Viral Dawn

July 15, 2087, 3:47 AM.

Chen Yu jolted awake from her dream as piercing sirens wailed outside her window. She sat up, gazing through the glass wall of her high-rise apartment at the city below—Shanghai, her hometown, now shrouded in an eerie crimson glow of warning lights.

Her phone screen flickered with an emergency broadcast message:

"Attention all citizens! Level One epidemic alert has been activated. Return to your homes immediately and seal all ventilation openings. The Department of Health has detected an unknown pathogen. Symptoms include..."

Chen Yu was BioTech Corporation's chief virologist, and she understood better than anyone what this meant. She rushed to her study and accessed an encrypted system requiring the highest clearance level.

The screen displayed the latest experimental data. Three days ago, her team had discovered an anomaly in a tissue sample they'd received—an unprecedented pathogen capable of altering the protein structure of human neural cells.

Codename: PT-7 virus.

With trembling fingers, she dialed Dr. Li, the laboratory director.

"Dr. Chen, have you seen the notification?" Dr. Li's voice was urgent, with chaotic footsteps echoing in the background.

"PT-7... it escaped?" Chen Yu asked.

Silence. A long, suffocating silence.

"Not only that," Dr. Li finally spoke, "according to the CDC's preliminary investigation, over 5,000 people are already infected. And... its transmission rate far exceeds our projections. Dr. Chen, we've made a terrible mistake."

Chen Yu's mind raced. PT-7 wasn't just any virus—it was their creation. Under the guise of developing neural repair therapy, Chen Yu's team had actually been conducting secret research: modifying viruses to enhance human brain response speed and physical strength.

It was a gamble. A gamble they couldn't afford to lose.

Outside her window, she began to hear screams. An ambulance raced past below, followed by two military vehicles.

Dawn was breaking. But this wasn't a new beginning—it was the prelude to the end times.