Blood smeared across the cold, sterile walls as the man slammed against them, barely staying on his feet. He stumbled, panting hard, one hand clutching his side where the blood poured out endlessly.
His hospital gown was torn, soaked in red. His bare feet slapped against the cold tile as he ran.
He didn't look back.
He couldn't.
He didn't have time to process what he had just done … or what had been done to him.
All he knew was one thing.
"I need to escape."
Flashing red lights lit up the corridor like a warzone. Sirens shrieked, drilling into his skull. A voice rang out over the speakers, calm but urgent:
"Subject Z has escaped containment."
"He is heavily injured, but extremely dangerous."
"All available units, capture him alive. Do not … I repeat … do not come in contact with his blood."
His heart dropped. They knew.
The whole lab was on lockdown now.
He glanced up at one of the ceiling-mounted cameras. The red light blinked. Watching. Always watching.
I can't stop now. I'll die here if I do.
He turned a corner, only to freeze .. a dead end.
His breathing picked up. Panic clawed at his chest.
Footsteps echoed behind him …. heavy boots. Armed. Fast.
He spun around, eyes darting for any exit.
Nothing.
No doors.
No vents.
Except… the window.
His eyes locked on the reinforced glass panel halfway down the hallway.
High up. Thick.
But maybe … just maybe…enough.
"Visual confirmed. We have Subject Z in sight."
"He's cornered."
"Hold fire. Orders are to bring him in alive."
They were coming. He could hear them shouting, coordinating.
His legs gave a warning shake. His vision blurred for a split second.
Too much blood. I'm slowing down.
He looked down at his side again. It wouldn't stop bleeding. His hand was soaked. The floor behind him was stained red.
He wasn't going to make it.
But even if he died…
At least he'd die free.
The soldiers rounded the corner.
He took one step toward the window.
Then another.
One of them raised his weapon.
"Don't move!"
He didn't listen.
Instead, he turned slightly just enough for his voice to reach them.
"Tell Beatrice… she can go f**k mñn herself."
Their faces froze. Confused? Angry? He didn't care.
With everything he had left, he ran toward the window ….
Slammed into it with his shoulder …
CRASH.
Glass exploded outward.
Rain greeted him with a roar.
He didn't scream.
He didn't pray.
He just let go.
Twelve floors up …. and nothing but silence.
Then ….THUD.
A lifeless body sprawled on the soaked concrete below. Blood pooled fast mixing with the rain. His eyes remained open. Empty.
⸻
Inside the lab, the intercom buzzed:
"Subject Z is confirmed dead."
"He jumped."
But something moved.
Unseen.
The blood that pooled beneath him began to seep into the cracks of the broken pavement.
Dripping downward.
Into the sewers.
Into the water.
⸻
Beep. Beep. Beep.
A groggy hand slammed down on the phone screen.
Kael Vire blinked against the sunlight peeking through his curtains. His hair stuck up in every direction, and his voice came out as a broken groan.
"Ughhh… what time is it?"
He picked up the phone and squinted at the screen.
"7:56?! SHIT….I'm late! I'm freaking late! Not again!"
He leapt out of bed like his life depended on it, stumbling into the bathroom, nearly tripping over his own feet. A fast shower. Clothes yanked on inside-out. Socks mismatched. He rushed to the door, yanking his backpack…
Then paused.
The house was quiet.
Too quiet.
He opened the calendar on his wall.
"…Wait."
"Today's Saturday."
Silence.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Kael slumped face-first onto the bed and let out a muffled groan into his pillow.
⸻
Ten minutes later, he dragged himself downstairs.
The smell of eggs and toast greeted him along with the soft chatter of his family.
His twelve-year-old sister, Rion, looked up from her cereal and grinned.
"Look who finally decided to wake up."
"You guys started eating without me?" Kael asked, rubbing his head.
"I did try waking you," Rion shrugged, "You just groaned and threw a sock at me."
His dad chuckled.
"Besides, if you're that hungry, I'm sure Setti would love to cook for you."
Kael froze mid-step.
His mom raised an eyebrow. Rion smirked.
"W-We're just friends!" he blurted. "That's all!"
"Mhm," Rion sang, "Just friends who can't stop blushing whenever someone says her name~"
Kael's ears turned bright red.
Before he could protest again, the living room TV cut in with a harsh buzz.
"We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news."
The room fell silent. All eyes turned toward the screen.
"Due to a rising death toll linked to unknown symptoms, health authorities have officially classified the outbreak as a new viral threat."
"We advise all citizens to follow these emergency precautions."
• "Do not come in contact with infected individuals."
• "Once symptoms appear, the average time before complete loss of control is 2 hours."
• "Avoid all physical contact ….especially blood transfer."
