ground. She turned Elgin's head onto his side to keep his airway clear and began timing the seizure.
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Everyone's attention shifted to the scene. Donna and her three men relaxed their guard for a brief moment, focused on the emergency.
It was exactly the opening Randall had been waiting for.
"Run!" he shouted, sprinting away from the sheriff's station.
The reaction was immediate. It took only one person running for half the others to follow, scattering in every direction as they shouted and shoved one another.
"Stop!" Donna yelled, raising her shotgun. Her men and Kenny did the same, bringing their weapons to bear.
Julie, caught between two fleeing passengers, saw Daniel already chasing after someone out of the corner of her eye.
Without thinking twice, she pretended to draw the pistol from her waist.
"Stay right there! Take one more step and I'll shoot!"
It worked.
The two froze instantly, raising their hands in surrender.
Daniel had been watching Randall from the very beginning, certain he would be the first to cause trouble.
The moment he bolted, it took Daniel only a few strides to catch up.
Seeing an imposing but apparently unarmed young man blocking his path, Randall twisted his torso and threw a straight punch at Daniel's face.
Daniel didn't even blink. He slipped beneath Randall's arm, letting the attack pass within inches of his head before delivering a perfectly timed blow to the man's stomach.
The impact echoed with a dull thud.
Randall doubled over, his pupils dilating as every last bit of air was driven from his lungs in a muffled gasp. His diaphragm locked into a painful spasm, leaving him unable to draw another breath.
He collapsed to his knees on the asphalt, mouth opening soundlessly as he fought for air. Only a faint, strangled wheeze escaped his throat.
"Save your breath."
Daniel cracked his neck, then grabbed him by the collar with one hand and dragged him back without the slightest effort, ignoring his agonized struggles.
Despite how quickly everyone reacted, the defensive line had opened just enough for several other passengers to escape.
A shrill scream of pure agony tore through the night.
One of the men sprinting down the road stepped squarely onto the spike strip Boyd and Kenny had hidden.
The metal spikes punched straight through the sole of his shoe, and his own momentum hurled him forward, sending him crashing violently onto the pavement.
Brian and Kelly, who had been running only a few yards behind him while constantly looking over their shoulders, stopped dead in their tracks.
The panic on their faces gave way to confusion when they spotted a woman in a nurse's uniform standing in the middle of the street, wearing a broad smile.
Daniel dropped Randall at Donna's feet. His gaze swept across the street beneath the glow of the old lampposts, and he shook his head.
That one's already dead.
The instant Kenny heard the scream, he abandoned all protocol. He reacted before he could think, sprinting toward the fallen man.
He knew he probably couldn't save him, but maybe he still had time to get the young couple out of there.
"Kenny, no! Get back here!" Boyd shouted from the sheriff's station steps.
This time, the deputy ignored him. The ghosts of past deaths wouldn't let him stand by and watch another massacre without doing anything.
Daniel raised an eyebrow at the suicidal display.
Playing the hero now? That's an impressive level of stupidity.
Letting out a bored sigh, he drew his Glock and headed in the same direction.
"Is there a hospital here? We need to get him there," Brian asked the nurse as he cautiously approached her.
Kelly, however, grabbed his arm, overcome by a terrible feeling.
"Of course... he'll be very well taken care of," the nurse replied, her smile stretching even wider.
"Get away! Stay away from her!" Kenny shouted without slowing down.
The monster dropped the act.
Its jaw split impossibly wide, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth as its claws sliced through the air.
The fallen man didn't even have time to think before sinking both its teeth and claws into his throat.
Blood sprayed across the gravel.
Kelly and Brian stumbled backward, their faces as white as chalk.
The passengers still gathered outside the sheriff's station stood frozen, mouths hanging open at the impossible sight.
Letting out a terrified whimper, Brian turned and ran for his life, abandoning Kelly where she stood, completely paralyzed with terror, tiny droplets of blood spattered across her coat.
Kenny closed the distance and pulled the trigger several times.
Bang! Bang!
The bullets struck the creature squarely in the chest, tearing through its dress, yet it didn't even stagger.
"What the hell is that idiot doing?" Jade muttered.
Pressed against the wall of the house across the street, he watched everything unfold through the narrow gap between the window boards.
For all his usual harshness, his fingers gripped the wooden frame so tightly that his knuckles had turned completely white, betraying the anxiety he was trying to hide.
Beside him, Tian-Chen seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. She watched her son's reckless charge with her heart pounding, her weathered hands covering her mouth as they trembled uncontrollably.
"Terrible choice of target," Daniel muttered as he came to a stop beside Kenny.
He raised the Glock, deciding to test an idea. Closing one eye, he carefully lined up the sights.
Three sharp, evenly spaced shots shattered the night.
The first round pierced the creature's right eye, spraying dark fluid.
The second grazed its face.
The third drilled straight into its left eye, extinguishing what little vision it had left.
The creature made no sound of pain, but it was clearly disoriented, wildly flailing its arms from side to side as it searched for its prey.
Kenny seized the opening, grabbed Kelly by the arm, and practically dragged her away.
"Everyone, get inside the sheriff's station! Now!" Boyd thundered, his voice cutting through the crowd's collective paralysis.
The effect was immediate.
People shoved their way through the narrow entrance, forming a chaotic torrent of bodies, hurried footsteps, and muffled screams.
Elgin, now conscious but visibly exhausted, was supported by Father Khatri as he still struggled to walk.
The deputy came in right behind them, practically carrying Kelly, who couldn't stop sobbing.
Daniel was the last to step through the door, accompanied by Julie, who had waited for him.
Those watching from their homes finally released the breath they'd been holding.
Tian-Chen sank into the nearest chair, murmuring a prayer of thanks.
Jim and Tabitha embraced each other in silence, overcome with relief.
Safe inside the sheriff's station, Daniel holstered his pistol and studied the movements of the red dots still pulsing across his mental map.
"What are they up to now?" he wondered. "Judging by how fast they acted and the routes they deliberately left open... it almost looked like they wanted to make sure as many sheep as possible made it safely into the pen."
[Either way, this place's hospitality rating keeps dropping.]
Daniel huffed an amused breath through his nose, soft enough to disappear beneath the muffled sobs filling the room. Only Julie, standing beside him, managed to hear it.
As his attention returned to the room, he looked over the crowd of sweaty, trembling, terrified faces.
For the newcomers, the brutal tutorial had begun.
And there would be no respawn screen.
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