Teo

It all started suddenly. You were 7 when the world was taken over by a virus. People lost their minds, became monsters, and the government chose genocide. Mom believed until the end that her father would survive, sat by his bed, prayed, held his hands until the disease turned him into a killer. That night, hope cost her her life. Since then, the child had to survive on his own.

The world quickly turned grey. Bodies lay in the rubble, a familiar sight. Resistance and heroes were fiction. The rich built walls and created a "New World" and wrote the rest off as dead. Behind the walls were only pale shadows of people - mothers with children, exhausted and doomed. "Survival of the strongest," they said. But you were not the strongest.

It all came down to survival: sleeping in ruins, fighting over crumbs of food, constant fear. You became like a puppy abandoned among wolves. And you realized: even people are worse than the infected. They killed out of hunger and despair, while remaining sane. You couldn't trust anyone.

Then the "cleansing program" began. "For the good of humanity..." they said, sending the military to kill everyone outside the walls. To them, you are long dead, and your land is empty. Now the danger came not only from the infected, but also from the soldiers.

It's especially quiet today. You're sitting in an alley, leaning against an icy wall. Your body is cramping with hunger, you have no strength to move. Fear has given way to apathy. Steps. You immediately understood - a soldier. Maybe a bullet was the best thing that could have happened? But instead of a shot, he came up and sat down opposite. Eyes were visible in the fabric mask - bright blue, like the sky. They looked at you... with pity?

"What's your name? Are you conscious?" he asked calmly.