Beth's hand slowly reached up and covered her mouth, stifling a scream. Tears flowed freely through her ducts, streaming down her cheeks almost like a waterfall. Her friend, her best friend, Anne and…. what, what had Roger just done? He just straight up MURDERED a man in cold blood. Granted the guy had just tore out the throat of her best friend, but oh god. Her mind was jumbled; she had no idea what the hell to think. Everything just clashed together into random streams of fear and agony. 'Oh god what the fuck just happened? Oh holy shit, Roger was a creep. He just killed a guy. Oh, Oh my god, what the hell is going on?'
Roger threw his backpack to the side, his chest heaving rapidly like a frightened rabbit. His blue t-shirt was splattered with bright red blood, as were his hands. Beth watched as he absentmindedly rubbed his blond hair out of his face, streaking it with the blood shit. It made him look very ghoulish. "So…. uh, " He gasped, looking at her from beneath his stained glasses adjusting them slightly before bending over and placing his hands on his knees. "A frog telephones a psychic hotline…." He stammered, looking at the two bodies before him, Beth wondered what the fuck could possibly be going through his head if he thought this was the appropriate time to joke.
"His personal psychic adviser tells him, "You are going to meet a beautiful young girl who will want to know everything about you."" She heard him swallow; Beth stifled her cries once more, "Oh Roger, Now is not the fucking time." But he continued as if nothing had happened, ignoring her pleas to knock the shit. "The frog is thrilled, "This is great! Will I meet her at a party?" Beth looked away, god she didn't want to look at Roger. This was wrong. Just incredibly fucking wrong. She retreated into her thoughts; the only words in her mind were 'This was no laughing matter Roger, Why couldn't you just have waited?' There was a time and a place for it, now was neither the time nor the place.
The people that she had noticed on the campus all seemed to be looking at them now, something seemed off, but the trauma just wouldn't allow her to really notice that. There were more of them then had been there before, but the current circumstances seemed more important. There was going to be a punch line on the horizon.
Roger finished his joke. ""No," says his adviser, "in her biology class.""
That was so stupid. Like really, really fucking dumb.
Beth let out a strained high-pitched laugh, and Roger joined her with his own exasperated giggle over his dumb joke that seemed to get a little too loud. The noise seemed to attract the attention of the people that had collected toward the front of the building, some even climbing the gates to get a look at what was happening. There was a growing collected growl that turned into an aggressive cacophony of shrieks and snarls and the crowds that had gathered surged forth. Without even thinking, she grabbed Roger, placed her hands on his back, ripped open the door, and threw him into the school.
It took him a bit to get the gist of what she had done, but as soon as he realized it he took off like a bat out of hell and she quickly followed suit. The screaming writhing mass of people went after them, pounding down the door as it shut on them. It didn't take them long to tear it off its hinges and moving in fast pursuit once they got past the minor obstacle, surging into the interior like water through a floodgate. Beth didn't want to consider the implications of this. Everyone seemed to have just decided to go completely bonkers in one go. The screaming got louder.
All that was important was the movement of her feet. There was no time to think. It became clear they both had to get out of here somehow, and to safety or at least to a place where they could gather their wits. She hadn't noticed that she had lost sight of Roger until she hit the end of the hallway and found herself cornered. She turned just in time to see animalistic eyes turned toward her, filled with vile rage. The persons, or rather creatures there was no way she could call them human anymore had their faces smeared with black shit, sweat, and blood, their uncoordinated fingers reaching and grabbing for her. Beth shivered and covered her eyes. She knew this was the end. They were going to get her.
Suddenly she felt someone yank the hood of her jacket causing her to scream and she was inevitably pulled into a classroom by none other then Roger. He smiled awkwardly and then turned his attention to the door. He motioned to the wood teacher's desk, and Beth immediately got the gist of what he was hinting at. They had barely anytime to move it when the human creature things began trying to breakdown and tear through the door. She wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline, or something else, but her and Roger managed to pick that desk up right quick and shove it front of the door. That seemed to buy them some time.
Roger braced himself against the door as if that would help. Beth decided to join him mostly because she had no idea what else to do and frankly they seemed quite fucked anyway. The creatures snarled and slammed. Their fingers trying to grasp them through the holes they had smashed through the door.
"So." Gasped Beth, "What do we do now?"
Roger's frown indicated he had no idea. He fixed his glasses before turning his attention to the windows. "Out." Was all he managed to gasp. "Out?!" replied Beth in exasperation. "Yes, out." Reiterated Roger, "That's the only way, please trust me on this." She had no choice but too.
"We are on the first floor, it'll be cake ok?" He said trying to keep her calm. Whatever he was doing was helping; she figured it was just how calmly he said shit that helped settle her nerves. Roger slowly moved away from the door. Beth whimpered and followed suit. The desk thankfully was staying put. "Oh good, it just has a simple little screen." He mused cheerfully, unlatching the window and sliding it up. "I can just kick that out no problem." Beth looked to the door, and tried not to scream as she saw the desk budge. "Can't you look for a latch or something instead?' she squeaked, keeping one eye on the door. The desk scraped loudly followed by a sharp bang. They were getting in. She let out a quick scream.
"There is clearly no time for that Beth." He responded giving the screen a few quick kicks before it gave out. It landed softly on the grass below. He stuck his head out first. She was sure he was checking to see if it was clear. He poked his head back in and nodded motioning for her to come forward. Once she had, He took her hand and helped her get out first. Her feet hit the grass first and she took a quick look around. There wasn't much of anything. That was good.
