This was a rural area northwest of Belfast.
It lay east of Lough Neagh, within Aghalee.
All around it stretched fields painstakingly cultivated by the villagers.
It should have been peaceful and beautiful.
Moonlight should have replaced lamplight, illuminating the streets as people sank into hazy dreams.
However.
Firelight now engulfed the area. The air reeked of blood, and piercing screams rose one after another, as though a nightmare had suddenly descended upon reality.
"No! Don't! Aahhh—"
A middle-aged woman still wearing a lace nightgown had just run out of her home when two figures with mouths full of sharp teeth and orange-red glowing eyes pounced on her in despair.
Her neck was bitten open, warm blood spilling out, followed by long bloody gashes raked across her thighs.
No matter how agonizingly the woman struggled, she could not push the monsters away.
Their strength was simply far beyond that of ordinary people.
Her shoulder bone had already been broken, bringing her even greater pain.
As more and more blood drained from her body, the woman's movements gradually weakened until she completely lost all signs of life and consciousness.
The two figures on top of her finally rose slowly in satisfaction, their fronts smeared with blood as they rushed toward new prey.
Yet two seconds later, the woman who should have been dead suddenly rose and followed after them.
An incomprehensible howl came from her mouth.
Her once fair, delicate skin had turned black and dry.
Her eyes, too, glowed orange-red.
They appeared especially bright, eerie, and terrifying in the night.
From high above the entire village.
Under the moonlight and firelight, one could clearly see.
The streets and alleys were filled with these humanoid yet inhuman, zombie-like monsters, searching everywhere for and hunting down the terrified living people fleeing for