TWD: The winding road

Boston was a depressing city. He'd lived here for nearly three years, but the glumness never failed to disappear. Maybe it was because Levi was from the country, the northern weather always set up for failure compared to the constant sunshine and heat that seemed to pervade rural Georgia.

But even still, today was especially bad. After his flight, he'd noticed the airport was swarmed with legions of uniformed officers. But what jarred him more so than the number, was how uneasy and twitchy they all looked. As if they expected something to happen, needless to say, Levi didn't stick around.

He'd hoped for a quick journey after the long flight, but after the bus hit the highway that hope had soon died; a gridlock seemed to stretch on for miles. He'd checked his phone to see why, and after spotting the accident alert, he just hollered at the driver to open the door and started walking instead.

After about twenty minutes of walking along the highway, his phone began to ring. He shuffled in his pocket and read the name before answering. "Hello."

"I thought you weren't gonna answer again," a feminine voice sounded, from his phone.

"I live to surprise," he chuckled, unphased by her tone. "Now what you calling me for, darlin'."

"Darlin'," she snorted. "Now you wanna act familiar after ignoring my calls for three days?" Levi rolled his eyes.

"Well, aren't you just a ray of sunshine." 

"Your mom called, and said she couldn't get ahold of you," At this, he checked his calls and noticed several missed calls. "Told me she saw your win at the competition and was over the moon. She also said it's been a while since we last visited and that we should come visit soon."

"Can hardly call it winning with the quality of competition they have me facing," dismissed offhandedly. 

"Only you could say something like that Levi," exasperation was clear in her voice. "Also it's been three years and I've been pining to go back home for a while now. We can just say hi to your mom and spend our break back home."

"Sure…" he croaked out, he'd wanted to keep up his grudge but it was hard to hate someone when they only reciprocated in love. Besides, he was also missing home. "We'll visit when the university breaks for summer. Will you visit your family" he asked. 

"Hmm," she wondered, as he saw emergency lights flashing ahead. "I'll visit the farm to see my mom, Beth and Shawn. But if my pa' was anything like last time I won't be there long…" 

That's when the screaming began. It was quite distant and Levi stood still and lowered his phone, his ears straining to find the source of the sound. It was up ahead and was growing louder before the first shots sounded out like a crack of thunder.

He jolted and darted behind the closest car, screams getting louder as cars up ahead began to force themselves from the deadlock bumping and scraping other vehicles. 

"Levi what's going on?" he faintly heard Maggie scream from his phone. He raised the phone to his ear, as he intently scanned the scene ahead from behind the spacewagon he was perched behind. The thunderous gunfire unceasing as the screams grew. 

"Maggie I'm gonna have to call you back later." 

—

"Shit, he's unresponsive! Get the defib; I'll start CPR," said Mike, a long-time paramedic. He began chest compressions, but he could see the colour draining from the patient's face.

"One, two," 

"One, two," 

"One, two,"

"Daniel, where's that defib!" he shouted. He could feel it. That familiar dread he'd always felt when a patient's life was slipping away.

"Mike, it's here; attach the pads," said Daniel, handing the small defibrillator to Mike, who snatched the wires and placed the pads around the patient's heart.

"Pads attached. Ready. One, two, three, clear," the distinctive buzz of electricity sounded as the patient arched his back in convulsion before he thumped back onto the concrete again; yet, nothing. 

"Still unresponsive. Resuming chest compressions," Mike shouted. "One, two, three."

But the man didn't respond. And as the minutes passed, it began to look like a foregone conclusion.

However, after one round of defibrillation, his eyes snapped open. "Thank the lord! We brought him back," said Mike in disbelief.

After the last twenty minutes, he'd all but given up hope. "Okay, Sir, I know this may be disorientating but just relax for me. My colleague is getting a stretcher, and we'll soon be taking you to Massachusetts General. You've been in an accident. We need to take you by ambulance, so don't move any more than you already have. So remain calm and lay still, okay," relief bled into his tone, a smile creeping onto his face.

