Engulfed in the relentless tide of traffic, Samuel Wong gripped the wheel as his phone buzzed. The screen flashed an unfamiliar name—Mark. He answered with a steady voice.
"Hello?"
A sharp, no-nonsense voice crackled through the speaker. [Am I speaking to Samuel Wong?]
Samuel's eyes flicked to the caller ID. 'Mark, huh?'
"Yeah. How can I help you?"
[I'm outside your house with your package. No one's answering. Where do you want it?]
Samuel barely opened his mouth, "Oh, just leave it on the front por—"
Click… The line went dead…
His grip tightened. 'What the hell? That was rude.'
Before he could dwell on it, the distant howl of sirens cut through the city's chaotic hum. Red and blue lights slashed across the street. His pulse quickened, something didn't feel quite right. 'An accident?' Or something worse?
Samuel wiped his forehead, his skin slick with sweat from the stifling heat and the busted AC. 'Can't even afford to fix this,' he thought with bitterness in his heart.
At just twenty-four, life had already dealt him a brutal hand. He was diagnosed with lung cancer–likely from his constant exposure to chemicals at the plant where he worked, poisoning him one breath at a time.
Staring out the window, he clung to a fragile hope. 'Maybe the treatment will work. Maybe I can finally get back to work.'
His thoughts were shattered by a crackling voice from the radio.
"Authorities report a string of fatal animal attacks in nearby towns. The cause remains unknown. Animal Welfare urges citizens to—"
Static… Silence…
The radio died without warning.
Samuel exhaled sharply, shaking his head. 'Great. Add that to the list of things I can't fix!'
Samuel's grip tightened on the steering wheel as he spotted people sprinting down the street, clutching bags like their lives depended on it. Their faces were twisted in sheer panic.
'What the hell is going on?'
He was supposed to be on his way to the hospital for treatment, but traffic had frozen into a suffocating standstill. Outside, chaos churned; people running, shouting, fleeing from something unseen.
With no other choice, Samuel parked his half-broken car on the side of the street and yanked the keys from the ignition. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and stepped out into the sweltering street. The hospital wasn't far, and he could have made it on foot.
But as he walked, his breaths grew heavier, his lungs burning with every step, a consequence of having that d*mn cancer. He wiped the sweat from his brow and glanced around. More people ran past him, clutching their belongings in terror, just like the ones before.
Something was wrong.
Then—
*BANG*
He heard gunshots. It was close. Too close.
Samuel's instincts took over. He dropped to the ground, heart hammering against his ribs.
"The f*ck was that?" he gasped. He could feel his adrenaline flooding his veins.
Hunched low, Samuel's eyes glanced upward as the deep thrum of rotor blades filled the air. Two helicopters circled ominously above, their searchlights slicing through the chaos.
A bad feeling's creeping in… something's really wrong.
Forcing himself to move, he pushed forward, until he reached the hospital, only to find it in utter disarray. The lobby overflowed with injured people, blood staining the floor, and the air filled with cries of pain and frantic voices.
Spotting a nurse, he pulled him aside and asked, "What the hell is happening?"
The nurse exclaimed, "People are getting attacked left and right, wild animals escaped from the zoo, and have started attacking people all over the city!"
Before Samuel could respond, the nurse wrenched away, disappearing into the chaos to tend to another wounded being.
The hospital was drowning in chaos. Nurses and doctors rushed between patients, their faces imprinted with exhaustion, their scrubs smeared with blood.
The sheer volume of the wounded left them no room to breathe, and no time to answer questions. People were covered in blood—whether it was their own or someone else's… only they knew.
Samuel spotted a man slumped in a chair, his arms covered in fresh scratches. He stepped closer. "What happened to you?"
The man let out a shaky breath. "My cats… they went insane. Out of nowhere, they just started clawing and biting me!"
Samuel's mind raced. 'The entire city is descending into chaos because of animals… Could it be some kind of outbreak? Rabies? Something worse?'
His mind spiraled through the possibilities as he sank onto a nearby bench, trying to make sense of it all. Desperate for answers, he took out his phone to check the news, only to be met with a dead screen. No signal. No internet.
'Really? Now?' He clenched his jaw, frustration bubbling over.
The sheer amount of people inside the hospital felt suffocating. Needing air, he pushed through the hospital doors and froze.
Screams rang out, footsteps thundered against the pavement.
With his heart hammering, Samuel ducked behind a nearby car, peering around the edge.
A family sprinted toward the hospital, terror carved into their faces. Behind them, four dogs tore through the street, blood dripping from their mouths, their eyes wild, their ears crusted with red.
Panic ignited like wildfire inside the hospital as the people noticed the feral dogs chasing after the family. Without even caring for them, they started blocking the entrance using all the objects around them.
"Barricade the doors!" someone shouted.
"Hurry, block the door!" someone yelled.
Guards fought to push through the panicked crowd, but the sheer mass of bodies held them back.
"If you idiots open those doors, those things will get in and rip us apart!" a woman shrieked with terror from the back.
As the frantic shouts echoed from everywhere, Samuel crouched behind the car, his pulse beating in his ears. 'Where the hell can I go?' His eyes darted to the empty streets beyond. 'What if there are more of them out here?'
The desperate cries of the family snapped him back. Peering around the car, he caught sight of them; a father, mother, and a small child, struggling to escape the relentless pursuit.
The father, an older man with sweat glistening on his forehead, gripped a hammer in white-knuckled fists. His eyes locked on the rabid dogs behind them. His wife, breathless and trembling, clutched their child tightly as she sprinted ahead.
"Get to the entrance!" the man roared fiercely.
But just as he did, one of the snarling dogs lunged, sinking its teeth into his calf, and sending him to the ground. With a swing, he managed to kill one of the dogs, but the remaining three closed in, attacking his neck, arm, and leg in a brutal frenzy.
The woman reached the entrance only to find it barricaded by those inside. She pounded on the doors, crying, "Please, let us in!"
But the crowd inside held firm, ignoring her desperate pleas. They all stood there staring at the poor desperate woman with her baby in her arms, completely helpless.
**********
Thanks to my line editor, Author Shiroi_Nami, for proofreading and editing my chapters.