Multiple footsteps echoed through the desolate street, bouncing off cracked pavement and reverberating inside the hollow, broken buildings that lined the path. The world had dimmed considerably, shadows bleeding longer with every passing minute. According to Merek's estimation, it would soon strike seven o'clock.
Visibility had already become an issue, shapes grew vague beyond a certain distance, swallowed by the creeping gloom. Yet even in this fading light, Felicity gasped as her eyes caught something above them.
She clung to Merek, her arm loosely looped around his neck for balance, and stared wide-eyed at the surreal sight ahead. Three yellow school buses, twisted and crumpled, were stacked and wedged high up the side of a three-story building, like loaves of fresh bread squeezed together. Thick roots, sinewy and bark-skinned, coiled tightly around them, anchoring them in place like grotesque vines from some twisted fairy tale.
