Snarls could be heard approaching immediately after the gunshot rang out. Those damned things wasted no time. Still, I took the time to watch with a calm smile as the blood pooled around the man with the fresh hole in his head. Never let your art go unappreciated.

  I gnced back over to the girl facing the wall, still doing as I instructed. I couldn’t take away what her family, or what I assumed was her family, did to her, but I could help her survive this mess.

  “Alright, we need to get moving. Some of those monsters will be here soon. We need to get some distance while they eat on these assholes instead of chasing us,” I said and put my gun back in the holster.

  Becca: You could have phrased that more… eloquently.

  The girl’s body swayed as she hesitated before turning her head back to survey the aftermath of the fight. Her eyes ping-ponged from the two bodies before they settled on me standing over them. She lowered her hands from her ears and held them over her heart.

  “Are they… dead?” She asked me in a small voice I could barely hear over the sounds of the zombies. She made me think of a mouse scared to get in trouble for being too loud. I decided not to point out that most people struggle to survive a bullet to the brain or a knife in their throat.

  “They are. Does that upset you?” I said and watched her face, waiting for her to show a sign of disgust or horror.

  She shook her head and took two timid steps toward me. She looked me up and down, trying to decide if I was a threat to her too.

  I pulled my gsses out of my shirt pocket and slid them back on. I reached out and offered my hand to her.

  “I’m just trying to get somewhere safe. I saw what happened to you with those people throwing you to these men. If you have nowhere else to go you can come with me. I promise I won’t hurt you,” I said and held my hand out for her.

  Becca: Simp.

  Ignore the jealous robot.

  She reached out and gingerly put her hand into my open palm. Her feather-soft hands trembled in mine. I applied a small squeeze to reassure her without words. I tried to give her a comforting smile, but seeing the results of my violence, I doubted any smile from me would bring her comfort right then.

  “Can you run?” I asked when she calmed down some.

  “Yes,” she said. “I’m not hurt.”

  “Okay, hold onto my hand until you’re comfortable. Don’t fall behind. We need to move,” I said and started to lead her out of the alley.

  Becca: Please do not bring home strays.

  “Oh, don’t be a dick, Becca,” I said. The girl stepped back with wide eyes and pulled her hand from my csp. “Oh, uhh, sorry. I was yelling at the AI in my brain. She was being mean.”

  The girl slow-blinked at me and said nothing.

  “Just kidding? Look, I can expin more when we get safe, but we need to run. Do you trust me?”

  “No,” the girl said without any dey.

  “Fair enough,” I said with a shrug. “Can you listen carefully to what I say so we can get somewhere safe without being eaten?”

  Her eyebrows lifted and eyes grew wide again when I mentioned being eaten. Maybe she was unaware of what was happening out here? She bit her lip and looked down at the two bodies of the men who were so happy to have her offered to them. Then she sighed and pulled a pstic hair tie hidden in her sleeve and pulled her bright ptinum-blonde hair into a tight ponytail.

  “Lead the way, boss,” she said and walked up to me.

  “Don’t call me boss, that guy was a dick. I’m Grayson,” I looked at her and waited for her to tell me her name.

  “Nice to meet you, Grayson. Kind of. I’m… Sam,” she said with a touch of uncertainty in her voice.

  “I feel like you just made up that name,” I said.

  “I just heard you brag to a guy, that you then killed, about how much you enjoy watching souls leave the eyes of people as they die,” she countered.

  “Right. Nice to meet you, Sam. Let’s go,” I grabbed her hand and started running before she could reconsider. Once we got out from between the buildings and adjusted to each other's running speed I let her hand go and focused on where to head next.

  “Should we head to the doctor or will she meet us somewhere?” I asked Becca. I couldn’t spare the worry about if this chick thought I was crazy or not. I had wasted enough time. Maybe I should start wearing earbuds in public so people will assume I’m on a call and not out of my mind.

  Becca: Please head to the facility. I will inform the doctor when you are near.

  I was not super experienced walking around this area of the city, but I had a general idea of where to go. My eyes were constantly scanning in all directions as we ran; I did not want any surprises. Like zombies popping out from between buildings or an aircraft falling from the sky. We could still hear the sounds of occasional screams and frequent gunfire from other parts of the city. This was not something that was going to clear up in a few hours. If at all.

  I was impressed with how well the girl was keeping up with me. I had kept myself in good shape. I needed to for the dangerous life I was living until recently. But, despite looking like she was in shape, running under this kind of stress was no easy ask. The longer we ran, the more I started thinking that maybe I was slowing her down at this point.

