Chapter 1: The Broadcast
It started during a vacant period on our massive university campus. My friends, Armie and Levi, and I were just hanging out, killing time before our next class. The conversation had drifted to the latest headlines, specifically how ridiculously high gas prices had gotten.
"They're saying the resources are actually drying up," Armie said, shaking his head. "If it keeps dropping at this rate, we might honestly have to go back to using candles."
We both laughed, brushing it off. We weren't taking it seriously at all. It just sounded like another exaggerated news cycle.
But then, the emergency broadcast hit.
We crowded around a single phone as the President appeared on the screen. He looked tense, his usual composed demeanor completely gone.
"The country has officially run out of gas," the President announced, his voice tight. "Effective immediately, we cannot use any vehicles or machinery that runs on gas—especially the grid providing electricity and lights. Furthermore... we have lost all contact with the outside world."
Armie looked up from the screen, his smile entirely wiped away. "Whoa, did you just hear that? We ran out of gas resources and lost connection to the outside world?"
Before I could answer, the news screen violently glitched. A sharp tear of static ripped through the video feed. In that split second, right before the broadcast cut out entirely, I saw the President fall to the ground. His body seemed to convulse and glitch out, almost like magic, before the screen went completely black.
Levi stared at the dead phone. "Yeah, but... did you see that glitch? I don't know about you guys, but I saw a little bit of the President fall onto the ground and start glitching."
"Yeah, you're right," I said, a weird knot forming in my stomach. "What just happened?"
We didn't dwell on it. The bell rang, and we started heading back to our respective classes. In the hallways, everyone was buzzing about the broadcast. Most people were stressing about the gas prices and the power grid, but a few were whispering about the glitch and the sudden loss of international contact.
Then, the cell towers died.
The signal bars on every phone in the hallway vanished. Annoyance rippled through the crowd of students.
"Argh, why is there no signal? Shitty school," someone groaned near the door.
"Wha—! What happened to my signal?" another student complained, tapping their screen aggressively. "I know I still got some load left!"
I checked my phone. Zero bars. I couldn't contact my friends, but honestly, I didn't panic. I didn't really mind it at all. I just wanted to get through the rest of the day and finish my classes.
I went to my room on the fourth floor and took my seat. An hour passed, and the professor never showed up. People started getting restless and eventually began filtering out of the room until it was mostly empty. I decided to just put my head down on the desk and take a quick nap.
Just as I was trying to find some peace, I kept hearing loud shouting echoing from outside the building. I kept my eyes closed, figuring it was probably just some rowdy campus event or a protest about the broadcast.
Suddenly, the heavy classroom door banged open.
My friends Steven and Mark stumbled inside. They were completely out of breath, panting and looking exhausted.
I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "Hey! Wassup, I'm over here!"
They instantly locked eyes with me and started running toward my desk.
"Did you not see what's going on outside?!" Mark yelled, his voice laced with pure panic.
Steven forced a breathless, nervous laugh. "He probably didn't care, as usual."
I stood up, confused by how erratic they were acting. "Ehh—what's going on?"
"Bruh," Mark said, pointing a shaking finger toward the windows. "You should come and check it out."
I walked past them, stepping up to the large glass window overlooking the campus courtyard. I looked down from the fourth floor, and my face instantly dropped. I was completely paralyzed by the horror of what I was seeing.
Chapter 2: The View from the Fourth Floor
I stepped up to the glass, looking down from the fourth-floor window. The sheer scale of the chaos below paralyzed me.
Students were screaming, a massive tide of people sprinting frantically back inside the campus buildings. Down at the main university gates, the security guards had their firearms drawn. The sharp cracks of gunfire echoed through the courtyard as the guards shot wildly into a surging, violent crowd trying to push through the perimeter.
I squinted, trying to make sense of the madness. "What is going on? A robbery? A school shootout?"
Steven stood next to me, his hands pressed against the glass. He didn't blink. "Worse... fucking zombies."
I scoffed, shaking my head. "Yeah, right. Like that could ever happen."
The words barely left my mouth before a massive explosion rocked the front gates. A plume of black smoke and fire billowed into the air, shattering the remaining barricades. Through the clearing smoke, I witnessed a nightmare. The crowd didn't just trample the guards—they swarmed them. I watched in absolute horror as the guards were pulled to the concrete, the attackers ripping into them and eating them alive right on the pavement.
The color drained from my face. I stepped back from the window. "Shi—you weren't lying."
Steven gave a grim, humorless nod. "Told ya."
Mark grabbed his hair, his usual calm demeanor cracking under the sudden panic. "What should we do?!"
My mind raced, the survival instinct kicking in to drown out the fear. "Maybe let's regroup with our friends."
We didn't waste another second. We rushed out into the fourth-floor hallway, checking every open door and scanning the panicked crowds. After frantically searching several rooms, we finally spotted familiar faces huddled inside one of the lecture halls: Armie, Levi, and Kian.
Relief washed over us, but it was short-lived. We still had to find the rest of our group. We were just about to head back out into the corridors to keep searching when the school's PA system crackled loudly to life with a deafening screech of feedback.
