And then the sun went out and never came back.

If that hadn’t sent a chill running down your spine, Hannah didn’t know what would… but then again, there were far larger problems that maybe just the sun disappearing wasn’t that big enough of a deal?

Just as an example, totally not her own, but maybe when your uber perfect life that you’ve spent so many years managing and perfecting—because society was so hard to work with—was decidedly thrown into a puddle of gasoline and lit up in flames?

Yeah, the sun was the least of her issues.

It probably should have been, but let the more competent people take care of it.

“At least I don’t have to worry about student loans.” Hannah muttered as she hid behind some dumpsters, crouched down low enough and proceeded to zip her mouth shut. She gripped her baseball bat and glanced up to see if it was hidden.

Nope.

It was poking out of the dumpster’s lid and was a beacon to anyone that, ‘Hey! This fool is hiding here! Sniper her out!’ Hannah lowered it down a little and was now faced with the rather gruesome appearance of her beloved bat now decorated and enforced with nails, bloody bits and other disgusting materials as she felt her heart pound.

Geez.

Inhuman growls and grunts lurched in the Main Street as Hannah wished that her heart would stop beating too loudly because heck, she didn’t want to die young. She held her breath—which wasn’t hard with the stinky bat—but it was only a matter of time before she was discovered and became mincemeat.

Maybe she could use a little positivity?

Well, hopefully, the pack of undead would just continue on and head elsewhere to find a place with much more humans than Hannah here all by her lonesome?

Honestly, it wouldn’t be that fun just sharing one meal so perhaps they’d find a grander feast for them to conquer.

Gotta look out for her zombie bros, you know?

So yeah, why would Hannah look up into the sky and worry about the sun? There were by far a lot of things that needed to be addressed which had happened over the course of a year or two since the sun went out. So many things happened one after another which led to the disaster of mankind and everything else that came after it.

Hannah sighed and felt her back itch. Terrible human thing. She attempted to scratch it with her bat, but stopped herself before she had done it and grumbled a little. A backscratcher would have been a better weapon, wouldn’t it?

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Well no… but where was she?

Oh right.

If you wanted the events to be summarized in one beautiful word that sent echoes of existential dread and horror into your brain?

Then it was simply this:

Apocalypse.

End of the world.

Ragnarok.

Okay, Hannah needed to stop thinking to herself and acting like she was narrating all of this but she hadn’t seen anyone else alive lately.

So yeah, either she was going to start talking to herself or go mad. Overall, the term apocalypse worked well enough because once the sun disappeared… or rather was hidden from sight, all of them started coming out.

Not the zombies.

Undead?

Er, semantics, but it wasn’t them that Hannah was more worried about. Zombies were small fry, lacked the brain to make any coherent decisions and thankfully couldn’t sense her that well as she had once feared.

Those were mostly humans as far as Hannah was concerned—let their souls rest in peace.

The real problem was the creatures that started popping when the sun went out.

So-called creatures of the night.

Not that Hannah actually saw one up close. One encounter with them was enough to kill you based on the stories she heard back when she was still with Martha and Joey. And the tales from the rest of the survivors when the government was still functioning?

Her expression grew somber.

For the people who survived these creatures or managed to see them far enough of a distance to tell the tale? Their lives were forever changed after that.

Hannah felt her throat dry and she tried to erase the thought from her head because this was the last thing that she wanted to think about when she was all by herself and without anyone to rely on.

However, it was already in her mind.

Them.

Creatures of the night.

Not the glow-in-the-dark, sparkle in the sunlight and make million of dollars fantasy Vampires and sexy Alpha Werewolfs. Goodness, those poor fangirls had been the first victims according to the horror story of a poor guy named Matt.

Perhaps they did look appealing? Hannah never really got the story straight, or managed to ask while she had been scarfing down her canned sardines, except for one thing about these creatures of the night.

You needed to run in the opposite direction and hope that you could actually escape.

So yeah, too dangerous.

For Hannah, it brought far more questions as she pondered. Had they been hidden in humanity, submerged and only waiting for their time to shine at last? Er… not shine, glow? Well, for them to finally step into the spotlight—argh, regardless, the last thing that Hannah wanted to do was meet any of them.

Of course, that might bite her in the back if those shows she had been watching were any indicator, but she didn’t plan to stick around too long if she ever chanced an encounter. Hannah’s stupid stomach decided to grumble and she reluctantly tried to wonder if it was worth it to pull that expired protein bar she had been saving.

And then out of nowhere, something clanged loudly in one of the metal trash cans.

“Oh mother of holy nuggets.”

Hannah’s eyes went wide and she immediately crouched lower and prepared her bat. She threw one look behind her and hoped that the zombie party was already way up ahead as she prepared herself for her chance encounter.

What was she going to face?

Radioactive rodents? Mutant mice? Hannah hated dealing with those but she needed to kill it and make sure it didn’t attract anything far bigger and dangerous than it. She bit her lip and watched the trash can continue to thrash around, before she eventually tipped it over with her bat.

The clang was loud and Hannah sucked in a breath, but then she saw it.

A black bundle of fur.

No, no—it was a cat.

A cute little black kitty… but then it started meowing and that was a death sentence.