Finding Humanity

Chapter 7

It was a beautiful September day. The sky was a crisp blue without a cloud in sight. Leaves had begun to change into shades of red and gold, painting the world into the rich colors Massachusetts was known for. The green grass from summer was still showing as few leaves had fallen and there was a man missing an arm approaching my car window.

I gasped. My short-lived relief popped and deflated, leaving dismay in its wake. Whatever was going on wasn't unique to our office building. While it had occurred to me that there was a possibility that what was happening was widespread, it hadn't sunk in until that moment.

I really looked around this time, taking it all in. The normally packed parking lot was only half full and it looked as if some of the cars had been scuffed or sideswiped. There was blood on the window of a car a few spaces away and smoke was billowing up from the treetops, marring the sky.

The man with one arm got closer, his gaze fixed on me as he began scratching and banging on my window. I shrunk away from him. He didn't seem to know how to open doors, but I quickly locked mine just in case.

The car backed out of its spot and I watched the thing's nails slide across my window as we moved out of reach. Nick put the car into drive and we were off. I could hear Paul sniffling from the passenger seat as he cried into his hand. I wanted to cry too, but my emotions were so jumbled up that I didn't even think I could.

Oh God, Diana.

She had seemed so nice, and no one deserved to die like that. The more I thought of what happened the more insane it all seemed to me. Mary didn't just kill Diana, she was eating her. These psychos we'd seen were walking around with missing body parts. It was like something out of a zombie movie.

I blanched. I really didn't want to think that was possible, but my mind kept going back to it.

Zombie. Zombie. Zombie.

Oh shit.

If, emphasis on the if, this is a zombie outbreak, or something similar, how the hell am I going to defend myself?

I had only ever taken one self-defense class in my life. Luckily, I'd taken it last year, but I was pretty sure a kick to the balls wasn't going to slow those things down. I'd never even seen a gun in real life, let alone held one. I was pretty sure that the cops in the small town I grew up in didn't even carry them. Or if they did, I wouldn't have been surprised if they only squirted water. I was screwed.

My mom.

My heart squeezed anxiously in my chest. I had to get to my mom. She would be just two towns away, working from home. Since I'd lost my dad in a car accident when I was six, she had always been there for my sister and me. My sister moved to Utah with her husband shortly after getting married and hopefully, they were safe there, but my mom would be alone.

Wait. The car is moving.

"Where are we going?" I asked. I had no concept of how long we had been driving and had no idea where we were. Though honestly, I was bad enough with directions that it might have been my fault.

Add that to my list of reasons why I'm screwed...

Both Nick and Paul stayed silent, either lost in their own thoughts or choosing to ignore me. We were speeding down back roads, where trees loomed over us, giving the pretense that we were far from downtown. I didn't even want to know what could be happening there.

Eventually, we came to a hill that allowed us to see over some of the trees. I immediately spotted where the smoke in town was coming from. There was a trail of scorched earth from what looked like a downed airplane. The crash seemed to have taken out several storefronts and a cell tower.

That explains why we didn't get a response from our families.

We had been so focused on what was happening in the elevator that we'd likely heard the crash and just assumed the sounds came from inside the office building.

I have to get home.

"Nick, where are we going?" I asked again. "Nick!"

"My place. It's an apartment building, but it's close by." Nick spoke begrudgingly, obviously focused on the road as he sped around a corner after corner.

"What? No, no, no. I have to get home. My mom is alone."

Nick gave an exasperated sigh.

"Right now, we need to get somewhere safe till we can figure out what the hell is going on."

"But-"

Paul cut me off. "We have families too."

That shut me up. Of course they had people they cared about. I realized that my family, my mom, was no more special than anyone else.

Except to me.

I would have to get my head on straight fast, because it looked as if I would be going at this alone. My mom would need me and I wasn't going to let her down. If that meant that I would have to leave these guys behind, then so be it. I would find a way to get home. I had to.

Nick took another sharp turn, forcing me to catch myself on the seat in front of me. We were now on a main road zipping past office buildings and shops. Occasionally we had to maneuver around an abandoned car. We were able to get about a quarter of a mile before we hit traffic.

The cars in front of us were at a dead stop. Lanes that were meant to be going both ways were congested with cars all trying to get out of town. We could hear horns blasting farther up, but it looked like a bunch of the cars near us had been abandoned. There was no way around.

"How far away is your place?" Paul asked, turning to Nick.

"Three blocks."

We were going to have to walk.