A breathless, terrified voice echoed through the speakers above our heads.
"Attention... all students and faculty. No one is to go outside. I repeat, absolute lockdown. Do not go outside. A truck carrying a highly dangerous, rapidly mutating virus has breached the perimeter. The infection is spreading. We are trying to find more details... just stay inside..."
The speaker cut off with a sharp click, leaving behind a heavy, suffocating silence in the room.
The six of us looked at each other. The reality of the situation crashed down on us like a physical weight. Our families were at home. People we knew and cared about were out there in the city, completely unaware of the nightmare unfolding. We all instinctively reached for our phones, but the screens just stared back with the same terrifying truth from an hour ago: zero signal.
We couldn't call the police. We couldn't call our parents. We were completely cut off from the outside world. As the screams from the lower floors started echoing up the stairwells, we realized the horrifying truth. All we had was each other, and we were trapped inside the campus.
Chapter 3: 3:00 AM
By 5:00 PM, the sun was beginning to set, casting long, bruised shadows across the campus. It had been three hours since the terrifying announcement over the PA system. We had spent that time carefully navigating the upper halls, searching for the rest of our friends. Thankfully, we managed to find Louie, Cyrus, and Andrei, bringing our numbers up. Our surviving squad was now nine: me, Mark, Steven, Armie, Kian, Levi, Louie, Cyrus, and Andrei. Some were still missing, but we couldn't risk staying out in the open any longer.
We managed to secure an empty classroom on the fifth floor. Before barricading ourselves inside, we scrounged the surrounding lockers and hallways for anything useful. We gathered some snacks, a few flashlights, and whatever makeshift weapons we could find—mostly thick wooden sticks and heavy metal pipes for protection.
The nine of us huddled in the corner of the dimming room alongside a few other stranded students who had taken shelter there. The atmosphere was bizarre. The adrenaline had momentarily worn off, and we actually found ourselves laughing. It felt so surreal; we had just been living completely boring, normal student lives, and suddenly we were thrust into this intense nightmare. Some of the guys were trying to mask their fear with jokes, but beneath the laughter, the anxiety was heavy. A lot of us were quietly worrying about our families stuck at home.
Exhaustion quickly set in. We decided to take shifts to sleep, but I volunteered to take the first watch since I had already napped in class before the world ended. Levi wasn't tired either, so he stayed awake with me while the others curled up on the floor.
For hours, the two of us just sat by the window in the dark, whispering. We talked about how we used to spend hours playing zombie survival video games, and how surreal it was that we now had to rely on that "game sense" in real life.
"Think about it," Levi whispered, gripping his metal pipe. "The rules are the same. We prioritize gathering supplies, we secure safe zones, and we never waste stamina."
Everything was quiet until exactly 3:00 AM.
A sudden, violent banging erupted at the classroom door.
Everyone who was awake in the room scrambled backward, terrified. Levi and I immediately sprang into action, shaking our sleeping friends awake.
"Start packing up," I ordered, keeping my voice in a harsh whisper.
"Why? What's going on?" Mark groaned, rubbing his eyes as the banging grew louder, the heavy wood of the door beginning to splinter.
"Just do it!" I snapped. I turned to Levi. "Open the window. We're going outside."
I climbed up onto the sill and jumped out onto the narrow exterior ledge of the fifth floor. "Follow me!"
Each of my friends took turns climbing out onto the ledge. The other stranded students in the room watched us in total confusion, too paralyzed by fear to understand why we were risking a five-story drop.
Then, the door completely gave way.
A horde of zombies rushed into the room, snarling and grabbing at anyone in reach. The remaining people panicked and rushed toward the window, blindly jumping out. It was a disaster. Some jumped too far, missing the ledge and falling five stories to the concrete below. Others were pulled screaming back into the dark room.
My group didn't look back. We carefully shimmied along the exterior wall until we reached the window of the adjacent classroom, broke the latch, and spilled inside. We bolted out of that room's door, bypassing the horde entirely.
We were on the run, sprinting straight down the stairwells to find a different building. But everywhere we went, the campus was a theater of horror. Screams echoed off the concrete, doors banged violently from the inside, and blood smeared the tiles. No matter which way we turned, every escape route seemed cut off by the infected.
Desperate, we pushed our way into the lower-ground cafeteria. We slipped past the ruined dining area and found the backroom leading into the massive industrial kitchen.
It was dead quiet inside. We slowed our pace, creeping through the stainless steel prep tables, making absolutely no sound.
Then, we heard it. A soft, rhythmic ticking echoing from the dark corner of the kitchen.
Suddenly, a hand reached out from beneath a prep counter and grabbed my jacket. A random stranger pulled me down to the floor, pulling his finger to his lips.
"That zombie right there..." the stranger whispered into my ear, trembling violently. "It doesn't see a thing. But it has strong hearing. Be quiet."
