Lily Green thought she should be dead by now. The suffocating sensation from last night felt way too real—so vivid it still sent shivers down her spine just thinking about it.

She clearly remembered there was plenty of air around her, yet no matter how hard she gasped, nothing filled her lungs.

Her body had gone numb, and her mind faded into darkness. That was the moment she knew—she wasn’t going to make it this time.

…

But then… what now? Could a dead person still be conscious?

Lily lay there staring blankly at the ceiling for a long time, completely lost. “Is this sunlight on my face even real?”

“So… have I ended up in heaven? Or is this hell?”

She opened her mouth to speak, feeling how dry her throat was. No one answered her. The whole place was dead quiet, eerily so.

Suddenly, she squeezed her eyes shut. It wasn’t until a while later—when she was sure her thoughts were still her own—that she cautiously opened them again.

Everything looked the same. Same bed. Same walls. Even the curtains by the window and the little stuffed toy on her vanity were still there, untouched.

“I’m alive… I’m actually still alive!” Her heart leapt.

“Now what… should I go back to the hospital? Maybe, just maybe…”

Maybe what? Her illness suddenly vanished? Or maybe the doctor had been wrong all along and she was never really sick? Were the meds she took for three years all for nothing?

Reality slowly set in. The fear of dying hadn’t worn off yet. She lay back, eyes on the ceiling, completely unsure of what to do next.

She had been sick for years. Three years ago, the doctor told her she wouldn’t live past three years. And for all that time, she had been walking on eggshells, clinging to life however she could. And yet, here she was, still facing death.

“Heh… maybe I should’ve just gone out and had fun instead of dragging it out like this.” She sighed, a heavy sadness settling in.

The sun was shining right onto her face now, and it felt a little too warm. She tried to lift a hand to shield her eyes but couldn’t—twice she tried, and both times failed.

Her limbs felt like dead weight, like her body had turned into some rusty machine left untouched for years. Every slight movement felt like it could break her apart.

After a long struggle, Lily finally managed to sit up slowly, then shifted her legs over the edge of the bed. Just those two tiny steps took all her effort. Breathing heavily, she realized she’d need some serious recovery time before she could even think about standing up.

“So this is what it feels like to be old… Like, ninety years old and barely hanging on?” she muttered to herself with a wry smile. “If this keeps up, I probably won’t live much longer anyway.”

She let out another sigh. “Whatever… no point overthinking it. Since I’m still breathing, I’ll just take it one day at a time.”Lily Green couldn’t move yet, so she just sat quietly on the edge of her bed.

It was around noon. The winter sun was mild, shining gently through the glass, resting warm on her skin. She tried to clear her mind, finally managing to relax a little and squinted her eyes in content.

…

“Ahhh—somebody help! Help! Please!”

Just as Lily spaced out, a sharp female scream rang out from outside her window.

The sudden noise shattered the peaceful stretch from earlier. Lily frowned and shook her head in irritation.

“Probably just a robbery or some domestic mess. Whatever, the security guards should show up soon enough.”

She was already in a bad mood and feeling physically awful, so she half-heartedly tried to ignore it, letting the woman keep screaming her lungs out.

But after a while, no one came. The woman’s frantic cries slowly twisted into sobbing and a string of curse words Lily couldn’t quite make out.

Lily had no clue what she was yelling. She felt like a wreck herself, didn’t even have the energy to drag her body to the window for a peek.

More time passed, and things finally went quiet again.

“Ugh,” she exhaled, “finally!”

Just then—another scream, even louder than before.

This time it was a man. Lily’s brows scrunched as she turned toward the sound, thinking it might be the guy next door.

They were her only neighbors—a young couple who had just moved in about half a year ago.

They were usually out during the day, but come evening, you could hear everything from music to arguments to… well, other stuff through the walls.

Lily didn’t really mind. Her place was always too quiet, and sometimes their noise made her feel a little less alone.

“Maybe he got caught hiding cash from his wife,” she thought with a touch of dark humor.

The couple fought pretty often, and Lily had overheard her fair share. But something about today sounded way off. His scream wasn't angry—it was full-on horror, like a nightmare came to life. Even the end of his voice was shaking.

Lily started feeling uneasy. Her heart started pounding, and a wave of dread washed over her. She couldn’t explain why, but it felt familiar—eerily like what she’d gone through just the night before.

Their bedroom walls were connected, so Lily decided to shuffle over and get closer, hoping to hear more. She carefully stood up, pressing a hand to her spinning head, legs barely holding her steady as she inched forward.

But walking past the window, she suddenly remembered that first woman’s scream.

“Did the security guards ever show up?” she wondered, instinctively glancing outside.

…Wait. What the hell is that?

Downstairs, on the lawn, there were three figures. They were crawling around on all fours like animals, heads jerking strangely.

But they weren’t doing anything crass or weird… no, it looked more like—eating.

Seriously? Eating?Lily Green suddenly snapped to attention, pressing her face to the windowpane and squinting hard as she tried to make out what was going on downstairs.

Those three... whatever they were, looked seriously off. Their bodies were bony, their movements jerky and weird, and their skin had this creepy grayish-blue tint. What horrified her even more was what they were gnawing on—it looked like a human body.

That insane, familiar scene instantly reminded Lily of something straight out of a horror flick. Zombies. Could these really be... zombies?

“No way... zombies? An apocalypse? That can't be real,” she whispered, her voice shaking.

"Ahhh—!" A man’s scream pierced through the wall from next door.

"Aahh—!" Lily reflexively screamed too, her heart slamming in her chest.

His terrified screeches mixed with the sound of furniture banging around, instantly jolting her mind awake.

She forced down a swallow, and her imagination began running wild—maybe, just maybe, her neighbor had woken up only to find his wife turned into one of those things. Her once-lovely face now twisted and rotting, trying to bite into him with those gory jaws.

No thoughts, no feelings, no memories. She wouldn’t see him as her husband anymore—just fresh meat.

No time to break down, no time to weep. Probably just ran for his life, shouting and crashing into everything in sight, or maybe tried to fight her off.

In the end? Either he killed her, or she devoured him. Or worse—he got infected too... and now they were a zombie couple.

Lily blinked hard, not daring to make a move. She sat frozen, straining her ears for what might happen next.

Seconds passed, then minutes.

And then… silence.

All she could hear was a faint crunching sound—kind of like someone chewing on bones.

A violent shiver rippled through her as she collapsed to the ground, hugging her head.

“How many people have turned already?”

"What should I do?"

"Someone... anyone... please..."

She was hyperventilating, her brain a complete mess. She just couldn’t wrap her head around it. The end of the world—something people joked about or watched in movies—had crept in so quietly, so suddenly.

Weren’t the government and the military supposed to handle stuff like this?

"Right! Call for help. Police first, obviously!" Holding onto a shred of hope, she scrambled to find her phone that had fallen under the bed.

"911... 120... 119... um, 10086?”

"What else... what else?"

Fighting back the panic that burned behind her eyes, Lily started calling every number she could think of. Emergency services first, then a few friends... anyone who might answer.

“Beep... Beep...”

“Beep... Beep...”

Over and over again.

She’d kinda braced for it, but actually hearing the endless busy tones still sent a chill down her spine.

“Don’t tell me they’ve all... turned too?” At that thought, her stomach dropped.

There was no one left to call. After hesitating for a long minute, she finally punched in a number—something both painfully familiar and oddly distant.

“Beeep... Beeep...”

"Hello?"

"...Dad?"