They're Too Late
She took one, horrible intake of breath. It felt like her lungs were shriveling up inside of her and crumbling to dust. Her lungs, along with her heart. The heart strings and ventricles slowly loosing their strength and somehow, she could still hear her horribly loud heart beat in her ears as if her heart wasn't breaking inside of her.
Tatiana dropped the cold channel changer she had in her shaking hand and uttered out the most feeble whimper. Blood splattered at her feet as her father fell to the ground at her feet, specks of blood flying at her socked feet. The creature that had ripped her father's throat out slowly brought its white, dead gaze from her father's now motionless body to her. Whatever was left of his face resembled a look of hunger. Tatiana shrieked as the monster lunged at her and she jumped back. Blood smeared over the wood flooring, Tati noticed. She screamed again and turned around and sprinted into the kitchen. She could hear the frustrated moans of the zombie from the den as she ran into the hallway and into her bedroom. It was the safest place she could think of.
She locked the door in a rush, and grabbed the wood chair at her desk and shoved it under the doorknob to secure it. She let herself fall to the ground in a heap of convulsing sobs and whimpers. The creature...its face was caked with dry blood and its teeth black. It had worn a worn looking, ripped black suit, blood stained. His hand was not a hand, but a bloody, boney, dry stump. The creature's face was decayed and she could have sworn she had spotted bits of pink muscle on its face-obviously something had ripped the skin from his face.
Tatiana crawled towards the wall and burst into another rack of dry sobs as she heard something pound against the door. She could hear the monster moaning his frustration and hunger from outside the door. It seemed as if the pounds of the creature shook the entire house.
"What...," Tatiana said to herself, "What...will I do?"
Her father was dead. He was partially eaten by some freak thing that had broken into her house. And now she was alone and that thing would do the exact god damn thing to her if she just sat her. Wiping her face with the back of her hand, she rushed to her closet to put on a pair of jeans and grab a sweatshirt. The moans were getting more desperate outside her bedroom door as she hurriedly put on her shoes and grabbed her car keys from her bedside table. Also on her bedside table was a picture of her and her Dad at a local fair.
"You'll always be my little girl" He had constantly told her.
She nodded to this thought as a stronger pound at the door joined in with the frustrated pounds. She opened up her window just as she heard the thick wood of the door splintering, despite the block at the door. Tatiana looked in horror at the door before lifting a leg up over the window sil and placed a foot into the soft grass before lifting the other to the ground. She closed the window and ran around the side of the house before almost slipping on the dewed grass.
Chaos.
The pool of their neighbor's was once a beautiful, crystal blue. It was now crimson with blood and there was a convulsing body inside the pool. She could hear so many screams around her, she spun around in circles just as her head did. People were running out of their houses, only to be attacked by people- but Tatiana guessed that they didn't seem so person like anymore. Just as a woman was heading towards her mini-van with her car keys jangling in her hand, one of the creatures slammed her against the car door and started nibbling into her neck, her shrieks were dreadful. Blood slowly splashed onto the sparkling green paint and trickled down onto the driveway.
Tatiana screamed and ran towards her little red car sitting in the black drive-way and shakily slid the key into the lock just as she heard a moan behind her. She shrieked and dared to look behind her and she saw some woman that she didn't know, blood dripping from her nose(the bone was visible) and many teeth missing from her mouth. She quickly opened the car door and slammed it shut just as the bloody woman lunged at her, her bloody fists pounding against the glass of the window weakly at first, blood splattering on the glass. As Tatiana rushed to shove the key into the ignition, the woman pounded against the window again and this time Tati could hear the sound of glass cracking.
As the tiny car roared to life, Tatiana looked to the woman scratching at the window and then put the car in reverse and backed out of the drive way. The woman tripped over her bare, bloody feet and stumbled to the black pavement of the driveway. She collected herself and lunged at the hood of the car, but Tatiana sped down the street and tried not to look into the mirror to see if the woman was chasing after her.
She was mentally in pieces, but she couldn't think of what to do. Where was she going to go? The police station? That was the best idea-her father had been the D.A.
Tatiana glanced at the houses she sped past. Some lawns and houses seemed like the chaos had not touched them, but some seemed as if hell had graced them. People even laid on the lawn, the creatures on top of their helpless bodies. ...Eating them. Tatiana took her glassy eyes from the sights and tried to concentrate on the road. Dark cement and deep, golden lines. There seemed to be even no cars on the roads, as if the city was deserted and she was the only one driving.
She was amazed with herself. She had went from being paniced, scared, and horrified at her house to being brave enough to get to her car and start driving away. The change was amazing, in her mind. She had always thought that she could never make it without her father, but all she could feel was her heart gently pounding in her chest...it ached.
