A truck was found in the loading bay. A dock leveler connected the container to its bay, a gap left between the building and the vehicle. The other four docks had been closed off, as had the door up the stairs near the entrance to the bay. There were no signs of life, but it reeked- courtesy of the compactor hidden behind the truck,

Inside the mall was no less eerie. Every sound seemed too loud, too long. But at least it was the sound of glass crunching that Brooklyn heard echoing out into the food court, not the sound of the dead.

In fact, it seemed like there were none of them around at all. Not in the public walkways, at least. The only sound Gryphon could hear were his own footsteps- and those of someone else as he neared the food court.