Liam yelped, nearly dropping the pole.


The face that lifted out of the water was swollen and bruised a nasty purple-green. But that wasn't the worst part. A layer of fine White Fur was growing all over its skin. Its eyes snapped open—no pupils, just milky white balls. Its mouth unhinged, gaping wide as if it were gasping for air.


The corpse's arms thrashed, trying to claw its way out of the water.


Then, yank.


Something grabbed it from below. The body jerked violently downward. With a wet glug, the corpse was dragged under. It vanished instantly, leaving nothing but ripples on the surface.


The whole thing took two seconds, tops.


Liam stared, eyes wide, watching the spot where the thing had turned into a sinking black shadow, and then nothing. His hands went ice cold. He stumbled back, slammed the window shut, and locked it, his face drained of blood.


"There's... something in the water," he whispered, his voice trembling. "Besides the bodies... something else is down there. Something just dragged that thing down."


He backed away until he hit the coffee table. He snatched up his kitchen knife and hammer, clutching them until his knuckles hurt. It was the only thing that made him feel remotely safe.


He thought about the Cadaver he'd seen earlier—the way its chest and legs had been gnawed on, a mess of bloody meat. He'd assumed it was fish or maybe some aquatic scavenger. But after what he just saw?


Liam had a terrifying new theory about what was swimming beneath him.


Something huge was hiding in the deep water outside. Something that snacked on dead bodies.


Judging by how fast it had dragged that corpse down earlier, this Lurker in the Deep was terrifying. It had the strength to yank a floating body into the abyss in a split second, which meant it was strong, and it definitely wasn't small.


"Please tell me it's not a shark or a crocodile," Liam muttered.


He stared out at the endless expanse of water, a cold pit of despair forming in his stomach. The whole city was underwater. Honestly, spotting a shark or a croc wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen, but for Liam, it would be a game over.


My raft plan? Officially flushed.


He'd spent hours building that thing, hoping to set sail tomorrow morning to find other survivors or a rescue team. But if there were monsters patrolling the water, leaving on a few tied-together logs was basically suicide.


"So, what? I just stay here?" Liam thought. "I've got enough food for four days. Maybe."


He racked his brain, but came up empty. With no other options, he went around the apartment, locking every single window on the balcony side, then double-checked the rest of the house.


He knew it was a flimsy defense. He was on the thirtieth floor, so there were no metal security bars on the windows. If those corpses underwent Necrotic Mutation—like that Cadaver he'd fought during the day—they could smash through the glass like it was nothing. As for the thing in the water? He had no clue what it was. He just had to pray the mystery beast was strictly aquatic and couldn't walk on land like the mutants.


Once the lockdown was secure, Liam watched the sky turn a bruised purple as night fell. He raided the fridge, pulling out everything edible—instant ramen, crackers, bread—and stuffed it all into a hiking backpack. If things went south and he had to bail, he needed a bug-out bag ready.


The room plunged into total darkness. Liam lay on the sofa, clutching a meat cleaver in one hand and a hammer in the other. He stared wide-eyed into the blackness, unable to shake the nasty feeling that tonight was going to go wrong.


Right on cue, footsteps echoed from the hallway outside.


They weren't loud, but in the dead silence of the abandoned building, they sounded like thunder.


Liam tensed, gripping his weapons until his knuckles turned white. He scrambled off the sofa.


He hadn't seen a living soul on the thirtieth floor. Who was walking in the hall? Unless...


Step. Step.


The sound was getting closer. Coming right for his door.


Liam couldn't take the suspense. He crept through the dark toward the front door, his palms slick with sweat. He needed to check the peep-hole.


"It's probably just a Necrotic Mutation," he told himself, trying to psych himself up. "They look scary, sure, but they move like rusted robots. I can take one. It's not faster than me..."


He repeated the mantra like a spell, inching closer until his eye was pressed against the peep-hole.


Suddenly, the footsteps stopped. Whoever—or whatever—it was had paused.


Liam squinted through the lens. Nothing but pitch black. He'd forgotten the hallway lights were dead, just like his apartment. The peep-hole was useless.


CRASH.


The sound of shattering glass exploded from the balcony.


The noise was deafening in the silence. Liam jumped, his whole body vibrating with adrenaline. He spun around just in time to see the jagged remains of the windowpane. Two arms were already reaching inside, gripping the frame. Then, a bloated, purple face hoisted itself up.


Half the face had been chewed off, leaving a mess of raw meat. One eyeball had popped out of its socket and was dangling by a thread of tendon against the creature's cheek. The intact side of its face was covered in a layer of fine White Fur. Its remaining eye—pupil-less and milky—locked onto Liam in the dark. Its mouth opened and closed rhythmically, like a fish gasping for air.


Even with half its face missing, Liam recognized it immediately. It was the floating corpse he'd seen earlier. The one the Lurker had dragged underwater. It should have been gone, but here it was, back for round two.


Liam was terrified, but he had experience now. He'd fought a Cadaver before. He knew what to do.


Strike first.


He sprinted across the room while the thing was still struggling with the window. These monsters were strong, but they had a fatal flaw: stiff joints. They moved like bad stop-motion animation.


As Liam charged, the corpse shoved its head through the broken glass. Liam raised the hammer and brought it down with everything he had, aiming right for the skull.


But the corpse reacted. It threw its hands up to protect its face, and the hammer slammed into its forearm with a sickening crunch.