Seeds Of Hunger

Chapter 11: ...And Contagious

Carter awoke with a start, shouldering the shotgun and trying to see any movement in the office he had locked himself in. The room was empty and dark, the street lights providing a small amount of light but not enough for him to get a detailed look. Well if there was one of those things in here, I probably wouldn't be awake right now, Carter thought as he lowered the shotgun. He checked his watch, eight o' clock. He had slept for four hours; not bad considering he had been on the run since five thirty. He stood up and walked towards the window, peeling back the shade and saw some infected in the courtyard. He saw the man who had killed himself wandering around near the flower bed, now infected just like everyone else. Carter knew he should feel bad that he couldn't stop him but he knew that, deep down, he couldn't save everyone in this disaster. He sighed; the crazy man got to him more than he realized. He checked his weapons making sure they were loaded and also to distract him. Satisfied everything was in order, he went to the door and listened. Nothing. That could be good and bad. Good because the infected in the building might have left; bad because the infected didn't make any noise until they found fresh meat. Carter turned the lock on the door as quietly as he could and opened the door slightly. He took his flash light from his belt and let the light wash over the area. Blood stains everywhere and he couldn't remember if they were there earlier or not. Frowning he attached his flashlight to the holder on the underside of the shotgun, shouldered it, and started walking.

The flashlight bathed the area in dim white and it reflected the pools of blood on the floor of the building. He went down the stairs and peaked over the railing; Janet was missing but her arms still hanging from the chains. Great, Carter thought, as he kept going down the stairs. He saw a trail of blood go from the chains to the outside courtyard and wondered how she got out. The obvious being that she just simply didn't feel the pain as he arms were ripped off but Carter wasn't a scientist. He walked to the front, saw a reflection on the ground and a sadness built within him. It was the crazy man's knife, just encrusted with blood and laying in the puddle of blood. Carter saw the now infected man further out in the courtyard shambling around looking for meat. Carter shook his head in dismay, he had never felt more alone than he did now. He checked his bearings and realized that on the other side of the building was 1st Street and a mile down the road was the station. He clicked the flashlight off and hoped that Casey had made it.

Carter went around the corner of the building and saw two infected there but he ran past them, the carriers slowly turning toward a meal they couldn't catch. Carter slowed his pace and saw the station at the end of the road, still surrounded by cruisers. He felt a wave of relief wash over him but he still had to get there first. He started walking, keeping an eye on the darkest places around him in case a carrier might be hiding. He came upon the intersection and noticed bodies lying in the street, mutilated and some of them in pieces. What the hell happened? Carter thought as he got closer, the shotgun shouldered against him. Carter saw that the ankle of one of the bodies was crushed, and that it looked like the body of the zombie was repeatedly thrown against the ground. What in the hell is going on? What did this? Carter was thinking when he heard a roar that froze him in place. The roar sounded inhuman and was ear splitting. Carter leveled the shotgun, looking around for the source of the noise. He heard a loud crash and saw a car go flying down the opposite end of the intersection, impacting on the side of a building. Carter saw the creature now, it was huge. easily seven feet tall and was wide as a mobile home. The arms on the creature were bigger than a body builders and the rest of the body matched the arms. Carter ran to cover as the creature sniffed the air. The creature looked around, smelling a new scent and started coming up the intersection. Carter could now see the monster better now; the skin of the thing was a deep blood red, the eyes focused and angry. The skin on the monster looked to be swimming and Carter realized that the parasite that caused the zombies to appear is changing somehow. The skin on the creature moved and Carter saw tendrils coming through the cuts and wounds on the monster. What the fuck is this thing? Carter's mind yelled.