1

The storm was certainly unexpected. It seemed to come up on her without any warning and far too quickly. But Isobel was used to driving in the rain, even a torrential downpour. So while other cars pulled to the side, their emergency lights blinking frantically, she pressed on. She tried to focus on the lines painted on the road as they were all her headlights illuminated. Anything more than five feet ahead was shrouded in the gray curtain of rain save for the times lightning cut through the dark, showing for the briefest of moments the other cars that were as brave/foolish still traveling on the road.

She had been driving for over an hour and was only ten minutes from home. Isobel was not about to let some rain and thunder delay her any longer. She ached for her bed, and the dark, cool, quiet of her small one bedroom apartment.

She switched off the radio to see better, silencing the music streaming through, and noticed the steady rumble of thunder. A constant growl from the heavens like some terrible animal. For some reason it sounded different, unlike that of any other thunderstorm she could remember. It felt like the thunder was following, chasing her, growing louder with no break in its rolling drums. The feeling of being chased caused her to glance in her rearview mirror, half expecting some horrible creature to be there staring back at her.

She saw no creature, instead just a sudden, blazing light. Like a thousand stars exploding, the flash of what must have been a lightning strike blinded her. She instinctively covered her eyes and stepped on the break. She could feel her body lurch forward as her car lost speed, but all she could see were flashes of different colors playing against her closed eyelids.

Blinking, she tried to open her eyes and gain some vision. She was liable to crash into another car if she kept them closed too long.

But to her horror, as her vision returned, she was met by the sight of a brick wall looming out to meet her. She slammed down hard on the break and glanced right and left for a way out, but saw nothing except other walls, whole buildings blocking her path. The tires squealed and screamed as the small car came to an abrupt stop just feet from disaster. The force rocked Isobel forward while at the same time the seat belt held her tight in place. She was slammed back into her seat, breathing heavy and wild eyed.

How could a wall and towering buildings just suddenly appear on the highway? She looked around. She was surrounded by them. But it was impossible. And the rain. The rain had stopped. Not just stopped. It looked outside as if there had been no rain at all. The gloomy gray was, in fact, replaced by the light of a high noon sun with a subtle tint of red as if a clay dust cloud permeated the air.

When the car came to a stop it must have stalled, as there was no longer a rumble from the engine. Isobel reached for the ignition button, but was only met with a rhythmic clicking. Over and over she tried to roll the engine over, but it refused. She found her phone on the floor of the passenger seat, obviously jostled from the ordeal. She could call for help. She thought her AAA membership was still active. A tow truck, or maybe just a jump. At the worst she would call a taxi and use a maps app to figure out where she was.

She swiped the screen which came to life. Full battery… no signal.

"Shit," she sighed. Did the storm knock out a tower? She tried pulling up an app, dialing a number, but the little satellite image at the top right corner just stared back at her maliciously almost saying, "no signal, fuck off."

She had no choice but to leave the car. She threw her bag over her shoulder, opened the door, and pulled the lever to pop the hood. An acidic smell hit her as she got out. It was a mixture of garbage, smoke, and chemicals. Looking around, she saw that she was somehow in an alley surrounded by three large brick buildings. They each climbed ten stories and blocked any view of what lay beyond. Behind her she could see that the alley opened out to a bigger road and more buildings across.

"Where the hell?"

She lifted the hood and spent a few minutes pretending that she actually knew what she was looking at, which she didn't… at all. After satisfying herself that she was hopelessly ignorant about the workings of motor vehicles, she slammed the hood down and resigned herself to the fact that she must actually find someone, a person, to help her. "Ugh, people."

She adjusted her bag across her body slightly cursing under her breath and, shoving her hands deep in her jacket pockets, she started toward the street.

Almost immediately, she was grateful she had decided to wear her boots today. They were a little chunky and heavy, laced half way up her shins, but the thick leather protected her from whatever she happened to be walking through. Every step seemed to squelch. Try as she might she could not maneuver over or around the steady streams of brown and red liquids running down the alley. She tried not to wonder what those liquids actually were.

Just as immediately, she regretted her hooded jacket. Yeah, it had a lot of pockets, but she was already sweating and she hadn't even made it to the main street yet. Vaguely she thought this strange as it had been pretty cold today even within her climate controlled car.

