Snow King always trusted his gut. When you've pulled your brothers out of a warzone under heavy fire, your instincts sharpen or you don't make it back. That night, sitting in his squad car under a dead streetlight, he felt it again, that cold prickle behind the neck, the weight in his chest.
Something was wrong.
He looked around the neighborhood street. It was too quiet. No dogs barking. No cars. No people. Just silence swallowing the neighborhood whole. He glanced at the dash, 8:02 PM, then up at the traffic light ahead. It flickered once... then went black.
So did every other light on the block.
He grabbed his shotgun, resting it across his lap. Old, reliable. The one tool that had kept him alive more times than he could count. He racked it out of habit. Click-clack.
The police radio fizzled with static. Dispatch was gone.
That's when he saw it.
A figure at the end of the street, tall, slim, but... distorted. Like it had been stretched out of proportion. It stood under the remains of a streetlamp, two pale eyes gleaming from a face too smooth, too featureless. Just skin and teeth. Way too many teeth.
The thing turned its head, slow and precise. Like it could hear him thinking.
Snow didn't blink. He stepped out the car, calm but ready.
"Police," he said. His voice firm but quiet. "Put your hands up."
The thing smiled.
Its mouth peeled open sideways, and inside, rows of sharp teeth shimmered in the darkness, clean, white, too perfect. Predatory. Behind the smile, it made a soft, wet sound, like it was hungry.
Snow raised the shotgun.
"I said, "
The figure charged.
It moved too fast. Bones crackling. Limbs bending wrong. Snow didn't hesitate.
BOOM.
The shot hit center mass and knocked it off its feet. But the creature didn't scream. It didn't writhe. It laughed, low and rasping, as it pulled itself back up. A hole still smoked in its chest, but it wasn't bleeding.
Snow stepped back, breath steady. He scanned the shadows.
More of them.
Three... five... seven tall forms emerged from the buildings and sewer grates, skin like wax paper stretched tight, eyes glowing, teeth gnashing. One of them held something in its claws.
An arm.
Human.
Snow's jaw tightened. "Hell no."
He jumped back into his squad car, slammed the door, and floored it.
As the cruiser peeled off, headlights sliced through the night, and in them, those monsters ran. Not walking. Not staggering. Running. Fast. Efficient. Silent.
Snow didn't look in the mirror. He knew they were behind him.
Snow had barely caught his breath when the emergency alert buzzed through his car's backup radio, old military tech wired into his dash. He thought it was dead.
"All units... downtown. Code Black. Repeat, CODE BLACK. Officer safety compromised. All active units report immediately. We're losing control of the city, "
Then static.
Snow didn't hesitate. He hit the siren once, more out of habit than anything else, and gunned the engine toward the city's heart.
As he drove, the scene unfolded like a nightmare filmed in real time.
Windows shattered. Fires burned untended. Blood smeared the sidewalks. Abandoned cars clogged the streets like a frozen traffic jam, but there were no drivers. Just open doors and blood trails.
And the creatures... God.
They were everywhere now.
On buildings, crawling like spiders.Ripping into people on the street.Lurking in the shadows between flickering flames.
Snow swerved down 5th and clipped something, he thought it was a body, until it rolled and stood back up. Long arms dragged the ground behind it, eyes fixed on the cruiser, mouth twitching with anticipation.
Snow pumped the brakes, leaned out the window, and let the shotgun speak.
BOOM.
The blast turned the creature's upper half into mist.
But more came, fast.
He hit the gas and rammed one of them head-on, sending it into the windshield with a sickening thud. The thing screamed, not in pain, more like rage, like it was offended.
Downtown opened up ahead: City Hall, crushed glass towers, sirens howling from every direction. Explosions in the distance. Gunfire.
A chopper flew overhead, military. He thought maybe reinforcements were here, until he saw it tilt sideways, engine smoking, spiral out, and explode against a building.
Snow's heart dropped.
Snow turned the corner and hit the brakes hard.
Downtown was alive, but not in any way it was supposed to be.
People were screaming. Running. Crying. Some with torn clothes. Others bleeding. Horns blared from stuck cars. Phones were out, filming the chaos from hidden positions idiotically, trying to get a signal. A few cops were still on foot, trying to direct the crowd, but it was like trying to stop a flood with your hands.
One of the creatures leapt from a rooftop. It landed on a woman, dragging her into an alley before anyone could react. Her scream vanished like it was swallowed.
The crowd scattered harder. Snow swerved around a wreck, barely missing a man clutching a toddler in his arms.
Bodies, some moving, some not, lined the sidewalks. A guy stood in the middle of the street shouting, "HELP ME!" before one of the monsters snatched him by the throat and dragged him screaming into the smoke.
The skinwalkers weren't hiding anymore. They ran on all fours, fast and clean, weaving through cars and bodies. One pounced on a city bus, ripping through the glass, snatching people as they scrambled to the back.
