It starts with a news clip. A biting attack at an airport in China. Strange, distant, forgettable. Elias is twenty-three, sharing an apartment in Cologne, Germany, with his roommates Kira and Leo. Café shifts, skipped classes, endless scrolling. Normal life.

Then the reports multiply. Paris. Istanbul. New York. People attacking people. Victims turning violent within hours. And suddenly the outbreak isn’t on the other side of the world anymore. It’s outside his window.

When the power dies and the military seals off the city, Elias, Kira, and Leo make a desperate call: get out. On foot. Through a city tearing itself apart — past burning cars, abandoned checkpoints, and things in the dark that are no longer human.

Their destination: Elias’s family home in the countryside, hours away. But the world between here and safety no longer exists. The infected are faster than anyone predicted. They don’t stop. They don’t tire. And they’re changing.

No government is coming. No rescue is on the way. The only plan: survive the night.

Escape is Book 1 in the Zombie Virus LYRV-27 series — a European outbreak thriller for fans of The Walking Dead, World War Z, and 28 Days Later. Real characters. Relentless pace. A collapse that feels one news cycle away.