.˚₊┈୨♡୧┈₊˚.

Subject displays high intelligence. Capable of speech, complex thought, and conversation. 

Subject displays biological functions akin to uninfected, living beings. Such as pupillary light reflex. 

Subject displays familial connection and emotional attachment.

Further research is needed to determine level of infection and possible strain differences.

“He was absolutely extraordinary. Not only did his body function differently than we originally thought, but he’s smart. He held a conversation with me, showed unique personality traits, and even a strong bond with his sister.”

“Him and his sister were like this. They are the only infected people I’ve seen that are capable of this. And they are stronger too. They took down 24 men in less than five minutes. Bullet wounds appeared to heal almost instantly. There’s so many more questions I want to ask him…”

You go on and on, spilling your guts to your colleagues. Gushing over the encounter you had with the advanced infected subject. You haven’t been able to sleep since you’ve met him. He’s consumed every second of your thoughts. Your mind is spiraling with hundreds of questions you want to ask, and dozens of experiments you want to perform. 

Sergeant Sanemi was quick to send you out again, almost suspiciously so. But you really didn’t care. Is it dangerous? Absolutely. But after walking away from your encounter unscathed, you have a false sense of safety as you walk through the abandoned city again. 

This time, armed with a backpack and a weapon you barely know how to use. They didn’t send any soldiers with you this time, figuring it wouldn’t matter in the end because they always end up dead. 

As you walk towards the ruined intersection from your previous encounter, you spot an infected. A young man with clouded eyes and strange markings on his face. He slowly turns his head and stares at you, his lips curling into a snarl. 

You fumble with your weapon, your hands shaking as you point your pistol at him. You know it won’t kill him, but the instinct to protect yourself is still there. 

But he doesn’t attack you. He turns away and starts walking in the opposite direction. 

“I knew you’d be back,” a familiar voice calls from above. 

You look up to see the same man from last time, the advanced infected, staring at you from the top of a traffic light. 

He jumps down and wastes no time sizing you up, circling you like he’s deciding what your fate should be. 

Now that the initial panic has subsided, you take your time getting a good look at him. 

He’s tall, very tall. Six and a half feet, maybe more. And his body is unique to say the least. Broad shoulders and strong arms, but a waist that’s as thin as a runway model and hips that have almost no meat on them. But the most unique thing is the splotchy black markings littered across his face and body. You wonder if those markings came after he got infected or if he always had them. 

“H-Hi…” you mutter, waving sheepishly. 

“...Hi,” he narrows his eyes suspiciously, “Lemme guess. You wanna ask me more annoying questions?”

“Absolutely!” you say quickly, with way too much enthusiasm, “Only if you’re ok with it.”

He scoffs, “You’re so fuckin’ weird,” he grabs you by the arm and starts leading you somewhere, “C’mon.”

You follow him without question. Not like you have much of a choice anyway. 

He takes you down into an abandoned underground subway station. It’s eerily quiet and surprisingly parts of it still have working lights. 

“This’ll work,” he mumbles to himself as he absentmindedly scratches his neck.

“Why are you doing this?” you blurt out, “Not that I’m not grateful! I just… I don’t understand why you want to help me.”

“I dunno,” he shrugs, “Killing is fun and all. But things get kinda boring, I guess… not much to do these days.”

You chuckle under your breath, “Fair enough.”

“Besides,” he grins, “It’s fun watchin’ you humans scramble to try to fix this. Thinkin’ you can save the world. Havin’ hope. It’s pathetic and I find it entertaining.”

“So, you don’t think a cure is possible?”

“Even if it is, how’re you gonna take the cities back? You don’t even know how to kill us.”

“You have a point,” you grin despite the somber topic, “But consider me an optimist. Besides, like you said, there’s not much to do these days. And I enjoy researching, even if it is futile in the end.”

“So consider this a symbiotic relationship,” you continue, “We both get to have a little fun in a world where video games and social media no longer exist.”

“Exactly,” he grins.

The two of you sit across from each other on the pavement. It’s not comfortable, but there’s enough light for you to see what you’re doing, and it seems to be far enough away from any other infected. 

You pull a plethora of supplies out of your bag. With a notebook in hand, you begin your questions. 

“First things first, what’s your name?” 

“Gyutaro,” he answers, “And my sister is Daki.”

