Apocalypse Unbound

Unusual Beginnings

Arriving at his office, Grey was met with an unusual sight: the empty office. He grinned, taking pride in being the first to arrive—an achievement that made him giddy.

Grey savored the silence while he could for a second, aware that soon his coworkers would arrive, and headed to his neatly organized cubicle. He sat at his desk, powered up his computer, and began the day by sorting through unfinished emails and documents, entering work mode.

About an hour later, his colleagues began to trickle in. Grey exchanged the necessary pleasantries with them. He wasn't a social person and would rather not do it, but given the nature of his work, communication was necessary. So Grey had to force himself to adapt, no matter how uncomfortable he might be. It wasn't long before Jace, his coworker, arrived. He was known for his liveliness and perpetual lateness, and the only one Grey was remotely close to since he started working here.

"Grey?" Jace inquired as he noticed a food flask on Grey's desk, his curiosity piqued. Grey replied with a distracted nod.

"Yeah, good morning to you, you lucky bastard," Jace quipped. The "lucky bastard" part referred to Grey receiving homemade breakfasts from Wendy, a fact that made Jace jealous. Jace then picked up the flask. He was usually the one who ate it. He once found Grey about to discard it in the trash and swiftly intervened, accusing Grey of being heartless and devoid of empathy for tossing aside the sincere sentiments of a lovely lady.

"You know what, Grey? I'm starting to think you're gay," This earned him a scowl from Grey, but Jace ignored the reaction and continued. “I mean, how can you resist her charm? I doubt any man can do that. Explain it to me."

Grey rolled his eyes. "I don't need to explain anything. I use my brain to think and not what's between my legs... unlike someone."

"Ouch... Rude much," Jace replied, but he brushed it off. "Well, I'm not against your lack of attraction for the opposite sex since you keep bringing me free breakfast.”

“I’m not gay!”

“Yeah, yeah... I don't even care anymore. I don't even bother to eat in the morning anymore knowing the lovely Wendy would never disappoint."

"Well, don't depend on it; I'm sure she can't keep this up forever,"

"What? Why did you say that? What do you plan to do, yell at her? I'll kill you if you do! How could you think of that? You monster," Jace spoke between bites of Wendy's food, and Grey shook his head before turning away. With a weary sigh, he looked around and furrowed his brow, noticing something was amiss.

"Jace, did you notice that most people aren't at work today?"

"Really?" Jace replied, his attention now on his phone. Indeed, several colleagues were absent, and it wasn't due they were late. Jace was usually the last to arrive at work, so if others weren't here before him, then it meant they weren't coming at all.

The pale-looking drunkard, the traffic so early in the morning, and his coworkers' absence. Something felt off about it all. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

Grey noticed a lady at a nearby desk. He couldn't recall her name, which left him somewhat guilty, considering she had introduced herself when he started working here two weeks ago. The young woman kept scratching her arm, and her skin was pale, which made Grey frown in suspicion. Why the hell did she look like the drunkard from this morning?

He then glanced down at the woman's arm and noticed a bite mark. The woman spotted him staring and hastily covered the wound with her sleeve, and Grey averted his gaze. It seemed like she wanted to hide it.

"Indeed, something felt amiss, and as his mind raced through potential scenarios, Jace's voice broke the silence. "Grey, Grey, look, you have to see this!" Jace exclaimed, thrusting his phone in front of him.

The video on Jace's phone was taken inside a train, showing a horrifying scene of a frenzied-looking man biting into another person's flesh. Blood spurted out, sending passengers into a frenzy as they screamed and fled for their lives. Again, Grey saw something familiar. The assailant in the video had pale skin like the lady and the drunkard.

"Is this real?" Grey asked.

"Of course, it is. It's a live video on PikPok. I've been seeing videos like this all morning. Maybe it's a new trend," Jace replied casually, continuing to watch similar videos. Grey found it strange that three random people had the same sickly look and were acting abnormally.

All of a sudden, a loud vibration echoed through his head, causing him to clutch his temples in pain. But the feeling went as fast as it came, making Grey even more uneasy. "Jace, did you hear that?" Grey asked urgently, but Jace was engrossed in his phone, with an ear pod in.

Grey hurriedly scanned the office to find the source of the sound. But again, he saw nothing, just like in the morning. His gaze landed on the blanched lady with the bite mark, who now appeared to be staring upwards, seemingly asleep. But she kept groaning as if in pain, which made Grey furrow his brow, suspecting she was more than just sleeping. Her skin looked more like that of a corpse.

As if confirming his suspicion, her body abruptly started twitching unnaturally, startling Grey.“What the hell is happening?” Her body began to undergo a grotesque transformation, bones cracking and snapping. Her decayed form then began to rise awkwardly, her lifeless eyes staring ahead. Immediately, Grey knew what it was. It was unbelievable and should only exist in movies, but Grey didn't doubt it. "Jace!" Grey called out in terror, keeping his voice low to avoid agitating the woman, but Jace remained oblivious, absorbed by his phone. "Jace!" Grey called again, but Wendy's head turned toward his direction, and then to Jace, who giggled and got her attention.

"Jace!" Grey reiterated, raising his voice, but Jace laughed even louder, unaware of what was happening in his surroundings. Jace's laughter fully drew her attention, and she approached him eagerly.

"Shit!"

Grey cursed and grabbed the keyboard connected to his computer. With all his strength, he swung it toward her head, causing it to shatter on impact. Keycaps flew through the air as her body crumpled. Finally, Jace was jolted out of his phone-induced stupor and took out his earphones.

"Huh... what's going on?" he asked, bewildered, but then he heard a guttural growl and turned towards it.

Jace's eyes widened in horror as he caught sight of his coworker. Her skin decayed, her body contorting unnaturally as her bones creaked, a bloody gash on her face caused by Grey's attack. "Is that Grace?!" Jace exclaimed, shocked by the gruesome sight.

‘So her name was Grace,’ Grey thought before replying, "Yeah, it is, was."

He wasn't sure this was Grace anymore. Strange noises filled Grey's ears, causing him to turn, and he saw others in the office undergoing a similar transformation, their movements and sounds mirroring Grace and the video Jace had shown him earlier.

"Holy shit, Grey!" Jace muttered as he rose slowly to his feet in horror.

"Yeah," Grey agreed. “It’s a freaking zombie apocalypse."