Living Among the Dead

Selena - The Beginning

Day 2

"What is going on?" Selena Ramirez whispered to herself, slouched in the seat of her white four door sedan. She brushed her curly light brown hair behind her ear and looked into the rear view mirror, catching a glimpse of herself. She had bags under her eyes from being on the road so long and not being able to get any sleep. Her brown cheeks were becoming slightly rosey due to the cold weather that was beginning to kick up.

"What's the problem?" some guy shouted, honking his horn. Selena looked back and saw the man angrily pounding his fist against his steering wheel and shook her head.

"Why are all these people stopped?" a younger girl asked, sitting in the car next to Selena.

"I have no clue Gianna. Trust me, this isn't how I wanted to be spending my twenty-third birthday." Selena said, cracking a smile at her younger sister. Gianna was almost a spitting image of Selena, but with more youthful and prominent features. She was seventeen but still had the innocence of a child.

"Why don't we get out and check?" Gianna asked, looking out the window as she watched a few people getting out of their cars on the bridge and walking towards whatever the commotion was.

"Because that's not safe. You should know better than that." Selena said, looking behind her again to see the New York skyline not too far in the distance. "Ugh, I just wanted to go and meet mom and dad in Atlantic City and play on one slot machine. Is that too much to ask?"

"Apparently." Gianna joked with her older sister. Both sisters began to smile at each other as more people on the highway began to yell at one another, moving forward to get to whatever was causing this traffic jam. Selena let out a sigh of frustration and opened her car door.

"You stay here. Do not move! You got me? I will be right back." Selena said sternly, pointing at her sister who nodded her head in agreement. Selena closed the door behind her, walking past multiple cars just to see what was causing such a big distraction. She pushed through the crowd of people, who were all staring forward in shock.

"What is everyone s... staring... at..." Selena began loudly but quickly trailed off. She had pushed her way to the front of the crowd and saw a person kneeling over someone else. The kneeling person's hands were covered in blood, while the one lying on the ground was bleeding out from their stomach.

"Jesus." Selena muttered, watching the cannibalistic act. The woman looked past the kneeling person and saw other bodies with ripped open flesh that were slowly beginning to move. Instead of letting out cries for help they began to loudly groan out.

"Are... are they coming back to life?" a person in the crowd asked. Selena's eyes widened as one of the bodies slowly began to lift itself up, it's skin looking grey and sickly.

"Sir, are you alright?" a woman called out. The man moved his head in the direction of the voice and slowly began to stumble towards the crowd. The kneeling person looked up, their face covered in blood and their eyes looked glassy. They chomped their jaw together and slowly stood up with the man, with both approaching the crowd now.

"I'm not sticking around to find out if they're alright." someone spoke up, pushing past everyone else to get back to their car.

"Sir!" the same woman shouted again to get his attention. She stepped out of the crowd and put her hand on the man's shoulder, only for her arm to get grabbed and pulled up to the man's face. He quickly took a bite into her wrist, pulling the flesh off of it and causing her to scream out in pain. Selena's eyes widened watching the scene, as did the rest of the crowd that let out an audible gasp.

"Move!" someone shouted, pushing past the officers.

"Run!" another voice yelled, sprinting for their car. Selena turned around, getting trapped in the sea of people as the two cannibal like creatures continued to stumble after them.