Snow pulled up, shotgun in hand, heart pounding.
A teen ran toward his car, bloody hoodie, fear in his eyes. "Help! Please! My sister, she's trapped, "
Then the kid was grabbed from behind, ripped back into the shadows.
Snow snapped.
He threw open the door and unleashed hell.
BOOM.BOOM.
Each blast sent a creature tumbling. He aimed for the legs, the chest, the face. Didn't matter. He fought like he did overseas, precision under pressure.
People behind him started following his lead, rallying around him like he was some last-minute hero dropped in from the sky.
A woman grabbed his arm, pregnant belly trembling. "Please... please, my mother can't walk, she's just down the block, "
Snow gripped her shoulder. "You stay here. Don't move till I come back. Lock the doors. Keep your head down."
She nodded fast climbing into the cruiser's back seat onto the floor., pressing both hands over her stomach like it could shield the baby.
Snow turned and sprinted toward the smoke.
The sidewalk was chaos, flames from a burning car licked at the air, and bodies cluttered the ground, some breathing, some still. He ducked low, weaving between debris, eyes scanning for movement.
Then he saw her.
Old woman. Maybe late seventies. Gray hair pulled into a bun. Sitting on a broken walker beside a bus stop bench, her ankle twisted bad. Eyes wide, lips trembling, but she hadn't screamed. She just stared, paralyzed.
Snow knelt in front of her.
"Ma'am," he said, calm, like he wasn't surrounded by hell. "You her mother?"
She gave the tiniest nod.
"I'm getting you out of here."
From the alley behind them, snarling.
Snow stood up slow, shotgun raised.
One of the creatures crawled out of the shadows on all fours, drooling, teeth clicking together like knives being sharpened. It crept low, shoulders rippling, bones popping as it adjusted itself to pounce.
Snow didn't wait.
He stepped forward, squared up, and fired point blank.
BOOM.
The thing's chest exploded into the street behind it. It twitched once, then stopped moving.
He spun back. "We're moving."
The old woman tried to rise. Her ankle gave out.
Without a word, Snow slung the shotgun behind him and scooped her into his arms like it was nothing. She was light. Fragile. But her arms locked tight around his neck like she'd done this before, held on to survive.
Snow took off running, cradling her as flames reflected in the lenses of his glasses. He dodged wreckage, sidestepped glass, and stayed low as another walker leapt from a rooftop and missed him by inches.
He didn't stop. He couldn't.
When he made it back to the cruiser, the pregnant woman sobbed in relief and opened the back door. Snow gently placed her mother inside, breathing hard but steady. He hurriedly got into the front and began to back the car up.
"You ok miss?" he asked the older woman.
She grabbed his hand that was on the back of the passenger seat. "You're not from this city, are you?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because you ran toward the fire."
Snow gave a half-smile and pumped the shotgun once more. "No ma'am. I just run where I'm needed."
With that he drove off eyeing the road intensely.
The city behind him was on fire, sirens, screams, and smoke choking every breath. But he wasn't done. Not by a long shot.
He checked the rearview mirror.
The old woman caught his eye.
Her voice was soft but urgent. "Wait, "
Snow tensed. "What?"
She pointed with a trembling hand. "There, there's a child!"
Snow looked. Down the block, through the smoke, he saw her. A little girl, maybe eight, running full speed, backpack flapping behind her. She stumbled and looked over her shoulder,
And that's when Snow saw what was chasing her.
One of them. Arms swinging wild, long legs eating pavement like it was hunting for sport.
Snow hit the gas without hesitation.
The cruiser launched forward, engine growling as he swerved around a crashed motorcycle and sped straight for the scene. The little girl screamed, loud and clear, as the walker lunged at her.
BOOM!
He leaned out the window and fired. The slug caught the creature in the chest, sending it tumbling through a row of trash bins.
Snow threw the car into park, jumped out while it was still rolling, and ran. The girl was frozen, staring at the body like it might get back up.
"Hey!" Snow shouted, jogging up to her. "You okay?"
She blinked hard, gripping a sketchpad like it was the only thing in the world that made sense.
"I... I couldn't find my mom..."
Snow's jaw clenched, but he kept his voice calm. "We'll find her. Right now, I need you safe."
Behind them, the walker's body twitched. Snow didn't waste a second, he turned, fired once more, and blew its head off clean.
Silence fell again.
He knelt in front of the girl. "What's your name?"
"Layla."
"Alright, Layla. You're riding with me now."
He picked her up, carried her back to the cruiser, and gently settled her in the back with the others.
The old woman in the back smiled faintly, despite the pain. "God bless you," she whispered.
Snow nodded checked his mirrors, reloaded his shotgun, and drove on.
The city was falling apart. But he'd find every soul he could and drag them out of this burning world if he had to.