In the distance, a massive cloud of ash billowed towards us, an unmistakable sign of an approaching infected horde. It moved at an inhuman speed, like a tidal wave of destruction.

Panic set in as I raced back downstairs.

The scene would be instantly recognisable to anyone who had managed to stay alive up until this point.

Ashfall.

This mysterious phenomenon blanketed areas in dense ash clouds, under which swarms of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of the infected roamed.

One had devoured Wuppertal at the beginning of the Cataclysm, reducing it into a ghost metropolis inhabited only by countless numbers of the abominations.

Only one thing was certain: wherever those ash clouds passed, everything crumbled under the unstoppable march of the infected.

"We have to go, now!" I shouted as I barged into the store. "There's a horde coming, and it's moving fast."

"Sh*t, how did it arrive so fast?!" Lucas cursed with trembling hands.

The lighthearted atmosphere vanished, replaced by a surge of adrenaline and fear.

Mia's eyes widened, and Erwin's playful demeanor was gone, replaced by a seriousness I had rarely seen.

Zoe grabbed a backpack, her voice steady despite the fear in her eyes. "Let's move. We know the drill."

We gathered what supplies we could carry and made for the exit, the laughter and lightness of moments ago now a distant memory.

I rested my hand on Zoe's shoulder.

"Don't worry. I won't let anyone die."

"That's exactly what I'm worried about, idiot."

I stood there, mouth gaping, as she shook my hand away with an irritated gesture.

"And stop looking at me like the idiot you are. A horde is coming, remember?"

I saved my objections for later and joined them at the back, keeping an eye out for rabbits who hadn't had enough of my shiv.

As we hurried through the aisles, the sound of the approaching horde grew louder, a relentless roar that echoed our worst fears.

"Run faster!"

Stepping out into the daylight, I looked back at the supermarket, a haven turned into a trap. The fear for my friends' lives weighed heavily on me, a burden that fell upon me as the tank of the team.

The horde was coming, and we were in its path.

I led the way, determination fueling my steps. We had survived so much already; I wasn't about to let this be the end.

The most serious issue with Ashfalls was that the infected would quickly engulf the entire city, consuming every living person therein. We had to break through as soon as possible or the waves of infected would drown us.

Amidst our frenzied escape, my gaze unwillingly snagged on the bird's nest we had seen just one hour ago.

The eggs had vanished, mercilessly replaced by the horror spectacle of a sparrow's innards, strewn across the nest like a gruesome offering to some satanic cult.

This is reality.

I closed my eyes and moved forward, never looking back.

The city's barren streets became our battleground as the infected rushed us from the shadows of the wrecked buildings. Like a bowling ball, Mia rolled over the deformed creatures, making full use of her gift to pave the way for us.

A middle-aged woman in an apron stretched her rotten jaw open wide and lunged at me mindlessly.

"Scram!"

My shiv found its way into the woman's eye, causing her to let go of me and scream in pain.

These were not mindless zombies of fiction; they were abominations born from the failed blessings and curses of previous human beings, formidable and relentless. They were far stronger and faster than the average human, but their bites and scratches weren't enough to turn you into one of them.

They could experience some instinctive feelings, such as fear and pain, albeit the latter was considerably more intense.

There was only one current method of becoming an infected.

Death.

Lucas guided us through the maze-like streets with his lightning-fast gaze, pointing out potential threats as he went. However, even his foresight couldn't have predicted the sheer number of infected that wrapped around us.

At a certain point, even Zoe was forced to join the fight. She wielded her crowbar without flinching, her movements rough yet deadly. Her gift of healing didn't mean she was unable to inflict violence.

As for Erwin, he was just being Erwin. Laughing out loud and waving his arms around, he conjured images of fire and barriers that disoriented the infected. We used those openings to send precise strikes to their brains.

Nevertheless, even his tricks had their limits against the overwhelming tide.

Lucas cried out, taken off guard by a small, deformed child.

