INFECTED [Zombie MC]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Now onKindle!

[Winner of the October 2024 Royal Road Writathon Challenge]

When Noah and his friends stumble across a strange little artifact, they don’t think much of it—until they begin to change into something uncomfortably akin to zombies. One thing leads to another, and before they realize it, they've triggered a full-blown outbreak. As authorities close in, their plan is simple: lay low until things settle down. But when everyone around them starts looking like a meal, survival becomes a bit more complicated.

Author's notes:

This story came about by me sitting down and writing something that I myself would enjoy reading.

Chapters are an average of 1600 words and are relatively fast-paced.

This is not a LITRPG.

Cover artis painted by me. I also made an alternative cover that you can viewhere.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Author: EYESHINER

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 274
Views: 90,208

Chapters(74 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(9)

Robert BetanRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is a breath of fresh air in the sea of fast-paced, action-heavy web serials. Instead of throwing readers headfirst into chaos, the author takes a masterfully subtle approach—building tension through grounded characters, vivid setting details, and a creeping sense of dread that grows with every page. It’s a bold and confident slow burn.
The writing itself is polished and immersive. Every line feels intentional, from the naturalistic dialogue to the subtle emotional cues. There’s a warmth and realism to the cast—Noah, Brian, Leah, and May—that makes their camaraderie instantly believable. Even in moments of tension, the banter flows effortlessly and lightens the mood in just the right way.
The story strikes an intriguing tonal balance between slice-of-life and supernatural mystery. The shift from casual cemetery visit to survival horror is done with such smooth pacing that it feels organic, not jarring. The atmosphere is where this story truly shines—foggy woods, hidden mausoleums, cryptic carvings—it’s like a modern gothic tale with Gen Z humor and energy.
Grammar and prose are excellent throughout. No distracting errors, no awkward phrasings. It’s clear this author puts care into their craft.
While this might not be the story for someone looking for immediate action or explosive conflict, those who appreciate slow-building tension, strong character dynamics, and a creeping supernatural mystery will find something special here. It’s got Stranger Things vibes with a literary polish.
Highly recommended for fans of subtle, smart horror-mystery hybrids. Can’t wait to see where it goes next.
Cardguy5Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So walking into this story I expected it to be about a zombie apocalypse, it was not. Instead it is the story of a zombie outbreak. There IS a difference believe it or not.
this isn’t a perfect story but it consistently remained a good story throughout and thats all i can ask at the end of the day.
if i had one complaint it would be that we dont get any real zombie action until around chapter 30.
Chelsie :)Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is the best apocalypse novel I’ve read by far!!! The story follows Noah, a college student, and his friends after they discover an artifact that gives them a disease that makes them slowly turn into zombies.
This character-driven disaster is a horrifying page turner that shows both the frightening exterior threat created by the disease as well as the crumbling interior world of the characters. You’re able to connect with and care about all the main characters, which makes the stakes higher and the story more suspenseful.
The depiction of Noah’s slow and agonizing descent into madness as the disease takes hold is written incredibly well. The descriptions are also amazing, as I was able to clearly picture the events as they took place.
The science of the disease is extremely well thought out. This story is a completely unique and intriguing concept. The author leaves just enough questions to keep you unable to stop reading, and it leaves you with just enough curiosity to wish it hadn’t ended. Five star read for sure!!!
I highly recommend reading this masterpiece if you like fast paced, well written sci-fi or apocalypse style stories. This author did an amazing job. Be sure to check this book out!
CrisCarreraRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Hi, Im TheAwesomeBros from fa so you could say promoting the book in there actually worked hehe, and as someone who read the Goosebumps books when little, Im absolutely enjoying what i have read so far. I have not read anything at all since those goosebumps books I mentioned before so this might take me a week to finish, but Im excited to see how it ends, I love this kind of stories about creatures, like the beginning with the corpse raising reminded me to Baldurs Gate when you go to see Withers (a guy who helps you in the game) for the first time, and he also was inside a grave and then he raises from it and starts asking you questions jkasncsaj. But anyway, yeah Im liking it and Im also glad its "non readers friendly", I mean, because the chapters are short and there arent complex confusing words so its perfect for someone like me who doenst really read a lot hehe.
GrimjackalRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a fun story about college friends who are exposed to something that gives them zombie-like symptoms. As the story progresses you learn more about how it affects them both physically and mentally. The dialogue is fun to read. The decisions the students make and how they react to their situation is entertaining. The story so far is not like an over-the-top horror flick, but more of a "how/why did this happen to us, how do we fix it?" kind of a situation. The characters are likable and each has their own personality quirks.
Style - it is written in a clean, short chapter format. Each section is easily digestible, well-written, and tightly moves the story forward.
Story - within the premise of the main characters essentially becoming zombies, they remain intelligent and concerned about their well-being, and their friends. From their perspective, they take a methodical approach to figuring out their predicament and attempting to resolve it.
