The station entrance swallowed them into dimness. Early Afternoon sunlight filtered through dirty windows high above, creating pools of weak illumination that did little to push back the shadows. Emergency lighting flickered sporadically along the walls, powered by backup batteries that wouldn't last much longer.

  David's eyes adjusted slowly, his spiritual hearing sharpening to compensate for limited vision. Then the smell hit him. Rotting flesh, with a strong odor of mown grass. Then he focused on the whispers. They were clearer inside, distinct voices separated by walls and distance. At least ten sources, agitated as expected. But something felt wrong about the pattern.

  He paused; they weren’t coming closer. Which was odd given the number of death screams they had triggered.

  The main entrance opened into a large ticketing hall with a few concession stands, only one of which had its metal shutters rolled up. Turnstiles stood silent and useless, their electronic gates frozen mid-cycle. The departure boards hung dark above them, empty of information.

  The floor painted a grimmer picture. Personal belongings littered like archaeological evidence of the moment everything stopped.

  A purse, contents spilling across tile next to a still form. A backpack lying abandoned near a salesman’s wheeled case of samples stenciled with bright logos.

  Fallen Coffee cups with pools and sprays of discolored tile where people’s morning nectar had spilled and dried. They weren’t the only stains on the floor.

  There were bodies lying still. Some unmoving and needing inspection, others horrifyingly shattered. There was no mistaking the signs of the distinct greenish chrysalis’s formation on half a dozen spots in the ticket hall.

  There was also no mistaking the stench of rotting meat or the pools of smashed gore where something had burst open each Chrysalis shattering and spreading the contents in a disgusting spray of meat.

  "Survivors first," Camila said softly, her voice sounding sick and carrying in the unnatural stillness. "Mark, Katie, check the benches. David, where are the zombies?"

  David focused, tracking the whispers. "Some down on the platforms. Maybe a few scattered around this level? But they're not moving toward us. It's weird. They are agitated, like they should be from the fighting outside, but they aren’t moving towards us or even the location of the screams. They feel almost... contained."

  "Contained how?" Carl asked, his pistol was in hand and reloaded, apparently he had a box of bullets and just needed to refill the magazines. How long that would last David didn’t know but noted it down as yet another logistical problem.

  "I don't know. Just not moving freely. Like they're stuck or blocked somehow."

  They spread out carefully, weapons ready, checking each alcove and corner. The ticketing hall was larger than it appeared from the entrance, with corridors branching off toward restrooms, more shops, and platform access.

  Some of the people were dead. They left those, flagging David to check if they were about to move. He was struck by how quickly they had become inured to death.

  Sarah found the first survivor slumped against a vending machine. Middle-aged man, business suit rumpled, briefcase still clutched in one hand. Unconscious but breathing.

  "Got one," she called quietly.

  Mark and Camila moved to help, checking his vitals quickly before Mark used his healing skill. The familiar blue-green glow surrounded the man. They didn’t know if it helped but it couldn’t hurt.

  "He'll be fine once we get him to the safe zone," Mark said. "Let's get him on a stretcher."

  They'd brought two stretchers in the trucks, stolen from ambulances during their hospital raid. The collapsible frames made transport vastly easier and without zombies to fight they quickly retrieved them and started loading people.

  They worked together, lifting the man onto the stretcher with practiced efficiency. The group was getting better at this, their movements more coordinated with each rescue.

  They found three more in quick succession. A young woman in running clothes near the restrooms. An elderly man on a bench, his walker lying beside him. A teenager with headphones still around his neck, slumped in the corner of a coffee shop entrance.

  All unconscious. All still alive.

  "Four so far," Camila said, helping load the fourth onto the second stretcher. "Charlie, Carl, can you run these out to the trucks?"

  "On it," Charlie said, taking one end of a stretcher.

  David watched them go, his attention divided between the entrance and the deeper whispers from below. The zombies weren't approaching, but they were definitely agitated about something. The murmur had an edge to it he hadn't heard before.

  Hunt. Kill. There. Here.

  That last word was new. A call that made David's skin crawl.

  "We need to check the platforms," he said as Charlie and Carl returned. "That's where most people would have been waiting for trains. But something's wrong down there."

  "Wrong how?" Mark asked.

  "I'm hearing something different. Not just the zombies. There's another sound underneath them. Lower frequency, but I can't quite make it out."

  Camila's expression tightened. "Like at the apartment? When we fought that mutant?"

  David nodded slowly. "Maybe. But it doesn't sound quite the same, I don’t know if that’s my hearing getting better or something else. The Nath are clearer and this is clearer too, more siblent than buzzing, more consonants than clicking. It’s hard to describe... It could be the same thing? Or maybe not?"

  "So we're walking into a fight either way," Carl said pragmatically. "Question is, do we go looking or keep rescuing who we can from up here first?"

