Page 98 of Romancing in Rot

Joanie slows beside me. “That’s not ominous at all.”

Carlos has gone very still.

Too still.

“What?” Jacob asks.

Carlos swallows. “They’ve never been this far out.”

“Then I suggest you get us to your place before they find us,” Lyla says.

I tighten the rifle strap across my chest.

His jaw locks.

We keep moving, and once the first two messages appear, the city is full of them. A crooked arrow sprayed on the pavement. SANCTUARY smeared across a garage door. FOLLOW THE SIGNS painted over a pharmacy window with a handprint dragged through the last letter. Another arrow on the wall of an alley, pointing deeper into the city.

Always toward the same place.

The mall.

The word looks like bait.

In this world, safety doesn’t advertise itself. Food doesn’t wait behind bright green arrows. Sanctuary doesn’t have to beg people to come closer.

A shout slices through the street ahead, raw and desperate.

“Help!”

Everyone freezes.

The sound comes from an alley just ahead, bouncing off brick and broken glass until distance becomes impossible to judge.

A man’s voice.

Cracking.

Terrified.

I lean toward it before sense catches up.

Leon’s head turns toward me. Jacob’s posture shifts. Lyla’s knife is already in her hand.

Carlos looks at me, surprise cutting through the fear on his face.

Like he expected me to fall for it.

Like maybe he expected all of us to.

The man screams again.

“Please! They’re coming!”

His voice breaks on the last word. Wet. Human. Too human.

“That’s not a recording,” I whisper.

Carlos’s face goes gray. “No.”