• "Stay indoors unless absolutely necessary."
• "do not for any reason come in contact with the infected blood "
"The government is working to understand the source. Until then… stay safe. May God be with us all."
Kael's heart sank.
Suddenly, breakfast didn't taste like anything.
Kael, with visible confusion across his face, glanced back at his family, trying to mask the knot of worry forming in his chest.
"A virus? Hah… as if it could reach us here. That's impossible, right, Dad?"
His father gave a small smile, though the tension behind his eyes betrayed him.
"You're right. Let's just try to stay clean, stay calm, and not overthink it."
"Yeah," Kael muttered, forcing a grin.
The relief was shallow, but he clung to it anyway.
He grabbed his cross-body bag from the corner.
"Alright, I'm off. I'll be with Setti."
His mother gave a soft "Be careful," while his sister just waved lazily, still chewing on toast.
But just as Kael stepped toward the door…
Thud.
Something heavy pressed against his legs.
He looked down…
And froze.
Clinging to his calf was a thing that barely resembled a child.
Its head was swollen and pulsing, the skin stretched thin like wax paper, with bulging black veins writhing beneath. Eight spidery limbs jutted from its torso some ending in clawed fingers, others twisted and fused into nubs. Its eyes were sunken holes leaking black tears, and its mouth was a wide, twitching slit that clicked open with wet, insect-like sounds.
It let out a warbled, high-pitched gurgle like a baby trying to cry through broken vocal cords.
Kael's breath caught in his throat.
He quickly fell to the floor and let a scream that could be heard from over the text four house
What this ahhhhh!! Mum!!! Mum!!! Help !! Help me!!
⸻
But when he looked to his family
He choked on his scream.
His mother was no longer standing.
Her body convulsed violently on the floor, limbs twitching, skin blistering with rapid boils that spread like wildfire. Her face once warm and familiar began to stretch unnaturally. Her jaw unhinged with a sickening crack, splitting open like a melting mask to reveal rows of uneven, needled teeth. Her eyes burst in rapid pops, black fluid running down her cheeks as the sockets widened and blinked sideways like some reptilian thing.
She let out a sound a moan? A sob? A laugh?…warped into a wet, burbling screech as her spine arched backward and bones stabbed through her skin like jagged branches. One of her arms ballooned, flesh tearing, until it split into a mass of slithering tendrils twitching hungrily toward the ceiling light.
Kael screamed again…but it was drowned out by another sound.
His sister.
She had dropped to her knees beside the table, fingers dug into her face like she was trying to claw it off. Her skin peeled beneath her nails. Her hair began to fall in clumps, revealing a pale skull beneath, as something moved underneath her scalp rippling like worms trapped in a plastic bag.
Her tiny frame cracked and snapped with each convulsion. Her spine curled forward as her limbs grew thin and spider-like, bones lengthening and bending wrong so wrong. Her teeth shattered from her mouth, replaced by jagged black spines that jutted through her bleeding gums like broken glass.
She opened her mouth to cry….
And let out a static-filled shriek that sounded like every TV in the house turning on at once.
Kael scrambled backward, heart hammering.
His dad
No.
No no no.
His dad was changing too.
But slower. More violently.
He stood, body trembling, clutching his chest like he was having a heart attack. Then…
His ribs burst outward, snapping through his shirt as if his lungs had swollen too large to stay in. Blood sprayed in thick arcs across the floor. His skin blackened around the wound, spreading fast. His neck thickened grotesquely, veins pulsating like a network of worms under his flesh. His face sloughed off like wet clay, leaving a raw, eyeless horror that turned to Kael….
And grinned.
Its jaw stretched too wide.
Its fingers bent backward.
Its entire body twitched, like a puppet yanked by broken strings.
Kael couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
The thing that had been his family now hissed and crawled toward him limbs dragging, bones cracking, and mouths twitching with hunger.
But as he was screaming, the baby-like creature let out a shrill, insectile screech and lunged upward with unnatural speed.
Its foremost claw ,a twisted, skeletal hand with needle-thin fingers and translucent flesh….shot toward Kael's face.
Before he could turn away, those clawed digits pried into his mouth.
The sensation was instant agony.
The fingers were cold, clammy, and reeked of curdled milk and rot. Its talons scraped against his teeth, jamming past his lips and wrenching his jaw open wider than it should have gone muscles tearing, nerves screaming. A foul black mucus, warm and thick like spoiled oil, oozed down his throat, gagging him.
Kael's eyes bulged as he flailed backward, choking, the creature's arm writhing deeper into his mouth as if trying to burrow inside him. Its malformed head twitched and pulsed with excitement, every gurgle it made sending tremors through his chest.
He could feel it scraping the roof of his mouth…
…trying to grip something inside.