  "Keep rescuing," Katie said firmly. "We can't leave people if there's a chance to save them."

  They searched the rest of the ticketing level methodically. Two more survivors in a waiting area near the ramp down to the platform. Another in a closed shop, the owner who'd been opening up when the wave hit. All carried carefully to the stretchers, all checked by Mark, all transported to the trucks by rotating teams.

  Then a final two in the women’s rest room.

  Nine total from the main level. Better than David had hoped, given the zombie count outside.

  But each rescue gave him more time to focus on the sounds from below. He was getting more and more certain that they were all below and as he moved around he became convinced they were concentrated on one of the platforms.

  As they continued their sweep Charlie waved urgently, he was at the edge of the skybridge leading to the far platforms across the lines. The big, glass skybridge where you could see down to the platforms…

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  Everyone looked at the young man as he peered round the edge of the first window then waved again, urgently. They all approached suddenly silent given Charlie’s obvious attempts at stealth.

  When they arrived they saw it. A train pulled inbound at the near platform. Both platforms had dozens of people on them, early morning commuters struck down where they lay.

  "It's packed down there, I don’t think the trains doors opened" Charlie said. "Survivors both on the near platform and the far. I thought I saw movement from under us too!"

  "Platform access is through that ramp or those stairs," Sarah said, pointing to two wide structures leading down. "There are two platforms. Which one do we go for?"

  "Which one has the most people?" Camila asked.

  "Express platform below us with the train. That's where commuters would queue for the morning trains into work."

  David crossed and looked out the other side of the sky bridge then froze and urgently gestured everyone back.

  The whispers had moved in that direction from below them so he followed, then he saw it. Slithering along the roof of the train sinuous and quick was a shape. Elongated limbs, tapering to slim double points. The sinuous movements coming from a long, too flexible torso and too many joints.

  It was only a second before he pulled back, but he saw its head move as he did. He had been seen.

  “Shit! There’s something else down there!” His strangled gasp drew the others to look as he frantically waved them back from the skybridge. Now he was focused on the ramp and the stairs next to the skybridge watching and straining his senses to see if the creature came up to investigate.

  “What did you see?” Carl wasn’t looking at him but was focused on the ways up from the platform.

  “I think it was like at the apartment. Only where Mr. Lopez only got partially done this one is finished…”

  Camila looked worried “What do you mean?”

  “It had that sinuous movement and stretched look. But where he looked wet and unfinished this one looked like its skin was dry and darker.”

  “Yeah, it’s almost like it’s mottled or scaled maybe and there is definitely some greenish yellow pigment. It kind of reminds me of the cyrsalises…”

  Everyone turned in horror to look at Charlie, who was looking down from the end of the skybridge.

  “It’s on top of the train and the zombies are all milling around trying to either get to it or get into the train. I’m pretty sure they haven’t noticed us but it knows we are here. I don’t think it can go anywhere though.”

  “Get away from there!” David’s cry was strangled as he gestured to the younger man.

  “Chill Dude! This is the info we need to plan and its not like they can get to me up here.”

  “Do you know it doesn’t have spells?” Camila asked.

  “Uh, nope, now you mention it I don’t but those seem pretty special and only we have them. Plus the Bridge will shield me from anything.” Charlie sounded defensive.

  “What if it has a spell like Halt, only deadly – power word kill say?” David’s immediate response was to offer a worst case scenario.

  “Umm, Dude that’s like a ninth level spell. Waay more powerful than anything we have seen. No chance that is going to happen this early.”

  David took a deep breath and spoke calmly. “First, you are probably right. If they could hit you they would. Second, you are way off base assuming they can’t. We know next to nothing about what is easy and hard to do with magic. I don’t know if halt ignores physical barriers but we have to assume there is stuff that does. For the last time, THIS IS NOT D&D or your favorite MMO. THE WHOLE WORLD IS SCREWED SO WE CAN’T ASSUME BALANCE OR LEVEL DESIGN IS IN PLAY ANYWHERE, EVER.” David was shouting by the end.

  Charlie looked shamefaced, then angry and ready to argue.

  David stopped him with the raw emotional appeal in his next words. “I just don’t want you to get hurt mate.”

  Charlie looked like he wanted to say something but Sarah stepped close to him, reading something in his expression. She put her hand on his arm and made eye contact.

  “Look, you took the chance. David agreed that it played out. Just think before you do it again and maybe give a girl a chance to get ready…”

  Then she turned and gave David a cheeky grin before she boldly walked out onto the skybridge standing in the middle looking down.

  Both men stared at her their argument forgotten by the sheer brazen action as she just stood there looking back at them.

  “The view is pretty good from here. After all the noise I’m pretty sure even the zombies know we are up here…”

  David blushed bright red. Katie looked at her friend then strode out to join her. Something about that broke the tense fear in the group and soon everyone was out on the Skybridge looking down at the train and platform.

