David immediately discovered a problem that would have his parents rolling their eyes with familiar exasperation.

  He had no idea where he was going.

  Years of ride-sharing and public transit had left him navigationally helpless. He'd always relied on his phone's GPS to find anything more complex than the corner store. The same phone that now sat in his bag, stubbornly displaying "No Service" like a digital middle finger.

  Sure he knew generally where he was going, if nothing else giant pillar of light was a big clue, it was the fine details he was sweating; which road do I take to get there? Is there anything important on the way?

  Plus, he'd stolen a car… He had a drivers license but other than occasional rentals for road trips he didn’t drive. At least this car was an automatic, he vaguely remembered that manual transmission was a thing but had no idea how to use one.

  At least the road headed toward downtown, he was pretty sure his bus drove along here for a bit to get to work, though it turned somewhere before the office. Gingerly working the controls David steered around abandoned vehicles, trying not to look inside. Maintaining a steady pace that felt recklessly fast in the apocalyptic silence, but would probably have earned him abuse from the regular commuters, he moved quickly towards his possible destinations. The steady growl of the engine seemed shockingly loud after all the silence, making him stress about what could hear him as he moved through the seemingly empty city.

  Part of him hoped something would respond. The other part prayed nothing would.

  The notification ping nearly made him crash.

  His phone had found signal. David yanked the wheel hard right, tires squealing as he pulled over and slammed the car into park. His hands shook as he fumbled for the device.

  One bar of reception. One beautiful, precious bar.

  He dialed 911 with desperate fingers.

  Ring. Ring. Ring.

  "Come on, come on..."

  Ring. Ring. Ring.

  Finally, a click. A woman's voice, professional and calm: "Thank you for calling 911..."

  "Help! This is an emergency! I'm the only one awake and there are zombies and..."

  The voice continued smoothly over his panic: "...your local and regional 911 network is experiencing difficulties. We are diverting your call to the state police. Please hold."

  The line went dead followed by a new ringtone.

  "Dammit! Pick up!"

  David screamed at the phone as if volume could summon help from the void. Why was nobody answering? Where were the emergency responders, the government, the military?

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  Movement in his peripheral vision made his blood freeze.

  Something ducked behind a parked car on a side street thirty yards away. David's primitive brain screamed predator before his conscious mind could process what he'd seen.

  He wasn't alone anymore.

  David kept his eyes locked on the car, barely breathing. Seconds crawled by like hours. Then he saw it again: a flash of movement, the suggestion of a shoulder, dark fur mixed with something that might have been hair.

  A single bloodshot eye appeared around the car's bumper, scanning until it found him.

  Eye contact.

  The thing exploded into motion, bursting from concealment in a bounding rush that closed the distance with terrifying speed.

  It might have been a dog once. Maybe a lab or golden retriever, judging by the size and bone structure. But it was changed, horribly twisted like something from a fever dream.

  The front legs stretched too long, ending in fused lumps of flesh that looked like a cross between hands and paws. Fused flesh that looked wet and incomplete, forming a central palm with digits splaying out like broken fingers. Yellow-brown fur fought with patches of finer hair across skin that rippled and bulged with each movement.

  The face was the worst part. A muzzle distorted by other features, almost as though two artists were trying to sculpt different heads out of wet organic clay. The result was horrific and incomplete, a grotesque hybrid with too many teeth and eyes and incomplete skin coverage. Worse, those eyes held just enough intelligence to be disturbing.

  The thing left wet prints on the ground as it raced forward, its face twisting with each step. It was an abomination that couldn't figure out how to be what it wanted anymore. Worse, it seemed to know what it needed, desperate to reach him. Desperate for meat.

  David fumbled for the gear shift as the creature closed the final yards. His hands shook so badly he couldn't grip the lever properly.

  Ten yards. Five.

  The transmission finally caught. David floored the accelerator just as the creature reached the car.

  The impact rocked the vehicle sideways.

  The thing slammed into the driver's door with a wet thud, bouncing off the metal and staggering back on its mismatched limbs. David felt the car lurching forward even as claws scraped against the rear quarter panel.

  Something heavy landed on the trunk. David glimpsed the creature in his rearview mirror, trying to find purchase on the smooth metal with those horrible hand-paws. Its weight pressed down on the rear suspension, making the car fish-tail as he swerved around an abandoned pickup truck.

  The passenger side mirror exploded in a shower of plastic and glass as David clipped the truck's open door. He didn't care. Getting away was the only thing that mattered.

  The creature lost its grip and tumbled onto the asphalt behind him. David watched in his remaining mirror as it rolled, found its feet, and immediately gave chase with a loping gait that covered ground faster than anything that size had a right to move.

  For terrifying seconds, it actually kept pace with the car.

  David's speedometer climbed past thirty, then forty miles per hour. Finally, mercifully, the creature began to fall behind.

  Its pursuit ended with a series of bubbling howls that raised every hair on David's neck. The sound carried frustration, rage, and something disturbingly close to grief. As if the thing mourned its lost meal or didn’t understand why he ran.

  David didn't slow down until the howling faded completely behind him.

  Only then did he allow himself to process what had just happened. He'd been hunted by something that used to be someone's pet. Something that might have fetched tennis balls and slept on a couch just three days ago. At least he hoped it used to be someone’s pet because the alternative was monsters popping out of thin air.

  If dogs were transforming, what about their owners? What about everyone else in the city?

  David gripped the steering wheel tighter and pressed harder on the accelerator. Whatever answers waited downtown, he needed to find them before dark.

  Before more things like that dog-creature figured out where he'd gone. At least he now knew where he had to go.