The ringing stopped.
Just like that.
The silence it left behind pressed against my ears harder than the bells ever had.
I sat there for another breath before forcing myself up. My heart still hadn’t settled. Something was wrong. No... something had always been wrong. I just hadn’t lived here long enough to see it.
"...Eliza?"
No answer.
I stepped into the common room.
The fire had died. The bowls still sat where we’d left them last night, the stew untouched and cold. The room smelled... different.
Copper.
Rot.
And something strangely sweet.
...Drip.
I froze.
Another wet sound came from the kitchen.
...Drip.
...Drip.
My throat tightened. Every instinct told me to leave.
Instead, I looked.
The doorway was empty.
Then something shifted behind the table.
Squelch.
A swollen arm slowly dragged itself into view.
It wasn’t human anymore.
The woman I’d spent the last two days talking to had become little more than a shell wrapped around something impossibly large. Her abdomen had split apart, strands of black flesh hanging between the torn edges as an enormous malformed infant remained fused to her body. It was far too big to have ever fit inside her. Thick cords of muscle and pulsing veins bound them together while its massive arms scraped across the floor, claws carving grooves through the wood.
Dark tears streamed endlessly down Eliza’s face.
Her lips trembled.
"D... don’t..."
A sob caught in her ruined throat.
"H-hurrrrt..."
She clutched the grotesque thing protruding from her stomach with desperate tenderness.
"...baaaaby..."
The infant’s enormous head jerked toward me with a sickening CRACK.
Its mouth slowly spread impossibly wide.
Then
"WAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
The scream burst from both of them at once.
Mother.
Child.
One voice.
Cold sweat poured down my face as I stared at the grotesque thing before me. My thoughts locked up. Every instinct, every shred of reason, every emotion I could name was drowned beneath one overwhelming certainty.
Fear.
"Shit... I figured something like this would happen... but not... this."
The words barely escaped my lips. My voice shook so badly it was almost a whisper.
The thing’s head twitched.
It heard me.
"...Baaaby...?"
Her neck snapped toward me with a sickening jerk. The swollen mass beneath her torn abdomen shifted violently, and the enormous fetal shape pressed harder against her skin, stretching it until veins bulged across the surface.
"D-Don’t... h-hurrrrt... my baaaby..."
Her voice came out wet and broken, as though several voices were trying to speak through the same throat.
Then she moved.
Charging.
Her body slammed into the doorway hard enough to splinter the frame as she lurched after me, arms outstretched, fingers clawing at empty air.
"MY BAAABY...!"
Every survival instinct I had took over.
I spun on my heel, sprinted back into my room, didn’t even bother with the door, and hurled myself straight through the window. Glass exploded around me as I crashed through it and hit the ground outside in a roll.
...
I forced my legs to move.
The front gate came into view.
Or...
What was left of it.
The thick wooden walls had been ripped apart, great splinters scattered across the ground as though something unimaginably heavy had simply walked through them. Beyond the ruined entrance lay an enormous mound of pulsating black flesh, easily three stories tall. Veins throbbed beneath its slick surface, swelling and shrinking with slow, rhythmic pulses.
Thump.
Thump.
It was alive.
Tendrils as thick as tree trunks disappeared beneath the earth, while others spread across the village like roots, disappearing into collapsed homes and burning streets.
My eyes widened.
"...What the fuck..."
Movement. The villagers, or what was left of them.
They staggered through the streets in small groups, their bodies grotesquely twisted. One dragged an arm that had swollen into a mass of pale flesh, another crawled on all fours with its spine bent backward at an impossible angle. Faces hung open, leaking thick black saliva as muffled prayers escaped cracked lips.
"O... O-Old... Fa...ther..."
"B...Bles... us..."
"Se...venth... bell..."
They were slow.
Pathetically slow.
But dozens of them were present, each wandering around that thing as if in orbit.
They lunged before I could even process what was happening.
"Shit—!"
I spun on my heel and ran.
There wasn’t a destination. I just needed somewhere—anywhere—that wasn’t filled with those things.
A burning house collapsed beside me with a deafening CRAAASH, forcing me to dive beneath the half-fallen frame as splinters and embers rained overhead.
A malformed villager crawled underneath after me.
Its jaw hung loose, black saliva dripping onto the dirt as both arms reached for my throat.
