The Outbreak Ch. 1 & 2

Kelsie's Dilemma

1

Kelsie Warren found out she was two months pregnant. She had just left the doctor's office and there in her 1990 burgundy Mercury she sat. With her arms folded over her expanding stomach, she cried. They seemed to be tears of sadness, but in all actuality they were tears of joy. Perhaps this would allow her boyfriend to grow closer to her. She wanted to call him and tell him the good news, but instead thought of something so much better.

Kelsie met Jonathon with attending her first real semester of college. She had taken college classes before, but none in a real classroom setting. There in her Human Sexuality class sat a man that she knew from first sight she would like. After class he had approached her, she shook with anticipation, she had never talked to someone with more stunning eyes than his. Her book fell to the floor and he reached down to pick it up. That was when he made a very witty, cute joke and asked her to lunch. A month later, despite her best judgment, they moved the relationship to the next level - sex. She couldn't have felt more in love than she had now, she simply knew that was true.

Now, two months later, Kelsie went out shopping on the strip. She was admiring a pair of black stilettos in a window of a very expensive shop. She knew she couldn't afford them, but ogled them just the same. She juggled the bags she was carrying until she had a better hold of them in her hands. Her eyes focused to the reflection of a familiar face behind her. There at a little bistro across the street sat Jonathon and a woman she had never seen before. Kelsie turned around knowing that with the busy street she wouldn't be seen behind the rush of cars. It seemed time had stopped, she saw the woman place her hand on his and squeeze. She heard a giggle come from the woman that couldn't have been older than nineteen.

The girl had an vibe to her that suggested somewhere along this street was a shiny Beamer parked with a customized license plate and cherry embroidered seat covers. She probably had a Teacup Chihuahua in her oversized Burberry purse. She seemed as though she had been around the block a few times. She bobbed her head and bit on her index fingernail that had been tipped with white acrylic. She wore a pair of extremely bright red pumps and a bright red belt that had been buckled around her very small waist. She wore a leopard skin dress that seemed as though it really should have been a shirt. Kelsie snapped out of her trance when a car horn sounded loudly nearby.

2

Kelsie had been a very caring woman. She was a mere twenty years old and seemed too young to possibly be as loving and compassionate as she truly was. It wasn't until her hopes and dreams had been crushed by a man she thought she would marry that she began to stop caring about the people around herself and focus more on making her own life better.

Kelsie threw her shopping bags into the back of her car. She stood there, with the back seat door open. The words on the pale pink bag seemed to stare her down. The bag held inside of it a shirt. She had gone to Baby Gap, where she found what she would be the perfect gift to Jonathon to let him know that he was to be a father. The shirt was a pale yellow, a color so perfectly unisex. On it had childlike lettering that said "Daddy's little helper". Tears filled her eyes and the mascara she had so carefully put on that morning left a trail down her cheeks. She slammed the dented car door and threw open her driver's side door. There she sat, her car seemed to be the only place she ever felt good.

How could he have done this to me? I thought he loved me. How could I be so stupid. She sat there and stared at the car parked in front of her until sun seemed to disappear completely. The sky had grown dark and fearful that she would be caught in a rainstorm she started the car and went back to the apartment she and Jonathon shared.

She packed all of her belongings and filled her car full. Her fan belt squeaked for a few seconds after she had started the car. She looked in her rear view mirror and saw a very cliché image - a yellow sticky note stuck to the door with "good-bye" written on it. She left that image burned in her head for the next hour and a half while she drove on the highway to her parent's home.

She pulled up in a driveway she knew too well. She walked up the sidewalk and there in the window sat the Cheshire cat, named Chester. Chester jumped down from the window and meowed at the door. She picked up the corner of the mat and removed the spare key that her parents had left her for moments such as this. She unlocked the door and placed the key back under the mat. Chester greeted her at the door with the smug look all cats seemed to have. He rubbed on her leg as though to welcome her back home. She picked him up and led him to the couch where she sat until her parents got home.

She admired the living room. Her mother had decorated herself. The room was warm and inviting. There wasn't any need for a TV in this room, this was the perfect place to sit down with a good book and read it all the way though.

What seemed like hours later, Chester's ears perked up to the sound of the turning lock.

"Kelsie?" said Marvin, her father.

He entered the house with a handful of keys and an armful of groceries.

