ʟᴀ ᴄᴏꜱᴛᴀ | ɴᴄᴛ ✔️

Introduction

June 17th, 2025
4:46 PM

*THUNK!*

With your eyes closed, you breathed out a long, drawn-out sigh, the sound of a ticking clock offering you the smallest ounce of comfort.

*CLINK!*

It had only been seven hours since most of your group went out raiding a grocery store. Being that the recent news of a foreign virus "plaguing" the globe gave three-quarters of your town a scare, you and your group of friends decided to move in together in an abandoned house.

For what it was worth, the idea was solid, and it gave you hope that the virus would pass just like anything else.

*Rattle~ Rattle~*

"Come on, Mina, knock it off."

"Well, sorry, geez." The girl scoffed. "It's not my fault I don't like silence."

"Then sing something instead of throwing coins at a wall. Not only is it stupid, but it's also annoying as hell..."

"Hey, at least I'm trying to pass the time. I haven't seen you move from that bed since the girls left."

"Can you blame me?" Your eyebrow rose. "They told us they were only gonna be gone for a few hours. At this rate, they might as well have been gone for the rest of the day."

"Maybe they went to a grocery store on the other side of town? I mean, you know how shaken everyone's been lately..."

"Still, that's not an excuse to be gone this long." You explained. "A walk from here to Downtown is about an hour and a half, and then a walk from here to the suburbs is two hours. Either way, raiding a store shouldn't take up almost half the day."

"I...guess you do have a point." Mina spoke softly. "Hopefully, they're not held up somewhere..."

A few minutes later, a sound resembling a knock at the front door sounded. "That must be them now."

Mina got up to answer the door while you stayed put, using your ears to listen for anything.

A minute goes by, and you don't hear Mina or the rest of the girls, so you rose from the bed and made your way to the front door. "Mina is everything oka-..."

You weren't sure if you were hallucinating or not, seeing one of your best friends collapsed on the concrete of the driveway surrounded by what looked like a group of people.

Only, these people wore tattered clothing, and they weren't speaking English; more like garbled speech and groaning.

You took a closer look at Mina only to lock eyes with her, but she wasn't really looking at you, and she wasn't moving.

Those "people" were gnawing at her body, leaving a heap of nasty bite marks all over her, and missing chunks were taken out of her face, torso, and legs.

"M-Mina..."

You were frozen in your spot, so you didn't realize one of those people was staggering towards you until they let out a low growl, which shocked you back to your nightmare of reality.

You slammed the door shut without thinking and looked around for something to use as a barricade. With only a few seconds to spare, you ran to a dusty old couch in the living room and began pushing it towards the front door. The merciless banging on the door only made you cry harder than you already were.

"G-God, Mina..." You choked out. "I'm so sorry..."

Despite your tears, you knew you couldn't stay in the house anymore, so you stumbled to your room to grab your belongings - which was nothing more than a large backpack - and left through the back door of the house.

That was when the tears eventually stopped, and you looked back at the house one last time before hopping over the backyard fence leading to the street.

"Fuck, they're everywhere..."

Sure enough, these people littered the streets. Trudging down the sidewalk, letting out the most inhumane of sounds - it made your stomach turn at the sight of them.

"Keep moving, Y/N..."

You heard Mina's voice in your head - you let her speak.

"You're not weak. You know how to get through this. Just focus and stick to yourself. Do that for us..."

You let out a shaky sigh and took out a pocketknife tucked away in the side pocket of your backpack, your sights set on a glowing gas station sign a couple of blocks away from you.

-La Costa-