Starhaven City.
A train sped toward the next station. In the train cabins, people were sleeping because of overwork and exhaustion.
Ryu Jin was one of them; his head was resting against the seat, and his hands were crossed as he slept.
"Ahghh."
His eyes jerked open because of a sharp pain near his throat; instinctively, he slapped his palm over it.
"Eww."
Seeing a rather large bug that looked like a large black beetle but had purple lines on its body, Ryu's face scrunched in disgust. Quickly pulling a tissue from his pocket, he wiped his hand clean.
'What kind of species was that bug?' He thought about it because he had never heard of that kind of bug.
"What the…" he muttered, feeling his sight grow blurry and his head heavier with each passing second.
He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. Before he could contemplate further, his stop arrived. He quickly grabbed his briefcase and walked out of the train.
When the pain in his head became unbearable, he sat down on the bench near the station exit and took out his phone to dial the emergency number.
If he were at home, he wouldn't have called emergency services—he would have taken a tablet and slept for a few hours, hoping to get better.
But because his house was still far away and his vision was failing, he felt he might lose consciousness.
"Ahhh, I don't know how much they will charge me," he yelled in his mind, releasing his frustration.
He wiped the imaginary tears from his eyes after imagining himself paying a hefty amount of money.
He tried to keep himself distracted by thinking nonsensical things to prevent himself from falling unconscious.
"GRRRRR."
His ear twitched when he heard a strange growl—like a beast growling.
'Who is playing these?' His first thought was that someone must be playing those growls on their phone, because how could an animal be here in the underground metro?
Before he could make sense of it, Darkness covered his vision, and his body went limp. He slid against the back of the bench and fell into a lying position on it.
*****
"Grrr."
"Huh." The man wearing an office suit stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a growl behind him.
Gulp. Sweat flowed down his forehead, but he didn't dare wipe it. He didn't even dare to move. He could feel breath on his neck, but it was cold.
"Ahhhhhh, what is that thing?!"Around him, the crowd started screaming, pointing in his direction.
It happened suddenly. Before he could even think of running away, when he finally felt the urge to, it was already too late. The thing behind him latched onto him, and he felt immense pain in his shoulder.
The crowd grew frantic, seeing a zombie-like human tearing the flesh off a living man. His jaw was stained red, blood dripping from his mouth, and a chunk of meat was clenched between his teeth as he chewed.
"Hey, stop that!"The metro security guard squeezed through the panicked crowd, even pushing people forward as he tried to reach the madman.
"Hey, man, look at us! We're warning you for the last time," one guard shouted, pointing his pistol at the creature.
"Call the cops! What are you doing?!" the senior guard yelled at his coworker, an obese man struggling to keep the gun steady in his trembling hands.
He looked like someone who had become a guard without proper training, probably by throwing around some money.
When the senior guard placed his finger on the trigger, the pale madman finally looked up at them. The obese guard nearly dropped his phone when he saw those red eyes and that ghostly, blood-drained skin.
"GRAAAAOE!"The zombie growled at them, releasing the man's chest. The victim had already gone unconscious from the screaming and blood loss.
The metro was almost empty now, leaving only a few overly curious people hiding and watching the scene.
In their horrified eyes, the zombie suddenly started running toward the guards. Unlike in stories, this thing was incredibly fast—faster than an athlete.
Its movements were still jerky, its body dragging oddly, but the speed was undeniable.
"Bang!"The guard pulled the trigger out of pure panic.
The bullet tore through the zombie's chest and lodged itself in the rail behind it, but mysteriously, the creature kept running as if the shot meant nothing.
"There are two of them!" someone shouted, drawing everyone's eyes to where he was pointing.
On a bench nearby exit, another figure was trying to stand. His skin was just as pale, his eyes the same unnatural red, and black veins crawled across his hands and neck.
*****
Ryu didn't know how long he had been unconscious. When he woke up, his vision was still blurry—everything looked half gray and half in color.
"Grrrr…"When he tried to speak, only a low growl came out. Afterward, his throat felt as if ants were running inside it.
'What am I doing…?'He tried to stop himself from committing the horror he sensed was happening, but his body felt possessed. He couldn't control a single movement.
He kept screaming in his mind to stop, but his body knelt beside a man wearing a uniform similar to a SWAT officer, and he began chewing the flesh of the dead body.
'Ughh, I'm going to throw up,' he thought helplessly, even though the flesh tasted to him like a five-star dish.
After two bites, he stopped when he suddenly tasted bitterness. The officer's body had turned completely pale; only then did the flesh begin to taste like garbage, and Ryu's body finally stopped eating.
Looking around, he noticed the sky was dark, and the only sounds were the distant growls of wandering zombies.
His body began walking aimlessly, while he himself remained trapped, able to do nothing except think.
'Why did I eat that? Augh, I want to throw up so badly.'