UNKNOWN

In Walla Walla, Washington, the annual Balloon Stampede is meant to be a weekend of celebration. Families gather for music, food, and to watch balloons rise against the twilight sky, until their world ends.

At the fairgrounds, something unseen sweeps the crowd. People collapse in waves, only to lurch back up seconds later, biting, clawing, tearing into those they once loved. Panic explodes through the festival and surges into the city. Within hours, hospitals, schools, and streets are drowning in violence that defies explanation.

Rumors spread as quickly as the outbreak, with whispers of a strange illness, a government cover-up, drug-tainted crowds, or sabotage buried in everyday life. While theories multiply, answers never come. Survival becomes the only law left in the small town.

From quiet neighborhoods to crowded streets, the infection rips through Walla Walla without pause, leaving survivors desperate, divided, and clinging to fragile barricades. The only voice offering clarity belongs to The Morgue Radio Show, where shock DJs spin speculation, rumors, and hope into the static of the night. Each broadcast, each survivor's story, repeats the same grim refrain, Walla Walla has fallen.

The dead aren't the only danger, though. Fear and betrayal stalk the living as surely as the horde outside. In the end, the greatest threat may not be what crashes against the barricades, but what desperation drives people to do behind them.

Contagion Protocol is a brutal, fast-paced survival horror that blends outbreak chaos, small-town terror, and conspiracy-laced paranoia. Perfect for fans of World War Z and The Walking Dead, it delivers blood-soaked momentum from the first page and doesn't let go.

Monsuta is a writer, worldbuilder, and publisher whose work blends emotional depth, raw authenticity, and speculative imagination. With a storied background forged in hardship and shaped by decades of restless exploration, he has fostered a lifelong love of storytelling, bringing both precision and passion to every page.His fiction, like his interests, crosses genres, from the philosophical AI sci-fi The Dreaming AI to the apocalyptic horror Contagion Protocol and the sin-soaked Saligia Chronicles. As founder of Ink Beyond, Monsuta is building a home for stories that cut to the bone, linger in the soul, and dare to ask the questions many fear to face.When he isn't writing, Monsuta is often exploring roadside oddities, riding his motorcycle, collecting statues and skulls, or rolling dice in tabletop RPGs. His work is fueled by curiosity, music, and a fascination with both human connection and the shadows we carry.