2025-07-05 03:51:11Jonah stood alone in the hallway, his chest rising and falling with each anxious breath. The flickering lights above made the silence even more terrifying.
Every creak, every faint gust of air made his skin crawl. The monsters could be anywhere. And he didn’t plan on waiting around to find out where.
“Why did Clara run off like that?” he muttered under his breath. “I know she’s scared. We all are. But splitting up? That’s a death sentence in a place like this.”
The tension in the air was thick, like a storm about to break. Jonah tightened his grip on the rusty axe in his hand. If he made one mistake, just one noise too loud, one step too fast, those creatures would be on him in seconds.
He bolted for the second fire escape.
The first one had been a nightmare, zombies crawling all over it like ants on sugar. But maybe this one… just maybe…
Jonah moved fast, nearly tripping as he rounded the corner. His heart pounded like a drum inside his chest. This was it. If this fire escape was blocked too, he didn’t know what he’d do.
The stairs were narrow and dusty. Part of the building was still under renovation. Exposed pipes jutted out from the walls, wires hung like vines, and broken planks littered the ground. It was a mess, but all Jonah could think about was getting out.
“I’m not dying here,” he whispered.
He darted through the sixth floor, breath shallow, listening for anything that might give away the monsters' presence.
Then he froze. The fifth floor.
It was supposed to be his chance to escape. But the hallway was a nightmare. Zombies crowded the corridor, hunched over a man whose screams had already gone silent.
Jonah stepped back slowly. The creatures didn’t notice him.
Wait… why not?
Then he remembered. The zombies hunted by sound. They didn’t see, they heard.
His thoughts drifted to home. Warm meals. His mom’s laughter. His father’s silent strength. His little sister’s playful voice. He hadn’t seen them in months. He had taken this job to help them, to give them a better life.
And now? He might not even live to say goodbye.
He shook the thoughts away and crept forward. Each step was torture. The groans of the creatures, the wet tearing of flesh, it all echoed around him.
Then he saw it. The fire escape door.
But three zombies were blocking it, gnawing on a half-eaten corpse. No way through.
Unless…Jonah took the axe and tapped it lightly on the railing.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
It wasn’t loud. But it was enough.
The zombies stopped eating. Their heads slowly turned toward the sound. A second later, they began to shuffle away from the door, hunting the echo like predators chasing prey.
It worked.
Jonah ran down the stairs, leading them away. But the lower floors were worse. Wires scattered everywhere, some sparking with electricity. Construction materials blocked parts of the hallway. He dodged around them, hoping to stay one step ahead.
He stopped to listen. Nothing.
He looked back. “That’s strange,” he whispered. “They didn’t follow me…”
But he didn’t have time to think. He reached the next door and pushed it open and froze.
More zombies.
Five of them.
They turned at once. Their heads jerked in his direction. Sniffing. Snarling.
Jonah tried to shut the door, but they were faster. Bony hands shoved through the opening. Groaning, growling, snapping jaws. The weight of them pressed against him as he struggled to keep the door shut.
“Damn it!” he yelled. “I’m not going to die like this!”
But he couldn’t hold it forever.
He let go and sprinted down the hallway, his boots slamming on the tiled floor. He didn’t look back. He didn’t need to. The sound of snarling behind him was enough.
He turned the corner, lungs burning, heart thundering.
Then he heard voices. Real human voices.
“Did you hear that?” someone whispered. “Someone’s out there…”
“He won’t last long,” another replied.
Jonah rushed to the door they were hiding behind.
“Hey! Are you guys from the company upstairs?” he shouted, desperation in his voice. “Please! I need help!”
A pause. Then a reply. “Who are you? Why are you talking to us?”
“My name is Jonah Summers! I work on the seventh floor. Please, let me stay with you.”
Silence.
Then the voice came back, hard and cold. “No way. I don’t know if you’re one of them. You could be tricking us.”
Jonah felt like the ground dropped beneath his feet. “I’m human! I have an axe, I’ve been running all day just to survive!”
“Don’t care,” the voice said. “You’ll lead them right to us. Go away before you get us killed.”
Jonah stood there, stunned.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to be.
In movies, people helped each other. But here? Everyone was too scared to care. Humanity was tearing itself apart, not because of monsters, but because of fear.
He turned away from the door. “I hope you all make it,” he whispered bitterly.
Then he ran again.
He found another room. The door was half open, and he slipped inside, not even checking to see if it was safe.
That was a mistake.
The room was a mess. Tools scattered across the floor. Live wires sparkled with blue electricity. Jonah stepped forward, and something clicked beneath his boot.
BZZZZZT!
A shock ripped through his body.
He screamed.
His muscles seized. The axe dropped from his hands. He fell to the floor, twitching, gasping. His vision blurred. Darkness crept in at the corners.
And then… he heard it. A voice. Cold. Robotic. Clear as day.
“SYSTEM HOST FOUND.”
“INITIATING SYSTEM ACTIVATION.”
Jonah’s eyes flew open. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak.
But something inside him was waking up.
Something powerful. Something… not human.
