Hungry, selfish and bloodthirsty with rage, with a pack of brethren and a long-lost friend, they threaten to take down the entire city of struggling survivors. But he finds himself drawn to one particular survivor – for reasons unknown. He's addicted and madly overprotective. In the end, will he gain his human emotions back? Or succumb to the beast inside of him?

He swiped at me the fourth time that night. His sharp fingernail slashed across my grey skin as blood flowed from the wound. I'd had enough of this pathetic fiend and I swiped him back across his face, breaking his nose as I heard a distinctive crack.

He snarled, backing up into another man that had been aimlessly wandering the dilapidated streets. The man appeared startled as he pushed the same infected into the wall and slashed at his neck until there was no more blood to draw. He then turned to glare at me, but I simply wandered on, waiting for another round of humans to approach the street.

We'd all just finished off a group of survivors trying to escape the confines of the city as they attempted to make their way to salvation. But we weren't going to let that happen. Not until every single remaining human in the world had been fed on. Hell, I was starving… and those humans taste so good…

I swear I could taste their blood, the hot trickle of it sliding down my throat, replenishing the beast inside of me. I yearned to see their expressions shift from surprise to fear, as they stared at us sprinting for them, realising their deaths were rapidly approaching. Their fear only aroused the sweat emanating from their bodies, which only made us hunger for more. Their screams added to the delight of our feeding.

Smirking, I continued down the path I'd taken, unaware of where I was going until I heard another crack as I stepped on a tender bone. I bent down to examine it closely; I had only crushed his spine by a considerable amount. I shrugged, moving along to rest against a brick wall. The sun had been doing my head in; the rays of light blinding my vision if I looked up for too long. I took comfort in the darkness as I cast my right arm over my eyesight and waited for the sun to set.

A sickening gurgle came from next to me as I glanced over at the bloodied woman. She had short cropped hair to her neck as she wore her usual business attire, now tearing at the seams and tarnished with blood. I watched, curiously, as she bent down and relieved a stream of puke that splat onto the pavement from her mouth. The bile bubbled before coating the pavement with a dark green stain.

I doubled back as she passed me, knocking into my shoulder as she staggered further down the street. I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding and followed her. She was a quick stumbler, but I managed to catch up nonetheless as she collapsed onto the floor and fell silent. Several others along the street turned to glance at us, before they returned to their idle stances.

A deep rumbling vibration sounded from my abdomen as I realised I still hadn't eaten. As if on cue, thunderous gunshots exploded from down the street, alarming all of us within the area.

A wicked smile spread across my face as dinner was finally served.

We howled fiercely into the early dusk as my brethren and I sprinted down the street, searching and hunting for our food. Approximately thirty of us rounded a corner and spotted two survivors near the middle of the street. Our pace fastened as we smelt the sweat pour from their skin, their fear imprinted onto their facial features as they gathered their weapons and fired at our horde.

The few that were infected were flicked off our sprint as the front line had been shed for sacrifice. The closer we neared, the less capable they seemed to use their weapons. The second line reached the survivors and tore at their clothing, eager for the succulent taste of human flesh. The third line beat and kicked their way through, fighting for the feed, all selfish to have the last bite.

I was in the fourth line, and after most had been eradicated, it was an easy task to tear down the survivors as their morale and energy had slowly been seeped away. With pure rage surging through my body, I punched and swiped at one of the males' arms. His weapon dropped, and he fell along with it, screaming an ear-splitting cry as he knew his time was coming to an end. I used this to my advantage and leant down next to him, tearing the remains of his clothing away to bite into this flesh.

His scream pierced through my ears as I dug my yellowed teeth into his skin and ripped a chunk of warm, untainted flesh that filled my mouth and replenished my rumbling stomach. I swallowed the remains of his skin and allowed the taste of his hot blood to coat my throat before I took another bite from him. He erupted with more screams before he was as silent as his teammate on the floor.

There wasn't much time left now, because once they're dead, the body freezes over and the blood dries. I took the advantage of feeding off him as much as I could. At one point, I was shoved aside as others tried to compete with my strength to move me off the human; after all, I wasn't the only hungry one around here.