"Baby, what are you doing home?" Jeanette, Kelsie's mother said with shock and happiness.

"I....I needed to talk to you." Kelsie said without looking up.

Jeanette looked at Kelsie with that motherly look that suggested she knew something was wrong, but would support her no matter what.

Kelsie entered the kitchen where she helped her mother put her groceries up. Marvin sat at the bar with his sports magazine that he loved to read every month.

"Mom, dad?" Kelsie said with a slight quiver in her voice.

She had no idea if her parents would support what she was going to tell them. She thought that maybe they would stop hating her. Jeanette put a can of peas in the pantry and turned around, Marvin removed his glasses and placed them on the bar. She had their undivided attention.

"I saw Jonathon today, I know he was cheating on me. I saw him with....this terrible looking hussy! I thought loved me. I really did. I moved out." She spat out.

"Oh honey! I am so sorry." Jeanette said with a gasp.

"Mom, that's not all. I went to the doctor this morning, I was so excited, I thought he would be as happy as I was...but now, now I don't know! Mom, dad, I am pregnant. The doctor said I was two months along now." Kelsie said, eyes shifting from her mother to her father.

Her father beamed a large smile that said he was so happy to be a grandfather. After a long group hug, Kelsie watched her mother cook a gourmet dinner.

The dinner table was decorated ever so carefully. Her mother had set Kelsie's place, as she had done so she smiled. She seemed so happy to see Kelsie back home. They all sat down to what looked like a feast big enough to feed an army. Kelsie was amazingly hungry that night, she had two extra helpings of everything. Her appetite amazed not only herself, but her parents as well. Tired from eating so much, Kelsie hugged and kissed her parents and excused herself from the table.

Kelsie climbed the stairs and walked to the end of the hallway. There in front of her was a door covered in hippie flowers and a poster of Madonna. She opened the door, the same stuffed animals and silly posters that she was embarrassed to have liked welcomed her in. Her mother was meticulous, so even in the room she hadn't been in since she was eighteen was perfectly clean, no dust in sight.

Kelsie laid down on the bed, her maroon pajama set clashed with the purple sheets on her bed. She stared at the ceiling that had a stupid poster of Ricky Martin on it. She shook her head and blushed slightly. She was embarrassed to have liked this kind of stuff.

That evening at dinner her mother had mentioned to her that she was in dire need of a receptionist, Kelsie took the job. She would most certainly need money now that there was a child on the way. She set her alarm and rolled over, she quickly fell asleep.

3

The alarm clock yelled at her. She was shocked out of deep sleep to the ringing of the most annoying alarm clock she had ever heard. She rolled over and slapped at the clock. Finally she hit the right button and the ringing stopped. She rubbed her eyes and looked around the room. The only thing that put off light was the bright red numbers on the alarm clock that shone six a.m.

How strange. My alarm must be wrong.

Usually by this time she had the bright sun shining through the cracks in the blinds. Today was very different, the sky seemed as though it had forgotten to change over form night to day. Gently, Kelsie pulled the covers back and sat up. She turned and placed her feet on the floor, her eyes focused on the blinds, they hadn't been closed all the way, she could barely tell there was anything on the other side. It was just so dark today, very befitting because it looked outside how she seemed to feel on the inside.

Just in case, Kelsie pulled out her cell phone from her purse and turned the backlight on. The clock verified that it was, indeed, two minutes after six. She shivered. It was one of those shivers that sent a chill down your spine, that made you get the feeling something very ominous would happen.

By seven a.m. Kelsie was all ready for work. As she ascended down the stairs the smell of bacon, eggs, and toast filled her nostrils. At the breakfast table sat her father. He peered over the newspaper, his eye glasses rested on the tip of his nose and his eyes were visible over the top of them. Kelsie refused to eat breakfast, she was just so nervous about working for her mother. She grabbed a glass of orange juice and walked towards the bay window. She twisted the blinds open.

The sky stared blankly back at her. The sun was barely visible behind the black clouds. The clouds looked full of water that no doubt would turn to rain by noon. Kelsie glanced at her watch and grabbed her rain poncho from the closet. She didn't bother with the rain boots, her shoes were fairly waterproof and bringing another pair would just clutter her arms. She folded the poncho over her arm and told her father goodbye.

