Vyral

Chapter 0: Part 10 - Don't be afraid to say goodbye

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First floor of the building.
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At first glance, there are no points of major interest upon exiting the tunnels, but when their eyes adjust to the darkness, something feels terribly off. From what they've researched, train stations usually had terminals right before the stairs in order for people to scan their tickets and board the trains, but here they're gone. Walking further unveils the possibility that this place could've been a kiosk of sorts, with closed stands both left and right, along with abandoned tables and chairs. Several spoilt and seemingly unrecognizable consumables are scattered across the floor, along with newspapers and old world pamphlets. Amina picks one of them up and sees this lady, that looks a lot like her mother, standing in front of an airplane. The header reads "Sasha Jackal. Youngest president in the history of Airline Co.".

She finds it ironic, since they can't even take their feet off the ground now.

As they reach the end of the corridor, there's another set of stairs that supposedly leads to the outside. Unexpectedly, they come across another floor, confusing them further than the last.

This looks like an apartment complex. There are three hallways plastered with doors. Left, right and straight ahead.

Kayden peeks over his shoulder to meet the same confused gaze coming from his friends. Why the hell are there apartments here? Inside the damn train station? Where all the trains used to run by?

He thinks that he wouldn't be able to bear the roars those metallic serpents used to make.
Billy taps him on the shoulder and holds his block of notes in front of Kayden. It reads:
"This place is giving me the creeps. Something's wrong here." To which Kayden nods.

Then Mell does the same as Billy, with a message of her own this time. It reads:
"I have a bad feeling about this place, it doesn't feel like any other zone we've been to."

Kayden nods again, this time with a sharper look. He shifts it to Reyna, who confirms her friend's concerns with the same method of communication.
"Let's wrap this up quickly then. Don't fuck up. Don't make noise. Grab samples, get out."

Everyone nods this time around.
Kayden signals them to move.

They search some of the open doors they find through the halls, which are mostly filled with deserted objects showered in sunlight, that brightly displays their abandon. Convenient that the rain stopped as soon as they got inside.
You'd think the old blood splattered across the floor and walls would've made the place less dusty but, that doesn't seem to be the case. Not to mention that there are plants of unknown origin growing from the batches of grass that crack the various tiles. Amina finds this strange once again, since plants and dust can't co-exist and thrive at the same time.

The team precautiously checks all the apartments before collecting samples, and to no surprise, they come across a few infected that must be dealt with. Despite their zombie-like appearance, these creatures are nothing like the ones depicted in old world books at their core, like Amina references all the time. These are twisted aberrations that seem like they want to grow out of their mortal shell, like their skin isn't enough to contain their purest form. Some of these creatures have an abundance of bones protruding from their limbs, others have elongated teeth that sometimes grow from places they're not supposed to, claw-like nails that often grow from additional fingers stemming from several places in the body, additional limbs that make their body structure uncategorizable, an incomprehensible amount of eyes or mutations in the existing ocular structure, so on and so forth.