Abyss Moore jolted up from bed like a spring-loaded toy.

“Arms, legs… all here, all working!

Awesome. At least I’m not dead.”

She quickly gave herself a once-over, making sure everything was in place—nothing extra, nothing missing. Finally, she let out a long sigh of relief.

Flopping back onto the blanket, she naturally reached for her phone under the pillow, planning to check the news and maybe drop her parents a message to say she was okay.

“Crrrunch… crunch…”

A weird sound, like someone biting into raw bones, echoed from the direction of her living room.

This place she’d rented was super small—just a one-bedroom. You could basically see every other room from the bed.

That’s when Abyss finally noticed a figure that totally didn’t belong.

There was a woman half-crouched on the floor, her back turned just enough that Abyss could kind of make her out.

Right then, the woman slowly turned her head, and Abyss’s eyes went wide, choking on a fear so thick it felt like a hand around her throat.

The woman’s exposed skin had a sickly pale-blue tint, with eerie green veins crawling under the surface like spiderwebs.

Her eyeballs, where the white should be, were a horrifying shade of pure blood-red. Even in the low light, they glowed faintly like some horror movie effect.

And she was still chewing.

Her teeth were long, sharp—totally wrong—more like shark teeth than human ones. Blood and chunks of meat were jammed between them.

Abyss caught a glimpse of what she was actually eating—a finger, with the fingernail still attached, rolling around between those nasty, grinding teeth, the crunch of bone echoing across the room.

Even though her face was smeared with dried blood, Abyss instantly recognized her.

The woman was her next-door neighbor!

She remembered her clearly—used to always wear that cute pink onesie with little cartoon pigs on it. Total sweetheart.

Well, she was still wearing that same bright outfit… but now she was crouched over a blood-soaked corpse, tearing into it without a care.

And she knew the corpse too—it was the woman’s husband. His head was mostly intact, frozen in a look of pure terror.

“Ahhh!” Abyss screamed, voice cracking with panic.

Back when she watched horror movies, she’d always roll her eyes at the girls who just froze up when stuff went down. Now she got it—real fear didn’t ask for your opinion.

Her whole body trembled, jaw clenching uncontrollably, and a weird whimper escaped her throat. Tears streamed down without warning.

She kept screaming at herself in her own head. Move! Run! NOW!

But her body just refused to work like it used to, like she’d somehow become part of the mattress.

All she could think was—this is it. I’m next. I’m gonna end up like that guy, half-eaten and dead.

Seconds dragged by. The monster woman chewed and swallowed, then casually ripped off another chunk, turned toward Abyss again, and started munching with zero shame.

Abyss almost passed out. Her stomach flipped so hard she puked her guts out—again and again—until there was nothing left but painful spasms.

The... thing in the living room didn’t even budge. Still glued to her feast. Occasionally glanced up at Abyss like she was deciding whether to go back for seconds.

After hurling everything but her soul, Abyss found her limbs finally responding again. She practically leapt off the bed and bolted toward the door.

No way she was sticking around inside this nightmare house.

Just as she yanked open the door, something black streaked past her leg into the room so fast she couldn’t even register what it was.

The blur zipped around the apartment like a missile and stopped.

It was a dog.

Or... well, maybe it used to be a dog.Judging by its size, it was probably a husky or maybe an Alaskan Malamute. But now, most of its fur was gone, leaving behind pitch-black skin covered in oozing, rotting wounds.

Its eyes were a nasty, glowing red, and those sharper-than-before teeth? Yeah, Abyss Moore had zero doubt it could rip through her neck like it was nothing.

The mutant dog rushed around the room once, then trotted over to her zombified female neighbor and joined the feast, chomping down on the lifeless body like it was a snack.

Abyss’s legs were trembling so bad it was like she didn't even have bones. Her knees buckled, and she plopped down right on her butt.

Without making a sound, she quietly pulled the door closed again, keeping her distance from the monster. Bit by bit, she crawled her way to the bathroom nearby, slammed the door shut, and locked it tight.

Inside the stuffy, cramped space, she finally felt a sliver of safety.

Her brain, which had basically gone offline from sheer terror, slowly rebooted as she fumbled her phone out with shaking hands.

Before she’d even realized there was a zombie dog in the room, she’d been about to open her phone—good thing she’d kept it clutched in her hand the whole time.

She badly needed to figure out what the hell had happened while she was out.

Apparently, about a week ago, a global disease outbreak began. out of nowhere, tons of people started running high fevers.

The fever lasted three to five days, and body temperatures could go past 42°C. Under such heat, brain cells just shut down—irreversibly.

Normally, brain death equals actual death. Humans weren’t any different.

Abyss remembered yesterday afternoon—her head had felt foggy, her steps unsteady, and the fever had hit her hard. Right before she passed out, she’d called her parents, who lived out in the suburbs, crying and begging for help.

The virus had an insanely high fatality rate. Stats showed that less than ten percent of the feverish managed to pull through on their own.

So yeah, Abyss had been thrilled to wake up again.

