BYTE-SIZED TROUBLE

As we walked down the hallway, Nolan said, 'Listen everyone, stick together.", he looked to me and added, "Hope you're recording this.'

I looked at my camera and said, 'Hey everyone, it's Ace Riven, also known as the Zombie Slayer.'

I glanced at Haley, who pulled out her camera and said in her high-pitched voice, 'Hey everyone, I'm so glad you're watching!'

Nolan, who wasn't talking much, walked with his camera tied to him. 'Listen, everyone, we're entering an unsafe zone, so quiet down, okay? We're just retrieving an artifact. We get it, we get out,' he said calmly.

One of the streamers rolled his eyes, while another said, 'Yeah, yeah, we get it, old man.'

The female streamers were gossiping about Nolan being a 'buzzkill.' I remember my mom once telling me to listen to elders because they've seen more days - good and bad, so I looked at my camera and said, 'Hey everyone, I might not be talking for a while but stay tuned and stay frosty.'

Nolan opened the gate, revealing a large abandoned cabin that most streamers knew as a danger zone. We entered one by one, and as we got closer, we climbed the stairs at the front porch, which creaked like they had been there for ages. When we opened the door, a creature rushed towards Nolan, who jumped back with incredible speed. Everyone was shocked to see a zombie chained down, trying to escape. One of the streamers wanted to strike it with a sword, but Nolan said, 'No, let it live. Killing a zombie could mess things up.'

I understood him; in this world, killing a zombie could sometimes cause a fungus to spread and possibly intoxicate the area, turning an unlucky person with a weak immune system into one of them. There are different types of zombies: saliva, blood, gas, and contact. Saliva zombies need to bite you to turn you, while blood zombies are dangerous because even a small spill of their blood can cause transformation. Gas zombies are the most dangerous, as inhaling their fungus substance can infect you if you're not strong enough. And then there are the contact zombies... we don't talk about those.

We left the infected room and moved to the next one. Nolan started searching for something, saying, 'It must be here somewhere.'

Haley patted me and quietly said, 'You'd look good as a zombie.'

I replied sarcastically, 'Yeah, and you'd look hot and sexy.' She slapped me, and I joked, 'You have a real penchant for slapping me, don't you?'

Just then, everyone started talking to their stream, and I took my camera, saying, 'Hey everyone, I'm back!' Before I could finish, we heard a growl outside.

Everyone paused, looking outside in shock. Haley ran to the window. It was the zombie - it had escaped. Forge pointed his electric gun at the zombie, which was running out of the house. 'Shoot!' someone yelled. Forge shot the zombie, killing it, and our minds were at rest for the moment.

But then, the zombie's body started shaking, and it let out a loud echo before falling dead. We were shocked, and I could hear some of us swearing under our breaths.

'Don't worry, guys, nothing probably happened. There are no others in the area. We should be safe,' I said, but then we heard a rumbling sound. I looked outside, and everyone brought their cameras, talking to their audiences. Nolan was shocked, unable to speak, and Haley looked like she was starting to panic.

I took my camera and said, 'Hey everyone, looks like trouble is looming. A dark fog is headed our way. Stay tuned as watch us blaze our way out.'

Forge said, 'Damn it, we're dead. We should have risked it and killed that thing here in the cabin. But it got out and probably called for the others wherever they are and now we're doomed."

"Hey man, calm down", I said as I put my camera to the window and looked through it, and what I saw made me drop it. Oh my God.

"EVERYONE, RUN!"