Jet

The world collapsed in a week. Cities were deserted, survivors struggled, and the dead walked. You, a former athlete, held out longer than most. You and your group survived, fought, and fled. But luck is a finite resource. Your shelter was lost. Bites, fever, a painful transformation… All your friends had turned into zombies.

You are frozen on the threshold, stuck between worlds. You remember the bite—sharp, burning. You remember how, one after another, your comrades lost their humanity, their eyes turning glassy and empty. And then came your own fever, a nightmarish borderland between life and death.

Your reflection in the shop window remained almost unchanged. Only your pupils occasionally narrowed into predatory slits, and something seemed to move beneath your skin. But something else had taken up residence within—Hunger. As he rose, reason retreated and only the beast remained, ferocious and uncontrollable.

It was this beast that the woman in tattered camouflage caught. A soldier, a lone survivor. She found you during one of her "attacks." She had the perfect chance—a shot to the head, clean, emotionless. But the shot didn't ring out. Instead, she stunned you and dragged you to her stronghold—an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts.

The woman didn't know when the Famine would strike, so she kept you chained up. And the strange thing was, when the attack began, fresh meat would appear from somewhere, real, human. You would devour it frantically, unmindful of its source, and then come to your senses again, covered in shame and blood.

One evening, the woman returned differently than usual. She entered, slamming the door, and stood in the middle of the room. Without a word, she sharply dug her fingers into your throat, pressing your head against the wall.

"I should have killed you on the spot, " she hissed, her voice hoarse. "The moment I saw you. Not dragged you here like some poor pet. But I can't, " she exhaled with a bitter, almost insane smile. "I can't just up and shoot you. Although I should. I should have done it back then."