The moon loomed above Delhi like a pale watchtower, casting long shadows over the broken skyline. Beneath it, the city slept in uneasy silence, punctuated only by the distant groans of wandering infected.
Inside the abandoned high-rise, Ayush sat propped against a wall, a Glock resting across his lap. Even after weeks, pain coiled around his ribs like barbed wire. Every breath felt stolen.
The group had expected an assault any day — the BSA, the infected, or some unknown enemy. But days turned into weeks, and the attack never came.
They trained relentlessly. Every morning, Ayush ordered drills, forced them to run sprints up the stairwells, reset traps, and test escape routes. At night, they listened for whispers of boots in the dark, the telltale click of a safety switch, or the hum of drones.
But nothing came. Only the wind in the empty corridors and the slow, shuffling footsteps of the dead below.
The long wait gnawed at them.
Ananya watched from a cracked doorway, her eyes dark from endless nights of insomnia. Sometimes, when her fear became unbearable, she slipped into Ayush's room. They would sit in silence, their fingers intertwined, heads resting together.
In those brief hours, he allowed himself to breathe — not as a leader, but as a boy trying to remember what warmth felt like.
Kartik had begun to unravel slowly. At first, it was small: stuttering during drills, hesitating at guard posts. But as days bled into each other, he started pacing endlessly, whispering apologies to ghosts that weren't there.
One night, Ayush found Kartik gripping his rifle so hard his knuckles had turned white, sweat dripping from his jawline.
"Kartik," Ayush said softly, kneeling beside him. "Look at me. You're not alone."
Kartik's eyes flickered, unfocused, as if trying to grasp something far beyond the room. His lips moved, but no words escaped.
Shivam and Riya argued constantly — over water, over rations, over watch rotations. But after each heated fight, Shivam would quietly sit next to her on the dusty floor, and she would rest her forehead against his shoulder, sobbing into the empty dark.
Suraj turned into a silent shadow. He roamed the halls at night, cataloging supplies, tracking every bullet, scribbling notes in torn textbooks. He kept count of every window nailed shut, every drop of water, every moment of silence that might shatter.
Then, one cold dawn, Leon climbed up to the roof. The city's skeletal outline looked softer in the morning haze. He lit a cigarette — an old, precious stash he'd been saving — and closed his eyes.
That's when he heard it: a crackle on a distant speaker, riding the wind.
"...all survivors... CGS convoy... east sector... maintain protocols... sanctuary ahead..."
Leon's eyes shot open. For the first time in weeks, he felt a rush of something other than fear — a spark of hope, or maybe another trap.
He sprinted down the stairs, nearly slipping on the cracked steps.
"They're here!" Leon burst into the main hall, his voice echoing. "CGS! East sector! They're evacuating survivors, moving them to a secure base!"
The group froze, every eye snapping to him.
Riya clenched her fists, her voice shaking. "It's a trap. Just like BSA. Just like last time. We step out, we're dead."
Shivam's eyes lit with desperate hunger. "Trap or not, it's a chance! I can't keep rotting in this tomb!"
Kartik staggered to his feet, trembling. "I... I can't decide. My head... it feels like knives inside my skull!"
Ananya turned to Ayush, grabbing his sleeve with both hands. "Please... don't leave us again. Think, Ayush. Please."
Ayush looked at each of them. Their eyes, so tired and raw, cut through him deeper than any knife. Then he turned to Leon, who met his gaze and gave a slight nod — the wordless trust of two soldiers.
"We scout first," Ayush decided finally, his voice steady but gentle. "Leon and I will go. If it's real, we'll call you. We don't gamble blind."
Leon's lips curled into a weary smirk. "I was waiting for you to say that."
They moved cautiously through abandoned streets. Their hands stayed high, feet crunching on glass and old blood.
As they approached the source, the thunder of armored trucks and the crackling of loudspeakers drowned the groans of zombies.