The sun was just rising as she drove onto a main road and she saw a stationary car in the middle of the road. She slowed down and stopped next to the car and stared on in horror as a young man was fighting against one of those creatures, this creature looking like a young girl. The man was screaming and holding back the girl, looking as thou he was using all of his strength. The girl had the most evil look on her face and other than looking so hellish, she seemed normal. She hissed and lunged at him and almost got him, but he somehow lifted up his leg and pinned her by the neck to the passenger window.
Tatiana looked on as blood started spurting from the girl's neck, spraying the man and the interior of the car. The man didn't seem like one of them, or else he wouldn't have been struggling to get the girl away from him, but to get out of the car. She knew she was stupid, but she got of her car and the fresh air that hit her filled her with vigor and strength. She ran to the driver's side of the car and opened it, the man looked up at her and stared at her as if she was a saint.
Grabbing onto the man's hands which were placed on the dashboard and the shoulder of the seat, she pulled him with new found strength from the car and rather harshly onto the pavement. The girl slumped against the passenger window and her bloody looking eyes lolled in her head for a moment before they re-focused on her. The girl hissed, blood lightly spraying from her mouth and lunged at her. Tatiana quickly slammed the door in her face before the little girl had the chance to take a bite out of her arm or hand. The girl slapped her head against the glass and started smashing her tiny fists against the window.
The man picked himself up from the wet pavement and looked at the little girl and then to Tati before motioning towards the two creatures coming towards them on the street. Tatiana gasped and cried, "Get in!"
The man got into the passenger seat as Tatiana ran along the side of the car to get into the driver's seat. Once she was in position, she slammed her foot against the gas pedal and sped forward onto the highway. The sound of the motor and the wind hitting the car was the only sound she could focus on as she concentrated on the road. She glanced at the man in the passenger seat. He seemed slightly rattled by the attack, blood was slowing drying on his face. He had dark, slightly curly hair and matching dark eyes. He was fairly tall and wore a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and tennis shoes.
She looked back at the road and spotted a car on the side of the road. As they came to pass it, she noticed the smoke coming from under the hood of the car...and the red stained windows. Tatiana shook her head and looked back to the road, not slowing down. She knew if she even got out of the car to see if there was anyone in the car, it would just be wasting time.
"Are...," She began, "Okay? Did that little girl hurt you?"
"No. I'm fine. You're brave for just rushing out and saving me like that," The man replied to her.
"I thought I could save you...and I did didn't I?" Tatiana said, smiling slightly. As long as she could save someone, even if she didn't know what the hell was going on, made her feel good.
"Yes. Thank you," The man told her, his voice sincere. She could feel her dark gaze upon her.
"It's alright. But you owe me. If I get in a jam, make sure you're there to get me out," She said, smiling just a bit. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was amazed that she could even think of smiling at a time like this.
"Its a deal," He said.
"I'm Tatiana, Tatiana St. Clair," She said, as they turned a corner on the highway. She was happy that there hadn't been anymore of those creatures roaming about on the road and that there weren't many houses nor people around these country-ish areas.
"I'm Alex Korolev," He replied quietly. Tati could tell he had a quiet demeanor about him and she could admire that.
"Its a pleasure to meet you, under these...circumstances," Tatiana replied. She glanced at him again and he seemed...so sad.
It was the little girl...
"If you don't mind me asking...who was the little girl with you?"
"That was my little sister," Alex replied.
"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked," Tatiana asked, roughly sighing to herself.
"No. It's okay. Things happen," He replied to her apologies.
"My father...I watched him being attacked by one of those things. But, I don't think that was much of a consolation," She told him.
The highway led off into the inner-city, once a place which Tati loved to be. The inner-city seemed...deserted. Tatiana slowed down to barely a crawl as they passed by deserted cars, some with the doors wide open, and buses. The sidewalks were empty and even some street lights were still on even thou it was 8 in the morning and sun above them was shining as thou this was the most grand day on Earth. Shaking herself from her thoughts, she quickly turned on the radio. Were there people alive still able to report news to them?
When she clicked on the radio, they heard a loud chorus of beeping noises, followed by a most robotic voice reporting a civil defense warning. The warning told them to stay in their homes, lock their doors, and to not let anyone in their homes. Help would be on its way soon. "Not very likely?" Tatiana guessed out loud. She clicked the scan button on the radio and was only met by the same robotic-even scary- warning. She decided to turn off the radio after discovering that every station had this same warning.
"Look!" Alex cried, pointing towards the road.
Tatiana looked up and spotted a flock of birds circling in the air above something in the road. Tatiana drove up to the spot and looked down as she spotted a person lying in the road. The person was so decayed, it looked as if it had melted and was now stuck onto the pavement. She screamed as she saw the two, glazed over eyes move in the skull. The jaw moved in a motion of talking and she saw the hand reach up towards the window, towards her.
"Where...where are we going to go?" Tatiana gasped to Alex as she drove down the road, doing anything to get away from the horrid image.
"I heard on the radio a while ago that civilians could meet at the police station," He replied.
"Okay. The police station it is," She mumbled, almost emotionlessly.