You didn’t ask about his sister but you find it interesting that he brought her up anyway. 

“Well Gyutaro, it’s nice to finally know your name,” you smile and speak to him like you would a normal patient, “My name is Y/N.”

He mutters your name under his breath, almost too quiet for you to hear. 

“Why are you different from the other infected? You and your sister.”

“I dunno,” he shrugs.

“You don’t know?”

“We’re special, I guess. We were chosen.”

“Chosen by who?”

“That’s off limits, sweetheart,” he grins.

Subject claims he was chosen specifically to have this possibly advanced strain of the virus. Someone or something gave it to him? Maybe patient zero? Was he an experiment gone wrong?

“Fine, I won’t ask about that…” you sigh and move on, “How come some people turn when they are killed, and others don’t?”

“I dunno.”

“Do you know anything?” you say in frustration. 

“I ain’t a damn scientist like you. How am I supposed to know this shit? I just kill people and eat ‘em when I’m hungry. I dunno all the specifics,” he gets frustrated too, baring his teeth. Reminding you that you’re not the one in control here. 

“Ok sorry… I’ll ask something else,” you flip through pages in your notebook. “Do you remember your life before you were turned?”

“Not really,” he mumbles and looks off into the distance as if he’s trying to recall a memory, “I remember how I felt… I remember loving my sister. I remember hating the world. But I don’t remember events.”

“That’s really interesting,” you write down some observations. “C-can I give you a physical exam?”

“... sure,” he says after a long pause. 

Excited to finally have the opportunity to examine someone who’s infected, you put on a pair of gloves. “I’m going to touch you, ok?”

“S’fine,” he mumbles and watches your every move. 

You start with his eyes, which look extremely unhealthy yet beautiful at the same time. His pupils are a deep red, though they still react normally when you shine your light in front of them. 

He stiffens up when you move to his body, gently touching his shoulder and arms. His muscles are hard, and there are visible black veins beneath his skin. And to your surprise, his skin is actually warm.

“Your muscle density is insane,” you mutter, then move down to his hips, “But it’s almost nonexistent down here…”

“You makin’ fun of me or somethin’?” he snarls.

“No! Absolutely not. I’m just observing is all. Your body is remarkable.”

“Remarkable… tsk.”

As you examine his hips, you can’t help but wonder if he’s still capable of reproduction. Do his reproductive organs still even function? His blood flow is normal, his heartbeat is very slow for human standards, but otherwise he seems to have kept most of his human functionality. So you can’t help but wonder if infected people like him still even feel sexual desire at all. Is there a reason to? So far you’ve only seen them react to hunger. So if that’s all that matters to them, then maybe the instinct to reproduce isn’t needed anymore.

“Why’re you starin’ at me like that?” he breaks the silence, drawing you out of the deep thought you were in.

“S-Sorry! I was just thinking of what to ask you next…”

“Well get on with it, I’m gettin’ hungry,” he smirks, knowing that statement will strike fear into you. 

You gulp, “Um.. earlier today when I was looking for you, there was an infected person looking right at me. But they didn’t attack; they just… stared. Do you know why?”

“Cuz I didn’t want ‘em to attack you,” he says plainly, like this is something you should already know.

“I don’t understand… are you trying to say you can control them?”

“Duh,” he leans in closer like he’s telling you a secret, “I could see you through his eyes. That’s how I was able to find you so fast.”

Your mind is blown by a single sentence, crushing everything you thought you knew about how the infected behaved. 

“Wait, so the others obey you. Like a social hierarchy?"

“I dunno what that word means. But I don’t control everything they do. Just when I want to, and they listen.”

“That’s amazing… I never expected monsters to be so complex.”

“Monsters?” he frowns, “You call us monsters?”

“Th-that’s not what I meant! I’m sorry-” you desperately try to correct your mistake but he cuts you off.

“You have the audacity to call us monsters, when humans are the real monsters,” he growls and gets closer to your face, enough for you to smell the blood on his breath. 

“Y’know what I found last week? Two girls, sisters, no older than fifteen, locked in a fuckin’ storage container in a camp of men I found in the 4th ward,” you see a flicker of genuine emotion in his eyes, “You wanna know what the men were using those girls for?”

“I-I…” you stutter, not able to bring yourself to say it out loud.