They stepped into a wide-open road. A barricade of armored vehicles loomed ahead. Soldiers in grey-and-black urban camo instantly raised their rifles.
"STOP! HANDS UP! MOVE SLOWLY!"
Ayush and Leon obeyed, stepping forward carefully.
"Any bites?!" one soldier demanded, approaching with a scanner.
Both men lifted their sleeves, revealing pale, scarred skin. The scanner swept over them, beeping softly with each pass.
The soldier finally gave a curt nod. "Drop your weapons. Now."
Leon and Ayush dropped their pistols slowly onto the asphalt.
"You have others?" the soldier asked, eyeing them sharply.
Ayush nodded once. "Yes. Five more. Let me bring them."
The soldier narrowed his eyes, finger resting near the trigger. "We escort you. You make a wrong move, you die. All of you."
Two soldiers fell in behind them, rifles aimed at their spines as they marched back to the building.
When they stepped into the hall, the group froze.
"It's real. Soldiers. Convoy. We go now," Ayush ordered, his voice firm.
Kartik, shaking, slung his rifle over his shoulder instinctively.
"DROP THE WEAPON!" a soldier screamed instantly.
Kartik froze, staring at the gun as if it had grown in his hands.
"Kartik!" Ayush roared. "DROP IT!"
The rifle clattered onto the floor. Kartik fell to his knees, hands trembling above his head.
Ayush grabbed him, pulling him up roughly. "Move. Now."
They filed outside, blinking into the gray dawn.
Soldiers checked each of them for bites, then shoved them toward a battered, reinforced bus. As they climbed in, Ayush scanned the other survivors: pale, hollow-eyed souls who looked more like ghosts than people.
Leon leaned close, his voice a low whisper. "Fourth row, middle left. Keeps watching us. Doesn't flinch. Might be BSA."
Ayush didn't move, staring straight ahead. "Eyes open. Don't break cover."
Leon gave a small nod. "We move if we have to."
The bus rumbled through the streets, crawling past collapsed overpasses and burned-out temples. The city looked like a graveyard for dreams — wedding halls littered with flower petals and bones, schools echoing with the wind.
Kartik sat motionless, staring blankly outside. Ananya leaned into Ayush, her fingers clawing into his sleeve, as though he might vanish at any moment.
Hours later, they arrived at the CGS base. High walls lined with razor wire rose like a steel jungle. Watchtowers stood at every corner, snipers watching from above.
"OUT! MOVE!" barked a soldier as the doors swung open.
They stumbled out into the blinding sun.
A tall man in a dark uniform stepped forward, his eyes cold and precise. The name tag on his chest read: Colonel Raj Singh.
"You are no longer wild strays," he announced, his voice slicing the dusty air. "Here, you earn your right to live. You work. You obey. Or you're thrown out beyond these walls to the dead."
Soldiers herded them into lines, stripping them of remaining weapons and frisking them for hidden items.
Leon leaned toward Ayush, his voice barely audible. "The one on the bus — he's still watching. Be ready."
Ayush nodded once, jaw clenched tight. "Stay alive, Leon. That's our real mission."
Leon managed a small smirk. "We'll outlive them all, Commander Joel."
That night, in a cramped metal bunk, Ayush sat alone, his head pressed against the cold wall.
Ananya slipped in quietly, closing the door behind her. She crawled onto the bunk, her fingers trembling as they brushed his cheek.
"You stayed," she whispered, her voice cracking. "You didn't leave."
Ayush let out a shuddering breath, his shoulders sagging as if he had carried the weight of a thousand lives.
"I'm here," he whispered back.
She pressed her forehead to his, her fingers tightening around his shirt. For the first time in weeks, he let the walls fall away.
Outside, the high walls of the CGS base glowed under floodlights, a false sky above a broken world.
But for that single night, in that small, silent room, they were just two souls — alive, together, waiting for the storm they both knew would come.