  Two things quickly became clear; first, the transformed creature likely could reach the bridge if it stood at its full height directly under it. Second, it was much more interested in keeping the zombies back and was staying low and engaging in some sort of ongoing skirmish.

  There were zombies on both sides of the train. Most were on the platform but a few were on the tracks on the far side, too low down to achieve much of anything.

  The train was mostly intact, though there were a couple of broken windows which seemed to be the main focus of the thing crouched on top. It would rush to these opening whenever a zombie tried to approach them striking at the creatures below and once engaged drawing them away from the opening by leaning over and striking with one limb. Once the zombies were drawn away from the opening it would pull back from the edge of the roof and give up even the possibility of effective strikes with it’s long blade-claw tipped forelimbs.

  The creature was singularly ugly with greenish scales on its back and the upper portions of its limbs. The belly and lower limbs had yellowish scales in wide horizontal arcs reminiscent of a snakes belly and combined with the elongation of the skull and torso plus the lack of hair it had a distinctly reptilian look.

  "Jesus," Carl whispered. "It’s an ugly sumbitch”

  "We can go down there," Sarah was pointing to the far platform. "That, thing, what do we even call it? It’s protecting the train cars. There are a lot of bodies on the far platform and no zombies. We can check them and pull out survivors use the monster as a distraction.”

  Everyone looked at her like she was mad.

  “What? Cammie was right. We need to save people. That means taking risks. Why not pull them out from right under the monster’s nose?”

  David looked at the others. “We could do it. Carl, Charlie, Sarah and I ready to barrage if anything moves for us. Mark, Camila, Katie you can check and retrieve people.”

  It took a minute more conversation but between their recent success and the prospect of saving more people they moved.

  They descended onto the platform, leaving the bright safety of the skybridge behind with their heart rates surging. The smell wasn’t as bad out here as the open air reached dispersed the stench.

  Now they were down among the signs of chaos. Scattered belongings. Overturned trash cans. Dark stains on concrete where chrysalises had been smashed. Unmoving people.

  David strained his spiritual hearing, trying to determine if the zombies were reacting over the hammering of his heart making blood pound in his ears. Even with stamina, or perhaps because of it his body was going a mile a minute and the nauseous energy of adrenaline flooded his body.

  They moved to the bottom of the ramp then deployed with the four ranged combatants covering their three comrades.

  Camila led the rush, crouched low heading for the nearest body, a young man. David could feel sweat breaking out on his forehead as his eyes flicked this way and that looking for threats.

  A quick stoop, a check then she urgently gestured. A survivor. Mark and Katie rushed up to her and between them they half dragged, half carried the survivor back to the base of the bridge.

  Nothing reacted.

  They went again. Dead this time. Move on.

  The next survivor was the fifth body they checked. Another scrabble, nearly twice as far. This time they had to pause to properly heft and lift the woman dressed in a business suit.

  David felt a chill run down his spine, the Nath murmurs were unchanged but the strange clicking hissing that he had a harder time hearing had shifted. He Looked up, making eye contact with the warped skull of the mutant, just enough human left, especially round the eyes for him to know what he was looking at.

  It crouched on the train, watching, then with a buzz it turned away focusing again on the zombies as they launched another futile assault on a broken window on the far platfom.

  "Do we engage?" Carl asked softly. He had seen it too.

  David listened carefully. The zombies weren't advancing, weren't even seeming to pay any attention. He shook his head.

  "The zombies haven't noticed us. Let's get the survivors out and hope that thing doesn’t change its mind."

  They found two more unconscious people quickly. Then it was time to retreat. Camila solo carried one survivor while everyone else double teamed one. Boost for the win, again.

  The zombies never moved.

  It was eerie, watching the few who were on the tracks just shuffle, fixated on the confrontation above them. Clearly relying on the relayed messages rather than their own senses.

  David kept his spiritual hearing locked on them, waiting for the shift that would signal awareness. But nothing changed. They had just rescued four more people without a problem. The combination of exertion and success was making the adrenaline feel good. He was energized, ready for anything.

  "That's not normal," Camila said as they carried the last survivor up. "They should have come after us."

  "Maybe their senses are worse than we realize?" Charlie suggested. "Like, how do these Nath even sense anything in a dead body. Delicate stuff like eyes and ears probably deteriorates fast or something?"

  David shook his head. "I’m not sure they really use their hosts senses. I think they are just focused on the thing the whole pack is fighting even though they can’t reach it..."

  He continued as he loaded his survivor onto one of the stretchers “I think they are a much more communal being than we realize. More a hive than individuals.”

  "Contained," Mark said, remembering David's earlier description. "You said they felt contained. Maybe focused is the right word."

  Sarah grinned. “Whatever, that was a rush. Let’s do it again!”