2 June 2012
Blood spilling, feral screams, chaotic madness. I pay attention to none. I sit alone in a bathroom stall, locked away from a hellish nightmare.
Hand clutches neck, blood stains dress. I grit my teeth and fight through the pain. How it burns! I feel it setting my body alight; arteries sizzling, blood boiling and mind reeling.
I want it to end, please make it stop. Not even the blood slows its flow.
More screams outside. Door to room slams open and someone runs inside. I hear their panicked breathing on the other side of my cubicle. I hear them beg, I hear them plead and pray for mercy. None is given.
They shuffle onwards, towards their prey. The door slams open again and again, as more stumble through. I cannot see them, but I can smell them. Rotting flesh hanging from their bones, still wet blood dripping from their teeth.
I try to stand and help whoever they are after, but my legs no longer work. They spasm and contort like they have a mind of their own.
They have reached the woman and she screams once more.
I scream with her, but not for her. The pain has suddenly become more intense, too much to bear. I squeeze my eyes shut and block out the sounds of tearing flesh and bloodcurdling screams. I don't have to try very hard, the burning pain drowns it out for me.
Oh, how it burns!
Thud! They have found me. They smell my blood, my still living flesh. They are hungry.
Thud! More bumps and scraping against my cubicle door. My blood is slowing, that I can tell. There can't be much left, an ocean washes beneath me.
Thud! They reach for me under the door, their hands clawing the floor. The door is breaking, they will get through soon. Panic, blood loss, crazed fear or maybe infection. I do not know which, but one causes me to fall unconscious.
I drift from sleep and near-waking. I think of my family. My loving husband and sweet daughter. How I adored them. I hope they're safe at home, far away from this hell.
My mind wanders back to the present, but only for a second. They still hunger for me. There are more hands under the door. One has grabbed my foot. I don't have the energy to shake it off. I sit and stare at the cubicle door as it shifts and squeaks on its hinges. This time, I sleep and do not wake.
For a moment. The door is ripped off its hinges and falls away from my body. The monster holding my foot has let go and the others stand before me, staring with soulless whites. I stare back with the same. I stand and stumble with them.
Oh, how I hunger.
Changes • Opuss № I