AM13 Outbreak Shorts

Outbreak - Sixteen

I don't run back, I know that I should but I don't. I continue moving forwards, like an idiot lamb racing right into the slaughterhouse. I know people are firing guns, I'm pretty sure people are having bullets tearing through their bodies, but still I cannot stop.

I keep in the shadows as much as I can, at least having some sense in my mad mission where it seems I want to magnetize trouble in my direction, and as I creep sweat trickles down my forehead, salty water making its way into my eyes, blurring my vision. My ears strain, desperately trying to give me any clue as to what's going on around here, but I don't get anything.

I mean, logically I know what must be happening, but my hammering heart wants more, evidence or something.

"Run!" someone screams in a voice so loud that it seems to echo through the whole town. "They're killing everyone, run!"

That should be my cue to leave, I know it, but still I don't go back to Emma's where I might be lonely but at least I'll be safe, I simply remain frozen to the spot.

If people are dying, if they're being killed for being infected then maybe that's the only way. Maybe Mom was right to insist that Dad stay at home; at least he won't be lined up and shot, which is now what I think must be happening at the specialist medical facilities.

Bang!

It's only when a gunshot that sounds off far too near to where I'm hiding for my liking that my limbs loosen and I make a break for it, tearing off as fast as my legs will carry me. I pump my feet hard into the sidewalk, my arms flap and flail by my side, but I keep on going. It's hard to recall the correct direction that I should be moving in because I'm going to a house that isn't my own, but I keep on moving regardless.

Hopefully Emma isn't forced to kick me out because of this. Hopefully her parents still don't know that I'm staying in the garage. Hopefully I survive...

"Oof." I'm so busy focusing on moving that I forget to look at what's happening right in front of me. It isn't until I slam into a body that the realization hits me.

And then, when my eyes travel up the person in front of me a sickness hits me hard. If they're killing everyone, then this could be it. I might be about to die right here, right now.

This could be the horrendous, bloody ending to the most horrific few weeks of my life.