Rio held his bleeding nose as he limped and gradually ran towards the nearby street on his left, entering the neighborhood. The pain from his fall was sharp, but the urgency of his situation kept him moving. As he turned, he saw evacuees crowding the street and vehicles unable to join the highway, all stuck in a bottleneck. Rio found himself bumping into the evacuating people, he pushed through the crowd, counter-flowing against the tide of desperate people.

…

Rio looked up at the house in front of him, its balcony offering a potential escape route via the roofs of neighboring homes.

"There are two ways I could make it to the next city and survive," Rio thought, his voice barely a whisper. "First, the roofs. I could use them to travel forward and avoid the infected below. Second, if the roofs become a dead end, I can come back down and run, hiding like I've done before. Fighting back is a last resort; they come in groups."

With his plan clear, he glanced around to see if anyone would notice him breaking into the house. The evacuees were too preoccupied with their own fears and struggles to care. Rio moved quickly, opening the front door and slipping inside.

Inside, he immediately spotted the stairs leading to the second floor. But his survival instincts were momentarily overridden by the pangs of hunger as he wandered into the kitchen. A pot left on the stove caught his eye. Curious, he lifted the lid.

"Sinigang na hipon," he muttered, his stomach growling. The familiar aroma brought back memories of his mother. "I haven't eaten since the afternoon," he realized, thinking of the last meal he missed with his mom. "Grilled squid... If I’d only eaten with her, maybe I’d be better off infected with her."

T/N: "Sinigang na hipon" means "shrimp in sour soup".

A sudden noise startled him—a bump and something falling to the floor. He quickly replaced the lid on the pot and turned towards the sound, gripping his knife.

An infected elderly man was hobbling towards him, bumping into furniture and causing things to crash to the floor. His stiff, uncoordinated movements made him approach even more unnerving, saliva dripping from his mouth. Rio's heart raced, torn between fleeing and confronting him.

(End his misery like you ended mine, Rio.) A sweet, motherly voice whispered in his ear.

Alluded by the voice in his head, he breathed rapidly, panic gripping him. Rio gripped his knife tightly and advanced on the old man. With a swift motion, he stabbed him in the stomach from below. The elderly man screamed in sharp pain, the sound echoing in the kitchen.

He yanked the knife out and shoved him away, her spine cracking as he collapsed. Blood poured from the wound, and he convulsed violently. Blood pooled around her as he convulsed. Rio, snapping out of his delusion, was horrified by what he'd done.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"What the fuck have I done?" he whispered, trembling.

From the second floor came the sound of alarmed screams, loud and piercing.

"There's another one up there," Rio muttered, moving towards the living room and glancing up the stairs.

A woman stood at the top, her eyes wild and unfocused. She screamed and charged down the steps towards Rio, saliva spraying from her mouth. He sidestepped her frenzied attack, and she tumbled down the stairs, landing hard but quickly scrambling to her feet with a dislocated arm.

Rio leaped over her and dashed up the stairs, reaching the second floor. There, he saw an infected elderly woman bedridden in the corner, a spilled bowl of the contagious soup and a framed picture of her with her husband on the table beside her. The old woman crawled out of bed as she saw Rio, slowly dragging her senile body across the floor towards him. The realization hit Rio hard—he had broken into the home of an elderly couple nursed for by the woman now chasing him.

"I—I'm sorry," he choked out, running towards the balcony with the infected caretaker-woman following.

Without hesitating, Rio vaulted over the balcony railing, landing on the roof of the next house. He stumbled but regained his balance, glancing back to see the caretaker-woman stuck on the balcony, unable to follow.

Regaining his momentum, Rio sprinted across the rooftops, leaping from one to another, his light steps carefully placed to avoid falling through. Slowly but surely, he made his way through the neighborhood of Balanti in Cainta-Annex, his eyes on the distant, heavily trafficked Sumulong Highway. The bokeh of vehicle lights radiated like a river of fireflies, a stark contrast to the chaos below. Evacuees desperately pushed forward, their faces etched with terror, while infected hordes relentlessly chased them, snapping and snarling at their heels.

The sight was both mesmerizing and horrifying. The cacophony of honking horns and panicked screams filled the air, blending into a symphony of despair.

He paused for a moment, looking up at the sky. Helicopters buzzed overhead, their blades slicing through the air. In the distance, an airliner carrying passengers plummeted, a harbinger collapsing world around him. The unnerving air of the outbreak pressed down on him, but he pressed on, driven by the hope of reaching safety and the promise he made to his mother.

A sudden burst of movement on a nearby roof caught Rio's attention. An infected had somehow climbed up, its grotesque figure illuminated by the dim streetlights. It spotted Rio and let out a guttural growl, its eyes locked onto him with a predatory hunger.

Panic surged through Rio as he changed direction, sprinting faster. The infected was nimble, bounding after him with terrifying speed. Rio's mind raced, searching for a way out. He spotted a gap between two houses, a narrow alleyway that might slow the infected down.

With a burst of adrenaline, Rio leaped across the gap, landing hard on the opposite roof. He stumbled but quickly regained his footing. The infected reached the edge of the roof and hesitated for a moment, giving Rio the precious seconds he needed to increase his lead.

He scanned the area frantically, looking for a way to evade the infected. Ahead, he saw a fire escape ladder attached to an apartment building. It was his best shot. Rio pushed himself harder, sprinting towards the ladder and jumping for it with every ounce of energy he had left. Mid-air, Rio barely reached but successfully grasped the rusty rungs, hanging by the ladder with one arm. He looked back at the infected, which was stuck on the roof he had jumped from.

With a mixture of relief and urgency, Rio lifted himself and began to climb the ladder. The metal creaked under his weight, and flakes of rust rained down as he ascended. Each step felt like an eternity, his muscles burning and his breath coming in ragged gasps. He could hear the infected snarling and pacing, unable to follow him.