Explosions paint the night sky like fireworks. The city drowns in screams, sirens and a sea of wailing flames. Below, the streets writhe-floods of bystanders and survivors run and lock themselves from the once-human figures. The faint whine of emergency sirens eventually go dead.

Sweat drenches Yaryu's collar. She seethes through clenched teeth. There is too much to process but for now she must get the children to safety.

She yanks the rooftop door open.

"Move!" she snaps, pushing Orion and Eli forward. But Anaki doesn't budge.

"We can't stay here," he says, his anxiety returning.

Yaryu doesn't have time for this. She pulls him, running down the stairs. "Anaki, right now isn't a good time."

He tries to free her strong grip, his feet tired from trying to catch up.

"W-wait, we won't be safe down there!"

Yaryu grabs his arm, tugging. "It's better than standing here!"

But Anaki jerks free. For a kid so small, his strength surprises her. But it was his rebellion that hit harder. What happened to him suddenly? After the drown he'd begun to act strange but this is like he's become someone else entirely.

"We can't-" Anaki starts to explain but his eyes glue to a shadow. He stumbles back, staring beyond her.

Yaryu follows his gaze-and her heart sinks.

A figure stands in the hallway beyond the door. A man. Maybe someone who worked here. A receptionist.

He's missing half his jaw.

Slowly Yaryu places her hand on Orion's chest and pushes him behind herself. Eli behind him.

Her voice shudders, "Run-"

It doesn't give her a chance, the thing barrels toward her. Yaryu raises her arms instinctively, but her brain short-circuits-don't hit it, don't touch it, don't let it bite you-

A hand claws at her sleeve. She yelps, staggering back.

"Run!" she shouts.

Orion and Eli freeze.

They know what happens next.

They've seen the way these creatures move, how quickly they spread. They know she's already dead.

"No!" Orion shouts, an inch away from running in himself if not for Eli's grip . A shadow sprints past them.

Yaryu twists, grabbing the creature's wrist. Her nails tear into its arm-the flesh is cold but burning from the inside-

It's not human anymore.

It shoves her, pinning her against the doorframe. She gasps, dodging its snapping teeth.

Then-

A ding.

The elevator doors slide open behind the creature.

What?

Her pupils dilate at a red metal fire extinguisher colliding against the rotten skull before her.

The undead stumbles.

Anaki yanks another object-a telephone-this time it hits its abdomen.

The creature lurches-topples backward into the open elevator.

Before it can react, before Yaryu can even process-

Anaki slams the button.

The doors shut. A muffled thud echoes from inside-dull, sluggish, mindless. Followed with hungry scratches.

Then it stops.

Anaki sways where he stands, his shoulders rising and falling, his hands shaking. His face hidden under his bangs, unreadable.

Orion and Eli stare, pale. Then throw themselves into Yaryu's arms, terrified but relieved.

Yaryu holds them, equally shaken, gasping. "Anaki...?"

The boy turns to her. His dark eyes, usually full of timid hesitation, are eerily cold and distant.

"We can't stay here." Anaki clenches his fists, exhausted. His body is too young and small for hard labor.

He needs Yaryu to collaborate.

"We have to leave. We must." He looks at them, sincerity in his eyes, "Or we die. All of us."

Yaryu grabs her wrist. The scratches are burning. Leave out there? She almost died here.

"It's safer to barricade the doors, wait for help-" Yaryu falters. She needs to believe staying still is safe. That if they just wait, the police will come, the world will right itself.

"Help won't come," Anaki interrupts. Then more to himself than her, "We won't get another chance."

Even if he tells them. Anaki buries his gaze in his bangs. They won't believe me.

An explosion rattles the walls, startling them. They step back from the windows. The front yard of the motel is up in flames. A car alarm blares like a crying child before being silenced.

"I'll try calling one more time." Yaryu pulls out her phone.

No signal.

"Shit! Why now?" she swings it around trying to get a connection.

Eli tugs Orion's sleeve, nodding toward the broken lobby television. Static hisses over the glass. The power's unstable, but-

a broadcast glitches through.

A news anchor, they've seen him before, his eyes dart off-camera then looks straight at it.

"-there will be no evacuations-survivors are advised to shelter in place-repeat, no official rescue-

-death toll unknown-government forces retreating-it's the end."

And then-static glitches with different channels.

A live traffic cam of abandoned streets, flickering streetlights.

A chocolate bar commercial.

Another news channel. This time from a city over. A military distress call cutting in: "-all units pull back! We can't contain-static again. This time the television pops, overheating.

The phone slips off Yaryu's hands. Orion watches the screen, expression blank. Eli holds his hand tight.

No one is coming.

"They really left us to die."

Yaryu refuses to believe so. She taps through her phone again.

"Come on. Come on. Come on-Please, dammit!"

Anaki watches them crumble, color draining from their faces. He doesn't know what to say, he ponders searching for the right words.

But there are none.

How can he convince them-his eyes widen. There is a way out. How could I have forgotten?

"-Black Raven," he whispers.

"There's a safe haven!" Anaki snaps.

"What?" they turn to him. A haven?

"How do you know that?" Orion asks, skeptical.

"Just trust me." Anaki forces the words out. His eyes burn into them, he seems to be having an argument with himself rather than them.

"I can get us there. Alive."

Yaryu hesitates.

It's ridiculous to even consider it. The logical part of her screams to demand details-to not listen to the seven-year-old who just tackled a dead man with his bare hands.

But he knows something.

A distant scream cuts off suddenly followed by a thud from upstairs.
Yaryu swallows hard, now isn't the time to be hesitating.

"Can you prove it?" Yaryu asks. She's the teacher, the adult, the one in charge of their lives.

"That what you are saying is true. That there is a haven?"

Anaki stares at the flames devouring the motel's front yard.

"We don't have a choice do we?"

They look at it too. At the charred bodies in vehicles. At the roaming undead. The once live city is now dying.

"It's a matter of time until they come for us."

Yaryu shuts her eyes. She has to make a choice. She has to protect the children. Her lips purse.

What should she do?