First Step into Madness

March 20th, 10:12 PM — Longwan Mall, Service Wing

John Wang POV

———

The silence was almost perfect.

Tang Wei had fallen asleep forty minutes ago, bundled beneath her jacket and half-zipped into her sleeping bag, one hand still resting near her shotgun. The others were out cold—snoring lightly, breathing slow, no movement beyond the occasional twitch of a leg or turn of a head.

I sat cross-legged beside the ammo case, sliding rounds into magazines by feel.

The rhythm was simple. Calming. Click. Slide. Tap. Stack.

Nine-millimetre rounds for Chen and Deng Hua. Buckshot for Tang Wei and Liang Mei. The motion kept my hands busy and my mind still, one mag at a time.

My system pinged softly with restock notices. I ignored them.

Then—

clink

A sound.

Soft. Faint. But there.

My fingers paused above the next magazine. I didn't move. Just listened.