Day 4: The Hunt Begins

The lab trembled as the infected slammed against the steel doors. Maya gripped her backpack; her eyes locked on the glowing rat. Dr. Quinn handed her a small vial. “This contains a fragment of the rat’s immunity. It won’t cure you — but it might buy you time.”

Maya nodded, injected the vial into her arm, and slipped out through the emergency hatch beneath the lab. The tunnels were darker now. Wetter. Something was moving in them.

Above ground, Lucas paced the rooftop like a predator. His senses had sharpened. He could feel Maya’s presence — like static in the air. He sent out scouts, faster than before, their limbs twitching unnaturally. They weren’t just infected. They were evolving.

Back in the lab, Dr. Quinn worked with the others to replicate the antidote. But the rat was deteriorating. Its glow dimmed. They needed the original host — and fast.

Maya emerged into the ruins of the old city center. Her destination: the hospital where the first infection was reported. She moved quickly, ducking behind wrecked ambulances and shattered glass. The streets were eerily quiet.

Inside the hospital, she found signs of a struggle — overturned beds, blood smeared across walls. But in the isolation ward, she found something unexpected: a child’s drawing. A rat with blue eyes. A name scrawled beneath it: “Nico.”

Suddenly, a voice crackled through the hospital’s intercom. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Maya spun around. A figure stepped from the shadows — not infected, but pale, trembling. “I was the first,” he whispered. “They made me. They said it would save people.”

Outside, Lucas roared again — but this time, it wasn’t a command. It was fear.

Maya had found the host.