When Tomorrow Dies

Chapter 2: Fight or Flight

Kira couldn't stop herself this time and let out a strangled gasp, stepping back. She must have stood in one of the blood puddles and slipped because soon she found herself on the floor, her hands covered in it from trying to brace her fall. She scrambled back to her feet and backed farther away against the wall before the person lifted his head in a slow, jerky motion. He turned his head to face Kira, letting out a low growl.

Kira froze in terror. The man's face was a sickly grey and his eyes were cold and glazed over, reminding her of a corpse. His cheeks and eye sockets were sunken into his head, and his jaw jutted out as he continued to chew on what he had in his mouth.

He dropped the chunk of flesh he had in his grasp, clearly more interested in Kira now. Kira tried to speak but found that she couldn't make a sound. It stood up and turned to face her completely. He stumbled toward her, one arm outstretched, bloody tendons hanging from its gaping mouth. Kira stood frozen in terror, unable to even make a sound. She looked around for her pitiful weapon and realised that she had dropped it when she slipped over. Move move move, she thought desperately, struggling to make her legs work. She thought of Leisha, and her brother and parents, and suddenly she was filled with something other than terror. She needed to get out of here and warn them and the rest of the town. What could be wrong with this man she didn't know, but if it spread Kira knew the result would be catastrophic. Just as the man was about to grab her neck, Kira jumped away and ran. It stumbled forward, seemingly desperate to seize any part of her it could.

When she reached the door she realised that she had closed it behind her when she came in. Stupid, stupid habit! She tried to open it but her hands were still slick with Matt's blood and they simply slipped around the handle. She noticed somewhere in the back of her mind that she was starting to hyperventilate. The man grew too close and she abandoned the door and went into the lounge room, searching for something to defend herself with instead. She was going to have to knock him out so she could make her escape.

The first thing Kira saw when she looked around were Matt's pool cues, stacked against the wall. Why he kept them in the lounge room she had no idea, but she felt extremely grateful as she picked one up by the thin end and held it high like a baseball bat, waiting by the doorway for the man to enter the room after her. She didn't have to wait long and after a couple of seconds he stumbled in and Kira swung her weapon as hard as she could at his head.

He made no noise of surprise as she hit him, rather he stumbled weakly to the side but otherwise showed no signs of injury. That hit should have knocked him out cold but what was more astounding and terrifying than that was that he turned and came after her right away. Her heart was beating so hard and fast she felt as though it might burst from her chest. She hit him again. He got up. Again. He fell but started to stand. Again. Still conscious. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again...

She realized as if through a thick cloud of fog that her attacker had stopped moving. Vaguely aware of the blood dripping from the pool cue, Kira looked down at the man and stumbled back from what she saw; his head had caved in almost completely, blood and brain matter mushed into the carpet beneath it. His ragged breathing had ceased and he did not move.

She just killed somebody.

Kira dropped her weapon and gripped her hair tightly, stepping further back again. "Oh my god, oh my fucking god," she muttered harshly to herself. She just murdered a person. He probably had a family – a mother, a father, and siblings – and she just bashed his brains into the carpet.

"This isn't happening," she whispered to herself, "this isn't happening this isn't happening!" Her denial did not comfort her, because it only made her tell herself that it was in fact happening. She just killed somebody, ruined his family's life, and she was going to go to prison.