Telenburgh 2050

Ara Pov:

“Run faster, they're getting close” A voice called out in front of Ara, as she jumped over the huge crack on the ground, her knee almost giving out, but she kept her stance. Her foot caught the edge of the concrete crack and she stumbled, her body lurching forward. The ground came up at her, gray and jagged, but her hands shot out on instinct. She pushed off hard, felt her palms scrape raw, and stayed upright. Behind her, the sound grew louder.

She had gone to fetch supplies from an abandoned store in the outskirts of the city that evening. There, she met other survivors. Just as they were about to leave, one of them had unintentionally alerted the zombies, bringing their attention towards them, and now they were running.

Food was almost impossible to find now, as survivors were killing each other over scraps, and the military had abandoned the city entirely. Every street smells like blood, smoke, and rotting flesh. The city had become entirely deserted, and inhabited. Every intake of air felt like chemicals and blood that burned the back of her throat. She'd gotten used to it over the past five years, but it still made her gag

Telenburgh had not always been like this.

Three years before the outbreak, the city had been chosen for a classified government biotech programme. Nobody living here had been told. No announcements, no public record, nothing. Just quiet construction on the east side of the city, a facility that most residents assumed was a water treatment plant. The military presence had already been building for two years before anyone thought to question it. Then the questions stopped mattering because the people asking them started getting sick.

The infection moved slowly at first. One doctor at Mercy General went home early complaining of a headache. Then three nurses. Then the patients on the third floor stopped responding to treatment in ways that made the other doctors write incident reports that nobody above them ever acknowledged. By the time anyone understood what was happening, the lockdown was already in place.

No one could get in. No one could get out.

The government called it a containment protocol. The people trapped inside called it something else.

The neighbouring cities were gone. That was the thing nobody talked about because talking about it did not help. Linford, Castal, New Merin — the reports that had come through in the early weeks were bad enough that most survivors had stopped trying to reach anyone outside the walls. Whatever was happening in Telenburgh had been worse everywhere else. At least here there were still people fighting. At least here the military had left behind enough infrastructure that a few buildings still had power and the water still ran on certain streets. The rest of the world had gone quiet.

Telenburgh was not safe. But it was the last place with survivors still standing.

Ara had lived here her whole life. She knew every back alley, every shortcut, every building the zombies had not yet claimed. That knowledge was the only thing keeping her alive most days.

Just as they thought they had managed to escape the zombies, a new set of zombies came rushing out from another street with force, running towards them. Once more, they ran. Ara, exhausted, starving, and injured, kept forcing herself forward because Ryan was waiting for her at their hideout. A heavy backpack filled with food, medicine, weapons, and supplies bounces painfully against her back while a fresh zombie bite burns beneath her sleeve. She knows the infection is already spreading, but she refuses to stop moving.

They moved from street to street, diverting the zombies, until there were no traces of them anymore. The group scattered, each returning to their various destinations. And Ara made way towards her and Ryan's first hideout.

It's been exactly five years since there was an outbreak of a chemical that turned humans into zombies. The world had been in turmoil ever since, as there was food scarcity, water, and even movements were restricted. The military had shut down all routes, no one could get in, no one left too. They called it a protocol to keep them safe. But it was a prison.

As she walked home, all she could think of was her boyfriend, Ryan, his face when he saw the supplies and goods she brought home, how happy he'd be. He's been acting quite distant and different for months now, but she overlooked it. She had convinced herself that he loved her, and would never do anything to hurt her, even though he had always been complaining about her and her being dirty everytime. But he didn't know the stress and how hard it was to bring home supplies. But Ara still loved him, still told herself that underneath all those insults, a tiny part of him still loved her.

Finally, she reached her destination. It was a hidden underground basement, which served as a hideout from Zombies. She opened the tunnel, and climbed the stairwell, down into the basement.

Inside, the electricity was lit, the chairs disorganised, everything in chaos. And Ryan sat at the end of the room, his back to her, playing a video game.

“How many times have I told you to stop turning on the lights once it's past five?” Ara said, turning off the lights “It'll draw attention over here, which won't be good for any of us. The military might even arrest us for unauthorized habitation.” She dropped the supplies she had gotten on the table, and turned off Ryan's game.

“C'mon baby, I just wanted to play a game” He stood up, looking over her shoulders to where the supplies were kept, and smiled. “Look who brought home goodies” he moved past her, ransacking the goods.

Ara started to move towards him, but was stopped when he raised one of his fingers. “First off, you need to wash up. You stink and you know I hate it when you do. God, how many times have I warned you about this?” He ran his hand through his hair.

Ara stood there in silence. She looked down at herself, and indeed, she looked quite dirty, but she definitely wasn't smelling bad. But Ryan never appreciated her efforts. No thank you for bringing home supplies, nothing.

“I'm sorry, let me quickly wash up” she walked out of the room, moving towards the other room to take a quick bath. She looked down at her blood stained hand, which Ryan hasn't bothered asking how she was, or at least, say sorry.

She took the last of their clean water into the tiny bathroom and washed the blood off her skin while trying to convince herself Ryan was just stressed by the apocalypse.

