H1N1

It was crazy, how fast it happened. I remember it like it was yesterday. The first fall of the cold winter snow, each street slowly becoming blanketed in white ice. The holiday sales in every window, the glittering, hypnotic lights, the warm, fuzzy feeling of the season. It was supposed to be the best time of the year, you know?

Selena and I were walking, just chilling and looking into shop windows, trying to find the perfect gift for her mother. She’d been talking about what to get her all week, but we couldn’t decide.

“I don’t know, Zane,” Selena said, glancing at a store window. “Maybe something for the house? Or… I dunno. Maybe a new tv?”

I shot her a grin, watching the way her eyes lit up as she looked at a jewelry store display.

“You sure yo moms needs a new TV?” I teased, raising an eyebrow.

“She’s always complaining about the same screen, you know?” Selena shrugged, her cheeks glowing with the winter chill. “I could get her something bigger, something she could live rather than squint at when she’s just chillin’ in the living room.”

I nodded, admiring her thoughtfulness. “Well, I bet your mom’s gonna love whatever you get her.”

Selena gave me that smirk—the one she always wore when I said something too sweet for her liking. It was a look that said she knew I was trying to be all nice, but didn’t fully buy it.

“You better not be trying to get on my good side, Zane.”

“I’m just sayin’,” I said with a shrug, casually pulling something from my pocket. “You’ve got the perfect taste for this kinda thing. And…” I pulled out a small, black ring box. “I got something for you too.”

Her eyes narrowed as she turned to me. “What’s that?”

I smirked and tucked the box away again, making sure she didn’t see it just yet. “You’ll see.”

We kept walking, with Selena still talking about her mom and all the things she had to get done before the holidays. I was listening, but I couldn’t help but focus on her. The way her breath puffed out in little clouds of mist. The way her eyes shone bright, full of life.

That was when the moment seemed to stretch like everything was quiet before something hit.

People started running.

“What’s going on?” Selena asked, her voice laced with confusion as she glanced around.

I didn’t wait to find out. I grabbed her arm, pulling her toward me. “I don’t know. Let’s go, hurry up!”

We didn’t need to ask any more questions. When you’re in the hood, you don’t question the crowd. You just move with it. So we took off running, weaving through the masses of people trying to get away from whatever was happening.

Then it happened.

A man jumped on a woman out of nowhere. Without warning, he started biting into her face. Ripping into her skin with strength I couldn’t even comprehend. It wasn’t like a normal fight. It was savage. Brutal. The man didn’t stop, didn’t care. He was tearing her apart like it was nothing.

I froze. I couldn’t even process it.

Before I could react, the crowd closed in around us, and it wasn’t just that man. More of them appeared. They were dressed in hospital gowns, eyes glazed over, blood everywhere. People screamed as they were dragged down, taken one by one. Then they got her.

Selena.

“No!” I shouted, shoving the man off of her. My hands were shaking as I tried to pull her away from the chaos, but they were too strong, too fast.

The guy had her by the arm, locked in a grip like a bulldog, pulling her down to the ground. It was only then that I moved. I grabbed him and yanked him off Selena, throwing him to the side. We didn’t stop running until we were out of sight, hearts pounding in our chests.

We took refuge in a nearby alleyway. The chaos still raged around us, but we were safe, for now.

We stayed inside for the next couple of days. We talked. We laughed. But it was different now. Something had changed.

It started slow. At first, I thought maybe it was just shock, maybe the adrenaline was wearing off. But then it got worse.

Selena started to change.

Her skin began to lighten, almost as if the color was being drained from her. Her eyes, those warm, hazel eyes, turned black. She grew these tentacles, just sprouting from her back like they’d always been there.

“Selena?” I whispered one night, watching her from the doorway as she stretched. “What’s happening to you?”

She didn’t answer right away. Her body was stiff, her face scrunched up as if she was fighting something, fighting herself. Then her hands clenched into fists, nails lengthening until they were like claws. I could hear the sharp scrape of them on the floor as she moved.

“Zane… I don’t know,” she muttered, her voice sounding so far away. “Something’s inside me, Zane. I can’t control it. It’s taking over.”

“It’s gonna be okay,” I said, trying to stay calm. “We’ll figure this out. We’ll fix it, Selena. Just stay with me.”

She didn’t respond, just kept staring into the distance, her breathing shallow and quick.

Then one night, she attacked.

I wasn’t ready.

Her teeth weren’t just sharp; they were deadly. Her mouth opened wide like she was about to rip into me, but when she got close, something stopped her.

Her face twisted in pain, and she froze, looking at me with those black eyes. She didn’t bite. She didn’t kill me. She just… stopped.

“Selena, baby, please…” I whispered, reaching out to her, but she pulled away, shaking her head.

And just like that, I knew. She wasn’t gone. Not completely. She was still in there, fightin’ it. But I couldn’t risk it.

I started locking her down, putting a hockey mask on her to keep her from biting, and chaining her to the wall whenever I wasn’t around. The only time I’d take it off was when I needed to feed her. I’d catch wild animals with traps, just to keep the hunger at bay. It helped, at least a little. She stayed focused, and calm for a while. But there were times I could see the struggle in her eyes, the way she fought against the change.

Then, one day, I woke up to find her gone.

My heart dropped. I searched the apartment, calling her name, but she wasn’t there.

I found her by the river.

She was crouched down, working on something. At first, I thought things had gotten worse, that she had fully snapped. But when I got closer, I realized she wasn’t hurting anyone.

She was setting traps.

She had water in jars beside her, catching fish and small animals like she knew exactly what she was doing.

And that’s when it hit me. These weren’t just zombies. They weren’t mindless, rotting flesh creatures like we saw in the movies.

No. These things were smart.

They built traps. They learned. They adapted. They could even drive vehicles, hunt, and think.

And Selena was the only one with that spark of humanity. Like a heart and a soul.

The others, the ones who weren’t like her, had become something else entirely. They used that intelligence to drive us to extinction bro.

And the worst part? They hunted us.

They’d wiped out civilization. They’d taken control.

The rest of us? We’re just hiding out now, scattered, trying to survive either underground or in the wilderness.

Now, there are only a few of us left. We either fight back… or we become the new dinosaurs.

I ain’t goin’ down like that. How about you?