Bloodlust. The one word that came into my mind when I finally stepped outside the suffocating room of Debbie and into the hallways and out into the prison yards. Men ran naked being chased by deranged cannibals, some with their mouths foaming. Two women were in the middle of a tug of war, trying to pull off another man's limbs, while a woman—the only woman I saw—cowered in the corner of the prison walls, she was hysterical, crying and sobbing but no one seemed to give a shit about her. A group near the wall where we had stepped out were filleting their recent catch, the guy was still screaming as one of the— Oh god, they were making the kids peel of his skin. My stomach did a hurl and I almost vomited there and then. A cacophony of screams—both of joy and terror—raised into the air. I hear Cal murmuring something under his breath but the echo of my heartbeat in my eardrums had drowned his words.

"Step back inside" I said. Something was rising from the back of my mind. I could feel it, something far worse than what I was seeing at the moment and I didn't want Cal to witness whatever horrendous thing I was about to do.

"You okay, Ann?"

"Stop calling me Ann, you know I hate that name" I turned to look at him. "Go back inside and hide inside Debbie's room. If someone comes knocking, just fake moaning sounds… just don't stay out here"

"And what are you going to do?" he raised an eyebrow at me.

"I'll scout and find an exit"

"I'm not leaving you alone—

"This isn't up for arguments, Calvin, just go back and I'll find us an exit and maybe find Nash, too"

He looked at me with scrutinizing eyes. He was judging the weights of leaving me or not. In the end, he took a deep breath and nodded. "If you're not back within an hour, I'm coming out"

An hour was as good as I was going to get with Cal. I nodded. "Fine"

With that, he turned around and closed the doors behind him. I look around again, it was a miracle that we were noticed at all. The group nearest to us were still bus skinning off their prize. They'll make easy targets, especially the childr— What? What the hell was I thinking? I was losing it, my mind seemed to warp around the thought of blood and gore. My hand moved in accordance to my subconscious, pulling out the sickles and then… darkness. Once again I found myself trying to fight off the darkness creeping in form the corner of my vision. My feet moved, my arms swung, blood painted the brownish-green grass. A blur of movement, knives and spears flashed in front of me, but my arms—my entire body was faster, cutting off limbs and heads before others could notice.

A flash of movements from my sides and my body immediately shifted, a swift and hard kick met the temple of a cannibal, he falls down on the ground. Knocked out cold. Another cannibal comes running from the other direction, my hand drops one of the sickles, it reaches for the knife on my belt and with one quick throw, the knife plunges deep into her left eye, she falls down. Dead. I was like watching someone else using my body, I had little to no control over my movements at all. It was like my entire body was on autopilot, a machine programmed for the very existence of killing. It made me sick.

Blood rained on the prison yard. Countless bodies lay in front of me, some were whimpering as they lost a part of their body; an arm, a hand, both legs. Other were just plain dead, blood running from their headless bodies, bisected abdomens. I was coated in a slick layer of cannibal blood. I didn't feel any guilt or nausea. No satisfaction either. It was only when Cal called my name did I regain control of my body, I turned to him, his face riddled with confusion and fear. He screamed my name again just as my body crumpled to the ground. This time darkness overtook me before I could do anything about it.

I woke up in a dream. It was a strange dream, at first I thought it was real, but the environment was different. It was too alive. It looked like I was in school. An actual school, students, kids the same age I was were around me, talking, running, telling jokes to one another. It was so surreal that for a moment the dream felt like a memory. Fearful of what this really was, I was afraid to take a step and explore. A voice called out from the distance. I turned to see a young girl. She had blonde hair, pale skin, and the most beautiful shades of blue in her eyes. She ran up to me. She said something, I couldn't understand. Everything sounded muffled, like my head was underwater. I was scared that she might think something was wrong, but my mouth moved on its own. Still, even the sound of my own voice was muffled.