Kelsie piled her stuff up in the passenger seat. From the top of her purse she would see the backlight on her phone click on. Then a familiar sound rang out to her from her phone. There on the face of the phone was a familiar picture and name. It had been Jonathon calling her.

Now he cares? I was gone all night and he doesn't call until this morning? Wasn't he even a little curious why I left?She placed her hands on the steering wheel, her forehead pressed in between them. Then a loud rapping on the window forced her to throw her head back in the greatest of surprise. She clutched her chest when she looked out the window only to find her father leaning over, holding her brown sacked lunch. She rolled the window down and let a gentle giggle escape her lips. She had been so embarrassed to have been scared like that.

After watching him walk to the front door, she grabbed her keys and put them in the ignition. She turned the key - nothing happened.

Oh no!

She turned the key again, nothing. She said a small, quick prayer and tried again. This time she was comforted by the rough purr of her engine and the squeaking fan belt. She arrived at work promptly at 8 a.m. Her mother's interior decorating business didn't appear to have changed much since she had last been here. She entered the front door and a few friendly faces greeted her. She took her place behind the front counter and answered the phone, took messages and booked appointments.

Things had gotten kind of slow, so she went off into a daze, she thought of all sorts of things until she was jolted from her daydreams. She was awaken with the muffled screams of a man. She stood up and looked out the window, then a man that looked like he might have been homeless ran down the middle of the sidewalk. A few people moved aside for him and a few of the business people that were too preoccupied with their cell phones allowed him to bump right into them. It seemed like no one cared that this mad man was screaming his head off.

Weird.

She looked down at her watch, 11:15. Now she was starving, she wished she had eaten lunch. She went to her mother's office to let her know she was taking her break, but her mother wasn't there. She let the rest of her co-worker's know and then she entered the break room.

She sat down at the round table and placed her brown lunch sack on the table. She looked around the room, she couldn't see out the break room door. The door was very large and heavy, made of a deep colored wood with a tempered glass window in the center of it. She took the contents of her lunch bag out and placed them on the table.

A coca cola, a spiral deli sandwich. that her mother had no doubt made for her, a bag of plain potato chips and a small sack of cookies. She knew this would be enough to tide her over until her mother would make dinner. She popped the top on the cola and took a big swig. She had just picked up the sandwich when she heard a loud noise.

She dropped the sandwich that rolled right off the table onto the floor.

Shit!She heard the voice of a woman and the crazy ramblings of what she thought was the mad man she had seen earlier.

"Get out of here!" She shouted.

It sounded like the slightly plump woman that sat a desk behind Kelsie. Her name was Maria, she had black hair that was very thick and wore a bright orange suit and matching orange lipstick. Her suit had seemed so tight on her that she might pop all the buttons off.
Then, she heard terrible shrieks coming from Maria and some strange mumblings coming very loudly from the man. All the other women in the office took to shrieking as well. Kelsie had no idea what to do. She slinked down on to the floor, frozen in terror. She couldn't see anything from the window and then loud enough to make her gasp, a banging on the door, then a bloody hand slid down the glass.

The Outbreak

1

Kelsie was far too terrified to move, she was scared to see what waited for her on the other side of the door. Then, after what seemed to be hours she looked out the window that led to the alleyway. Rain came from the sky, it hit the roof so hard that it sounded as though someone was stomping on it.

Kelsie brought herself up from the floor. She slowly turned the old brass knob on the door and pushed it open. There was resistance on the other side. She pushed with all her might and when the door finally flew open she tripped over the body of an older woman. She didn't know her name, but she recognized her from years before. She had been working for her mother for years. Her arm was bleeding badly. It looked like she had been bitten all over her arms and legs. The other four women were not in sight. Had they all left in terror?

Kelsie grabbed the nearest telephone and called 9-1-1.

"All operators are busy please hold."

Kelsie shook the phone with anger. She needed an ambulance terribly, the older woman wasn't moving, Kelsie was unsure if the woman was still alive or not. She threw the receiver down and ran over to the woman, she rolled her over on her back. Her face looked like it had nearly been taken completely off. Kelsie light out a cry. She rubbed the gold name plate that had been pinned to the woman's chest, it revealed the name Sheila.