She heard Roger land beside her just as the door they had slightly barricaded finally gave way. The creatures inside shrieked in frustration unsure of where their quarry had gone and she heard them scrambling around as if searching for them.
They were lucky, immensely lucky. Knowing they couldn't stay considering one of the monsters had noticed the open window and was now trying to flail its way out of it, she raced off ahead with Roger very close behind her. They ran off straight across the campus and toward the gate that lead out to the rest of the city.
She wasn't sure how long they would last, but she knew they had to keep running.
Everything was quiet.
The streets were surprisingly empty considering the bullshit that just occurred back at the school. He and Beth had run as far as they could before eventually tiring out. They weren't sure how many of these things were out there, he wasn't sure of a great many things. Trying to at least calm himself down he attempted to speak to Beth. There was nothing like a conversation to reestablish normality after a life-changing event such as this.
"Well…" said Roger trying his best to break the tension, "That was exciting huh?" Beth didn't respond. She merely walked ahead, her head hung low. Roger felt guilty. "I'm sorry about your friend." He said sympathetically, "I wish I had done something sooner." She made no verbal response instead just waving her hand to dismiss him. He understood that it was probably best to leave her alone for now.
His thoughts returned to the incident at school. What did just happen? There was nothing he could rationalize at the moment other then it had been viral, and acted very much like rabies with a few notable differences. Rabies? That took days, weeks, to get to that particular stage and was always extremely fatal. These people didn't seem disorientated, or really moved like a rabies infectee would. Though at first the dude Roger had encountered seemed disoriented, he remembered he lacked the muscle spasms and partial paralysis typical of rabies. The black vomit also indicated it was something else too. Something also to note, Roger considered, was the fact that something seemed to go off inside them like a bomb that made them make an aggressive beeline straight for you. That didn't normally occur with rabies in humans. Oh dear, everything was jumbled.
They passed an abandoned Shop-mart. Everything was eery without people and he found himself shuddering.
Rabies in humans didn't exactly work like people thought it did. People always confused the actions of a rabid dog with a rabid person. The symptoms always manifested differently between species but people never seemed to understand that. He'd try to explain it but no, people insisted that when people got rabies they acted like zombies. He knew how the media was always sensationalizing things and…oh great he was going off on a mental tangent.
Ugh, why was he trying to rationalize it. His brain was too tired, if he tried to think too hard about it he'd come to the wrong conclusion, but that was the right conclusion wasn't it? Zombies. He remembered his friend Leo. Leo never shut up about zombies. He played all the games, read everything to know about them, and watched every movie. He wondered what he was doing now in this situation. He was probably fairing pretty ok.
Oh my god, zombies. The thought hit him again full on like a semi-truck. Even worse? CEDA had been warning them about this shit for days now. Everyone ignored the warning, as people seemed to like to do. To them it was just another flu. That was the wrong thing to do and just like them he had been completely guilty of it. He guessed they should have been warning them that this fucking disease created zombies. He supposed they didn't want to cause a panic. A little to late for that now huh? His mind made yet another mental flip just like it had before when he first ran away from the infected man. Oh god, He hoped he wasn't fucking infected.
He had the blood all over him.
He stopped and found a vendor's cart, abandoned just like the street currently was and grabbed a large water bottle. Popping open the lid he quickly tried to wash the blood off his hands and off his face and hair. It was fucking freezing as hell but it was better then being covered with that shit. He was lucky it didn't get in his eyes, or mouth, and that he didn't have any open cuts. Not wanting to be a complete asshole, he grabbed a few dollars from one of his jean's pockets and left the cash on top of the counter. He felt fine as far as his health went, just startled. He wasn't sure how long it took for whatever was happening to spread. He supposed it had been long enough, if it was as fast as it seemed in order to infect an entire herd of people, he was sure he would have been vomiting up black shit and trying to kill Beth by now.
"Bio-hazard level four fucking shit right here." He found himself blurting out while capping the now empty water bottle. Beth stopped in her tracks, luckily she hadn't gone far, and turned facing him biting her lip. She looked as if she had been crying, and her tone of voice as she questioned him indicated that indeed she had been. "Now is not the time for that shit, shut up." She spat, crossing her arms, hugging them to herself in an attempt to keep her temper in check. "I'm not making a joke." He whispered trying to diffuse the situation before she got angrier, "I'm just saying." Beth lifted a hand to push her bangs out of her eyes. "What are you trying to say then?" she demanded. "It's a…code, for bio-safety levels of containment." He motioned to the side to emphasis his point but accidentally released the empty water bottle. It landed on the street with a light clatter and rolled under a car. They both stared at it before refocusing their attentions on the current conversation. "I think what's happening is like a disease." He finished saying, while messing with his wet hair out of nervousness which only served to give him a more shaggy unkempt appearance then he already had. Beth nodded her head and grinned sarcastically, "Oh yes! That's wonderful, we are all going to die anyway…even better, BY ZOMBIES." She whirled around and stamped a foot, balling her hands into fists and let them swing steadily by her side. It seemed she had come to the same conclusion he had.
Roger didn't want to upset her any more, so he decided it was best to keep his mouth shut for the time being.
They resumed their steady pace.
It was a long time before any of them spoke. "Where should we go..?" she asked, her tone sounded tired,defeated, and most of all apologetic. He understood how she felt only because he felt the same way. He opened his mouth to speak "There are likely evacuation points." She nodded at his words, "is that why the streets kind of empty?" she asked looking over her shoulder toward him. He nodded himself and responded "Yeah. Makes sense."He didn't want to think about where else they could have gone.
It was then that he could hear the sounds of moaning and screeching not to far ahead of them.
He seriously hoped they didn't have that far to walk.