Strangers in the Dark

The moment Jason steps forward, the survivors noticed him.

A man closest to the fire snaps his head up, eyes narrowing. Within seconds, weapons is rising. Knives, bats, a few pistols.. every one of them points their weapons at Jason and Ryan.

“Stop right there.”

Jason immediately lifts his hands, signaling he isn’t a threat. Behind him, Ryan stiff, gripping his jacket.

“We’re not looking for trouble,” Jason says calmly. “We’re just trying to get somewhere safe.”

A woman steps forward. Her face is thin, lined with exhaustion, but her grip on the gun in her hand is steady. She looks at them carefully.

“How’d you get down here?” she ask.

Jason glances back toward the tunnel. “We dropped in through a sewer grate. There is… something big up there.”

A few people exchanging wary glances. One man.. a tall guy with a scar down his cheek.. sighs. “Yeah, we heard the damn thing stomping around.”

The woman kept her gun up. “You could be leading something to us.”

Jason shakes his head horizontally. “If it could fit down here, we’d already be dead.”

Silence.

Then an older man, sitting against the wall, let out a rough laugh. “Well, he’s got a point.”

The tension in the room easing slightly, but no one is lowering their weapon.

Ryan shifts beside Jason. “We’re just trying to survive.”

The woman looking between them. Her eyes lingering on Ryan for a moment.. on how young he is, how tired.

Then, slowly, she lowers her gun.

“We all are,” she mutters. “Fine. You can stay for now. But if you try anything.. ”

Jason nods. “We won’t.”

One by one, the other survivors backs off, though some kept watching them with suspicion.

Jason exhales, his muscles finally relaxing. For now, they have somewhere to live in.

⸻

They sit by the fire, warming their hands. The heat is a relief after the cold, damp tunnels.

Introductions were brief. The woman with the gun is Mia, apparently the closest thing this group have to a leader. Scar-cheek is Darren. The older man is Lewis. The rest also gave only first names, or none at all.

Most of them have been hiding down here for days. Some since the very first attack.

“How bad is it up there?” one guy.. Nick.. asks.

Jason exchanges a glance with Ryan. “Bad,” he says. “Worse than bad.”

Darren snorts. “Figured as much.”

Mia pokes at the fire. “The world’s falling apart.” Her voice is flat, emotionless. Like she have already accepted it.

Jason swallows. He wants to say something.. anything.. but what is there to say?

Ryan is quiet, staring into the flames.

For the first time since the nightmare began, they have a moment to breathe.

But Jason knew it wouldn’t last.

Nothing does anymore.

The fire crackling, casting flickering shadows on the damp stone walls. Jason let the warmth soaking into his skin, but his mind refuses to rest. They are safe.. for now. But how long would this last?

Ryan sitting beside him, silent, lost in his thoughts. Jason recognizing the look.. his little brother is trying to process everything, trying to stay optimistic despite the reality closing in around them.

Mia sitting across from them, sharpening a combat knife with slow, methodical strokes. “How old are the kid is?” she asks without looking up.

Ryan straightens. “I’m twelve.”

Mia raises her eyebrow, finally meeting his gaze. “You know how to fight?”

Ryan hesitates. Jason looks at her with a protectively angry look in his eyes.

Ryan shouldn’t have to fight.

But that isn’t the world they lived in anymore.

Ryan shrugs. “I can do what I have to.”

Mia considers that for a moment, then nodding approvingly. “Good. That’s the only way people survive now.”

Jason tensed at her words, but she isn’t wrong.

Lewis, the older man, sighs and shifts in his spot against the wall. “Surviving’s a funny thing. Everyone’s doing it, but none of us really know for how long.” He glances at Jason. “What’s your plan, kid?”

Jason doesn’t answer right away. Because he doesn’t have one.

Ryan speaks first. “We are trying to find somewhere safe.”

Mia scoffs. “Safe? There’s no such thing anymore.”

Jason frowns. “There have to be something. A stronghold, a military outpost.. ”

“The military’s losing,” Darren cuts in. “They are holding parts of the city last time we checked, but that was days ago. Now? Who knows.”

Jason feels a sinking weight in his chest.

Mia taps her knife against her knee. “You’re welcome to stay here for now, but it won’t last forever. Sooner or later, something’s going to come down here.”

Jason already knows that. Nowhere is safe. Not for long.

“We won’t be a burden,” he says. “We’ll help.”

Mia smirks slightly. “We’ll see about that.”

⸻

Later,

When most of the group is settling into an uneasy rest, Jason is sitting awake, listening to the distant thuds from above. The monsters are still out there.

Ryan stirs beside him. “You’re not sleeping.”

Jason glances at him. “Neither do you.”

Ryan sighs. “Do you think they’re right? That there’s nowhere safe?”

Jason hesitating. He wants to lie, to say we’ll find something, we’ll be okay.

But he’d seen too much already.

“I don’t know,” he admit.

Ryan nodding slowly, then whispers, “I don’t want to die down here.”

Jason’s grip tightens on his jacket.

He wouldn’t let that happen.

No matter what.

Jason barely sleeps. The dim light of the fire cast restless shadows on the tunnel walls, and every distant thud from above makes his heart jump. The monsters is still moving, still hunting.

Somewhere nearby, someone snoring softly. Others murmuring in their sleep. The underground shelter is temporary, but at least for tonight, it is shelter.

Ryan finally dozes off, curling up against Jason’s side. He is looking exhausted. Jason wishes he could let him rest longer, but something feels off.

He has noticed that Mia is missing.

Jason carefully shifts away from Ryan and get to his feet, stretching out his stiff muscles. The fire is dying down, its glow weak.

Darren is awake, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He gives Jason a bored look. “Can’t sleep either?”

Jason shakes his head. “Where’s Mia?”

Darren exhaled through his nose. “Went to check something. Don’t know, don’t care.”

Jason frowned. Checking something? In a place like this, that could mean anything.

He is scanning the tunnel. The entrance they’d come through is still sealed off, but another passage leads deeper into the underground. The air is colder in this direction.

Jason follows it.

⸻

The tunnel becomes more twisted and narrower. The further Jason goes, the stronger his unease grows.

Then he sees it.

Mia is standing at the edge of a dark opening, her flashlight aiming downward. The hole is unnatural.. something had torn through the sewer floor. The edges are jagged, stone and metal twisting outward.

Jason steps closer. “What is this?”

Mia doesn’t jump. She must’ve heard him coming. “A problem.”

Jason peers into the hole. It is descending into blackness. No ladder, no railing.. just a gaping wound in the underground.

Mia crouches, running her fingers along the damaged edges. “This wasn’t here before.”

Jason’s stomach tightens. “You think something made it?”

Mia stands. “No. I know something made it.”

Jason staring into the abyss. His pulse quickening. If the lizards could dig, if they are underground already..

Ryan and the others are not safe.

Mia straightens. “We should wake everyone up.”

Jason doesn’t argue.

They have to move. Now.