“I ain’t even gotta say it. Cuz you already know, don’t you? Cuz it’s human behavior right?” he scoffs, “So you know what I told those girls? I told ‘em you ain’t never gotta worry about a man doin’ somethin’ to you ever again. And I turned ‘em.”

His frown turns into a big smile, showing off his deadly teeth, “And you know what they did? They devoured every man in that group. Every man that’s ever hurt ‘em. I gave them the power they didn’t have as humans. So before you call me a monster, think about what your people have done. If you ask me, humans are the real monsters in this world. Always have been.”

You’re left speechless. You have been so busy trying to save humanity that you never stopped to consider the other side of things.

After a long, uncomfortable silence, you finally respond, “You did the right thing…”

He leans back and rolls his fingers through his hair, taking a deep breath and shaking his head. He seems genuinely shaken and enraged by that memory.

“How are they now? The girls,” you ask quietly.

His eyes widen, seemingly surprised that you asked, “They’re good. Strong, happy, together. Better than they were before, that’s for sure. My sister sometimes goes over to their territory to braid their hair or do whatever shit girls do.”

“That’s sweet,” you smile. You thought they were all just mindless zombies like in the movies, but it seems there’s so much more about them that you don’t yet know. “And you’re right… lots of humans are monsters. And I’m sorry I judged you.”

“It’s fine, I ain't mad or anythin’,” he smiles, a soft genuine one, “I just care about eatin’ when I’m hungry and protectin’ my sister. We aren’t fuckin’ animals like humans are.”

He gets closer again, putting his hand on your knee, “Like you’re a pretty lady. Real smart and nice too. Would I like to have sex with you? Hell yeah. But you don’t see me holding you down and forcing you to do it with me even though I could. Maybe I’m a monster to some, but-”

“I’ll have sex with you,” you say almost too quickly for you to fully process what you just said. 

“Wh-what? No I-I… I was just saying! I didn’t mean it like that!” he quickly tries to backtrack, putting his hands up and backing away from you, “It ain’t like that! I was just tryin’ to make a point!”

“But you said you wanted to have sex with me… so why not? Let’s do it,” you shrug and start unbuttoning your lab coat. Just not giving a fuck anymore.

You’ve been through so much ever since the world as you knew it came to an end, and the offer of an intimate evening with someone you actually enjoy being around sounds like a nice break.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Y/N!” he grabs your coat and pulls it closed.

“Sorry… we don’t have to if you don’t want to-”

“N-No no I do want to! I just… I don’t understand why you would want to do it with me.”

“I’m lonely and I like you,” you shrug, “It’s the fucking apocalypse. I could be dead tomorrow. So I might as well take every opportunity I can to feel something… any bit of happiness I can.”

His gaze softens. He understands. He hasn’t really had to fear for his life like you have, but he understands the loneliness. The way every human has looked at him like he’s the most disgusting creature on the planet. Even before he was infected, people looked at him that way.

And now he has you. Someone who looks at him like he’s actually worth something, and listens like every word he speaks is valuable.

A little bit of pleasure in a zombie apocalypse isn’t so much to ask.

“Fuck it,” he blurts out, wrapping his arm around your waist, hauling you up over his shoulder and standing.

“Wh-what’re you doing?” you panic.

“You wanna have sex on the floor of a filthy subway station? I know it’s the end of the world, but I can think of a few better places than this.”

You can’t help but smile. A genuine, excited smile. 

It’s the first time in weeks that you actually get to feel something for yourself. Something exciting and fun, with another person. And for the time being, you get to forget that the world around you has ended. 

Because all that matters in this moment is Gyutaro.

The end of the world happened fast. Faster than you or anyone had expected. 

Maybe you took the strength of humanity for granted. Or maybe someone was working behind the scenes to make sure the virus spread as efficiently as possible. 

Either way, analyzing how everything came to an end isn’t your job. 

Your job is to figure out how the pathogen behaves.

Before everything collapsed, you just happened to be in the right place at the right time. At the top university in the country, studying to get your Ph.D in pathology. 

Most people left when the public started to panic. Professors, doctors, industry professionals who abandoned their jobs to take care of their families. Those who were left were either extremely dedicated or students like yourself who had nowhere else to go. 

Lucky for you, the government took any researcher, doctor, or scientist, regardless of experience or degree, once everything collapsed. Humanity needed anyone who was healthy enough to research the disease and hopefully develop a cure. 

