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Chapter 1
My head felt heavy and throbbed violently. I opened my eyes slowly but it was hard, my headache was really bad. Seconds later, my stomach started to growl and I bent in pain. I was starving and completely dehydrated. Confused, I tried to remember what had happened before I fell asleep and where I was but it only took a few seconds to everything come crashing down on me. I whimpered, my head throbbing once more.
Cautiously, I opened the locker's door and crawled out. When I tried to get up, I fell, roughly, on the floor. The dizziness was making it difficult, but I managed to walk to the door and peaked through the small window. I didn't see a soul.
My body started to shake violently to a point where I couldn't hold it and emptied the contents of my stomach on the trash can. I stayed bent for a few minutes, trying to calm myself.
It was all true, the wolves had escaped and they had killed everyone. My mind started racing, thinking on what to do. I had to call someone...But that was just stupid. For what I had seen through the window, the corporation's facilities were destroyed and they had invaded the town. Therefore, this situation was already known so I just had to wait for them to rescue me. However, I couldn't stay there, I had to find something to eat and drink and find a phone, so I could call someone to pick me up. My legs were still shaking, but I managed to reach the door and insert the code to open it. The sight was even worse than what I had imagined.
The pavilions had their doors hanging from the hinges, the windows didn't have glasses anymore. The buildings were burnt or completely destroyed. There were cars thrown randomly and, the worst part were the bodies that were disposed on top of the, once lush, grass that covered the grounds. They were bloodied, torn and bitten all over. They seemed...chewed. I fought the urge to throw up, again.
But then, something caught my attention. From the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Slowly, I turned my head to see if it was a scientist but what I saw had frozen me in my place. One body was moving. One dead body.
It was a keeper, I had seen him once, but he was completly torn. He tried to get up but he was missing a leg and an arm with part of his shoulder. His neck was broken, so his head was hanging. His face was completly destroyed and there were deep gashes on the rest of his body.
I couldn't speak or breath. I started to walk away but I stepped on a twig and the cracking noise made the "creature" look at me. Hair was growing on his body, the ears were bigger and his teeth, the ones that he still had, were larger. He looked like a wolf.
The keeper's eyes looked soulless and he couldn't speak properly, only make noises. He tried to run towards me.
Scared, I screamed and started running. He fell on the floor but more bodies were coming towards me, some were rising, others were already around the facilities, eating other dead bodies.
Those creatures, half-humans half-wolves were the obvious result of some kind of infection trasmitted by the wolves in the labs. While I was running, I realised that many of the infected were chasing me. I ran faster.
The gates were right in front of me.
Running faster than ever, I passed the gates and started to run towards the big city. The adrenaline was helping me but I knew that, when it ran out, I would be in big trouble. I was breathing heavily, with cramps in my legs and sweat dripping down my face, but I tried not to stop. On my mind was just one thing, the desperate need to flee from the city. If I could travel to Canada, I would be safe because there was no way they would allow the plague to trespass their territory.
Panting, I reached the town, running into some destroyed convenience store to hide. Carefully, I searched for infected but I saw none. I released the breath I was holding. I fell on my knees and started crawling around the store, so I could grab the things I needed for the trip without being seen. The first thing I saw was a big backpack, then I started packing with canned food, lots of water, matches, a flashlight, a first aid box and a gun that I had found behind the counter. Didn't bother with the money, no one would ask me for it since everyone was basically dead.
Hungrily, I devoured some of the canned food, a few chocolates and chips, putting the rest away in my backpack, while drank a whole bottle of water. When I finished eating, I got up and walked towards the door.
Looking around, I made sure the coast was clear before I exited the store. The next thing I needed were clothes. I was still wearing the tight black pencil skirt and the short sleeved peach colored blouse, with my black ballerina shoes. I walked quickly to another store. The glass show window was broken, with blood all over. Waiting a few seconds, I searched for any sign or noises that indicated that there were infected in there. Thank God, there was none.
