1 Inhuman

The room was dark. Dark, except for the dim light coming from the computer. The sound of computer keys clicking. The fingers typing on the small laptop belonged to none other than Max Boroz. His eyes drooped as he struggled to keep himself awake, typing away with determination. Clearly, he was trying to find something. A variety of papers and documents lay on the table beside him, while others lay on the floor all by their lonesome.

"Dammit!!" Max suddenly cried out and slammed his fist down on the table.

It shook slightly beneath his hand, but that was all. Max sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"I will find you. No matter what it takes…" Max muttered, staring to the portrait of a woman on the mantle.

She was Lilly Boroz. The next morning, Max stayed in bed for a good five minutes, until he realized it was Monday, and he had to get to work. Yawning, he stretched, slipped on his rectangular glasses, and groggily got out of bed. Max was a good guy. He got his high school diploma and went to college and university. He had a good job and a couple of good friends. Everything was "good". However, as of late, things weren't going too well. Resulting in a depressing series of events that made Max lose his happy attitude. He drove to work. However, he could barely keep his eyes open due to his late-night activities he was conducting. He was dozing….dozing....dozing…..and then.....

WHAM!

He crashed into something at full speed. This woke him up. He exclaimed and slammed the brakes. The tires screeched until the car finally halted.

"Holy shit….." Max panted.

He didn't want to open the door, mostly because he was too afraid to see what he hit. He mustered up some courage and pushed the door open. A man lay limply on the street a couple feet behind his car. He looked like someone had thrown a ragdoll on the ground as hard as they could, and the blood. A pool of blood formed underneath the poor victim.

"Oh god….sir? Are you...alive…?" Max whispered. Feeling sick to his stomach.

This couldn't be happening. It couldn't. He had just killed a man. But what was he doing in the middle of the road?

"Hello….?"

Max crouched down and poked at the body. Nothing. In a matter of time, people were going to show up and see this gruesome disaster. He had to get out of there, but he didn't want to just leave. In the end, he realized he had to get the man help, and reached over to his side to try and flip him over. Just as he touched the man's side, he twitched.

"Oh thank god you're alive.."

But the man didn't respond. All he did was moan and twitch occasionally.

"W-Wha-"

The man bolted upward and lunged at Max.

"SHIT!"

He fell on his back, but recovered quickly, bolting back up. Max was terrified at what he saw. The man's flesh was a mix of green and grey, looking wrinkly, like the skin of an elderly person. His eyes were black and empty, staring into them would send shivers down the spine of whomever looked into them. The stench wafting off of him reeked of death.

"What the hell's wrong with you?!" Max shouted at him and inched backward.

The "creature" crawled toward him ravenously, like a hungry predator cornering its prey. It growled and clawed at the ground in an attempt to get closer and attack. Max only had a small time interval to find a weapon. He eventually backed up so far that he bumped into his vehicle. Thinking quickly, he whipped open the trunk and pulled out a crowbar.

"DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS!" Max cried desperately, hoping the creature would stop.

It didn't.

He had no choice, he gripped the crowbar with two hands and slammed it against the side of the creatures head. It's head dented and blood splattered as it collapsed onto the asphalt. Max stared in silence for about a minute, panting heavily. He dropped the bloody crowbar and leaned back against the car.

"I just killed a man...holy shit…" He panted, sweat beading down his forehead.

The creature laid on the ground with its head caved in, yet another pool of blood forming on the street. Max didn't want to stick around to see what unfolded next, so he scrambled to his car and drove away at full speed. The silence was broken by the radio in the car. A woman's voice came on, she sounded like a reporter.

"Several reports have come in, regarding the strange behavior residents of Atlanta have been showcasing. Already hundreds are injured and even more are dead. The cause of this behavior is unknown but it's spreading like some kind of virus."

Max turned up the volume, listening closely. Sirens wailed as about a dozen police cars zoomed past him in the opposite lane. Following them were two police helicopters.

"What the hell…?" Max muttered as he watched them pass, as they made their way into the city.

Suddenly the reporter's voice became frantic.

"What the hell is going on?! DAVE RUN! RUN!" The woman screamed, and the sound of moaning drowned her cries. The sound cut out.

Silence.

Before he could react, a car in the opposite lane swerved and slammed into him. Tires screeched as Max desperately turned the wheel in attempt to stop his vehicle from swerving. He spun and skidded until pulling to a halt so sudden, that he smashed his head into the wheel. Blood dripped off of it as a large gash on his forehead formed. Once again he was given no time to do anything, another one of the creatures was at his window. The banging it caused awakened Max a little. That glass wasn't going to hold forever. It would shatter and that "thing" was coming in. Without hesitating, Max reached for the glove box, to which a pistol sat comfortably inside. He fumbled to pick it up, the glass shattered once he did. The car zoomed off as he slammed on the gas pedal, but the creature didn't give up that easily. It held on tight with one hand and reached for Max with the other. This was all happening too fast. He couldn't hold the pistol steady, he couldn-

CRASH!!!

The car met the guardrail, he went soaring off the road. Down….down….down….

Darkness.