"Please," the voice whispered through my door. "I think something bit me."
I knew that voice. Ruby Bennett lived next door, short, nineteen, with bright red hair, a curvy figure, and a smile that usually made the neighborhood feel warmer. She'd always been sweet to me. We joked whenever we crossed paths, although she almost always had a boyfriend. The boyfriends never seemed to last.
Now she sounded terrified.
I checked the peephole. Ruby leaned against my front door, holding one arm at an unnatural angle. Blood covered the hand pressed to her stomach. Beyond her, my front porch and the quiet residential street appeared empty.
I opened the door just enough to pull her inside and locked it again.
"Ruby? What happened?"
"Dylan." Her words tumbled out. "My ex. He came over acting weird. Kept sweating. Then he started frothing at the mouth and just—attacked me."
She raised her bleeding hand. Teeth marks cut across her skin.
My stomach dropped.
I knew exactly what that meant.
*She's infected.*
"I tried Wing Chun first," she said, trembling. "Then my Eskrima sticks. I got him off me, but he grabbed my other arm. I heard something pop. I managed to shove him into my bathroom and lock the door."
"You fought him off with a dislocated shoulder?"
"I don't know how." Her eyes shone. "I tried calling for help, but he smashed my phone when we were fighting. I didn't know what to do. I was scared, and I just... I thought of you."
"Me?"
She nodded weakly.
"I don't know why. I just knew you'd help me."
I remembered her teasing me about carrying too many grocery bags, offering homemade cookies, laughing about a date who'd been more interested in his phone than her. She'd always treated me like someone worth talking to.
"You came to the right place."
That was what I wanted to believe.
The clock rolled past midnight.
**SYSTEM NOTICE\~**
**Time remaining until Day 0: 12 days.**
---
I guided Ruby toward the couch, keeping my voice calm despite the panic building inside me.
"Come on, sit down. You're losing blood."
"I'm dizzy," she whispered. "And my arm hurts so bad."
"I know. Just relax. I'll help you."
I cleaned the bite as carefully as I could, wrapped her injured hand, and supported her dislocated arm without attempting to force the joint back into place.
All the while, I watched her face.
The infection was moving faster than I remembered. Her skin was already losing its healthy color, and her eyes occasionally seemed unable to focus.
I knew what was coming.
She didn't.
"Should we call an ambulance?" she murmured.
"I'm going to take care of you first. You're hurt pretty badly, Ruby. Just stay with me, okay?"
She nodded.
I needed time. Enough time to get her somewhere I could contain her before she transformed.
"Why are you being so nice?" she asked suddenly.
I blinked. "What?"
"It's just... you're always nice to me." Her words were beginning to slur. "Even when I'm annoying."
"You're not annoying."
She managed a weak smile.
"Liar."
I almost laughed.
Instead, I watched the gray tint slowly spreading along her neck.
"Ruby, I want you to sit somewhere a little safer while I get things ready. Can you walk?"
"I think so."
I helped her stand.
She leaned against me heavily, her legs unsteady. Pain and blood loss had left her disoriented, and the infection wasn't helping.
In my little workroom stood a heavy steel chair I'd bought years ago and never found a use for. Beside it sat a box of rope and moving straps.
I'd intended to throw both away.
Not anymore.
Ruby barely questioned me as I guided her into the chair.
"Why here?" she asked sleepily.
"It's sturdy. I don't want you falling over while I get some things."
"Oh... okay."
Her eyelids drooped.
"I'm really tired."
"I know. Just rest for a little bit."
She looked up at me one last time.
"Thanks... for helping me."
Then her eyes closed, and her head slumped forward.
"Ruby?"
No response.
I checked that she was breathing.
She was unconscious.
*Now!*
I grabbed the rope and began securing her to the chair, careful of her injured arm. My hands shook so badly I nearly dropped the knots. I worked quickly, making sure she couldn't lunge forward or throw herself free.
Then I secured a cloth gag over her mouth, leaving her nose unobstructed.
Just as I finished, her body went rigid.
The warmth drained from her face.
Her skin turned an unnatural gray, and when her eyes opened again, the familiar light was gone.
She lunged with a guttural snarl, teeth straining against the gag inches from my wrist. The metal chair screeched across the floor before the restraints caught.
I staggered backward, shaking.
"Holy shit. Holy shit, that was close."
The girl who used to lend me cookies strained toward me like I was dinner.
And naturally, that was when the System chimed.
**POTENTIAL HAREM TARGET DISCOVERED\~**
**Name: Ruby Bennett**
**Age: 19**
**Condition: Infected — Zombie**
**Affection: 0%**
**TIER 1 REWARD: Dojo blueprint.**
**TIER 2 REWARD: 4,000 lbs of variable meat.**
**TIER 3 REWARD: Arsenal of weapons.**
I stared at the panel, then at the snarling redhead.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Ruby jerked against the chair again.
"No offense! I'm not mad at you!"
The panel vanished. I shut the workroom door, braced it, and sank against the wall.
I couldn't leave her like this forever. I also couldn't safely take her outside, especially with Dylan still locked inside the bathroom of her house just next door.
First I needed a safer place.
Then I'd figure out how to help her.
---
At seven, after a sleepless night of checking the workroom door, my phone rang. It was Nadia.
"The surveyor can meet us at the property," she said. "And the fabrication yard has an opening for delivery. If you still want this insane schedule, you need to be there."
I glanced toward the workroom. A faint scrape sounded from inside.
"I'll be there."
