I turned back slowly, only to freeze in my tracks.
I stood frozen, my heart pounding in his chest as i watched the lifeless body of a soldier twitch and convulse on the ground.
But it wasn't alive.
It looked possessed.
The soldier now writhed as if trying to shake off an unseen grip.
I could not believe my eyes as the soldier's skin began to tear, revealing a grotesque, pulsating mass beneath.
Horror gripped me as the transformation began
The soldier's face twisted in agony, his features melting away into something monstrous.
"No!, damnit!" i murmured, backing away slowly, my breath hitching in my throat.
The creature's once-human eyes blazed with a feral hunger as it let out a guttural growl.
The way it moved was stiff yet disturbingly deliberate, it sent shivers down my spine.
The blank, glazed over eyes, the unnatural tilt of its head...
Then it hit me.
It was dead, but It wasn't possessed.
It was infected.
The realization slammed into me hard.
I had read about this in The World Is Doomed.
But It doesn't occurs often.
Infective monsters are rare but terrifying, they spread infection through any means.
They are very deadly.
They both kill and sometimes convert their victims into grotesque, mindless husks.
That explained the carnage around me.
The soldiers were slaughtered by an infective monster.
Including me...
No, sky.
But why am I not infected.
Sadly, I didn't have time to think.
I slowly backed away.
The infected soldier twitched, its head snapping toward me with an almost mechanical precision.
I was in a crumbling, partially destroyed house no doors, most of the walls missing.
If I wanted to survive, I needed to get out of here.
My eyes darted to a gap in the wall.
The forest wasn't far.
I could run for it.
If I stayed quiet, maybe...
But it was already late.
The infected soldier lunged at me with terrifying speed.
I barely had time to react.
Instinct kicked in, and I ducked, twisting to the side as the creature barreled past me.
It crashed through the already crumbling wall, landing outside in the dirt.
This was my chance.
I wasted no time, I bolted, weaving through the wreckage and the bodies that littered the ground.
Each step was careful, deliberate I couldn't risk tripping over one of the corpses or, worse, brushing against one.
If infection spread through any means, even a slight graze could seal my fate.
My mind raced as I ran, my heart pounding in my chest.
A guttural growl ripped through the air behind me, snapping me out of my spiraling thoughts.
I glanced back.
It was chasing me.
"Come on Sky, Think!" i muttered under my breath.
Fully transformed and adapted infected were nearly impossible to kill.
As it looks the infected here was not in it complete transformation stage.
Maybe just starting.
But I remembered something from the novel
They are vulnerable during the beginning transformation stage.
I still had a chance.
My mind racing recollecting the pages of the novel, the one that had described their vulnerability during their beginning transformation phase.
"A shot to the head…" I muttered, suddenly recollecting how to kill them.
But I have to be very fast about it.
My eyes darted around desperately, searching for any gun in sight.
Then I saw one...
A gun, lying near a fallen soldier's outstretched hand.
I skidded to a stop, crouched, and grabbed it.
The weapon felt foreign in my hands.
I have never fired a gun before, but guns in this world were different, a bit easier to handle.
The infected was upon me.
It snarled, lunging toward me with terrifying speed.
I aimed carefully, my heart racing and my hands trembling, and pulled the trigger.
Breathe.
Aim.
And...
Bang! Bang!
The shot rang out, echoing through the environment like a clap of thunder, deafening in the eerie quiet.
The first bullet grazed its head, but the second found its mark, tearing through its skull exploding it into a shower of dark matter.
The monster staggered, letting out a guttural scream, it grotesque body collapsing to the ground in a lifeless heap.
I stood there, staring at the lifeless body.
My hands and body was shaking due to the recoil of the gun, I lowered the gun slowly.
"May your soul rest in peace," I muttered, though I doubted there was much of a soul left to save.
Trying to catch my breath while I turned to leave.
My breath hitched.
My body froze.
I found myself face to face with a group of armed figures, their weapons drawn, glinting menacingly in the moonlight.
Guns and bows.
Many of them.
Aimed directly at me.
It looked like it can be shot at any moment if I make a wrong move.
The people who wielded them looked like awakeneds and soldiers, alive and armed with different kind of menacing weapons.
Just by looking at them, makes me want to start pleading.
Their expressions showed a mix of suspicion and hostility.
"Don't move, drop your weapon! Hands in the air!" one of them barked, his voice sharp, cold and commanding, slicing through the silence.
I raised my hands slowly, the gun slipping from his fingers and dropping to the ground.
I could feel the weight of their hostility suffocating me.
I glanced back at the body of the infected soldier I killed and then back at the group in front of me.
With the sight of weapons drawn and hostility radiating from every direction.
I lost all hope of escaping.
"First an infected soldier, now them?!" I muttered under my breath. "Just great."