I peered past the counter. The mutant was an abomination. Its arms dragged on the floor, stretched out like thick, muscular vines. Its head had no eyes, no nose—just a grotesque, swollen mass of ears twitching at every micro-sound. It was a Noiseless.
Without warning, the Noiseless snapped its head toward the right side of the stranger.
The man panicked. He tried to scramble backward but bumped hard into a metal table. The impact rattled a cutting board, and a large chef's knife slid off the edge, falling directly onto his hand. He let out a sharp, muffled scream of pain.
That was all it took. The Noiseless moved with the speed of a striking snake. Its vine-like arm whipped forward with the devastating, piercing strength of a spear. In one single, brutal motion, it split the stranger completely in two.
"Run!" Cyrus shouted at the top of his lungs.
We scattered. The Noiseless instantly whipped around, confused by the sudden overlapping noises, but it quickly adapted. It positioned itself directly in front of the kitchen's back exit, acting like an impassable guard. No one could get near the door without those vine-whips lashing out.
"Let's make a plan!" Cyrus yelled over the chaos.
"Everyone shout!" I yelled back.
We all started screaming at the same time, bouncing our voices off the metal walls to disorient its hearing. The plan formulated on the fly: half the group would create a massive distraction, while the other half escaped through the door.
The group doing the distracting grabbed pots and pans, slamming them together on the far side of the kitchen. The Noiseless lunged toward the racket.
"Go! Let's go!" I shouted to the others near the door.
Half of the squad managed to slip past the beast and burst out into the alleyway. But the Noiseless recovered too fast, its stretching arms slamming back to block the exit, trapping the rest of the group inside.
"You guys go first!" one of our trapped friends yelled from behind the monster. "We'll meet you up later!"
"Go to the library!" I screamed back from the doorway. "There is also a back exit there!"
With a heavy heart, I pushed through the back doors and into the night. When I finally stopped running and looked around the dark alleyway to see who had made it out with me, my stomach dropped. The group had been fractured.
All I had left with me were Steven, Levi, and Andrei.
Chapter 4: The Cabin
We burst out of the cafeteria backroom and sprinted into the dark, our lungs burning. I was leading the way, constantly glancing back to make sure Steven, Levi, and Andrei were still right behind me. As I whipped my head back to look forward, I slammed violently into a solid figure in the shadows.
"Ouch—I'm sorry!" I gasped, scrambling backward and instinctively raising my fists. But as my eyes adjusted to the moonlight, the panic dissolved into relief. "Wait... Nico? Zi! Good to see you!"
Zi didn't smile. His mature, grounded demeanor was locked in high alert. "This is no time for chitchat," Zi said, his eyes scanning the dark courtyard behind us. "Something is coming. Let's find a hideout first."
He was right. The guttural snarls and echoing footsteps of a massive zombie horde were bleeding out from the adjacent buildings, heading straight for our position. We didn't hesitate. The six of us bolted into the sprawling campus garden, navigating the high hedges until we found a heavy wooden toolshed tucked away in the corner. We rushed inside, slamming the cabin door shut and throwing the deadbolt just as the horde began flooding the pathways outside.
We collapsed against the wooden walls, panting in the pitch black. For a few minutes, nobody said a word. We just listened to the horrifying sounds outside.
When the immediate danger seemed to pass, Andrei wiped the sweat from his face and looked over at the two new additions to our group. "Where y'all headed anyways?"
"We are going to the parking lot," Nico answered, keeping his voice low. "Get the car and out of here."
"Whoa, that's a great plan," I agreed instantly, feeling a surge of hope. "Yeah, let's get out of here."
"Hey, how about the others?" Levi interjected, always the dependable voice of reason. "They're still left in the library. We should wait for them."
Steven nodded from the corner. "Let's split into groups. One shall find the others, and the other go to the car, and let's exit together, aight?"
The logic was sound. We quickly drew up the teams. Nico, Zi, and I would handle the parking lot mission to secure the escape vehicles. Levi, Steven, and Andrei would run the rescue mission to the library's back exit to intercept the rest of our friends.
I checked my watch. The glowing dial read 3:30 AM.
"Let's rest first," I whispered. "We start leaving at exactly 3:45 AM."
While we caught our breath, Zi quietly rummaged through the dark corners of the toolshed. He managed to find a rusted garden knife and a heavy, iron garden fork. He handed them out, splitting the makeshift weapons between the two teams so we wouldn't be going out there completely defenseless.
We watched the minutes tick by. At 3:45 AM, we unbolted the cabin door and stepped out into the cold air. It was time to split up.
Levi's Perspective
Levi, Steven, and Andrei broke off from the others, moving with quiet, practiced urgency through the shadows of the garden. They navigated the perimeter of the campus until they reached the designated rendezvous point: the heavy steel back exit of the university library.
They pressed their backs against the brick wall, weapons raised, and waited.
Minutes stretched into what felt like hours. Finally, the heavy metal door groaned and pushed open. Cyrus, Mark, Armie, and Louie stumbled out into the cool night air.
Levi immediately lowered his weapon, but his relief quickly turned to dread. The group looked utterly battered. Their clothes were torn, and some of them were visibly bleeding and injured.
