Then they heard the first moan.
It came from somewhere behind the buildings, followed by another and then several more.
Samuel looked through his window and went pale.
“They’re close.” Hope accelerated just enough to clear the intersection, but a group of infected suddenly appeared at the far end of the road.
There were perhaps twenty at first, moving unevenly toward them, their bodies jerking with the familiar unnatural rhythm Hope had come to recognize.
Hope stopped before the vehicles became trapped.
“Everybody stay in the vehicles unless I tell you otherwise.” She was already opening her door.
Daniel and Emily followed, and the three of them moved into the road as the infected approached.
Hope’s body reacted before conscious thought fully caught up with it.
She surged forward, crossing the distance with startling speed, and struck the first infected hard enough to send it crashing against a parked car.
Daniel redirected the momentum of another attacker, twisting its charge sideways so that it collided with two others.
Emily raised both hands and used her telekinesis to wrench an infected away from the side of the second vehicle before it could reach the passengers.
The fight was fast but brutal, and Hope moved continuously, using her strength and speed to keep the infected from surrounding them.
The group was larger than they had first realized.
More infected emerged from between the buildings, drawn by the noise, and the number quickly climbed beyond thirty.
Hope struck one down and immediately turned toward another, ducking beneath grasping hands before driving her shoulder into its chest.
Daniel caught a lunging infected with a burst of redirected force and sent it tumbling across the pavement.
Emily struggled with two at once, holding one against the side of a vehicle while throwing stones at it while forcing the other backward with enough force to knock it over.
The noise of the fight echoed through the empty streets, and Hope knew they could not remain there.
Every second increased the possibility that more would arrive.
“Back to the vehicles!” she shouted, and the others began withdrawing while Hope stayed between them and the remaining infected.
Then something larger pushed through the crowd.
Hope saw it first because it moved differently.
It was heavier, broader through the shoulders, and noticeably faster than the other infected.
Its skin was stretched tightly over muscles that seemed unnaturally developed, and its movements were coordinated enough to make it more dangerous than the ordinary zombies surrounding it.
It charged directly toward Hope.
She braced herself and met it head-on.
The impact drove her backward several feet, and for the first time during the fight she felt the full weight of an infected creature overpowering her momentum.
Hope’s feet dug into the pavement as she caught its arms.
The creature snarled inches from her face, its strength immense, but Hope pushed back with everything she had.
The struggle lasted only seconds before she twisted, used its momentum against it, and slammed it onto the pavement.
She finished it with a decisive strike to the back of the head and immediately stepped away.
Daniel stared at the body for a moment.
“That wasn’t normal.” Hope looked down at the corpse and felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather.
“No,” she said.
“It wasn’t.” She did not have an explanation, and she wasn’t going to invent one.
Whatever was happening to the infected, they were beginning to encounter changes that could not be ignored.
The rest of the zombies were finally eliminated, but the victory came with a cost in time.
More movement could already be seen in the distance, and Hope knew they had to leave.
They returned to the vehicles, and Samuel pulled the second vehicle around while Rachel helped make sure Noah was secure and then followed.
Hope climbed behind the wheel and looked toward the city ahead.
“We’re changing the plan,” she said.
“We stay out of downtown.
We get what we can from the industrial and commercial areas, and we leave before the noise draws another crowd.” Daniel nodded.
Emily wiped sweat from her forehead and settled back into her seat.
Samuel acknowledged the change over the radio for Emily, and the convoy moved deeper into the outskirts.
They eventually reached a large home-improvement and building-supply store that appeared to have suffered less damage than many of the surrounding businesses.
The parking lot contained several abandoned vehicles, but there were fewer bodies and less visible evidence of fighting.
Hope chose the location because it potentially contained nearly everything Blackwater needed: plumbing fixtures, pipe, fittings, electrical supplies, batteries, tools, hardware, pumps, lighting equipment, and possibly materials useful for future construction.
They parked close enough to the entrance to make loading easier but far enough away to allow the vehicles to escape quickly.
Hope entered first with Daniel and Emily, while Samuel and Rachel remained near the vehicles with their weapons ready.
Inside, the store felt like a giant abandoned warehouse.
Rows of shelving stretched into dimness, filled with products that had suddenly become more valuable than anyone could have imagined before the collapse.
Hope moved methodically through the aisles, taking plumbing fittings, electrical components, wiring, switches, outlets, tools, batteries, water pumps, fasteners, and other items David and Michael had requested.
Some things were too large or awkward to transport, but Hope’s System Inventory allowed her to store many supplies without physically carrying their weight.
She concentrated on practical items rather than grabbing everything she saw.
Blackwater did not need a warehouse full of random possessions.
It needed the right materials to keep people housed, supplied, and functioning.
They had filled a significant portion of the available storage space when Emily suddenly stopped.
Hope looked back and saw her staring down one of the aisles.
A faint scraping sound came from somewhere beyond the shelves.
Daniel raised his weapon.
