"Hello... sir... are you OK?" -No response. She took a few steps closer. "Mr? Do you need help? Are you hurt? It's not safe out here in the street."
He spun around clawing at Katie. Her mouth dropped open and her breath caught in her throat. She reacted quickly, jumping backwards away from his grasp. The man had looked completely normal from the back but the front was another story. He looked as if he had been in a car accident. One eye hung from the socket and the opposite side of his face was missing. A large piece of metal was protruding from his chest. Katie stumbled back a few more steps, the man in the suit staggered after her. She swung the machete, missing the man's neck and striking him instead in the shoulder. The blade got stuck there and Katie struggled to pull it free. The infected man spun around sending her sprawling on the sidewalk. She pulled her knife from its sheath on her ankle as she got to her feet. She could feel its rotted breath on her neck and she turned stabbing the knife into the man's remaining eye. The Infected staggered backwards and Katie made one last attempt to get her machete. She pulled it free and brought it back around, this time hitting her mark and sending his head flying from his shoulders. She stood there for a few moments catching her breath. Fuck that was close! How could she be so stupid? She should never have gotten that close. She took out her water bottle, took a few sips and splashed some on her face before replacing it in her pack.
She continued making her way to the bridge. When she got to the top she just stopped and stared. There was nothing but cars bumper to bumper in both directions for as far as she could see. Some doors hung open others appeared to have been involved in slight fender benders. A big blue f-150 sat slightly atop the hood of a smaller sports car. Both doors hung open but where were the owners? There was no one, dead or alive, in sight. This was a good thing she thought, but very peculiar. It made her wonder what the hell was up. She continued on making further observations as she went. There were quite a few bodies or body parts lying about, and a great deal of blood and gore. A bicycle lay on its side the back tire still spun eerily. She could hear a dog barking somewhere and she smelled smoke coming from a distance. People's personal items lay scattered on the ground, dropped in the owner's haste trying to escape. She came upon a black leather wallet among the other items on the ground. She picked it up and opened it. The man's driver's license showed a handsome black man. His name read Marcus Andrews and he was only 35, too young for the horrible fate Katie imagined had befallen him. She flipped through the pictures feeling a twinge of sadness. There was a picture of him with a beautiful woman and three beautiful children and various other pictures of his family. She frowned, they are probably all dead or running for their lives now she thought shaking her head.
A banging to her right startled her from her thoughts. It was coming from the small black four door sedan she had been walking past. The windows were all smeared with blood and something inside wanted to get out. She kept walking. So far that was the closest contact she had since getting on the bridge. Where could they be? Could they have navigated through the tangled mass of cars in search of more victims? She finally came upon her first Infected. It was limping around in an open space between cars. As she passed by it noticed her. Seemed in fact almost as if could smell her or something. It turned towards her and walked into the car in front of it. It continued walking into the car over and over again in its desperate attempt to get to Katie. She couldn't help but laugh, "You stupid son of a bitch," and kept walking.
When she got about halfway she could see a lot more smoke coming from further up ahead. She could also hear a lot of noise and banging. The barking was a lot closer now. She looked around. It was coming from a white SUV. She approached the vehicle. Thee was a motorcycle sticking out of the windshield and the front end was pushed back making it impossible to open the front doors. Katie opened the rear passenger side door and looked at the driver's seat and shuddered. She was dead. Dead dead. The motorcycle sat where her head used to be . No coming back for her. On the floor between the driver's seat and the back seat a pet carrier lay on its side. Inside sat a little tan and black puppy. We wagged his tail frantically when he saw Katie. She reached in and freed the puppy from his prison scooping him up and hugging him against her chest. She grabbed the towel that was sitting on the floor and wrapped it around the puppy. "Shhhh It's alright." She started walking again with her new companion.
Something caught Katie's foot as she walked. She looked down and saw a hand clawing at her feet. The arm stretched out from underneath the car she had been walking past. The set of arms dragged out a torso. or half a torso, with entrails hanging out of the end. Seriously? This thing is missing its lower half and it still won't quit.
A little further ahead a tractor trailer lay on its side engulfed in flames. The truck part was in a tangled mass with another car. It appeared that a small red sports car had jumped the median going the other direction and landed right in the path of the oncoming truck. Both were now burnt down to nothing but a shell. Several other vehicles had crashed into the back end of the truck and were also beginning to burn. The truck lay across almost the entire lane at an angle. She couldn't even see the other side, all she could see were flames and thick black smoke. Another car stuck out from under the truck. Katie imagined it had slid into the car before falling over on top of it. On the left side of the mess was what appeared to be a narrow pathway between the edge of the bridge and the burning wreckage. She headed that way. Katie put her towel over the puppy's head and began to squeeze her way through the opening. The flames were so close she could feel their heat on her face. The smoke was so thick an black her eyes began to tear and she struggled not to breathe.
As Katie emerged on the other side she took a deep breath and began coughing uncontrollably. She looked up and saw a horde of the Infected. They had been intently trying to get into some kind of armored vehicle. Every single head snapped in Katie's direction when they heard her coughing. The Infected started in Katie's direction but there was nothing she could do. She was struggling to breathe. Panic gripped her as her vision became blurry and her head began to spin. The last thing she saw before the horde encircled her and she lost consciousness was the door on top of that armored vehicle pop open. Then darkness took over.
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