The inside of the safe zone was far larger than I had expected. It was the underground parking lot of a massive mall after all. Everywhere I looked, pillars of concrete appeared.
The air felt suffocating and stale, as if it had been stuck here for a long time. Every sound in the space carried a little too far.
"No, please stop! Someone save me!"
A scream cut through the silence and fell on my ears.
It echoed again and again, bouncing off concrete and metal, turning the entire space into a hollow chamber of desperation. And yet… no one came. No footsteps. No voices calling back. No sign that anyone intended to help.
There was only silence.
That alone told me more than enough about the so-called safe-zone.
I slowed down instead of rushing forward. Panic got people killed faster than anything else, and this place was too open, too full of blind spots for me to act carelessly.
