Why aren't you scared?

“Hello?” Cindy sheepishly said.

“Cindy? Oh… Thank God you are well… Thank God!” A female voice said, trying to remain composed and not burst into happiness.

“Who’s this?”

“It’s me! Hayley! Remember? Favourite maid of honour? BFF? Mss Anderson?”

A smile cracked in Cindy’s worried face. I was really thrilled by the call. It put many of my worries to rest.

“Where are you? Did you get the message?” Hayley said.

“Yes, we did. But we are miles away from the spot…”

“You didn’t answer my question. Where are you? Hey wait… I’m talking to her…”

The conversation deviated to a series of whispers, all fighting about who should have the telephone.  Cindy gave me a confused look, before another voice came out of the phone.

“Hello there, Cindy! How you doing?”  Is that old man you call husband with you?”

Hearing his voice on the phone made me jump. “Joey?”

“Hey man! Where the hell are you? You gotta move! The city’s on lockdown!”

Cindy and I traded concerned looks…“Lockdown?!”

 

“The whole place is going to hell! There’s rioting in big heaps around London. They enabled Martial Law! You have to get out of here!”

“But we are too far! We won’t make it in time!” Cindy said.

“Why? Where are you?”

“We are in a Chemist Store in Camel Road!”

“Camel Road? I’m near there! Wait there! We are coming!”

The call ended before Cindy could give a reply. She was biting her lip, full of regret for having blurted out our place of hiding. But I managed to convince her that it was the best… Besides, there were more chances of survival if the four of us stick together. That meant more eyes to see stuff.  And more hands and legs to kick stuff… Even thought I knew that “The Dead Walking” was just a television show, and we weren’t dealing with zombies.

Given that maybe Hayley and Joey were looking for us, we decided to come out of hiding. We tried to remove our barricade, a few shelves and boxes, as quietly as we could. Cindy has always been an expert at drama; the riots she mentioned were inexistent at this time… The silence from the emergency broadcast was still dominating the street. But even if everything was quiet, we weren’t taking any risks.

When we got outside, a horrible sight greeted us. Thousands of bodies… thrown over the street. They were all alive… but in an extreme state of shock. They were all pale, with their eyes shrunk… saliva making little streams out of their mouths.

“It happened again.” I said, knowing full well what happened.

Cindy threw up after seeing the street. All those people were one gunshot away from death… It seemed understandable that she would be grossed by the scenery. I simply looked at it nonchalantly… Things can get less shocking after prolonged exposure….

We walked a few meters away from such horrendous sight, until we found ourselves a few blocks near the entrance of Hartmann Road. We were crossing a street, when suddenly, a light blinded us both… followed by a strong honking sound… they were coming closer and closer…

“Stop it!!”