Jake kept his weapon aimed at the stranger as he assessed him. The man was well-equipped, with an assault rifle slung over one shoulder and a revolver in a hip holster. He made no attempt to reach for his weapons, though.

“Who are you?” Jake demanded.

The man’s eyes went wide.

“Keep your voice down, will you?” he said in the same hushed tone as his eyes darted to the anomaly. “I’m just another survivor, like you. I only wanted to warn you to be real quiet near that anomaly. It’s noise-sensitive. Loud sounds trigger it. Scan it and see for yourself.”

That’s what I was going to do, Jake thought. He still didn’t trust this stranger one bit.

Once more, Jake’s gaze flicked to the anomaly behind him before settling back on the stranger.

“Stay where you are,” he warned him calmly. “You move, you die.”

The stranger rolled his eyes.

“If you shoot me, you’ll set off the anomaly, and we’ll both be goners,” he stated with an air of annoying superiority, as if speaking to a child. Jake chose to ignore the condescension.

He half-turned so he could have both the anomaly and the survivor in his field of vision. Taking one hand off the shotgun, he took out his PDA and pointed the camera at the spot above the fountain. Briefly shifting his focus from the stranger, Jake unlocked his device and pressed the SCAN button with his thumb. He then immediately returned his gaze to the stranger. The man remained in the same position, but a smug grin spread across his face, playing on his thin lips.

The stranger appeared genuinely amused by Jake’s distrust, which only heightened Jake’s wariness. He didn’t like the man one bit. He acted as if he thought Jake’s distrust was unwarranted, which only added to his suspicions. He didn’t buy it for a second that the stranger was oblivious to the fundamental rule of mistrusting unfamiliar people in this lawless world. The man seemed to be striving to come across as trustworthy, but to Jake, it felt forced and insincere.

He shifted his gaze to the screen of his PDA to read the description of the anomaly.

Name: Meat Grinder

Description: Sensitive to noise, extremely dangerous. Draws objects within range into itself, twisting, cutting, and slicing them before expelling the remnants.

Duration: 10 seconds

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Danger Level: 8 (High)

After stowing away his PDA, Jake turned his focus back to the stranger.

“Did you scan it?” the man asked.

“Yeah.”

A smug smile reappeared on the stranger’s lips.

“See?” he taunted. “Sensitive to loud sounds, just as I said. Wasn’t lying, was I?”

“So who are you?” Jake asked.

From the corner of his eye, Jake noticed the anomaly shimmering as it briefly distorted the air in reaction to his voice. He was speaking softly, but the anomaly responded to his voice anyway. Uncertain about the threshold of noise that could trigger the anomaly, Jake opted to keep his voice down to avoid setting it off accidentally.

The stranger seemed confused by his question.

“What do you mean?” he asked in his usual loud whisper. “I’m just a survivor, same as you.” He moved closer to the railing on the second floor, hands still raised. “By the way, can I lower my hands now? Or you still don’t trust me?”

Jake was silent for a second. Then he nodded. “Go ahead.”

He lowered his shotgun but kept it in his hands. He still wasn’t sure what to make of the stranger. While he wanted to ask him some questions, he wasn’t all that keen on talking to the stranger while standing next to the noise-sensitive anomaly. It was best to secure the anomaly as soon as possible. After all, it was the reason he’d arrived at the mall in the first place.

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Closing an anomaly required a special spell. He had already read the scroll containing the spell while driving to the mall, so all that remained to do was use the spell on the anomaly. Unfortunately, the process of closing a magical anomaly was a tad long and challenging. It would demand his full concentration. He knew he would have to direct all his focus on the anomaly because any distraction could disrupt the closing process, causing the spell to fail and rendering his efforts futile. With only one spell at his disposal, Jake knew that he had just one chance to close the anomaly. If he failed to do it on the first try, the spell would be wasted, requiring him to locate another scroll before he could attempt to seal the anomaly again.

After activating the spell, Jake would have to devote his complete attention to the process of closing the anomaly. Having closed several anomalies in recent days, he was well-versed in the procedure and knew what to expect from it. This particular anomaly was of level 8, indicating it would require approximately sixty seconds to seal shut—a considerably lengthy period.