  There were a lot of empty streets, way more than I expected. A lot of people must have bailed as soon as things started getting bad. I wouldn't compin, I was worried we would be stuck fighting our way to safety. I had only seven rounds left and would like to save them until I absolutely needed to use them.

  We rounded a corner and hit my figurative brakes. The girl came skidding to a stop trying to avoid crashing into me when she noticed I stopped running. There was a man facing away from us in what looked to be military camoufge standing alone in the middle of the street.

  Securing a safe perimeter? Maybe he got turned around in all the craziness and ended up on some neighborhood street.

  “Hello?” I called out to him. I held my hand up to keep the girl from coming too close.

  The man shuffled his feet several times to turn and face us. His head was unsteady, dipping to one side as he eyed me up and down.

  “Guuaaahhh,” he groaned and started drifting our way, his feet dragging across the ground with every step. I could tell something was very wrong with him even without the creepy groan. I pulled out my gun and held it down at my side.

  “Alright, that’s close enough. Stop!” I said and raised my weapon when he kept moving.

  This was not like the decayed I had seen before. In fact, if it wasn’t for his odd movements I would not have suspected anything. His skin looked normal outside of a pale-greenish overtone. There were no missing chunks or dripping skin. As he moved in closer to us, I could see his eyes were a creepy, bright, light blue. His veins were visibly protruding around his eyes and down his neck and had a greenish tint to them.

  His arms flopped around with each step and at one point his arm swayed in such a way that I had an unobstructed view of the back of his right hand. Teeth marks were visible on the hand and a dried blood trail that led to his fingers.

  I may be jumping the gun a little here and making some pretty big assumptions, but it seemed like he was bitten and was now like this? That changed everything. I thought some decayed monsters from some weird illness or bioweapon were attacking humans, but we could become like them? This man clearly was not a decayed when this day began.

  “Alright Becca, you can use the ‘Z’ word now,” I muttered to her.

  Becca: What has transpired?

  “Looks like a soldier got bit, he is now moving like those decaying beasts from before. He looks healthy, comparatively, outside of the slow unnatural movements along some other weird stuff with his eyes and veins. I can see a bite mark on his hand, it broke the skin and drew blood. He must have escaped being eaten but the bite turned him eventually,” I expined to her and examined the soldier for any other wounds as he moved. I hoped it was only the bites that did this and not a scratch, because Mal… not the time to dwell on that.

  Becca: That determination required quite a few assumptions.

  “Well, I don’t think I can just ask him about it!” I said and Sam scooted back a few steps from me.

  Becca: Have you tried?

  I was going straight to her server and unplugging her ass when I got back.

  “What is going on?” Sam asked, completely obviously to what was happening. I never got to ask her about what all she knew regarding the attacks; she probably hadn’t seen any of these monsters yet.

  “Alright, let’s back away slowly and see if he loses interest,” I turned my head to speak to Sam. The instant I took my eyes off the man in front of us, he roared and broke out in a sprint. His arms reached out for me as he closed the distance between us in seconds. He moved much faster than what I had been facing before.

  Caught off guard by his sudden change of pace, I stumbled backward over my own feet. Sam got right up behind me and put both hands against my back to stop my tumble. Once I felt stabilized, I rushed to raise the gun to his chest and it slipped out of my hands.

  In slow motion, I watched my gun float away from me, above my head just out of reach and then drift to the ground where it cttered on the street. I looked up at the charging man just in time to see him leave his feet and dive at me.

  I heard Sam scream and then his entire body collided with me and took us both down. I hit the ground with him above me. It felt like a car was pinned on top of me.

  I tried to push him off, but I couldn't move him an inch. He roared in my face—his saliva spshing on my face and neck. I grabbed his head and tried to twist his neck to keep his mouth away from me. I wasn’t going to be the experiment to see if the bite really changed people!

  He tried biting my fingers, his mouth snapping around with inhuman speed. I half expected to see broken teeth fall from his mouth from the force and speed of his attempted biting. When his teeth failed to find their target, he showed that his brain was still at least partially functioning. He grabbed my wrists and shoved them down into my chest, where I could no longer use them to keep him out of biting distance.

  “He’s insanely strong! Help!” I yelled out. I was losing this fight. Hell, at this point with my hands pinned I had already lost the fight. He snapped at my face, trying to get a mouthful of my nose. I jerked my neck to the side and felt his teeth snap right by my ear. His teeth grazed my ear but I had avoided the actual bite, barely.

  He raised his head to aim his next bite and shed out at my neck like a rattlesnake striking a mouse. I had nowhere to hide and no defense, so I gritted my teeth and waited for the pain.