The alley is suffocating, the air thick with the stench of garbage and a deeper, more terrifying kind of rot. Sarah whimpers, a child lost in the heart of a monstrous nightmare. I look at the fence, my stomach churning. I wasn’t built for this, not for climbing, fighting…I was made for arguing in classrooms, not outrunning actual monsters.
Then again, were any of us built for this?
Muffled growls echo down the alley, like a death sentence delivered by inhuman voices. Luke’s eyes mirror my panic, but there’s a flicker of determination there too. “We gotta move, now!”
Before reason can kick in, Sarah’s sobs erupt into full-blown wails, cutting through the alley like a siren.
“They’ll find us!” Luke’s whisper is harsh, tinged with an edge of anger directed more at the situation than at Sarah. It’s unfair, but then again, none of this is.
Movement at the alley’s entrance. A figure staggers into view, clothes in tatters, face a grotesque ruin. It sniffs the air, like a shark sensing blood in the water.
“Abby!” It’s Sarah, her voice strangled with terror.
Action, that’s all I can focus on. “We climb!” I rasp, hoping it sounds convincing. My track record with heights is abysmal – a childhood attempt to impress Luke ended in tears and a twisted ankle.
Luke leaps at a rusty trash bin, the screech of metal almost as horrifying as the snarls coming closer. Sarah scrambles to help, her fear channeled into clumsy, frantic action.
Somehow, the bin ends up under the fence. It groans ominously as I step up. This isn’t just falling that terrifies me – it’s falling and being too slow getting up with those things on my heels.
“Luke, go!” I shout, shoving him towards the bin. He’s up the fence with surprising speed.
My turn. Each step on the flimsy bin feels like a step towards an execution. Halfway up, a scream tears from my throat. Sarah’s down there, another infected drawn in, zeroing in on her like a missile.
Time melts into a sickening blur. Muscles burning, I pull myself over the top. No time for elegance, I land in an ungraceful heap, gasping for breath.
Below, Sarah is frozen, pure terror painting her face. Luke reaches down. “Come on, climb!”
She can’t. Or won’t. The infected inches closer, and panic explodes within me.
“Jump!” I hear the words as I say them, the sheer insanity of it hitting me a second later. “Sarah, I’ll try to catch you!” Will we both end up broken? It’s the best of several horrific options.
A split second where Sarah seems to weigh certain death versus the potential of another kind. Then, she surges towards the fence, using Luke’s hand to propel herself up and over and into the unknown…
The impact is a shock wave through my body. Sarah barrels into me, the force taking us both down. Pain flares as we hit the ground, and for one horrifying second, I can’t breathe. Then, the snarls – so close, the fetid stench of them overpowering even my own rising fear.
“Run!” My voice is barely a gasp, but I shove Sarah from me, ignoring the flare of agony in my ribs. I scramble up, moving on autopilot, Sarah a stumbling blur beside me.
Luke’s a beacon up ahead, leading us towards a crumbling wall bordering a desolate parking lot. We collapse against it, gasping for breath.
“Oh my God, Abby, you… oh!” Sarah’s voice trails off, realization dawning in her eyes.
DU LIEST GERADE
Death by Blood
Science FictionA single mistake unleashed a nightmare. From the secretive halls of Briarwood Research Complex, a bioweapon meant to cripple enemies has devolved into a horrifying plague, transforming humans into ravenous, decaying monsters. As cities crumble and s...
