Static Screams

“Holland, you need to see this.”

I looked up from my bag of popcorn to see Cosmic standing in the doorway to the warehouse. Her brows were knitted together in concern, and there was a sense of urgency in her voice. Her tone caught Sawyer’s attention, and we both jumped to our feet at the same time.

She whipped around, gliding quickly and silently through the aisles to the front of the store. Peter’s face was pressed to the glass.

“What’s going on?” I asked quietly.

Peter glanced in my direction, before turning his attention back to the world outside. I followed his gaze.

“What…?” Sawyer trailed off, as I took in the sight before me.

The same three zombies we had encountered earlier were outside in the parking lot. Through the flurry of snow, I could see that they stood in the same frozen positions they had before, with their faces turned towards the sky.

“They’re listening, I think,” Cosmic whispered.

“Listening to what?” Peter mused aloud.

I felt a deep frown etch itself on my face. For several quiet, agonizing moments, the four of us stood at the windows.

All at once, the three zombies began to emit the same ear splitting scream as before. Cosmic startled, and Sawyer cursed under his breath. Peter remained still.

The screech ceased as the zombies ran away.

“Oh my god…” Sawyer pointed. “Look.”

I turned my gaze in the direction he pointed, and saw that there were handfuls of the undead, all following behind the three we had been watching. They ran behind the others at varying speeds, but I was sure of one thing.

Wren was wrong.

They were getting faster.

“Shit!” I didn’t think as I threw the front door open. They were running towards the hotel. I could feel it in my bones.

In the parking lot, impaired by the swirling snow, I felt panic rise in my chest. Something was wrong, very wrong.

I bit back a scream as Cosmic grabbed the back of my jacket.

“We’ve got to stay together or we’ll all get lost,” she said quietly. “I found rope in their warehouse.”

She made quick work of linking us together by a diamond braided rope through our belt loops. I thanked the stars for the kid, for her craftiness. I took a deep breath to settle my anxiety. It didn’t work.

I was overwhelmed by the panic, by the adrenaline rising in me. I couldn’t begin to verbalize what it wasI was afraid of. I didn’t know. All I knew was that something was wrong. Based on the looks I received from the others, I wasn’t the only one.

I took another deep breath, recovering my persona as de facto leader. “Okay,” I whispered. “Quick, quiet, careful.”

They each nodded back to me, and I began to lead us back the way we had come much earlier. We moved at a fast pace; we weren’t sprinting like the undead had been, but we weren’t ambling along aimlessly either. We stuck to the sides of the streets, where the tree limbs hung out over the roadway. The tree covering gave us several stretches of relatively dry ground, and where we didn’t have to blink furiously against snowflakes.

“Wait, wait,” Cosmic whispered. “Stop!”

I did, and the four of us stood still against the wintry backdrop. Through the howling wind, over the sounds of our labored breathing, I made out a cacophony of voices.

Voices calling for us.

“Oh,” I realized. “Oh no.”

We ran as fast as we could, but the snow got deeper and deeper the closer we got to the hotel. Several times one of us would fall, leading the other three to tumble over.

We were cold and wet. Our teeth were chattering. It didn’t matter; we had to get to the others.

“We’re almost there!” I heard Cosmic say behind me.

Each step was getting harder, but I couldn’t stop. My lungs were burning, my eyes were burning, my skin was burning. How could the cold be so painfully hot?

I could see the green canopy in the distance.

Just a little farther.

Finally.

I pulled my pocket knife out and severed the rope as I pulled the door open. I took to the stairs immediately, calling out for Scarlett, for Lila.

The hallway where I had sat with Logan and Scarlett just this morning was spattered with blood and bits of mottled grey flesh. The stench of death was growing stronger.

I kept running, screaming for Lila, as I followed the trail of gore left behind. I stopped short in front of the ballroom door, a poster for a charity event taped to it.

A blue sneaker sat right outside the door, and I gasped in horror with the realization that there was still a foot inside.

Lila.

I pulled the door open with so much force that it slammed into the wall, creating a loud echo in the cavernous room.

My eyes scanned over the dispatched undead before settling on Scarlett. I heard a shuddering sigh as her shoulders drooped and the machete fell to the floor. As she turned to face me, my eyes fell to the floor beside her.

I couldn’t breathe, but I couldn’t stop screaming.

In the carnage, all that was left of her was lumps of meat and exposed bone, and the other blue sneaker. She had been eviscerated.

She had been Lila. And now she was not.

She was, and now she wasn’t.

I fell to my knees, some primal scream pouring from my throat as I lost consciousness.