OUTBREAK; The Final Hour

Ch3. "Mad World"

April 21st, 2017

She dragged herself behind a building. Hoping to get away from all this chaos. She looks down at her cracked phone screen,
"A text?.." she hesitated for a moment, looking around. She didn't want to be distracted, especially since she was out in the open; vulnerable.
"Is everybody alright?? Where are you guys?" She typed, her hands were trembling. It was silent. Nobody responded. she looked around once again before beginning to run. Shoving her phone in her brown messenger bag, She needed to find a place to hide and fast, her phone buzzed, rapidly. She didn't have time to look, she frantically scanned the area before noticing a shed. She ran in and locked the door, hoping it didn't see her, catching her breath she pulled out her phone to read the texts.
"SERAPHINE THANK GOD"
"I THOUGHT NOONE WOULD ANSWER ESPECIALLY YOU"
"R U OKAY?!"
"SERA"
The texts were from Laine, she sighed; Relieved. Soon after another text showed up,
"We should meet up. It will be safer for us to stick together."
Seraphine smiled, she was glad her friends were okay
"Soni! God I thought you got infected, you ran to the disaster."
"Fucking dumbass." She typed immediately after it was sent.
"I'm okay, thanks for asking," Soni responded.
"Yeah whatever. I thought the power lines would be cut off by now." Laine looked up from her phone, checking her surroundings before responding after sending the text. "I'm with Jacob rn.""Omw over with Yuko, please stay safe." Then he stopped responding.
Laine noticed that he wouldn't respond and became irritated.
"He stopped fucking responding. Great," She rolled her eyes. She then looked to her side, seeing an old eggshell-white house with tattered paint and fallen shingles from the roof. She looked closer and realized you couldn't see inside; the windows were boarded up. "Let's go." She grabbed Jacob's arm and ran to the house, dragging him like some kind of dog.
"Dude...This house looks sketchy." He pulled back slightly before Laine grabbed his arm tighter.
"We're in a damn post- apocalypse right now. everything's gonna look sketchy," Laine rolled her eyes. "Surprised you even survived this long." she muttered. Suddenly her phone buzzed, it was from the group chat.
" is Ruth ok???? Why hasn't she responded?" Seraphine texted, Laine stared blankly at the phone. She was right, the whole time the group had been texting Ruth hadn't said a word.
    "What's.. That?" Jacob slurred, pointing at the trees. Laine peeked over and squinted her eyes, trying to see something, anything. But whatever it was, it had disappeared.
"Jacob, did you really see something? Don't fuckin' freak me out like that." Laine spoke sternly, but before she could speak again she heard a rustling sound. Turning around with caution she hid behind the walls of the house, Out of the wooded area came an average heighted zombie, fully gray with long nails that acted as shovels and forks. Barely human like. It dragged its hands along the dirt path, leaving streaks as it walked by.
..Hic
"Sorry.." Jacob whispered. Laine's eyes widened as she saw the creature turn its head in their direction. It dragged itself towards them, making eye contact. Laine frantically looked around for something to use as a weapon but it was too late. The zombie was right in front of them. The smell of dirt and rotting flesh made Jacob even more nauseous. Laine watched in horror as it opened its jaw, she couldn't do anything.
After a moment, the zombie just stared at them. Not moving, its eyes following their every movement.
"What the fuck..." Laine muttered, looking at Jacob from the side, not wanting to move.
"Yeah. and-- it doesn't look like. That thing that was on the thing."
"What??"
"In the bar." Jacob poorly tried to explain, Laine took a moment to process his sentence.
"You mean the broadcast on the TV...?" Laine sighed, you could tell she was tired of his bullshitting. Jacob nodded and smiled. He was right, it was completely different and not at all hostile. The creature closed its mouth and cocked its head back, there were no noises for it to trigger such behavior, but it dragged itself over to a spot, a pile of dirt with a stick stabbed in the middle.
     "Is that a grave?" Jacob leaned in, his eyes widening as he watched the zombie use his hand to shovel away the dirt. Revealing the body in the ground, half way rotting.
Laine gagged, watching as it used its forked hand to stab the body. Laine quickly looked away, but it didn't stop her from hearing the crunching sound of the bones.
"We have to get out of here..." she whispered.