The basketball courts were usually alive with echoes of sneakers on pavement and the smack of the ball against the rim. Now, the chain nets swayed in silence, the only sound the hum of the cicadas in the thick summer air.
Logan pulled the truck up to the curb, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. "Stay sharp," he said, scanning the area.
Ethan leaned forward in his seat, heart hammering. He spotted Dylan first, pacing at the far end of the court with his phone clutched in one hand. Marcus stood nearby, bouncing the ball nervously, while Cassie sat on the bench with her sketchbook closed tight against her chest.
"Thank God," Ethan muttered. He pushed the door open and waved. "Dylan! Marcus! Cassie!"
The three turned at once. Relief crossed their faces—then melted away.
Behind the fence, something was moving.
At first it looked like a drunk stumbling through the shadows of the trees. But as it drew closer, the wrongness was obvious—jerky limbs, blood staining its shirt, and a head that lolled at an unnatural angle, as though the neck had already snapped.
Cassie's eyes widened. "Ethan…" she whispered. "What is that?"
Dylan stepped back, the humor gone from his face for once. "Man, that's the same thing I saw at the gas station. I told you—skin gray. Look at it!"
Marcus gripped the basketball tighter, using it like a shield. "Maybe it's just hurt or—"
The figure slammed against the chain-link fence with a snarl. The sound was guttural, animal. Its teeth clattered against the metal, hands clawing wildly.
Ethan froze. His chest tightened. "That's not… human."
The infected pushed again, rattling the fence so violently that the bolts squealed. Then another one appeared in the trees—smaller, faster. A woman this time, her face torn, eyes white and unseeing. She slammed into the fence beside the first, shrieking.
The fence groaned under the impact.
"Logan!" Ethan shouted.
Logan was already out of the truck, his Marine training snapping into place. He kept low, scanning, calculating. "Everyone in the truck. Now!"
The infected clawed harder, their fingers bleeding as they tried to pull the fence apart.
Marcus, wide-eyed, threw the basketball as hard as he could. It struck one of them in the face with a dull thwack, but the thing didn't even flinch. It only snarled louder.
"Move it!" Logan barked, grabbing Cassie by the arm and pulling her toward the truck. Maya jumped out, swinging her bat to cover them.
Ethan's legs finally unlocked and he sprinted forward, reaching Dylan and Marcus as the fence gave a sickening screech.
"Go! Go! Go!"
The five of them scrambled into the bed of the pickup while Logan slammed the driver's side door shut and threw it into gear. The engine roared. Tires squealed.
As the truck sped away, Ethan looked back just in time to see the fence collapse, the infected spilling onto the court like wolves through a broken pen. Their heads snapped toward the fleeing vehicle, mouths open in a chorus of inhuman cries.
Ethan's breath caught. He had seen enough movies, enough games, to know what he was looking at.
But this wasn't a game.
This was real.