But the more thrilled she’d been to survive at first, the more terrified she was now. Sure, she made it... but at what cost? The world had changed while she slept.

Her phone screen lit up, displaying the date and time—December 30th, 5:08 PM.

She blinked, stunned.

The first fever case was reported on the 15th. Abyss had developed symptoms on the evening of the 20th before blacking out.

Now it was the 30th.

She’d been unconscious for ten whole days?

Her brain was basically stuck loading, trying to process that. If the fever only lasted 3 to 5 days, how did she end up sleeping through ten?

Wait—her parents!

With trembling fingers, she opened her call history. Dozens—maybe hundreds—of missed calls from her parents’ phones lit up the screen like a slap to the face.

She tried calling them... No signal.

Then she went straight to her messages.

All from her mom, Clara Moore. The counter read 99+.

"Moonie, please say something to Mom."

"You’re okay, right? You have to be okay."

"Moonie! If you’re still alive, please text me back!"

The texts stretched on and on, a never-ending wave of frantic worry.

The last one had been sent five days ago.

Each message screamed Clara’s desperation, her love, her need to know her daughter was still breathing.

Abyss couldn’t stop her tears—they just burst out, no filter.

She tapped into the family WeChat group. Same thing. 99+ unread messages.

The most recent ones were videos—selfies from her mom.

Clara looked worn out, eyes swollen, wiping her tears as she tried to film.

"It’s been five days, Moonie... still nothing from you. I know... I know maybe you're gone..."

Her voice cracked. She was crying so hard it hurt to watch.

"But—even if it’s the tiniest, smallest chance—you have to survive, you hear me? Please... stay alive!"

Clara broke down completely, sobbing uncontrollably.

Abyss sobbed right along with her, the sound of her heart breaking blending with the background noise coming from the video.

She turned up the volume—and froze.

Behind her mother’s cries, there was something else.

A bone-chilling, inhuman screech.

"Aaaargh—aaa—"No idea what that noise was, but it sure didn’t sound like their cat.

On the video, Clara Moore cried for a while, wiped her tears, and forced herself to keep talking. “Your dad just woke up. He didn’t make it... he’s turned into one of them.”

The camera shifted a bit, revealing the living room behind her. That multipurpose massage chair they’d anchored to the floor during installation? Stephen Moore was strapped to it now.

Even though the video was shaky, it was clear: he was thrashing wildly, letting out hoarse snarls as thick wire dug deep into his flesh. He didn’t even seem to feel it.

His eyes—bloodshot whites, glowing with aggression—looked just like that neighbor woman out there chewing on her husband. And his mouth... those teeth were sharp, like they belonged to an animal.

Abyss Moore stared blankly at the screen, stomach dropping, heart freezing over. Her dad... he didn’t survive. He really turned.

The phone slipped from her hand and hit the floor, and she didn’t even notice.

Zombies…

Her dad had changed into one of them.

And the woman next door? Same deal.

But—how? Where did these zombies even come from?

Before she passed out, there’d already been tons of people with high fevers popping up everywhere. Then the reports of brain death.

Could it be... those brain-dead people turned into zombies?

The idea made her shiver. It was too horrifying to be real.

How could something this insane actually be happening?

The video ended, Clara Moore’s tear-streaked face frozen on the screen.

Abyss picked up her phone, exited the messaging app, and opened the news.

Right at the top, a massive headline screamed at her:

“BREAKING: Humanity Faces Its Greatest Threat Ever—Take This Seriously!”

The article was dated ten days ago—December 20th.

She scrolled down. The next headline, in red, was dated December 25th at 4 PM.

"URGENT RELEASE: A global biological mutation event occurred on December 25th, 2032, due to an unknown virus spreading through the atmosphere.

Infected individuals experience high fevers and brain cell death in the early stages, and later transform into aggressive, mindless creatures.

Or, as we now call them—zombies.

Good news: their saliva and blood are NOT infectious.

If you’ve survived the initial fever, congratulations—you’re among humanity’s survivors.

Even if attacked, as long as you're not killed, you won't turn.

Due to the sheer number of instant mutations, government services are temporarily down.

But the country hasn’t abandoned you. Local military and civil groups are coordinating rescue missions.

If you’re still alive, check your local alerts and head to the nearest rescue point ASAP.”

Abyss lowered the phone and covered her face, quietly sobbing.

She should’ve been relieved her guess was right—but she wasn’t. Only panic and despair filled her.

She almost wished she’d died during the fever and just never known anything. Just drift off in sleep and turn without ever feeling this horror.

Because living like this? It was a nightmare.

She was just an average girl, through and through. Didn’t like working out, didn’t enjoy being outdoors. Her idea of fun was chilling at home, watching shows, gaming. A total couch potato—not the survivalist type.

The most intense exercise she ever did was that one mandatory 800-meter run during school fitness tests. Even then, she could barely finish.

A girl like her, who couldn’t lift a box without wheezing, in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?

There was no way she’d last even a single day.