That’s how you got here. In a heavily guarded research facility run by the government. Or what’s left of it. 

It’s only been three weeks since the apocalypse started.

Every hospital and emergency service was overrun within the first three days. Quarantine zones lasted just over a week. All that remained now were a few military outposts and groups of civilians who had gotten lucky and managed to survive.

Though survivor numbers are decreasing by the day. 

You don’t even want to know what it looks like outside these walls. You spend your days studying tissue samples and doing experiments. On good days you get five hours of sleep; on bad days you get maybe thirty minutes. But at least you aren’t on the streets running from reanimated corpses.

You would do anything to be able to safely get close to a live specimen. There are so many questions left unanswered, and your curiosity outweighs your survival instinct. If only you could get close to one, it could answer so many questions.

But a live specimen is out of the question. Because they are too strong, and no weakness other than sunlight has been identified. 

They don’t speak, nor do they seem capable of complex thought. Only hunger and instinct. Going after humans the instant they catch sight or scent of them. They are incredibly fast and durable. You’ve seen them take bullets to the head and still remain alive.

However, discovering how to kill them isn’t your job, so you don’t think too hard about it. You’ve already accepted the fact that if this facility ever gets infiltrated, you will die. 

In the middle of disposing of contaminated tissue samples, you are pulled into a meeting. The room is filled with military personnel, the lead researcher, and you. 

Sergeant Sanemi, a man with short white hair and tired eyes, stands at the front of the room.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” he says sternly and turns on a projector, “We’ve captured photos of an anomaly.”

A blurry image flashes onto the screen. It’s dark but you can clearly make out two figures standing at the top of a building. A muscular man crouching, holding something sharp in one hand. And a woman standing beside him with long hair flowing behind her. Both of their eyes glow in the night.

“Infected?” Doctor Shinobu, your superior, asks.

“Yes, but they’re different,” he says, “They seem… intelligent.”

“That’s impossible,” she scoffs, “The infected have never shown any signs of intelligence.”

“Not until now,” he responds, “These two seem to be able to communicate and organize attacks.”

He clicks a button and another image is shown. Still blurry, but it shows the male figure leaning over a body, tearing flesh from a severed arm. You feel like you’re gonna throw up if you look at the image for too long. 

“It’s imperative that we learn more about these… these monsters. Because if they have an advanced version of the virus, we need to get any information we can.”

“You need a field researcher…” you mutter, “to collect a sample.”

“Yes. Do you think that will be viable?”

“I do,” you nod and glance at the photo again, “The body that he’s eating… if I can get a tissue or blood sample from that body then maybe I can learn more about him. If he carries a different form of the pathogen and contaminated that body, then maybe I could-”

“Absolutely not,” Shinobu interrupts, “It’s a death sentence to send you out there. You’re one of the most brilliant researchers we have. We can’t afford to lose you.”

“I won’t send her alone,” Sanemi rolls his eyes, “I’ll send her with a squad of soldiers. Two squads if that makes you feel better.”

No matter how much Doctor Shinobu protested, there’s no arguing with Sanemi once his mind is set on something. Besides, you want to go. It’s probably against your better judgment but nothing has gotten you this excited since civilization fell. There are so many possibilities, so many new discoveries to be made. Your curiosity outweighs your fear. 

꒷︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶꒷︶꒷꒦꒷︶꒷︶︶︶꒦

You’re sent out the following day at dusk. Two armored vehicles and 24 men with tactical gear and a ton of firepower. Meanwhile, you sit between them in your lab coat with a bag of supplies. Their only objective is to get you safely to the location and protect you while you gather a sample from the corpse that the man from the photo was feeding on. 

You just pray that the corpse hasn’t gotten up and walked away. 

“We’re here,” the man driving the vehicle says, “Try to get everything you need as fast as you can; the longer we stay out here, the longer we risk the infected catching our scent. 

“Y-Yes sir,” your voice trembles as you’re ushered out of the vehicle and onto the street. Dozens of men surround you, moving with trained efficiency towards the ruined intersection from the photo. 

But something feels off.

The corpse you are looking for is there, lying motionless right where you expected it to be. But there are no other bodies around it. It looks too perfect, almost as if it was staged. 

“What’re you waiting for?!” one of the men says, his voice full of panic.

Before you even have time to respond, the sound of gunfire fills the air. Screaming, panic, blood. Lots of blood. 