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Chapter 119. The Nest Awakens
The wind over the ruined city was hot and heavy, like air coming from a furnace. The sky burned orange-red, and the clouds above looked as if they were on fire. From the heart of the city, strange beams of light shot into the sky, twisting, glowing, moving like living things. Every now and then, a low, deep sound rumbled through the ground, as if the world itself was breathing.Lisa opened her eyes slowly. The taste of dust filled her mouth. For a moment, she didn’t remember where she was. The last thing she recalled was the shaking ground, the collapse, and Jonah’s blazing form vanishing into the storm of fire and Hive flesh. Now, she was lying on cracked pavement, her clothes torn, her hands shaking. “Kevin…?” her voice cracked.Something moved beside her. Kevin groaned softly and sat up, his small face pale under the layer of dirt. “Lisa?” he whispered, looking around in fear. “What… What happened? Where’s Jonah?”Lisa tried to answer but her throat tightened. She glanced towar
Chapter 118. The Red Sky Rises 2
The wind rose without warning. One moment the night was still, and the next it was roaring like a living thing.Lisa woke first. She sat up inside the overturned truck, heart racing. The air hummed like electricity. Outside, the red fog had thickened, swirling across the ground in heavy waves. Each gust carried tiny sparks that glowed when they touched metal. “Rae,” Lisa whispered. “Wake up.”Rae stirred, then frowned. “It’s starting again, isn’t it?”Lisa nodded. Kevin was already awake, his small face lit faintly by the glow outside. He was staring out the window. “Lisa… it’s calling.”The words chilled her. “What’s calling, Kevin?”He didn’t blink. “The fire.”Before she could ask more, the ground began to shake. The metal shell of the truck groaned. Ellis hit his head trying to sit up. “What the hell?”The red storm hit them like a wave. Lightning slammed into the street, carving long, glowing lines through the concrete. The sky split open with light so bright it turned everythi
Chapter 118. The Red Sky Rises
Lisa walked at the front of the group, boots crunching over glass and ash. Kevin followed close beside her, clutching her hand. His small face was pale and tired, eyes half-closed from exhaustion.Behind them, Rae and Ellis dragged their feet, too quiet. No one had really spoken since the chamber collapsed. The air itself seemed to whisper now, like every ruined wall and twisted wire remembered Jonah’s voice.The world had changed overnight, aAnd none of them knew how much worse it would get.Lisa stopped beside a half-fallen traffic light. Its green bulb flickered weakly, the light twitching between green and red every few seconds. She stared up at it, lost in thought.Rae finally broke the silence. “You know it’s useless, right? That thing’s been blinking for hours. The city’s dead.”Lisa looked back at her. “Then why does it still have power?”Rae shrugged. “Hive veins under the ground. It’s feeding everything. We should keep moving before it finds us again.”Lisa didn’t argue. Sh
Chapter 117. The Burning Horizon 2
Everyone froze, catching their breath. Kevin clung to Lisa, crying quietly. Rae lowered her gun, her hands shaking. “What the hell was that?”Ellis wiped sweat from his face. “Hive spawn. But… it looked like it was burning inside.”Lisa looked at the pile of glowing ash. “Because Jonah’s fire is still in them. He’s fighting through them.”Rae stared at her. “You don’t know that.”Lisa met her eyes. “Yes, I do.”The creature’s ashes still glowed on the floor when the silence fell again. No one spoke for a long moment. The faint hum of the tunnels seemed louder now, like a heartbeat coming from under the ground.Rae checked her rifle and exhaled shakily. “That thing wasn’t just Hive,” she muttered. “It moved like it was alive, but its body. ”“Was burning from the inside,” Lisa finished quietly. She stared at the fading ash. “Jonah’s still fighting them. He’s inside the Hive somehow, turning its own things against it.”Ellis crouched near the remains, eyes half-narrowed. “Then maybe ev
Chapter 117. The Burning Horizon
Smoke still drifted across the broken plain where the city once stood. The air smelled of dust and ash. Every few seconds, the ground gave a low, tired groan, like it was still remembering what pain felt like.Lisa sat beside a fallen highway pillar, holding Kevin close. The boy had cried himself to sleep, his cheek pressed against her shoulder. His small body shivered even though the air was hot.Rae stood a few steps away, watching the horizon. The sky glowed red, clouds circling around a single pillar of fire in the distance. It looked like a tower made of light, pulsing with a slow rhythm that matched the ground’s faint tremor.Ellis crouched near a chunk of broken concrete, checking the few supplies they had left, half a bottle of water, a flare gun, a cracked map, and a small radio that hissed quietly with static. “No signal,” he said, his voice dry. “Not even the static’s normal anymore.”Rae didn’t look away from the burning skyline. “Nothing’s normal anymore.”Lisa laid Kev
Chapter 116. Echoes in the Dark 2
Jonah floated in the dark. There was no ground, no air, no sound of breathing. Only a vast red sky turning slowly above him, and a city hanging upside down in the distance. The buildings were broken, hanging by threads of light. He reached out, but his hand passed through them like smoke. The Hive had no shape, but it had a memory, his memory.Every step he took, the ground formed under his feet: burning streets, shattered windows, the old city he once knew. He walked through it in silence, the world flickering like fire seen through water. The more he walked, the more the city changed. Faces appeared in the smoke, Lisa’s, Kevin’s, the people he failed to save. Their eyes watched him, unblinking. “Jonah,” they whispered.He turned toward the sound. A voice rose from the mist, soft, warm, familiar. “You did this for them,” it said. “You wanted to protect. You wanted peace.”Jonah clenched his fists. “No. You’re not her.”The mist thickened, forming into Lisa’s shape. Her smile was g
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