I brought the gas pedal to the floor, and we raced down the road and onto Jonah Street. I had to slow down there, debris littered many parts of the road. I started to curse under my breath as I carefully drove around the fallen concrete. The anticipation was killing me.

It felt like a hand was squeezing my heart as we pulled up in front of the department store. The spot where Jessica worked was on the bottom floor of the tall building. Three cars were parked in front, one of them was severely damaged. I quickly pulled into a parking spot, and noticed that all of the windows on the bottom floor had been smashed in.

"Let's go Aaron, grab the flashlight out of the back. Hurry!"

We both simultaneously got out of the car, and Aaron grabbed the flashlight.

In a flash, we ran into the building together. The floor in the entryway was soaking wet; rain had been pouring in unhindered through the broken windows and doorways. We carefully made our way around the broken glass that had been scattered around the room. I called out Jessica's name. When no response came, I rushed into the lobby room and turned the flashlight on. From what I could see, it was devoid of people. A few display cases here and there had been knocked over, some of the furniture looked like it had been tossed around. Some of the wooden chairs were broken. I could tell that the mess wasn't just from people panicking when they left or something; some kind of struggle had happened here.

Aaron and I scurried through every single inch of the first floor (which only consisted of the lobby and a small fast food joint) shouting Jessica's name all the while. Our search was fruitless.

"Come on, let's go to the next floor." I pointed to the doorway that led to the second floor. That was where Jessica worked. As I opened the door to the stairs, I began to notice a smell hanging in the air, one that reminded me of... the police barricade we had passed. It smelled like rot. I felt goosebumps cover my body from head to toe. Jessica...

I suddenly charge up the stairs and tore open the door to the second floor, paying no heed to anything other than finding the source of that smell. As soon as the door opened, I could smell the rot even clearer, which fuelled my frenzy. I ran to the source as fast as I could, and my body froze when I saw what was lying on the floor. Just in time, right before Aaron opened the door, I managed to will my body to scream, "Aaron, stay right where you are! Do not move!"

"Why?!" he screamed back.

"Just... don't move," I choked back a sob. My eyes wouldn't move off the scene on the floor.

Lying with his back against the wall was Jessica's manager. This was the first time I had met him, but I'd seen photos of him before. From what I had heard from Jessica, he and his family were actually very genuine people and he treated his employees well. That was a rarity these days. I had always wanted to meet him... so... why did we have to meet like this?

His legs were gone. They were cut clean off above the knees, and a large pool of blood surrounded him. I felt bile rise up in my throat as my eyes refused to move from the body, as they took in every little detail. His shirt was tattered, and his torso was covered in what appeared to be scratches. Blood slowly seeped out of his wounds. On his shoulder, I could see what must have been a bite mark. His eyes were shut tight, and his head was lying limp.

I tried to hold it in, but I threw up everywhere.

"Dad? What's wrong!?" Aaron screamed out.

I started to feel dizzy, and tried to recover, "Stay there! Stay there Aaron, I'm fine. Just please go back into the lobby... and stay there until I come get you!" I rolled the flashlight to the door, told him to grab it and go down.

"...Okay" Aaron muttered. I heard him walk down the stairs.

The manager... What the hell happened to him? What did this? I knew in my heart that it had something to do with the screams. I jumped back at the sudden motion near his body. Did his arm twitch? What... There was no way he could still be alive.

But I was proven wrong as his eyes fluttered open, and he tried to lift his arm towards me. I didn't know what to do, or what to say. I just sat there staring at him as his mouth opened and closed.

He was struggling to speak. A tiny squeak came out of his mouth, then he coughed up blood. My stomach started to feel weak again. I wanted to do something for him, but there was nothing that I could do. I think he knew that. He didn't have much time, and he wanted to tell me something.

"Th- They came out of nowhere..." he started to say. His voice was raspy and quiet; it was almost like a whisper, so I had to lean close to hear him. "Those.... Those things... attacked us all at once. Oh God, their screams... Dragged the others away. Left me here. Af-" he coughed again, much more violently this time. When he spoke again, it sounded like fall leaves brushing together in the wind, "Few people went upstairs. Top floor, I think. Don't know where things... went..."

He grabbed my hand, "You're... Markus. Aren't you...?"

I nodded, though it was hardly noticeable because my entire body was shaking.

"Your wife... She's up there. Hurry. Those... things... they might still be here."

He coughed one last time, and then his body immediately went limp.

I got up, but immediately stumbled back onto the ground. He said things attacked them. He mentioned the screams. Dear God, the things that made the screams were either in this building or nearby. Jessica was in this building. Aaron was alone. I pushed down my nausea, swallowed my fear and tried to calm myself. I pushed everything aside, and focused on two things alone: finding Jessica and protecting Aaron. Let's just hope we don't run into any of those "things" on the way up the building.

I took one last look at the manager, and silently thanked him. Then, I sprinted down the stairs and into the lobby. Aaron was standing by the door, flashlight in hand and looking wildly around.

"Aaron, mom's upstairs. But we have to be fast. We have to be careful too. And quiet. Just stay right next to me and everything will be alright."

"But dad, what was in there?"

I violently shook my head, "That doesn't matter right now! We just need to get to mom as fast as possible."

I grabbed him by the hand and led him to the stairs. On my first step, I heard a loud sound rip apart the air around me. It was very high pitched, and at first I thought it was the scream of a woman, or a dying animal. But then it turned into a complete mangle of noise, almost like dozens of animals screaming all at once, with other high pitched noises rising in between. It was indescribable. The only word that came to mind was... screams.

Finally, I'd find my answer: what had caused the deaths, what had caused the screams.

I prayed that they weren't anywhere near Jessica.