A Car's Tires on a Road

I don't feel like we're done here

I woke on my stomach. My face seemed to be bedded in dirt and what I thought was a sticky puddle of blood, the iron stink of it creeping up my nose as I gained back my consciousness. As my eyes opened they found the white and light blue tiling of the store's floor and the beer fridge next to where I was lying. Some nasty pain throbbed on the back of my head and the reminder of the hit I'd taken came rushing back to me. I ran my hand through my hair as I sat up, crusted and soaked in my own blood drying into it and on my face and neck.

Right...

Right! I jumped on my feet, my eyes searching the store for a blue hat or dark hair or even anything at all, but there was no one. The air returned to my lungs with an acidity I hadn't anticipated, mostly because I hadn't anticipated ever breathing again. It was morning, the bright sunlight coming in through the front like razor blades and a swelling in the pit of my stomach that almost had me throw up. It wasn't hunger anymore, I wasn't hungry at all. I didn't feel the way I had, didn't have those crazy urges and violent thoughts, my brain felt washed clean.

I felt like myself again.

And it was odd. I was both surprised and entirely not. I felt like flying, and at the same time like falling, as the memories of what had happened all came back at once. I'd been out of my mind and my brain clouded, but I knew what I had seen. It'd been Carly. Carly who wasn't a person, who was so much more than a person, some thing feeding of people, feeding of their insanity, I thought. And it'd been her who'd knocked me unconscious and it was probably also her fault Cas was gone.

But I should have been the one who was gone, not Cas.

I should have turned into a Croat, should have gone crazy and become a monster, should have vanished or been killed. But it wasn't like that, was it? It'd never been like that, it'd never been the Croatoan virus to begin with.

I teetered through the store, still a little shaky on my legs, and grabbed a bottle of water on the way out, a sudden dryness and thirst in my mouth I hadn't felt in days. It was kind of warm outside, the sun burning down in almost summer-like fashion, and I blinked away the white spots in my sight as I walked on down the street.

I had to find Sam. God knows what she'd done to him. I tried not to picture him injured or dead, or taken as well, tried to stay calm but alert, but it was hard to fight all the worry and anger I felt. That bitch. That fucking manipulative bitch. She'd fooled us the whole time, played us, toyed with us, and it hit me then that I shouldn't have ignored my gut feeling I'd had from the very start and shouldn't have ignored Sam's doubts when he'd still had them.

The streets were empty, the town absolutely quiet. I saw a cat straying around lazily, even some mice climbing in and out the damaged shop fronts and broken down doors, and crows circling in the sky on the search of something edible. Snow melted under my boots, it wasn't even cold enough to make my breath freeze in the air. It was all different, it felt different, everything had changed somehow. If it was for my senses coming back or if it really was, I didn't know, but the uneasiness inside me made it difficult to concentrate on anything else but the horrible idea that I could be all alone out here.

Maybe it wasn't the next day. Who knew how long I'd been out cold, for all I knew I could have been lying there far longer than just a few hours. Maybe I had turned, I thought. Maybe I'd been a Croat after all, or whatever other creature, and had just sweated it out and slept it off. Was that even possible?

No. The blood in my hair and face would have been dry already, wouldn't still be drying, my wound would have healed. I was sure it was still December, even with the freaky weather change. But where was everyone? Where did they all go, and did they all change back to their old selves, or was it just me?