Derek pressed his back against the cold brick wall, trying not to breathe too loud. His chest burned, lungs screaming for air, but silence meant survival. Outside, the street was crawling with them—shadows dragging their broken bodies through the misty night.
He used to think monsters were the stuff of old movies. Now they were everywhere. And derek? Just a nineteen-year-old kid who couldn't even fix a flat tire before the world ended.
His fingers clutched the handle of a chipped kitchen knife. Pathetic. But it was all he had left.
The moans outside grew distant. Slowly, carefully, derek slid down to the ground. He pulled his hood tighter over his head and stared at the empty street through broken glass.
"I'm not gonna die here," he whispered to himself, even though a part of him didn't believe it.
Chapter 2
The half dead
Days blurred together. Hunger gnawed at his ribs, thirst burned his throat. Derek scavenged what he could—cans, stale bread, dirty water from a rusted pipe. Every night, he hid in new ruins, praying not to be found.
But one night, everything changed.
He stumbled into the remains of an old factory, thinking it was empty. Then he saw it—no, him.
A boy about his age, crouched in the corner, skin pale and veins darkened like shadowy rivers. His eyes glowed faintly in the dark, but not with the mindless hunger of the infected. There was thought in them.
The boy tilted his head. His voice was raspy, broken, but human.
"You… not dead?"
Derek froze, knife raised. "Stay back."
The boy chuckled bitterly. "Don't worry. I'm… half gone already." He pulled back his sleeve, showing skin mottled and scarred. "Name's Zane. Seventy-five percent corpse, twenty-five percent human. Guess I got lucky."
Jordan should've run. Should've stabbed him. Instead, something in Zane's eyes stopped him. Pity, maybe. Loneliness.
"…What do you eat?" derek asked.
Zane's smile was crooked. "Not you. Don't worry. I can survive off scraps. Not the same as the others. I'm… different."
For the first time in weeks, derek lowered his knife.