Who?

"You're holding the gun like it's a live snake," Sakura snapped, her voice sharp as she adjusted Haruto's grip on the weapon. "Relax your shoulders. And breathe. You're not going to shoot anything if you pass out from hyperventilating."

Haruto grimaced, sweat dripping down his temple as he squinted at the target across the training room. "I am breathing. It's just… this feels unnatural."

"Unnatural?" Sakura crossed her arms, her metallic suit gleaming under the fluorescent lights. "You think the parasites care if pulling a trigger feels natural? They'll rip your head off either way."

Before Haruto could retort, a soft voice interrupted from the doorway.

"Maybe… maybe he's trying too hard?"

Both turned to see Shina lingering at the entrance, her fingers nervously twisting the hem of her borrowed sweatshirt. Two weeks had passed since Jin and Makami rescued her, but the shadows under her eyes still spoke of sleepless nights.

Sakura sighed. "Fine. Take five, Haruto. But don't think this means you're off the hook."

As Sakura strode out, Haruto slumped onto a bench, tossing the gun onto the table with a clatter. Shina hovered awkwardly before sitting beside him.

"You're getting better," she offered quietly.

Haruto barked a laugh. "You don't have to lie. I've seen toddlers handle spoons better than I handle that thing."

Shina smiled faintly. "At least you're here. Training. Fighting. I… I just ran."

Haruto glanced at her. "You survived. That's what matters."

Silence stretched between them until Shina whispered, "They weren't always monsters, you know. The bandits I lived with… they were scared. Scared of the parasites, scared of your Doctor Ashita. They thought he was lying about the cure."

Haruto frowned. "But the masks worked, right? If covering your head stops the parasite from—"

"It did," Shina interrupted, her voice trembling. "Until the blue ones came."

—FLASHBACK—

The bandit leader, Marco, kicked open the door to the abandoned tech store, his laugh echoing through the dusty aisles. "Since when do parasites glow like neon signs?"

Shina froze. Outside the shattered windows, figures shuffled past. Not the usual purple horrors, but creatures shimmering an eerie, unnatural blue.

"Marco, look—"

A deafening crunch drowned her words. One of the blue-infected stood in the parking lot, its head tilted sideways. With a guttural shriek, it gripped the bumper of a rusted sedan—and hurled it through the air.

The world exploded.

Shina woke amidst the rubble, her ears ringing. Smoke filled the air as faint screams echoed in the distance. Her head pounded, but she forced herself to crawl toward the nearest exit, dodging debris and the sound of heavy footsteps. The blue-infected were methodical, breaking down survivors with terrifying precision she'd never seen before.

Marco stumbled into view, his face streaked with blood. "Run!" he roared, firing wildly with his shotgun. "Shina, move—"

A shadow loomed behind him. One of the blue-infected darted forward with inhuman speed, its glowing veins pulsating under its translucent skin. It swatted the shotgun aside like a toy and drove its claws into Marco's chest.

Shina bit down on a scream, her body trembling as she ducked behind a collapsed shelf. Marco's gurgling cries faded as the creature tossed him aside like a broken doll.

"Why is it… so fast?" whispered a bandit crouched nearby, clutching a makeshift spear.

Shina barely had time to register his presence before the creature's head snapped in their direction. It hissed, a sharp, wet sound, and pounced.

The bandit's scream cut off with a sickening crunch.

Shina clamped a hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. She forced herself to crawl deeper into the rubble, her mind screaming at her to move faster. Behind her, she could hear the creature sniffing the air, searching.

She stumbled into the back room of the store—a cramped space filled with broken electronics and overturned chairs. Her gaze darted around, landing on a narrow vent near the floor. Without thinking, she crawled inside, her small frame barely squeezing through.

For what felt like hours, she lay still, her heart pounding so loudly she was sure the creatures could hear it. Through the vent's slats, she could see the store's main floor. The blue-infected wandered aimlessly, their glowing forms casting eerie patterns across the walls.

At one point, one of them stopped, tilting its head as if listening. Shina held her breath, her fingers digging into the metal floor. It took a step closer to the vent, its glowing eyes scanning the room.

And then, it spoke but it was not human words.

"Where?"

The single, rasping word sent a bolt of terror through Shina. The parasites never spoke. Not the purple ones. Not the ones she'd seen before.

The creature sniffed the air again, then moved away, disappearing into the shadows.

Shina didn't move for hours, not until the sun rose and the blue glow faded from the store.

When she finally crawled out of the vent, the store was eerily silent. Bodies littered the floor—bandits and purple-infected alike. Marco was slumped against a wall, his eyes wide open, unseeing.

Shina stumbled out into the daylight, her legs trembling. The streets were empty, save for the distant echoes of the blue-infected's shrieks. She didn't look back as she ran.

—PRESENT—

"They weren't just stronger," Shina whispered, her hands shaking in her lap. "They were smarter. Like they… knew how to hunt."

The facility's alarms blared before Haruto could respond.

—COMMAND ROOM—

Doctor Ashita's holographic screens flickered with footage of downtown streets. Dozens of blue-infected lurched through the ruins, their glowing forms casting an eerie haze.

"They're heading for the power plant," Ashita said, his calm voice sharpened by urgency. "If they breach the core, we wont be able to provide power to important building anymore. We stop them here."

Jin cracked his knuckles. "Finally, a warm-up."

Makami elbowed him. "Focus. These aren't the same mindless drones."

Sakura turned to Haruto, her expression grim. "Suit up. You're coming."

"But I'm not ready—"

"Nobody is," Sakura snapped. "But those things won't wait for you to cry about it."

As Haruto turned to leave, he froze. The command room was crowded with strangers—faces he'd never seen in his two weeks at the facility. A scarred woman leaning against the back wall met his gaze, her eyes calculating. A lanky man in a stained lab coat fiddled nervously with a tablet. Near the front, a soldier with a cybernetic arm muttered to a redhead whose hands sparked with static.

Who…?