Chapter 4
1207 Words
Asher’s POV
The sliding doors hissed open behind me as I stepped out of the hospital and the world outside slapped me with that same unnatural darkness.
The eclipse should’ve lasted five minutes.
We were hours in.
The sun was still swallowed, the sky drenched in that bruised, reddish glow that made every shadow look alive. Streetlights flickered like they were fighting for their final breaths.
My parents were getting worse. No answers. No explanations. Just rising fevers and nurses who couldn’t even look at me.
I tried to steady my breathing.
Just get home, Asher. Think later.
I barely took five steps before a scream tore out across the parking lot.
“HELP! Somebody help!”
I spun around.
A frail man collapsed between two parked cars, shaking violently. His skin was grey, veins darkening. A nurse and doctor rushed toward him.
“Sir! Sir, stay with us!”
His body jerked harder, unnatural, violent.
Another woman nearby held her mother as she wheezed, lips turning blue.
“Mama, please don’t do this please”
And then it clicked.
Everyone falling, Everyone shaking,Everyone gasping for air.
All of them were already sick.
Elderly. Weak. Chronic illnesses. Cancer. Respiratory issues.
Not a single healthy person touched the ground.
My stomach twisted.
“What the hell is happening…”
A sudden wail echoed behind me. I turned and felt the blood drain from my face.
A terminal cancer patient from Dad’s ward dropped to the floor, convulsing. A nurse rushed him.
“Get me a stretcher! Move, move!”
His body arched like something inside was bending him from the wrong angles. Veins pulsed like they were filled with ink.
Then his eyes flew open.
Pitch.
Black.
Not pupils, emptiness.
The nurse froze. “His eyes… they weren’t like that earlier”
His jaw snapped sideways with a loud, wet c***k.
Not broken.
Unhinged.
I stepped back, heart hammering.
He wasn’t human anymore.
He wasn’t some random monster either.
It was his illness.
Amplified. Mutated. Turned into something feral.
Before the nurse could react, he lunged,instinctive, animalistic. He grabbed her arm and bit down hard.
She screamed and I swear her veins darkened instantly, spiderwebbing up her neck.
“No NO , NO! Let me go! what’s happening?!”
Her scream cut into a choke.
Her eyes rolled back.And then She snapped her head upright.
Black eyes.Jaw loose.A growl vibrated from her chest.“Oh my God…” someone whispered.
Chaos exploded like a bomb.Doctors screamed for security.
Patients pushed wheelchairs into walls.Orderlies ran for the exits.
People shoved, tripped, fell desperate to escape.I didn’t think.
I ran.Straight to Ward Three.
“Mom? Dad?” I burst into the room
Empty.The beds were torn apart.
Machines knocked over.
IV bags slashed open like someone ripped through in a panic.
“No, no, no Mom? Dad!?”
A distant scream answered me from the hallway.
Then a growl.Then two.
I backed away slowly, breathing sharp and uneven.
They’re gone.They’re not here.
They’re not safe.And neither am I.
I pressed myself against the wall as shadows moved past the doorway slow, dragging, twitching. One of the transformed shuffled down the hall, sniffing the air like it was tracking something.
Me.I held my breath.Don’t move.Don’t breathe.Don’t exist.
The thing paused in front of the room…
Head tilting…
Listening…
My pulse thudded so loud I was sure it could hear it.
Another shape lurched behind it, bumping into the wall. They snarled at each other low, animal sounds and staggered away toward the emergency exit.
I didn’t think.
I bolted.
Down the back staircase, skipping steps, sliding on the railing, hitting the ground floor hard enough to twist my ankle. Pain shot up my leg but I forced myself up.
Outside, the screaming was worse.
The entire town was unraveling.
People ran in every direction. Cars crashed into poles. Doors slammed. Windows shattered. Those sick turned ferals wandered the streets, attacking anyone close enough.
I ducked behind a truck as one of the transformed past, jaw hanging, breathing like a broken engine.
If it bites me…
I’m done.
No cure. No chance.
A woman, one of the patients I’d passed earlier, was on the ground, twitching violently. Her skin was blistered and grayish in patches, veins black and raised like ink frozen under ice. Her eyes rolled back and it was pitch black like the ones in the hospital, and her jaw cracked loudly, stretching wider than any human jaw should.
She snapped forward so fast I barely saw it.
A man trying to help her didn’t even finish saying,
“Are you alri..” before she lunged at him. Her teeth sank into his shoulder with a sickening thunk.
He screamed, but she didn’t stop. Her fingers twisted like claws as she held him down, tearing into his flesh like a starving animal. Blood sprayed across the pavement, steaming under the red eclipse.
I stumbled back, my stomach knotting in horror.
The man convulsed violently. His eyes bulged, then glazed over. A foamy mixture of blood and something darker dripped from his mouth.
And then… he stopped.
For three silent seconds, he lay still.
And then
He twitched. Once. Twice. His spine bent upward unnaturally, limbs jerking like a broken puppet. His skin tightened, mouth stretching until his lips split from the corners, exposing long, sharp teeth that hadn’t been there before.
He turned toward me.
Red eyes. Sunken sockets. Hunger so raw it looked like pure instinct.
“No… no, no, no” I whispered.
He darted toward me on all fours, so fast the ground seemed to shudder beneath him.
I ran. I sprinted across the parking lot, dodging between cars as more screams erupted, people being dragged, ripped into, devoured. These creatures weren’t slow, they were fast. Too fast. Their movements jerky but impossibly strong, like their bones no longer obeyed human limits.
One of them pounced onto the hood of a car beside me, denting the metal with terrifying force. Its face God, its face was a nightmare skin peeled back around the mouth, eyes glowing faintly under the red eclipse, saliva thick and dark dripping from sharpened teeth. It sniffed the air, then shrieked.
I fumbled with my car keys, hands trembling, heart hammering so hard my chest hurt. I unlocked the car, threw myself inside, and slammed the doors. The creature slammed into the window instantly, shaking the whole car.
“s**t! s**t!” I screamed, fumbling to start the engine.
It dragged its cracked nails across the glass, leaving long, white scratches. Behind it, two more were feasting, literally feasting on someone who hadn’t run fast enough. Their teeth tore through flesh like wolves ripping open a deer. My stomach churned. Tears burned my eyes.
I got the engine to roar alive. Hands gripping the wheel, shaking, I reversed hard, swerving as the creature lunged again.
The whole town was chaotic. Cars crashed into poles. People ran in every direction. Ferals tackled them to the ground, tearing and biting, transforming people within minutes under the blood red eclipse.
I sped out of the hospital lot, tires screeching, heart hammering, and whispered shakily to myself:
“What the hell is happening to my town?”
- Writer
