Chapter 109: Kindling the Wild
They moved again, vanishing into the dark.
The city around them was barely holding itself together. Collapsed signs leaned against broken windows, storefronts gaping open with dust-choked silence. Each step echoed too loudly, and each breath felt borrowed.
No one said a word as they pushed forward, weaving around the hollowed-out skeletons of the street, cracked pavement, and walls freckled with spores. The rot thickened with every step. Jin’s hand never left his blade.
Echo’s head tilted suddenly, his body still. A low hum echoed around them, barely audible; it was like the pressure in the air had shifted. "It’s circling closer again," he said, voice low. "We’ve got maybe five minutes."
Jin nodded, eyes flicking around for anything they could use. "Alright, split up."
No one hesitated. They peeled off, smooth and silent. They’d done this enough to move without second-guessing now, not perfectly, unlike professionals, but with enough trust to make it work.
Jin veered toward the skeleton of a half-collapsed convenience store, ducking beneath the leaning metal beam that cut diagonally across its open entrance. Dust swirled inside, lit only by the flickering emergency light still barely alive above the fridges.
The shelves were warped, and most items had been picked clean weeks ago. But Jin wasn’t searching like a scavenger. His hands moved fast, guided not by logic but instinct, his skill sharpening his mind.
He snatched a half-full can of deodorant off a shelf, then two more. Broken batteries, scattered on the floor, he gathered those too, sliding them into his jacket pocket. Behind the counter, a scorched rag was soaked in something oily. Jin grabbed it without a second thought.
Echo’s voice crackled softly through the comm. "Left side—don’t go past the freezer. There are spore clusters on the ceiling."
Jin paused, eyes narrowing. A faint bulge pulsed above the freezer. Almost invisible unless you were looking for it. He backed up, carefully retracing his steps.