"Sheila? Can you hear me?" Kelsie felt for a pulse but got none. It wasn't until the throbbing in her ears had lessened that she noticed that there were more screams of terror coming from outside. Kelsie ran to the front desk and grabbed her purse and keys. She looked over the top of the desk, peeking really. She was fearful for what she would see.

There was a blanket of bodies on the sidewalk, some were people still alive trying to get up, others appeared to be dead. Some corpses lay on top of people struggling to stand. The heavy flow of traffic had stopped. A pileup was just down the street. Kelsie could see a body hanging out of the car window, lifeless.

Her eyes focused on the front door, there were bloody handprints all over the glass. The heavy rain made the handprints smear down the windows. Bodies lie strewn in front of the door, which she knew was completely blocked shut. It wasn't until she looked about the room that she saw all the blood. The carpet had been soaked full of blood. Almost every inch of the once fluffy white carpet seemed to be drenched in fresh blood.

Kelsie grabbed her cell phone and frantically tried to call her mother. She got no answer and then tried her house. Her father answered calmly.

"What's going on?" Kelsie screamed into the receiver.

Her father told her that some sort of "outbreak" had spread around town. That something was infecting all the people and spreading quickly. He said he had locked all the windows and doors and closed all the blinds.

She told him she was on her way and try to call her mother.

Kelsie ran towards the door into the parking lot on the side where she had parked her car. She scrambled to get the keys into the lock on the door. The rain made it so hard to see. When she finally got into her car, she heard a loud thump on the trunk of her car. She looked back to see a badly bleeding man banging madly on her car. He seemed purple, she didn't know if it was her imagination or not.

She opened the car door to ask him if he needed help. In his hands he held something. She wasn't sure what it was, she slowly walked closer and squinted. There in his hand, he held what appeared to be a severed arm. Blood ran down the side of her car and the man continued to beat the arm against her car. Then the man looked up, his eyes met her and he started to run at her, she screamed and got back into her car. Before she had a chance to close the door all the way the back seized the door handle and tried to pry the door back open.

He violently started to beat the window on the door with the severed arm. He bit at Kelsie. Shocked, she jerked the door closed and locked it. She frantically tried to get the keys into the ignition. She turned the key praying that it would start, but it didn't.

Fuck! No! No! FUCK! Start goddamit!

Then, the most beautiful sound came to her ears - that wonderful squeaking of the fan belt. She threw it in reverse, he now was standing directly in front of her car. He came running straight at her, she threw it into drive and ran straight into him. His body slammed against the windshield, it had been cracked here his head hit. He turned his head and looked straight into her eyes. She threw her foot down on the brakes. He went flying forward. There he lay on the ground, amazingly he stirred. Surely he would be dead by now, but without missing a moment he was halfway back on his feet. The next thing she knew she was flying towards him, he went down under the car, she felt her tires run over him. She stopped and after he hadn't moved for a few seconds she emerged from her car. His brains were not only mashed into the pavement, but there were chunks of grey matter in the tread on her tires. She watched as a piece of the man's head got carried away by the heavy flow of water into the gutter.

2

Kelsie was unsure that her car would make it through all of the wrecks. The roads were riddled with dead bodies as well as body parts. The sight of a very nearly decapitated child that looked like discarded trash made Kelsie want to throw up. She swallowed hard and slowly made her way down the street. She was three houses down from her home when she noticed Mrs. Johnson, the elderly woman that had once watched Kelsie when she was a child.

Mrs. Johnson walked around in the pouring rain wearing a house coat and house slippers. Her hair was matted down around her face and there appeared to be a bloody cut across her stomach. Something hung down from her waist. Kelsie pulled closer to the yard and rolled down the window. She squinted her eyes and saw that the bloody object was Mrs. Johnson's intestines hanging out.

She, unlike the other man she had just encountered, walked very slowly. It seemed like she had no worry in the world. She wandered around in circles and as Kelsie pulled away from the curb, the front door that was cracked open was slowly opening. Kelsie feared what was trying to exit, but let out a sigh of relief when she was it was only Mrs. Johnson's dog, Toby. He was a golden retriever, very well trained. She had gotten him years before to help her see around her house and open doors. Toby ran over to Mrs. Johnson and nudged at her with his nose. Water drenched Toby's fur and matted his down as well. He nudged at her once again in the stomach then began to pull on the bloody guts that hung down, he drug her about the yard by her intestines.

