He had never been a religious person. Which is why it was particularly odd that God was speaking to him now.
YOU MUST FLEE. The voice said.
He shook his head. What was wrong with him? He had fallen asleep and probably missed his stop. Opening his eyes, he shook his head again, because all he could see was red. The walls around him were covered in red, the floor, the windows. He turned to ask his seat mate a question and was stunned to find a pile of human flesh that looked as if it had been ripped from their bones. What surprised him most was that the pile of flesh was moving.
He stood and staggered, his hands slick with blood. He moved away from the mass of flesh that had been a woman (he could see its long blond hair, the pearl necklace covered in red dots like garnets) but stopped when he got to the centre isle.
The subway car was filled with them. Forty or fifty things stood there, looking at him with white eyes and blood dripped down their chins, from their hands, from the severed limbs they held as if they were drumsticks.
He stood there, all of them taking him in, but none of the zombies moved towards him. He knew they were zombies as the chances that a subway car full of cannibals existed were slim. And he had watched every zombie movie there was, even though his parents disapproved of such movies. He would watch them late at night when he should have been doing his prayers. He had never been a religious person, he thought again. Besides, he thought, thirteen was far too young to be a fanatic like his parents.
YOU MUST FLEE. The voice said again.
Instead of speaking out loud, afraid that he would draw their attention, he spoke inside his head. Am I making you up?
NO. I AM AS REAL AS YOU ARE.
What the fuck is going on here?
THERE’S NO NEED TO SWEAR, EVEN AT TIMES LIKE THESE.
Sorry. What is going on?
YOU MUST FLEE. I CAN ONLY HOLD THEM BACK FOR A LITTLE BIT LONGER. YOU MUST GET OFF THE TRAIN, YOU MUST FIND THE OTHERS. ONLY YOUR LIGHT AND THE LIGHT OF ANOTHER CHILD WILL PROTECT YOU AND THOSE YOU FIND.
Another child?
A GIRL. THE WORLD HAS MOVED ON. YOU ARE TO BE THE ADAM AND THE EVE IN A NEW TIME.
Surely you can find someone more deserving?
CHILDREN ARE MORE PURE OF HEART AND THERE ARE NONE LEFT ON THIS TRAIN.
Why didn’t the zombies take me? Why is everyone else bitten but not me?
BECAUSE THEY KNOW THAT YOU ARE DIFFERENT. YOU DO NOT SMELL THE SAME.
I don’t smell like a human happy meal in other words?
THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR JOKES.
Shoot, sorry, I joke when I get nervous.
WELL BE NERVOUS LATER. YOU MUST FIND SARAH. YOU WILL FIND HER IN THE DARKNESS AND YOU WILL BOTH BE THE LIGHT. NOW FLEE!
Ikabod didn’t wait to be asked again. Nearly sliding on a slick of blood that coated the subway car’s floor, he ran for the door that led between the cars in hopes of escaping. He was almost there when a cold hand grabbed him from behind.