Chapter 1
LOVE INSIDE THE QUARANTINE ZONE
Chapter 1: The Lockdown Bell
The siren didn’t just wake the city—it swallowed it.
A long, tearing sound rolled across the abandoned streets, bouncing off broken windows and empty buses. Then came the announcement again, calm but lifeless:
“Quarantine Zone Delta has been sealed. No civilian movement is permitted. Any contact with infected individuals is punishable by termination.”
Inside St. Aria High School, silence followed.
Not the peaceful kind. The dead kind.
Desks were overturned in some classrooms. Food wrappers lay scattered like the school had been abandoned in a rush—but no one had escaped. Not really. The gates outside had locked themselves three days ago. Since then, no signal. No rescue. No answers.
Only waiting.
In Classroom 2B, a boy sat near the window.
His name was Kian.
He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t panicking anymore. He had passed that stage yesterday when he watched a teacher walk out into the hallway… and return five minutes later with empty eyes.
No words. No emotion. Just silence.
The infected didn’t attack.
They simply… forgot who they were.
Kian pressed his forehead against the glass. Outside, the sky was too quiet. No birds. No wind. Even the sun looked wrong—too pale, like it had also been quarantined.
A soft sound broke the silence behind him.
Step.
He turned sharply.
The classroom door was open.
And standing there was a girl.
She wasn’t supposed to be here.
Long wet hair clung to her face, like she had just run through rain that didn’t exist. Her school uniform was torn slightly at the sleeve. But her eyes…
Her eyes were clear.
Alive.
Kian stood up slowly. “You… you shouldn’t be in this block.”
The girl blinked, confused. “I… don’t know where I am.”
That was the first strange thing.
Because everyone in the quarantine zone knew exactly where they were.
Even the ones losing themselves.
Kian stepped closer. “What’s your name?”
She hesitated.
Long.
Too long.
Then she whispered:
“I think… I had one.”
A cold feeling crawled up Kian’s spine.
From the hallway outside, something dragged across the floor.
Slow. Deliberate.
The girl flinched instantly, as if she had heard it too.
Kian moved to the door carefully and peeked out.
The hallway was empty.
But the lights were flickering—like something was walking past them, even if nothing was there.
Then he saw it.
A figure standing at the end of the corridor.
Still.
Watching.
Not moving.
The girl appeared behind him suddenly. “What is that?”
Kian swallowed. “Don’t look at it too long.”
“Why?”
He didn’t answer.
Because the figure just took a step forward.
And every classroom door along the hallway slowly began to open… one by one… as if something invisible was checking inside.
Kian grabbed the girl’s wrist. “We need to move. Now.”
They ran.
Past broken desks. Past silent classrooms. Past the remains of normal life that no longer mattered.
But the strange thing was—
The girl didn’t struggle.
She didn’t ask questions.
She only held his hand tighter, like she trusted him… even though she didn’t know him.
Behind them, the footsteps followed.
Always the same distance.
Never closer.
Never farther.
Just there.
Kian pushed open the stairwell door and pulled her inside.
It slammed shut.
For a moment, only breathing filled the space.
Then the girl spoke quietly.
“I think… I’ve been here before.”
Kian froze. “That’s impossible.”
She shook her head slowly. “No… not in this place. In a dream.”
Before he could respond, the stairwell light flickered.
And in that split second of darkness—
The girl’s face changed.
Just for a moment.
Not infected.
Not human either.
Something else.
Kian stepped back instantly. “What are you?”
The lights came back.
She looked normal again.
Confused.
Scared.
But now even more dangerous.
Because something about her didn’t belong in the quarantine zone at all.
A loud bang echoed from above them.
The stairwell door slowly opened on its own.
And a voice came through the darkness… speaking her name.
A name she had never told him.
“Kira…”
The girl turned sharply toward the sound.
Whispering, terrified:
“…That’s not my name.”
And then—
The emergency lights went out completely.
Silence swallowed everything.
Kian reached for her hand in the dark.
But she was gone.
