Part One: Infected Stairs
Marcus awoke to the rapid sound of gunshots and saw Dawn staring out the window with the binoculars trying to spot where the shots had came from. "Only took six days for this shit to show up in Oxford. It's just like all of the videos we've been seeing on the news too, people attacking other people. We can't..." Dawn began to whimper at the thought of being forced out of her home just to survive.
"Why are you crying like that? You knew damn well it was only a matter of time we would have to deal with this," remarked Marcus trying to grasp onto what he had woken up to.
"But why does this have to happen so soon? The refugee plane out of here is leaving tomorrow. Can't we just wait here until then?" As Dawn continues to sob, more shots can be heard. As the number of shots increased screams can be heard along with them.
"Dawn we can't stay here. Don't you hear that? It's getting closer and closer by the minute!" Silence struck through the room as Marcus raised his voice to express his true fear. The two said nothing else and turned to the window in the living room of their one-bedroom apartment where they have lived for over five years together. They have been married for only two years, two miserable years in Marcus' mind. Their troubles with their relationship have been cutting deep into Dawn's feelings. It's making her feel like a failure, a failure to her husband.
"Let me in! Let me in!" The scream of a woman can be heard from the front door along with deafening pounds on the door. "Please!" Marcus looks down to see who it was and finds that it is the young girl who moved into 3C just a week before the infection began. The girl kept screaming and looked up and the building to see if anyone was going to react when she spotted Marcus looking right at her. "Marcus! Marcus open the door I swear I'm not infected! Help me!" Marcus knew he would never open the door but he knew that Dawn would.
Dawn asked, "Marcus who is it?"
He just looked up at Dawn and said, "Some old, homeless hag. It doesn't mat..." as he was speaking the girl was pulled down by two of the infected. It was the first real look that he had gotten of the infected attacking someone. The infected's chin and chest were drenched in the fresh blood of all of their victims. They punched, kicked, and bit the woman as if they animals preying on a carcass. She screamed until they had finally gotten their fill of her and she stared silently at Marcus looking out the window.
"Marcus, what's going on out there?" Dawn ran up to the window right at the moment the girl showed her signs of being infected. The girl began to twitch and scream with anger. She continued to glare at Marcus and then glanced at Dawn but her attention could not fully leave Marcus' face. "You told me it was a homeless. You told me it was a homeless!" Dawn became enraged that he had lied to her and in turn left the girl for dead. The infected girl began pounding even harder than before on the front door of the apartment complex.
"It's a little tin piece of shit door. It's gonna break. We have to go now!" Marcus knew that if the two of them waited any longer the girl would be in their building infecting everyone they have lived around for so long. Both of them put some clothes on and Dawn grabbed the keys to their car. The pounding continued and the two of them bolted for the door. Marcus put his hand on the doorknob and told Dawn, "Whatever happens just keep running. Don't turn back for anything or anyone, just keep running."
He pushed to door open and looked left then right and stepped toward the door that leads to the right-sided stairwell. They opened the door to the stairs and began their run down the eight flights of stairs. Marcus was in front of Dawn as they ran with all of their strength down the stairs. They made it one flight then two, then three, but at the forth they stopped. "Marcus what are you doing?" He simply pointed down between the stairs at the infected girl staring right at Marcus with that same look on her face, she had made it in. The girl began to sprint wildley up the stairs toward them and Dawn started to run right back up the stairs. With a late response Marcus began running back up the stairs too. She was fast, for being injured so bad by her previous attackers, fast enough to where she was gaining on them Marcus kept looking back at the girl wondering if he will make it out. Dawn made it to the door only to hear Marcus let out a terrified yell from the stairs right below.
The girl had finally caught Marcus and began to tear into him with all of the rage she had within herself. At that time Marcus realized that if he would have helped her the first time he saw her, maybe he would ok. Regret was not a new idea to him, regret was what he felt every time he looked at Dawn's face. The girl did not stop biting him until he was completely dead. When she finished with Marcus she looked right up at Dawn at lunged up towards her. Still in shock, Dawn stood there until she remembered what Marcus told her before they left their apartment and ran towards the stairwell on the left side of their hallway. Quicker than before Dawn ran down the stairs trying to get away from her husband's killer. The girl knew she could not catch Dawn and in her last attempt began to vomit the virus-ridden blood down at Dawn. The blood splashed on the stairs behind her as she opened the door to the Oxford streets.
The city was in complete chaos. The infected were chasing and attacking other people leaving them to mutate into the same thing as their attackers. She ran towards her car trying to stay out of the view of any infected that might try to attack her. As she got in the car another infected man jumped on the back of her car and tried to break out the back window. Dawn started the car and floored it, she began to swerve the car back and fourth trying to shake him off. He began to crack the window right up until he was finally thrown off the car. She sped out of her neighborhood as fast as she could. She had no clue where to hide until she could board the plane that will take her out of Oxford tomorrow. Dawn asked herself, "Where do I go now?"