They stayed back for a while after Arjun returned.
No one rushed to speak. The structure ahead continued its pattern without interruption, as if nothing had changed. One infected moved toward the entrance, another followed after a pause, and the rest held their positions. It was steady, controlled, and unaffected by what they had just done.
Arjun kept watching.
"They didn't react," Raghav said after a moment. "Not even once."
"They noticed," Meera replied. "They just didn't act."
"That's not better."
"No," she said. "It isn't."
Arjun shifted his weight slightly, still focused on the building. "It didn't feel like they ignored me," he said. "It felt like I didn't matter."
Nisha looked at him. "Explain."
He thought for a second before answering. "If I was a threat, they would have stopped me. If I was prey, they would have attacked. They didn't do either."
Raghav frowned. "So what does that make you?"
Arjun gave a small, uneasy shrug. "Nothing."
The word sat there, uncomfortable but clear.
Meera crossed her arms, thinking it through. "Or something not worth reacting to."
"That's the same thing," Raghav said.
Nisha didn't respond right away. She was still watching the movement near the entrance, her attention fixed on the details others might miss.
"They're selective," she said after a moment.
Arjun glanced at her. "Selective how?"
"They don't respond to everything," she said. "Only certain things trigger them."
Raghav shook his head. "So we're standing in front of something that decides when to attack us?"
"Yes."
No one liked that answer.
Arjun exhaled slowly. "Then we need to know what those triggers are."
Meera nodded. "Movement didn't trigger them. Your presence didn't either."
"And sound?" Raghav asked.
They all looked around for a moment.
There were loose pieces of debris nearby—metal, broken concrete, shattered glass.
Meera pointed toward a bent piece of metal near the curb. "We try that."
Raghav immediately frowned. "That's going to bring everything here."
"Only one way to know," she said.
Nisha considered it briefly, then gave a small nod. "Not too close to the boundary."
Arjun stepped forward. "I'll do it."
This time, no one argued.
He walked a few steps away from the group and picked up the metal piece. It was heavier than it looked, edges bent and rough.
He looked back once.
They were all watching.
Waiting.
Arjun turned and threw it.
The metal hit the ground hard and the sound echoed across the street, louder than anything they had made so far.
For a second, nothing happened but then the outer infected reacted.
Several of them turned toward the sound, their movements quick but uneven. One started moving in that direction, then another, drawn by the noise.
But the ones near the structure—
Did nothing.
They didn't turn nor even bothered to move.
They didn't react at all.
Arjun watched carefully. "They heard it."
"Some of them did," Meera said.
Nisha nodded slightly. "The outer ones respond to noise. The inner ones don't. Not unless it matters to them."
Raghav looked confused. "What do you mean, 'matters'?"
"They're not reacting to random things," she said. "Only specific triggers."
Arjun stepped back toward them. "So sound alone isn't enough."
"No," Meera said. "Not random sound."
The difference between the two groups was clear now.
The outer infected were already gathering near the metal, drawn in by the noise. Their movements were uncoordinated, overlapping, slow to adjust while the inner group remained unchanged.
Still, focused and unmoved.
Arjun looked between them. "They're following different rules."
"They are," Nisha said.
Silence settled over the group again.
The situation was starting to make sense—but not in a way that made it easier.
Meera looked back at the structure. "If noise doesn't trigger them, then something else does."
Arjun nodded slightly. "That sound from inside."
"The pulse," she said.
Raghav crossed his arms. "And what happens when we figure it out?"
Nisha answered without hesitation. "Then we decide what to do with it."
No one argued because at this point, not knowing was worse.
Arjun looked back at the entrance again.
Another infected stepped forward and disappeared inside. The pattern continued without interruption, as if their presence had never mattered in the first place.
"They're not reacting to us," he said. "They're reacting to something else entirely."
Meera nodded. "Which means we're not the focus."
That didn't feel like relief.
It felt like being ignored for a reason.
Arjun let that settle, then another thought came to him.
"If they're choosing what matters…" he said slowly, "then at some point, we will matter."
Raghav looked at him. "You don't sound like you're looking forward to that."
"I'm not."
Nisha stepped forward slightly, her attention still fixed on the structure. "Then we don't wait for that moment. We stay ahead of it."
Arjun tightened his grip on the rod.
For the first time, survival didn't feel like running or fighting,
It felt like trying to understand something that didn't even consider them important.
And that made everything harder.