Hi, my name is Joshua. I’m a Senior High School student living in Bohol, Philippines, though I spent most of my childhood in Cebu City. I’m just a simple guy who minds his own business, someone who loves music and enjoys the quiet parts of life. For a long time, everything felt normal.

But all of that changed ten years ago.

It was a Saturday morning, and I woke up earlier than usual. My friends Joseph and Jamester had forced me into meeting them at the mall. They wanted us to meet at 10 a.m. sharp, and since it was two against one, I didn’t really have a choice. Honestly, I’m not a morning person, especially on weekends, so I took longer than expected to get ready.

By the time I grabbed a cab and sped toward the mall, it was already 9:20. Somehow, I made it just in time—exactly 10:00 a.m. I rushed inside, and there they were, waiting at the restaurant, grinning at me.

“Late as always, aye,” Joseph teased, his usual sarcasm showing.

“Sorry guys, I tried my best,” I said, catching my breath.

We ate lunch at Chimon, a Japanese restaurant we all loved. Jamester loved Japanese food the most—he practically lived off sushi and ramen. After eating, we strolled around the mall, checking out stores and just hanging out like we always did.

Then Joseph excused himself.

“Hey bros, I’ll just head to the restroom. Wait for me here.”

“Alright,” I replied.

While waiting, Jamester and I started talking about the future.

“I’ll probably go to Manila to pursue acting,” he said, eyes full of determination.

“That’s awesome, bro. Go chase it—I believe in you,” I replied with a smile.

We talked for a while, maybe fifteen minutes, before we started to wonder why Joseph was taking so long. That’s when a man suddenly rushed out of the restroom, pale and terrified, as if he had seen the devil himself.

Jamester and I exchanged nervous looks. Without a word, we hurried to the restroom.

“Help!” a voice screamed from inside.

It was Joseph.

We froze. My stomach dropped. Slowly, we pushed the door open—and what we saw nearly stopped my heart.

Joseph was on the floor, struggling beneath something… something that looked human, but wasn’t. Its skin was pale and rotten, its eyes empty and lifeless. Its mouth was wide open, snapping hungrily at Joseph’s neck.

For a moment, I couldn’t move. My legs trembled, my chest tightened, and my brain screamed at me to run.

“Are you guys just gonna stand there, or are you going to help me?!” Joseph shouted, desperate.

Jamester snapped into action. He grabbed my water bottle and shoved it into the creature’s mouth, buying us a split second. Together, we pushed the thing off Joseph and bolted out of the restroom, slamming the door behind us.

The three of us stood there, gasping for breath, our faces pale. None of us had to say it out loud—we all knew it.

Our world has just changed forever.

After our traumatic experience in the restroom, we ran as fast as we could to report everything to the security guards. But before we could even reach them, we froze in our tracks.

The sight before us made our blood run cold.

The mall had turned into chaos. People were screaming, running in every direction, while dozens of zombies clawed and lunged at anyone in sight. Our adrenaline spiked. This wasn’t just one monster anymore—this was an outbreak.

“Get something to defend yourselves!” a man shouted from across the hallway.

Without thinking, we rushed toward the nearest hardware store. My eyes darted around until I found a long hammer. Jamester grabbed a machete, while Joseph scored an axe.

I couldn’t help but feel a sting of jealousy. Joseph’s axe looked ridiculously cool, like something straight out of a video game. Jamester shot me a look that said he felt the same way. But this wasn’t the time to be picky—zombies weren’t going to wait for us to choose our favorite weapons.

We were the prey now. But that didn’t mean we’d let ourselves get eaten without a fight.

“Come on, follow me!” the same man yelled again.

We followed him through a maze of hallways until we reached an office. Once inside, we slammed the door shut and barricaded it with desks and chairs, our hearts pounding from the chaos outside.

“Hi. I’m Stephen,” the man introduced himself, still catching his breath. “I used to be a clerk here.”

We quickly introduced ourselves back.

“Stephen, do you know what’s going on?” Jamester asked.

