Chapter 3

Josaphyna ran away from the car that held her last moments with her mom. She read the piece of paper: 1704 Woodlen Road. According to her, that was about an hour drive from where she stood. “If I’m here, and that’s an hour by car, then it’ll about an hour and a half if I run but around two hours if I have too many breaks.” She said to herself.

A low rumble made her turn around. Oh how she wished she didn’t. There, running in her direction, was the escaped capsule of her mother’s possessed body. Before Josaphyna could react, her mom had her by the neck and was choking her.

“Ugh! M-momma!” her daughter yelled out. A nearby man heard the shout and turned to see Josaphyna. “Momma let go!”

The man ran over and punched the mom in the face. Josaphyna was freed but not for long. The man pulled her away from the corpse and gasped. “Are you okay?” he asked Josaphyna.

“Um, yeah, thank you very much.” Josaphyna said with a smile.

“I take it that was your mother?” Josaphyna nodded sadly. “Hey, don’t worry about it kid. You still have your dad, right?”

“Yeah,” Josaphyna sighed. “Hey, can you help me get here?” she gave the paper to the man and he nodded.

“Yeah, we’ll go together. I was just heading there myself.” Josaphyna smiled and nodded.

They ran through the crowded streets of either corpse, infected, and panicked people. They had to stop to take a breath and have a bottle of water to stay hydrated though, which made them slow down. Around the time it was their break, it was close to being 1 in the afternoon.

“We should keep going,” the man said. “If we want to get there before sundown, we have to leave.”

“Okay.” and they began to run again. They ran for a long time. By the time they had reached the building that held her father, and the truth, it was already 4 in the afternoon and they were worn out.

“Look out!” the man yelled as he shot at something behind Josaphyna. She didn’t even have to turn to figure out what he shot. She felt the semi-cold bodily fluid hit the back of her arms and neck. “Are you okay, kid?”

“Y-yeah,” she craned her neck just enough to see the corpse at her feet. What she saw was the second worst thing then watching either of your parents turn into a monster. She saw her best friend lying lifelessly at her pretty black and blood splattered boots. “N-no! Hannah!”

“Let her go, kid.” The man interrupted her cries. “We have to continue on before the sun sets.” Josaphyna sniffled quietly and nodded before following the man inside the building.

“Oh my-!” Josaphyna let out a strangled sob as the building door shut behind them. The sight that greeted them was horrific. Bodies were hung, draped, and trapped onto the ceiling, dried blood was caked in thick layers upon the walls, and broken glass was sprayed across the tile floor.

“Sh,” the man hovered over her. “Does that piece of paper say anything else?”

“Um,” Josaphyna sniffled and unfolded the paper. “It says F-8 and S-135.”

“Okay, so the eighth floor it is.” The man pulled Josaphyna towards the elevator and they traveled a short trip to the eighth floor. “Now, we need to find room S-135.”

“Okay,” Josaphyna sighed as she looked at the doors. After a minute or two, she spotted room S-135. They walked in and the sight was either just as bad as or worse than the one in the lobby.

“My God-!” Josaphyna fell to the ground at the scene. The room was a pale yellow color with giant blotches of red. There were a ton of test tubes and a bunch of twitching or lifeless bodies sprawled out in awkward positions along the floor, furniture, and walls. One of the corpses pinned gracefully in the center of the wall before her, was someone she was quite familiar with; her ex-boyfriend, Dominic.

“Hello? Is someone there?” a voice all too familiar to both Josaphyna and the man made them cringe. Hard footsteps reverberate along the hollow walls of the hallway it came from. “Josaphyna? Is that you?”

“D-daddy?!” her voice screamed. She was so happy, but she wanted to know why he was here. But just that very fact alone scared her. “Daddy, why’re you here?”

“I should be asking you that, Josa.” Her father replied. “And Luko, I can’t forget about you can I?”

Said man growled. “You didn’t tell me your experiment would make such a big deal, Doctor!” he screamed.

“Oh, but it makes such a beautiful sight doesn’t it?” Josa’s father smiles. “The way they react is just so entertaining; wouldn’t you agree, Josa?”