chapter 10

Chapter 10: Blood on the Asphalt

​The phone dropped back into my coat pocket, but the static-heavy echo of the quarantine breach still rang in my ears. Sixty miles east. A hospital overrun.

​The ninety-day buffer was officially dead.

​"Derrick!" I shouted, sprinting out of the warehouse loading bay toward his shop.

​Derrick stepped out of his side office, a heavy metal wrench in hand, his face tightening the moment he saw me. "What is it now, Evelyn? If this is another one of your—"

​"Pack up the shop," I interrupted, my voice sharp, breathless, and laced with absolute urgency. "Grab whatever tools you need, lock the rolling steel shutters, and get Maya into the back office right now."

​Derrick stared at me as if I had lost my mind. He let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh. "Are you out of your damn mind? Pack up? This is my livelihood, Evelyn! I have three engine rebuilds scheduled for this week—"

​"Your engines won't matter when the National Guard seals the perimeter!" I snapped, closing the distance between us and grabbing the front of his work shirt. My fingers dug into the heavy fabric, my eyes blazing with the sheer terror of what I knew was coming. "A regional quarantine hospital sixty miles east was just overrun two hours ago. The state government is enforcing a media blackout, but the border is already leaking. If you stay out here on the open street tomorrow, you and Maya will die!"

​Derrick wrenched his collar out of my grip, shoving me back a step. His face twisted with raw fury and bitter resentment.

​"You're sick," Derrick hissed, pointing a trembling finger at my chest. "Every time you show up, it's more hysteria, more crazy end-of-the-world conspiracy theories! First you trap me with a lease, then you drop medical supplies, and now you want me to abandon everything I've built because of a 'hospital rumor'? Leave us alone, Evelyn!"

​Before I could answer, a piercing, ungodly sound tore through the morning air.

​Screeeech—BOOM!

​A deafening metal crash echoed from the main avenue two blocks away, followed instantly by the violent shattering of storefront glass and the high-pitched wails of car alarms.

​Derrick froze, his head snapping toward the front of the street.

​I didn't waste a second. I spun around, drawing my tactical taser from my pocket, and sprinted toward the corner of South 5th Street.

​What we saw on the main thoroughfare froze the blood in my veins.

​A delivery van had plowed straight into a concrete lamppost, its front bumper crumpled like tin foil. But it wasn't the crash that made my stomach drop—it was what was happening outside the vehicle.

​Three figures in civilian clothes were tearing at the driver through the shattered side window. Except they weren't pulling him out to help him. Their jaws were wide open, teeth sinking deep into the driver's throat in a frenzy of wet, tearing flesh and arterial spray. The driver didn't even scream anymore; his body twitched once and went completely limp.

​"What... what the hell is happening?" Derrick whispered, stepping up beside me, his color draining away entirely as his wrench slipped from his hand and clattered hard against the asphalt.

​"Patient Zero didn't wait for the calendar," I said, my voice dead and cold. "They're already here."

​One of the blood-soaked figures paused, its head twisting at an unnatural, bone-cracking angle toward our alleyway. Its milky-white, bloodshot eyes locked onto us, and a deep, rattling snarl hissed from its throat.

​It charged straight toward us down the narrow alley, moving with terrifying, inhuman speed.

​"Get back!" I yelled, raising my taser.

​Derrick, snapping out of his shock, grabbed a heavy iron pipe leaning against the wall. But before either of us could strike, a second shadow dropped from the brick ledge above—a mutated runner, faster and more aggressive than the rest.

​It bypassed me entirely, lunging directly at Derrick’s blind spot with outstretched, claw-like fingers!

​"Derrick, look out!" I screamed, lunging forward and shoving him hard out of the way.

​The heavy, decaying body of the infected runner slammed into me instead, sending us both crashing hard onto the rough gravel. The impact knocked the wind clean out of my lungs, and sharp rocks tore through my jacket into my skin.

​The creature snarled inches from my face, its jaws snapping wildly, reeking of rotten iron and death. I jammed the prongs of my taser straight under its jawline and pulled the trigger.

​CRACK-ZZZAP!

​A violent blue arc of electricity surged through its skull. The creature spasmed violently, its eyes rolling back as its weight went dead against my chest.

​I shoved the heavy corpse off me, gasping for air, blood oozing from a deep scrape along my forearm.

​Derrick was on his knees beside me, his hands bloody, his chest heaving as he stared down at the twitching monster I had just killed. The icy wall of hatred and stubborn denial in his eyes had completely shattered, replaced by the horrifying, undeniable truth of the apocalypse.

​He looked up at me, his voice trembling as he reached out a shaking, grease-stained hand to help me up.

​"Evelyn..." Derrick choked out, the walls finally giving way. "What... what do we do now?"

​"We survive," I said, gripping his hand tightly, pulling myself to my feet as distant screams began to echo from every corner of the burning city. "And you do exactly what I tell you to do."