When August Ends

"Wake up Maya!" Grace's bubbly voice chimes. I turn over in my bunk. "No no! Wake up! It's time for work!" she laughs.

"Grace, I'm skipping." I mutter pulling the blanket over my face.

"Heffah, get out of bed." she says sassily.

"Or nah," I retort with a chuckle. The cover is suddenly thrown off of me and Grace drags me out of bed. "GRACE!" I shout as I hit the ground. She throws some clothes at me.

"Upsy daisy!" she chuckles. I glance at the clock. It's flashing 6:09 a.m.

"Grace we don't have to be at work until 7 I could have slept thirty more minutes!" I complain as I change into grey shorts.

"I decided we should have an early start today." she smiles in the dimly lit room. Our other two roomates, Chey and Rachel are sleeping soundly despite the noise Grace and I are making.

"Well don't decide for me anymore please..." I mutter as I slide a black tank top on with three finger wide straps. The rule here where we work. Modesty is quite important.

"Come on I'll do your hair while you do your make-up." she says beckoning me to the hallway in our room leading to the vanity. I follow her to the vanity and she plugs in the hair straightener as I apply my black eyeliner and mascara. "I don't like eyeliner, it's not my thing." she comments.

"Yes well it's mine," I chuckle. She applies some facial make up and puts her long roan hair in a braid. Her hair color really brings out her sea green eyes. "Let's get going," I say after tying my black boots.

     We leave the room and run down the dark stairs and out the glass doors in the back. Our bikes are wet from rain but not bad and we pedal a mile to the Cafeteria where we work as waitresses for this facility that takes care of teens six days a week. Right now there are no teens, only 150 staff members that we are serving, because it is the end of August which is when the facility closes and is school for the year. Tomorrow is our last day working here as staff before we have to go back to our homes and eventually school. I don't want to go back. We park our bikes at the bike rack and I check my phone. 6:40. We're twenty minutes early. What am I doing with my life? We walk to the two pull doors giggling about this attractive guy named Jon whose car is parked out front.

"I bet he's inside," Grace giggles as she pulls on one of the doors. It opens and we are met with an odd smell. It's a metallic, nauseating scent. "Do you smell that?" she asks crinkling her nose.

"Yeah," I say. My stomach feels a little off now. We walk inside and the lights are on but they are shining a dim, eerie light instead of the usual brightness. No one is walking around and everything is pretty quiet. "Where is everyone?" I say aloud.

"I don't know..." she replies quietly. "This is kind of creepy." she says uneasily.

"Yeah, dude maybe vampires have finally taken over." I chuckle and Grace laughs. We walk towards the wood kitchen doors and right before Grace pushes them open I spot something that frightens me. I grab her hand in order to keep her from pushing the doors open. She looks at me, eyebrows creased.

"What?" she inquires and I point to the ground by the doors in disgust. A pool of red liquid is leaking out from beneath them and it isn't ketchup. "Oh my gosh..." she squeals. I put a hand over her mouth in alarm and mouth for her to be quiet. Her eyes are wide with fear and I motion for her to follow me to the exit. We take a step away and then the kitchen doors burst open. It's a person I don't recognize but they look incredibly ill. Pale skin, reddish brown eyes, and blood smeared lips. "Maya!" Grace cries in terror as we look at the creepy young man. His reddened lips twist into almost a grin, and then he suddenly lunges at Grace. Reflexes kick in and I grab Graces hand and yank her away and it sinks it's teeth into the air where her shoulder had just been. Before we can run another person comes out of the kitchen but this one is familiar. It's Joel, head of security, except he doesn't look like himself. His usually dark skin is a lighter pallor, his eyes are the same reddish hue, and blood smears his hands,shirt, and mouth. Joel and the other thing both lunge at us but before Grace or I can react we are yanked backwards. Someone roughly pushes us to the exit and out the doors. Grace is crying and I can't think to do anything but be lead by whoever is steering us. They push us to the car Grace and I had been joking about. Jon's car. The person releases us and opens the back door. I realize it's Jon himself.

"Get in!" he shouts motioning for us to get into his white sports car. His roan hair is ruffled, blood splatters his face, and he has a gash on his arm. I pull Grace into the backseat with me. She is shaking like a leaf and crying, and I realize I'm shaking pretty bad too. I put and arm around her and she hugs me and I hug her. Jon leaps into the drivers seat as Joel and several other infected people run out towards the car.

"Jon their coming!" I shout as he sits there motionless. He jumps and drops the key and it falls down between the seat.

"Dang it!" Jon shouts and slams the car door as well as locking the car. He reaches down trying to get the key but his hand doesn't for through the crack and the crazed people are getting closer. I suddenly push away from Grace, shove Jon out of the way and dive for the key with my small hands. Bloody and wild faces people are climbing on the car and pounding all over it, screeching like animals. Blood is being smeared all over the white car. I get the key and hand it to Jon rushed my. Hey quickly turns the car on and backs out crushing someone as he drives over them. I shout in horror at the sound and so does Grace. They people fly off the car as we speed down the road and I sit back beside Grace in a daze. My head is spinning and my heart is pounding. What on earth is going on? This isn't supposed to be happening. We were supposed to go to work and have a good last day of working before we all go home. Before August ends.