My lungs felt like they were collapsing in on themselves.
Each breath was shorter and heavier than the last. My legs burned, muscles screaming in protest as I stumbled through Parking Lot 4, boots slamming against cracked asphalt and scattered debris.
I dared a glance over my shoulder.
They were closer.
A few faster than the others poured between cars like water finding cracks, bodies scraping paint, hands clawing at doors and windows as if instinct remembered where life once hid. Some tripped and fell, only to be trampled underfoot, bones snapping without slowing the tide.
I ran.
My foot caught on something—metal, maybe—and I hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the breath clean out of me. Pain exploded through my shoulder as I rolled instinctively.
"Shit—shit—SHIT!"
I scrambled upright, boots kicking broken asphalt. I pulled my gun and turned to see a zombie barely 30 paces away. With an unsteady aim, I shot. The bullet tore through the zombie as it collapsed. Yet further back, still halfway through AT&T way, another kept coming with half its face missing.
I burst through a line of parked cars and skidded to a stop.
The parking lot ended at a grassy embankment. The ground is not cracked, nor has it collapsed. It was simply gone.
A section of ground had sunk inward, forming a jagged trench easily ten feet deep, the edges folded and warped like melted plastic. Smoke drifted lazily from below, carrying a putrid smell of chemicals,
I turned back.
Bad idea.
The horde was already spilling into the lot behind me, dozens breaking into hundreds as more crawled out from between wrecked vehicles.
My heart hammered so hard I thought it might rupture. My grip tightened around the pistol, knuckles white, brain screaming useless commands.
"Think. Think!"
I pressed my hand against the ground below me, hoping.
The pressure returned behind my eyes, sharper this time, like fingers digging into my skull. I gasped, clutching my head as the information forced itself forward.
Material: Mud
Composition: Clay, sand, Water
I slammed my palm into the ground.
The ground gave way.
It softened instantly, rippling outward in a wide circle as if I'd struck water instead of road. The leading zombies stepped onto it and sank.
They screamed.
Not moans. Not groans.
Screams, it wasn't like a human one, no, it was one akin to being drowned and torn apart at the same time.
The ground swallowed their legs first, then their torsos, dragging them down like quicksand as the surface thickened again, hardening around thrashing arms and snapping jaws. Those behind stumbled, piling atop one another as the ground betrayed them.
I staggered back, dizzy, my vision swimming.
The world tilted.
My stomach lurched violently as I dropped to one knee, bile burned my throat as I retched onto the ground. My hands shook uncontrollably, fingers numb and tingling as if I'd stuck them into live wires.
Whatever I'd done—it took something out of me.
A lot.
I tried to force myself upright again, swaying, ears ringing as the remaining zombies struggled to navigate around the sunken mass of their own kind.
No time.
I turned and ran again up along the stream, legs barely responding, every step feeling heavier than the last. Behind me, the horde roared in frustration, climbing over trapped bodies with renewed fury.
I didn't stop until my vision blurred.
When I finally collapsed behind an overturned truck, chest heaving, legs screaming, arms feeling empty. I pressed my back against the cold metal and slid down into the dirt.
My hands shook as I stared at them.
The sky above pulsed as purple lightning crackled, clouds twisting unnaturally as distant explosions echoed through the city. Somewhere far away, something screamed—not human, not dead.
The sound made my very bones chitter as I looked at the river between me and the rangers' store across.
"Okay," I muttered, voice shaking. "Okay, Alex. Come on. Let's do this."
I wiped blood and ash from my mouth and pushed myself back to my feet. My feet started to work as I ran and jumped. The water rushing underneath me looked minuscule as both my feet planted on the other embankment.
"YES", I shouted in my head. That feeling, though, was short-lived as the truck I just hid behind turned into a mass of zombies, forcing one another to show. They crushed one another as they tried to make their way closer to the river.
One which seemed to be a runner ran fast into it, the currents, however, took hold, taking the zombie downstream. The cries made my spine shiver as it splashed its arms and roared.
Realising this was an opportunity, I turned and began climbing the slope towards the ranger's store.