"Wake up, loser. We're gonna be late!" Ace called from the doorway at her friend, but got no reply. With a sigh, the brunette left a room and made her way to the kitchen. When she came back to the room she brought a cup of ice water, a devious plan in her mind. She poured the contents of the cup onto the sleeping girl's face, knowing it would wake her up.
The blonde jerked at the sudden cold feeling, rolling out of her bed and landing face first on the floor. Groaning, the blonde slowly rolled onto her back and glared at her roommate, who was trying not to laugh. "I hate you, sometimes." she sleepily mumbled, climbing to her feet.
"No you don't." she replied, walking back toward the door. "Get ready, we have work in fifteen." with that, she shut the door and left the blonde alone. Mumbling, Miranda stumbled over to her closet and searched for her uniform. She wanted to just sit home and paint all day, but she needed to go to work.
She came out about five minutes later wearing her uniform; A somewhat loose black t-shirt, denim straight-leg jeans, and a pair of black and white converse. She looked at Ace, who had her feet kicked up on the coffee table and was watching the news.
"Anything interesting?" the blonde asked her roommate. She didn't normally pay attention to the news, but she liked knowing what was going on from time to time.
"There's a really bad flu that's been going around, but there's not much information on it. Few people are in the hospital, though."
"Damn. Hope everyone at work isn't sick, 'cause I don't feel like doing everything around there again."
"I know Wyatt's there for sure. He texted and asked when we were gonna be in."
"Well, let's not keep him waiting. Let's go, Ace." Miranda was the first to walk to the door, holding it open for her friend to follow. They decided to walk to work instead of taking their car. The apartments they lived in were about a five minute walk from the music store they worked at, which definitely saved them gas money.
"Geez, it is dead out here." Miranda commented, looking around at the empty streets. It was weird not seeing a bunch of cars or people walking around, especially at noon. It made the town seem a lot like a ghost town with how empty it was.
~xxx~
"I was wondering when you guys were gonna show up." a tall, black haired employee greeted from behind the counter.
"Yeah, sorry about that Wyatt. Long night last night." the blonde scratched the back of her head awkwardly, before yawning for the third time.
"Netflix isn't a valid excuse, loser." Ace chimed in, changing the song she was listening to. Miranda stuck her tongue out childishly at her friend, who just shook her head. Wyatt chuckled, standing up from his stool and walking over to the two girls.
"Jack called in sick, and he was supposed to help me stock shelves." the black-haired boy said with a sigh, before looking to Ace. "Mind giving me a hand?" she just shrugged indifferently, following him into the back room.
"I'll watch the register." Miranda called to the manager, only getting a thumbs up as he disappeared behind the shelves with the younger employee in tow.
The store was a lot slower that day than it usually was, and Miranda was starting to wonder why she even bothered showing up in the first place. With the flu going around town she probably could have just gotten away with calling in sick, which would give her more time to work on her paintings. It was too late for that, though.
Instead of staring at the grey painted walls, she pulled out a sketch pad she'd left at work and a mechanical pencil. She had a few drawing that were finished, but she still went over and cleaned up the lines and shading.
The bell on the door chimed, but she was so busy concentrating on her drawing that she didn't bother to look up. As she was sketching, she couldn't help but feel like she was being watched.
Looking up from her sketch, she saw a tall guy wandering around the store. He skimmed through the shelves of CDs, but she couldn't help but notice that he looked a little lost. "Hey, is there something I can help you with? You look a little lost." she called, smiling from her seat at the register.
"Oh, is it that obvious?" the boy asked with a small smile, putting down the CD he was holding.
"Yeah, it kind of is." she replied, standing up and walking over to him.
"Sorry, I just got into town."
"Oh really? Well, what brings you to Savannah?" Miranda asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she talked.
"I'm on my way to Atlanta, looking at a college."
"Let me guess, Georgia Tech?"
"How'd you know?" he asked, the surprised look on the man's face causing her to laugh a little.
"Your shirt." he looked down and his cheeks turned red when he realized that he was wearing his dad's old Georgia Tech t-shirt.
"So, i'm Jayson." he introducted himself, smiling crookedly.
"Nice to meet you, Jayson. I'm Miranda." she replied. The two continued to talk for a few minutes, but were interrupted when they heard someone come in. A woman in her mid-fourties came stumbling in, walking past and straight to the country music section of the store.
