The sun had climbed higher, brutal and unforgiving, turning the entire plain into a blinding sheet of white-gold heat that shimmered off the sand like liquid fire. The city square looked like a battlefield from hell.
A hundred dried-out infected lay scattered across the ground in grotesque, brittle heaps, gray, cracked skin stretched tight over bones, mouths frozen in silent screams, limbs twisted at unnatural angles.
The old car sat dead in the center, hood smoking faintly, its reinforced windows streaked with dust and handprints. The air smelled of ozone, dry rot, and hot metal.
Then the voice cut through the silence. "Help me…"
For a moment I thought I had imagined it.
"You heard that?" Mercury asked. She was still pressed tight against my chest, her body warm and trembling slightly from adrenaline.
"Yeah," I said. "Loud and clear."
"There's someone in the building," Jenn confirmed, tilting her head up, shielding her eyes against the glare.