"Get the fuck off!"
I planted both feet into its chest and kicked with everything I had.
The creature tumbled backward into the burning wreckage.
SKREEEE—!
It struggled fiercely as the flames consumed it. I didn’t pause to watch, but I could feel it. With each passing second, it was changing—becoming faster and stronger. If I didn’t escape now, I never would.
...
Maybe...
If they’re infected...
Am I too?
A guttural snarl answered my thoughts.
I looked over my shoulder.
A creature burst from the smoke barely a few meters away.
Its mouth split almost to its ears, hanging unnaturally wide as a wet growl rolled from somewhere deep inside its throat. Thick black saliva poured from between jagged teeth, while strips of decomposing skin peeled away with every jerking step, exposing glistening muscle beneath.
"Fuck!"
I bolted toward the only building still standing.
It wasn’t untouched.
Half the walls were cracked, several windows had been blown out, and the roof sagged dangerously low
I shoved the door shut behind me and threw my shoulder against it. Something slammed into the other side almost instantly, rattling the entire frame hard enough to send dust drifting from the ceiling.
"Damn it..."
My eyes swept across the room, refusing to stay still. Broken chairs. An overturned table. Empty shelves. Nothing. I clicked my tongue and took another step before something caught my eye.
An old woodcutting axe rested against the fireplace.
I rushed over and snatched it up. The handle was worn smooth from years of use, cracked near the bottom, while the iron head was stained with rust. It was heavier than I expected, my grip immediately feeling awkward.
"Better than nothing."
Another crash shook the house.
The door splintered.
Long, blackened fingers slowly curled through the widening crack, scratching blindly across the wood as wet growls echoed from outside.
I tightened my grip around the axe until my knuckles turned white.
Suddenly—
CRAAACK!
The roof above exploded beneath a tremendous weight.
A pale, rotting hand burst through the splintered boards and wrapped around my throat before I could react.
"Kh—!"
I was yanked off my feet.
The creature dropped through the collapsing floor with me in its grip. Milky white eyes locked onto mine from inches away. Clumps of hair peeled from its scalp as it moved, drifting to the floor while thick strands of black saliva spilled from its hanging jaw. Its skin had swollen and split in places, exposing wet flesh beneath.
It threw its head back and shrieked directly into my face.
"SKRRAAAAAAAAH!!" The creature let out a guttural screech that scraped against my ears.
The stench of rot hit me so hard I nearly gagged. Its fingers tightened around my throat, crushing my windpipe as it stared at me with those dead, unblinking eyes.
I could feel my sanity slipping away. Was this hell? Was this where people like me ended up? I’d done things I regretted... but I wasn’t the only one. So why me?
Maybe I should just let myself die here...
It sounded peaceful.
Ah... eternal rest.
Heh...
The creature slowly reeled me in by my throat, almost gently, forcing my face inches from its own. My lungs burned. My heartbeat pounded inside my skull before fading into a dull, distant rhythm.
My thoughts unraveled.
Maybe...
I really was tired.
The axe slowly slipped through my fingers.
The creature dragged me even closer, its claws crushing my throat as its rancid breath washed over my face. My vision blurred. My thoughts drifted. Even the fear was fading.
"...What am I doing?"
My fingers locked around the handle.
"No..."
With everything I had left, I drove the axe upward.
CRACK!
The blade buried itself beneath the creature’s jaw, splitting putrid flesh apart. Rotting teeth shattered across my face as black blood erupted from the wound, drenching me from head to toe. Chunks of rancid flesh clung to my clothes.
"GET OFF!"
I ripped the axe free.
Strings of blackened sinew snapped apart with a wet tear, followed by fragments of decomposing bone and viscera. Dark, half-liquefied brain matter burst from the ruined side of its skull, splattering across my face and into my hair. The stench of decay flooded my lungs, thick enough to make me gag.
THUNK!
I buried the axe into its temple.
Bone caved inward with a sickening crunch. More black blood poured over my arms as the creature lurched, its eye rupturing under the force. Pieces of decomposing flesh peeled away from its face, hanging in ragged strips before dropping to the ground.
CRACK!
Again.
The skull finally gave way.
Viscera, shattered bone, and rotting brain matter exploded outward, painting the dirt and soaking me completely. Every swing sent another spray of black blood across my body until I could barely see through the gore coating my eyes.