But I fought back, swiping at their faces and snarling with rage as blood splattered from my own mouth onto another infected woman's face. She snarled back and grabbed me by my navy hoodie and flung me out of the way as I rolled onto the road, further away from the scene. The anger that boiled up inside me unleashed as I leapt from the ground and shoved man after woman aside to take back my feed. I slashed, shoved and pulverised my way through, eager to slice his skin open with my teeth.

The others must have noticed my rapid change of mood as they stalked off, already satisfied with their feed. I scowled at them to leave me alone with my meal. I was nowhere near satisfied.

I finished feeding off the dead human as I swallowed the lasting remains of his blood, the strength returning to my bones as I stalked off, ready to find another human to replenish my hunger.

I didn't think feeding was a big deal, as I thought it was normal, and just what every other brother of mine experienced. But it was then that I noticed the difference between myself and my brethren.

They rarely fed, perhaps three or four times per day. As for me, I fed constantly. It was the one desire nagging my thoughts, like a drill pounding into my brain; it was only ever silent whilst I was feeding.

I wasn't going to let it consume me. Perhaps feeding more only made you more powerful. In that case, I was already superior to the other pitiful dogs.

The drilling was increasing tumultuously in my head, and I snarled, clamping my hands on the sides of my head, digging my fingernails into the skin, drawing out blood that trickled down my cheeks. If this wasn't normal, then what was? Why was I the only one going through this pain?

I could hear the drilling increase as it spread through my veins. My head was throbbing from the pain as I felt the blood vessels in my head convulsing. I was unaware of the sounds of my screaming as I realised the entire street had been cleared of any infected. I took slight comfort in being alone during the torture and I dropped to my knees, still clutching onto the hairs of my head, screeching into the night for the pain in my head to stop.

But it only spread – and it spread fast.

There was a sudden sensation in my eyes, but it was so minute that I didn't know if it was pain or not. The waves of pain travelled through the veins of my arms, all the way to my fingertips. A burning sensation followed the veins along my arms, and I felt my muscles tense unwillingly. They pounded underneath my skin and I turned to watch as my arm muscles jerked every few seconds, each time the muscle increased in size as I watched, dumbfounded.

What the fuck was happening to my body?

I backed up into a brick wall, not realising that I had moved my feet. Every muscle tore with an ache so powerful that I was actually concerned for my safety. I looked back at my muscles, now doubled in size. If this was the feeding that was making me so potent, then I wasn't going to stop. As long as it was going to replenish the pain and my hunger, I'd continue feeding to be the most powerful man left on the planet.

I thought the pain had finally stopped, and that this bizarre transformation was complete, but as I heard the sound of cracking nails, I realised, maybe this was just the beginning.

Unwillingly, I looked at my fingernails and witnessed the nail plates snap and tear into pieces before falling off onto the pavement below. My heart pounded a million beats per minute as I stared at my bare fingers.

The pain returned, only worse this time. I felt my skin tearing in my cuticles and watched as ten razor-sharp black claws slithered out of the cuticles and grew at an alarming rate. It felt as if knives had been stabbed into my cuticles, and then slowly drawn back out. I closed my eyes and let out a piercing shriek, waiting for the pain to subside. The next time I opened my eyes, I was on the floor, staring at the sky as black as midnight.

The pain hadn't stopped, but it wasn't as gruesome as before. I examined the claws that had just grown and gasped. They were long, thick and could claw through skin like a diamond through glass. I raised my index finger and glided the claw through the skin of my wrist, immediately drawing blood; I yelped and tightened the navy sleeve of my hoodie to stop the flow.

I calmed myself down, only enough to realise that the burning sensation had finally returned back to my eyes. I closed them tightly, which only seemed to strengthen the ache. I felt the vessels in my eyes pop as blood oozed down my cheeks. The blood was running faster now, and I cried into the night, begging the pain to disappear. There was no way to tell how long this was going to go on for, but I couldn't take it any longer. The stinging of my eyes increased rapidly, and there was only one idea I considered that would end the torture.

I raised my newly shed claws to my eyes and pierced the claws into the groove of my eyelids. I screamed in complete agony as I began to seize my eyes and rip them from their sockets. The blood flowed like a stream down my face, and I didn't stop until the sockets of my eyes were empty. The process felt like it lasted over ten lifetimes and the screeches I caused had probably wiped the entire city free of any infected.

I knew no pain worse than this.

I breathed heavily in slowed gasps as I tried to calm the tornado of angst inside of me.