Grammar - the writing is well-written and easy to follow. I haven't detected any grammatical errors. It is well structured and pleasing to read.
Character - the main character is friendly and entertaining, with a good sense of humor. Each of his friends have personalities that make them easily relatable and identifiable. One thing that is interesting to me is that the characters are clearly not perfect, nor overly heroic, though they are trying to do the right thing while protecting themselves. During the story they occasionally end up doing the opposite of what are hoping to achieve. There is an interesting dynamic between what the group desires versus what a zombie-influenced character wants.
Overall I highly recommend the story as it is funny and entertaining. It is an interesting take on a zombie story.
AxeliosRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This was a great story! I read the whole thing in just a few days (and some long nights).
The writing is quite good, I was pleasantly surprised that there was almost no editor notes I could give to improve it. Good writing and excellent grammar.
The characters were interesting, and most of the behaviour was easily understood.
It takes a few chapters for things to get a bit “horror” themed, but it doesn’t go too hard in that direction. Fun read! Would read again!
OsmosisRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've enjoyed watching this story come along. As the author is my sibling, I can witness the planning process and I know how much work has gone into getting the story to this point.
STYLE This style and voice seemed a bit deadpan at first, yet it shines in the deeper chapters. The matter-of-fact delivery on the atrocious and downright moronic activities these zombified kids get into is hilarious. Sometimes, though, it can get a bit dull, with the single POV and no big setting switches (that I've noticed), so it could benefit from being broken up to help build up the suspense and keep readers engaged.
STORY The plot line is very smooth without and easy to follow. This is good for me as a reader, because the story even by itself is crazy!! Seriously, the cliffhangers are diabolical and leave enough to keep track of, so the smooth plot is appreciated. As the story unravels, each event makes sense given what's happened before, making it even easier to keep track of. There are some elements to the story that I feel haven't been fleshed out enough or properly explained that could contribute to the layering and immersion, especially as each character's personality.
GRAMMAR No complaints, the grammar is meticulous and precise.
CHARACTER This is really the only part keeping me from giving a fat 5 star sweep to the fiction. Some more pre-zombie character development instead of the 4 main characters getting shoved in your face at the beginning would improve character differentiation and immersion. We never really figure out what kind of values each character has before they get thrown into the craziness so their actions seem a bit random at times and it's hard to pin down their motivation. That's not to say there's no character development, though, and we can especially get inside the MC's head later on as he's grappling with his zombifically inclined thoughts.
P-FRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Just like TheAwesomeBros, I came from fa too. Honestly, I just happened to need something to read. so I really liked that Eyeshiner did the pluggin.
Overall, I really really liked the book.
The plot was easy to follow, and at the end it felt nice and wrapped up. The feelings of guilt or insatiable hunger was well written. Honestly my favorite bits were when Noah's friends would pick up when Noah's sane sentences were really because he wanted to eat someone. I really liked the world building and the reasoning behind the dust. It made it feel reasonable, especially in the modern world we lived in. I really liked how Insight felt, in terms of writing the building. It felt complicated enough, but not so much that I wasn't at all confused when reading it.
I liked the motives for the characters and ,even though there were a lot of important characters at the end, it wasn't hard to keep track of. I might have commented it before, but I love the way the characters would think. Although, towards the end it felt like they were intentionally not doing things for plot, but I didn't mind since it kinda serves as foreshadowing and it makes the plot easy to follow.
It was just a really fun read. I really liked the humour in it. It was hilarious in some bits. You're really good at writing in a way to get the reader to feel something. For example, with the part after Noah burnt his finger and was meditating, I really liked that bit. It made me want to root for Noah and I was really immersed in the story. It felt good to feel scared of what was going on in the story, so well done!
I'd say the simple ending of killing a singular villain felt a bit off, because it felt like you wrote a bigger world than for it to be simply to kill the villain to save the day. It felt a bit forced, like with the security guard suddenly turning on him. But overall I didn't really mind that bit.
Honestly, I've never read a zombie story before, but having the main character as the zombie who's feeling thes
HippyhappyhoppyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This author writes a damn interesting story. I believe this will be a novel to keep an eye out for. I will be tuning in to see how the mc will manage all their task without slowly slipping into madness.
Style Score: The story is pretty straightforward and stylistically very easy to follow. There are no crazy page-long stat pages, which I can appreciate. This is just plain good writing. The stats that are present are very easy to manage. The story feels like a cozy sweater knit by some eldritch horror
Story Score: I like that the story is a slow burn to help build up the suspense as well as not letting the mc to speed run through the plot. The story itself develops pretty naturally. The horror aspect does add to the layered feeling of the story.
Grammar Score: The grammar is on point, and this person edits. There are some very minor things. Honestly, as long as it's not like web novels, I'm okay with it.
Character Score: I like the main characters. Not too arrogant, but not a bumbling idiot. The progression from what I have seen in the chapters I have read also shows some character growth.