The world was ordinary in its predictability. At 6:30 a.m., Jacob West's alarm blared like a foghorn in the otherwise silent apartment, jolting him from the restless sleep he'd managed to grasp. The remnants of another sleepless night clung to him as he groaned and fumbled for the snooze button. Five minutes, he thought. Just five more.

But five minutes turned into twenty, as it always did, and Jacob found himself rushing through his morning routine, barely able to stuff a slice of toast into his mouth before grabbing his bag and heading for the door. The sun hung low in the sky, an orange orb casting long shadows over the streets as he hurried toward the subway station. It was just another Wednesday in the city—overcrowded, noisy, but ultimately familiar. He liked the routine. It grounded him, gave him a sense of control in a world that had long since stopped making sense after his wife passed two years ago.

Jacob's daily ritual wasn't just about catching the 7:45 train. It was about maintaining normalcy. The structure of his day kept the grief at bay, hidden under layers of spreadsheets, meetings, and coffee breaks. Work was his refuge now, even if it was a soul-sucking corporate grind that left him emotionally drained. He'd given up trying to find meaning in his job a long time ago.

At 8:15, Jacob walked into the office of Falcon Enterprises, where he'd been a marketing analyst for the last six years. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, and the buzz of chatter and keyboards filled the space. Same as always. He smiled faintly at Gina, his cubicle neighbor, as he settled into his chair and opened his laptop.

"Hey, did you hear about that weird thing in the news?" Gina's voice broke through the mundane rhythm of his morning.

Jacob raised an eyebrow. "What weird thing?"

She leaned closer, her eyes wide with curiosity. "There was this attack downtown last night. Some guy went nuts and bit a bunch of people. Cops shot him, but he kept coming at them. They said he was on drugs or something."

Jacob shrugged. "Yeah, sounds like a bad trip. People are crazy these days."

But Gina wasn't finished. "No, seriously. It's not just here. There've been reports all over—people acting like that in other cities, too. Attacks, biting, some kind of rage thing. It's all over Twitter."

Jacob glanced at her, bemused. "Probably just some viral scare, like that bath salts thing a few years back."

He dismissed it, focusing back on his screen, but there was an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. People were always talking about some kind of global crisis—climate change, economic collapse, pandemics—but somehow, the worst never seemed to happen. It was easier to roll his eyes and focus on his work than to dwell on the what-ifs.

By lunchtime, the eerie buzz about the attacks had faded to the back of his mind. Jacob stepped out to grab a sandwich from the corner deli. The streets were busier than usual, with a heavy air of tension, but he chalked it up to the midweek stress. That was until he noticed the group gathered around a TV screen inside the deli. Jacob pushed his way closer to see what they were all staring at. The news was running a live broadcast of an emergency situation at a hospital downtown.

The reporter's voice was urgent. "We're receiving unconfirmed reports of violent outbreaks in multiple areas of the city. Law enforcement is urging citizens to remain indoors. Hospitals are overwhelmed with injured, and there are rumors that the violence is spreading faster than anyone can contain."

Jacob frowned. This wasn't the usual news cycle. Something about the tone was different. He hurried back to the office, sandwich forgotten. By the time he got back, the office had erupted into quiet panic. Everyone was on their phones, scrolling through newsfeeds, whispering to one another.

"What the hell is going on?" Jacob muttered as he sat down, logging into his computer.

Gina's face was pale. "It's worse than they're saying on TV. People are saying the hospitals can't keep up. Some kind of infection."

Jacob felt a shiver crawl up his spine. Infection? What kind of infection? He opened a news site, his stomach sinking as the headlines flooded the screen. "Mysterious Outbreak Causes Violent Attacks in Cities Worldwide." "Hospitals Overrun as Panic Spreads."

Suddenly, the normalcy of the day—the routine that had grounded him—crumbled beneath the weight of the growing chaos. This wasn't some isolated incident. Something was happening, something that defied the usual order of things. Jacob felt the first stirrings of dread as his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a message from his sister, Emma.

Are you safe? Stay inside. Don't come home yet. Something's going on.

He stared at the words, heart pounding. He tried to respond, but before he could type a word, the power went out, plunging the office into darkness.