"Father, I've been calling you for the past few days. Call me back as soon as you hear this voicemail," Jake said, dropping another voicemail before lowering his cracked phone.
"Calm down, Jake. Your father will be fine. He's probably just busy," Arthur said, trying to reassure him.
"I know, Arthur, but wouldn't it be better if he just answered my calls?" Jake replied.
Just then, Joe rushed in with a panicked expression.
"We've got a situation, Young Master."
"What's the problem?" Jake asked with a sigh.
"It's best if you see it for yourself," Joe replied.
Jake and Arthur quickly followed him into the security room. Inside, dozens of monitors displayed footage from the cameras around the manor. On one of the screens, a yellow-eyed man stood inside the manor compound, his clothes soaked in blood. The infected slowly looked around, sniffing the air for the scent of humans.
"A zombie is inside the manor compound, sir," Joe said, terror evident on his aged face.
---
Inside Ward 234 of a large hospital, blurred eyes slowly opened to the bright white ceiling.
"Am I back at the facility? Was it all a dream?" Xia thought as she slowly sat up.
"I had the craziest dream that the city had been overrun by zombies," she muttered.
"It's not a dream," a masculine voice said.
Xia instantly snapped her head toward the voice. Standing a few steps away was a dark-haired man in his mid-twenties with a beard connected to his mustache and a strong, muscular build.
"Wh... who are you?" Xia asked, momentarily distracted by how handsome he was.
"I should be asking you the same thing," the man replied bluntly.
Xia's eyes fell on the baseball bat in his hand, and the memory of him knocking her unconscious came rushing back.
"You attacked me! You hit me on the head!" she shouted angrily.
The man calmly walked toward her, forcing Xia to take several steps back.
"I should've killed you. Everything about you seems suspicious."
"W-Why would you do that? I'm just a girl. Not just any girl—a beautiful Asian princess," Xia said with an awkward smile.
"First," the man said, raising a finger, "how did you survive out there alone without being torn apart or infected? Second," he continued, raising another finger, "how did you break down a metal door? And lastly," he said, raising a third finger, "how did you know there was a human inside this room?"
Backed against the wall, Xia forced an awkward smile.
"I... I snuck past the zombies, came to the hospital looking for my father, heard footsteps inside this ward, and decided to check," she said, mixing the truth with lies.
"Then how did you break down the door?" he asked, pointing the baseball bat at the broken metal door now blocked by a bed frame.
"Adr... adrenaline, I guess," Xia replied with another awkward smile.
The man stared at her for a long moment before finally turning away.
"If you're looking for a patient, you're too late. It seems the hospital found out about the outbreak before the rest of the city and evacuated everyone. I came here to see my sick sister."
"Where were they taken?" Xia asked.
"I don't know. I only know this because she secretly called me before she was evacuated," the man replied as he sat on the bare bed frame.
"I'm Henry."
"Xia."
"Well, nice to meet you, Xia. Welcome to Zomhington DC," Henry said with a bitter smile.
"A hellhole of a city overrun by damn zombies."