They went back to talking, but stopped when they heard a loud 'thud'. Looking over, Miranda saw the woman from before laying on the ground, no sign of movement. "Ma'am, are you alright?" she called to the unresponsive woman, quickly walking over. She knelt down and started shaking her shoulder, gently at first, but still got no response.
"Jayson, call 911. Quick!" the dirty blonde-haired boy quickly pulled out his cell phone and started dialing the number.
"What's going on?" Wyatt asked, walking over with Ace close behind.
"I don't know." she told him honestly, standing up and backing away a bit.
"Damn, that is one nasty bite." Ace pointed out the bite mark on the woman's arm. Wyatt knelt down and grabbed the arm, cringing a bit as he observed the bite for himself.
"That is definitely infected." he commented, inspecting it a bit closer.
"Did you get a hold of the cops?"
"No, the line's busy."
"Damn." the blonde cursed, looking back at the unconcious woman. "Is she even breathing?" she asked, not seeing the rise and fall of her chest. The black haired man checked her pulse, waiting about a minute before taking his hand away.
"Well?" Ace asked.
"No. She's..." he trailed off, his eyes wide with shock.
"Oh my god..." Miranda whispered, no idea how to react.
"Well, now we just have to-" before Wyatt could finish his sentence, the woman sprang up and knocked him over.
"What the hell?!" Ace backed away a few feet, staring in disbelief at the scene unfolding before her.
"Help!" he called, trying to push the "dead" woman off of him. She sunk her teeth into the man's neck, his agonizing screams echoing through the empty store. Blood sprayed from his neck, splattering onto the two girls.
Miranda let out a terrified shriek, trying to wipe the crimson liquid off of her face. A wave of nausea washed over her, and she could feel the bile rising in her throat. Walking backwards, she managaed to trip over the carpeting, landing hard on her back. "Are you okay?!" Jayson, who had been standing a safe distance away from the action, asked her. She didn't reply, however, because she was trying not to throw up.
Ace, who was definitely more calm about the situation, went and brought back the baseball bat that was kept behind the counter. Wyatt had always kept it behind the counter, and she didn't see why. He's had to threaten a few theives with it on occasion, but they'd never been forced to actually use it on someone before.
The "dead" woman stopped eating the dead store manager and turned to look at the brunette. She noticed that the woman's eyes had become a milky white color, which was strange.
Before she had the opportunity to attack, the bat collided with the side of the woman's head, causing her to fall down. She groaned, trying to pick herself up again. Before he could, she hit her in the head repeatedly. More blood seeped from her head and soaked into the carpet each time the bat made contact, until the woman finally stopped moving.
"Miranda, get up!" Ace called, not taking her eyes off of the woman. She poked its chest with the bloody baseball bat, making sure he was really dead. The blonde stood up, not daring to look at either of the bodies on the ground.
"What the hell is going on!?" Jayson asked, getting closer to the two girls. He had no idea how to react during the whole thing, and he couldn't help but feeling a bit bad about doing something to help.
"I think I know, but it's gonna sound really fucked up." the brunette said, still holding the bat in her hand. "I think we just got attacked by a zombie" she finished, looking back at the body.
"You're right, that does sound fucked up." Miranda commented, crossing her arms.
"Come on, you guys saw it happen! That lady was dead, then she got up and started eating Wyatt! If that's not a zombie, I don't know what is!" Ace argued, and Miranda stayed silent. Neither her or Jayson wanted to believe it, but the evidence was right in front of them.
Out of nowhere, a hand reached out a grasped the blonde girl's ankle. She yelled in surprise, turning her head to see Will staring at her with pure white eyes. Blood and other fluids flowed from his mouth as he snarled, leaning in and trying to take a bite out of her.
"Get off!" she yelled, kicking him in the face with her other foot. However, it didn't do much good because he was still trying. Ace raised the baseball bat in her hand and brought it down hard on his head. Ace beat her dead manager with the bloodied baseball bat, not stopping until he stopped moving completely.
"We need to get out of here!" Jayson insisted, and the girls both nodded in agreement. The two girls followed him outside, but immediately froze in place. Large crowds of people were wandering the streets, stumbling and crawling around.
"Oh shit, they're all over the place!" Miranda whispered, giving Ace a panicked look. The black-haired girl looked around for any way out, and then spotted a small back alley to their right.
"We'll just have to go around them. C'mon!" she grabbed the blonde's arm, pulling her into the alley. Jayson, not wanting to be left behind, ran through the alley to catch up with the two girls.