"My name is Coin. For a very long time, I played alone with my younger brother. Since the world ended, I never had time to return to the CDC after getting my family to safety. Trapped halfway there, I decided to go back home."
Coin Stilber, a thirty-two-year-old woman who worked for the CDC as a researcher, was among the first to leave the facilities to warn her family about what was happening. She went straight home, hoping to protect them until the CDC could find a cure.
It was difficult—rumors spread fast, and panic consumed everyone. But by then, she was already prepared. She had gathered enough food for two years without leaving home for her family of three.
Back then, she decided to return to the CDC to help Candace and Edwin, who were the heads of the most important teams inside the facility, but panic had already erupted.
People began showing signs of infection. Everything was happening faster than expected, and there were more and more walkers on the streets. Police and soldiers didn't know how to deal with them—after all, it was something beyond comprehension.
Time passed—one month, two, five months—and she and her family were still in the same apartment building. Surviving was easier compared to how others lived, but they still faced problems, and after the fifth month, everything began to worsen.
Her father died in the sixth month, and that's when the family fell apart. Now she only had her brother to lean on emotionally. After preparing her father's body, they left it in a sealed room.
But the memories and the pain made it impossible to stay in the same home where their father had died, so after brief consideration, they decided to leave.
There were no survivors. The city, once heavily populated, had no living inhabitants. Every street was filled with walkers, and danger lurked everywhere.
Survival was hard. There was no food, and if the two of them managed to get that far, it was only because they had enough supplies and a car to move around.
Since there was nothing left to look for outside, Coin soon went to her friend's apartment and opened the door. She wasn't there—according to the letter she left, she had escaped to a temporary military shelter.
As time passed, Coin discovered new things. One night, gunfire echoed through the city—and that kind of weaponry wasn't something civilians could possess. The shooting was long and constant, as if someone were cleansing an area.
That was when she decided to go out and see what had happened, to find out if it was the military re-entering the city. But at that very moment, several military trucks of all kinds stormed the street outside her building—and that was how she met the S.C.T. organization.
She knew it was impossible for the government to have completely disappeared, but when she learned about Operation Cobalt, she lost faith in the future—and in the military. Yet she still remembered the words of those soldiers, words that stayed engraved in the minds of every survivor:
"We have disobeyed Operation Cobalt. We have families and friends who depend on our protection, and under no circumstances do we intend to massacre our people. The S.C.T. organization plans to protect our future and rebuild what we've lost. I hope everyone understands and is grateful."
It was a difficult time. Coin didn't know the true reach of the organization, but she was soon surprised as more and more people joined. At first, there were hundreds coming from all over—even by helicopter—and soon there were thousands of survivors.
Nowadays, there could easily be between thirty and thirty-five thousand survivors. At first, everyone thought chaos would erupt, but it never happened. Instead, a new system of labor administration was established, rewarding people with work points.
She worked in a research center, and her job distanced her from her brother, who inevitably started causing trouble—stealing, fighting, and speaking about classified topics he had overheard from his older sister.
But one day, her brother got involved in something extremely dangerous. Even with her position as a researcher, Coin couldn't fix her younger brother's mistakes.
It turned out he had tried to steal weapons, food, and sneak out to see the outside world. So many months in this beautiful, peaceful place made him curious about what walkers were really like. And that same curiosity led to his sentence—he was given the vaccine, and eventually, once the virus invaded his body, he would inevitably become a walker.
Even so, she was able to say goodbye to her brother—and managed to give him several vials of injections, hoping he wouldn't turn into a walker.
...
Months had passed since she last saw her younger brother. There was nothing else she could do for him. She had worked tirelessly to find a cure and restore their lives without fear of infection, but after the first dose, there had been no progress toward a second one.
Today was just like any other day—but soon, a crisis escalated.
"How many vaccines do we have on the list?" Coin asked with an indifferent look.
"They asked us to make a thousand more doses," replied a sleepy coworker. His job wasn't that important, but it was stable and safe.
"You didn't sleep again?" Coin joked while reviewing some documents.
"Ah, well… I went to the cinema to see the movie premiere tonight. It was worth catching."
But just as they were about to talk about the movie, a voice sounded from the loudspeakers:
"Class 3 breach! Please, all facility workers remain calm and walk toward the main plaza."
"Class 3 breach! Please, all facility workers remain calm and walk toward the main plaza."
At that moment, all workers dropped what they were doing and were escorted by guards toward the exit of the research center.
"Looks like someone's causing trouble again—but why here, in our workplace?"
"Who's the idiot that did something stupid this time?"
Coin remained silent. If anyone here had caused trouble, it would be her. But it was impossible that they had found out—there was no way, nothing that could confirm her brother had survived.
"Did it work?" Coin wondered, a faint smile on her face.
If it was true, her brother had survived the virus and was now immune. Therefore, no one would be hurt—everyone's safety was too important.
But soon, Coin would realize how far she was from the truth—and when she saw the head of all Atlanta approaching in person, a chill ran down her spine.
"Who was the idiot?"