Amnesia

Slaughter House

"Alice?"

I snap back to the presence. My eyes are wide and my lips are pressed tightly together. Everyone is looking at me.

"Sorry," I mumble. "Memory."

"I thought you lost your memory?" Jose asks.

"I did."

"Are you regaining your memory?" Naoto questions. I nod my head and he smiles. "That's good. That's excellent! What triggers these memories?"

"Anything familiar that happens. A picture, a dream. Just stopping the car quickly reminded me of the accident. I remembered it. It was like I was back in that seat, hearing the glass shatter and my family scream." I can't face them as I say it. I even regret saying it because I don't want to think about it anymore. That's one thing I could've lived without remembering.

"That's great. After such trauma in that accident, it would seem as if you wouldn't be able to regain your memory. But you're showing such good signs of improvement."

I unbuckle my seatbelt and look around. The few stragglers still follow us, but they're very slow. Most have terrible injuries. One is missing half of its right leg, causing it to crawl on the hot surface.

"Park closer to the store," Shayla says. "It'll be easier for us to carry stuff in and out."

"Should we check around for another vehicle?" I asks. "Since we lost the other van."

Jose nods. "I'll look for a vehicle, you can look for whatever you need."

"We might need your help carrying the supplies," Naoto says. But by the time he's finished with his sentence, Jose is already walking away.

"Let's just head inside. Shayla look for food and water first. Naoto go straight to the pharmacy. I'll stick with Naoto to make sure it's a clear shot to the pharmacy."

"Sounds good," Shayla says. "We don't know how many will be in here so get ready for the unexpected."

Shayla walks up to the door, weapon ready. Naoto stays behind me for protection as Shayla swings the door open.

The smell hits us like a train.

Rotting flesh, blood, and spoiled food all mixes together to create the worst smell yet. Shayla gags, and I have to try to hold it back. Naoto, who's used to the smells from his occupation, keeps a straight face.

We enter the small market swiftly, looking around for infected. But what we find is worse.

Dead bodies cover the market floor. Blood is smeared across the tile and splattered on the walls. Limbs are strewn around the store.

"What the hell." Shayla looks around in shock.

"What happened here?" Naoto whispers, stunned.

At least fifteen bodies are on the floor. I see one of them that is almost hollowed completely out. It looks more like a heap of meat rather than actual corpse.

Flies and little bugs crawl and fly around the bodies. I wonder how long they've been here, and what happened. By the look of it, none of them look like they turned.