Apocalypse

January 6, 1998

     When I entered the Country Kitchen, I noticed there were a lot of people, more than usual. They were yelling and screaming at the cashiers and at each other. Some were shoplifting and people pretending not to notice. Some citizen who looked homeless came up to me and said, "Get out of here! Go on, save yourself!" and ran off into the empty streets of Chadron. I stood there for a while, soaking in what that man said. What did he mean? What am I running from? It brought me back to my dream I had the other night. I eventually shook it off and found an empty table while the people torn there fellow men apart. I didn't know what else to do.

     Blake and Reed finally showed up at eleven o'clock. They stood in the doorway for a few seconds, looking at the scene of chaos. They inched their way to the table and slowly sat down. "What's going on?" asked Blake. I shrugged. "This is crazy."

     Soon the restaurant was empty. I ordered black coffee and pancakes; Reed ordered water; Blake ordered biscuits and gravy. It was a mess: chairs and tables were flipped, the two front windows were shattered by a brick. The only people were us and the shell-shocked cashiers. The streets were completely empty besides a few broken down cars. We silently ate our breakfast. "What do you think this is?" asked Reed. As soon as he said that the news channel switched on on the café TV. The beautiful brunette news anchor rambled about how a teenage girl, about twenty-years old, was found  in her dorm, she was suspected dead. Her name was Jane Wilson and she was a student at Chadron State. She was found with bite marks and her flesh mauled. The anchorwoman went on by saying two other students found her, tried checking her pulse, and were bitten by Jane. The students went on a rampage, biting others. In my mind I thought it was just another drug case because there are drugs out there that turn people into "zombies". But what didn't settle with me was the fact Jane bit the two kids and they turned around and started biting others. It just didn't make sense.

     When we all finished, we started walking back toward our dorm with eerie feeling. We tried to start conversation when we heard an odd mumbling along with leaves rustling. The moaning intensified and the leaves stopped rustling. Blake screamed as loud as he could. The moaning was right behind me; I whipped around and was face-to-face with a creature unknown. It looked like on of the kids that found Jane in her dorm and was bitten. It had the same long, blond hair, braces, sweatpants. Her face was mauled like a lion would a piece of meat; her skin was grey mixed with a dark shade of green and one of the eyeballs was missing. It fell on top of them, nipping and trying to bite my neck. I had my hands around its neck pushing it away from me. I screamed so loud my vocal cords hurt.

     All the sudden the thing let out an animal-like shriek and collapsed to the ground next to me. I wiped my face that was streaked with blood and saw Reed holding a crow bar, the tip covered caked with blood and skin. He looked terrified. I jumped up and hugged him. I didn't need to say anything to express how much I love him and how thankful I was that he saved me life. I put my hand on his shoulder and guided him, along with Blake, to our dorm.

     I looked back and saw the body laying on the ground, motionless. I called the cops when we made it to the dorm.