Kelsie covered her mouth and sped off. She pulled into the driveway and turned the car off. She ran to the door and banged loudly on it. Her father's voice came from the other side. The lock clicked and he pulled her inside. He closed the door and locked all four locks. The room was so dimly light, she could barely make out the outline of her father's face. A candle in the kitchen seemed to be the only light in the entire house.

"I called your mother's cell phone. She was at the Rose Hotel when all of this happened. She said that she was in the meeting room, measuring and picking out carpet swatches when the radio talked about the outbreak. She heard a crazy person banging on the door so she barricaded herself in. She is alright though, but I doubt she will be able to get back here without being seen by...one of them. " He looked at her with terror in his eyes. He tried to sound calm, but Kelsie would hear the fear in his voice.

"We have to get to her, we cant leave her there." Kelsie cried out.

"No, it is better she stay there, I have managed to keep the lights off, I have a few flashlights, but I am worried about leaving any lights on. The people on TV say that these infected people are very smart, they are hunting the non-infected people."

The word hunted scared Kelsie. What did it mean? They were hunting them? Were they stalking them and then pouncing like a tiger? The few she had seen were out in the open running around like psychopaths. She hadn't seen more than that man and Mrs. Johnson, but she was sure there were plenty more.

Marvin led Kelsie down into the basement, where be bolted that door as well. He had turned the gloomy basement into a fallout shelter. They had always kept a lot of extra food and water down there, but now it seemed like they had enough food to feed all the hungry down there. The basement windows had been covered with very thick black tar.

"I saw one of them from the basement window's when I came down here. I was sure that they would see me, but they didn't, I laid low and hide from them until I was sure they were gone. I covered the windows so that they couldn't see in. Who knows who will try to get in now. The looters have gone crazy, they are stealing everything in sight." Marvin said, his eyes shifted from side to side.

He explained that these infected people were everywhere. It was happening in all countries all of the world, in every state in the United States. It was pure chaos. They weren't sure how all of this started, but they did know that the infected spread this disease or whatever it was by their blood. It didn't take much to infect people, a simple cut or slice or bite and then you were infected. They knew that if you hit them in the head or shot them, that they would go town and stay down.

Kelsie tried to convince her father that they needed to find their mother, but she couldn't. Rose Hotel was about 10 miles down the road from their house. They could make it there and back in less than 15 minutes. She just wanted to bring her mother home. Her father absolutely refused traveling out there.

The good news was that the rain had stopped. It had been two hours since it had started. It had rained four inches in that amount of time. It had grown colder outside since the rain stopped. Kelsie wrapped herself up in a blanket her father had brought down earlier.

"I am not going to sit here and forget about mom, I am going to get her." Kelsie said.

"How are you going to get there and come back safely? The roads are all blocked off, no one is allowed to leave their homes. Even the police are afraid to be out there." Marvin said.

"I don't know how I will get there, but I will. I have to get her!" Kelsie said with pure determination.

Marvin stood up and walked over to a cabinet. He opened it and pulled out a small gun and some bullets. He loaded the gun and handed it to her.

"If you're going to go, I cant stop you. I would like to, but I wont. Do you know how to use this?" He asked her.

"I have shot a gun a few times, I might be able to."

3

Not much else was to be said after the goodbyes were said. Kelsie got into her car and drove off in the direction of the hotel. Since the rain had stopped the infected didn't seem to be running around as much. She had only seen about a dozen in a mile. A couple of them seemed to wonder in circles, a few tried to run after her car, but lost interest when they couldn't catch her or when a non-infected was seen walking around outside or through windows.

She had seen some of them jump through living room windows to get to the people inside. She could hear their screams grow distant as she sped off. She knew there were families with parents and children and babies in those homes and it made her heart hurt. A few times she had seen what seemed to be families wondering in packs together preying on the non-infected.

Finally, she reached Rose Hotel. The lights from some of the rooms were visible from the ground and the lobby's lights gleamed out of the huge high windows. Kelsie pulled the car right up to the main entrance. She walked in, gun in hand, finger on the trigger. There didn't seem to be a single soul in the entire lobby. Kelsie carefully scanned the lobby, hiding behind a large wooden chair.

Nothing.

