The air was thick with the stench of rotting flesh, smoke, and rust. Among the skeletal remains of burning buildings—what was once a great city—Marcus ran like a madman. His heart pounded in his chest, each beat echoing in his ears like a desperate warning: Faster!
Behind him, the guttural growls of monsters drew closer. Relentless. Unyielding.
He tried to lose them, weaving between overturned cars, but slipped in a dark puddle—blood? oil?—and crashed into a wall. When he looked up, the terror surrounding him left no chance for escape.
Peeling skin. Claws. Black-veined eyes. Jaws unhinged in a rhythm no longer human. Without hesitation, the first one lunged.
Pure reflex—Marcus' fingers clenched the knife before his brain could process the movement. Survival instinct. He drove the blade into the creature's skull, striking upward beneath its jaw. Then everything went dark, the stench of death filling his lungs like poison.
One Year Earlier
It spread without warning. No time to prepare. No time for goodbyes.
One day, the news reported a strange flu on the other side of the world. The next, hospitals were overflowing. Within a week, the dead didn't stay dead.
And then, the world collapsed.
Governments fell. Cities burned. People barricaded themselves inside their homes until starvation or the virus took them. Some became things. Others, like Marcus, survived.
But for how long?
Back to the Ruins
Marcus stumbled back, his spine pressed against the cold wall behind him. The monsters advanced slowly, as if they knew he had nowhere left to run. His hand trembled around the bloodied knife.
Is this where I die?
Then—a sharp crack.
A gunshot.
The first monster dropped, its head bursting into fetid black fragments. The second turned—only for its chest to be torn open by machine-gun fire.
Marcus gasped, his breath ragged, as heavy footsteps echoed through the deserted street.
A hooded figure emerged from the smoke, the barrel of their gun still steaming.
"Get up." The voice was rough, but undeniably human. "Stay here, and they'll be back in minutes."
Marcus swallowed hard, still dazed from the earlier attack. "Who… who are you?"
The stranger yanked him up with brutal strength. "Someone who doesn't wanna see another idiot die today. Move."
"What were those things?"
"Humans. Like you and me. Well… they used to be."
Marcus looked around at the ruins and understood: the world had already ended.
He just didn't know the worst was yet to come.