I didn’t stop.
I couldn’t.
I hacked at it again and again, every blow driven by blind terror, until the creature staggered backward, its face reduced to a mangled ruin that barely resembled a head. Only then did I realize I was screaming louder than it was.
I hit the ground on one knee, coughing violently, each breath scraping through my crushed throat like broken glass. My entire body shook, but my grip never loosened.
"Fuck you."
...
Guttural shrieks echoed from outside.
One.
Then another.
Soon they were coming from every direction, above me, around me, close enough to make my chest tighten with every passing second.
My eyes drifted toward one of the windows. It had been crudely barricaded from the inside with broken planks and an overturned cabinet. I glanced at the mangled corpse beside me.
"You held out longer than the others, didn’t you?"
I swallowed and stepped closer, peering through the narrow gap.
...
They were there.
The creatures surrounding the house had all stopped moving.
Every single one of them was smiling.
Their mouths stretched far wider than they should have, black saliva dripping from jagged teeth as guttural shrieks rolled from their throats without end.
None of them were wandering now; they all faced the house.
Here’s a tighter version with shorter paragraph breaks while keeping the atmosphere and weight:
...
The sound came so suddenly that I almost thought I imagined it.
BANG.
The entire village went silent.
The creatures froze mid-motion, their twisted smiles still stretched across ruined faces. Nothing moved except the black saliva dripping from their mouths.
Then the creature closest to the window twitched.
A small hole appeared in the center of its forehead.
A second later, the rest of its head disappeared.
CRACK.
The body collapsed backward, black blood spraying across the dirt as the remaining creatures slowly turned toward the sound.
Another gunshot echoed through the village.
BANG.
A creature near the burning houses dropped before it even realized it had been targeted.
My grip tightened around the axe.
That rifle...
The thought surfaced before I could stop it.
"No way..."
A figure appeared through the smoke among the ruined houses, with a familiar rifle resting against his shoulder.
Willard.
For a brief moment, relief almost reached me.
Almost.
Then I saw him.
Something felt off. His movements were slightly different.
His steps were slower, heavier. His breathing was uneven, strained, like every movement required more effort than it should.
It reminded me of Eliza.
That same emptiness.
His face was still his own, but faint blue veins crawled along his neck and disappeared beneath his collar.
A sign. A warning. Willard paused upon noticing me. Neither of us said a word.
His eyes moved over the blood covering me, the axe in my hands, and the corpse lying at my feet.
Then his expression softened slightly.
"...You survived."
His voice was very rough, even more so than usual.
I stared at the veins along his skin.
"Willard."
He didn’t answer right away, instead glancing down at his trembling hand as if battling an unseen force.
"I was afraid you’d see it."
My stomach sank.
"How long?"
A faint smile appeared on his face, but it wasn’t one of happiness—more like the kind someone shows when they’ve already accepted the answer.
"Since the bell."
His rifle lowered slightly as his eyes drifted toward the massive mound of flesh at the center of the village.
"The seventh bell wasn’t an alarm."
A pause.
"It was a blessing."
The word sounded odd coming from him, as if even he couldn’t believe he had said it.
Another scream echoed through the streets. The creatures resumed their movements, but none came closer to Willard.
They simply passed around him.
Almost like they recognized him.
My throat tightened.
"You’re infected."
Willard looked back at me.
For a moment, all I saw was exhaustion in his eyes.
"Yeah."
The answer was delivered so calmly that it unsettled me more than anything else. He then looked at the burning village.
"Everyone is."
The blue veins beneath his skin pulsed faintly.
"But some of us..."
His grip tightened around the rifle.
"...are taking longer."
A cough escaped him.
He quickly looked away, but I caught a glimpse of it: black liquid staining his hand.
My chest tightened.
Willard noticed my expression.
He simply wiped it away.
"Don’t look at me like that."
His voice was quiet.
"I’m still thinking straight." His voice cracked into a coarse rasp, every syllable sounding as though it had been dragged through broken glass. The infection had begun changing his body, but the look in his eyes remained painfully human
A pause.
"I don’t know how much longer."
"..."
The words hovered in the air between us. Behind him, the village was engulfed in flames. The creatures’ screams echoed around us. Meanwhile, the man who had offered me shelter, food, and refuge now loomed before me, gradually transforming into one of them.
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