Warm sunlight streamed through the warehouse’s broken windows. It was a different sun from the one Bruno knew; the light seemed paler, almost sickly, and yet it managed to pull him from sleep.
For several seconds, he lay motionless, staring at the cracked ceiling.
Life had returned outside.
Deep creaks echoed through the air, as if the old buildings were still collapsing while he slept. The wind whistled through the treetops and made some loose sheet of metal clang against the walls. Something heavy moved far away, followed by a shriek Bruno preferred not to identify.
And then he heard the gunshots.
—Bang. Bang. Bang.
Bruno sat up sharply.
Gunshots. Close by.
Maybe there was someone who could help him.
Hope appeared so quickly it almost hurt. It could be a trap, too, but the possibility of finding another person outweighed the fear. He gathered the three pastries he had decided to save for the afternoon and grabbed the bottle of water. Only a couple of sips remained. He drank them without stopping to savor them.
Then he ran toward the entrance.
The rusted sheet of metal held fast when he tried to move it aside. Bruno gritted his teeth, pushed with both arms, and managed to open a gap wide enough to get through. Before leaving, he turned back toward the warehouse interior. That place was still miserable, dangerous, and unfamiliar, but it was the closest thing to a shelter he had.
Then he forced himself to abandon it.
The street air smelled of damp dust, rusted metal, and rotting vegetation. Bruno strained to listen. The sounds of the dead city blended together: branches snapping, stones rolling, and a deep murmur that seemed to travel beneath the pavement.
He waited.
Nothing.
He waited a little longer.
—Come on… —he whispered. —Again.
Silence answered him for several seconds. Then:
—Bang, bang, bang.
This time there was no doubt. The shots were coming from the end of the street, toward an area where an enormous tree rose into the sky. Its trunk twisted in an impossible curve, forming something like the letter “S.” Its branches stretched over the collapsed buildings like arms trying to cover them.
Bruno took off running.
He didn’t know what he would find. He didn’t know whether the shooter was a survivor, a group of soldiers, or someone who had learned to use a weapon for far worse reasons. He only knew he didn’t want to stay alone in that damned place.
He moved along the avenue covered in roots, dodging rusted cars and piles of concrete. Several times, he had to stop when he heard movement behind him. Every time he looked, he found only leaves stirred by the wind.
He didn’t let himself think too much.
If he thought about the creatures, he stopped. If he thought about the possibility of finding no one, he lost his breath. If he thought about home, his job, or Tania, he might stay there forever.
So he kept running.
The tree was farther away than it looked. When he finally reached the intersection, he crouched behind an overturned bus and looked toward the end of the street.
A gray pickup truck was wedged between two buildings.
One of its doors was open. The windshield was riddled with bullet holes, and smoke rose from the hood. A few yards away, beside a moss-covered wall, a figure was shooting toward the ruins.
It was a woman.
She wore a dark jacket, reinforced pants, and a small backpack. She held a rifle in both hands. Her hair was tied back, and a smear of blood covered her cheek, though she didn’t appear to be injured.
In front of her, something moved among the remains of a building.
The woman fired three times.
—Don’t come any closer! —she shouted.
A huge body launched itself from the darkness.
Bruno barely managed to make out a mass of long limbs and grayish skin. The creature landed on the pickup, crushing the roof with a thunderous crash. The woman rolled across the ground and lost her rifle.
Bruno froze.
The creature raised one of its claws.
He couldn’t stay hidden. Not after seeing her. Not after running all the way there looking for someone.
Beside him lay a metal bar torn from the bus. He grabbed it with both hands and stepped out of hiding.
—Hey! Over here!
The woman turned her head.
—Are you crazy? Run!
Bruno slammed the bar against the side of the bus. The crash made the creature turn toward him.
For an instant, their gazes met.
The monster’s head had no visible eyes. It had only a wet, pulsing vertical slit that opened from side to side.
Bruno realized too late that he hadn’t drawn its attention.
He had made it choose him.
—To the tree! —the woman shouted. —Run toward the tree!
The creature lunged.
Bruno ran.
Behind him, the asphalt exploded beneath the claws. A wave of dust slammed into his back. He didn’t turn around. The woman fired from the ground, once, twice, three times. The bullets tore pieces from the creature, but they couldn’t stop it.
The S-shaped tree rose closer and closer.
—Faster! —the woman shouted.
Bruno gritted his teeth and sped up. Then he saw something strange: several black marks covered the tree’s bark, like burns forming concentric circles. The air around it vibrated.
The creature stopped.
It didn’t slow down from exhaustion. It stopped as if it had collided with an invisible wall.
Bruno fell to his knees beside the trunk. The woman arrived a second later and dragged him behind the roots.
The monster hissed from across the street.
—It doesn’t cross the mark —she said, breathing heavily.
—What… what is this tree?
—Right now, it’s the only thing keeping us from being eaten.
The creature furiously clawed at the ground. Then it raised its head toward the sky and let out a sound that made the broken windows of the buildings tremble.
Something answered in the distance.
Then something else.
The woman looked at Bruno coldly.
—Did anything follow you?
—I don’t know.
—Wrong answer.
—I don’t know where I am! Yesterday I was walking through my neighborhood when I felt myself disappearing. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in this horrible place. I took shelter in a collapsed store, spent the night hungry, cold, and scared, and woke up today to the sound of gunshots. I only came because I thought I might find someone who could give me a clue about what the hell is happening here…
She kept the rifle trained on him for several seconds.
—Yesterday?
—Yes.
The woman studied his clothes, his empty hands, and the confusion on his face. Finally, she lowered the weapon, though she continued to keep an eye on him.
—Then you’re new.
—New to what?
Before she could answer, the woman looked over Bruno’s shoulder.
Between the buildings, far away, shadows began to appear—shadows so solid they were visible in the full sunlight.
The shadows even the beasts feared.
The woman went pale.
—It can’t be —she murmured.
—What’s happening?
She stood and adjusted the strap of her backpack.
—The gunshots aren’t a good sign to approach.
The creature left the street and disappeared among the ruins.
The shadows advanced slowly toward the tree.
The woman looked at Bruno one last time.
—If you want to live, run when I run.
And for the first time since he had awakened in that world, Bruno became certain that maybe that collapsed store wasn’t so bad after all.