Ron watched the ground shudder, while from his eyes—his scorched, blistered eyes—layer upon layer of fantastical colors burst into view.
"Emy!"
He roared, but his freshly damaged throat coupled with the suffocating, dense clouds of dust made it nearly impossible to articulate a complete sound. Clutching his throat, Ron couldn't even force a breath out, yet a bizarre sensation washed over him; it felt as though it had been an eternity since he last experienced this brand of suffocation.
CRASH, CRASH
Ron dropped to his knees, ripping off his coat and thrusting it toward Emy, gesturing wildly for her to put it on immediately. He then used his own body as a shield, wrapping himself tightly around Mark.
SNAP
The floorboards rapidly gave way beneath them, and all three plunged directly into the waiting arms of the lunatics below.
…
"Today is Friday already."
I sat on the hospital bed, staring blankly at the room that had long since grown quiet and empty.
I dug a finger into my nose and sniffed hard, trying to flush out the overwhelming stench of antiseptic that clung to my nostrils. It seemed the longer one loitered in a hospital room, the more suffocating that chemical smell became.
Lost in thought, I fished my phone out from my pants pocket.
Click!
I snapped a photo of the young man lying motionless on the bed. Looking at it for a moment, it didn't feel quite right, so I took a few more shots from different angles.
Once finished, I gently patted the head of the youth marooned on the bed and turned to leave.
Ting~
I mindlessly scrolled through the social media status updates before uploading a new picture to my feed.
It was the photo I had just taken moments ago—a picture of my younger brother.
Having posted it, I didn't bother waiting around for responses. Instead, I cast my gaze toward the glass window panel out in the hallway.
Reflected there was a fairly youthful face, albeit marked by a gaunt frame and severe sleep deprivation.
It was the face of a man named Joe Jothane.
Staring at the hazy, distorted reflection in the glass, my heart grew heavy as I forced a single sentence past my lips.
"Ron Irus… is a strange name, but a beautiful one…"
Then, I watched the bustling crowd passing by—from doctors and nurses to caregivers. There were patients, and people weeping or looking utterly dejected, likely the relatives of the sick.
Yet, there were also a select few who were laughing.
I sighed, looking up at the uniform, leaden-grey sky.
There was no sun today, but it carried a strange cadence where the howling wind blended seamlessly with the relentless blare of heavy traffic.
Raising my eyes to follow the drifting clouds, I thought to myself.
'The apocalypse of the world is a natural disaster, but the apocalypse of an individual is a hospital…'
I nodded in self-approval and quickly jotted it down in my notebook. After all, I was currently drafting a new webnovel, and striking quotes like this absolutely needed to be preserved.
Bzzt, crackle~
Reality suddenly fractured like ten thousand shards of shattered glass, before thinning out and morphing into a myriad of crimson and pink hues.
It swirled around me, wrapping Joe up like a sheet of soft silk, as if cradling my very mind.
"——"
I wanted to open my mouth to say something, but the words were swallowed right back down my throat.
And then…
…
CRASH!!!
Ron spun on his heel, snapping his coat forward like a whip to lash it directly across a lunatic's face.
Dropping into a low stance, he swept the enemy's legs out from under them, vaulting onto the creature's shoulders and executing a midair spin. Facing this catastrophic horde of human-mimicking monstrosities, he fought like a rabid animal himself.
BOOM, BOOM
The only thing anchoring Ron's consciousness was the relentless sequence of detonations ringing in his ears; it seemed only that deafening noise could keep him lucid enough to push his body through the fray.
Ron clawed, thrashed, and stomped into the faces of his enemies, executing a barrage of desperate, unrefined attacks like a child flailing wildly at death's door—a lone soul thrashing violently against the encroaching abyss.