Stephen’s face grew grim. “While I was working, I overheard some coworkers. They said a virus-infected person escaped from a lab… and then all this happened.”

Joseph’s voice cracked with fear. “So it’s true… the world’s ending!”

Panic swirled inside me. My thoughts immediately went to my family. Were my parents safe? Were they even alive? The fear was almost too much to handle.

That night, we stayed inside the office. Luckily, Stephen’s coworkers had abandoned their lunch bags, so we had food to last us for a while. Together, we stayed up late, planning what to do next. We agreed to take turns—two of us would keep watch while the other two rested.

At some point, I dozed off. Hours later, I woke to the sound of furious pounding on the door. My heart leapt into my throat.

“Joseph, Stephen!” I whispered. “Who’s knocking?!”

They looked at me, equally startled. “We don’t know… we fell asleep,” Joseph admitted guiltily.

Slowly, I crept toward the door. Luckily, before sleeping, Jamester had carved a small peephole into the wood. I pressed my eye to it.

Two girls stood outside, their faces pale with terror. One of them saw me through the hole.

“Please! Open the door! Help us!” she begged, her voice trembling.

I froze, torn between fear and sympathy. My hands trembled on the lock.

I didn’t know who they were… or if opening that door would save us—or doom us.

I told the boys to prepare their weapons as we didn't know what we were dealing with.

As I opened the door the two of them ran quickly inside and behind them were four zombies chasing them. So as soon they got in I slammed the door shut,locked the door and everyone in the room sealed the door with cabinets and tables.

After we sealed the door Joseph told the girls to stay away from us as we didn't know if they were good,bad or maybe even infected. Joseph grabbed his axe and stared at the girls.

"Woah! Woah! Joseph chill!" I said as I went between Joseph and the girls.

" I'll check them out if you want!" I said.

I checked the girls if they were bitten and luckily they weren't.

"See they're all good!" I said.

" I'm sorry girls..I'm just trying to keep my friends safe as they might be my only family now." Joseph told the girls.

"It's ok we understand." One of the girl replied with a smile.

The girls seemed like they won't cause any harm. So we decided to introduce ourselves to them.

"Hey, I'm Jonah and my friend here is Miara." One of the girl said.

All of us shook each other's hands. I asked if they have any info about what was happening and they said they were actually just shopping and when chaos struck they found a room near ours to stay for the night and hide. As they woke they decided to go out to look for food but ahen they went out there were also zombies that were looking for food so they ran to this room. They said they were lucky that the zombies that chased them were slow ones and once the reached our door they looked through the small hole Jamester made and saw us sleeping that was why they knocked loudly and asked for help.

"Would you mind if we join you guys?" Miara said

"Of course why not? The more the merrier." I replied with a smile.

Our group got bigger and at the same time everyone felt happier because of the addition of the girls to our group.

We spent the whole day asking about each other's life. We started with Stephen. He actually was actually from Cebu too. We told him that the three of us were also from Cebu. He then continued with his story about his life. He was eighteen at that time. We had the same age but instead continuing his studies he searched for a job to support his family. He told us that he has a poor family. He had three siblings and his parents couldn't afford all the needs that his siblings needed. He ended up getting a job here in Bohol as a clerk in this mall that we were stuck in.

We felt sorry for Stephen as we could see it in his eyes that he has very worried for his family. We continued our story telling and Jonah was next.

Jonah was sixteen years old at that time. Surprisingly she revealed that she was actually from Cebu too and she said Miara too.

"Really?!" Me and the boys asked with excitement.

She then told us that her mom is a single mom. They moved here in Bohol because her mom found a good job here.

That was all for her story and next was Miara..

She kept her story short but filled with important details about her life.

She told us that yes she was from Cebu but she has came here before a lot of time before actually living here. She wanted to come here in Bohol and live by herself as she wanted to know if she was ready to be able to live alone. She ended up in the school as Jonah and they became best of friends.

After we shared to each other about our life we ate our dinner as it was already night time when we finished.