"Whoa, are you guys okay?" Levi asked, rushing forward to help support Armie. "And what happened?"
"Yeah... but..." Cyrus stammered. He looked physically exhausted, but his eyes carried a heavy, hollow weight.
Steven scanned the faces of the survivors, his usual crazy, funny demeanor entirely absent. "Where is Kian?"
Cyrus swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "I'm... I'm sorry. He didn't make it. He got caught. He told us to leave him, and we used that distraction to escape... and how we got here all safe."
"WHAT!" Andrei roared, his masculine frame tensing with sudden, explosive rage. He stepped toward the library door. "Why did you leave him?! I'm gonna find him!"
Before Andrei could take another step, Mark grabbed him by the shoulders. Mark’s grip was firm, using his calm, mature strength to physically anchor the larger boy. "Drei... stop," Mark said, his voice thick with grief. "We saw it in our eyes. He got killed right in front of us while running out... I'm sorry."
Andrei froze. The anger instantly drained out of him, replaced by a crushing reality. He slowly brought a hand to his face, wiping away a stray tear before it could fall.
"DAMN IT!" Andrei shouted into the night, punching the brick wall in frustration.
Levi looked back at Cyrus and Mark. He needed to know what they were up against. "What did you guys encounter in the library anyways?"
Armie hugged his arms tight against his chest, staring blankly at the concrete. "Monster..." he whispered quietly.
Levi leaned in, frowning. "What did you say?"
Armie slowly looked up, his eyes wide with pure terror. "A fucking monster."
Chapter 5: All Brawn, No Brains
Nico, Zi, and I split off from the others, keeping our voices low as we walked along the paved pathway toward the university's main parking lot. The transition was jarring. All the screaming, the distant gunfire, the horrifying sounds of the horde tearing the campus apart—it all just suddenly vanished the moment we stepped past the lot's perimeter. It was dead, suffocatingly quiet.
We scanned the area. There were dozens of cars scattered across the massive expanse of asphalt. Some were completely destroyed, their windows shattered and frames dented, while others looked untouched.
"There," Nico whispered, pointing toward a row of vehicles. Amazingly, both his pickup truck and Zi's sedan were sitting there perfectly safe.
We broke into a sprint toward the cars, but before we could even cover half the distance, a massive shadow blocked out the moonlight. A literal car was flying through the air, hurtling directly at us.
We scrambled backward as the heavy metal chassis slammed into the asphalt, sending sparks and shattered glass everywhere.
"Whoa, WTF was that?!" I yelled, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"Guys, erm... look over there," Nico stammered, pointing a shaking finger toward the darkness at the edge of the lot.
Zi's eyes went wide. "What... the... fuck..."
"RUN!" we all screamed in unison.
A monstrous silhouette stepped out of the shadows. It looked somewhat human, but its proportions were entirely wrong. It possessed the massive, hyper-muscular arms of a silverback gorilla, its knuckles practically dragging on the concrete. The beast let out a guttural roar and started rampaging toward us, casually tossing debris out of its way with unbelievable strength.
We dove behind a parked van, trying to break its line of sight.
"What should we do?" I panicked, peering around the bumper. "We can't get close to the cars since that monster is blocking the path, and we definitely can't let it destroy our only way out!"
Zi's mind was racing. "How about a distraction? While it's busy, I make a run for the cars."
"Aight," I said, the adrenaline entirely taking over. "I'll distract it. You and Nico get both of your cars and get out of here."
Before they could argue, I broke cover. I stepped out into the open lane, waving my arms and shouting at the top of my lungs to get the beast's attention. The Gorilloid whipped its massive head toward me. I didn't wait. I turned and sprinted toward the adjacent multi-level parking garage.
The monster roared and gave chase. I hit the concrete stairs, taking them two at a time, but the Gorilloid was terrifyingly fast. I could hear its heavy, gorilla-like bounds thundering up the stairwell right behind me, closing the distance. It was almost on top of me as I reached the third floor. I lunged through a heavy steel door, slamming it shut and frantically locking the deadbolt.
I took one step back, gasping for air. Half a second later, a massive, muscular fist punched straight through the steel door as if it were made of cardboard.
The Gorilloid ripped the door off its hinges and stepped onto the open deck, slowly walking toward me. I kept backing up until my heels touched the low concrete barrier at the edge of the third-floor parking lot. I looked down. It was a sheer drop to the pavement below. I had no escape route left.
The monster let out a final roar and charged at me with full momentum.
I planted my feet, waiting for the absolute last microsecond. As its massive arms reached out to crush me, I threw myself to the side. The Gorilloid was all brawn and no brains. Because it was mindless and running so fast, it didn't have the instinct or the friction to brake. Its own momentum carried it straight over the concrete barrier. It tumbled over the edge, plummeting three stories down and hitting the ground with a sickening crack. It dropped completely dead.
I didn't waste a second. I sprinted back down the stairwell to the ground level. Nico and Zi had already reached their vehicles and the engines were turning over.
