"I didn't mean to! There wasn't anyone there in front of me! I swear!"

My mind was racing and it was then that I realized that I haven't seen a single car pass by on the way to town on our way here. In fact, we ended up smack middle of the bridge where a safety guard stopped us last night.

But it was deserted now.

The multiple blockades they used to prevent us from coming in last night were now broken in several different places. Bright orange traffic cones were scattered everywhere and flattened with tire tracks.

"What the hell happened here last night?"

"Sasha, don't change the subject! Look what you did!" Lily wailed.

Ray tapped her on the shoulder but his eyes were wide and staring past her. "I don't think she was the one who killed him."

Lily whipped her head around so fast that it almost sent her raven hair flying out of it's curls. "What do you mean?! The whole car nearly fell over when we hit him!"

He pointed in front of him and we saw then what had made him frozen with fear.

Bodies upon bodies laid motionless up and down the streets. The intersection had a trainwreck of cars smashed into one another with flames still burning from the impact. I spotted a few people still inside with gashes on their foreheads, all dead or unconscious. Burning flesh tinged my nose hairs and I quickly closed my eyes from the sight.

This place is a graveyard.

"Are they all...?" Raymond choked, slowly inching back towards the car.

"Yeah, from the looks of it..." I mumbled.

I couldn't believe what we saw. The white of their eyes and their mouths hanging open, twisted in pain still burned into my eyelids and wouldn't go away.

"Anyone else feel like going home? Like right now?" Ray asked, hopping back into the car.

"Yeah, we should." I agreed.

"Wait." Lily protested.

I was already halfway in when I stopped, wondering what in the world would make her want to stay at this terrifying scene. If I was to get even a small sniff of the decaying bodies roasting on the sidewalks in this morning sun I knew I was going to lose what little I had in my stomach.

"We...we can't go yet please. It's my mom...she could still be out here and she's all I have left. I have to go see if she's okay" She was shaking badly. "I mean I know, this is frightening as hell but..."

Tears were forming in her pleading eyes and when I saw how difficult it was for her to swallow the lump in her throat. I let out a reluctant sigh. It wasn't everyday to come across not just one dead body, but dozens? I even spotted one of the construction workers still in uniform sprawled out over someone's lawn.

"You sure?" I asked, with the tiny sliver of hope that she would change her mind. "Maybe we should call the police about this first and let them take care of this."

"Sasha, who knows how long that will take? You even said it yourself that whatever is happening to these people that take out police officers. If that's true, I may never find out if she's alright." She broke down in front of me. "Please help me. I don't know what I would do if I lost her too.."

"But what about us Lily? What if we cross paths with the people who did this?"

"We could at least try." Ray spoke up in a whisper. He quickly cleared his throat. "We'll go as far as we can and then we turn around if it gets too much for us to handle."

I closed my eyes and surrendered. "Alright...Let's go then, I guess." I murmured. "Have you tried calling her again at least?"

She shook her head. "I wasn't expecting her not to show up last night so I left my phone at home. Please just let her be ok."

"Don't worry, I'm sure she is." I reassured her. I looked over at Ray. "Hey, try calling 911. We could use any help we can get at this point."

"But what about the guy stuck underneath the truck?" Ray asked.

"Shit that's right."

Both Lily and I exchanged mortified glances. The guy was still wedged underneath both of my front tires like a giant log. His dirty tennis shoes stuck out but were turned face down into the pavement.

"Come on Ray. Get your ass out here and help us."

"No way, that's disgusting! He's dead!"

"Dude, we're not going to be able to leave unless you get your ass out here and help! Are you really going to let two women move this dead body on their own?!"

Lily dropped her gaze from him.

When Ray instantly climbed out and stood by her side, I did my best to hold back my grin. For as long as I could remember he's had a crush on Lily ever since I joined her band. Even though she was only three years older than him, she still always treated him like a little brother though.

"Let's just get this over with already." He grumbled.

I went for the man's left foot and Ray grabbed his right. However, we both dropped him the instant we touched his skin.

"Yuck. Why is his skin so cold and clammy? I thought he would be baking out here." My brother was constantly rubbing his hands over his jacket and pant legs to get the disgusting goo off his fingers. "It felt like fucking slime."

"Hey, watch your language, you're not old enough for that yet." I scolded him.

"Bite me."

Lily shushed us. "Come on please, just grab him by his shoes and yank him out already. I want to hurry up and find out if my mom is okay and then get the hell out of here."

"Fine." I huff.

I look over at Ray and he nods before reaching for the man's leg again. The sound of the corpse being dragged along the rubble of concrete started to make me feel queasy. I sealed my eyes shut the more we pulled him.

Ray let out a groan.

"How much longer?" I complained.

I heard Lily make a strangled choking sound.

