Story 369: The Silent Pursuit

The corridor stretched endlessly, its walls lined with rusted pipes and flickering emergency lights. Zara tightened her grip on her pistol, her every step calculated to avoid the puddles on the concrete floor. Beside her, Rowan moved just as cautiously, his sharp eyes scanning their surroundings. The silence was heavy, broken only by the faint hum of machinery and the occasional distant clatter, which could easily have been the infected—or something worse.

“We need to figure out where this leads,” Rowan said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Zara nodded, holding up the beacon she’d taken. Its blinking red light was a constant reminder of the bait they carried, though she’d managed to disable its tracking signal. For now. “If we’re lucky, this path connects to the maintenance tunnels. Those should lead us back to the surface,” she said.

“Lucky hasn’t exactly been on our side lately,” Rowan muttered, casting a wary glance behind them.