Story 304: Into the Dark

Zara and Callum pressed their backs against a toppled shelf, the guttural snarls of crawlers growing louder by the second. The grocery store’s shadows seemed to stretch, alive with the eerie shuffle of undead feet. Zara’s heart pounded, not from fear, but from the precise calculation required to get out alive.

“Five of them,” Zara whispered, counting the faint figures moving between the broken aisles.

“Make that six,” Callum murmured, her rifle shifting to track a crawler emerging from behind a display.

“We don’t have the ammo for this,” Zara hissed. “Not without bringing the whole block down on us.”

Callum smirked, her voice steady. “Got a better idea?”

Zara scanned their surroundings, her sharp eyes catching a narrow doorway behind the aisles. A storage room, maybe an exit. “Follow my lead,” she said, motioning for Callum to move.