The hotel was glorious, it had been so carefully decorated. There were at least three dozen vases full of fresh bouquets of brightly colored flowers. On every wall there were mirrors that had to be at least 6 feet by 7 feet. They reflected the beautiful chandeliers that hung very beautifully from the ceiling that was covered in detailed woodwork and in the center, where the largest chandelier hung was a painting. The artwork, very ironically, painted what looked like heaven. There were large fluffy clouds and perfect little angels. The painting depicted heaven, when in all actuality, the world had now gone to hell.

Kelsie was shocked to find the lobby deserted. There were stacks of luggage that had not been placed on the luggage carts, room keys that had fallen to the floor. It looked as though an infected came in and attacked. But where did all of the infected go? Surely they couldn't have made it into the elevators, they didn't seem smart enough to operate machinery.

Kelsie walked to the elevators and pushed the call button. Neither of the elevators moved. They were stuck on floors three and four, her mother was on two. She let out a sigh of relief. As she backed away from the large elevator doors, she tripped over a discarded overnight back. Kelsie tumbled to the floor and landed square on her butt. She clenched her stomach, the fall had sent a shock all the way up her back and then to the pit of her stomach.

Without skipping a beat, somewhere above her she heard a loud banging. The sound was horrific, not only did she hear banging on a thick metal elevator door, but also heard terrible screaming. She picked herself up and leaned toward the ground floor elevator doors and pressed her ear against it. The noise was coming from inside of the elevator.

Kelsie made her way to the stairs. Before opening the doors, she stopped to listen. It seemed as though no one was in the stair well, so she entered. The white walls were covered in smeared, bloody handprints. With her eyes she followed the trail, they led to the door that took you to the back parking lot. Kelsie made her way to the second floor and cracked the door open, she peaked around the corner and saw and heard nothing.

She pushed the door open just enough to get her swelling belly through. Once on the other side, she looked both ways. The hallway had been just as carefully decorated as the lobby had been. The large gold leaf table had once been decorated with a three foot tall vase that had been full of fresh white roses. The vase now lay on the floor, broken to pieces. The white roses were covered in blood.

Kelsie saw the door that had a sign posted on it. Even from the end of the hallway, she could read the calligraphy that read, "Yellow Rose Meeting Room". Below the sign hung another, "Closed for redecorating". Kelsie knew right away that this is where her mother must be.

Kelsie walked down the hallway, staying close to the wall that had fewer doors. She approached room 217, the door was open. She leaned against the wall and peaked in. She held up her gun as though she were a cop investigating a burglary. She saw nothing. She proceeded down the hallway when something behind her shuffled on the long beige carpet. Her arms fell to her side and her mouth opened slightly. Then she heard loud steps coming at her, she turned around and there five feet in front of her was a woman rushing at her. She lifted the trigger just as the woman had reached her and without a moments hesitation, with Kelsie's arms fully extended and the gun pressed against the woman's forehead, she pulled the trigger.

Kelsie had closed her eyes and was thankful she had done so. She was soaked in blood and brain matter. She had been sprayed in the face by the woman's spurting blood. The crazy infected woman was now missing half of her head. Kelsie pulled the bottom of her shirt up and wiped her face. Now it was covered in smeared blood droplets. The perfectly ironed white button up shirt that had been crispy clean, was now filthy, with both dried and fresh blood. She continued down the hallway and reached the double doors leading into the meeting room.

She peeked through the crack of the doors and saw tables and chairs and luggage carts stacked in front of it. She tried to push the doors open, but the resistance was far to great. She pounded on the door frantically. It was growing very dark outside and she very desperately want to get home before the reminisce of day faded.

"Mother? Mom? Are you there? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Kelsie called out. All the questions were asked so fast no one would have been able to get a word in edge wise.

"Kelsie? Kelsie! Oh honey, hold on! I am coming." Jeanette shouted.

Kelsie wished she hadn't yelled so loud, there wasn't any telling how many of "them" were listening and waiting. Then, on the other side of the door she heard banging and thumping and things flying across the room. Then the door came open just wide enough for her petite mother to come out.

They ran into each other's arms as you had seen in so many romantic movies. It seemed that time slowed here as well in the movies. They held each other for a minute and her mother wept.

