The Outbreak

With Ritchie by my side, questioning every turn we made in his trembling voice, it was really difficult to concentrate.

At one point, I finally snapped on him, by turning around and curtly saying, "Ritchie, I know you're scared but right now, shut the fuck up!" I'm not generally one for swearing, but sometimes my anger gets the best of me, and it slips out. Embarrased, I turned back around and kept walking. 

Ritchie was generally not this timid around anyone, especially me. We had gone to high school together, and he had generally been a hell raiser, and i'd been the shy one. I wasn't exactly sure how our roles had been reversed, but I accepted it anyway.

Just as we passed the hospital, I heard a scream pierce the silence behind us. I did an immediate 180, gun pointed in front of me. Ritchie attempted to shakily imitate me, but he just looked like a lost child who's heard a quarter drop behind him. 

I quickly realized that the scream had come from the hospital behind us. I pointed my Colt at the front doors, and when nobody came out for a minute, I sighed in relief, slowly lowering my pistol to my side. 

Just as I did that, another scream filled my ears, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass. By the time I looked up to the source of the noise, all I saw was a tan and blue blur, rapidly moving towards the ground from a broken window above us. 

The scream quickly died out when the blur hit the ground. I walked over, not even noticing the slient mass that was Ritchie behind me.

I looked at the thing on the ground just long enough to identify that it was a human corpse. Or at least it was a corpse now. I looked up at the window, puzzled, attempting to figure out what could drive a man to either jump out of the 3rd floor window, or have been pushed out of it. 

I guessed it was time to find out. 

"Let's rock 'n roll Ritchie" I said, reloading my sidearm before we walked in the door.