Chapter 1: THE HOLLOW ROOF
The dry grass in the open field swished violently as cold wind battered the old farmhouse. Inside the dimly lit living room, Maya and Chloe stood by the window, watching the distant road in total shock.
Out near the edge of the trees, a group of strange, hollow-eyed people were attacking a screaming driver who had pulled over. It wasn't just a fight—they were tearing into him, biting and eating him alive in broad daylight.
"Oh my god... Maya, look," Chloe gasped, her voice trembling violently as she backed away from the glass. "They're... they're eating him!"
"Get away from the window!" Maya whispered, terror clutching her chest.
Terrified for their lives, the two girls ran deeper into the house, looking for the safest place to hide. They found a small cellar door built into the floor under the stairs. Maya yanked it open, and both girls scrambled down the wooden ladder into the dark space under the house. Maya pulled the door shut above them and threw the heavy slide lock into place.
They sat in total darkness, holding their breath, listening to the muffled sounds of footsteps and wet, guttural snarling echoing on the floorboards directly above their heads.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Someone was pounding on the heavy cellar door from the living room side above.
"Don't open it... please don't," Chloe whispered, her knuckles white as she squeezed Maya's arm.
"I won't," Maya whispered back. "Stay completely still."
The pounding continued for a few agonizing moments before fading into the background wind.
BUZZ. BUZZ.
The sudden vibration of Maya’s phone in her back pocket made both of them jump. Maya yanked it out, revealing an incoming call: Leo.
She swiped the screen with a shaking thumb and pressed the phone to her ear. "Leo?! Where are you? There are... there are monsters out there eating people!"
"Maya! We're inside the house!" Leo’s panicked voice blasted through the speaker over the sound of heavy wind. "It's me, Mark, and Sam! We made it inside through the back, but where are you two?!"
"We're under the house! In the cellar!" Maya yelled into the receiver.
She unlocked the hatch and pushed it open. Three figures tumbled toward them—Leo, Mark, and Sam. They were covered in dirt and sweat, panting for air like they had just run a marathon. Mark immediately helped pull Maya and Chloe up out of the cellar and slammed the floor hatch shut again.
"Lock it! Lock it now!" Mark screamed.
Outside, the shrieks grew louder. Through the fogged glass of the living room window, Maya caught a full view of the infected. They weren't slow or stumbling—they were sprinting across the grass on all fours, their eyes glowing milky white, blood dripping from their open jaws.
"Are you guys okay? Are you bitten?!" Chloe asked, her voice cracking as she helped Sam up.
"We're fine, but they chased us all the way from the road," Sam panted, leaning heavily against the wall. He wiped sweat from his forehead and looked up at the ceiling beams. "Wait... guys. Look at this place."
Everyone went silent and looked up.
The ceiling beams were old, cracked, and sagging under the weight of the structure. Dust sifted down every time the wind blew outside.
"This farmhouse is ancient," Sam said, panic rising in his tone. "The whole structure is ruined. If those things climb onto the roof or pile up against the walls, this whole house is going to collapse on top of us!"
"Five of us trapped in a house made of rotting wood," Leo said, looking around in terror. "What do we do?"
For twenty minutes, nobody moved. They waited in agonizing silence, listening for the roof to cave in. But slowly, the banging stopped. The snarling faded away into the wind.
"Did they leave?" Mark whispered.
"I don't know," Leo said.
He crept toward the living room window, staying low to the floor. Slowly, carefully, he raised his head and parted the dusty blinds to peek outside.
Leo gasped and backed away, his face turning pale.
"What is it? What do you see?" Maya asked, stepping closer.
"They... they aren't trying to break the door anymore," Leo whispered, his voice full of disbelief. "They're floating—or lurching—just outside the glass. And look at their hands."
Maya peered over his shoulder. Outside, several massive infected figures were standing near the rusted tool shed. One of them reached down, wrapped its filthy fingers around a heavy iron axe, and picked it up. It handed the weapon to another creature beside it.
"They're passing weapons," Maya whispered, horrified. "They're learning."
"If they come back with those axes, this house won't last ten seconds," Mark said, grabbing a long iron poker from the fireplace. "We have to run now while the front path is clear."
"Where do we go?" Chloe asked.
"To town," Leo said, grabbing a heavy hunting knife from the kitchen counter. "There's an abandoned medical station near the main square. Maybe someone there knows what's happening."
Sam threw open the back door. "On my mark! Three, two, one—RUN!"
They burst out into the cold air. Two mutated infected lunged from the shadows of the shed, but Mark and Leo swung their weapons, knocking them down into the dirt. Without looking back, all five friends sprinted as fast as they could toward the dark skyline of the town.
