---
The silence held.
But something had changed.
June could feel it not in the air, but in the arrangement of the space around him. A subtle shifting of pressure. A realignment
He turned his head slightly, frowning.
The kneeling corpses hadn't risen.
Not really.
But they'd moved again.
Subtle Precise With almost surgical coordination.
The scattered dead that had once bowed in uneven, haphazard rows now stood not tall, not threatening, but upright. Still hunched, still broken, yet arranged.
Some stood just behind him. Others to his left and right. The rest now formed a jagged semi-circle between him and the church's shattered doors.
There was no sound. No hiss. No chant. Not even the rustle of old cloth or creak of bone.
But they were forming a perimeter.
Not to trap him.
To shield him.
June didn't move at first.
His eyes flicked from one corpse to the next.
