Chapter 5

I was woken up at midnight by a scream.

Not a zombie's roar from outside, but from inside the main house.

I flipped on the monitors.

David was standing in the middle of the living room, but he wasn't David anymore.

His skin was a dead grey, his eyes completely clouded over, and black fluid drooled from his mouth.

Worst of all, the dark red veins now covered his entire face.

Sarah was screaming in a corner.

"Help! Help me! David's turned into a monster!"

The others rushed out from their rooms and froze.

"That's impossible!" Marcus stammered. "He wasn't bitten!"

The zombified David let out a beastly roar and lunged for the closest person, Emma.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Gunshots exploded indoors, the echoes deafening in the enclosed space.

Emma was firing, but her hands were shaking so badly that bullets flew everywhere.

"Stop! Don't fire inside!" Liam yelled.

Too late.

The chain reaction of gunshots and screams was instant.

James suddenly clutched his head, groaning in pain. "My head... it hurts so bad..."

His eyes began to turn bloodshot. The same dark red veins appeared on his neck.

"Another one!" Linda shrieked. "James is infected too!"

"Infected? How?" Marcus shook his head frantically. "No one was bitten!"

BANG! BANG!

More gunshots.

In the panic, everyone was firing.

Bullets ricocheted around the room. Screams and gunfire blended into a symphony from hell.

"Cease fire! Everyone, cease fire!" Liam tried to regain control.

But no one could hear him. The noise was too loud.

Fueled by the frantic noise, more people started showing symptoms.

Sarah's eyes turned red.

Marcus started coughing violently.

Linda stumbled into a wall.

"Weapons! Give us weapons!" someone yelled at Chloe. "Give us the guns!"

"The guns are useless!" Chloe screamed back. "Look at them! They're all turning into monsters!"

"You!" Emma suddenly pointed a finger at Chloe, her voice dripping with venom. "This is all your fault!"

"What?" Chloe stared, stunned.

"You hoarded all the weapons!" Emma accused wildly. "If we had good guns from the start, David wouldn't have turned!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Chloe shot back.

"Of course it does!" Marcus joined in. "You selfishly stockpiled everything! We didn't have enough firepower to protect ourselves!"

"You're all insane!" Chloe clutched her handbag. "These weapons are mine!"

"You're still thinking about yourself at a time like this?" Sarah screamed. "We're going to die! We're all going to die!"

The argument grew louder, more vicious.

Just then, the air shimmered.

Liam appeared out of thin air, clutching a blood-soaked Emma.

"I've got her!" he panted. "The teleport works!"

But Emma was thrashing in his arms, letting out an ear-splitting scream.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

Her shriek was louder than anything before.

The air shimmered again, and Liam teleported with her to another corner.

But Emma's screaming didn't stop. It grew more hysterical.

"I want out! I want out!"

Every time Liam teleported, Emma's screams grew wilder.

And with every scream, the symptoms in the others worsened.

Liam realized what was happening, but it was too late.

With every "rescue," he was just making things worse. He wasn’t a savior. He was a catalyst. His teleports, Emma's shrieks, their own panicked screams—it was a symphony of death, and he was its conductor.

"Stop! Liam! Stop teleporting!" Chloe yelled in desperation.

But Liam was exhausted. He collapsed on the floor.

His teleport ability had a limit, and he had reached it.

The chaos in the house hit its peak.

Gunshots, screams, roars, arguments—all the sounds mixed together into a hell of pure noise.

I glanced at the decibel meter on my monitor.

The needle was slamming into the red.

80... 90... 100...

The warning light flashed like a rave.

And on my other screen, the green dots of my family's life signs blinked out.

One. By. One.