The car was in sight. A block away. We raced towards it. And, although the vehicle was coming clearer into view i couldn't help but feel we weren't making any progress in getting closer. My head snapped up as glass shattered from above us and this is no lie; everything that happened next unfolded in slow motion. I looked up. Someone was falling. Glass shards raining on us, glinting in the light. The woman's dress catching on the wind, her arms moving in elliptical patterns. And i swear, in that moment, if i didn't know that our organs could be splattered on the pavement below us by the woman's full body weight crushing us to the ground, this could have been a disturbingly beautiful moment. I snapped back to reality when i heard a crash and thump. "Dan, are you okay?" i spun around to face my friend. I looked down as he pulled himself from up, a huge chunk of glass sticking out of his calf. "Ah- It's just my leg," he winced, "luckily it's just glass that landed on me and," he eyed the broken body on the ground, "nothing else." I bent down next to the girl and pressed my hand against her chest, craning my neck down, trying to hear a heartbeat. Dan placed a hand on my shoulder and said unsurely, "I think she's already too far gone." He pulled me to my feet. People bustled past, and nervous mothers shielded their children's eyes as they ran past us. I picked a shard out of his damaged leg. Dan faced me, the panic and confusion finally getting to him, "Okay, so we get to the car, and pick up Penny, then what? I mean do what do we do when we get out of he-" "Listen we don't have time to- oh god," behind Dan, the woman had risen to her feet and was advancing forward. I pulled him forward, slung an arm around his shoulder and we lumbered forward. "Okay, look Dan, the car's just there, we can make it." I looked back over my shoulder.. and regretted doing so. I was almost face to face with the bloodied woman, hearing groans escaping from her beaten up mouth and seeing her glazed over eyes, watching us, as if predicting our next move. I ran with Dan, ignoring his yelps of pain, stumbling quickly towards the car.
We made it. I rattled around in my pocket for the keys. Picking them up, i unlocked the door, throwing him in the passenger seat. I raced to the other side, sat down and locked us in. "Okay, okay..to the school," i prepared myself, slapping my cheek lightly. "What the hell is going on?" Dan practically yelled. "I don't know," I said bluntly. "What is happening to this place? I mean, this isn't possible. And my family..? No, no, no.." "Dan," He kept shaking his head from side to side, "Dan!" I slapped him across the face. "You're in shock, and losing a lot of blood. I don't know what's happening! Or why! But we need to just be rational about all this right now." I passed him my sweater, and he muttered some words of appreciation, wrapping it around his leg. "Thankyo-" Dan started, but he was interrupted as the same woman who had fallen from the sixth floor in the apartment, threw herself against his window, blood, smearing across the glass, a gormless, crazed look on her face. Her skin grey, bitten and oozing. An arm was bent out of shape, and swinging as she lurched around. "Poor girl." I remarked simply, suprising myself, by how calm I sounded. Was I adjusting to this madness? We sat there in the car for a moment before hitting the accelerator and I sped off down the street.
We sat in traffic and I honked. The traffic wasn't progressing. "Come, on!" I moaned impatiently, beating my fist against the horn. "Listen, these cars aren't moving anywhere, anytime soon, and you will attract the wrong sort of people with all that sound," Dan sighed, grasping his injured leg tightly, "everyone's trying to get out of the city." "Then i'll have to go on foot," I said. Dan nodded. A few cars up from us, a swarm of diseased people smashed through a trucks window, dragging a man out. "Are you gonna be okay?" I asked him loudly over the muffled screams that enveloped the street. I grabbed his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. He nodded and slid, rather ungracefully, into the backseat, ducking down. "I'll sit tight here, okay? Go and get Penny." I threw him the keys and stepped outside cautiously. "Listen," I told him, "If anything goes wrong here, meet me at the apartment. I'm that area hasnt been as badly affected as here. This is pretty central." He nodded, and i quietly shut the door, looking around. Grey fog rolled in from behind high rise apartment blocks and loomed sinisterly over the city. Car windows had been smashed in and blood patterned the pavement. A lot of people here were either dead, or gone. Although almost everyone were in their vehicles trying to make their way out of the town, in vain. The traffic stretched for miles. I slipped through the cars and made my way down the street, trying to be as discreet as i could. Luckily for me, the school was a couple of streets away from my office. Normally, a member of Sunny field day care group would pick Penny up when she had finished school, and would drop her off at the center. I would finish at five, and take her back home. Today however, was an exception. I ducked through alleyways and back streets until i arrived at the school. It was completely deserted. I could almost imagine tumbleweed, rolling across the abandoned play ground, like in one of my brothe'rs favorite western movies. I felt my heart beat in my chest. She better be here. She had to.
