The door of the shuttle opened with a hiss.
Dust swirled in the air — gray, dry, lifeless.
Arin stepped out first, his boots sinking into cracked soil. The sky was a dull orange, heavy with ash and smoke.
"Command, this is Luna-13 returning crew," he said into the comm.
Static.
No response.
He tried again. "Mission Control, do you copy?"
Only silence.
Kai scanned the horizon with his visor. "Where the hell are we?"
"Landing coordinates were automatic," Professor Ren replied. "Somewhere near the old coastal zone… but—"
He paused. The coastline was gone. The ocean had pulled back miles away, leaving behind dried earth and skeletons of ships.
Lira's voice trembled. "This doesn't look like Earth anymore."
They began walking.
No birds. No animals. No sound.
The world was too quiet — like the planet itself had stopped breathing.
Half an hour later, they reached a small town.
The streets were covered in ash. Cars abandoned mid-turn, doors open, windows shattered.
There were signs of struggle — claw marks on walls, blood dried to black on the pavement.
Arin stepped beside a broken signboard:
Welcome to Haven City.
He remembered watching this city's lights from the moon once — bright, alive, beautiful.
Now, it was nothing but dust.
Inside a grocery store, Lira searched for supplies.
The shelves were half empty, but a few cans remained.
When she picked one up, she froze — a dried handprint was smeared across the label.
"Guys…" she whispered. "Someone was here. Recently."
Before anyone could respond, a soft thud echoed from the back room.
Kai raised his weapon. "Movement."
They approached slowly.
Arin opened the door — and a woman stumbled out, eyes wide with terror.
She looked human.
Alive.
But when the light touched her face, they saw veins bulging beneath her skin, pulsing dark green.
"Help…" she gasped. "Run… they're coming…"
Then she convulsed, falling to the ground.
Her breathing stopped. For a moment, silence returned.
Then came a sound from outside — low, wet, dragging footsteps.
They rushed to the window.
Figures moved in the fog — dozens of them, maybe hundreds, limping, crawling, some missing limbs.
Their faces were twisted, eyes pale white.
"Zombies?" Kai muttered in disbelief.
"That's not possible," said Ren. "It's… it's a virus. Some kind of infection."
Arin's grip tightened on his weapon.
"Whatever it is, we can't stay here."
Lira nodded. "We need shelter. And answers."
As they escaped through the back alley, Arin glanced once more at the fallen woman.
Her hand twitched. Her head turned slightly toward him.
And then — she smiled.
A lifeless, broken smile.
They ran until nightfall.
The world was burning — but not with fire.
With silence, and the echo of what used to be human.
At the edge of a forest, they stopped to rest.
The moon was rising again, pale and distant.
Arin looked up at it, his chest heavy.
It felt strange — that same moon that had given him hope now looked like the reason everything was ending.
Lira sat beside him. "You really believed we'd come back to celebrations, didn't you?"
He smiled faintly. "Yeah. I thought there'd be fireworks, cameras, a world waiting for us."
"What do you think happened?" she asked softly.
Arin stared at the glowing horizon.
"I don't know," he said.
"But I think… it started with what we brought back."
"We carried a dream to the moon… and brought back a nightmare."