A few minutes later, she came out, looking all neat and well kept. Except that Ryan was nowhere to be seen. And worse, the supplies were now gone.

Had Ryan taken the supplies to our second hideout? She thought.

Before she could process what was going on, she heard a glass shatter upstairs, which wasn't meant to be possible, unless someone has deliberately lured the zombies there.

No, no, no, this can't be. Ryan would never do something like that to her.

She grabbed her torchlight, as the night was slowly approaching, and made her way outside.

Terrified and furious, Ara fought her way through the stairwell while trying to escape the infected flooding the building.

Even as she escaped, part of her still believed that Ryan loved her, and would never betray her. Desperately, she made her way towards their second hideout with hopes of an explanation in her mind.

Thankfully, she made it through multiple groups of Zombies, before reaching their second hideout. This one was an abandoned building, which the military and government had mistakenly forgotten about, or had no idea it existed.

But something felt wrong when she entered. She didn't know what yet, but she felt it before she could even see it.

Slowly, without alerting, she walked inside. What she saw wasn't what she had expected to see. On the ground were pieces of food, food that she had fought so hard to bring back home.

Then, what he heard next made her heart skip a beat. She heard voices, laughter, coming from inside the room. A woman's voice too.

Let it be the television or his stupid game, she thought to herself. But on opening the door, she froze.

Ryan and a woman, Elena, her best friend, were comfortably eating the supplies she had nearly died to bring home. Elena was resting on Ryan's chest, as Ryan fed her, laughing.

When they noticed her, Elena looked away smugly, as if she hadn't just caught her with her boyfriend. Ryan's face twisted with disgust and irritation on seeing her. He didn't even feel guilty.

“How dare you” Ara lunges forward, anger flaring in her heart. “How dare you Ryan, how dare you, Elena? So this is where you are, right? You took the supplies I brought home, and intentionally brought the zombies to our hideout just so you could meet with her?” Ara stood some inches before them.

“Will you stop making noise?” Ryan was now standing up from the couch. “You see, this is why I hate you. Oh God” he ran his fingers through his hair.

“And you, “Ara looked at Elena, who was slowly buttoning her shirt, still looking unbothered. “You slept with my boyfriend? And you aren't even feeling bothered or guilty” Ara felt so betrayed. Two most important people in her life had utterly betrayed her.

“I mean, you have no one to blame.” She looked up and met Ara’s eye. “C'mon, have you taken a look at yourself? You look……” Elena trailed her eyes from Ara's head to toe with disgust “....dirty. Unkept. And disgusting. I wonder how he was able to keep up with you all this time.” She scoffed.

Ara felt a single drop of tears escape her eyes. She couldn't believe what she saw or just heard.

“Let me tell you, Elena is more useful than you. She's neat, she knows how to treat a man, she's more curvy than you too. Moreover, you're already infected. You think I didn't see your blood stained hand then? You are weak, Ara. Utterly weak and so soft to survive anyways. I just did you a favour to let you die there without having to fully convert into one of those…. creatures.” The way Ryan said it was so painful to hear that made Ara lose control and moved forward to attack him and Elena.

But even before she could reach, Ryan immediately brought out one of his legs, hitting it so hard on Ara's leg, and she had to wince in pain. Her leg had gotten broken by him. Before she could say or do anything, Ryan dragged her by her hair, her head throbbing as she fought to free herself.

“Stop, Ryan. You're hurting me. Please stop.” But Ryan didn't. He dragged her outside the other end of the room, at the hallway, just outside for the Zombies to see. Then he locked the reinforced door behind him as he walked back in, leaving Ara to her faith.

Ara slowly dragged her feet up with the remaining strength she had, pounding desperately on the door, pleading Ryan to let her in, but he paid a deaf ear.

“Ryan, please, I'm sorry. Just, just let me in, please. I beg you.” She begged loudly as she could hear the zombies growling echoing through the corridor getting closer.

Ara picked up a metal beside her and she stabbed, kicked, and killed any zombie that came nearer to her, struggling to survive, but there were too many of them now, and no weapon to fight them all.

Just when she was fighting, one of the creatures bit her. She turned frantically, stabbing it with the peak of the iron orb she had. Then another bit her shoulder. She groaned in pain, stabbing it.

Her vision began to blur after a while. She had begun to turn into them.

“No, no, I can't be one of them. No, I don't want to.” She cried, thinking back to before this apocalypse began. Back to when things were okay. Her family was still alive. Except they had died years back before the apocalypse even began. She was just a lonely girl, who met Ryan and fell in love.

Barely conscious and close to turning, Ara dragged herself toward the toxic river near the edge of the city. The black water churned violently below, filled with chemical waste, rotting corpses, blood, and dangerous liquids dumped there after the apocalypse began.

As the infected slowly closed in around her once again, Ara breaks down over everything she sacrificed for Ryan only to be abandoned like she meant nothing.

Standing at the edge of the poisoned river with death waiting behind her, Ara makes one final vow.

“If I could start again… I would never be this weak.”

She throws herself into the chemical-filled river and disappears into the darkness below.