They had been following it for days, hoping to capture it before it evolved into a fire-resistant monster.
Now, they stood at the river's edge, staring at the rotting corpse with a mixture of disgust and relief.
"It's dead," one of them muttered, his voice muffled by the cloth mask covering his face. "Didn't make the evolution."
"Good for us," another man said, nudging the body with the tip of his spear. "Let's make sure it's really dead, then head back."
But as they began to move closer to the zombie, a faint hissing sound caught their attention.
One by one, the scavengers turned toward the tunnel nearby, where the noise seemed to be coming from.
"What was that?" one of them asked, his voice trembling slightly.
Before anyone could answer, a mutated fire lizard shot out of the tunnel, its body glowing with heat.
It lunged at the nearest scavenger, sinking its blazing teeth into his leg.
