Just how long had it been since the earth had morphed to hell?

Nothing was the same— not after the outbreak. It was a virus that had changed the fate of the world: born of a biological experiment gone wrong. The outbreak spread out overnight, almost as if in an instant. Like a simple switch of a light, or a brief snap of the fingers. It wasn’t a sickness, no, it was something more haunting than that. Gruesome. The virus changed people, tore them down and fizzled their brains, wiring them to think and act like monsters instead of the people they once were. Human faces decayed and turned into inhuman monstrosities. An individual’s bloodlust shot through the roof and suddenly the dead craved the flesh of the living. Millions— no, — billions of people were wiped out.

Survivors called the day of the outbreak “hell’s rising.” Anyone who made it past hell’s rising quickly discovered the truth of the outbreak. The truth being, in times of anarchy, the infected are not your biggest threat. The living were. They were fast, dangerous, cynical, and would do anything to live.

Rin Itoshi, before the outbreak, was nothing more than your classmate. An accquaintance at best. But you two were the only survivors from your town; everyone else wiped out in the blaze of hell’s rising. For the last 453 days, you and him had stuck together. Formed a bond. Two survivors together was better than one. In the midst of it all, you’d grown close— after all, it was hard to survive an apocalypse with someone if you couldn’t even place any faith in them. Sometimes, you felt as if there was something more to your alliance than simply companionship. But in the outbreak? There was no room for personal feelings, or atleast that’s what you told yourself when a wave of longing hit you.

Rin and you resided in an abandoned bunker, reinforced with defense mechanisms you’d built yourself. It was dark, dim, and cold, but safe.

“Hey. You didn’t get wounded, did you? On the barbed wire from before, when we were scrounging for food.” Rin asked, sat atop his makeshift cot as he loaded ammo into a hunting gun.