The three of them moved carefully toward the sound, but before they reached it, an infected burst from between two displays.
Daniel knocked it aside while Hope drove forward, but two more appeared behind it.
Then another.
The store had not been empty after all.
Hope moved through the aisle with controlled speed, striking one infected down while Emily used telekinesis to keep another from reaching them.
Daniel redirected a third into a shelving unit, sending boxes crashing across the floor.
The fight became more difficult as the infected emerged from multiple aisles.
Hope could hear movement throughout the store, and she realized they had probably disturbed a much larger group than the first few attackers suggested.
“Keep moving!” she called.
They fought their way toward the entrance rather than trying to hold their position.
Hope used her speed to clear a path, Daniel redirected attackers away from Emily, and Emily repeatedly shoved groups backward whenever they threatened to surround them.
By the time they reached the front doors, dozens of infected had gathered behind them.
Hope stepped outside and immediately saw more moving across the parking lot.
Samuel and Rachel were already firing from positions beside the vehicles, carefully choosing their shots.
The sound drew even more infected from nearby streets.
Hope realized they were moments away from being surrounded.
“Vehicles now!” she shouted.
Daniel and Emily sprinted toward their vehicles while Hope turned back long enough to knock down the nearest infected.
She moved faster than she ever could have before her awakening, weaving between grasping hands and striking anything that came too close.
Daniel used bursts of redirected force to clear the path ahead of them, while Emily threw two infected into a row of abandoned cars.
Hope reached the vehicle last.
She climbed behind the wheel as Daniel slammed the door, and Emily pulled herself into her seat.
Samuel was already accelerating in the second vehicle.
Hope started the engine and drove hard, forcing the vehicle through the edge of the infected crowd.
The impact shook the entire vehicle, but it broke through.
The others closely followed behind.
Behind them, the parking lot was filling with movement.
Zombies poured from the store entrance and surrounding streets, their numbers far greater than anything Hope had encountered on her previous trip to the city.
She glanced in the mirror and saw the mass spreading across the road behind them.
They drove for several minutes before Hope finally slowed enough to regain control.
Nobody spoke immediately.
The battle had left all three of them exhausted, and the realization that the city contained so many infected hung heavily in the vehicle.
Noah was awake now, watching the road through the rear window.
Samuel’s voice came over the radio.
“That was a lot more than we expected.” Hope looked at the distant buildings and answered quietly, “Yes.” Daniel leaned back in his seat.
“The numbers are growing.” Hope nodded.
“And they’re not all the same anymore.”
They continued away from the city, taking a different route than the one they had used on the way in.
The vehicles were carrying useful supplies, but Hope knew the real value of the mission had become something else.
They had confirmed that the city was becoming more dangerous, not less.
The infected were more numerous, some were stronger, and their presence extended far beyond the areas they had previously explored.
At the same time, they had found four people who would never have survived much longer without help.
Hope looked toward Samuel’s vehicle behind her and thought about how easily the family could have disappeared like the five people they had lost.
Every survivor they brought back represented another set of hands, another mind, another story, and another person who might help Blackwater endure.
By late afternoon, they had made several quick stops using Hope’s system to gather solar equipment, batteries and building materials.
Slowly, the city had disappeared behind them.
The road opened into quieter countryside, and the tension inside the vehicles slowly began to ease.
Emily checked Noah’s ankle again and adjusted the brace while Rachel thanked her.
Margaret finally began talking more freely, telling Emily about the farm where they had spent several nights and the old farmhouse where Noah had been injured.
Samuel remained mostly focused on the road and the surrounding countryside, but when Hope’s voice came over the radio asking if everyone was comfortable, he answered, “For the first time in two weeks, I think we are.” Hope smiled faintly at that.
She looked toward the road ahead, where the sun was beginning to lower, and then toward Blackwater in the distance.
The settlement would be different when they arrived.
Twenty-six people had lived there when Hope left.
Now four more were coming home with them, bringing the population to thirty if they were accepted.
Thirty people meant more food would be needed, more beds, more water, more work, more security, and more responsibility.
It also meant that Blackwater was becoming harder to destroy.
Hope had once thought of the settlement as a place she needed to protect.
Increasingly, she understood that it was becoming something larger than her.
Every person who built a wall, planted a crop, repaired a vehicle, guarded the gate, treated an injury, organized supplies, or simply chose to stay was helping create the future.
Hope tightened her hands around the steering wheel and watched the road ahead.
The world outside was becoming more dangerous, but inside the vehicles she carried four people who had been given another chance.
For now, that was enough.
Behind them, the city remained silent beneath the fading light, filled with thousands of infected moving through streets that had once belonged to ordinary people.
Somewhere among them, creatures were changing.
Hope did not yet know how far those changes would go, or what they would eventually mean for Blackwater.
She only knew that the old world was not coming back, and surviving would require more than walls and weapons.
It would require people willing to build something new.
The vehicles continued toward home.