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It was like the outbreak all over again!

Staying in the car was like staying in the stairwell. Eventually the smoke would kill you. That was why we ran into the foyer, why we risked our lives the day of the outbreak. Leaving the car was like running out into the foyer, too many mirrors and lights. That was why we froze...why Daniel nearly died...and Luke…

“Snap out of it,” Daniel yelled at me.

“The woman...she’s gone,” I said.

He looked at where she had been a few seconds ago and then nodded.

“This is crazy,” I said as a mob of people shoved, fell, trampled, and pushed one other forward. Cars left unattended ran, heating the air with the smell of oil and rubber and gas. Somewhere the dog barked. Someone screamed. Something growled. Then the dog stopped barking. The screams rose here and there.

“Did you hear that?” I asked and hoped he hadn’t heard it.

“Damn it, Sandy,” Daniel said. “Get back in the car.”

Despite the heat, my body trembled and cold sweat clung to me, pasting my shirt to my back.

“I can’t see anything? Can you?” I asked.

“No, can’t see anything past the traffic jam.”

“Do you think...do you think it’s…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

“C’mon, Sandy. There could be any number of reasons for people to act like this.”

“Yeah,” I said and crossed my arms. “Name one.”

“Bees.”

“Bees?”

“A swarm of bees or a bear.”

“A bear? In the city? Seriously, how strong was that pain killer you took?”

He sighed. “There’s no way E.O.W. let a--”

“Zombie,” I interrupted.

“Contaminated patient,” he said and narrowed his eyes. “There’s no way they haven’t all been treated by now.”

“But you can’t be totally sure, can you?”

“Well, if it’s zombies then how are they functioning in the light of the day?”

I didn’t have an answer, but that didn’t mean I was wrong. There weren’t exactly tons of examples of zombies functioning in daylight. Maybe these zombies had adapted.

Another snarl.

“Is there any duct tape in the car? Or a bat?”

Daniel rolled his eyes at me.

“Fine,” I snapped. “I’ll improvise,” I muttered and turned my water bottle upside down like a baseball bat.

A man ran past us. “Run!” he panted.

“Sandy--”

“No,” I said. “I’m the zombie expert, right? Then we should go this way, don’t you think?”

“Oh don’t be brave now,” Daniel groaned.

“Don’t you want to see what the hell is going on?”

“No,” Daniel said and leaned against the car. “The last time I tried to help someone I nearly died. Remember?”

Another wave of people screamed toward us. A woman, face smeared with sweat streaks, eyes strained to the point of pain, lugged two grocery bags. “Not today. Not today. Not today,” she kept repeating.

She crashed into me and screamed as if touching me had set her on fire.

“It’s ok, it’s ok,” I said.

“Fuck off,” she screamed and gathered her canned tuna. Clutching one of the grocery bags to her chest, she began to cry.

“It’s ok. It’s going to be ok,” I said and helped her up.

“Go this way,” I yelled and nudged her in the opposite direction. It didn’t matter that this direction wasn’t leading her to a barricade of police officers. All that mattered was that (a) someone had told her to do a thing and (b) that someone seemed to know something she didn’t. Another person followed her. Then another. I grabbed a man and yanked him away from the cars.

“Run that way,” I said with such conviction that I almost ran too. “Come on, keep moving, keep moving.”

Daniel leaned against the car and looked at his watch.

“Are you going to do something useful?” I asked and shoved another panicked person away. “That way, that way,” I assured an older woman and her grandson (at least I assumed it was her grandson).

Someone ran in between the cars.

It wasn’t just that they were running parallel to the herd of panicked people that made them stand out. It was the way the bright blue bandana peaked out between the dull steals and grays and chromes of the cars.

Following my gaze, Daniel asked, “What? What is it?”

“Who is that?” I asked. She helped a mother and child, knelt down and handed him a bottle of water. When she rose, the hairs on the back of my arms stood up.

She may not have been wearing tape bracers this time, but Jeri was recognizable without them.

“What the hell is she doing here?” I said.

Daniel grabbed my arm.

“We gotta go,” he said and dragged me away from the stream of running people, away from the congested cars spewing heat, away from the zombies that I couldn’t see. We settled between a garbage truck and a run down sedan.

“She works in the archive department. This is not her job,” I pointed out.

“That’s funny, you work in development, so this is not your job either,” he snapped and tightened his grip.

“Daniel,” I said. “You’re hurting me.”

