Sarah’s heart raced as she crouched on top of a dirty toilet, a bloody baseball bat grasped tightly in her trembling hands. She still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. It felt like a second ago that she had been playing baseball with her friends in the park. She had just hit ball and started running to first base when a piercing scream from a nearby thicket of trees halted the game. Somewhere beyond the park two cars collided and black plume of smoke rose into the air. “We have to go check it out.” Tom, a tall lanky boy with poor judgment suggested. Sarah had already retrieved the bat from the powdery dirt of the baseball diamond, the same dirt that was streaked up her jeans and coated her white running shoes. “That’s a stupid idea. What if it’s one of those rabid people they’ve been talking about in the news?” Sarah’s best friend Jen replied, looking at Sarah with fearful eyes. “Let’s get out of here, better safe than sorry.” Sarah said, walking towards the sidewalk that led out of the park. “Wait…someone’s coming!” Jenna shouted, pointing towards the trees.
Sarah whipped around and squinted towards the trees, her eyes scanned the tree line until they landed on a blur of red darting towards them. The someone Jenna was talking about could hardly be considered a man, no man could run that fast, and certainly no man could run that fast with that much of his shoulder missing. The creature headed towards them at an incredible speed, his right arm flopping limply behind him holding on only by a thin layer of muscle and skin and threatening to fall right off at any moment. One of the girls in their group that was standing closest to the trees started screaming at the top of her lungs, the beast let out a guttural roar and charged towards her. The girl continued to scream and turned away from the man, her legs stumbling clumsily forward as she tried to sprint away. The creature lept towards the girl with a screech, its good arm reaching out for the panicked girl in front of him. His fingers found the long blonde strands of the girl’s hair and gripped it tight. Sarah watched in horror as the girl fell backyards, her own momentum causing her legs to fly out in front of her as the creature tugged her closer to his snapping jaw. The girl thrashed against the man, screaming and kicking as her hair knotted around his bloody fingers. The girl was inches from the man’s dripping mouth as another screech echoed out of the trees and another bloody, rabid man can bounding into view.
“We have to get out of here!” Sarah screamed at her friends, her voice barely audible over the sound of the blonde girls screaming. The man was on top of her now, his hands pulling her head off of the ground by her bloody, knotted hair. Her eyes were wild and panicked as she thrashed underneath him. After raising her head into the hair as high as he could he let out a inhumane screech, his bloody yellow teeth visible between his snarling lips. In one smooth motion he slammed her head down onto the dirt with a sick crack. A wet gargling sound came from the girl as blood sputtered from her lips. Sarah looked back at the ghastly scene with wide, fearful eyes. The blonde girl looked Sarah back in the eyes and held out a trembling hand. “Ple-please,” she mouthed silently as the man sunk his teeth into her neck, tearing out a large chunk of flesh as blood gushed out of the gaping wound. Sarah turned away from the scene and started running, pulling Jenna along with her down the stone path. Jenna stumbled after her, sobbing loudly as she ran. “Jenna hurry up!” Sarah panted as Jenna stumbled and fell to her knees, hiding her face in her dirty hands and sobbing. “They killed her,” she screamed between sobs. “They killed her and they are gonna kill us too!” The second man running after them wasn’t as fast, he was a heavy set man in a shirt that was torn in lots of places, bulges of his pale skin spilling out of the tears. But he still wasn’t far, and Sarah knew they had to get out of their quick, everyone else had already disappeared, and she didn’t want to wait to see if there were more coming. “We have to go now Jenna, please!” She urged her friend.
