The metro tunnel felt like a tomb — echoing every breath, every footstep, every heartbeat.
Shivam crashed into the corridor, gasping so hard his ribs looked about to split open. His eyes were wide, terrified beyond words.
"He's here… Rahul. I saw him."
Ayush froze mid-step.
Kartik dropped the metal pipe he was inspecting. "What?" His voice cracked. "Rahul? Are you sure?"
Shivam nodded frantically, fighting for air. "It was him. Standing in the open. Calm. Like he was waiting for me. I thought he'd kill me… but he didn't. He just stared. Then he stepped back… and let me go."
Silence fell like a guillotine.
Riya stammered, "Why… why would he let you go?"
Shivam shivered. "He looked… different. Not infected. But not human either. His eyes…"
Suraj slammed his fist against the tunnel wall. "What the hell is this day turning into?"
They all turned to Ayush, expecting answers. But he didn't speak. Instead, he walked over to a crumbling concrete pillar and sat down heavily.
"Ayush?" Ananya stepped forward, hesitant.
"Sit," Ayush ordered, voice low and hoarse.
No one moved at first. The air vibrated with tension. Then, slowly, one by one, they sat.
Ayush leaned his head back against the cold wall, staring up at the dark tunnel ceiling.
"I should have told you before," he began, every word carrying weight like stone. "But part of me prayed we'd never cross this path."
He looked down at his hands.
"Rahul… he wasn't just some random school bully. He was my brother. My best friend. My rival. My partner in the B.S.A."
Gasps. Kartik's eyes widened; Suraj's jaw clenched.
"We called him 'Hunter.' I was 'Joel.' Together, we were the top-ranked pair. We trained in advanced combat, live-fire drills, counter-biohazard protocols. We were unstoppable. He was faster than me. Stronger in some ways. Smarter, too. We balanced each other."
Ayush let out a bitter laugh. "We had a saying: 'If one of us falls, the other finishes the fight.' We thought we'd die for each other."
He paused. The group waited, unmoving.
"It started small," Ayush continued. "A friendly 1v1 airsoft match — loser buys dinner. I won by a single shot. He laughed it off at first. We went to his house that night. I stayed over. His girlfriend, Aliya, was there. He didn't know she'd be home early."
Kartik leaned in, fists clenching. "Aliya…?"
Ayush nodded. "She kept looking at me. I ignored it. I swear to you all — I never touched her, never encouraged her. But a week later… she broke up with him. In public. In front of B.S.A. agents. Called him a failure. Said I was 'everything he wasn't.' She slapped him. In front of everyone."
Ananya's lips parted in shock. Suraj swore under his breath.
"After that, he vanished," Ayush said. "No calls. No missions. Nothing. Then HQ called me in. Rahul had broken into the training range at night. They found my photo stapled to the target board. He emptied an entire M4 mag into it. When security detained him, he didn't resist. Just whispered, 'He took everything.' They stripped his rank. Expelled him. Confined him under watch."
Riya's voice shook. "But… that was it? You never saw him again?"
Ayush's eyes were distant, hollow. "Never. Until now."
Shivam, trembling, managed to whisper, "And Aliya…?"
Ayush swallowed hard. "I saw her about a day ago, near the old courtyard. The same red scrunchie, same blazer. Her eyes… they weren't human anymore. Rahul doesn't know yet. When he finds out… I don't even know what he'll become."
Suraj leaned back against the wall, looking sick. "So that's it. He blames you for losing her, his rank… his entire identity."
"No," Ayush said quietly. "He doesn't just blame me. He wants me to live what he lived. He wants me to lose everything. Bit by bit."
A heavy silence filled the tunnel.
Then Kartik stood abruptly, fists clenched. "You kept this from us again! You always keep secrets. First the B.S.A., now this psycho stalker. When were you planning to tell us — after he gutted us all?"
Ayush's jaw tightened. "I thought he was gone. I thought he'd moved on… or that he'd died in the chaos. I was wrong."
Ananya's voice was barely a whisper. "You said you'd protect us. But if he's after you… none of us are safe, are we?"
Ayush met her gaze, eyes red-rimmed. "No. You're not."
Riya stood, pacing in panic. "So what now? We keep running from zombies and from your deranged friend?"
Ayush looked at each of them. "You can leave. Right now. You'll move faster without me. Rahul wants me, not you."
No one moved.
Kartik exhaled shakily. "You think we're that spineless? We started this together. We finish it together."
Suraj forced a thin, defiant grin. "Damn right."
Ananya stepped forward, eyes hard. "We live as a unit. Or we don't live at all."
Ayush finally looked away, overwhelmed, his shoulders shaking.
Above them, on the roof of a half-collapsed mall, Rahul knelt, staring at the city's broken spine. In his blood-crusted hands, he held a folded, torn photo — him and Aliya, smiling under clear skies.
He traced her face with a thumb, eyes flickering.
The bloodstains weren't hers. In his mind, they belonged to Ayush.
His jaw flexed as he listened to the distant city groans, the shrieks echoing through the ruined streets.
He folded the photo carefully, tucking it into his pocket like a sacred relic.
"They took you from me. They took everything."
He rose, the cracked concrete groaning under his weight.
"And now… I'll take everything from them."
His fingers curled tighter around knife stolen from canteen.
He smiled.
But it wasn't human.