I kept it factual.
“Traffic failures,” I counted off on my fingers. “The breakdown of authority, hospitals overrun.”
Ben nodded, opening cabinets, inventorying by habit.
“Stores stripped,” I continued. “A shortage of water, bread, and toilet paper, for some insane reason. Most people still think it’s some kind of pandemic.”
“That doesn’t surprise me," Ben nodded.
Ben paused. “Have you seen them?”
I knew what he was referring to. “Up close and personal.”
Ben turned slowly, giving me his full attention. “What I saw at the school last night scared me.” He cleared his throat. “And you know I don’t scare easily.”
I waited.
“I’d heard a man at the hardware store talking about screams and whatnot coming from the campus. There were some officers who entered, but they never came back out." He shook his head, lost in thought. “I figured I should check it out.”
BEN
THE NIGHT BEFORE ADRIAN’S ARRIVAL
I lay flat on top of the press box, my breaths slow and measured. The school building was a black shape against the night, too quiet.
I brought the binoculars up first.
Three patrol cars sat crooked in the lot. Doors opened, but the light bars were dark. No movement.
That alone told me that shit had gone fubar.
I switched to the thermal monocular; the screen bloomed to life in washed-out whites and dull grays. Residual heat clung to the concrete where engines had cooled. A faint smear along the side of one cruiser—someone leaning there too long.
Then I saw them.
Heat signatures clustered near the east entrance. Not running, but not exactly still, either. They were drifting like animals that hadn’t decided whether to flee or feed.
Movement flared suddenly.
One officer stumbled into view, his heat signature bright and sharp, breathing hard. He turned as if he’d heard something behind him.
That’s when I saw a shape surge out of the cluster.
It slammed into him with enough force to knock them both sideways. They went down hard. The officer screamed once, short, shocked, and tried to push the thing off him.
I saw the moment it bit him.
The heat spiked where its head dipped to his shoulder, then pulsed violently as the officer convulsed beneath it. The scream cut off mid-sound. His arms flailed once, then slowed.
Too fast.
Another shape closed in. Then another. Heat signatures piled together until I couldn’t tell where one body ended and the next began.
I lowered the optic, my jaw clenched so tight it ached.
“Did they just—eat him?” I mumbled in disbelief.
Those other officers were dead. I didn’t have to see it to know it. They’d gone in expecting a disturbance, sick kids, something they could control.
