"Liliana… I like you. Would you like to go out with me?"
Damien King could feel his heart pounding, his cheeks flushed with the heat of his nervousness. This was it, the peak of his existence. Everything that happened during his 20 years of life all culminated into this one, breathtaking moment.
For months, he had contemplated and rehearsed his confession to a beautiful college-belle named Liliana. She is everything he found attractive in a woman, tall, kind, and both academically gifted, and a genius in sports, namely volleyball.
Her beauty is merely a bonus. Jaw-droppingly fair skin with a texture so smooth that even Korean idols were jealous. Sharp, strikingly blue eyes captured every soul that happened to gaze into them. Long brown hair that flowed freely with the breeze. A figure standing tall and confident, with curves that made any other woman looking at her, envious.
Truly, a beauty that Damien, someone with average looks, average talents, and below-average grades surely had no chance to be with.
But did that hold him from confessing? No, of course not. Why would he? He loved living life this way. With a daring mind, proud words, albeit with a few stupid decisions at times, he admits.
Like the time when he asked an up-and-coming MMA fighter to spar with him. He never expected his arm to bend that way, a nearly 90-degree angle in the opposite direction.
Yet still, not once did he regret that decision. He tried his best after all, so what if he was beaten to a new shade of blue? He went into and exited the ring out of his own decision.
"If you're unsure about something, then you should forget about it altogether."
That admittedly naive, and far too straightforward way of thinking is what drove the engine behind the young man named Damien.
And now, with all of his plans, regrets, and thoughts about Liliana in the past, Damien now stood in front of his crush, letting bare his life's motto.
Liliana thought deeply, her lips pursing into a thin line. Her blue eyes darted to the sky, as if conversing with a higher being about his question.
Eventually, what Damien waited for, her answer, came into fruition. Her puffy lips slowly began to open. With a polite smile that seemed to shine as bright as the sun.
But… that's the thing. It got brighter. Too bright. Liliana's form slowly morphed into a dark shadow as the bright light engulfed the park around them, blanketing everything in an infinite layer of light.
Seconds ticked by, he felt his eyes straining from the intense glow. He had to close his eyes to shield himself from the suns rays—
Wait, that's not right. Fluttering his eyelids, Damien felt that his eyes were already closed? What's happening?
Then, Damien's alarm blared.
His eyes shot awake.
Laying on a bed that was comparitively, tiny to his frame, Damien sighed.
It was all a dream. An odd one at that, since he remembered everything within it.
He gazed at the ceiling with a content look. Although it was merely a dream, Damien felt a smile creep up onto his face as he thought back on his words. That was the feeling that he loved, the feeling of letting all the nervous and indecisive thoughts go, and letting the universe take a hold of his fate.
"...What am I doing? I woke up early for once." Damien murmured groggily to himself, as he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, lazily scratching at an itchy spot on his back.
As he ate through his breakfast consisting of a few leftovers from the night before, Damien unplugged his phone from the charger and scrolled through his feed, eventually settling on the local news channel since nothing else caught his eye.
<—espite a statement from the Sudanese president saying that they have the situation under control, WHO and other health organizations tally the total deaths of the new Malum virus to over 200,000 individuals over the course of the week, with many of the individuals coming from the rural areas in Sudan, and parts of Libya—>
Damien blinked in surprise. Even Corona at it's peak wasn't that bad. Just what is going on with this world?
Finishing up his breakfast, Damien quickly tidied up his mess and washed up, before stepping out of his apartment in a simple pair of jogging pants and a t-shirt. He liked breathability and comfort over style after all.
Walking through the streets with a noticeable yet discreet energy, Damien glanced at the familiar scene around him. While he did come from a more open neighborhood in the suburbs, the dense city life was perfectly fine with him. Sure, while there were some downsides, like the brutalist nature of how the tall skyscrapers blotted out the sky, and how the smell of exhausts stuck in the air, Damien still felt content with what he had.