"Get away from me, you hell spawn!"

I kicked the creature away from him, but its claws had raked across his arm, leaving a deep wound.

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"Zoe!" I yelled. She was at his side in an instant, her hands glowing with a soft light as she placed them over his wound. The healing energy flowed from her fingertips, closing the gash and easing the pain.

"Thanks," Lucas gasped with a pale face.

It couldn't go on like this. Mia had been positioning herself between the infected and the more vulnerable members of our group, so she was the most exhausted among all of us. Erwin could barely run with the mental strain of his gift, and Lucas was also starting to make mistakes due to the burden of his curse.

"Go, I'll hold them off!" I shouted over the din of snarls and growls.

My sister glared at me.

"No way, Aiden! We're not leaving you!"

"I won't die easily, remember?" I argued, pushing back an infected with a well-aimed strike to its jaw. "You need to get out of here. I'll distract them and catch up!"

The protest died on her lips, the truth of my words undeniable. My gift of self-healing was both a curse and a blessing – in times like this, it was the only advantage we had.

"Be careful," Mia said before leading the group away in a different direction.

With a final nod, I watched them disappear around a corner before turning to confront the oncoming horde.

Adrenaline surged through me when I laid eyes upon the never-ending ocean of abominations. I was their distraction, their target and the only one who could withstand their blows and remain standing.

This is going to hurt.

The chances of survival were slim, so why was I smiling? Perhaps my personality had also been warped by the Cataclysm. I steeled myself for the onslaught and smashed a street sign post with my iron shiv.

"COME AT ME, NASTY FUCKERS!"

The noise attracted all of the infected within a two-kilometer radius, and they dashed towards me as fast as they could.

I stood my ground by hopping from roof to roof and puncturing their brains from above. Each blow I dealt sent one of the creatures reeling, but more took its place.

"CAW CAW!"

A pair of giant talons pierced my back and hoisted me off the ground, not even giving me the opportunity to resist. I glared at the monster behind me, a three-meter-tall green parrot that let out cries similar to an eagle's shriek.

"If you want to fight dirty, two can play this game."

I gritted my teeth through the pain and tried to force my body away from the parrot's grasp. However, it was as if I were glued to the parrot's claws, which continued to ascend, taking me further into the sky.

"Like hell I will die from this overweight chicken!"

My eyes dilated with madness as I seized the giant parrot's lower legs and yanked my body upwards, rather than out.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

My arms bulged, veins popping and straining under my skin until they seemed on the verge of bursting.

*Crack*

I freed myself from the creature's hold, leaving behind gruesome fragments of bone, tendons, and flesh. I then crashed onto the roof of a nearby building, the impact sending a cloud of debris into the air.

There was no moment to rest, no chance for my wounds to mend. Gazing up at the sky now darkened by ten more of those avian horrors, a cold shiver of dread coursed through me.

I need to stay off the rooftops.

I dodged the infected with a mixture of desperation and strategy, using my knowledge of the city's layout to my advantage.

The ash cloud had already swallowed more than two-thirds of the city.

I led the infected on a wild chase, darting through alleys and over obstacles like rubbish bins and fences, all the while ensuring I kept their attention by creating as much noise as possible.

How do I leave this place?

I felt my blood run cold at the possibility of dying here.

No, as long as the guys and my sister survive, I will endure as long as it is necessary.

That thought anchored me through it all.

The unrelenting pursuit of the infected horde drove me to the most obscure parts of the city, my heart pounding in my ears. With each turn, the snarls and growls of the creatures grew closer, their thirst for me unyielding.

My body began shivering, and I glanced at my clammy hands with beads of sweat on my forehead.

Fear, a feeling I hadn't truly known since the Cataclysm, crept into my veins, chilling me to the bone.

I sprinted through an alley, my breath ragged and my mind racing for an escape. But as I emerged into a wide street, my heart sank.

