Hiding a House in the Apocalypse

Noise traps serve two purposes.

The first is obvious—to alert me to an intruder’s presence.

But I focus on the second purpose.

The sound startles the intruder, instilling fear and hesitation.

Some will abandon stealth and act aggressively upon realizing they’ve been discovered. Others will freeze in place, staying utterly still, trying to assess my movements.

Judging by the lack of further movement, the unknown enemy beyond the fog had chosen the latter approach.

Lying flat on the rooftop, I trained my sights in the direction of the noise, searching for even the faintest silhouette.

Nightfall had begun.

Stars, countless and bright, pierced through the thinning veil of dusk, while strong winds carried across the mountain ridges, blowing down toward my outpost.

The wind did help clear some of the suffocating fog, but it was nowhere near enough. As the darkness deepened, visibility remained poor.

Relying solely on sight would be foolish.

Instead, I had to engage my other senses.

Hearing was the most immediate.

Touch also had its use—if the enemy came close enough, I could feel faint vibrations in the ground.

But above all else, the most important thing was thinking ahead.

Where would the enemy come from?

What angle would they attack from?

If I mapped out scenarios in advance, I could react faster when things went south.

I couldn’t make my reflexes physically faster, but I could reduce the time it took to decide.

There were three possibilities.

A Mutation.

A person.

Or a monster.

I ran through the options in my head while keeping my sights locked on the fog.

“…It’s not a monster.”

Monsters existed on the borderline between living beings and machines.

They didn’t think like humans or animals.@@novelbin@@

They moved according to pre-programmed instincts, an internal algorithm.

If this had been a monster, it wouldn’t have stopped just because of a sudden noise.