Outbreak – Episode 1: The Day It Began
07:12 AM, District 12 Residential Zone, Eastern Urban Belt
The alarm didn't ring that morning.
Carter sat on the edge of the bed, one sock on, the other hanging from his hand. He hadn't moved in five minutes. Outside, birds chirped over the rustle of passing trams, muffled beneath high-rise walls and security fences.
Sixteen years old. Half asleep. But something felt wrong.
Not outside — that world was normal. The problem was inside him.
Across the hallway, Jane's voice filtered faintly through the closed door, her morning routine as disciplined as ever. She never needed an alarm. Never forgot to make her bed. Never left dishes undone.
"Jane, where's the coffee?" Carter called out.
No answer.
Instead, the sound of boots walking past their front door — not commoners. Heavy. Steel-heeled.
Soldiers.
Carter peeked through the curtain.
Three uniformed men in jet-black coats, each wearing a distinct silver badge on the left chest — Hunter insignias.
That was unusual.
He opened the door just as Jane approached, towel over her shoulder, black T-shirt half tucked. Her gaze caught his, calm but calculating.
"You saw them?" she asked.
He nodded.
"They don't come this far out," she added.
"Maybe someone got attacked," Carter said. But he didn't believe that. Not here. Not yet.
08:43 AM, Outside District Hospital, Gate 4
The city functioned like a clock — sterile, efficient. Only Jane's father, Mr. Smith, a retired intelligence officer turned Hunter liaison, could navigate it like water.
Today, he wasn't at breakfast.
And Jane wasn't talking.
"Carter," she said suddenly, as they approached the public hospital, "We're visiting Johanna. She's getting discharged today."
Carter's lips parted. Right. He had almost forgotten.
Johanna — Jane's twin. Brighter, softer, sharp-minded but warm in a way Jane never allowed herself to be. She was hurt in an accident three weeks ago — freak incident during a training module.
As they passed the triage zone, a nurse's voice behind them said:
"...third spontaneous undead case in two days."
Carter stopped. Looked back.
"What's undead?" he whispered.
Jane didn't answer. She just walked faster.
09:01 AM, Hospital Ward – Floor 3
The hallway smelled like metal and burnt cloth. Nurses were tense. Two Hunters stood outside Room 3-B, rifles folded across their chests.
Carter glanced at them, heart picking up pace.
He followed Jane in.
Johanna sat on the edge of the bed, hospital band around her wrist, eyes brighter than he remembered. "Took you long enough."
Carter smirked. "Sorry. Got distracted by some men in black."
She tilted her head. "Hunters?"
"Yeah," Carter muttered, "Are they here for something?"
The moment the words left his mouth, the room's lights flickered. Then screaming — just one floor below.
Gunshots.
Screams again.
Not panic — terror.
Then a wet, sickening sound echoed through the hall — like bones cracking, flesh tearing.
All three turned to the door.
The hallway erupted.
09:03 AM, Hospital Hallway, Floor 3
The hallway was no longer calm. It was chaos.
Nurses sprinted past, one of them soaked in red from shoulder to wrist, mouth wide open in a silent scream. The lighting above flickered violently, casting everyone in and out of ghostly blue-white flashes.
Bang! Bang!
Gunfire cracked downstairs again — controlled bursts.
Carter instinctively pulled Johanna back behind the hospital bed while Jane slipped toward the door, body low, fingers pressed against the wall as if she'd done this a hundred times.
"Jane—" Carter called out.
She didn't look back.
Instead, she peered into the hallway. Her eyes narrowed.
One of the Hunters outside the room was gone. The other — his throat was missing. Only a wet cavity remained as his body slumped forward.
Blood spread like ink across the white linoleum floor.
"What... the hell," Carter whispered.
Then came the growling — not human. Not animal.
Something between.
Heavy, uneven footsteps echoed from the stairwell. Carter grabbed the IV pole like a weapon, hands shaking. Jane reached down, yanked a tactical knife off the dead Hunter's holster.
And then it appeared.
From around the corner — not running, but dragging itself — a Mob.
It had once been a man, maybe a doctor — still wearing his ID badge half-fused to his ribcage. But its skin was peeling, bones warped. Its left arm had twisted into a scythe-like appendage. The eyes glowed faint green, like bio-luminescence from hell.
Johanna gasped behind Carter.
The creature turned at the sound.
And charged.
09:06 AM, Hospital Hallway
Carter didn't think. He just acted.
He rammed the IV pole at the Mob's face — useless. The thing didn't even flinch. But before it reached him, Jane moved.
One step. A low slide. The knife in her hand arced upward — straight through the side of its skull.
Pop.
It dropped instantly.
Carter stared at her, breathing hard.
She didn't say a word. Just wiped the blood from her face.
09:12 AM, Emergency Stairs
Alarms blared overhead now. Pre-recorded security announcements looped from hidden speakers:
"Attention. Level 3 threat detected. All civilians, evacuate to the nearest exit. All certified Hunters — report to Rally Point Bravo. Repeat—"
Jane led the way, Johanna in between them. The stairs reeked of rot. Carter caught glimpses of others — patients bleeding, crawling, some halfway through turning.
"What the hell is happening?" Johanna asked, trembling.
"We need to reach the main exit," Jane said. "And pray the Association already dispatched a squad."
"The Mob," Carter muttered. "How are they here?
This zone was classified Green-Level. Mob appearances in the city were rare — contained, monitored, quarantined. That's why the Hunter Association even existed — to make sure outbreaks never reached civilians again.
So why now?
Why here?
09:25 AM, Hospital Exit – Outside
Smoke poured from the building behind them as the three burst out into the open.
Sirens. Screams. Gunfire.
Civilians ran across the streets, some tackled mid-sprint by Mobs that had already overrun the parking lot. The sky above was clear — painfully bright — a horrifying contrast to the blood-soaked pavement.
A Hunter van screeched to a stop ahead, doors flying open.
"Get in!" one shouted. "We're falling back! District breach confirmed!"
Jane didn't hesitate. She shoved Johanna inside first, then Carter.
As the van pulled away, Carter looked back — saw something he would never forget:
A little boy, maybe six, kneeling beside his mother. She had already turned — Mob veins blackening her arms, her jaw unhinged, teeth re-growing.
The child didn't run.
He just held her hand until she bit into his throat.
To be continued....