The day everything changed
The Day Everything Changed
The first person I saw die wasn't screaming.
That is the part I remember most.
Not the blood.
Not the sirens.
Not the screaming that would come later.
It was the silence.
It was 10:17 on a Tuesday morning, and I was standing in the checkout line at a supermarket, arguing with myself about whether I really needed the chocolate I'd thrown into my trolley.
I didn't.
I bought it anyway.
Outside, the sun was shining like nothing in the world was wrong.
People were walking between parked cars. A woman was pushing a shopping trolley with a toddler sitting inside it. Two teenagers were laughing near the entrance. Someone was loading groceries into the back of a white SUV.
Normal.
Completely, painfully normal.
I had no idea it would be the last normal morning I'd ever have.
My phone buzzed.
Lena: Where are you?
I smiled.
Me: Shopping.
Three dots appeared.
Lena: Again?
Me: We need food.
Lena: You live with one person.
Me: Exactly. Me. I need food.
She sent a laughing emoji.
I put my phone back into my pocket.
That's the last conversation I ever had with Lena before the world started falling apart.
At least, the last one where neither of us knew what was coming.
I was halfway across the parking lot when I heard someone shout.
"CALL AN AMBULANCE!"
I turned.
A man was lying beside a parked car.
A woman was kneeling over him.
People had started gathering.
I couldn't see his face.
The woman kept looking around.
"Please!" she shouted. "Somebody help me!"
Someone was already calling emergency services.
I should have kept walking.
I didn't.
I stood there watching.
The woman leaned over the man.
"Sir?"
Nothing.
She touched his shoulder.
"Sir, can you hear me?"
His body jerked.
The woman screamed.
Everyone stepped backward.
The man suddenly rolled onto his side.
Then he pushed himself upright.
For a second, nobody moved.
He looked confused.
Almost lost.
The woman stared at him.
"Oh my God."
The man turned toward her.
His mouth opened.
And he lunged.
She didn't even have time to scream.
He knocked her to the ground.
People scattered.
Someone dropped a shopping bag.
A child started crying.
I froze.
The man was on top of the woman now, moving with a horrible, frantic strength.
"GET OFF HER!"
A man ran forward.
He grabbed the attacker by the shoulders and pulled.
The attacker twisted.
There was something wrong with him.
His movements weren't normal.
They were jerky.
Desperate.
Animal-like.
The rescuer stumbled backward.
The attacker turned toward him.
Then he bit him.
Hard.
The scream that followed finally broke whatever had been holding me still.
I ran.
I don't remember reaching my car.
I don't remember unlocking it.
I dropped my groceries in the parking lot and nearly fell trying to get the door open.
My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
I threw myself inside and locked the doors.
My phone started ringing.
Lena.
I answered immediately.
"Where are you?"
Her voice was breathless.
"Maya."
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. I think so."
There was shouting behind her.
"What is happening?"
"I was driving and-Maya, there are police everywhere."
My stomach tightened.
"Why?"
"I don't know. People are attacking each other."
I looked through my windshield.
A car slammed into another vehicle.
Someone ran across the road.
A police officer was shouting at a group of people.
Then another scream came from somewhere inside the supermarket.
I started the engine.
"Lena, where are you?"
"I'm at my apartment."
"I'm coming."
"No."
"What?"
"Don't come here."
"Lena-"
"Just go home."
Her voice cracked.
"Maya, something is seriously wrong."
The call ended.
I stared at my phone.
Then I noticed the emergency alert.
A red notification covered my screen.
EMERGENCY ALERT
AVOID PUBLIC AREAS.
REMAIN INDOORS.
DO NOT APPROACH PERSONS DISPLAYING AGGRESSIVE OR ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR.
My heart started pounding.
Another alert appeared.
Then another.
The road ahead was already becoming clogged with traffic.
People were trying to leave.
Everyone was trying to get somewhere.
Home.
Family.
Safety.
Nobody knew there wasn't anywhere safe to go.
I put the car into drive.
The first crash happened three minutes later.
The second happened thirty seconds after that.
By the time I reached the intersection, traffic had stopped completely.
A woman abandoned her car and ran between the vehicles.
A man was screaming into his phone.
A little boy was crying in the back seat of an SUV.
Then someone slammed against my driver's window.
I screamed.
A man stood outside my car.
His face was covered in blood.
He stared at me.
I locked the doors.
"Please," he whispered.
His hand pressed against the glass.
"Please help me."
I reached for the door handle.
Then I stopped.
There was something behind him.
A woman.
She was walking toward him.
Slowly.
Her clothes were torn.
Her head hung at an unnatural angle.
The man turned.
"What are you-"
She attacked him.
He screamed.
I slammed my foot onto the accelerator.
My car jumped forward.
I hit something.
The impact nearly threw me into the windshield.
I didn't stop.
I couldn't.
Cars were abandoned everywhere now.
People were running.
Some were helping each other.
Some were fighting.
And some were chasing people.
I drove through the intersection and didn't look back.
My phone rang again.
Lena.
I answered on speaker.
"Maya?"
"I'm here."
"I need you to listen."
"Where are you?"
"I left."
"What?"
"I'm not at my apartment anymore."
"Where are you?"
"I don't know."
I heard her breathing.
Then silence.
"Lena?"
A noise came through the phone.
A heavy thud.
"Maya..."
"What?"
"I think someone followed me."
My blood went cold.
"Where are you?"
Another thud.
Closer.
Then Lena whispered four words.
"They're at the door."
The line went dead.
I called back.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
I was crying before I realized it.
I drove faster.
I didn't know where I was going anymore.
I only knew one thing.
I had to find her.
Because whatever was happening...
Whatever was happening to those people...
It wasn't stopping.
It was spreading.
And somewhere behind me, the city was beginning to scream.
By sunset, there would be thousands of them.
By midnight, there would be tens of thousands.
And by morning...
Nobody would be asking whether the world was ending.
They would already know.
It was.
