"What a miserable day."
Inside of a run-down gas station in the middle of god-knows-where two days after the incident at the hospital, a young man in his late twenties was standing in the supply room rubbing his forehead. The young man had messy blonde hair and bags under his eyes, yet underneath his work uniform, muscles could be seen.
The young man had just gotten out of yet another argument with a customer. His gas station ran out of diesel fuel about two days ago and neither him nor his boss knew when that would be rectified. After all, they can't help it if the diesel delivery hadn't made it yet. To all the customers and to the young man's dismay, however, the inconvenience to customers was taken out on him.
"Whatever, I will be quitting this job soon anyways. Come on Vik, you can make it through another week of this."
The young man, Viktor, tried to motivate himself in that room before returning to the cash register up front. Thankfully, no one was currently in the gas station and from the looks of it, no one was out front either. Viktor decided to check the products on the shelves in his downtime. This was probably his favorite part of his job since it meant there was no one to bother him.
"Breaking news coming in this morning and joining a strangely ever-growing list of disasters happening lately: disaster strikes St. Crestel's as police finally reveal that many individuals were shot and killed by a lone gunman late in the night two nights ago. Police have still not released the name of the suspect, but they have declared the suspect deceased after a shootout with authorities. Families and friends of the victims in the attack, however, are dissatisfied and taking to the internet to express discontent regarding the attack, stating they wish to know who was responsible for the shooting that claimed those they care about. Additionally, it seems this is not a lone incident as crime and murder rates have sprung up by two hundred percent and with about over half of them being locked down by police. Citizens only have one question in their minds: what in the world is happening?"
An old TV was hanging up in the corner of the room. The local news was broadcasting and Viktor couldn't help but hear it. He tried to tune it out and simply go about his business. He began to imagine what video game he would hop on after work.
Knock... knock... knock...
A knocking came from the window in a rhythmic interval.
"Come in, door is unlocked!" Viktor yelled without looking up.
A good silence ensued before the knocking happened again.
"Door is unlocked, buddy. It is a—"
His voice was quickly interrupted as his head finally looked up with a hint of annoyance on his face only to find... something that couldn't possibly exist in this world.
Standing outside was a disgusting humanoid with body features straight out of a horror movie. It stood only at five feet tall with a skinny body and while the left arm knocking on the window could not be more normal, the right arm stretched beyond the thing's knees with long thin claws extended downwards to meet the ground. The head was even more messed up as the left side was covered in a tumor-like growth that pulsed intermittently while the bottom jaw was simply nonexistent.
Viktor and the thing outside stared blankly at each other. Viktor's brain simply failed to process what that was out there. Meanwhile, the thing simply had a blank stare to begin with it seemed.
As Viktor continued to stare in absolute shock, the creature outside took several steps back, its eyes still locked onto Viktor inside. It began to bend at the knees, pulling its clawed hand back as if going to deliver a punch at the glass in front of it.
Seeing this, Viktor finally snapped out of his daze.
"Oh, shi—," he yelled as he turned and dove onto the floor behind a shelf.
*CRAAAASH*
Glass exploded everywhere sending shards all throughout the store. Had Viktor been dawdling for any longer, he would have certainly been pierced by several pieces of it.
As Viktor stood up and looked back at the front of the store, his hair stood up on end. The creature was advancing through the store in a direct line towards him, not caring at all about all the glass it was stepping on despite not wearing any shoes.
'Shit, shit, shit, I need to grab the shotgun,' Viktor thought in a panic.
That is right, the gas station had a shotgun. In the United States of America, even a harmless-looking grandma could be packing at least a handgun. With their gas station being pretty far into the country, the police response would undoubtedly be slower. Therefore, the owner had decided to get a gun to defend the store as a last resort if lives were being threatened and the police had not arrived. Not only that, but with the darn thing mounted on the wall behind the counter and above the cigarettes, it served as a deterrent against the gas station being robbed by some idiot in the first place.
*BANG*
With a swift shot, Viktor had hit its heart, lungs, and even the neck. As the creature hit the ground, a black gas surrounded the corpse for a bit before seemingly dissipating into the air. When the black gas was gone, Viktor could not help but take a deep breath in shock. The body had reverted into that of a young woman. Everything now appearing normal about her except for the crazy amount of blood leaking from her. Without a doubt, she was dead. It was not a creature he had killed, but a person.
"What the hell..."
Viktor was no stranger to death, it had practically followed him his entire life. Before he could reminisce about the past, he snapped out of it as he was still staring at a dead body on the floor. The first thing he needed to do was to call the police.
*beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep...*
'Now, why in the hell is the call not going through?' Vik questioned himself internally.
*RUFF, RUFF, GROWLLLLLLL*
Looking up, Vik could not believe his eyes. Crawling across the gas station parking lot while making all kinds of noise was a dog the size of a small car. It had ridiculously muscular front legs that it used to rush in his direction while the back legs were shriveled up so much that it simply dragged them along instead of walking on them.