Gingerly, I grabbed a pair of hiking shorts, since there was mid May, the weather was really hot out there and I would have to cross the whole country. That thought gave me chills, I was hoping I could steal a car in the next city, in Mesa or Wickenburg. I grabbed a blue short sleeved t-shirt and a pair of brown hiking boots. I got up and walked around the store grabbing a few other shirts to put in my backpack until I found a mirror and saw myself. My long wavy brown hair, that reached my mid back, was all tousled from all the running, my baby blue eyes were bright with fear and instinct of survival, my short frame, only 5'3, was slender and curvy but my long legs gave me the speed I needed to run. I didn't have much resistence but my daily jogs would help me to keep my pace.
Looking determined to my reflection, I tied my hair in a high ponytail and prepared to cross the town. I took my gun out of one of my backpack's pockets and started walking.
It was when I was already at the far end of Phoenix, near Mesa, when I first heard them.
It started with a few growls and snarls. I glued myself to the wall of the nearest building and listened carefully. Gathering all my courage, I peeked and was instantly terrified. There were, at least, 3 of them, around what I thought being a dead dog. They were eating him, tearing the flesh with their big teeth and snarling at each other for every piece of meat. What brought tears to my eyes wasn't the scene before me, but the cruelty of their acts and the fact that they were once normal people like me. One of them used to be a cop, he was still wearing his uniform, the other was an elder that I had seen once when I was shopping and the last one was just a teenage girl, with no more than 16 years old.
I sniffed quietly, not wanting to attract attention to myself. Watching them intently, I started to step away from them, knowing that if they started chasing me I would die. Therefore, I continued my way, getting far away from that gruesome scene that would hunt me till the end of my days.
Half an hour later, I saw something being blown by the wind. It was a newspaper.
Picking it up, I opened it and, immediately, the huge title in black letters caught my undivided attention.
INFECTION DESTROYS ENTIRE COUNTRY AND KILLS MILLIONS
On the past May's 18th, three wolves escaped from the Corporation Silver Bullet, where they were part of a study. In this study, a serum was being injected in two of three wolves, that were captured illegally, to control and modify their behaviour. However, that solution had negative effects on the subjects that resulted in an aggressive and vicious behaviour. When they ran, they killed and bit many of the corporation's staff. Apparently, the substance injected on the wolves created a mutation on the dead tissues on the corpses, bringing them to life once more. After contacting the entities responsibles, we were informed that all measures were being taken to contain the infection. The serum was called the Wolfsbane. The disease spread to a full grown plague that destroyed the country. The mutantes are, at the moment, 87% of the population and the numbers are rising. Fortunately, Canada has offered refuge and is developping ways to contain the infection. The U.S.A. Army is located in Canada to help to contain and eliminate the threat. Meanwhile the prayers of every soul in this world are with the americans that are enduring this nightmare and hoping they can survive.
The news only confirmed what I already knew, it was the serum that the doctors, including Dr. Wilson and Dr. Harry, were injecting on the wolves that caused the disease. Thinking of that, I realised that both are probably dead or becoming mutants. I didn't felt anything, they deserved that fate because they had doomed millions of people. Looking at the date of the news, I read 19th of May. I didn't know the date or how many days I had been sleeping, for a matter of fact. Then I remembered something, I still had my phone. I took it out of the backpack and saw the date: 22nd of May. I had been unconscious for almost 5 days.
It took me a few more seconds to realise a crucial part of the news "only two of the three subjects were infected"... That was why subject 7 had let me escape, why he wasn't mad as the others. Yes, he was the most violent but his aggression was deliberated, he wanted to get out so he was trying to find a way, like injuring the keeper before he could close the door. It was thought, planed, not an primal act of survival, driven by a serum. He was sane.
Sighing, I rubbed my forehead, trying to soothe my new headache. Dropping the newspaper, I resumed my way.
My hint was correct, Canada would be my salvation. Tightening the straps of my backpack, I walked faster. It would be night soon and I still had a long way to go.