JSS

Blood

"Serena call 911 immediately." I say handing her my phone, my hands are covered in blood from trying to save Taylor, an effort that wasn't enough.
While Serena was dialing for the police I focus towards Leah.
"Hey.." I whisper crouching down next to Leah who was still crying onto Taylor's lifeless body.
"Leah, we need to get back to the house and get us cleaned up. The police will be here soon." I try to reassure her, putting my hand on her shoulder.
The longer she's out here like this, the more likely she'll end up with PTSD or something.
Leah just nods and slowly and gently places Taylor's head on the ground while looking away and holding back more tears.
Carefully, I stand up and hold my arm out to help her up.
Once were both back on our feet, I turn my attention over to Serena who hasn't said a word, I'd be expecting her on the phone with an operator by now.
"Lee, come, listen to this." Serena says holding out the phone.
I glance at Leah and walk to Serena, taking the phone and holding it up to my ear.
Loud beeping noises and ringings occurred before I heard a voice, but it was automated, not human.
"The Center for Disease control has issued an emergency action notification. Precautions are to be listed for your well being, please follow until until further notice.
Stay indoors at all costs until further notice, if someone is infected in your household; quarantine them until further notice, do not try to assist the sick, they are disoriented and confused and will attack, if you are infected seek medical attention immediat-" I take the phone away from my ear.
This is insane..
"Nikki must've been infected" Serena says in shock.
"We need to get back to the house right now, let's go." I answer and take Leah by the arm who has been looking at the mess from just a few minutes ago.
I force her along and we all three start running to the house as fast as we can.

We burst through the back door and I run to the television and flip on the news.
Expecting news reports, we got the same emergency broadcast that was on the phone instead. I begin flipping through more channels, but they were either fuzzy or showing the broadcast.
"What do we do?!" Serena shouts putting her hands over her mouth.
"You guys..." Leah says from the kitchen, "you're gonna wanna see this." I hear fear in her voice and I run into the kitchen to see her pointing out the front window.
The streets are lit up, but not with street lamps, houses are on fire, cars are burning, people are running.
"Leah, pack your stuff I'll get whatever food you have and we'll take it with us.
Serena go get the water bottles from the fridge on the porch." I say sternly and run into the kitchen as everyone else does what's needed.
Rummaging through the cupboards i find lots of canned food and then it hit me.
"Leah! I'm gonna leave half for your parents if they come back here." I shout from the kitchen, Serena comes back inside with a backpack full of water bottles.
"Leave half, mom and dad." I say, she understands and empties half of the pack on the dining room table.
"Where'd you get that bag?" I ask Serena
She looks up and points to Nikki's room, in a way it's messed up. But we need it more than her so I guess it's okay.
"Was there another one?" I question and she nods, "yeah, a small pink one."
"Well here, put these in the bag, I'm gonna get that bag." I say shuffling over with a arm full of cans.
"Grab anything else that would be useful, but remember, leave half." I explain as I walk to to the back room where Nikki's things still sit as if she was about to talk through the back room.
Honestly, Leah hated Nikki, you'd expect it to be tough sister love, but she genuinely hated her, so a part of me feels that she's not feeling any remorse for what just happened.
But Taylor... That was her other half, that girl was there before me and Serena, that's Leahs backbone and she just died in front of us...

I rummage through her closet and find a small pink bag, big enough for maybe a few more cans and water bottles.
We'll probably head to Serena's grandmother's house, we need to get with more people to figure out what exactly is going on.
I look down and realize my hands are covered in blood from earlier, I had totally forgot about cleanliness with everything happening.
I just watched two people die, so the last thing on my mind was clean hands.
Walking out of the room, I shut the door behind me and toss the empty bag on the counter and make my way to the kitchen sink turning it on.
Staring at the blood I knew wasnt mine.
I turn my head and shove my hand underneath the steady stream and let the blood flow off and into the sink.
"I'm ready." I hear someone say and turn around to see Leah, who also has blood all over her.
"Come on" I say tilting my head towards the sink.
Leah walks over with her head down while Serena searches the pantry.
Grabbing a cloth I run it underneath the water and press it on Leahs face where there are spatters of blood.
"Is this real?" Leah mumbles
"I fuckin hope not, girly." I reply as I make my way to her arms with the wet rag.
"What's the game plan?" Serena asks as she walks up to us.
Waiting for Leah to answer I look up to see they're waiting for me to say something.
I guess it's up to me.
"Well, I was thinking we'd go to Mimi's, check on them and then my place to hold up for tonight." I explain while I finish cleaning the blood off of Leah.
"Why don't we just stay here tonight?" Serena asks me while looking out the window.
"One; I don't think Leah wants to stay here after everything, and two; it's probably not a good idea to stay here. You see those?" I ask pointing out the window at the fires, " with as dry as it's been lately there's a good possibility for it to work it's way over here. So well walk to Mimi's and then my place." I explain while staring at the fires outside like they were.
"Walk?!" Serena shouts and looks at me like I'm insane.
"We have a perfectly good car." Leah says confused.
"Look at that traffic, it'll take use an hour to get there in a car, or 30 minutes to walk." I answer and walk to the living room to grab our bags.
"And we need to get going." I say tossing Serena's bag to her while she grabs the bag of cans too.
"Okay then, I guess we leave now." Leah huffs as they both walk out the front door, I look around and walk over to the counter and grab a kitchen knife and stick it in my bag.
Precautions.
"You coming?!" I hear Serena yell from outside.
I adjust my bag over my shoulder and run out the door.
The fires seemed to be getting a lot bigger, you could feel the heat irradiating from the street to the front yard.
"Let's avoid the people, some might be sick" Serena suggests pointing to woods across the street.
A shortcut we used to use when we snuck out to each other's house.
"Like Nikki?" Leah asks concerned.
"Yeah, I think so." I answer and look around, doesn't seem to be too many people now except all the cars, there's a lot of screaming but it's not from this street, it must be down the block.
"Let's hustle and make it quick." I say loudly and begin running for the street with Serena and Leah following.
We dart into the woods and wiz past the trees as fast as we can.
Getting to Mimi's house was our objective and we needed to be as fast as possible.

