They are dead 3

4

"What is going on?" Nomonde said, panicking now and forgetting about everything that they were talking about. The horror just didn't seem to end.

"She's not breathing."

"She was fine a minute ago."

"Nomonde, can you please back off!" he now said, trying not to sound too annoyed but he was. Nomonde didn't take it too personally and decided to do just that. What the hell was going on? She was fine just a minute ago, she thought to herself. Tracey's face was yellow in colour.  The kind of yellow tint that the people in the city had who had been admitted to hospital and the kind of yellowish tint that the bus driver had when he attacked her.

It was very quick that the ambulance had arrived but Luke's arms were still writhing in pain from keeping the girl's oxygen flowing through her body. After they had arrived Luke came to stand next to her again and was now silently staring back at what the medics were doing.

"Oh my God, Tracey." she now turned her attention back to her friend being attended to.

"I'm sure she will be fine." Luke said as he slumped down to the floor, finally getting a moments' rest.

"You okay?" she asked now, knowing that he wasn't and trying not to poke too hard. Luke looked rigidly at her, his hands on his hips, his eyes squinting. His body language said it all.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For not cooperating... earlier," she said, trying to hide her shame and guilt, the event shocking her stubbornness out of her body. He stared at her again with a long, stupid, boyish stare. After a second or two he wiped his brow and shrugged at her.

"It's okay. I know you were in the mood for a fight when you came off the bus. After dealing with that guy, adrenaline was pumping."

The awkward tension was vivid now. After what had happened, they both fell into shock. The adrenaline was real. It was true. After she had to deal with the creep on the bus, she had been in fight mode and Luke was really just trying to help. He had done such a good job and she didn't see him as someone who wanted to help but only saw another man.

Another man, hungry for sex.

Before she could say anything again, something to break the awkward silence, there came a grunt and a loud scream. What now? What had happened now? The paramedics were there and they were handling the situation. What could have been the issue now? Luke and Nomonde swung their heads around: the man that was attending to Tracey, the paramedic, held his throat; blood seeping through the gaps of his fingers, a cold stare following in their direction. As the lady paramedic who was assisting him screamed, she lunged towards him to somehow stop the bleeding or do something. Tracey, who was previously being attended to was now sitting up. Blood - dribbling from her chin - gleamed dark red and a cold, deathly stare immured behind her pupils. Right then, she had looked exactly like the bus driver, the icy stare of nothingness peering from her eyes as she leaned over to take a bite out of the lady-paramedics arm.

"What the f-"

"Luke!" Nomonde said, now frightened by the sight of the sweet girl, her friend Tracey, that seemed to have been okay a few minutes ago, wasn't breathing about a few seconds ago and was now savagely biting and tearing off pieces of flesh from the paramedic's arm; like it was a slice of pizza or cheesecake. Luke stood still now, waiting to make a painful decision. His eyes screamed silently of abandonment. The girl that he had been trying to help, first by bandaging her wound and then performing CPR on her, had just bitten into the tricep of the paramedic after she had bitten through the neck of the male paramedic. It was a terrible sight, one that invoked shock and made one's body dead weight with unbelief. A sight that would make your mind freeze and your insides turn cold.

"What the hell do we do?" she asked again but Luke didn't even flinch. Before he could really do anything a group of security guards that was standing nearby, batons held high moved in on the girl. Trying not to use the force which they had they responded quickly, seeing the commotion and the blood. One tried to restrain her, holding her down with his forearm and another held on to her legs, pinning her against the hot bricks that had been baking in the sun. It was no surprise when the girl had done it again: bit down on the forearm of the security guard that had been holding her down and scrambled from underneath his weight as she leapt towards the one that was still holding her legs.

"My God!" the security guard mumbled, bedazzled by the girl's strength and now the next target on her list. He was now rendered immobile by the weight of what just unfolded and couldn't release his grip on her legs. The girl, her face now splattered with the blood from her first three victims, leapt towards the guard and bit into his face. It wasn't like the bite from a child that was angry or the playful bite of a dog that may be broke the skin. She knew what that would look like. No. This was a full-on bite. Something beneath the surface of a primal instinct, something inhumane and animalistic. The security guard screamed and now Nomonde was grunting from fear and shock, her hands on her mouth.

Her legs made the decision.

She couldn't take the scene anymore and before she knew it she was running towards the little souvenir shop at the top of the parking lot. She ran over the little bridge and right across towards the small tables and chairs where people had deserted their meals to look at the commotion or hurry their families to their cars. The doors were closed when she got to it, the shopkeeper had locked the doors and stood crying on the other side, her eyes wincing at the horrific scene.

"Open the door!"

The shopkeeper just shook her head and retreated backwards out of fear, disappearing into the darkness. When Nomonde turned around she realised that she would have probably done the same thing. Behind her, when she looked over towards the parking lot, a chaotic panic ensued. As with any emergency, a crowd had been drawn towards the girl and where she had laid down. It was an even bigger crowd than when she had been bitten. Now, all of the people who had been watching on as the paramedics previously tried to help Tracey, were getting into their cars. Some driving off and some contemplating whether to help or not. Seeing as the violent girl had taken down 4 people already, everybody else probably had the same idea as she had and made a run for it. It was chaotic to look at and when she had turned back towards the shopkeeper, the shop was full of people looking on at the ongoing mayhem outside.

"Bastards!" she slammed the glass pane of the shop and started crying again. A hand grabbed at her and she immediately felt helpless. She could only hope that it wasn't Tracey, now wanting to sink her red teeth into her shoulder. She spun around and kicked towards the person who was holding on to her wrist, attempting to getaway. She missed and when she did she realised that it was Luke who had grabbed her by the forearm.

"Let's go!"