Mayumi Kurokawa's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Mayumi returned to the rooftop three nights in a row. The first night, she counted seven monsters moving through her zones. The second night, five. By the third night, only two passed through, and both stayed far from the building she'd claimed. The creatures were learning to avoid her. She needed fresh territory. The collapsed building near the waterfront had been on her list for weeks, but she'd avoided it because the floors looked unstable and the support beams hung at angles that made her think twice. Now she didn't have a choice. She crossed the industrial sector just after midnight, stepping through the building's shattered entrance. The floor creaked under her weight. Something moved in the darkness three levels down, visible through a gap where the concrete had given way. She knelt at the edge and watched a creature with too many legs pick its way across the rubble below. It stopped. Turned toward her. She didn't move. After a long moment, it continued across the basement and disappeared through a crack in the foundation. Mayumi marked the location in her phone and added it to her rotation. The building was a deathtrap, but it was hers now. One more place mapped meant one less place for monsters to hide.