Before leaving, I checked Ruby's restraints from a safe distance, made sure she couldn't reach anything dangerous, and locked the door. I hated leaving her. But the house wasn't a secure place to keep an infected person, and my bunker wasn't going to build itself.
At the hill, work vehicles were already arriving. Hal's attorney had confirmed the title, and the rushed closing was scheduled that morning. The old bore records gave the engineer a starting point; the site crew verified the rock layer before digging.
Nadia strode over, hard hat tucked beneath one arm.
"You look terrible."
"Didn't sleep."
"Excited about the bunker?"
"Something like that."
She narrowed her eyes. "That's not a real answer."
"It's the only one I've got."
She studied me another moment, then handed me a helmet. "Then be useful. Hold this drawing."
An excavator rumbled to life. I watched the bucket bite into the hill, feeling my first genuine surge of hope since waking up.
---
The next hours blurred into a miracle of frantic phone calls and very expensive scheduling. Cleared collectible payments funded the staged invoices; the remaining sale proceeds were still processing. I signed the land purchase, paid for the thirty-thousand-dollar tube, and committed to the roughly sixty-eight-thousand-dollar shell-and-installation budget we'd discussed. The furnishings and electrical equipment were separate expenses.
The crew had the right equipment and a prefabricated tube ready to move. They excavated down toward the bedrock, laid the engineered support and drainage, and carefully positioned the fifty-nine-foot structure along the rock foundation. Ten feet of interior height suddenly seemed enormous when I stepped inside.
"It's like a secret tunnel!" I shouted.
"It's like a structure that needs inspection," Nadia shouted back.
By afternoon, workers were preparing the sealed end and the diagonal stairway leading to a concealed surface door. Nadia insisted on the double-door security vestibule and emergency exit provisions I'd drawn into the revised plan.
I kept arranging deliveries: battery power stations, solar panels, hand-crank chargers, a bicycle-generator attachment, and rechargeable lights. No gasoline engine running inside my underground home. I wanted power I could replenish without hunting for fuel.
A mover brought my fifty-two-inch television, computer tower, console, and boxes of cheap paperback favorites. Another delivery carried a large refrigerator, deep freezer, electric cooker, basic cookware, and the used pool table I'd found online. The bulky pieces went in before the final closure; the movers complained loudly about the pool table.
"Still no hot tub?" Nadia called.
"Only if you promise to pay the electric bill."
"I'll put that under 'never.'"
We laughed, and the System flashed a small update.
**NADIA VALE — AFFECTION: 19%.**
I tried not to grin at the invisible screen.
The water crew placed the five-hundred-gallon clean tank and separate dirty-water reservoir. The elaborate thirty-stage treatment unit was connected for testing, not declared safe simply because its sales brochure promised miracles. Nadia had a specialist schedule actual water-quality checks before I'd drink from it.
Everything was happening at an absurd pace. By evening, the essentials were in place, the entrance was secured, and the crew completed the initial backfill and surface concealment after their structural checks. Finishing touches and ongoing safety testing remained, but the bunker was finally usable as a temporary base.
Standing inside it, hearing the muted sounds of machinery above, I almost couldn't breathe.
My own hidden shelter.
---
Nadia found me examining the revised layout near the entrance.
"You've been here all day," she said. "Most clients disappear after signing the check."
"Most clients aren't planning to live here very soon."
"That part still worries me."
"I know. You keep telling me when an idea is stupid instead of just taking my money. I appreciate that."
She paused. "You actually listen when I tell you no. That's unusual."
**NADIA VALE — AFFECTION: 25%.**
My heart jumped.
Twenty-five percent. But the first reward wasn't unlocked yet.
I looked at her. Dust smudged one cheek. A loose strand of dark hair had fallen across her face, and she was smiling at the ridiculous home we'd somehow brought to life.
"You know," I said, "I've been trying to think of a way to thank you that isn't another engineering question."
"That's a first."
I stepped a little closer. She didn't step away.
"Would a kiss be completely inappropriate?"
Nadia raised an eyebrow. "That depends. Are you going to make me regret it?"
"I'm hoping not."
I stole the moment and leaned in. She met me halfway, returning the kiss briefly before placing a hand against my chest.
"That's all you get for now," she said, smiling. "You'll have to work hard for more."
A panel exploded into view.
**TIER 1 COMPLETE\~**
**Mutual kiss confirmed. Affection: 25%.**
**REWARD UNLOCKED: MODIFIABLE BLUEPRINTS FOR BASE EXPANSION.**
I nearly forgot how to breathe.
Nadia laughed. "Was it that surprising?"
"You have absolutely no idea."
---
It was almost eleven when I returned home. The bunker had taken shape. The first expansion blueprints shimmered behind my eyelids whenever I thought about them, waiting to be studied. Nadia had kissed me. For an unbelievable moment, the future had seemed manageable.
Then I heard the scratching from my workroom.
Ruby.
I set down my keys. She was still secured, still turning her head toward every sound with hungry determination. She needed protection from herself and everyone else, and I needed to move her before this house was sold or somebody discovered her.
But transporting a biting zombie through town wasn't like moving a piece of furniture. I needed a vehicle, a secure enclosure, food, a safer holding space at the bunker, and some way to earn enough trust that she wouldn't tear into me the moment I got close.
I sat at the kitchen table and opened my notebook.
**RUBY — TRANSPORT AND CARE PLAN.**
Beyond the closed door, she gave another low, restless growl.
"Okay, Ruby," I whispered. "Tomorrow we figure this out. I'm not giving up on you."