Whatever they were seeing, I didn't want to see. I fell back on my ass all of a sudden letting me know he was finally pulled out all the way from underneath my truck. I opened one eye out of curiosity and instantly regretted it. The guy's skin was a creepy bluish hue and weird slime secreted from his skin.

"What...is that...?" Lily whispered and swayed off balance.

Ray was the first to react when she fainted and her head barely missed hitting the cement if he didn't grab a hold of her dress and dive underneath her. He knelt beside her and held her head up in his arms. "Are you alright Lily?"

"Wow she's out cold." I coughed from the smell and climbed to my feet.

He fanned her gently with his hand and then tapped it against her cheek softly. "Lily, Lily, come on, we have to go. We need to find your mom, remember?"

Her eyes fluttered open. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry. I'm fine now..."She muttered weakly.

Before she had a chance to get back up, I turned to see the corpse roll over onto his stomach and then push himself up. As he pulled his head up, I saw that both of his eyes were gone. It was hollow and empty inside his skull where they should have been. Blood stained his face and his stomach was bloated. He suddenly let out a horrifying growl and lunged straight for Lily.

Right as he leapt for her, I crushed my foot down on the man's back and forced him down into the gravel. But even though I was putting all my weight on him, he was still trying to grab Lily with outstretched hands.

He became more vicious, growling like a wild animal and was struggling underneath me to get her.

"Kill it! Kill it!" Lily screamed while clinging onto Ray.

"But you just said that I shouldn't kill people!" I yelled back. "And even if I did..." I gritted my teeth trying to stand on top of the guy because he was slipping from under me. "I don't have anything to kill him with, my guitar is in the truck."

Both of them scurried up to their feet but the man let out a ruthless snarl and dashed for them, sending me flying. I landed painfully on my back and Lily let out another shriek as it went for her.

She hugged Ray for cover when the man crawled towards her. It reached up and snagged a handful of her dress to yank her towards him. I rolled over to my knees and appeared behind him, quickly looping my arm around it's slippery neck tightly to get him to release her. I snatched my other hand into his messy hair, snapping his head back and forcing him up to his feet. The lace on Lily's dress tore at the ends and the guy finally let her go.

As he squirmed around, I pinned his clammy body against my chest in a deadly bear hug as much as I could, but he was towering over me by a few inches. He kept lurching towards them in quick jerks. The grips on my slippers were close to shit so I was losing my balance easily each time.

He soon grew frustrated and then he turned his empty eye socket stare to me. He started shoving his body against me until I was stumbling backwards. It was trying so desperately to turn his head all the way around to take a bite out of my face.

"What are you waiting for?! Get the hell in the car already!" I shouted at them when I saw they were just watching me like deer caught in headlights while I desperately fought off this guy.

One of his dirty hands gripped onto my arm and I could feel his sharp nails digging into my skin. "Fuck! Go already!"

They didn't waste any time and rushed for the truck. When I heard both of their doors slam shut, the man went for my arm to gnaw on instead. His slimy drool dripped on my skin the closer he brought it to his mouth and feeling grossed out, I released my hold on him. He stumbled backwards and until he fell and his head hit the concrete with a sickening crunch. He finally stopped moving.

I didn't bother to check to see if he was getting back up. I ran straight for my truck and slammed the door so hard that it made my ears ring.

"Drive us out of here already!" Lily shrieked from the backseat.

My hands couldn't stop shaking and I kept dropping the keys. I finally jabbed it in and started up the engine but when I looked over the dashboard, I saw the man standing up right in front of us again.

We all watched him in silent horror, waiting for it's next move. But he didn't budge at all. His undead gaze was too unnerving to look away from that it was making me cringe into my seat.

For some stupid reason, I had the bright idea of trying to scare him off by pressing down on the horn. The abrupt noise did the opposite and riled the deranged man that he covered his ears and threw his head up to the sky, letting out a screeching sound I never heard before in my life. It was like helium escaping from a balloon and nails down a chalkboard all at once.

We covered our ears and screamed when he started slamming his fists down on top of the hood like a furious gorilla, over and over again.

"I'm running him down OK?" I hollered at them. Unless they had any other plans, this guy was going to tear us to shreds if we didn't do anything.

I nearly jumped out of my seat when Lily's hands dug into my shoulders to shake me violently. "I don't care, just drive!" She screamed.

I floored it hard on the gas petal and the truck jolted us forward, sending both Ray and Lily flying back into their seats. The bumper crashed into the guys' midsection and was slowly starting to rip him in half. He finally slipped underneath the hood when I hit over 50 miles per hour. The truck jumbled violently as we trampled over his body and we finally sped off down the street.

My hands were still shaking. To calm myself down, I reached for the spare pack of cigarettes I kept in my glove compartment. I left my usual favorite Indian stitched case back at home because usually I can go a couple hours without needing a smoke. But how the hell was I supposed to know that we were going to come across something like this to the point that I can't even hold it together?

