In a small room in Hong Kong was Nick, a 18 year old male who's currently starting a new life as a university student in The University of Hong Kong.
The bedroom was too empty to even be called a bedroom. With only a single matress and small table with his laptop covering all of the surface.
The sun shines throught his tiny room, directly hitting his eyelids.
"Ah shit... It's morning again.." Nick mumbles to himself.
He took his phone just beside him and looked at the time, showing 9.00 am.
"Damn... I might be late to class" Nick thought to himself as his schedule shows that he has class on 9.30.
Nick gathers his consciousness, stood up, open his curtains and do some stretches before taking some clothes from below the table and went out of the door to take a shower.
Nick was rejected from his hall application since he forgot to pay before the deadline, so he resorted to renting out a place which he luckily found to be near campus.
Nick took a shower in the shared bathroom and quickly cleans up after himself before going to campus.
He had to skip breakfast and directly head to class, which was nothing unusual.
On the way to campus, he kept his eye down and focused on his phone while auto-piloting to class.
"Yo Nick, how is it going?" A familiar voice called out to him.
"Jonathan?" Nick looked up and saw one of his few friend.
Despite being an upperclassmen, Jonathan has always been kind to Nick, throughout the semester, their bond had grow.
Jonathan was a gym shark, he exercises almost everyday on a gym near Nick's home.
"You should go to the gym tomorrow, come on, let's get in shape." Jonathan jokingly said to Nick while examining his body.
"Haha..." Nick laughs a bit. "Alright, I'll come tomorrow... Hopefully." Nick whispers.
After walking together, Nick and Jonathan arrived at their class.
"Argh.. I hate statistics." Jonathan mumbles while looking at his notes.
Nick looks at Jonathan and continue with his revision until the professor comes.
At 9.30 exactly, the professor arrived to the class and started the lecture.
Nick looks around the class and noticed that there were a less students than the previous lectures.
"Hello everyone. Good morning, before we start class, I have an announcement to give all of you." The professor starts the lecture, making the whole class quiet.
"Some students have filed in sick today, so you guys should buy some mask and stay healthy."
Nick shifted one of his eyebrows. "Some students? More like half of then are absent today..." Said Nick as he looked around class.
"I heard it's the seasonal flu." Jonathan looked at Nick and said to him.
Nick doesn't think this is normal, but maybe because it's a new place, so he shook the weird ideas off and start focusing on class.
However, Nick couldn't shake of the feeling that something was off. He had a hard time focusing on the class as his mind wandered off.
*Boom*
Suddenly, a loud thud can be heard throughout the classroom, and the lights suddenly went out.
The professor stopped the lecture and the students opened their phone and shone light using their cellphone flashlight.
All of them though that it was just some faults in the electricity. All of them but Nick.
"Jonathan, come with me." Nick bolted out of his seat and took Jonathan's hand.
Jonathan was still shocked by the sudden black out stood up and followed Nick outside of the classroom.
To their surprise, all of the electricity in campus has been switched off. And the only thing helping them see was the sunlight shining through the sky.
After several minutes, most of the people inside their classroom also went out, including the professors.
Nick and Jonathan talk to the professor, trying to figure out the issue.
The professor shrugged, saying he doesn't have a clue.
"I guess we will end class now, and continue in the next class."
Jonathan smiled weirdly while Nick still looked troubled.
"You wanna have lunch?" Jonathan looked at Nick while trying his best to hide his happiness.
"Ah sure yea.." Nick agreed and they started walking together.
"Do you want to try this new place outside of campus?" Jonathan asked Nick, hopeful for a confirmation.
Since all the lights are off, Nick wasn't sure about the canteen being open, so he decided to agree with Jonathan and go with him.
Nick can't help but feel uneasy. The near empty classroom, the light suddenly turned of by itself.
Nick and Jonathan walked towards the restaurant and realized that all the lights in the city has also turned off.
The city also seemed to be emptier than normal.
"What's going on right now?" Jonathan started to look nervous as he started to realize that things aren't normal.
They arrived at the restaurant, and saw several people waiting outside.
The restaurant was empty, with only the staff and chef waiting outside until the light went back on.
Jonathan pointed fingers at the restaurant, signaling that this is the place.
A woman took notice of us and talked to us.
"Sorry, the lights are off, do you guys still want to eat here?"
Nick have been hungry for a while, so they decided to eat there even in darkness.
Thankfully, one of the chairs was stationed near a window, so there were still some light shining through inside the restaurant.
The place was nothing like Nick have seen before, the walls were mostly white, with plastic chair and table made from plastic.
"This place seemed bland." Nick mumbles to himself.
"Yeah... But the food is good though." Jonathan heard what Nick said and responded.
"What would you like to order?" The same woman who approached them asked for what they wanted to eat.
"Two pork with rice, and also two milk tea." Jonathan spoke to her, not giving a chance for Nick to order.
"Just trust me, this is the best." Jonathan said to Nick.
After just several minutes, the food came and we ate our fill.
"It's good, right?" Jonathan asked.
Nick nodded while eating well.
After the meal is finished, Nick looked outside, still anxious about the events today. He can't help but feel like something is about to happen.
Nick looked at the cloud as it suddenly stopped moving. Then another cloud stopped, another, another, until the sky was covered in clouds.
Jonathan looked up and realized the sky had been covered by clouds, and the light slowly dimmed around them.
"It seemed like it's going to rain, we should head back fast."
Suddenly, the ground started rumbling and a very loud drum sound can be heard from a distance.
*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*
There seemed to be a rhythm to the thud.
A weird melody can also started to be heard. Nick can feel his the sound directly hitting his brain.
Then, a female ran towards the street, which was eerily empty, and shouted.
"Help me, help us. They are coming for all of us. Let me stay here, PLEASE..." She shouted from the bottom of her lungs.
Some parts of her body had red stain, with some blood dripped from an injury.
At this point, all the staff and chef holed up inside the restaurant in complete darkness.
The sky has totally gone dark. And the door completely sealed.
They took the woman's scream for help as something serious, and allowed her to hide inside the restaurant.
However, after several minutes, she suddenly went quiet. The tending staff who looked after her was suddenly bit.
The woman jump up and assume a position which one can only say as inhuman and began rampaging inside the restaurant.
Her body twisted all around while wreaking havoc. She has became a ghoul.
Nick and Jonathan knew the restaurant isn't safe anymore and went out.
The complete darkness has blinded all their sights, forcing them to use their cellphone as a source of light.
The sound of melody and drum is as close as it can get.
Jonathan shone through the direction of the sound and immediately started running.
Nick took a glimpse of the source and follow suit.
It was nothing like what they have ever imagined.
It was a dark flesh mass, around 6 meters tall and 10 meters wide, covering the whole street.
The creature had human faces coming out of them, and traces of screaming and groans can be heard from within the creatures.
However what was weird is that it had some sort of pedestal on top, with several creature playing some sort of instrument which was never to be seen before.
Aside from the huge mass, Nick also saw some other creatures hanging around the blob, prompting him to ran together with Jonathan.
It looked similar to a parade.
They ran and ran without looking back.
"Follow me! We'll go to my car." Jonathan shouted at Nick.
Nick can feel the creatures behind him chasing.
"Haah... I should've went to the gym more." Nick ran as fast as he can while wiping his forehead and panting.