On the day the zombie outbreak occurs, I tell my boyfriend, Valerio Petrucci, to come over and hide in my apartment, where my front door is already reinforced.

Soon, sounds of the door being knocked can be heard. I'm about to get up when transparent comment bubbles appear in front of my eyes.

"Don't open the door! Valerio isn't the only one out there—there are a bunch of loan sharks with him as well!"

"One of them is already infected with the zombie virus and is about to turn into a zombie!"

"You'll die if you let them in!"

Someone knocks on the door once again at that moment.

I was just about to turn the doorknob when my hand suddenly froze mid-air.

The live comments wouldn't stop popping up before my eyes.

"The bastards are going to barge in as soon as you open the door for them! You'll never get rid of them once they're inside!"

"They will insist on playing loud music and games during the height of the zombie outbreak! And they won't stop even when you tell them to!"

"They're also going to eat up all of your rations and then eat your pets too!"

"Don't you ever open that door! It's your last line of defense against them!"

The knocking on the other side of the door continued, and my vision somehow felt like it had just been attacked by a virus with how the live comments kept popping up non-stop.

Yet, all of them warned me not to open the door at all costs.

I carefully withdrew my hand, feeling my heart thumping loudly in my chest.

I had been living alone on the third floor of this old apartment complex. Almost everyone else in the block had already left, and I was one of the last few people to still be living here, and it was all because of this door.

After having my place robbed a few years ago, I spent a fortune having this military-grade steel security door installed.

If my boyfriend, Valerio Petrucci, really brought those debt collectors with him, then I was never going to open the door for them at all. However, I had no way of confirming whether what the comments were saying was true.

The apartment didn't allow cameras to be installed in the corridors. Even the peephole in the door seemed to have been blocked by something in the way.

After hesitating for a bit, I pressed my ear against the door, thinking of listening to the situation outside. But other than the urgent knocking and the occasional zombie roar, I wasn't able to hear anything at all.

I was just about to step back when the knocking suddenly stopped.

Valerio's familiar voice came from the other side of the door, sounding a little confused.

"Gemma? Are you in there? Didn't you say that I was always welcome to seek shelter with you? Why aren't you opening the door for me?"

I pressed my ear to the door once more.

I didn't hear anyone else next to him. It sounded more like Valerio just muttering to himself.

He soon sent me a text message.

"Babe, it's dangerous out here. Hurry up and let me in the door!"

I took a deep breath and decided to call him on FaceTime.

However, he rejected the request almost immediately.

My heart sank. Why wasn't Valerio picking up? He had also previously rejected another request from me earlier.

Back then, he told me that he was on a business trip and it wasn't convenient for him to answer my calls. But in reality, he had simply been seeing off his first love at the airport while she went abroad for a trip.

I was still wondering how to respond to him when he texted me again.

"Babe, there are all sorts of creatures out here. I'm worried that FaceTime will just lure them to us. Can't you just let me in? Please?"

I stared at the screen and typed in my reply.

"Then, send me a photo of the corridor."

There was complete silence on his end for a whole minute.

Then, he replied.

"My camera got smashed just now while I was running away from the zombies."

With his reply, I was very sure now that Valerio was lying to me. It was just as the live comments had warned—that he'd brought his debt collectors with him this time.

I met Valerio in college. He was the one who first began pursuing me back then, and I had agreed to be his girlfriend very quickly.

The reason was that he was very handsome. He was also the captain of the football team, and he had dimples whenever he smiled.

Most importantly, he treated me very well.

We dated for three years, but we still hadn't gotten engaged yet. The reason was that he went and did something behind my back in college, which was to take out high-interest loans without my knowing.

At that time, he was obsessed with maintaining his image as the campus heartthrob. He always bought the latest iPhone, limited-edition sneakers, and also gave me designer gifts that he couldn't actually afford at all.

And when he ran out of money, he continued borrowing even more loans after that.

By the time I finally found out about it, his debt had snowballed into a massive sum.

I helped him with his payments and watched him delete every fast-loan app from his phone. He then cried bitterly and swore that he would never borrow from these loan sharks ever again.

I trusted him. However, a lingering doubt somehow always remained in my mind.

Although the apartment I was living in was quite old and dilapidated, it was an inheritance from Grandpa and Grandma, and Valerio had been here a couple of times prior.

He didn't live with me, however, because it was quite a distance from his office. Yet, when the zombie apocalypse happened, he was still living in the dorms provided by his job.

It was literally a death trap with so many people living in such close proximity to each other. I was worried sick about him, so I suggested to him that he was welcome to seek refuge at my apartment for a while.

However, I never thought that he would turn up with his debt collectors as well.

I didn't even know when he'd started borrowing money from them again!

New live comments popped up before my eyes.

"You wouldn't get engaged to him for a long time, and he thought that you looked down on him for being poor. So, he took out a loan to dabble in the stock market, and then, he lost it all. His creditors came looking for him to collect his debt. Coincidentally, it was during the zombie outbreak."

"Don't you ever open the door for him! His creditors are first going to kill you, and then, he's going to kill them in retaliation. He'll then use your supplies to recruit a team and then live a life of luxury afterward!"

"Yeah, your death made him the 'devoted lover' he always wanted to be, and you'd also help him evade his debts!"

I stared at the floating texts and tried to piece together the story behind them.

According to the comments, I was the main protagonist's first love in the opening scene of a post-apocalyptic movie, but I would die and be torn to pieces within the first act.

Valerio would then hug my dead body and scream my name in anguish, vowing revenge. He'd survive the first few brutal weeks with all the food I'd stockpiled in my apartment. Then, he would recruit his own team, form allies, and eventually become a strong, powerful leader.

