Chapter 25: The Sound of Silence

The trucks rumbled down the empty highway, the tires crunching against the cracked asphalt. The world outside the vehicles was as silent as the grave, the long stretches of road illuminated only by the faint glow of the headlights. Evelyn kept her eyes fixed on the road ahead, her knuckles white as she gripped the steering wheel, her mind unable to settle.Beside her, Mara sat with her arms crossed tightly, her gaze flicking nervously between the windows. The faintest hint of a frown tugged at her lips, but she didn’t speak. The silence between them was heavy, almost suffocating. It had been like this since they’d left the mall—no one dared to break it, as if any word spoken would shatter the fragile illusion of safety they’d managed to create by putting distance between themselves and the place that had almost driven them mad.Behind them, Liam and Daniel rode in the second truck, both of them equally tense. The muffled sound of their voices filtered through the radio every now and then, but it was always low, too low to catch any meaning. The static-filled air was a reminder that even if they wanted to talk, they couldn’t truly connect. Not with the world the way it was.Evelyn’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, her breath catching as she scanned the darkness. Nothing. No shapes, no movement. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being followed, that unseen eyes were trained on them, watching them from the shadows. It had to be the paranoia, the exhaustion, but the unease gnawed at her every time she looked into the mirror.“Can we stop?” Mara’s voice broke through the oppressive silence, quiet but desperate. “Just for a minute. I need to breathe.”Evelyn glanced at her. The tension in her friend’s voice was unmistakable. They hadn’t spoken much since leaving the mall, but Mara’s eyes were hollow, the light in them dimmer than usual.Evelyn hesitated, her eyes flicking to the horizon. There was no sign of any safe place ahead, just endless road stretching into the dark. But the strain on Mara’s face, the way her shoulders were hunched, told Evelyn that they needed a break. Just a moment to clear their heads, if nothing else.“Alright. But only for a few minutes. We can’t waste time.” Evelyn slowed the truck, pulling off to the side of the road where the overgrown vegetation began to reclaim what was once the shoulder of the highway.She cut the engine, and the sudden silence was deafening. The trucks sat in the dark, their headlights casting long beams into the dense forest that flanked the road. The trees, tall and ominous, seemed to close in around them, the shadows between the trunks deep and swallowing.Mara was the first to climb out of the truck, her feet crunching on the dry leaves as she took a few hesitant steps into the night. Evelyn followed, moving more slowly, her senses heightened. The air was thick with the smell of damp earth, the faint scent of decay lingering in the cool night breeze.“What’s wrong with me, Evelyn?” Mara asked suddenly, her voice small, almost lost in the vastness of the night. “Why does it feel like everything’s closing in?”Evelyn paused, looking at her. There was a rawness in her friend’s eyes that hadn’t been there before. The exhaustion was written all over her face, but it was something else too—the fear, the uncertainty.“It’s not you,” Evelyn said softly. She could feel the weight of her own fear, the creeping doubt that had settled in her chest ever since they left the mall. “We’re all feeling it. It’s just... everything. The waiting. The not knowing what’s real.”Mara nodded, her fingers curling into fists at her sides. “I thought I saw something back there. In the shadows.” She laughed bitterly, her voice cracking slightly. “But it’s just me, right? Just my mind playing tricks on me. I keep thinking I see things—shapes, figures. But there’s nothing there. Nothing but empty.”Evelyn didn’t answer right away. She felt the same. The shadows were playing tricks on her too, constantly shifting just out of sight, darting from one corner of her vision to another. Every time she thought she saw something, it was gone before she could confirm it. She’d catch a glimpse of movement—just the edge of something dark, something looming—and then it would vanish, leaving only the echo of her own fear.“You’re not losing it,” Evelyn said, though she wasn’t sure she believed the words. “We’re all on edge. We’ve been through too much. Too much damn trauma.”Mara looked up at her, her face pale. “But what if it’s not just in our heads? What if... what if the world’s really like this now? What if we can’t trust anything? Not even each other.”The words hit Evelyn like a physical blow, and for a second, she couldn’t breathe. What if they couldn’t trust each other? What if all their paranoia and fear was justified? In this world, trust was a fragile thing, a razor-thin thread that could snap at any moment.She swallowed hard, forcing the fear down. “We can’t let it tear us apart,” she said, her voice firmer than she felt. “Not now. We’ve made it this far together.”Mara didn’t answer. She just turned away, staring into the dark, her body stiff with tension.Evelyn stayed beside her for a moment longer, but the weight of the silence pressed down too heavily. She couldn’t ignore the feeling anymore—the feeling that they weren’t just on edge. There was something wrong about this place, something that went beyond their fractured minds.A noise—barely audible—reached her ears. A rustling, like something was moving through the brush. The trees whispered in the wind, but this sound was different. It was too deliberate, too controlled.Evelyn tensed, her hand instinctively going to her weapon. “Did you hear that?”Mara didn’t respond. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the darkness just beyond the trees. Then, almost imperceptibly, her hand reached for the knife at her belt.The rustling came again, closer this time, and Evelyn’s heartbeat quickened. “Mara—”Before she could finish, there was a flash of movement from the trees—something tall, something human, but too quick, too erratic. A figure darted between the trees, vanishing just as fast as it had appeared.Evelyn’s breath caught in her throat, her mind racing. Was that real?Mara’s voice was a whisper, barely audible. “We need to get back to the trucks. Now.”Evelyn nodded, not trusting her own voice. The sense of something—someone—watching them grew stronger with every passing second. It was impossible to tell if it was another survivor or just their fear manifesting into something more real than it should be.But as they hurried back to the trucks, Evelyn could feel it in her bones. Something wasn’t right. Whether it was the shadows in their minds or the real dangers that lurked just out of sight, she couldn’t be sure. But whatever it was, it was closing in on them, and they couldn’t outrun it forever.