Mutated System : Rise Of The Alpha

First Bite Into Mutation

Nathan walked toward the officer, reaching out to help him up.

"Leave it," the officer rasped, coughing up a spray of blood. He shoved Nathan’s hand away with what little strength he had left. "Get the hell out of here. Find somewhere safe. Somewhere... fortified."

"I’m not leaving you like this," Nathan said, his voice cracking.

"Listen to me!" the officer barked, then winced in pain. "It’s over. The world is finished. This wasn't an accident... this was a goddamn choice. A deliberate apocalypse. Now go!"

Nathan hesitated, his heart heavy with a guilt he shouldn't have felt. But as he looked closer, his blood ran cold. There, just beneath the officer’s collar, was a jagged, unmistakable bite mark. The skin around it was already turning a necrotic shade of grey.

The officer didn't say a word. He just looked at Nathan, his eyes steady, pleading for the one thing he couldn't do for himself. He wanted out before the monster took over.

Nathan’s eyes began to sting, tears blurring his vision. He reached out with a trembling hand and took the heavy service pistol from the officer’s grip. He raised it, the barrel shaking as he aimed it at the center of the man's forehead.

The officer didn't flinch. Instead, a small, weary smile touched his lips. "Do it," he whispered.

Nathan shook his head, a sob catching in his throat. "I can't... I can't do this."

"It’s okay," the officer said, his voice surprisingly soft now. his smile remained, peaceful in the face of the end. "It’s okay. Do it."

Nathan squeezed his eyes shut, turning his face away as a hot tear rolled down his cheek. His finger tightened on the trigger.

BANG.

The gunshot echoed like a thunderclap in the narrow hallway. The officer was gone instantly, his body slumping against the wall, finally at peace. Nathan stood there in the ringing silence, the smoking gun heavy in his hand, as the world outside continued to burn.

Nathan dropped the gun as if it had burned him. He bolted toward the back exit, the weight of what he’d just done crushing his chest. Every step was fueled by a raw, agonizing regret. He had just killed the only person who had tried to save him.

Tears streamed down his face, blurring the hellish landscape around him.

"I should have kept the gun," he thought for a split second, his survival instinct flickering through the grief. But the thought was immediately drowned out by revulsion. He couldn't carry it. He couldn't bear to hold the very thing he had used to end a man's life.

As Nathan ran through the hospital’s rear grounds, the world was a cacophony of nightmares. The sterile silence of the morning was long gone, replaced by the wet sounds of tearing flesh, guttural snarls, and the high-pitched, hysterical screams of people being cornered. Smoke from the lobby fire drifted over the parking lot like a funeral shroud.

He was focused on the gate, his mind a blur of pain and panic, when a shadow suddenly blotted out the sun.

CRASH.

A body plummeted from a fourth-floor window, screaming a jagged, broken sound before slamming directly onto Nathan’s back.

The force was immense. Nathan felt the air get punched out of his lungs as he was driven face-first into the hard asphalt. The weight on top of him was cold, heavy, and frantic. Before he could even grasp what had happened, he felt hands—claws—digging into his shoulders, and a snapping jaw searching for the back of his neck.

The zombie scrambled over him, its fingers digging into Nathan’s shoulders like iron hooks. Nathan thrashed, his body convulsing as he tried to throw off the weight of the starving monster.

"Get off! Someone, help! Help me!" Nathan shrieked, his voice breaking as he clawed at the asphalt.

But his cries were met with nothing but the distant sound of sirens and more screams. No one was coming. The weight on his back shifted, the creature’s cold chest pressing hard against him.

"Please... no... not like this..." Nathan whimpered, his strength failing.

The creature unhinged its jaw, letting out a wet, rattling growl right in his ear. With a sudden, violent lunge, it sank its teeth deep into the back of Nathan’s neck.

SHRED.

"AGHHHHHH! FUCK! STOP IT!" Nathan screamed, a white-hot spike of agony shooting through his spine.

He could hear the sickening sound of his own flesh being torn away. Hot blood erupted, spraying the ground in front of him. His body jerked in one final, pained convulsion before his muscles went limp.

"Why?" he thought, his vision beginning to dim as the blood pooled under his face. "Why does it have to end like this? I don't want to be one of them... I don't want to be one of these fucking things..."