After her parents died in an accident, 10-year-old
Author:unloginuser Time:2025/01/15 Read: 2545After her parents died in an accident, 10-year-old Athena Williams moves to the small town of Cape May, New Jersey to live with her uncle, Elijah, who is a lighthouse keeper. On her first day of school, it has been tough for her to fit in. She was a straight A student and her teacher, Mrs. Miller, knew that Athena can do whatever she set her mind to, and so did the town librarian, Ms. Thomas. Everyone loved her, even her best friend from her old home, Cassie.
Life has never been better, until one day, six years later, at the Testing Bureau of Declining Nosology, or TBDN, in Los Angeles, California, a scientist named Dr. Petraeus, while testing on mosquitoes to cure all diseases, accidentally creates an unstoppable, incurable virus that turns people into zombies called the Apocalyptics. He manages to escape, however, while everyone else is either dead or zombified, except for Athena and Elijah, who also escape. That day, the plague called Second Black Death was born.
After days and days of running and hiding, Athena and Elijah come across a sanctuary of survivors called the Haven of the Remnants. The survivors are called the Remnants. There, Athena meets Cleo, a little girl who lost her family, Dr. Petraeus, and Caesar, leader of the Remnants. When supplies start to run dangerously low, a decision has to be made: run and die or fight back. And there will be no turning back…
The salt-laced wind whipped Athena’s hair across her face as she stared at the churning ocean, the rhythmic pulse of the Cape May lighthouse a stark contrast to the frantic beat of her heart. Six years. Six years since the idyllic life she’d known had been shattered by the Second Black Death. Six years since Dr. Petraeus’s horrifying experiment unleashed the Apocalyptics upon the world.
She’d lost so much. Cassie, her best friend, was gone. The memories of her parents, vivid and precious, now felt like shards of glass in her soul. Even Uncle Elijah, her rock, carried the weight of the world in his haunted eyes.
The Haven of the Remnants, a ramshackle fortress built from the wreckage of civilization, offered meager protection. The flickering lights within cast long, dancing shadows that mimicked the restless movements of the Apocalyptics outside. Cleo, a wisp of a girl with eyes that held the sorrow of a thousand lifetimes, clung to Athena’s side. Caesar, their stoic leader, surveyed their dwindling supplies with a grim determination that did little to ease the gnawing fear in Athena’s gut.
The canned goods were almost gone. The water was rationed to a miserly trickle. The whispers of despair were louder than the moaning of the undead outside. Caesar laid out the options – a desperate, probably futile dash for a rumored supply depot hundreds of miles away, or a suicidal stand against the hordes that surrounded their haven.
“There’s no other choice,” Caesar’s voice was rough, worn down by the endless struggle for survival. “We fight. We fight for Cleo, for Athena, for a future that might still be possible.”
Athena looked at Cleo, her small hand gripping Athena’s with surprising strength. The little girl’s eyes, though filled with fear, held a spark of defiant hope. That spark, faint as it was, ignited something within Athena. The straight-A student, the girl who had always excelled, felt a chilling resolve grip her. This wasn’t a test in algebra or history; this was a fight for survival.
That night, under the eerie glow of the makeshift lanterns, Athena, armed with a rusty pipe and a heart steeled by loss, helped fortify their defenses. The air was thick with the stench of decay and the low growl of the Apocalyptics – a constant, terrifying symphony of death.
The attack came before dawn. A wave of rotting flesh and gnashing teeth crashed against their makeshift walls. The screams of the dying mingled with the metallic clang of makeshift weapons. Athena fought with a ferocity that surprised even herself, her movements precise and deadly, channeling the grief and rage that had consumed her into a weapon of survival.
She saw Caesar fall, a gaping wound tearing through his side. She saw the desperate bravery of the Remnants, their last stand a testament to their will to live. And she saw Cleo, cowering behind a stack of broken crates, her eyes wide with terror.
With a final surge of adrenaline, Athena fought her way to Cleo, shielding the child from the relentless horde. The rusty pipe slipped from her grasp; she was surrounded, overwhelmed. Just as sharp claws tore at her clothes, a deafening roar ripped through the night. The roar of something… different.
Something much larger, much more terrifying than the Apocalyptics. Something that caused the undead to freeze, their groaning replaced by a chilling silence. The horror that followed was not of flesh and blood, but of something ancient, something that preyed on the deepest fears of the human soul… a terror that whispered of a darkness far beyond the Second Black Death. The fight for survival had just begun, and it would be a battle against something far more monstrous than they could have ever imagined.