I was surrounded, the infected pressing in from all sides. Their twisted faces were like a nightmare come to life, mocking me.

A surge of anger welled up within me.

"Come on, then! Let's see who falls first!"

I brandished my shiv without hesitation, and my hands stopped shaking. If this were to be my end, I would not go quietly.

The first of the infected lunged, and I met it with a vicious thrust of my blade towards its neck, immediately beheading it. More of them jumped at me, and for each one I felled, two took its place.

My shiv sliced through the air in a blur, but it was not enough. The sheer numbers were overwhelming.

I... am... tired...

My arms ached, and my breath came in sharp gasps. Then, with a sickening snap, my shiv broke, leaving me with only my fists. I swung wildly, my blows fuelled by rage and desperation.

Some of the infected broke through my barrage of fists and bit me, but I simply ignored the injuries, quickly dispatching them like the others.

I won't last much longer...

It was then that they appeared.

An infected crocodile formed a hole through a stone building, smashing groups of human infected to paste. Right next to him, an infected polar bear chewed through bird bones, its fur matted with blood and filth.

My face turned ashen.

What the hell is this?! There's no way the infected could evolve so much in three years!

I had seen and fought infected bears before, huge beasts from the zoo who were transformed by the Cataclysm, but they were at least three times smaller than the one I was looking at.

The crocodile's pupils locked on me and it dashed at a speed close to a regional train.

Panic seized me as the crocodile snapped its massive jaws, narrowly missing my leg due to the slight jump I did by instinct.

The bear didn't miss the opportunity and swiped with colossal paws, each of them strong enough to blow me to pieces. I dodged below in the last minute, feeling glad that it wasn't as fast as the crocodile.

Their murderous intent grew as I dodged and weaved, making my knees go weak.

Finally, the exhaustion caught up to me and I made a mistake.

Pain like I had never known tore through me as the crocodile's jaws clamped down, ripping into my side.

"AAAAAHHHH!"

The sound of my own scream was distant in my ears, drowned out by the roar of blood and terror in my mind.

"No, not like this," I gasped, the words barely a whisper amidst the chaos.

The endless healing, my eternal blessing and curse, kicked in.

Flesh and sinew tried to knit back together in a futile attempt to restore the lethal wound on my torso. As soon as my body began to mend, the bear's massive claws tore through me again in the same place, unmaking what little healing had been done.

A vicious cycle of destruction and repair, a torment I had never imagined.

No...

The polar bear roared, its massive form towering over me. It struck again, its claws piercing through my flesh and ripping me apart.

It hurts...

"Stop... please..."

I choked on my own blood as the plea was lost in the growl of the beasts. I was trapped in a nightmare, my body refusing to yield to the finality of death.

It hurts so much...

As the creatures continued their assault, my vision blurred with tears of pain and fear. I had faced death before, but always as an observer, never as a participant.

The harsh truth of the inevitable end that lay ahead struck me like a tonne of bricks.

"STOOOOPPP THIIISSS!"

The crocodile wrenched its head again and again every time my body started to heal, grinding its teeth against bone. The polar bear did not stay behind, striking at me with relentless fury.

"Why won't it end?" I cried out, tears mingling with blood on my face. "Just let it end!"

With each wave of healing, hope flickered and died, smothered by the next wave of brutal destruction.

In the brief moments of respite, my thoughts spiraled into despair.

Memories of my friends, their smiles, their laughter, all seemed like distant echoes now.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, the apology a weak balm to my failing spirit. "I tried... I tried to be strong for you."

In those final moments, as the gigantic snapping jaws closed in on my head, my thoughts turned to my sister, to the life I had fought so hard to protect.

I wanted to be her shield, but now I was falling, ripped apart by the very monsters I sought to keep at bay.

Please be safe.

*Snap*

The world went black, the sounds of the horde and the beasts fading into a distant murmur. My last thought was a whisper, a hope that my sacrifice had not been in vain.

...

That was my first death.