"Let's go!" I yelled, jumping into the passenger seat of Zi's car.
Nico took the lead in his truck, with Zi and I following close behind. We sped toward the parking lot's main gate, ready to swing around to the library's back exit to meet up with Levi and the others.
But as we neared the exit, a ruined car was suddenly hurled through the air, crashing down directly in front of the gate and barricading us inside.
"WHAT!" I screamed, staring through the windshield. The Gorilloid was standing up from the pavement, its bones shifting back into place. "HOW IS HE NOT DEAD YET?!"
We threw the cars into reverse, tires squealing as we tried to find another way out. The monster gave chase, bounding on its knuckles and feet, leaping across the hoods of parked cars. It was catching up to us, its massive fists slamming into the trunk of Zi's car, nearly destroying the rear axle with a single blow.
Zi swerved wildly, aiming the car toward a service road that ran alongside a deep, close-by river.
Suddenly, the engine sputtered. The dashboard lit up, and the car aggressively lost speed.
"No, no, no!" Zi yelled, pumping the pedal. We had run out of gas. It was the absolute worst possible timing.
The car rolled to a dead stop right near the edge of the embankment. The Gorilloid leaped forward, its massive hands gripping the sides of our car. The metal groaned and buckled as the beast began to lift the entire vehicle off the ground, ready to throw us directly into the river.
Before the tires could leave the dirt, a blinding pair of headlights cut through the dark.
Nico's pickup truck came roaring out of nowhere, accelerating to top speed. He rammed his truck directly into the broadside of the Gorilloid. The massive impact shattered Nico's front bumper and launched the beast off its feet. The monster tumbled backward, rolling helplessly down the steep embankment and splashing heavily into the deep river.
We scrambled out of Zi's dead car and looked over the edge. The Gorilloid thrashed wildly in the water, but its hyper-dense muscles were too heavy. It couldn't swim. We watched as the dark water swallowed it whole, dragging it straight to the bottom to drown.
We were breathing heavily, the shock of the encounter slowly wearing off. We had survived, but we had paid a price. Zi's car was completely out of gas and totaled. We only had one vehicle left.
Zi and I piled into Nico's pickup truck. The front bumper was completely mangled from the impact, but as Nico put the truck into gear, I glanced at the dashboard.
"Thank God," I breathed, letting my head fall back against the seat. The fuel gauge read completely full. Considering there were absolutely no gas resources left in the country, it was a miracle.
With our single surviving vehicle, Nico hit the gas, and we sped off into the night, heading straight for the back exit of the library to find the others.
Chapter 6: Left Behind
While Giichi, Nico, and Zi were fighting for their lives in the parking lot, the rest of the group was caught in a nightmare of their own.
To understand the tragedy that unfolded at the library's back exit, we have to rewind to the exact moment the group was fractured. Back in the cafeteria kitchen, right as Giichi and his squad slipped through the exit, Cyrus, Mark, Armie, Louie, and Kian were trapped behind the prep tables.
The blind mutant with the grotesque, ear-covered head—the Noiseless—was blocking their only way out.
Cyrus gripping a metal pipe, and Kian holding a thick wooden table leg, tried to force an opening. They swung at the beast, hoping to batter it out of the way. But the Noiseless was too durable. The wooden stick shattered on impact, and the metal pipe merely bounced off the creature's dense, mutated flesh. The vine-like arms whipped back, slicing through the air with lethal precision.
Realizing they didn't stand a chance, Cyrus shouted for them to fall back. The five of them bolted out of the kitchen through a side corridor, abandoning the cafeteria entirely. Remembering Giichi’s last words, they sprinted across the dark campus, pushing through the heavy double doors of the university library.
Inside, the library was a sprawling, suffocating maze of towering oak bookshelves. It was pitch black, the silence pressing heavily against their ears. They navigated the tight aisles, desperately trying to find the back exit to reunite with the others.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing shriek shattered the silence.
The sound was so incredibly loud and high-pitched that Cyrus and the others dropped to their knees, clapping their hands over their ears in agonizing pain.
They looked up, trying to find the source. Crouched on top of a three-story-high bookshelf was a new, horrifying mutation. It was thin, incredibly agile, and possessed eyes that darted with the sharp, predatory focus of an eagle. Before they could even process what they were looking at, the creature vanished.
It moved like a blur, possessing a sonic, impossible speed. It bounded from the ground to the tops of the shelves with a single, effortless leap. This was the Jumper.
It began stalking them through the maze of books. Its eagle-like eyesight tracked their every movement from above. No matter which aisle they ducked into, no matter how quiet they were, the Jumper anticipated their path, leaping overhead to block the route to the back exit. They were completely boxed in.
But as the Jumper let out another deafening shriek to intimidate its prey, the heavy front doors of the library burst open.
The Noiseless stepped into the foyer. It had tracked them all the way from the cafeteria.
Cyrus, Mark, and the others froze in terror. "Oh shi—" Louie whispered, pressing his back against a shelf. They were caught between two monsters.