*BANG*
Vik did not waste any time and, rushing to the broken window, took aim and shot at the dog that was now no more than five feet from reaching him.
Brain matter and blood sprayed everywhere as, once again, a black fog left the creature and slowly dissipated. Revealed underneath was a dog no different from any other Labrador Retriever.
Viktor sat on the ground, the shotgun laying by his side. Staring at the dead dog, he was lost in his thoughts.
'What the heck are these things,' he wondered to himself.
Viktor stood and turned to look at the human corpse inside of the gas station. This was not the first time he had to kill someone, and it was debatable given the previous state of it whether it could even be considered human. Even if it could be, it was self-defense, something that Viktor wholeheartedly supported. Additionally, Vik had been one to enroll in the military right after high school. The military recruited young people under the offer that if they served for a certain amount of time, they would have their college paid for.
'Oh crap, what am I doing?!' he yelled internally.
With a rush, he pulled his phone back out of his pocket. Looking through the contact list, he quickly tapped a number.
*ring...*
"Brother, is that you?! Thank goodness you're okay!"
Without even reaching the second ring, a pleasant voice sounded from the other end of the phone. Viktor heaved a sigh of relief. At the very least, his sister was okay for now.
"Ana, where are you currently? Are you still at the University?"
"Yeah, Isobel and I boarded up the room. There are creatures everywhere! Campus security is trying to fight them off as we speak... I don't think they will last much longer." she said with clear fear in the latter part.
"Don't worry, I will come and get you. Give me about an hour, I will head that way after I pack up some stuff."
"...Okay, be safe."
"I will, don't you worry. Bye sis."
"Bye."
Once again, Viktor let out a sigh of relief. Whatever was happening, he just had to keep going. It was not like he was super confused about what was happening. Most people have seen or read about apocalypses in fiction. It was not unreasonable to say that what was happening now is something like that. No, it did not shock Viktor that such a thing could happen, it simply shocked him a bit that it was currently happening, especially here. After all, this gas station was out in the sticks. For two creatures to attack him the middle of nowhere, it would be reasonable to assume things were much, much worse where his sister is located.
Thinking of the necessities he would need in the event this was a genuine apocalypse, Viktor, walking inside the gas station, began packing a duffel bag full of food items. Things that did not expire for a while were his main target, but other things he actually liked to eat were also one. After all, in his opinion, if this turned out to become some massive outbreak and the world ended, it was better to die happy eating the snacks he liked. Walking to the back, he also grabbed all the ammunition for the shotgun he could find. Unfortunately, besides the shotgun, he did not really have any other options. Still, having that is a lot better than having nothing.
Grabbing all that he could fit in that first bag, Viktor walked outside and threw the bag in the passenger seat of his truck. Walking back into the gas station, he debated on grabbing more. After all, he could fit probably everything here in the bed of his truck if he really wanted to and took the time to. Unfortunately, while his food problem would be quelled, who knows what would happen to his sister that clearly needed saving. Happening to look at the alcohol section, it did give Vik an idea. A classic idea that he thought would not hurt to try and do. With a couple cases of beer, many dishrags, and a lighter, it was pretty obvious what he would try and make.
Entering the truck after placing the things he grabbed in the back, he placed the key in the ignition and started it up. After backing up out his parking space, he turned onto the road and began the journey to save his younger sister.
***
About twenty minutes later, Viktor was forced to bring his truck to a stop. He quickly put it in park and shut the engine off as he did not want to alert the situation playing out in front of him.
"Are those... zombies?" Viktor asked aloud.
Viktor had the idea that this was some massive incident or outbreak when his sister told him there were strange creatures on her campus. Still, he did not expect it to be such a classic apocalypse type of outbreak.
Ahead of him, on the bridge above the river separating him from his sister and one state from another, were what appeared to be zombies. They had cloudy eyes, ripped clothing, and blood all over them. Some were even missing limbs. Other than that though, they looked just like normal people. There were two, however, that for sure did not look like normal people. One had a massive head so large it looked like if someone had inflated it like a balloon. The other had a massive neck almost like someone mixed a giraffe with a person. Needless to say, they both looked very bizarre.
"Crap, what to do..."
Viktor looked to the left. Gleaming in the sunlight was a university building. The sunlight was reflecting from the many windows covering it on every side. If he remembered correctly, that gleaming building was the library. The dormitory his sister and her friend were trapped in would be further in the campus. This bridge in front of him was the only way to get over there unless he wanted to drive another hour out of his way to the next bridge. Even if he did, it was hard to say whether he might encounter the same situation there on that bridge or not. Additionally, the time it would take would have to be factored in. He needed to get to his sister as fast as he possibly could. He did not have the time to waste on driving even more.
"I guess I only have one choice..."
Getting out and heading to the back of the truck, Viktor looked at the cases of alcohol and the rags while pulling the lighter out.
If he could not go around, he simply had to burn through.