THEY ARE EVERYWHERE

Dad, are we all going to die?

A small local African family gathered in their cramped living room, anxiety etched on their faces. The father, Kwame, a man weathered by life's challenges, with a determined look on his face, sat with his wife, Maria, a British woman, and their two sons, Kofi, 4 years old and the baby, trying to shield them from the harsh reality of their situation. Lisa, Kwame's younger sister, 14 years old, joined them, having just arrived from the neighbours'. Her young eyes wide with fear yet filled with a glimmer of hope.

The family had been discussing how to survive without food or a job when Lisa arrived, sharing a local British soup recipe she had learned from the neighbors. But their conversation was abruptly interrupted by the chaos outside.

A young girl, returning from school, about to drop her bag after greeting all the elders that had sat there, and people who were selling in front of their house. Suddenly she started reacting like she had epilepsy but her bone started cracking, convulsed and attacked one of the young girls outside wanting to purchase something from the outside open stall and started biting and eating her out, and few minute later while she was still eating her, the eaten girl woke up and pounced on few of the people that were watching closer. And the virus began to spread rapidly, spreading a mysterious virus that turned people into violent, flesh-eating creatures. The family watched in horror as the infected girl attacked others, the virus spreading rapidly.

Kwame's voice boomed, "Everyone inside now and lock your doors! Now!!" He ushered his family and neighbors into their small flat, but it was too late. The virus had already reached their block, and they had to flee.

"Run, run, run, faster!!" Kwame yelled, grabbing a school bag with Lisa's nighties and a few essentials, as well as few food and a bottle water. They joined a throng of people running for their lives, the streets filled with screams, crashes, and the eerie moans of the infected.

As they ran, Lisa thought about her school uniform, hung in the room, and the few clothes she had left behind. Her Brother's voice snapped her back to reality, "Leave those things, can't you see what's happening? The whole country is in disarray, there's no going back!"

Maria, her voice laced with fear, pleaded, "We have to travel light, Lisa."

Their desperate journey took them through a slum-like neighbourhood, where they encountered more infected, and few people are seen running at the same direction as them when they saw a young boy acting weird and struggling, more like he has a bad stomach upset to make it to his house, suddenly he collapsed and fell to the ground, movement had seized for about 10 seconds. Lisa and her family already knew what was about to happen and had ran ahead before it would, alerting people to stay away from the boy and run far. But the ignorant people who had no idea of what was going on,  stayed to watch the boy as he transformed to one of those things and started spreading the virus from eating someone and someone ate someone,  so it kept increasing and people were running with properties and people all over the places. It was like hell rained! before their eyes. Kwame's quick thinking saved them, but they knew they had to keep moving.

Lisa and her family kept running, and they had to increase in pace because the virus spread was getting closer and everywhere but they were running tiredly, Kwame had suggested they split up and meet at a particular safe place where he told Maria. The family's decision to split up and meet at a safe location weighed heavily on Maria. "What if we get separated? How will we find each other? Can’t you see, they are everywhere?” she asked, her voice trembling.

Kwame's firm tone reassured her, "Trust me, Maria. I know what I'm doing. The more we run together. The more a lot of people will keep following us and you all need to get to the safe place faster. The kids are tired already and exhausted, this place is a whole mess already.  No one is coming to save us! We’ll meet at the police facility. It's our best chance."