But the Jumper's constant, ear-splitting shrieks were the ultimate trigger. The blind Noiseless immediately locked onto the overwhelming sound. Its massive, vine-whip arms lashed out violently, striking the Jumper's perch.
The two apex mutants engaged in a brutal, chaotic fight, tearing the front of the library apart.
Mark seized the moment. "It's our chance to escape! Move, now!"
They broke cover, sprinting desperately down the central aisle toward the heavy steel doors of the back exit. But the Jumper’s eagle eyes caught their movement. Refusing to let its prey escape, the Jumper disengaged from the Noiseless, launching itself through the air to intercept them.
It was a fatal mistake.
While the Jumper was suspended mid-air, the Noiseless's vine-whip arm snapped forward, wrapping tightly around the leaping mutant. With a terrifying display of raw strength, the Noiseless violently yanked the Jumper down, tossing it across the room like a ragdoll.
The Jumper crashed violently into a towering, fully loaded bookshelf right next to the running group. The massive oak structure groaned and gave way, collapsing outward.
The heavy wood and thousands of books rained down. The crushing weight instantly killed the Jumper, proving the incredibly fast mutant was ultimately fragile. But as the dust cleared, the group realized the horrifying truth.
Kian hadn't made it out of the collapse zone. The massive bookshelf had pinned him directly to the floor.
"Kian!" Armie screamed.
The four of them rushed back, grabbing the edge of the heavy oak shelf and pulling with everything they had. But it was too heavy. Kian groaned in agony, the pain too intense to suppress.
His pained gasps echoed in the quiet library. Across the room, having just defeated the Jumper, the Noiseless twitched. Its head of ears locked directly onto Kian's location.
Kian saw the blind monster slowly turning toward them. He looked up at his friends, his face pale and sweating. "Leave me behind!"
"We're not giving up!" Cyrus cried, his hands bleeding from pulling on the splinters of the shelf.
"You can't lift it without making noise!" Kian pleaded. "Just go!"
The Noiseless was already moving, its footsteps heavy, its vine-arms dragging across the floor. It was too late. The blind beast reached the collapsed shelf, its vine-whip arm snaking out and wrapping tightly around Kian’s trapped body.
Kian looked Mark directly in the eyes. With his final breath, he screamed, "RUN!"
The Noiseless retracted its arm with horrifying force. In one visceral, sickening motion, Kian was torn completely in half.
The group stood completely paralyzed, shock freezing the blood in their veins. They couldn't breathe. They couldn't process what they had just witnessed.
Mark was the first to snap out of the trance. Driven by pure, traumatic adrenaline, he grabbed Cyrus and Armie by their collars, physically dragging them away from the bloodbath. He shoved the back exit doors open, and the four survivors stumbled out into the cold night air.
As they spilled into the alleyway, battered, bloody, and broken, they looked up to see Levi, Steven, and Andrei waiting for them in the shadows.
Levi stepped forward, dropping his weapon, seeing the horror painted across their faces. "Whoa, are you guys okay? And what happened?"
Cyrus fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he prepared to tell them the story of how Kian died.
Chapter 7: The Precinct
Cyrus finished the story, his voice cracking as the horrifying reality of Kian's death hung heavy in the cold night air. Everyone stood outside the library, completely overwhelmed. The silence that followed was suffocating, thick with grief and the terrifying realization of how easily any of them could be next.
Before anyone could say a word, a pair of headlights cut through the darkness of the alleyway. Nico's pickup truck skidded to a halt in front of them, its front bumper mangled from the fight with the Gorilloid.
Nico and Zi stepped out of the vehicle. When they heard the news about Kian, the shock washed over their faces. For a moment, the entire group was paralyzed by the loss.
Zi took a deep breath, forcing himself to be the anchor they needed. "This is not a place to grieve for now," Zi told them, his voice steady but compassionate. "Let's go somewhere safe."
Nico's vehicle was a heavy, four-door pickup truck with an open bed in the back. With ten of us left, it was going to be a tight fit. Nico climbed into the driver’s seat, and Zi took the front passenger side. Armie, Louie, and Andrei squeezed together into the back seat of the cab. The remaining five—me, Steven, Mark, Levi, and Cyrus—vaulted into the open pickup trunk in the back, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder against the cold metal.
Nico put the truck into gear, and we drove off into the ruined streets. As we rode, we talked through the shock, trying to figure out our next move. We decided to drive through the neighborhoods, checking each other's houses one by one. But every single home was the same: doors unlocked, lights dead, completely empty. There were no dead bodies, but there were absolutely no signs of life, either.
"There is a safe shelter in the city," Louie called out from inside the cab, rolling down the window to speak to us in the back. "Maybe they're there and got saved by the military. Let's check over there, shall we?"
"I saw earlier that the police station was empty," I countered, leaning over the edge of the truck bed. "Maybe let's check that one first for an armory and protection, like a gun?"
"We don't even know how to use a gun!" Levi argued, his logical mind immediately seeing the flaw in the plan.
