"Ryan," she whispered urgently, her voice tight with worry. "Jason left again. He just walked out of the building, and he's heading toward the same direction as before. I think something is seriously wrong."

I hadn't expected this to happen so soon after my arrival, but Jason's mysterious nighttime wanderings were clearly more urgent than I'd realized. Something about Jasmine's tone, the way her voice trembled with genuine fear, told me this wasn't just teenage rebellion or restless insomnia.

I nodded and stood up from my narrow bed.

Moving as quietly as possible to avoid waking Christopher, I slipped on my boots and grabbed my jacket from where I'd left it draped over the single chair in our cramped room. My hand axe was within easy reach, and I secured it in my belt.

I gave one last glance at Christopher, who was still snoring peacefully, completely oblivious to the crisis developing around us. For a moment I considered waking him to ask for backup, but I quickly rejected that idea. Christopher had already done enough for me, and I'd been relying on his help far too much already and he lost a lot in that…. Besides, this was probably just a matter of finding Jason and talking him back to safety—nothing that should require additional combat support.

"When did he leave?" I asked Jasmine in a whisper, following her toward the door of our temporary sleeping quarters.

"Just a few minutes ago," she replied, her voice tight with anxiety. "I saw him walking out of the main entrance like he was sleepwalking or in some kind of trance."

"Then we need to hurry and catch up with him before he gets too far ahead," I said. "If he's wandering around alone in the dark without weapons or protection, he could easily get bitten by infected or worse."

The fact that Jason had apparently been making these mysterious excursions regularly and returning safely was puzzling, but it didn't make the behavior any less dangerous. Jackson Township after dark was filled with infected creatures that hunted more aggressively when they couldn't rely on visual tracking, and a single person moving alone through the streets was an easy target.

Jasmine was already prepared to leave, wearing practical outdoor clothing and carrying a small flashlight that would provide minimal illumination without attracting too much attention from distant threats. I helped her climb over the defensive barricade that surrounded the Municipal Office compound, then dropped down beside her into the empty street beyond.

"Did you see which direction he went?" I asked, scanning the darkness for any sign of movement or disturbance that might indicate Jason's passage.

"That way," Jasmine said, pointing toward the eastern part of town where the residential areas gave way to more industrial buildings and eventually to the outskirts of Jackson Township itself.

We began following the route she indicated, moving as quietly as possible while maintaining enough speed to potentially catch up with Jason before he reached whatever destination was drawing him into the night. The streets were eerily quiet, with only the distant sounds of infected creatures moving through abandoned buildings and the occasional rustle of wind through debris.

After about ten minutes of careful pursuit, we stopped at an intersection where multiple paths diverged toward different parts of the township.

"Did we lose him?" Jasmine asked, panic creeping into her voice as she realized we hadn't spotted any trace of Jason despite our efforts to follow his presumed route.

"No," I said slowly, my enhanced Dullahan senses picking up something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. "I can still sense where he's going."

There was something wrong—something beyond just a missing person wandering around in dangerous territory. My supernatural awareness was detecting subtle vibrations, sounds just below the threshold of normal human hearing, and an oppressive atmosphere that spoke to influences far more sinister than simple infected creatures.

"Stay very close to me, Jasmine," I said, gripping my hand axe more tightly as we continued forward into the darkness. "Something feels very wrong about this entire situation."

The wrongness I was sensing grew stronger with each step we took. We should have encountered infected by now—Jackson Township after dark was never completely empty of hostile creatures—but the streets remained unnaturally quiet. I could hear infected in the distance, their characteristic moans and shuffling footsteps echoing from various abandoned buildings, but none of them were approaching us or seeming to notice our presence.

As we continued walking through the deserted streets, my growing dread crystallized into a terrible suspicion. I'd been wandering through Jackson Township regularly for the past two months, learning every street and pathway as part of my survival routine. Based on the direction we were traveling and the landmarks I could identify even in the darkness, we were heading directly toward the radio station.

The same radio station where Rachel and I had encountered the Screamer device and its enhanced infected guardians just days earlier.

"Oh no," I muttered under my breath, pieces of a horrifying puzzle beginning to fall into place.

"What?" Jasmine asked, catching the alarm in my voice.

"If I'm right about where we're going, this is much worse than I thought," I replied thoughtless. "Jason isn't just wandering aimlessly—he's being drawn to something specific, something incredibly dangerous…"

Please, don't tell me that crazy theory of mine is right. I read too many fictions so maybe I was just being paranoiac.

Several more minutes of tense walking confirmed my worst fears. The familiar silhouette of the radio station appeared ahead of us in the darkness, its broken transmission tower creating jagged patterns against the star-filled sky. The three-story building looked exactly as it had during my previous visit, but now it radiated an aura of malevolence even more potent that made my enhanced senses scream warnings.

There were no infected visible in the immediate area around the building's exterior, but I could sense massive numbers of them packed inside the structure itself. Far more than had been present during my previous reconnaissance with Rachel, as if the alien intelligence was marshaling its forces for some kind of major operation.

"It's the radio station," Jasmine muttered in confusion as we approached the building. "Why would Jason come here? This place has been abandoned since the outbreak started."

She began walking forward with the innocent assumption that we could simply approach the building and look for Jason, but I immediately caught her arm and pulled her back.

"Wait, Jasmine," I said urgently. "There are infected inside that building—lots of them. If Jason went in there..."

Jasmine's face went pale as she processed what I was telling her. "But then Jason... is he...?"

"I don't know what's happened to him," I replied honestly, though my thoughts were racing toward possibilities I didn't want to voice aloud.

