Elsewhere, Maya's group moved carefully through the corridors.
The place felt nothing like the chambers from before.
The walls were rough concrete and brick, old-looking, with dim lamps mounted along the sides. Their footsteps echoed softly as they walked.
After a while, the corridor split into two paths.
Left and right.
They picked one.
A few minutes later, another split.
Again, they chose at random.
Then another.
Sometimes the paths curved. Sometimes they narrowed. Sometimes they led absolutely nowhere.
Dead ends.
They had been wandering like that for almost five minutes now.
"Okay," Lana finally said, annoyed, "it's pretty obvious what this is."
"A maze," Maya replied immediately.
When they first exited the tunnel, the survivors who had followed them had come out through the same entrance before it sealed shut behind everyone. But after that, people started splitting off, taking different paths.
Honestly, Maya preferred that.
Panicked crowds only made things worse.
"Isn't it weird we haven't run into anyone?" Lana asked quietly as they stared at yet another dead end.
Noah leaned against the wall with a sigh. "Maybe the maze is bigger than we think."
"Or it changes," Maya said.
That made the group fall silent for a moment.
Ralf looked back the way they came. "Standing around won't help. If this really is a maze, then there's only two options."
"Find the exit," Noah said.
"Or die inside it," Lana finished bluntly.
Nobody laughed.
They turned around and started heading back to take another route.
Elsewhere, another group of survivors moved through the maze in tense silence.
Their footsteps echoed through the narrow corridors as the dim wall lamps flickered above them.
"What even is this place?" a woman in her forties muttered nervously. "It's so creepy…"
Nobody answered.
She kept talking anyway, voice shaky. "These hallways just keep going. Left, right, dead ends… we've been walking forever. I'm getting tired."
"Can you shut the fuck up?" the man leading the group snapped suddenly.
Everyone flinched.
"No one wants to hear your whining. If you're scared, go wander off by yourself."
The woman immediately fell silent.
She looked down and hugged her arms tightly. Fear kept her rooted to the group. Being alone in this place sounded worse than dealing with him.
The rest stayed quiet too.
Nobody wanted trouble.
The man at the front kept walking. He was tall and athletic, wearing a torn brown shirt. His long hair was tied back into a rough ponytail, and there was something off about the way he carried himself. Too calm. Too comfortable.
He glanced back at the group behind him.
Good. Stay scared.
In a place like this, frightened people were useful.
If danger showed up, he could always use them as distractions… stepping stones to survive.
A faint smile slowly spread across his face.
Not a normal smile.
The kind that made a person look less human in bad lighting.