Isobel stepped out onto the street and found it completely deserted. There were piles of trash and more puddles of putrid liquids, but no people. The graffiti on the bricks wrote out in crude letters, "the end is here" and "happy extermination day." In the sky a billowing cloud of dark smoke rose into the red sky from some far off location.

The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. This was all wrong. No one ends up in the middle of a city instantly when driving on a highway. A car doesn't just stop working for no reason, or a phone for that matter. Also, this place was wrong. Something happened here. Something not too long ago. Something bad. She suddenly felt vulnerable and defenseless. The weight of eyes fell on her back and she spun around, but there was no one. No one on the street. No one looking through the windows. Everything was eerily quiet.

And then a noise broke the silence. It seemed far away, and though Isobel could not be 100% certain, it sounded too close to a scream. Turning back around, she continued walking at a much quicker pace.

She wasn't certain how long she walked before she saw another person, long enough for her adrenaline to calm a bit and annoyance to creep back in when she turned a corner and saw two people standing together. They were facing away from her. A man and a woman, both seemed to be looking down and having a hushed conversation.

The man wore a brown tweed suit and heavily polished shoes that were being ruined by the filth of the street. The woman wore a cream colored dress, long and lacey. Kind of old fashioned, but who was Isobel to judge other people on their fashion sense? With her constant black on black on black, she was no one's fashionista. She had been described by others as emo and goth, when in reality she just did not have the money or energy to try very hard. Plus, why not black? Black was classic. Black goes with everything and any occasion.

As she neared the couple, Isobel called out, "excuse me." She unfortunately neglected to notice the red stains around the bottom of the woman's dress.

They both seemed to freeze as though surprised by another presence. Then they slowly turned around.

Isobel continued, "I was wondering if you could help me out, or point me in the right direction. My car broke down and I… and I…"

Her voice trailed off and then failed her all together as she got a good look at the couple's faces. Each had a pair of large, gaping black holes where their eyes should be. The dark pits seemed to be fathomless. Too dark, too deep, and entirely menacing. They smiled, revealing maws of pointed teeth that were both too large and too many, like shark's teeth, some still stained red with what Isobel could only assume was blood.

She put her hands up and took a step back, but it was too late. The two were on her in an instant, knocking her flat on her back. Her world turned into snapping jaws and grasping fingers. Isobel desperately put her arms up to cover her face from the onslaught, but the woman grabbed her wrists and pulled her arms down again. The man peered down at her, his face close to hers, his breath on her cheek, and black, hollow eyes boring into her. There was something about her face that seemed to interest and confuse them.

With dirty fingers the man used his thumb and forefinger to force Isobel's right eye open wide. Her green iris flashed frantically back and forth between the two contracting in fear as their teeth gnashed and tongues began to loll out.

Somehow Isobel found her voice and feet. She pulled her knees in and kicked out hard, pushing that man off of her while she screamed, "Get the fuck off!" The man fell back into the woman who released her grip on Isobel's wrists as she hit the ground. Isobel scrambled away and stood ready to bolt, but just as she took a step she realized their scuffle had gotten the attention of more of the black eyed ghouls.

She turned on her heel and sprinted. She didn't care which direction she was going as long as it was away from them.

"Ok," she thought to herself. "So what are we dealing with? Zombies? They didn't seem undead. Are they the shambling kind or the running kind?" She glanced over her shoulder.

The running kind.

She tried to put on a burst of speed, but knew she was not going to be able to outrun all of them for long. She turned another corner and found herself in another alley, this one much shorter and with no way out. There were a series of what looked like back doors or emergency exits for the buildings that climbed up all around her. She frantically started testing each one pulling and pushing as she could hear the pounding of running feet closing in on her.

She ran to a door and dared to look behind her as she grabbed the door knob. A group of five of the terrifying creatures closed in just yards away. Isobel screamed as she desperately teared at the door, willing it to open. The knob turned as her full weight fell onto it, and the door gave way, swinging in. She spilled across the floor as the door slammed close behind her. She quickly crawled up the wall to throw the bolt close.