Year 2021. Earth.

The coronavirus was in full swing, so the vast majority of people wore masks on their faces. One of these people was 28-year-old Michael, who was returning home from work.

He went to the metro station and got on the train. There were enough people in the metro, so he had to ride standing. Michael mostly looked towards the window, but glanced around at the other passengers as well.

One of them had a partially visible dark spot in the neck area. Michael grimaced and turned away. He tried to move a little further from this man, you never know what kind of leprosy it is.

Finally he got to his station, leaving the train, Michael breathed a sigh of relief. At home, his family was waiting for him, and in his thoughts he was already there.

The wife's name was Megan and the daughter was Rose. Megan was a housewife, although now that her daughter started going to school, she was planning to get a job.

Returning to his apartment, Michael heard a happy cry.

- Dad is back! - Rose shouted and ran to meet her father.

Michael could not help smiling, his heart grew warmer. He hugged the baby and patted her on the head. Carrying the baby in his arms, he went to meet his wife and kissed her tenderly.

During dinner, Michael and Rosa developed an uncommon appetite, and several times asked Megan for more. The wife even jokingly called them pigs, which they laughed at amicably.

After the family dinner, they went to bed. Although Rose asked to go to bed with her parents, they insisted that the baby should sleep in her room.

- You already go to school, aren`t you ashamed to sleep with your parents?

Of course, sometimes they were inferior to her, but more often only during a thunderstorm, or if Rosa was very upset.

Although Michael and Megan slept in the same bed and loved each other, their honeymoon was far behind. They now had sex no more than once or twice a week. So today they limited themselves to feeling each other's warmth.

At some point in the middle of the night, Michael was awakened by a noise. Waking up from sleep, he looked at the empty bed, obviously his wife Megan was not there.

Michael was immediately worried, could something happen to Rosa? Possibly a bad dream. He got up and went to the nursery.

Opening the door, he hung rooted to the spot, horror seized him.

The light in the room was on, Rosa was in her bed and her eyes were wide open, it seemed she was paralyzed by fear like Michael himself and was just shaking with horror.

A grotesque monster stood next to her. It was about two meters tall, blood and flesh covered the entire body of the monster, viscous blood and pus seemed to continue to live their lives on the body of the monster. The long, thickened neck and limbs hardly resembled human ones. It was impossible to make out the faces at all, an incomprehensible clot of bloody mess. Small tentacles protruded around the monster and swayed slowly.

Michael felt an indescribable mixture of emotions, the sight of the monster was so disgusting that, despite the horror, he could not resist and vomited.

The monster itself waved its limbs threateningly and from, presumably its mouth, escaped incomprehensible sounds of roar, mixed with the gurgling sounds of viscous blood. The monster slowly approached in the direction of Rose, while continuing to watch and roar at Michael.

At that moment, Michael was seized by a burning rage. His mind cleared, even the fear receded. He cannot allow this thing to touch his little Rose.

Michael roared and lunged at the monster. He knocked him to the ground and began to beat the monster in a frenzy. He was so enraged that he barely remembered the whole process, but when he regained consciousness, the monster was already dead.

He turned and looked at Rose.

- Are you okay baby? - Michael asked.

- Dad ... I'm scared ... - Rose sobbed.

Michael hugged her and gently soothed her in his arms, soon the baby finally fell asleep. He carried her to his room and locked the nursery.

First of all, Michael found his phone and called the rescue service, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not get through.

He still recalled with horror the appearance of the monster, many thoughts flashed in his head. After searching the entire apartment, he never found Megan. It was not difficult to guess that in some ridiculous way she turned into a terrible monster. He was glad that he managed to save Rose in time, it was difficult to imagine what could have happened.

And yet he wept like a child. He realized that he had to kill his own wife.

-Damn it! - cursed Michael

He had to figure out what exacly had happened.

- That`s right, the Internet. - Michael remembered.

He turned on his laptop and started looking for some news. He soon saw reports of mutations. It turned out that people were infected all over the world. At first, small spots appeared, then a bloody rash and sarcomas appeared. As a result, the person turned into a monster.

Michael immediately undressed and began to examine himself carefully, even examined his back in the mirror, and then heaved a sigh of relief. Not only was he not infected, but he also felt great.

Fortunately, there were not many such cases, only a small part of the population fell victim to this terrible virus. Some people even posted videos describing their experiences with their relatives turning into monsters. Often this experience was similar to that of Michael himself, it was a terrible disaster.

He decided to call his friend Russell, he was a young employee of the company with whom Michael had struck up a friendship in recent years. Soon the call was answered.

- Russell, it's me Michael, are you okay? - he asked.

However, to his horror, all he heard in response was an indistinct growl. From fear, Michael even let go of the phone. But soon he raised him again with shaking hands and confirmed that his friend was no more ... He became a monster. All he had to do was hang up.

Morning came a couple of hours later. Michael cooked a lot of food, after which he woke up Rosa and they ate a good meal together. Of course, their mood was not the best.

- Dad, where is mom? - Rose asked.

A lump came to Michael's throat, but he held back his tears and tried to answer as if nothing had happened.

- Mom went to her parents for a short time - he said dryly.

- Aren't the monsters coming back? - Rose asked apprehensively.

- Do not be afraid, baby, dad will protect you from any monsters. - Michael said confidentially and carefully wiped the remnants of food from Rose's lips.