The gun in my hand felt heavy as I dropped it on the floor, suddenly I felt dizzy as I tried processing what just happened. Everything was happening so fast reality had finally caught up with me. I just shot my father… But why was I able to do it so easily? I was able to shoot the man who raised me, who had been there for me my whole life… Without even hesitating. I stepped back in shock as I covered my mouth, I felt like I was going to pass out. I needed time to adjust, time to grieve.

Before I was composed enough to even form another thought an ear piercing shriek rang out, this one was almost as loud as the one from the huge horde earlier. The biggest difference this time was that it sounded frighteningly close to the hospital. Actually it sounded like it was coming from the inside of the hospital, but that couldn't be right, if any of those things had gotten inside surely we would have heard the sounds of panic from the people who had been hiding here moments ago. Either way the last time I heard that sound it was followed by a mob of thousands, so sticking around was less than ideal.

I didn't like the idea of leaving my dad's body here, but I wouldn't get far carrying him on my own. Suddenly I remembered something, or more like someone.

"Bill? Hey I need your help!" He wasn't in the room anymore, he must have left as soon as he heard the call of the horde. I cursed silently as I stepped out of the room, obviously anyone would be freaked out by something like that and be too smart to stick around.

As I walked out though I noticed that he was out in the hallway. I quickly realized that something was wrong with him, he wasn't speaking and was staring out into the hallway which led deeper into the main part of the hospital. He looked like he'd seen a ghost, maybe the situation we were in had finally set in with him, either way we didn't have time to admire the scenery.

"Old man!" I yelled at him while shaking his shoulder, I was able to get his attention as he blinked several times while looking around.

"Wha- What?" He seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in, because his blank expression quickly changed into a scowl. "God Dammit what do you want kid?" Bill growled.

Suddenly we could hear a loud crash coming from somewhere in the hospital, it was close enough that it seemed to be coming from the floor just above us. Without any time to think we could hear dozens of footsteps barreling down the steps towards the source of the sound. Whatever was coming definitely wasn't human, the growls and screeches were enough of an indication of that.

"Bill help me carry him out of here!" I started to lift my father's body before Bill grabbed me by the arm and started to pull me towards the lobby of the emergency room.

"What the hell is wrong with you? We don't have time for this horseshit we have got to move now!"

I knew he was right, I suppose it was just too soon for me to be letting my father go. But what was I going to do, bury him? There was hardly enough time to form a thought in this situation, let alone plan a burial. I looked to my father one more time, and as I finished saying my final goodbyes to him I picked up his gun, then I turned towards Bill and nodded as we both headed to the lobby.

Bill and I took positions behind an upturned couch as we scanned the outside of the hospital, now that I had a clearer view of the destruction the horde caused I was able to assess the situation a little better. There was trash all over the place from upturned dumpsters and trash cans, and most of the cars had been pushed toward the sidewalk, I even noticed one that had been flipped upside down. Thankfully amidst all this I was able to spot my own car nearby, it didn't look to be in bad shape, at least it looked like I could still drive it.

I turned to Bill and told him in a hushed voice, "I think we can make it out of the city in my car before they come back."

Bill looked uncertain, he cocked his head to the side and was silent for a brief moment, "You hear that kid?" We both paused for a second as we listened... Silence

"Umm I can't hear anything, but what does that have to do with us?"

"Exactly, we can't hear a thing." He said that as though it meant something, he looked at me as if I missed something obvious. I just raised an eyebrow at him and looked at him like he'd gone senile. Bill groaned and put his hand on his forehead, "That gunfire from earlier stopped, that means if we start creating a racket those things will be headed in our direction!"

"Then we'll be careful! No need to be such a dick about it you geezer." I scanned the area and decided that now was as good a time as any, I motioned for Bill to follow as I headed outside watching for movement. There were a lot of bodies left over from the horde, it was insane to me that they could run in a group like that while simultaneously fighting each other. If they were that ravenous to each other I didn't want to imagine what they would do to a living person.

I unlocked the car doors and quickly slid into the driver's seat, as Bill got into the shotgun seat I started turning the ignition. The car sputtered a couple times but the engine didn't start, I tried again but something must have been damaged by the horde passing through.

"Hey kid… I think now would be a good time to leave."

"Don't you think I've been trying?!"

"No… I mean we should go… NOW!"

I followed Bill's gaze and looked in horror at the windows of the emergency room, I could see around a hundred of the monsters occupying the second floor, the floor above the one we had just been hiding in. But that wasn't the worst of it, the most terrifying part of what I was looking at was that almost every single one of them was looking at us. They were pressed against the glass and seemed to be waiting for us to make a move.

I slowly moved my hand back to the ignition, I turned it one more time without looking away from the windows. Thank God it started this time, but they seemed to take note of this as well, I could see their glowing eyes collectively widen at the same time as they pressed their faces against the glass some more. I shakily removed the e-brake and set the car to drive, all I could hear was the blood rushing to my head and the low hum of the engine. Bill seemed to be frozen, he watched the hospital but made a clear motion with his hand. Drive!

I stepped on the gas as hard as I could, and almost as though they could sense my movement the glass shattered and piles of bodies started falling from the second floor of the emergency room. The only thing I took note of was how there were way more than a hundred zombies coming from the building. I couldn't believe there had been that many in the building with us and we never noticed! I didn't even want to imagine what had happened to the people who had gone up there to hide earlier.

