All Is Lost

2.

With her hunger fully satiated, she jogged deeper into the town, not halting until she was safely away from all the rabids. Some newly-turned ones she could change the minds of, but the older ones required more blood to control.

Once she reached the town's limits, she began to notice all the run-down souvenir shops that used to overflow with activity and energy. Now they were desolate and depressed.

"Damn. This explosion must've been big." She examined every blown-out window and the mannequins still dressed as runway models.

Hair prickles on the back of her neck and she raises her pistol toward whatever lurked.

"Who's there?" She clicked a bullet into the chute and cocked it toward the darkness."Show yourself or I'll shoot." She warned, her fingers two seconds away from pulling the trigger.

"Don't shoot." A figure emerged from the alley covered head-to-toe in blood, vampire blood. "Who are you? I haven't seen any survivors for weeks."

She could see the girl now, her eyes filled with worry and concern, the m-87 fearlessly set in her holster with a matching katana.

"I'm....Vanessa. Who....what's your name?" She didn't recognize the girl covered in blood.

"Cody. I was a freshman at Metro Co Uni."

"Are there any others out here?" She almost lowered her weapon but didn't when she heard a breathy chuckle from where Cody appeared from. "Who is with you?" She pointed the gun at Cody, ready to pull the trigger.

"It's my brother. H-he's sick and I don't know how to help him." Cody cried, yanking on a chain. An unrecognizable figure drenched in a thick liquid snaked out from behind the vehicle. "The world has gone to shit." she caked the chain in the blood that covered her from head-to-toe. "Something bit my brother and broke his leg like a rabid animal. I've been trying to find help for two hours now."

"Stay there and drop your weapons." Vanessa barked, listening to the irregular thump of Cody's heart valves. Vanessa circled the vehicle and saw a dead body attached to the chain, all four limbs ripped clean off. "What did you do to him?" She raised the shotgun to Cody's forehead and almost pulled the trigger.

"Don't shoot me...please." She cried. "I did it out of self defense. Whatever is turning people, it makes them bloodthirsty animals."

"Like vampires." Vanessa mumbled.

"Exactly. They killed my brother, turned him into one of them." Cody shouted. "And I was forced to kill him....one of the undead. And you want to know the best part?"

Vanessa sighed. "Here we go again."

"I actually enjoyed killing someo-" Cody's corpse hit the asphalt in a bloody mess as the bullet clattered on the road.

"You may now rest in peace, you psycho." Vanessa tossed a tuft of grass on her body and dragged the dead vampire to rest with his sister. "I would give you a funeral, except you tried to kill me." She lit a match and dropped the flame on their corpses as they started to rot, drawing in the rest of the undead as she strides down the lonely street.