"So we're agreed? Camila and Katie's place first, then Mark's, then yours, Carl?"

  David asked as they crossed the park, their footsteps unnaturally loud in the silence. The quiet pressed against him like a physical weight. Back in the dome, surrounded by conversation, he'd forgotten how oppressive the emptiness had become.

  The murmur of mana that had surrounded the obelisk was fading with each step. Soon they'd be back in a world that felt like a held breath.

  They reached the stolen car and David unlocked it with a chirp that seemed to echo forever. He pointed to the dent in the driver's door where the creature had hit it.

  "See? Right there."

  The group clustered around, squinting at the surprisingly small impact mark. Carl ran his fingers over the scratches on the rear quarter panel.

  "I mean, it could be anything," Katie said diplomatically.

  David opened the driver's door.

  The smell hit them first. Sweet almost urine like with something else mixed in. It was fading now but still strong enough when you hadn’t been sitting in it for a while.

  The torn seatbelt hung in frayed strips. Deep gouges scored the door trim where something had clawed frantically for freedom.

  The coat and bag David had used to cover the worst stains hadn't quite done the job. Dark patches soaked into the fabric suggested dissolution he didn't want to think about.

  "Jesus," Mark whispered.

  Camila stepped closer, studying the damage with new attention. "What... what did this?"

  "Something that used to be the owner, I think." David kept his voice steady. "Something that woke up trapped and had to claw its way out."

  The group stood in uncomfortable silence. David could see them trying to rationalize what they were seeing. Vandalism. Accident damage. Anything but the obvious explanation.

  Carl cleared his throat. "Well, it's still running, right?"

  "Right." David climbed into the driver's seat, pushing down memories of twisted limbs and too many teeth. "Let's get going, who wants shotgun?"

  Carl got shotgun following a brief silent glance shared between Katie and Camila. Once everyone was in The engine started without complaint. David immediately noticed the fuel gauge hovering just above the half-empty mark.

  "Only half a tank, folks. Not sure how long that'll last if we're doing multiple runs. Also, my phone's nearly dead and there was no cell reception earlier, so someone needs to navigate."

  "I can navigate," Camila said from behind him. "You should be able to mostly follow our running route."

  She paused, then added with forced brightness, "Why don't you charge your phone? Or better yet, charge mine!"

  "Sorry, my laptop only has so much juice, and without reception my phone is just..."

  Katie interrupted gently, "Why not use the car charger?" She pointed to the USB ports under the radio. "There's one plugged in and one free port."

  David felt his face warm. "Right. Of course."

  The scramble to connect phones broke some of the tension. They settled on charging David's and Katie's after he explained he wanted the people with windows to watch for survivors, and Katie, sitting in the middle, could alert them if her phone found signal.

  Following Camila's directions proved straightforward. Residential streets stretched empty in every direction, and the runners clearly avoided the bigger raods. The urban ghost town felt more disturbing the longer David drove through it.

  No pedestrians; no joggers or mothers out with their young kids enjoying the summer. No delivery trucks or cars out doing errands or making deliveries. Hell, the only sound was the engine of the car. There was no background noise, not from people or from animals. While David was a city boy and might miss the lack of even insect noise and activity he was deeply familiar with the sound of countless people and their machines that created the city soundscape.

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  Carl filled the silence by describing the last night before the wave hit. He'd stayed up watching news coverage, and his enthusiasm for being the storyteller helped distract from the emptiness outside.

  "You should have seen the panic when that thing changed course," Carl said. "Twitter went completely insane. Half the world was screaming about aliens, the other half was posting memes."

  "What did the government say?" Mark asked.

  "Nothing useful. It was the middle of the night and they were too busy running to hide in whatever bolt hole you use when the end of the world is nigh. We were told the President would address the nation in the morning and the Government was working to establish contact. I ended up watching the Europeans, who were up by then, losing their minds on live TV until I crashed for a couple of hours so I could go to work... I was listening to more wheel spinning on the radio when I got hit same as everyone else."

  David tried to imagine the scene. Billions of people around the globe simply... stopping. Cars drifting to halt, sometimes crashing. Shuddering he pulled his mind back from extrapolating and focused. But a small voice crept back.

  Infrastructure would run on automatic systems, but for how long? How long could people sleep safely?

