Chronicles of the Dead: Escaping the Dead Book One

Lockdown

The first lockdown came too late to matter.

By the time the announcement was broadcast, the roads were already clogged with traffic and panic. People were abandoning cars in the middle of intersections, running with bags in their hands, dragging children, shouting at strangers, fighting over fuel, over water, over space.

Ava stood at the apartment window and watched a man beat on the hood of a taxi while the driver refused to open the door.

Then the man turned and hit a woman who tried to pull him away.

Ethan came up behind her. “We need to stay inside.”

“I know.”

Emily was pacing behind them. “This is insane. How did it get this bad this fast?”

“Because nobody wanted to believe it,” Ava said.

That was the truth, and they all knew it.

The government’s announcement was delayed, flat, controlled.

Citizens were urged to remain calm.

Medical personnel were working with security forces.

The situation was contained.

It was the same lie every collapsing system told right before it fell.

Then the power cut out.

The apartment sank into darkness.

Emily cursed. Ethan reached for a flashlight. Ava’s phone buzzed with another message, this one from her mother asking if she was safe.

She didn’t answer yet.

Couldn’t.

Because the sound from outside had changed.

It wasn’t just panic now.

It was screaming.

Close screaming.

Ava moved to the window again and looked down. A crowd had gathered near the entrance of the building across the street. A woman was running toward them, blood on her shirt. She threw herself at the nearest man, hands outstretched.

He shoved her away.

She hit the pavement hard.

Then she got back up too fast.

Too fast.

And lunged at him.

Ava’s breath caught in her throat.

“No,” she whispered.

Ethan saw it too. “Ava—come away from the window.”

The woman had already bitten the man.

People around them were scattering now, but not fast enough. The man she bit was shaking, slapping at his own neck, then suddenly collapsed.

The woman rose again, screaming, and attacked the next person.

Emily backed away from the window. “Oh my God.”

Ava’s phone rang.

Unknown number.

She answered automatically. “Hello?”

A man’s voice came through, strained and clipped. “If you’re in the central district, do not leave the building.”

Ava’s heart pounded. “Who is this?”

“Army,” he said. “Listen carefully. If anyone in your vicinity has been bitten, you do not wait for symptoms. You restrain or remove them immediately.”

Ava went still.

“What?”

A burst of static. Then: “They turn fast. Under two minutes in some cases. Do not let them near your blood. Do not—”

The line cut.

Ava stared at the phone.

Emily was already looking at her. “What did he say?”

Ava swallowed. “He said bitten people turn fast.”

Ethan’s face changed. “How fast?”

Ava thought of the nurse.

Seconds.

She looked at them both, and for the first time since this began, fear became real enough to settle in her bones.

“Very fast.”

A sound hit the apartment door.

Hard.

All three of them froze.

Another hit.

Then a voice from the hallway.

Help.

Ava stared at the door.

The voice outside sounded human.

That was the worst part.