I could no longer see. I would never see the sky as a black, velvet abyss; I would never see daylight as bright and warm as the sun; and I would never see the face of a beautiful woman again. My sense of sight disappeared.

But every other sense was as powerful as I was gradually becoming. I could taste the remains of the infected man I ate an hour ago, his sweet blood lingered in the taste buds of my tongue. I could touch every precipice and know what it was; I could scale every building and know that I was safe above it. I could smell thousands of different scents within the city, and I knew where the delicious humans were hiding. Their scents proved a great disadvantage to them… their sweat… and their blood.

And lastly, I could hear. I heard the tipper-tapper of rats' feet as their teeth bit into flesh of an infected. I heard voices miles away, to which I would visit soon enough. I heard growls three blocks away from my spot, to which I was going to investigate.

I began to make my way to the sounds of growls, until I felt the familiar burning sensation spread down my legs. My heartbeat skipped, realising this wasn't over. As I walked, my leg muscles began to crack and buckle under the pressure. The muscles were throbbing and jerking by the similar fashion my arms had. Without intuition, a muscle tore and split into a foreign manner, as did the other leg. I yelled into the night and fell to the floor, my knees connected to the ground as I held myself up by my claws. I stayed crouched, waiting for the buckling of my muscles to stop.

But it continued to progress as further snaps caused my muscles to shift into different positions, before they hardened into stone. The pain caused me to shriek out loud, before I stopped suddenly.

The sensation triggered a muscle in my throat and I felt it enlarge, tightening my airways. I felt as if my throat was constricting, and my screams were reduced to animalistic growls and snarls. I no longer had a voice as familiar growls tore from my throat, the same growls that I heard from three blocks away.

I howled in anger and swiped at the wall beside me, slashing into the brick. Every muscle throbbed with pain, and by now, I was begging the pain to be over with. This was too much to handle for one night.

The pain spread from my throat to my mouth, as I felt my teeth throb and shatter into pieces. I howled again, sending shards of teeth flying as each hole pounded with more intensity. My gums bled as twenty-eight sharp needles penetrated my gums, before slicing out with razor-sharp points. I glided my tongue along the points, realising my teeth had been replaced with fangs as sharp as knives.

The burning of my veins was replaced with fury as I sprinted down the street. I smelt a torrent of smoke drift from an abandoned car and I attempted to jump over the bonnet.

Instead, I flew.

I sank onto my haunches in one second, leapt from the ground in another, and I was flying through the air, metres over the car as a howl escaped my lips and landed silently on the ground, the car behind me.

Feelings that I thought were lost replaced the angst inside of me, as anticipation and excitement blazed through my veins and I continued to leap high into the air, bounding from wall to wall, my landings masked by my careful grace. I wanted to move faster, so blindingly rapid that I was almost unseen. I realised the clothes I was wearing didn't allow for swift movements. I would have to find a solution for that issue.

All of the pain and torture I endured had been worth it, because as of now, I was one of the most powerful men left in the world, which made me lethal to my prey.

I howled into the night and leapt my way over to the sounds of growls and gunshots, avoiding all contact by disguising my silhouette into the shadows.

Once arriving onto the scene, I sensed three survivors were fighting their way through an oncoming horde, and as I was about to leap for my feed, a yelping growl came from below me. It must have been another infected, but I knew this one was different – just like me. He appeared hurt and bleeding as he was left on the floor. I leapt down below, avoiding to be seen by the survivors and grabbed a hold of the man and led him to safety among the rooftops.

I could smell the scent of his blood, but it was nothing like those that were human. I set him down, and removed his grip from my neck as my claws came into contact with his. I flinched back, realising his claws were just like mine. He had the same claws, the same growl and our angered levels of stress appeared distinctly alike.

His yelp distracted me from my thoughts as I ripped a piece of his sweatshirt and secured it over his wound, tightening it so that the blood flow would stop. He growled in appreciation before passing out underneath me.

I realised then that I was going to do everything within my power to help him, because ultimately, I was going to need his help.

After all, I couldn't take down an entire city all by myself, could I?

A/N: I've had this written up for a long while, and decided to publish it tonight.

This may just be a one-shot, but if many of my readers do enjoy the outlook of the story, I may end up producing it into a full piece.

Hope you guys enjoyed it! Let me know what you think of it. :)