"We will figure it out on the way," Cyrus replied, his voice hardened by what he had just survived in the library.
"Well, it's better than nothing, right?" Steven added, nodding in agreement.
"Wait," I said, tapping the roof of the truck to get Nico's attention. "Let me get my katana from my house first. It's like the day has come... I will use my katana skill to kill those MONSTERS."
Nico detoured to my house. I rushed inside, navigating the dark hallways until I found it: my katana, resting right where I had left it. But as I picked it up, a small piece of paper fluttered to the floor. I picked it up and shined my flashlight on it. It was a note.
If you read this note, Giichi, I want you to know we are safe. We got rescued by some people, but it's not a military. — From Mother.
A massive wave of relief washed over me. I smiled, gripping the hilt of the sword. They were safe. I didn't know where they were or who had taken them, but just knowing they were alive gave me the strength I needed.
I ran back to the truck, and we headed straight for the police station.
Just as I had seen earlier, the precinct was completely quiet. We pushed through the front doors, flashlights cutting through the gloom. The lobby was trashed, but empty. As we moved deeper inside, navigating the narrow back hallways, our flashlight beams caught a figure. It was a police officer, sitting slumped in a dark corner.
"Hey! What are you doing alone?" Levi called out softly.
There was no response. The officer didn't even twitch.
We slowly crept closer. Levi reached out, tentatively touching the officer's shoulder. The moment he made contact, the body dropped sideways onto the floor. A massive, gruesome blood splatter coated the wall behind where the officer had been sitting.
Everyone jumped back in shock.
Louie’s eyes darted down and saw a heavy handgun protruding from the dead cop's tactical pocket. He carefully reached down, sliding the weapon out.
"Got it," Louie whispered, turning back toward us.
But behind him, the dead cop's fingers twitched. The body violently arched backward, snapping back up to its feet.
"BEHIND YOU GUYS!" Armie shrieked.
The police officer lunged forward, eyes milky white and jaw snapping. It was a zombie. Louie screamed in panic, raising the heavy handgun. Having absolutely no idea how to shoot, he squeezed the trigger wildly.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The deafening shots tore into the drywall, the ceiling, the floor—almost every single bullet missed entirely. The zombie was inches from his throat when Louie fired the final round in the magazine. By pure, blind luck, the last bullet caught the zombie squarely between the eyes. A perfect headshot. The infected cop crumpled to the tiles, dead for good.
We were scared for our lives, our ears ringing from the enclosed gunfire. But the nightmare was just starting. The deafening noise of Louie emptying the clip had acted like a siren. From outside the station, a chorus of guttural shrieks echoed. A massive horde of zombies was swarming the building.
"OH FUCK, WHAT SHOULD WE DO?!" Levi yelled as the sounds of breaking glass echoed from the lobby. We started running frantically down the corridor.
"LOOK, THERE'S A ROOM!" Nico shouted, pointing to a heavy, reinforced steel door.
We threw our weight against it, bursting inside and slamming the deadbolts shut. As we turned on our flashlights, we realized we had hit the jackpot. It was the station's main tactical armory. The walls were lined with AK-47s, heavy shotguns, M4 rifles, boxes of ammunition, and Kevlar vests.
We didn't hesitate. We geared up, loading the weapons. For the next few hours, the police station turned into a warzone. We held the choke points, unleashing a hail of gunfire into the horde until the very last zombie fell.
By the time the horde was finished, we were completely exhausted. It was deep into the night, so we decided to use the secured armory as a temporary camp. We sat on the floor among the bullet casings, talking and trying to come down from the adrenaline.
Suddenly, the reality of our physical limits hit us. Everyone was starving.
"There is a close-by convenience store," Louie mentioned, pointing vaguely toward the streets outside. "Maybe there is stock there."
No one wanted to go back out into the dark. It was too dangerous. To make it fair, we broke up a broom handle into different-sized sticks. We played the game: whoever drew the tallest sticks would go out and find food. The looks we gave each other were intense, heavy with dread.
We pulled the sticks. The losers were me, Zi, Armie, and Levi.
Armie looked down at his stick, his hands shaking violently. He was terrified. He didn't want to die like Kian.
Mark saw the fear in Armie's eyes. He walked over, gently taking the stick from Armie's hand. "Fine, let's switch. I'll go instead."
Armie let out a shaky breath of relief, and we quickly agreed to the swap.
Me, Zi, Mark, and Levi slipped out of the station and crept down the block to the convenience store. The aisles were a mess, but we managed to find plenty of canned goods and snacks.
"Let's stock up more while we can gather," Zi whispered, tossing supplies into a duffel bag.
"I'll guard the car and the store," I told them. I drew my katana, stepping out into the cool night air to keep watch while they packed the food into the pickup truck.
Everything was quiet. But as I stood there, gripping the hilt of my sword, a strange, leathery sound echoed from the sky above me.
Hmmm... what could it be?
Chapter 8: The Departure
I stood alone in the quiet parking lot outside the convenience store, my hands resting on the hilt of my katana. The cool night air was still, but then, a strange, leathery sound echoed from the dark sky above me.