After a while we finally got to the road after a few stops of catching our breath.
"A little more to go, I can see the house from here." Serena says hunched over all winded and breathing heavy.
"Alright, were almost done then." I say panting. We all catch our breath and start sprinting again.
Within minutes we were at the gate of the yard, we slipped in and I turned around to make sure the gate was shut.
Serena runs up to the front door and twists the doorknob, "It's locked." She sighs and looks at me.
"Then let's just use the backdoor." Leah suggests walking off the porch and to the side of the house.
Shrugging, I catch up to her and we make our way towards the back door.
Walking up the ramp we reach the backdoor.
I twist the doorknob and it opens, "Serena, come on." I whisper waving my hands towards her as she walks up the ramp.
"Alright, let's go." Serena says opening the door and walking in with me and Leah following behind.
"Mimi! Pawpaw! Are you guys okay?" Serena asks loudly as we make our way to the kitchen.
"Is that blood?" Leah says cautiously, pointing to the kitchen hallway, and from the looks of it, that's exactly what it is.
I walk in front of them with my hand hovering above my bag that's hanging over my shoulder with the knife in it.
"Be careful." Serena whispers from behind.
I nod my head and slowly turn around the corner and then I see it...
"Ah Jesus!" I gag turning away.
"What is it?!" Serena yells running up to me, before I can stop her she already sees it and starts crying.
"Renesmee... Oh my god." Serena puts her hands over her mouth and runs out of the hallway and towards her bedroom.
I walk back to Renesmee and try to figure out what happened, Renesmee is, or was, Serena's bobtailed cat.
Now she's spread across the floor with her stomach ripped open and her intestines spread throughout the hallway.
Maybe a dog got in here, if so I need to check on Mimi and Papaw to make sure they're okay.
I walk to their bedroom, but it was shut, which is unusual for them.
I slowly and cautiously walk up to the bedroom door and know on it.
"Mimi? Pawpaw? Y'all in there?" I ask loudly waiting for a reply.
CRASH!
The door shakes as if something just fell on it, quietly i listen and I can hear someone breathing, but the breathing turns into snarling and growling. Like Nikki sounded..
"You gu-" I go to call for Leah and Serena but when I turn my head I'm tackled by someone.
"Leah, Serena!" I scream realizing it's someone who's sick, if I don't act quickly then I'll end up like Tay.
I kick them off and reach for my bag as fast as I can.
The knife slips out and lands on the floor along with me, I quickly grab it as the person lunges on me and they land right on the knife.
Expecting them to stop moving or give up, they surprise me and keep fighting as if stabbing them in the stomach didn't effect them whatsoever.
I keep fighting them off trying to push them away, but it feels like they just get stronger by the second.
"Lee!" I hear someone scream as I'm face to face with the snapping jaws of this infected person. I slowly start to realize their features.
This isn't just some random person... It's Mimi, she's attacking me.
"Mimi! It's Lee!" I scream, "Mimi, stop, please!" I strain my voice as my arms grew tired from holding her off me
Suddenly I heard a sharp noise and Mimi stopped fighting me, in fact, she stopped moving completely.
"Mimi?" I ask pushing her off of me to see an Asian guy hovering over us with a bloody knife in his hand while Leah and Serena stand behind a tall black man in the hallway.
My eyes widen and I shuffle to my feet, I didn't know if I should run or if they were here to help.
"Are you alright?" The Asian dude with a baseball cap and a bloodied shirt asks.
I take a deep breath and look around and then look at Mimi's lifeless body, "I don't know..."