As I was making a sharp left turn down the street that led us farthest from Mercy Hospital and away from town I grazed a car which had been left relatively intact. Unfortunately it happened to have an alarm as well, it didn't take long for the echo of the alarm to be followed by the familiar sounding shriek of the horde. Now it wouldn't be long before we would be met with more company, I needed to get as far away from the source of the sound as I could. Most of all I needed to stay calm, there was no way the mob would be able to catch up to a car going this fast, as long as I could focus on driving we should be able make it out of the city in relatively one piece.

Soon enough the horde was far enough away for me to feel less anxious, I couldn't tell what Bill was thinking but I was tempted to ask him about what happened to him back at the hospital. Clearly he had lost his cool back there, it almost looked like he was remembering something before I shook him back to reality. Either way it was obvious to me that I wouldn't get any answers from him even if we weren't being hunted down by a pack of ravenous zombies. It didn't matter anyway, I needed to get my priorities straight, and my number one priority right now was finding a way out of this city.

Suddenly a figure ran out in front of the car, I was considering whether I should run it over it before I heard the figure speak.

"Wait! Stop please!" The shadowy figure was waving his arms desperately in the middle of the street.

"Keep driving." Bill said in a cold tone as we approached the figure, who was soon revealed to be a young black man in a white shirt and red tie. His shirt was stained with splotches of blood and he looked like he was out of breath.

I ignored Bill and quickly pulled up next to the man, he slid into the backseat and I stepped on the gas. I barely met Bill about an hour ago, and if he thinks he can tell me what I can and can't do he'll quickly learn how much I love doing the opposite of what I'm told.

"Thank you so much, if it weren't for you two I'd be a goner for sure!" Bill sat back in his seat crossing his arms as he grumbled something unintelligible, I ignored him while looking into the rearview mirror at the new face.

"No problem dude, we couldn't just leave a poor innocent soul to die like that." I nudged Bill with my elbow a couple times, "Right Bill?"

Both me and the stranger looked at Bill but he just kept looking straight ahead, clearly he had some kind of issue trusting strangers, but right now I was more concerned with the fact that we were clearly outnumbered by the zombies. It wouldn't hurt to add more people to our little group if it meant we'd have a better chance against our inevitable encounter with the coming threat. It also didn't help that pissing Bill off was becoming my new favorite hobby. For now though I figured I'd spare Bill my wrath, instead I decided to focus on our new companion who seemed to be feeling uncomfortable with the silence.

"Umm, either way I really appreciate you for saving me, the name is Louis." Louis anxiously scratched the back of his head. "I was beginning to think there weren't any people in this city who weren't infected!"

"Yeah, my name's Zoey, and about that." I glanced at Louis from the mirror, "Do you have any idea how this whole thing started? Zombies don't just appear out of thin air, at least not this many!"

Louis looked like he was about to say something, but was interrupted by Bill suddenly shouting, "WATCH THE GODDAMN ROAD!"

I had just made a left turn and hadn't noticed the huge wave of zombies barreling towards us from a ways down the road. This was not good, the mob must have cut us off from the other side of the street, my only option was to go back the way I came. As I was thinking this Louis was looking behind us. "Oh god, they're coming!" He pointed behind us as many dark figures started closing in from the street behind us, followed by more coming down from the rooftops to our right.

I cursed under my breath as I spotted an alley to our left, it seemed to be the only place that was zombie-free so I made a sharp turn into it. I was barely able to swerve into the alley, unfortunately we couldn't go any farther as the car slammed hard into the wall and the engine shut off.

"Shit… no this CAN'T be happening right now!" I tried turning the ignition but it was no use, the car had barely started before. I was going to try turning the key a second time before Bill started shoving me out of the car door, since his door had been blocked by the wall he had no choice but to exit from my side. Louis wasted no time getting out and helped pull me and Bill out of the car.

"This is bad, we're going to have to try losing them on foot!" Bill ran pretty fast for an old man, it probably helps when you're being chased by a ravenous group of zombies. As we were turning the corner I caught a glimpse of the zombies entering the alley at mach 5. Bill and Louis were checking doors to see if any would open, thankfully it didn't take long for them to find one that did. Louis held the door open and waved for me and Bill to get in, once we'd made it inside Louis slammed the door shut and we worked together to push a metal shelf in front to barricade the entrance.

Finally we were able to catch our breath, we heard the horde pass by the door, thankfully they were mostly attracted to sound and couldn't seem to track us any better than an average human could. It still took a couple of minutes before it seemed like the entire mob had passed us, I was still amazed by how many of them there were, if we had been too slow we would surely be a puddle of mulch right now. We had somehow managed to do the impossible and escaped the clutches of death, but I still had a feeling that without transportation we were absolutely fucked regardless.

I sat on the floor and paused, then I started giggling, Bill gave me a sideways glance while Louis looked at me with caution and concern. I didn't care, I must have been high on adrenaline up to this point, but now every horrible thought hit me right as my energy faded away. My mother had turned into a raging monster, I don't know how much she had suffered… or is suffering, either way there's no hope of finding her now. I also had to shoot my father less than thirty minutes ago, and I don't even know why it had to happen… or why I'm one of the only ones who was able to make it out alive. I suppose it's just that the universe has a pretty disgusting sense of humor, the college girl who loved zombie movies having basically everything she's ever loved taken from her by a real zombie apocalypse? It was just a testament to how cruel this world was, you could lose everything you love in one day and the planet would just laugh at your pain as it keeps spinning in an empty universe. Slowly my giggling was shared by my tears, then I just let everything out. I've never cried in front of anyone outside my family, but I didn't care right now, because never in my life had I been overcome by so much sadness, and so much rage.