Then, that's when it hit Damien. A smell in the air. Not like the suffocating smoke from the cars, this was something else... if he were to describe it... it smelled like something was dead. Rotting.
As Damien passed an alleyway, the smell seemed to lash out and punch him in the nose, as he reeled back from the stench. The odor was so pungent, so acidic, that it made him gag.
Turning to the dark shadows of the alley, Damien found someone hunched over a dumpster. A woman, by the looks of her dress.
Yet Damien couldn't help but feel something was off about her. She was missing one of her heels, and her dress was in tatters... taking a step closer, Damian noticed that she was seemingly looking for something in the dumpster.
Still, something at the back of Damien's mind, the one that his parents raised, told him to help this woman who was obviously estranged. Mustering up his courage and covering his nose, he slowly approached the woman.
"Hey, you good?" Damien called out. The woman stilled, as her upper body slowly raised itself out of the dumpster.
Alarm bells started ringing in Damien's head. It was dark since it was barely morning out, so he could only see the unnervingly still silhouette of the woman. Yet that wasn't what caught his eye, his gaze stared at the thing that was moving around her mouth. At first, he thought it was merely a patch of hair clinging to her face. To his horror, the thing at her mouth suddenly squeaked and whined.
A live, struggling rat is in her mouth.
Crunch
The rat's struggles suddenly stopped as the woman bit down on it, releasing a sickening flow of red fluids onto the damp floor.
"What the hell..." Damien took a step back.
Memories flashed through his mind. He recalled some guys on the internet sharing rumors about how the dead victims of this new Malum virus weren't actually dead. Their proof being a short, blurry security footage of a supposedly dead man lashing out at a doctor.
He initially brushed it off as a hoax. But now, as the woman hobbled and growled animalistic sounds, giving off a stench of rotting flesh, Damien panicked.
"Don't come any closer!"
Spotting a nearby brick, Damien picked it up and pointed it against the woman.
"This better be a fuckin' prank! Else' I'll crack your skull open!"
Despite his threats, the woman continued approaching, dropping the dead rat on the floor. Thanks to the commotion, a small crowd began gathering behind Damien, taking out their phones and recording the confrontation between the two.
Damien could hear the people behind him speaking, commenting. But he tuned them out. The zombie's eyes were locked onto him and him alone, ichor drooling down from it's slack mouth as it gazed at him with a primordial hunger.
All humans have three reactions to danger. Fight, Flight, or Freeze.
With a surge of power, Damien slammed the brick across the woman's skull with a sickening crack. Gasps and shouts erupted from the gathered crowd, but Damien still couldn't hear them. The zombie was still alive, twitching and rolling around as if trying to find it's sense of balance.
Damien hit it again, then again, then again. Each strike was accompanied by a shrill sound of the zombie roaring in defiance, only to be stifled by the bloody brick in Damien's hands. Even as the infected tried resisting by grabbing at Damien's clothes, it could only leave small tears in the fabric as it's strength slowly seeped out.
Then, by the end of it, with heavy breaths and bloodstained clothes, Damien stood above the dead woman. Her skull and face caved in to the point of being unrecognizable. Strands of her blonde hair clinging to his hands and arms.
"Out of the way! Out of the..." Damien looked over his shoulder to see two police officers push themselves past the crowd, growing horrified expressions at the scene. "Holy shit..."
Damien unintentionally stared at them blankly. He could feel his strength draining out of his body as the adrenaline ran out, exhaustion kicking in.
Perhaps it was the way he stared at the officers like a psychopath, or maybe it was because of the way he turned to face them, still holding the bloody brick in his hands, wearing bloody clothing. But something about Damien spooked the two police officers, who pulled out their pistols from their holsters in response.
"Hands where I can see them!"
"Drop the weapon! Don't do this, kid!"
Damien felt his legs giving out as he took a step forward. His mind in a haze from what just happened. He couldn't even think to let go of the brick, let alone follow the officer's instructions. It was because of his sudden movement, the bloody scene, and the blank look on his face, that the officers reacted.
By firing at Damien.