Axel thought his life in a quarantine zone was safe until he sees a girlfriend he thought had died and can't stop thinking about her flesh... *** The quarantine zones were built to keep the virus away, to protect the survivors. But when Axel sees Riley in an alley, after thinking she died from an infection a year ago when the virus first hits, Axel begins to see the quarantine actually protects them from nothing. The sickness is too close to home. * ONC 2023 PROMPT #6 -- "Can we go back to the start when we were all strangers in the dark?" COMPLETE | 𝙐𝙉𝙀𝘿𝙄𝙏𝙀𝘿 𝙍𝙊𝙐𝙂𝙃 𝘿𝙍𝘼𝙁𝙏 ● @OpenNovellaContest 2023 Longlist