I looked up. Dropping from the clouds was a nightmare.
It was a bat-like creature, roughly the size of a human, but it had no legs at all. Instead, it possessed massive wings tipped with razor-sharp claws. It was a Phantom—a mutant built entirely for aerial agility, a predator that hunted strictly on a "kill or be killed" instinct.
It circled above me, blending into the shadows. I gripped the hilt of my katana tight, the rough wrapping grounding me. I didn't shout. I didn't signal Mark, Zi, or Levi inside the store. I wanted to take this thing down entirely by myself. I needed to know if the katana skills I had been training in for years were actually enough to keep me alive in this new world.
The Phantom let out a piercing screech and dive-bombed straight toward my head.
I drew my blade in a flash of silver, parrying the sharp claws just inches from my face. Sparks flew as the monster’s momentum carried it back up into the air. Because I couldn't attack at long range, fighting a flying creature with a sword was incredibly difficult. The Phantom used its crazy agility to stay out of my reach, swooping down in rapid, lethal strikes.
For thirty grueling minutes, I was pushed to my absolute limit. The fight was a desperate, exhausting dance. All I could do was dodge, parry, and block. The monster was relentless, and I was accumulating scratches and shallow cuts across my arms as I struggled to find a way to counterattack.
But as the battle dragged on, I noticed a pattern. The Phantom always made a specific, high-pitched screech right before it committed to a dive.
I backed up toward an abandoned car, breathing heavily. I waited, watching the dark sky.
Screech. Here it comes. I sprinted, jumping onto the hood of the car, then vaulting onto the roof. I used the metal top as a platform, pushing off with all my leg strength to jump higher into the air just as the Phantom swooped down.
I met it mid-air. With one clean, powerful swing, my katana sliced straight through one of its leathery wings.
The Phantom shrieked in agony, its flight path instantly destroyed. It plummeted to the asphalt, hitting the ground hard. It was violently tweaking and thrashing on the pavement, unable to fly. I landed cleanly, stepped up to the writhing monster, and brought my katana down, slicing the Phantom completely in half.
The adrenaline suddenly crashed, replaced by a wave of crushing exhaustion. I dropped to the pavement, lying on my back next to the bisected monster, staring up at the stars. Despite the scratches and the fatigue, I couldn't help it—I started laughing.
The convenience store doors swung open. Levi, Mark, and Zi walked out carrying heavy bags of supplies. They froze when they saw the blood and the giant severed wings.
"What happened?!" Levi shouted, rushing over.
"Nothing," I smiled breathlessly, still lying on the ground.
Mark dropped his bag, his jaw hanging open as he stared at the remains. "Woah... did... you just kill that thi- thing?"
"Huh? Where?" Zi asked, looking around the dark parking lot in confusion before his eyes finally landed on the massive dead Phantom.
I slowly pushed myself up. "It's nothing. Let's go back."
The guys looked at me, completely bewildered. "Damn, why didn't you tell us so we could back you up?"
"I just wanted to see my strength—" I started to say.
But before I could finish the sentence, the edges of my vision went completely black. My legs gave out, and I fainted right there on the asphalt.
When I finally woke up, I was lying on a makeshift bed back in the police station armory. The rest of the group was gathered around. As soon as I opened my eyes, they immediately started bombarding me with questions, asking in disbelief if I had really defeated that flying monster by myself using only a katana.
"How about let's all take a rest and get ready for tomorrow," Louie interrupted, stepping in to give me some space. "We are going to the city and finding the shelter. Maybe our families are there."
Everyone agreed. The mood shifted from excitement to quiet anticipation. We finally got some real sleep.
Early the next morning, the sun rose over the precinct. While the rest of us were waking up and stretching our sore muscles, we realized Nico and Zi were missing. We walked out to the station's attached garage and found them covered in grease and sweat. They had been up all morning.
Nico was holding a siphon hose, draining the last drops of fuel from the abandoned police cruisers and filling his pickup truck's tank to the brim. Since there were basically no gas resources left in the entire country, finding this fuel was a massive win.
"With all of this gas, we might make it to the city in time," Nico said, wiping his forehead with a rag.
But the gas wasn't the only surprise. When we got a good look at the truck, we were floored. Nico and Zi had spent the entire morning modifying it into a heavy armored pickup. They had welded scrap metal to the frame so it couldn't be easily dented if we ran into another massive horde. Even better, they had installed a heavy protective cover over the back of the pickup bed. Now, the five of us riding in the back wouldn't be easily exposed to Jumpers or Phantoms.
We all geared up, loading our scavenged food, police weapons, and tactical vests into the new armored convoy. I slid my katana into its sheath and climbed into the back.
Nico turned the key, and the heavy engine roared to life. We pulled out of the police station garage, the heavy tires crunching over the broken glass of the streets.
We looked back one last time at the town where our nightmare began. Then, Nico hit the gas, and we drove off down the highway, heading straight for the city.
The School Arc was officially over. The City Arc had begun.