Part of me—a dark, selfish part that I wasn't proud of—almost hoped that Jason had simply been bitten and turned into a standard infected. That would be tragic but comprehensible, a straightforward case of someone making a fatal mistake in a dangerous world. But the supernatural dread building in my chest suggested something far worse and more complex than simple virus infection.

"We have to leave immediately, Jasmine," I said, raising my flashlight toward the building's upper floors to see if I could detect any signs of movement or activity.

"Then Jason... he's dead?" Jasmine asked, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks as the reality of the situation hit her.

"Jasmine, I'm sorry, but—"

I froze mid-sentence as my flashlight beam revealed a shadow behind us, cast by something that definitely hadn't been there moments before. Without hesitation, I grabbed Jasmine and threw both of us to the side in a desperate evasive maneuver, rolling across the rough asphalt just as something massive swept through the space where we'd been standing.

Jasmine cried out in pain as we hit the ground, but there was no time to check on her injuries or offer comfort. We both scrambled to our feet and turned to face whatever had attacked us.

Standing in the pale beam of my dropped flashlight was an infected creature unlike any of the standard virus victims we'd encountered before. I recognized it immediately as one of the six enhanced infected that had been serving as biological amplifiers for the Screamer device during my previous visit to the radio station.

But this creature was no longer standing motionless around the alien technology. It was active, mobile, and clearly hunting with plan and intelligence that far exceeded normal infected behavior patterns.

"Stay behind me!" I shouted at Jasmine, positioning myself between her and the enhanced infected while gripping my hand axe in both hands.

The creature was roughly human in shape but significantly larger and more muscular than any normal person. Its skin had the same pale, translucent quality I'd observed in other enhanced infected, and veins of dark fluid were visible beneath the surface like some kind of alien circulatory system. Its eyes glowed with unnatural intelligence, and when it opened its mouth, I could see that its teeth had been modified into razor-sharp points designed for tearing flesh.

I began circling carefully around the creature, trying to assess its capabilities and look for tactical advantages I could exploit. The enhanced infected turned to track my movement with mechanical precision, its head rotating smoothly to keep me in sight without any of the jerky, unpredictable motions that characterized normal infected behavior.

Without warning, the creature rushed toward me with speed that was almost superhuman, covering the distance between us in a single fluid movement that would have been impossible for any normal infected. I dodged to the side at the last possible moment, feeling the wind from its passage as it barely missed grabbing me with clawed fingers.

As it passed, I swung my hand axe in a powerful arc that connected with its outstretched arm just above the elbow. The blade bit deep into enhanced muscle and bone, severing the limb completely and sending dark fluid spraying across the asphalt.

But instead of collapsing or showing signs of pain, the creature immediately opened its mouth and released a piercing scream that was unlike anything I'd ever heard from infected before. The sound was modulated, controlled, carrying frequencies that seemed designed to communicate rather than simply express aggression or hunger.

Both Jasmine and I clapped our hands over our ears as the painful sound waves washed over us, but the damage was already done. I understood immediately what had just happened—the creature had called for reinforcements using the same kind of sonic communication system employed by the Screamer device itself.

"We need to run!" I shouted to Jasmine, grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the radio station as fast as our legs could carry us. This was getting very dangerous.

But as we turned to flee, Jasmine suddenly stopped and pointed behind us with obvious terror. Another enhanced infected had emerged from concealment, positioning itself to cut off our retreat route. We were being systematically surrounded by creatures that were coordinating their movements with tactical precision.

Without alternatives, I changed direction and began running parallel to the radio station building, pulling Jasmine with me as we searched desperately for an escape route that wouldn't lead us directly into more enhanced infected. The creatures were herding us, I realized—driving us toward a specific location rather than simply trying to kill us immediately.

We ran along the building's perimeter, dodging between abandoned vehicles and debris while the enhanced infected maintained pursuit at a distance that suggested they were more interested in controlling our movement than catching us. Standard infected began emerging from various hiding places, drawn by the sounds of our flight, but these seemed almost secondary to whatever the enhanced creatures were planning.

I fought off several normal infected as we ran, my hand axe proving effective against their standard durability and reflexes. But the enhanced infected remained at the edges of our vision, patient and calculating, waiting for something that I couldn't identify.

Finally, we found temporary refuge behind a concrete barrier that had probably been part of a construction project before the outbreak. I pulled Jasmine down beside me, both of us breathing hard from our desperate flight.

"What were those things screaming about?" Jasmine whispered, her voice trembling with fear and confusion.

"They're like mutated infected," I said, trying to provide an explanation. "Enhanced somehow, more dangerous than the normal ones."

Jasmine's face went even paler as she processed this information. The idea that infected creatures could become more dangerous, more intelligent, more coordinated than the already terrifying standard versions was clearly overwhelming for someone who'd been living in the relative safety of the Municipal Office compound.

"Stay completely silent," I whispered, listening carefully for any sounds that might indicate the enhanced infected were closing in on our position.

For several minutes, we crouched behind our makeshift shelter while I tried to formulate a plan for getting us back to safety. The enhanced infected were clearly still in the area, but they seemed to be maintaining some kind of perimeter rather than actively hunting us down. It was as if they were waiting for something, or someone.

That's when I heard it—a sound that made my blood run cold and confirmed my worst fears about what had happened to Jason.

It was a voice calling my name, but not in any normal human way. The sound carried the same modulated, amplified qualities as the Screamer device itself, echoing across the empty streets with unnatural resonance and power.

"Ryan..." The voice called, drawn out and distorted in ways that made it sound both familiar and utterly alien.

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