Chapter 7

The man

After the wreck, Tia called the police.

"All lines are full," an automated voice said. She hung up and called back multiple times getting the same automated voice saying the same thing.

Then, after about ten minutes she gave up.

"I just keep getting an automated message," she told the others. As she said this they saw a man about a half a mile down the road.

"Hey, over here!" Tia and the others yelled.

The man stopped for a second and looked like he was sniffing the air.

They all yelled louder this time screaming, "HELP!"

He started half sprinting half limping towards them.

"Are you hurt?" Faith asked. At the sound of her voice he moved a little faster.

As he got closer they noticed he looked like a walking corpse. His jaw was at a strange angle and it seemed he was missing an arm.

They all three realized something wasn't right.

Sam and Tia took off at a full run. Faith tried to hide behind her and Sam's overturned car.

The man reached the cars stopping to sniff the air again. Faith almost threw up from the stench of rotting flesh

Tia turned around to see Faith still by the wreck. Tia grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him the other way.

The man stopped smelling the air and walked toward Faith. Faith picked a piece of glass off the ground.

When the man got close enough to touch she lunged cutting him open from the chest down to his stomach. She got drenched in blood. The man was still standing even though his intestines were hanging out.

She reached into his chest and yanked his heart out. It was still beating in her hand. She dropped it screaming.

Then, she got up and ran faster than she ever had until one of her heels broke and she twisted her ankle.

Sam scooped her up in his arms right as the man caught up to them.

It tripped with a thud. It crawled toward Sam and bit his ankle.

Sam screamed in pain, but started running with Faith still in his arms and the man still latched on his ankle.

Faith pulled her other high heeled shoe off and shoved the heel into the man's eye. He stopped biting Sam's ankle and Sam ran faster despite the pain.

They caught up to Tia and stopped because the man was long gone by now.