  With a wrench of effort David forced his attention back onto the road. Driving was unfamiliar enough to distract him from his thoughts before they could spiral.

  Camila suddenly sat up straight. "Stop! I saw something move down that side street!"

  David's foot found the accelerator before his brain caught up. The car surged forward as memories of claws and twisted flesh flooded back.

  "Where? What did you see?"

  "I... it was fast. Maybe a person? It ducked behind that blue house."

  They drove back slowly, scanning the street. Nothing moved. No signs of life at all.

  "Maybe it was a cat," Katie suggested quietly.

  David went still. That was it. He hadn’t seen a single animal or bird since waking up, well except Billy’s dog. Cats should be unconscious too. The silence that followed suggested the others had reached the same conclusion.

  The rest of the drive passed without conversation. Camila stared out her window with new intensity. Katie hunched over her phone, searching for signal bars that never appeared.

  They pulled up at a nice two-family house that had probably been elegant when the neighborhood was new. Now it looked tired but well-maintained, with flower boxes that would need watering soon.

  David killed the engine and they climbed out into afternoon heat that seemed too bright, too normal for the world they were living in now.

  Katie held up her phone. "Still nothing. No cell, no wifi."

  David left his jacket in the car but kept the backpack. "What now? It seems quiet, but..."

  Camila brandished her house key with forced determination. "Now we go in, check on Sarah, and grab some things. I want to change and maybe grab a shower."

  Something in her voice suggested she needed the normalcy more than the cleanliness.

  "Maybe Mark and I should go first?" David offered. "Just to make sure it's safe?"

  Camila's eyes flashed. "Look, people and animals don't just turn into monsters! I'm sure you freaked out and ran from a stray dog. Maybe one with rabies."

  The last part sounded grudging, added only after a meaningful glance from Katie that David missed entirely.

  Before he could respond, Camila was bouncing up the steps and unlocking the door.

  "Sarah! We're back and we have company! You better be decent!"

  Her voice echoed in the stairwell as she disappeared upstairs. Katie spoke quickly to Mark: "Go after her and make sure everything's okay."

  She turned to Carl and David with an apologetic smile. "Welcome to our home. I promised food to get you here, so let's head upstairs and see what I can manage."

  Carl followed immediately. "I hope you're a good cook. I'm starving."

  David realized he shared that gnawing hunger. The junk food from CVS had filled the immediate need, but his body craved something that felt like actual nutrition.

  He climbed the stairs, noting how normal everything looked. Mail on a side table. Shoes by the door. The mundane details of lives interrupted mid-routine.

  The apartment upstairs was typical for young professionals sharing space. Also typical of city apartments without central air it was hot. Three bedrooms opening off a hallway, bathroom at the end, living area and kitchen on the right; Mark was already opening windows to let some air in. Katie was already in the kitchen, pulling ingredients from the fridge with slightly frantic efficiency looking for food that hadn’t spoiled.

  As if cooking something normal could make the world normal again.

  Camila emerged from the middle bedroom, closing the door behind her. When she spoke, her voice was carefully quiet.

  "Katie, Sarah's asleep and I can't wake her up. She's barely breathing."

  Katie froze with a package of pasta in her hands. "Oh god, is she okay? That's a stupid question, of course she's not. What can we do?"

  Mark moved to her side immediately. "Katie, it's okay. We know what to do. She needs to get to the obelisk so she can wake up like we did. That's what the quest said."

  He wrapped her in a reassuring hug. "We have to bring people there so they can be helped."

  David felt pieces clicking together. "I think it's the mana concentration. We need a certain amount to wake up, and there's more of it around the obelisk. Did you notice how your experience kept ticking up in there?"

  He paused, remembering the transforming people he'd encountered. "Only... I think things can go wrong. Was she normal? Just asleep, nothing weird happening?"

  The question killed the hopeful mood immediately.

  Camila's face went fierce. "She was fine. I would have said if she wasn't."

  Her voice dropped to a mutter David could just hear: "Men. Why don't they ever listen?"

  She looked directly at him, anger and something else fighting in her eyes. "Okay, Mr. Know-it-all. How do we wake her up? And if bad things are happening to people, how do we stop that from happening to her?"

  The question hung in the air like a challenge, waiting for an answer David wasn't sure he had.