However, the patient didn't seem to comprehend his words. Instead, he fixed his dazed eyes towards him. He'd seen this before; it was shock. He grasped the man's shoulder with a disarming smile, and said, "It's gonna be alright. You're gonna be alright. Sit tight, and everything will be okay."

At this gesture, the man seemed to comprehend something in his cloudy brown eyes. And Mike saw the moment the switch flipped, and for a second before it happened he could see the raw primal hunger in the man's eyes, but it was too late. Its cold hands coiled around his neck and a snarl was the last thing he heard before teeth tore into Mike's throat.

—

It would be a lie to say the death was instant. Everybody there would remember the paramedic's breathless wheezing from the bloody hole in his throat; while the monster gnawed his neck cartilage. He'd fought for a few moments, but that fight was short-lived and before he went limp.

The other paramedic was the first to react, rushing the two. The two broke into a scuffle before he ripped the bloody jaws from the body of his partner. 

The frenzied man was only fought off for a second though, before he released an animalistic shriek and lunged at the paramedic who'd attacked him. Its body slammed into him, sending them both careening to the road. The paramedic's jaw broke on contact with the concrete and he grunted in pain before it morphed into an agonising scream as the jaws that killed his friend tore into his shoulder.

"Argh! Stop!" he wailed, his pleas giving him no reprieve. "Ahh! Please," he continued, his voice hoarse. Before the crackle of gunshots sounded.

A couple police officers, having finally reacted ran over from the traffic cordon. And from the first gunshots sounded, things descended into chaos.

—

It was a routine car accident. But nothing felt routine anymore. Too many whisperings of strange happenings. Of tragic shootings, dead people waking up in morgue and disappearing, bloodbaths in homeless shelters and junkie dens. Everyone was on edge. There was a storm brewing and he could feel it.

"Great It's pissing down," Rudy grumbled. It had been threatening to do so all day, but it had to happen when he was working outside. "Jack imma get some waterproofs from the back, I'll be back now."

He ran over to the squad car and fumbled with the keys before opening the car and grabbing the waterproof jackets. He straight away slipped one on and was about to slam the door shut, when he heard the radio sound on his jacket.

"We've got an ASPO in District 4, South End. The officers were called out for another case of community disturbance and possible domestic violence. Calling on a nearby unit to respond and send back up," he looked apprehensive at his receiver and considered responding before he heard the radio once again.

"This is Victor Alpha 1, we're en route to South End," Rudy, took a heavy glance at the receiver before he placed it back on his jacket and closed the car door. But he couldn't help but dwell again on what he'd heard. 

'Another assault on an officer. How many does that make today? Five? Six?' It was strange. They were numbers you'd see over a month or a bad couple of weeks. 'And what was it yesterday? 7 or 8?' He'd seen a couple of the officers who'd responded and all of them looked off. Not that it was surprising given that in the space of a day, several officers were hospitalised there were grumblings and somebody had died. But the brass had brushed it off. 

Still, he shook off his thoughts as he reached Jack and tossed a jacket over to him. "Thanks, Rudy," he replied, but Rudy grunted back before they got back to work. 

"You hear the radio?" He asked Jack. He got a confused look and he nodded. "That makes 14 cases in two days…" he continued, his statement making Jack's countenance tense.

"Yeah I know," he responded.

"You heard anything? I know you and Rogers are close," Rudy asked, and he thought he spotted an uncertain expression on his face. 

"He mentioned some things…" He said. "But you didn't see him man, he was in a real bad way and was saying some crazy shit. And after the commander called him into his office, he went real quiet and his story did a 180, telling me it was the stress and shit. Don't know what the commander said, but it seemed to scare the shit out of him." 

"What'd he say? Before he got called in?" Rudy pressured. Jack looked conflicted.

"Something about demons walking in dead people's skin," he said, with some hesitation. "I pressed him about it and he began rambling about the blood and the bodies. I gathered he was talking about some murdered family. Real savage gory shit, looked like they were set upon by a pack of rabid animals. He checked them all. Checked for any survivors but nothing, no pulse, nothing." 

