I - Infected

The dense, protective canopy of the forest looms above, a familiar, stifling shield. For eighteen years, this hidden Uninfected community has been your world, a world of constant fear and strict rules designed to keep the Infected at bay.
You shiver, not from the chill of the forest morning, but from the knot of dread in your stomach. Grey, your older sister and the only one who dared to breach the community's boundaries, didn't come back last night.
Your mother, Amelia, sits at the kitchen table, her face buried in her hands, a silent testament to her fear and, perhaps, a strange indifference that chills you more than any story of the Infected. "We stay here," she insists, her voice trembling. "We are not jeopardizing our safety. Grey wanted this."
'Wanted this'? The words are a cruel twist of the knife. Grey, who promised to show you the world, wouldn't just leave. Something terrible must have happened.
The weight of your mother's words and the silence of Grey's empty bed press down on you. You've always been the obedient one, the cautious one. But now, obedience feels like a betrayal. You won't abandon Grey. You can't.