Another person with a blue bandana ran by and now I knew why the guy in the truck had looked familiar.

“That guy in the truck,” I began. “You know, the truck that was next to us in the traffic jam?”

“What about him?”

“I knew I’d seen him before. It’s Jeri’s team.”

Daniel rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands. “Sandy, for Christ sake--”

“Jeri’s team is implementing an outbreak?”

“Why would they do that?” he countered.

“I haven’t the first damn clue!” I yelled.

“So maybe, just maybe, they aren’t here to implement some breakout. Now, if I don’t get you out of here, we’re going to get trapped and I don’t want to be here when the media circus begins.”

“Trapped? What do you mean? It is zombies, isn’t it? I knew it!”

“Not now, Sandy. We have to get off this bridge.”

“We’re not leaving. We have to help these people.”

“This is a city, not a building. There are too many variables--”

“All the more reason we have to stay. Who else can help them?”

He turned to face me and glanced out at the crowd. I wasn’t sure if he was ensuring that we were out of danger or out of hearing range. “Help isn’t coming, Sandy. We’re going to let the police handle this, like they should. Special defense units just can’t go acting on their own. There are laws.”

“But they did at the company--”

“Yes, company security responded on company property. Kind of a no brainer, don’t you think.”

I hadn’t thought about it, actually. How the hell was I supposed to help schools and kids and these people on a bridge if I couldn’t keep things straight?

Another surge of running, panicked people squirmed in and out of the cars. A man pressed his hand against his face. He wasn’t bleeding. Perhaps crying or trying to hide or both. He tripped and fell onto another man. They grappled, fear driving them to defend themselves against an enemy that wasn’t there.

“Hey!” I started to yell.

“Quit that,” Daniel said and yanked me back towards the sedan.

“But?” I blubbered.

“Sandy, I have no idea what’s going on, ok? This is not us,” he said and his angular eyes trembled and darted, searching for the zombies. For the first time that I can ever recall, Daniel Park had no idea what was going on and it silenced me.

“You promise?”

“Our plan was the school.”

“Are you shitting me? E.O.W. was going to release a virus on a school? Jesus, Daniel what the hell are we doing?”

Daniel’s fingers dug into my arms. “Of course not! Our plan was to get to the school and meet with the director for security and safety. Not this. Got it?”

“Oh,” I said. “Then why is Jeri here?”

“I don’t know,” he sighed.

Finally, the two men managed to pull away from each other. One ran away. The other stumbled to standing, and, pressing a bloodied hand against the cars for support, limped away.

“Run!” someone screamed. “The end is coming!”

“Why do people do that?” I asked, staring at the man.

“I’m sorry about the time I cheated...I’m sorry about…” he managed between gulping breaths.

“No idea,” Daniel said. “But we’re not following those idiots.”

“Agreed,” I said. I clutched the water bottle to me, not daring to drink a drop of the bitter water, but the bottle was expensive, so it was coming with me.

Suddenly Daniel yanked me low and said, “Get down.”

We crouched beside the garbage truck. The stench of it reminded me of alleyways where rooftop run off and sludge and beer and human piss combined.

“I don’t think this is necessary,” I muttered and gagged. “Maybe the sedan is safer--”

“It’ll block our scent, so shut up for a moment, and look for them,” he said. He shook his bangs off of his face and his eyes widened with fear and awareness.

“What? What? What is it?”

“Just Jeri.”

“Where?” I said and understood why Daniel had hidden us beside the garbage truck: Jeri was backing away from something.

“I don’t think she’s alone,” I managed.

“Figured that much out, did you?”

Her back was turned to us, but I recognized her high ponytail, the careful way she moved, legs bent, feet peeling off of the ground. It was as if the day of the outbreak, that day of killed or be killed, were natural to her. Maybe it was. Maybe she grew up in a hunting family and knew how to walk without making a sound. Maybe I should learn how to move a bit quieter after today.

She looked behind her for her footing.

And I was suddenly back in the stairwell and Mike from accounting moved faster than his large body had ever moved. At the time I thought it was still just a company exercise and that Mike had been acting...except for the sound of bones snapping…

That sound that was crisp and deep should’ve been one of so many clues that this was real...

I shuddered and tried to look away. I couldn’t sit here and watch Jeri get torn apart.

Daniel shook his head. “Sandy,” he whispered. “Look.”

“I don’t want too--”

“It’s Jack.”

“Jack?” I hissed and looked. “Where?” I asked.