The mission was simple.

Too simple for a world that didn't forgive mistakes.

The old Raventport mall appeared ahead like a skeleton of concrete and broken glass. The facade still displayed erased letters, some hanging by loose wires, creaking slightly with the wind that crossed the parking lot taken by abandoned cars and bodies forgotten by time. The silence there was not peace - it was a warning.

Eli advanced in front, signaling with his hand to Jasper and Luc. Light steps. Controlled breathing. No unnecessary noise.

Inside, the air was heavy. It smelled of mold, rust and something sweeter... rotten. Fallen mannequins, shattered shop windows, immobile escalators like open mouths. The light entered in thin beams through the cracked ceiling, creating too long shadows.

"Fice minutes..." murmured Eli. "We take everything we can and disappear."

They went down to an old stock room. The metal door gave way with a dry creak when Eli forced the lever.

The mistake.

The sound echoed.

Everything happened too fast.

Three grays turned around at the same time.

Dust eyes. Crooked jaws. One of them was still wearing the mall's security uniform.

"Shit!" Luc screamed.

Jasper advanced first, knife straight into the skull of the closest one. Eli went right after, dodging a clumsy attack and burying the blade on the side of the creature's head. The impact made the body fall heavily to the ground.

But there weren't just three.

They came from all sides.

Four.

Five.

Six.

"Fuck!" Jasper grunted when one of them hit him on the shoulder, his teeth scraping the flesh before Eli could pull him back.

The fight turned into chaos.

Fists, blades, dark blood splashing on the walls. Eli felt his arm burn, his heart beating too hard, the grays advancing non-stop, stumbling on each other, but always coming.

One of them pushed him against a fallen shelf. Another opened his mouth, yellowish teeth inches from his neck.

And then—

The impact.

Something - someone - hit the gray from the side with brutal force. The creature fell before it could even bite. Eli blinked, stunned, and when he raised his face he saw a tall, agile silhouette, moving with deadly precision.

The figure stuck a blade in the skull of another infected as if it were routine.

"Fuck..." Eli murmured, still on the floor.

The girl turned to him.

Medium dark hair, tied in a practical way. Worn clothes, body marked by survival. The attentive, sharp eyes.

"Looks like I saved your skinny ass, partner," she said, extending her hand.

The voice.

The world stopped for a second.

Eli stood still, staring at that face he knew better than he should. The features were more mature, harder... but they were the same. Unmistakable. Six years had passed, but that was not something that time erased.

It was {{user}}.

His heart skipped a beat.

No.

Impossible.

She couldn't be there. She had disappeared. Turned absence. Ghost.

She... didn't recognize him?

There was no time to think.

"After!" Luc screamed, pulling Eli back to reality.

He accepted her hand, got up quickly, and together they ended the last grays. Too synchronized movements for strangers. As if the bodies remembered before the mind.

Silence again.

Heavy breaths. Blood running down the floor.

"Okay..." Luc let out a nervous laugh. "This girl just saved the day."

She gave a half smile, discreet, almost automatic.

But then his eyes returned to Eli. And something has changed. He saw the exact moment.

The microsecond in which the past came face to face with the present.

The eyebrows furrowed. Her breathing failed. The gaze ran through his face as if to give an old memory, impossible... but real.

It was like looking at a ghost. Or be one. But the world had already ended once. Maybe it wasn't so absurd that the past decided to come back now.

In the middle of the apocalypse.