Age of zombies

[3] The warning

Back at the dorm, the air was thick with the smell of ramen and the hum of a few laptops scattered around. It was our usual hangout spot—me and the guys, just talking shit, playing games, and, of course, staying up-to-date on the latest anime drops. But tonight, things were different. There was this buzz, this uneasy tension in the air. Something was off.

Kenji, sitting cross-legged on the floor, was glued to his phone like his life depended on it. "Dude, have you seen this shit about the new virus? It's blowing up on X," he said, not looking up from the screen.

Malcolm snorted from his spot on the couch, controller in hand, deep in a game of Call of Duty. "What, another fking virus? We already did that pandemic bullshit. People are probably just blowing it out of proportion again."

"Nah, man, this one's weird," Kenji said, scrolling furiously. "Like, people are collapsing in the streets, foaming at the mouth. There's a clip going viral—people think it might be some kind of zombie shit."

"Zombie shit? You've gotta be kidding me," Ethan chimed in from his corner, slurping on his ramen. "This is like the plot of every cheap B-movie ever. It's probably a deepfake. People love making that kind of crap to scare everyone."

I rolled my eyes, leaning back in my chair. "Yeah, or it's just clickbait for views. Everyone loves a good panic story." But even as I said it, I could feel the weight of the words. There was something gnawing at me. I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through X myself. The posts were endless—clips, threads, panic.

"Look, man, it's all over TikTok too," Raul said from the other side of the room. He was the last person to usually give a shit about this kind of thing, so him speaking up made the whole thing feel more real. "Here, check this out." He flipped his phone toward me, showing a TikTok short.

The video was shaky, filmed vertically, but it showed some dude walking through a busy city street, filming as people around him were screaming. In the background, you could see a woman, clutching her throat, stumbling before she hit the pavement. And then, the camera zoomed in on a guy foaming at the mouth, eyes glazed over as he staggered into oncoming traffic.

"Holy shit," I muttered, feeling a chill crawl down my spine. "That looks fking real."

Raul nodded, his expression grim. "Yeah, but you know how good deepfakes are these days. You can't trust anything online anymore."

Kenji was already glued to his screen again. "Fk, dude, this is nuts. It's trending like crazy. Some people are saying it's a government cover-up, like they're trying to downplay how bad it is."

"Or they're using it to distract us from something bigger," Malcolm added, his eyes still on his game. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"Yeah, except this time, it feels like we're in one of those conspiracy theory YouTube videos," Ethan muttered. "I don't know, man. If this virus thing is real... what the hell are we supposed to do? Just sit here and wait for it to spread?"

Kenji's phone dinged loudly, and he glanced down at it, eyes widening. "Dude. Emergency alert just came through."

We all paused. That was something you didn't just ignore.

"WTF?" I grabbed my own phone as it vibrated in my hand, lighting up with the same message:

EMERGENCY ALERT: STAY INDOORS. DO NOT TRAVEL. DO NOT PANIC. INFORMATION TO FOLLOW.

A cold wave of dread washed over me. This was real. This wasn't some viral video stunt or deepfake trying to grab attention. The government was sending out alerts, telling us to stay inside.

"WTF is this?" Malcolm tossed his controller aside, now fully focused. "They don't just send shit like that unless it's serious."

Raul was already locking the dorm door, his face tight with worry. "This can't be happening. It just can't."

Ethan looked pale as he set his ramen down. "Guys, we're on a fucking college campus. If shit goes down, we're basically sitting ducks here. What do we even do?"

"Stay inside, like they said," I muttered, pacing a little as my mind raced. "We don't have any weapons, and we're sure as hell not equipped to deal with whatever this is."

"Yeah, except that sounds like a shitty plan," Kenji said, standing up, pacing with me. "If this is some kind of virus, we could be stuck in here for days. Weeks even. What if it spreads? What if people here start—"

"Stop," I interrupted. "We're not jumping to conclusions yet. We don't know if it's here. We just need to stay calm, stick together, and figure this shit out."

"Figure this shit out?" Malcolm shot back, his voice a little too loud. "What, you think we're some kind of fking task force? We're college kids, dude. We're not built for this."

"None of us are built for this," Raul said, his voice steady but tense. "But if it's real, if this virus is as bad as it sounds, we can't panic. The second we panic, we're done for."

Kenji pulled out his phone again, typing furiously. "I'm texting my folks. You guys should do the same. They're gonna freak out when they hear about this."

Ethan shook his head. "No one knows anything. That's the scariest part. They send us this fucking vague-ass message and expect us to just sit here like everything's fine?"

"They don't want mass hysteria," I said, though even I could hear the doubt in my voice. "If people panic, it's gonna be way worse."

"Well, it's already bad," Kenji said, eyes glued to his screen. "There's already reports of looting in some cities. People are losing their shit."

I felt my stomach twist. "And we're stuck here in this fking dorm."

"Look, we'll figure something out," Raul said, his voice calm despite the chaos. "We have enough food for a couple of days, right? And water. We just need to hunker down and wait for more info."

"Yeah, well, I hope we're not still sitting here when shit really hits the fan," Malcolm muttered, grabbing his phone to check for updates. "Because if it's anything like what people are saying online, we might not have much time."

The room fell into a heavy silence as we all stared at our phones, waiting for the next update, for anything that would tell us what the hell was going on. But there was nothing. Just that cold, ominous warning hanging over us like a dark cloud.

And all we could do was wait.

Q: What would you do in this situation?