"But while they were casing the house, they heard someone downstairs and they both went to check. And one of the people he'd thought dead had got back up. After that, he started getting hard to follow, but it seemed he was attacked and his partner was hurt pretty bad. Even showed me his wrist and there was a bite mark."

"What the fuck," Rudy replied, looking taken aback. "You sure you're remembering right?"

"I don't know man, it was hard to get anything coherent. But I remember the bite on his arm, and I know I didn't see Stevens at work today. Personally, I think there's some kind of new drug going around, and it's sending people kooky. But fuck if I know," Jack replied. Rudy went to say something again but stopped when he heard an off-putting shriek.

"You hear that?" he asked, getting a nod from Jack. "What the fuck was that?"

"Yeah. It gave me the creeps," Jack said. Both of them looked around trying to find the source, but the heavy rainfall and general hubbub of the city made it hard to pinpoint.

It was only when they heard a scream they both ran for the source of continued screams. They found what they were looking for when they rounded an ambulance, finding a dead paramedic with his throat torn out, and another being mauled by the man who'd been undergoing CPR.

"What the…" he heard Jack mutter, floored by what they saw. And so was he, but that didn't stop him raising his gun, and firing the first shot. 

He fired three times, each hitting the man's back and sending him tumbling to the floor. Only then did he release a shaky breath he didn't realise he was holding. He was shaken by the brutality, but also perplexed. 'What had happened,' he didn't get much time to dwell on that thought though.

"He's getting back up!" he heard Jack shout, disbelief filling him as he turned to see his partner open fire towards the man, he'd just shot multiple times. Who was now standing, enduring more shots to his chest as if nothing had happened.

'Bang!' 'Bang!' 'Bang!'

Hearing more shots, instinct drilled into him activated. He began shooting, but besides the initial few that staggered the man, he shrugged off the rest and sprinted at them. His snarling bloodstained teeth, made his heart drop. 

They only got in a few more shots, before he was upon them and they both scrambled out of the way. While they avoided being bowled over and he went stumbling past, he saw Jack stumble and trip as he dodged; the man sprawled and his gun sliding loose on the floor.

He raised his gun again to fire again, but what he saw in the corner of his eye turned his blood cold. One of the dead men, the first paramedic with a bloody gape in his throat, was fumbling to his feet. The same glazed eyes and deathly pallor visible on the face of what should have been a dead man. And one sentence Jack said floated to his mind, 'Demons walking in dead people's skin...." 

"Oh shit. Fuck. Fuck," panic threatened to overwhelm him, but a sliver of rationality kept his gun primed. Several more barks of gunfire ensued at what he could only describe as a monster that converged on his partner. It was all ineffective though, and when he heard the click of an empty and saw both of them running headlong at him he baulked and dived out of the way. 

He avoided getting tackled by the first, he wasn't so lucky with the second though. It had adjusted its angle and was upon him. He went to scramble, but he found he couldn't move his legs, his body refusing to listen to his commands. A spasm of dread jolted up his body and he closed his eyes, not wanting to see his last moment. 'Is this where I die,' he thought to himself.

There were heavy footsteps, and a gurgling howl before he felt the air smacked out of him. He waited for the pain to come but nothing followed. His eyes only opened when he felt a sticky wetness drip on his face, only to see an oozing neck stump. Reviled, he pushed it from him and scampered back. Not sure what had just happened, until he saw a young man standing among two decapitated bodies. 

He had an unapproachable air, with short inky black hair and electric blue eyes that seemed to burn with an eerie intensity, in his hand he held a dripping red sword in one hand and a head, held by the hair, in the other. All the while towering above him surveying the area with a taut alertness.

The man turned and he met the placid, unblinking, blue eyes of his saviour. His lips peeled back into a smile, that showed his immaculate white teeth, the smile making him shiver; something about it, feeling very predatory. Rudy wanted to speak, but all the words died in his mouth as he looked again at the head in his hands. Its cloudy eyes stared down at him, its bloody jaws clacking together in hunger. 

'What in the actual…' 

---

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