Jake found himself in a difficult situation because he couldn’t risk losing focus on the stranger for a minute while using the spell. Given the anomaly’s high danger level of 8, it likely had a significant range. Although the stranger appeared to be close enough to the anomaly to be affected by it if it suddenly set off, he could easily step back to safety while Jake was occupied with the spell and attack him from a safe distance.

He opted not to take any chances. He resolved to either make sure the stranger was trustworthy or wait for him to go away before attempting to secure the anomaly.

“What are you doing here?” he finally asked in a hushed tone, breaking the silence.

“In the mall, you mean?” the stranger replied nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. “Scavenging, of course, what else? Lotta goodies spawn in such large places.”

Pointing toward the lifeless bodies nearby, Jake asked, “Were you part of this group?”

The stranger’s gaze flickered toward the remnants of the fallen survivors. He hesitated to respond immediately, giving Jake the sense that he was contemplating how much truth to reveal in his reply.

The stranger finally nodded.

“Yeah,” he said cautiously. “They were my… well, perhaps not friends yet, more like traveling companions. I met them a few days back. They offered to join them, and I agreed. Safety in numbers, right?”

Uncertain about the level of truth in the words spoken by the stranger, Jake asked another question, “How come they are dead, and you are not?”

This time, the stranger replied right away, without taking time to ponder on his answer. “We split up. I headed to the second floor while they remained on the first. We went in different directions. Then I heard gunfire and screaming. I ran back. When I saw what was happening to them, I froze. They encountered a group of mutants and opened fire on them near the anomaly. They must’ve failed to spot it and accidentally triggered it. The anomaly… What it did to them… Geez, it was truly horrifying, man. It was tearing both them and the mutants apart. It wasn’t a pleasant sight, I can tell you that. The worst part was there was nothing I could do to help my friends. I could just watch them die in a horrible way. When the anomaly returned to the idle state, I analyzed it with my PDA. That’s how I learned it was sensitive to loud noises. Afterward, I thoroughly explored the second floor, gathering what I needed before making my way to the exit. As I approached the escalators, I spotted you from above. The thought of witnessing another fellow survivor meet such a grisly fate due to the anomaly was too much for me to bear. So I decided to alert you about it in the event you hadn’t spotted it, much like my unfortunate companions.”

Or you may have warned me out of self-preservation, recognizing the danger of being well within the anomaly’s effective range and the risk of being killed by it if I accidentally set it off, Jake thought, but he decided not to voice his doubts, keeping these skeptical thoughts to himself instead.

“Why did you kill the guy at the entrance?” Jake immediately asked another question.

Even from a distance, he saw a shift in the stranger’s expression. He was silent for a second, then asked, feigning ignorance, “Come again? What guy?”

“There was a dead survivor at the entrance to the mall,” Jake said. “I assume it was your group’s doing? Why did you people kill him?”

“Oh, that guy?” the stranger responded, shaking his head with a tinge of sorrow in his voice. “It wasn’t us who killed him. He was already dead when we pulled up at the mall. Poor guy. Dunno who did it. It’s a crazy world, man.”

He was a pretty good liar. Jake almost believed him. Almost. However, the stranger’s initial reaction spoke volumes. When he confronted him about the dead guy, a glimmer of recognition in the stranger’s eyes betrayed his true knowledge. That flash of recognition in his eyes and a trace of guilt momentarily flickering across his expression did not escape Jake’s notice. The timing of the victim’s death suggested that the incident occurred shortly before Jake arrived at the mall. With no sounds of gunfire echoing through the building, it appeared that there were no other survivors inside the mall. So the identities of the culprits were pretty much obvious. The stranger standing by the second-floor railing, along with his now-dead companions, had arrived at the mall just as the red-haired guy was stepping out, and they had killed him in cold blood for no other reason than to loot his body.

Before Jake could say anything else, the stranger’s gaze shifted beyond him, focusing into the distance.

“Oh fuck,” he muttered as he pointed his finger at a spot behind Jake’s back. “We got company.”

The stranger’s eyes widened with genuine shock as the menacing sounds of fierce growling and scraping claws reached Jake’s ears from behind. Quickly glancing over his shoulder, he saw a group of ex-human walkers and leapers converging on the atrium from multiple aisles.