Jeanette's pants suit, which was a navy blue, was now nearly black, drenched in sweat. Her perfectly curled hair was matted to her neck as though the room she had been in was one-hundred degrees. Her two inch heels were terribly scuffed, which Kelsie imagined had come from moving all of the tables and perhaps even tripping over some of the items she had moved.

Then, from the meeting room another woman emerged. She had been covered in blood as well and looked as though she had been in a fight.

4

"I was listening to the radio in the meeting room and I heard the news about some infection or something spreading like a wildfire throughout the country! I heard screams and I barricaded myself in. When I heard beating on the doors, I peeked out and I saw her." Jeanette said, pointing at the other woman that stood there in shock.

"I'm...I'm Sandra. I was in room 215 when I heard the person next to me going crazy. I was terrified! I had no idea what was happening. I hid in my room until the floor had gotten quiet. The elevators weren't moving, I pushed the button over and over and nothing ever happened!" Sandra said, every word she spoke was shaky.

Sandra was a very small black woman, no older than 35. Her hair had perfect ringlets, some that were now sticking straight up on the top of her head. She was wearing a pale pink jogging suit that had "Juicy" embroidered on the right shoulder. There were speckles of blood on the back of her suit. Her sneakers matched her well coordinated outfit and in her hand, she held her cell phone, which was also a pale pink. Her eye make up was now smeared down her cheeks and her lipstick had been smudged in the corners.

Jeanette continued Sandra's story:

"I heard this girl in the hallway and she sounded frozen with terror. I moved as many things from the door as I could to let her in, then we got everything from the room and barricaded ourselves in."

Kelsie, happy with the reunion knew it was time to go.

5

They had somehow made their way back to the end of the hallway and down the stairs. They crept through the lobby and out the front entrance. Kelsie looked around the outside of the hotel and climbed into her car. There was a dead silence in the town that she had never before heard. There was usually a buzz of traffic, horns honking, and children playing. Now, at 7 p.m., only twelve hours after she had finished dressing for work, it looked like it was midnight.

Jeanette climbed into the front seat and locked her door. Sandra pulled open the backdoor and fell into the back seat. For a brief moment, they took it all in. In the distance they noticed flames in the sky. Half the town looked on fire, but luckily it was in the opposite direction from their home. A black cloud had been cast over the town.

Kelsie started the car, this time without any hesitation, the engine had started. She put the car in drive and set off down the road. Her headlights blazing from the front of the car barely made the pitch-black area around her any brighter. Kelsie adjusted the radio, hoping to hear some good news, but all she got was static. Then before she had a chance to look up at the road ahead of her, Jeanette screamed her name.

Kelsie looked up and in front of her was a young boy that looked infected. He couldn't have been more than the age of seven and was dripping in blood. He was of Hispanic decent and had a long shaggy haircut. The sight of the boy had shocked Kelsie so badly that she did almost a complete 90 degree turn to the right into a park. A moment later, Kelsie gained control of the car and managed to stop beneath a tree. The branches on the tree hung so low that it hid the car. No one on the outside would have even seen her parked there, but the headlights were a dead give away.

Kelsie's head had hit the steering wheel enough to give her a terrible headache. She pulled down her visor and opened the vanity mirror. The light from the mirror was dim, but Kelsie could see she had a small cut, a drop of blood came from it. She used the back of her hand to wipe it away. She closed the mirror and pushed the visor back up. In front of her it appeared to be another car's headlights that shone directly at her.

Sandra and Jeanette stirred after a moment, neither of them hurt. Kelsie killed the engine and turned off her headlights. A minute or so later, they saw the outline of several people approaching. They emerged all around the car, they sex was hard to determine, but Kelsie knew the closest person was a very large, overweight man. Sandra let out a gasp when she heard hands on the pounding on the hood of the car.

"Stay very still, no one move, maybe they wont see us here." Kelsie said in a slight whisper, barely loud enough for anyone to hear. She reached over and pushed down the lock on her door.

Sandra started to whimper and Kelsie prayed she would stop. Then without and warning, Sandra threw open the back door and took off. Tree branches slapped at her. She screamed and as the scream grew fainter, she heard it stop. They had gotten her, Kelsie knew it. Jeanette unbuckled and leaned halfway into the back seat and pulled the door shut, locking it in the process.