Everything was… darkness covered me again. The school faded, the girl disappeared along with everybody else. The next set of images were of me, standing in front of a large mirror. A man who… resembled me, but wasn't dad, looked at me from behind. He placed a hand on my shoulder and said something. Muffled noise, again. I replied something as well. The door behind us opened and a woman—Mom?! She walked in, her hair tied in a ponytail, she sported square-rimmed glasses and a lab coat, her skin was as dark as mine. She was beautiful… she always will be. She spoke something, the man tapped my shoulder a few times before I turned from the mirror and walked towards her. My body stopped in front of her. She said something, this time I was able to pick up the words world and future. Those two words alone somehow sent a wave of fright and dread into me. This wasn't a weird dream. This was a memory.

But it couldn't be. This memory, if it really were a memory, wouldn't make sense. I was born a few years after the outbreak. In the memory, I was the same age as I was now, maybe a few years younger, but still. It wouldn't make sense. She walked me through the door and into darkness once more.

The next thing I knew, I was staring at Cal who had a worried face over me. His eyes widened in surprise when he noticed I was staring at me. He pulled back, letting the light hit my face. I was laying on a bed, whose bed, I didn't know. But I was certain that we were still in cannibal territory.

"Cal… something's wrong with me" were the first words I spoke.

He didn't respond. Even a nod or a shake of his head, nothing. He just stared. "I was so scared when you just dropped on the ground like that" he finally broke the silence after a few more seconds.

"I'm fine now" I said pushing myself into an upright position. I looked around the room—Debbie's room. I looked around Debbie's room and knew it was real. Debbie was still dead as fuck beside the bed, her blood had started to dry, leaving a large splotch of dark red on the floor. Somehow, the sight of her dead body carried a sense of calmness in me. I was definitely whacked now.

The night was quiet. Somehow, the bloodbath had spooked the cannibals into hiding deeper into the crevices of the prison. Only a few were walking around with flashlights and guns. They've brought out their last line of defense, long range weapons. They've must've grown desperate to kill me. I sat behind a large bush near the fence. Cal was to my back, we were improperly armed. If I had a gun and Cal had his sniper rifle, we'd make easy targets of the cannibals around the field. But we have to make due with a few knives, a hook, a lengthy piece of rope, and some improvised shiv's we found in Debbie's drawer. A lot of the things went to Cal while I just took the sickles I already had and a few knives.

Without any further talking, I sent Cal to one of the buildings were its path was obscured from the watchers by the tower's shadow. He moved swiftly and quietly. When he was inside, I made my move. I jumped over the bush and threw the knife at the nearest search patrol. He falls down and before his friend can react, I had crossed the few meters separating us, in one swift motion, I brought my hand downward, the sickle's blade cutting deep into his chest. He dropped almost instantaneously.

The first shot rang out and the bullet planted itself a few inches from where my foot was. I quickly grabbed the dead guys' guns just before the next bullet graze by me. I run towards the building Cal went and shoved open the door. The sight caught me to a halt. Cal was nowhere around, but guessing that the cannibals were still in the center of the room meant he was able to sneak away. They were all hunched, the sound of teeth gnashing and bone breaking told me they were eating… a dread loomed over me, what if it was Cal they were— no, I had to push the thought away. Something was ebbing its way into me once again. I looked away before I lost control again. I turned and saw a staircase going downward. I peered down and in the faint light I saw Cal at the bottom, he looked up and smiled when he saw me.

"It's crazy up there—

I cut him off with a tight hug. "I thought it was— I thought—

"Shh. It wasn't me" he said pulling me into his own hug and patting me on the back. "Let's get out of here"

"First we look for Nash"

He flinched at Nash's name. Immediately I knew something was wrong. My feet moved on their own, a few seconds and I was up on the base floor where the meal was taking place… there on the table from across the room was… Nash— or at least his head. I collapsed on the floor. Tears had started falling with my consent. The tears were momentary as anger coursed through my body.

Something had formed in my mind. A goal. A mission to kill every single fucking cannibal in this place. It was that or I die trying.