When I clicked it open, I saw I only had one left out of the twenty-four.

Just fucking great.

I slipped the stick out of the pack and a few particles dusted onto my hand. Just how old was this anyway? I brought it up to my mouth and ignored the old taste on my tongue while using the car lighter to light up the end. It was a harsh hit but enough to calm my nerves. I relaxed into my seat and let my eyes flickered back to the deserted road.

It was weird though. The longer we drove, there wasn't a single person outside since that guy. There were no cars on the streets. All the roads were disturbingly clear.

"What the hell is going on here?" I whispered mostly to myself but no one answered me regardless. I figured they were starting to feel as uncomfortable as I was.

Soon, I came upon a street sign I didn't recognize on the route I normally took to Lily's house. It bothered me at first but I decided to brush it off. Normally when I drive I have a hard time paying attention to where I was going anyway. However, when the name on the next two signs were unfamiliar too, I slowed and pulled to the side of the curb.

"Uh, hey Lily, what street do you live on again?" I asked.

She gave me a confused look. "It's Harbor Street Sasha, you know that. How could you even forget? You used to pick me up all the time for band practice, girl."

"I know it's just I haven't seen that sign yet and I don't recognize this area. Do you know how to get to your house from here?"

"Well, where are we?"

When I told her the last two signs we passed, she rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "Go back the way we came. You might have just missed it from...all this. It's going to be the street right after Liberty."

I made a perfect illegal u-turn in the middle of the street to Lily's dismay, she scoffed every single time I normally broke the law with her in the car but this time we continued in silence. I forced my mind to ignore the lack of life since we came to this city but surprisingly even the skies were clear of birds despite it being early in the morning. Everything was too eerie.

After I passed Liberty Road, I finally came across Harbor Street but I found out why I couldn't find it in the first place. Someone had crashed the sign out of it's post. It was sprawled out in the middle of the road now. I didn't mention it to Lily even though it was freaking the shit out of me and I stayed silent and drove over it carefully to keep the peace.

Being the oldest, I can't lose my cool or else we would all fall apart.

I came to a stop in front of the familiar large beige creme house. The words "The Huangs" were in bronze lettering across the front of her house. As I looked over in their driveway Lily hopped out.

"I'll be just a sec, I'm going to check if she's here or not." She told them softly. As she circled the front of the car. I reached out my window and gently stopped her by the shoulder.

"What?" She spoke coldly and didn't look me in the eye.

It's just...her mom couldn't have been home. Every time I drove here the one thing I couldn't help but notice was that giant ass expensive black SUV her mom drove. This time I noticed that the driveway was empty.

"I don't think she's here." I told her gently.

She snatched out of my grip. "It's fine, she could have left a note or something Sasha, let me at least go check!" She ran straight up her cobblestone walkway to the front porch, paused to unlock the door and then disappeared inside.

"I think you're being a little hard on her." Raymond spoke up suddenly.

"Oh yeah?" I raised a brow and our eyes met in the rear-view mirror. I slouched a little lower in my seat exhausted and not in the mood to fight. "What makes you say that?" I asked wearily.

"Well, I mean, imagine coming back home when it was perfectly fine yesterday and then now, all the people you used to see on a daily basis are all dead now, and your mom is nowhere to be found. How would you feel if your friend just said bluntly, "Hey Lily, your mom is dead, don't bother checking."

My jaw dropped. "All I said was that her mom wasn't home!" I hissed, my voice heated. "I saw that her car wasn't here! Like if she was somewhere else! What if she managed to make it out of this alive and evacuated with others?"

"I don't know. Either way, it feels like we're giving her false hope." He mumbled.

I didn't say anything for a while to simply ignore him.

"I wonder if mom and dad are okay." He whispered.

"I don't." I answered flatly.

My brother let out a loud sigh. "I know you don't." He mumbled.

They were the last people I wanted to talk or even think about right now.

"Look, maybe they weren't as bad people as you say they were sis."

I was ready to raise my voice at him and explain just why we shouldn't even be thinking about them at this moment but he hushed me harshly. He darted his eyes ahead of us, signaling me that Lily was coming back.

When she got in the car, she didn't say anything.

I glanced over at Ray to talk to her.

"Uh, did you find anything Lily?" He consoled her cautiously.

She looked between both of us then let out a huge exhale. "No, but I did find my cell phone. That night she did message me that she was going to be at work late at the hospital again but...I don't have anything from her after that."

It was silent between us again, after a moment I said, "So, want to check out the hospital and see if she's there? I don't mind taking you Lily."

She gazed at her bejeweled pink poodle iPhone case and nodded at the black screen. "Yeah. If you don't mind Sasha."

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