What the hell? What was she thinking?Kelsie figured that the shock had finally gotten to her, she let the though slip away that by now, Sandra must be one of them.

A very small figure ran at the car, the screams told Kelsie right away that the small person had to be Sandra. Kelsie noticed that her pale "Juicy" jogging suit had been torn right above the breast, exposing her black lacy bra. Her jogging suit had nearly been torn to shreds and the pants were drenched in blood where her legs seemed to have been bitten. Horror-struck, Kelsie turned the key and the engine started, her foot hit the gas pedal and they sped off. Kelsie had forgotten about the car that had been in front of her, but in the seconds before she crashed head first she griped the steering wheel and made a hard left. Her car went into a spin in the wet grass. She regained control and headed towards the road.

Seconds later they went over the curb back on the road to her house. They were en route when Kelsie's trusted cell phone rang, it was her father. She answered and a second later was off the phone. He had begun to worry greatly about his daughter, but they were minutes away from the house.

They pulled up in the driveway after sneaking past a few of the infected people that seemed more confused that crazy or angry like the rest had been. The confused ones were badly hurt and seemed like they were taking baby steps. They had no care in the world, so Kelsie made no attempt in dodging them.

Both Kelsie and her mother scanned the residential area and only saw the confused infected aimlessly wandering around the yards of people they had once knew. They both opened their doors and walked towards the front door. Jeanette had forgotten her keys in her purse at the hotel, so she grabbed the key that Kelsie had replaced under the mat.

Then out of nowhere, an elderly man ran towards them. Kelsie planted her feet shoulder's length apart and prepared to fight him off while her mother tried frenetically to open. He had to be at least seventy years old, but had the agility of a child. His forehead had a gaping hole in it and a dried stream of blood that ran from the left side of his forehead, over the middle of his nose to the right side of his neck and onto the collar of his Hawaiian shirt. His khaki pants looked soiled, Kelsie was unsure if maybe they had been soiled due to fear from being attacked or perhaps because he was simply crazy.

Kelsie kicked the elderly man in the chest and he landed on his back. Kelsie recognized him right away as the man that lived six houses down on the opposite side of the street. He grunted angrily, and in one steady jump, he was back on his feet, she kicked him once again right before he was able to grab her arm. Finally, she heard her mother's voice calling out to her to get in the house. She ran towards the door and managed to slam it before he made it to her. Kelsie heard the man's head hit the door so hard that it rattled on it's hinges. She pressed her forehead against the door and looked out the peephole. She saw him on the ground, it looked like he wasn't going to get up.

They joined her father in the basement and tuned a small radio into the local AM channel to see if anything new had surfaced about the infection or perhaps even a cure. There wasn't any news they hadn't already heard, so they unrolled sleeping bags and did their best to get some sleep. Right before Kelsie fell asleep inside of her teal sleeping bag, a familiar face emerged from the shadows. Kelsie hadn't even given any thought to the fact that she hadn't seen Chester since the day before. Chester rubbed his soft fuzzy head against her cheek. He curled up right next to Kelsie's chest and they both fell asleep.

She awoke to the whisper of the radio. She unzipped the sleeping bag and slipped on a pair of shoes. Thank god her father had brought down some of their clothing, the bag he had brought Kelsie had fuzzy purple house slippers. They were far more comfortable than the shoes she had been wearing the day before. Somehow her mother, being the wonderful cook she is, managed to whip up something absolutely delicious on the small cooker that had been in the basement.

The smell of omelets and flawless golden brown toast had filled the basement. Her parents greeted her and handed a plate of food over to her.

What exactly was happening? It seemed like Earth had gone to hell. How am I to raise a baby in this? How will I even have a baby? Who will be there?Marvin reached over and turned up the radio just loud enough that they could hear it. The man on the radio sounded like a god-fearing man. He preached:

"Who do you think did this? It's the sinners! God is angry with us. He is angry with the murderers and rapists and the baby killers! If you do not repent now, you will not be saved. Those people out there, they are demons! They want to convert you to be like them. What have you done? Sinners! SINNERS!""Jeanette shut off the radio.

"I have no idea what's going on, but I think we need to try to get out of here. There has to be somewhere safe right?" Marvin said, uncertainly.
"It's bullshit! It's all bullshit. I cant believe that. Demons, eh?" Jeanette shook her head. She looked purely disgusted.