"DON'T RUN FROM ME YOU STUPID FUCKING SLUT!"
The sound came before anything else, ripping through the street below like the city itself had learned how to scream.
The three of us were at the edge of the rooftop.
Below, in a narrow alley between burned-out apartments and collapsed storefronts, a man ran with a kind of broken urgency that didn't feel fully human anymore. His movements were too sharp, too uneven, like something inside him had forgotten how bodies were supposed to work. Infection hadn't erased him. It had just loosened whatever held him together.
In front of him, a woman sprinted with a child pressed tight against her chest. The child's face was buried into her shoulder. She never looked back. She never slowed down. She just ran like stopping would end everything immediately.
The infected man gained anyway.
Terri stepped back from the ledge without realizing it. Her hand hovered near her mouth.
"Oh man…"
Her voice barely held shape.
I didn't say anything.
