Aberdeen City, 16 years ago

7-year-old Ansel just felt ringing in his ears, his vision darkening, and his entire body shaking in fear.

He didn't know what happened. One time he was playing alone in the sandbox, next it was all dark and cold and scary.

"When will they send the money?" Little Ansel turned his head to the door, hearing an unfamiliar voice. He was answered by another strange voice, one with an annoying screech to it, and the sound alone made the sensitive Ansel frown deeper.

"The woman said to give them an hour."

"As expected of famous literaties and scientist, gathering funds everywhere isn't a problem." A disgusting cackle sounded afterwards, joined by hoots and celebratory yells.

Ansel still didn't fully understand his situation, but he knew he was in trouble.

Was he going to die? Like those rabbits in Animal Planet?

However, before he dwelled on this thought, he felt a tap on his shoulders and he flinched by instinct. He almost yelled out when a small hand blocked his mouth. His eyes widened as he saw the most beautiful eyes staring back at him.

"Shhhhhh!" She mumbled cutely, placing her free index finger on her lips. She then turned her head to behind the barrel. She waved her hand at him, telling him to follow.

It was a small hole hidden behind the barrels, he watched as she crawled inside and her butt even got stuck in the hole. After struggling she managed to squeeze in, and the sight made even the most timid kid, him, chuckle.

But when she disappeared, little Ansel couldn't help but just stare at the hole, not really knowing what to do, but her small head appeared again and she stared at him with a frown.

'What are you doing?' She mouthed. 'Come on!'

His body moved on its own to follow. He was smaller than she was so he didn't struggle to enter at all. It was just that his arms touched sticky substances that made his skin crawl.

However, before he could even look at her with tears in his eyes, she was already crawling meters away from him, totally unaffected by the dirt.

Seeing that there was no one to comfort him, he pursed his lips and followed. Following her lead, he crawled with her on the dirty floor covered with disgusting muck and sludge.

It was still dark, cold, and damp—

But he didn't feel scared as he had been.

____

[20:34:23]

Ansel ran to the door, closing it, using his whole weight to block the door. Heaving a deep breath, he used much of his strength to quickly pull the side table, blocking the door from the feral creature pushing on the other side.

The door continued to knock but fortunately the metallic door was stable enough. Unless the zombies found out they could pull the double swing door to open it, he was fine for now.

Finally getting a bit of respite, his legs gave out and he found himself lying on the floor. His hair was akin to a chicken nest, body covered in blood and gore, totally unlike his usual suave self.

The world had gone crazy.

One moment he was having a decent dinner with rich clients after a successful deal, the next moment they all froze, twitched, and started salivating at the sight of him.

Since then, he had been in the restaurant switching hiding places from room to room. He was also a bit lucky that another more active survivor was running around and attracting the aggro.

Because of this, he simply had to estimate where they would be running towards and try to avoid as many zombies as he could, using the silent gun he got from the guards to kill those that came in his way.

He pulled out his phone.

How was Althea? The damned phone didn't have a signal. He couldn't help but imagine a very pregnant Althea running from these blasted things in aghast.

However, thinking how she had always been headstrong, combined with her skills and wit, she was probably doing better than he was.

Not to mention, she was staying in the suburbs. There should be fewer zombies, right?

He looked at his last gun, on its last few bullets. They were all taken from the client's bodyguards, and he had already scrapped a few in the past few hours.

It could be said that he was still a bit lucky. If the deal had happened in any other place in Eden country, the guards wouldn't have been able to smuggle guns in.

He shivered at the thought of having no decent weapon in the midst of these ugly smelly monsters.

He'd rather self-destruct than turn into one of those horrid pieces of existence!

Speaking of, he needed to find a new weapon lest he joined this army of zombies.

He opened up his phone and looked at the saved map, planning his route back to Aberdeen City, and maybe find a good place to get a new weapon.

A normal drive would take at least half a day, let alone now that cars were parked in the middle of the road, making it virtually impossible to breeze through the streets as they could've.

His shoulder slumped in disappointment.

When will he see Althea again?

Then he remembered a new train line opened from the neighboring city to Bruno City, which was not far from home. This train was fully AI-automated, maybe it was still operational?

Hey, either way he really didn't have a choice.

No matter what, he had to be within her vicinity.

Only that way would he ever have peace.