In the end, he would even meet another young woman who looked exactly like me. They would fight side by side and love each other for the rest of their lives.

I gripped my phone so tightly that my knuckles turned white.

I didn't know whether I was the protagonist's "first love" doomed to die in this apocalyptic movie script. I also didn't know whether fate had already written my name down on the death list.

All I knew was one thing—I didn't want to die.

The urgent knocking sounded on the door again. Then, I heard voices on the other side of the heavy security door. It was a little distorted, but I could still hear Valerio's familiar voice.

I curled up on the couch. My dog, Lasagna, who was in my arms, wanted to bark, but I hurriedly held her mouth shut.

I then sent Valerio a text message.

"I'm not home."

The knocking stopped.

Another text message immediately appeared in my inbox, and he sounded urgent.

"How could you not be at home? Didn't you say that you were going to open the door for me?"

A few seconds later, he seemed to have noticed that his tone had been a little too rough, so he followed it up with another text message.

"Did you go out gathering supplies again, babe? It's okay. I'll wait for you at the door."

Before the zombie outbreak heightened, I had told him that I would be going out to stockpile as many supplies as I possibly could, so there wasn't much to be suspicious about my statement earlier.

Then, I heard Valerio's cautious voice at the door.

"Gemma went out gathering supplies. She'll be back soon."

Finally, I heard someone else's voice at the door responding to him.

"Is she home or not? Get your facts straight, Valerio Petrucci!"

The speaker sounded like a young man, rash and impatient. He might just be a lackey after all.

"Keep quiet, Paolo. Don't lure the zombies here," Valerio said, keeping his voice down.

"What's the point of keeping my voice down?" the guy named Paolo said at once, raising his voice. He retorted loudly, "We've all been noisy as hell while making our way here all the way from Calvaston! And now, you're telling me we might die waiting in the hallway instead?"

Another voice sounded just then, and it carried an unsettling authority. He was probably the leader of the debt collectors.

"Shut up, Paolo Abate."

It was silent for two seconds.

Then, the same voice spoke again.

"Valerio Petrucci, you told us that your girlfriend's place was safe and there was plenty of food and supplies to go around, and there was also a security door to keep us safe. But now, we're all trapped outside, tired and hungry. What are you planning to do about it?"

Valerio sounded tense as he replied, "I'm sorry, Signore Marco Puglisi, but I'm not making you wait out here on purpose. It's just that… She might not be home after all."

Marco Puglisi. So, he was the leader of the debt collectors. I was going to have to remember his name now.

Then, a fourth voice piped up. He sounded old and aged, as he said, "She's lying to you."

My heart sank at once.

Valerio sounded like he wasn't confident anymore. "She wouldn't, Signore Quinto Campana—"

"Even if she's not lying to you," he said, interrupting him. "Do you think she'll let us in when she comes back later and sees so many of us out here?"

Valerio denied it at once, his tone frantic yet certain.

"That's impossible. She loves me so much that she can't possibly refuse me!"

Angry live comments immediately began popping out before my eyes again.

"What's the point of Gemma refusing him anyway? They'd all just be going to force their way in!"

"Yeah! And the moment they got in, that old shit Quinto Campana would try to open up all of the windows for 'ventilation', thus spreading their human scent far and wide and attracting all the zombies to them!"

"That Paolo's no good either! He'd steal Gemma's newly-bought laptop and play games loudly on the speaker all day, every day!"

"Yeah, and Gemma would get so mad that she'd threaten to break the laptop, and that's when Valerio would pretend to try and defuse things between them, playing the good guy as he tells her to suck it for a few more days until they left."

"They'd even tear into all of Gemma's stockpiled food, leave trash everywhere, and finish everything without ever bothering to go out for more supplies! And then, Marco would try to eat Gemma's dog, but when she went to stop him, he'd stab her to death!"

My hands were shaking.

Lasagna licked me on my chin as she stared at me with warm, gentle eyes.

I had been adopted from the orphanage by my grandparents. And after they passed away, they didn't just leave me this apartment but also Lasagna behind.

But now, as I was reading the live comments in my head, I definitely wasn't going to open the door for them anymore!

I forced myself to breathe in deeply before replying to Valerio's text message.

"I realized that it was a little too dangerous to go back after looking for supplies, so I'm going to stay the night with Luisa. You can find somewhere else for shelter."

Luisa Cioffi was my best friend.

As soon as the men outside my door realized that I wasn't home and stood them up at the last minute, they immediately began loudly and angrily cussing me out.

Soon, I received another text message from Valerio.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier, babe? I'm already at your door! Why don't you just tell me your combination code? Let me stay inside for a few days."

I bit on my lower lip. It seemed like he wasn't going to give up without getting in today.

Before I could reply, I heard footsteps outside my door. Someone else was also here.

It was my neighbor from across the hall, Danilo Verde. He'd gone out this morning to gather supplies, but I didn't know if he managed to get any.

"What are you all doing here?" he asked.

Valerio immediately replied, "I came here looking for my girlfriend, Gemma Barletta, but she told me that she just went out and asked us to wait inside for her."

I had a sudden bad feeling about this.

Danilo and I had a tense relationship. He was a petty thief and often stole my parcels and food deliveries when he thought I wasn't looking.

When the apocalypse arrived, he kept hounding me to give him more supplies, but I kept turning him down each time.

And now that there were so many rough characters waiting for me at my door, I knew that he would take the opportunity to make things worse for me.

As expected, I immediately heard Danilo's gleeful voice saying, "Oh? But she's right at home as we speak!"