By the way the man stumbled after then it looked like the man had a limp, but as Sarah looked closer she saw that they man’s left ankle was turned almost completely backyards and with each step his weight fell violently against the mangled limb. “If we hurry we can get away from this one, he’s slow. Jenna please, let’s go!” Sarah tried to lift the sobbing girl from the floor. Jenna’s body was as limp as a rag doll as sobs sent shudders through her body. “I can’t!” She screamed and fell to the floor. The fat man wasn’t far now, and Sarah backed away from her friend, holding the bat in front of her. “Jenna! If you don’t move it WILL get you, get up now!” Sarah held out a hand desperately for her friend and Jenna reached out for her. They locked fingers just as the fat, groaning beast fell, his arms flailing in front of him and landing on Jenna’s exposed calf. Jenna screamed and tightened her grip on Sarah’s hand as the man dug his chubby, purple fingers into Jenna’s tan calf, his nails breaking her skin and sending blood pouring from her leg. “Help me!” She screeched as Sarah tugged at her hand, frantically trying to pull Jenna away from the vile man’s hand. But the man held tight and the harder she pulled the farther the man’s nails dug into Jenna’s calf. He pulled her towards with one hard tug that almost knocked Sarah off her feet. Jenna screamed and thrashed as the man bit down on her calf, his teeth tearing into the toned muscle. Jenna’s held onto Sarah’s hand and screamed a wet, bloody curdling scream. Sarah’s eyes filled with tears and she pulled against her best friend, trying to free herself from the girls iron grip. “Sarah! Help me please!” Jenna screamed, her hand falling away from Sarah’s. In the distance Sarah heard more unearthly screeches, saw more smoke rising from the trees, more body’s flying out of the trees. She looked down at her best friend as tears streaked down her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she whispered and turned away, running away from the fat creature and her best friend.
She didn’t make it very far before she started hearing the screams coming from in front of her. She was almost to the exit of the park when she saw her friend with poor judgment running down the middle of the road, three screeching, bloody bodies chasing after him. The boy was breathing heavily and his eyes were hazy, he looked like he might fall at any minute. A short, dark skinned woman lunged onto his back, knocking his forward. She sank her teeth into the back of his neck as the other two creatures behind her squatted over him and took fleshy bites out of his back. Sarah stared at the scene from the exit of the park, she looked down the road in the opposite direction of the boy, the direction of her home. Two cars had collided in the middle of a four way intersection and burning body with no legs dragged itself down the road. Not far behind him a young boy, no older than 6 stumbled down the road, his bloody teeth snapping open and closed as he snarled and hustled towards the still screaming boy being fed on. Sarah looked back into the park, seeing nothing behind her but picnic tables, the bathroom, and the path she’d ran down herself. She was just about to turn back to the street when something near the path caught her eye. Running down the path towards her, the man with the missing shouldering, began screeching, his arm flopping wetly behind him, blonde hair still tangled in the twitching fingers.
She couldn’t tell how long it had been since she had ran into the bathroom and blocked the door closed with the garbage can. Luckily the creature hadn’t seen her when she ran in, but he’d stayed around. Sarah could hear him snarling, clacking his teeth, and occasionally let out screams so loud she had to cover her ears. After a while she heard more snarling, groaning, feet moving through the grass, running after something else or someone. Gunshots filled the air, sounding close and frantic as a mixture of human and creatures began screaming outside the bathroom. Sarah gripped her bat tight and held her breath, making herself as small as possible against the white toilet lid. A man yelled orders to someone, his voice sounding panicked and defeated. Tearing flesh and the metallic scent of blood filled her nostrils as the other members of his group screamed through gurgled, blood filled mouths. “FUCK,” he screamed and the sound of his footsteps faded into the distance as he abandoned his friends. Eventually the screaming stopped and was replaced by the sound of teeth and flesh, blood spurting out in streams as the zombies outside the bathroom gorged themselves on the man’s friends.
Sarah sat in silence, waiting for the sounds of the groaning creatures to wander off. It took what felt like days for them to leave, but it was only a few hours. By now it was at least midnight, way past her curfew, but she doubted her parents were waiting at home for her. She knew she couldn’t stay there forever, the creatures could wander back at any time, and who knows how long it might take them to leave next time. Slowly, she stepped down off the stall, her legs sore from being bent for so long. She unlocked the door and peered out, her breath showing in the cold night air and her bat held out in front of her. Edging towards the door, Sarah listened for any sound, but heard nothing as she stepped out into the dark night. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she peered out into the park for a sign of anyone around. No one, but she knew that she’d have to stay on her guard until she was someplace safer.