“Aim for its head!” you hear one man scream.

“There’s two-” another man says before his screams are interrupted by the sound of gurgling.

Without a weapon, all you can do is run. 

You scurry through the broken window of a nearby storefront and duck behind a collapsed bookshelf. Holding your hand over your mouth as you listen to the carnage taking place behind you. 

“Please… please don’t…” you hear a man beg for mercy.

“C’mon man,” a sickly, male voice rasps, “Aren’t you s’pose to be the captain or somethin’? Pretty pathetic to be beggin’ like that…”

“That one looks important,” a female voice says.

“Yeeeah… he does,” the sickly voice speaks again, “How bout this. If you can sit here and watch me eat all your friends without cryin’, screamin’, or throwin’ up. I’ll let you live!” He lets out a high pitched laugh, sadistic and cruel.

“Brother, stop wasting time! You always play with them!” the female shrills in annoyance. 

“You’re no fun.”

You hear the captain begging for his life, desperate and crying. The sound dies off agonizingly slowly. As if his death is being drawn out. You can’t see what’s happening but you hear the sound of blood trickling onto the pavement and flesh being torn apart. 

“Your arrogance is going to get us killed one day,” the female says.

The male growls before responding, “Don’t you get it? We’re at the top of the food chain sis! We can do whatever the hell we want-” he abruptly stops talking and deeply inhales. 

“There’s one left…” he continues.

“Fuck fuck fuck, no no please no,” you internally scream to yourself.

Things go eerily quiet. Then, footsteps getting closer.

“Found you,” a raspy voice whispers right beside your ear. 

He grabs you by the collar of your shirt and pulls you off the ground, your feet dangling in the air as he holds you in front of him. 

He’s definitely an infected. Pallad grey skin, glowing yellow eyes, and teeth that almost resemble that of a shark. Messy green hair hangs in front of his face. His lips are turned into a devilish grin, like a child who just found a new toy to play with.

But before you can scream, you notice something that excites you.

The way his pupils contract when stepping into the light. 

“Your eyes,” you mutter, “They still respond to light!”

“...what?” the smile drops from his face immediately.

“You still exhibit biological functions even though you’re dead!” you laugh in disbelief.

He’s completely silent. In utter disbelief that you aren’t kicking and screaming. He literally doesn’t know what the hell to make of this.

“You’re extraordinary!” you say, looking at him in awe. Not like he’s a monster, but rather something beautiful and interesting. 

“Extraordinary…?” he mumbles, dropping you. 

As soon as you hit the ground you reach for something in your pocket. He expects a gun, but instead it’s a small notebook and a pen. Furiously, you begin taking notes. 

“I think you broke her,” his sister says, also in disbelief. 

“Did it hurt?” you ask him.

“Wh-what?”

“When you got shot, did it hurt?”

“Kinda? For a second,” he shrugs before getting annoyed and flicking your forehead, “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you stupid or somethin’?”

“What? N-No, I’m a pathologist,” you answer him almost like you’re talking to a normal person.

“Speak English, please…”

“A scientist,” you correct yourself, “I study disease.”

His grin returns, and he starts laughing. Genuinely laughing like he’s heard the funniest joke in the world. “A scientist! Haha, what am I to you? Some kinda test subject?”

“Well, yes. I would love to study you further…”

“Can you believe this, sis? What an interesting little toy,” he grabs your face and squishes your cheeks like you’re a child.

“She’s cute too,” his sister giggles before skipping over, “You gonna kill her?”

“Nah,” he turns your face side to side, looking you over, “This one is… interesting.”

You don’t say anything, not wanting to risk him changing his mind. But you can’t help but smile at the thought of being left alive. 

“You better hurry back to wherever you came from, little scientist,” he lets go of your face and ruffles your hair, “Cuz my friends ain’t as polite as I am.”

“Th-Thank you,” your voice shakes in disbelief as he actually spares you.

“Yeah, yeah. Til next time,” he grins as his sister hops up on his shoulder. 

And as they walk into the distance, he isn’t worried, not one bit. Because he knows he’ll see you again. And he knows that he’s too valuable to you for you to let anyone hurt him. Because you didn’t try to get away. You didn’t scream. You didn’t beg for your life. 

You took notes. And you asked him questions. 

You valued your research above your own life.