Panikós in the City

Finishing her business in the bathroom, Page comes out to see Jacob isn't in the living room. The sound and smell of another steak being cooked fills the air.

"You're cooking another steak?" Page asks as she walks up to the kitchen and sees Jacob cooking, "It was nice having a little moment of peace, but we need to go. After we get your files from your office, we need to find a way off this island asap,"

"Alright," Jacob says as he turns off the stove, "I was hoping you'd take long enough in the bathroom for me to cook and eat it, but, I guess you're right. Let's get going,"

Page heads out the door, Jacob following, pulling out his phone and sending a message before he puts it back in his pocket and heads out. The two get onto his moped and head for the city The light breeze from before is still there, the only other sound beside the moped. Small reflections of flickering lights on the glass panes. No doubt there's a couple buildings on fire.

As they're driving down the dirt road, Page notices a large creature moving in the fields to their right.

Please tell me that's not another B.O.W...Wait, hold on...oh thank God, it's just a cow, no, it's probably a bull, it has horns. Those rats back in the market, no doubt they had been infected, so...animals can also be infected by whatever virus this is. Oh no, I hope we don't come across zombie cats, I don't think I'd be able to pull the trigger...maybe they just act like normal cats and do nothing but sleep.

As they approach the city, the lights all suddenly go out it seems to just get larger and larger, the density of becoming more and more apparent. Hundreds of buildings all several stories tall, a city this large is something you wouldn't imagine at all when you think of a city on an island. As the dirt road becomes concrete they're only a couple yards away from entering the city, already passing a sign that said, "Welcome to Atlantis City,". They're surprised when the all the lights that were on suddenly go out.

As they enter the city, the two are met by an eerie silence as the wind is kept out by the buildings. The moonlight that shined on the fields is also blocked out, leaving nothing but an almost pitch black darkness filling the streets. Jacob stops the moped only after getting a couple feet into the city. The headlight on his moped is the only source of light except for a single streetlight only a couple yards in front of them. A single body lay on the ground underneath it, their bloody clothes lit up by the light. Several hands, feet, legs, arms, and the heads are just barely in the circle of light, all of them already pale skinned, some even rotting.

"How the hell could something spread so fast?" Page asks in a low voice, afraid that if she spoke too loud it'd wake the dead.

"When you have a dense city with thousands of people, you'd be surprised how fast any sort of sickness can," Jacob replies just as silently, "But what I don't get, is why none of them are moving?"

"Yeah...let's just hope these ones are actually dead…"

"Still," Jacob turns off the light on his moped, "Best to be safe-"

They both freeze at the sound of a bull angrily bellowing in the distance to their right. Looking in that direction they can make out a large silhouette of what must be a bull in the fields. What looks like a person, stumbles away from the bull, and before they can do anything, the bull charges them and knocks them down onto the ground. They can faintly hear the bull stomping on the ground, probably killing the person.

Bones cracking and breaking fill the air as the bull let's out moans of pain, another tail sprouting out of it, a large sharp thing on the end. Its normal tail also grows a large sharp thing and they can faintly make out something happening to its face. The bull stands there in the fields, recovering from whatever just happened to it, before turning in Page and Jacob's direction.

"You're handgun has a full clip, right?" Jacob asks as he glances to Page. She quickly checks her gun.

"Y-Yeah,"

"Alright then," He turns the moped's light back on, the bull once more bellowing angrily, "Get ready to shoot anything in our way," He says as he revs up the motor, "And hold on tight, we've got a ways to go before reaching my office," Page wraps an arm around Jacob's waste just before he pulls on the gas, the moped taking off into the city. The bull, that's already gotten much closer, gets blocked from Page's view by the first building they past. She quickly turns to the road ahead of them, the bodies under the light already starting to get up.

Meanwhile, the zombie the bull had stomped starts regenerating the head that had been destroyed under its hooves.

By the time Jacob and Page reach the streetlight, most of the zombies are already on their feet. Not too far off in the distance they can see several silhouettes, already forming a barricade that nearly blocks the whole street. As they come to an intersection, the road in front of them is already completely blocked off.

"Time for a detour!" Jacob exclaims as he makes a sharp right onto a different street. This street is already filled with zombies. The roar of the moped is now being joined by the moans of the undead as they're woken from their slumber. Something about their moans sounds, different, from normal zombies, but nothing Page or Jacob really bother trying to figure out at the moment.

As they come to another intersection, the angrily bellows from before start echoing through the streets. Page glances behind them to see the bull charging through the streets, following them.

"Why is everything after us?!" Page asks as they make a left.

"I don't know, do you want me to stop and ask?!" As they're driving down the street a couple of zombies start walking in their path, the other side of the road is blocked by some crashed cars that are on fire. Page pulls up her gun, takes aim, and manages to shoot two of them, leaving a gap just big enough for them to squeeze through. They can feel the hands of the other zombies brush up against them as they zoom past them.

At another intersection up ahead, they see lights coming from the left. Reaching the intersection they see a car coming at full speed. Jacob pulls on the gas as hard as he can. They just barely make it past the intersection, the car nearly hitting them and continuing past them. Not too long afterwards they hear a crash. Reaching another intersection Jacob makes a left. The road ahead is filled with vehicles, some crashed, some with hazard lights on, others with zombies trying to get out of their seatbelts.

They swerve through all the cars and as they drive through another intersection, hear something crashing into the cars. Page glances behind them again to see the bull still chasing after them, ramming through the cars and pushing them aside. It's catching up to them.

"How much farther?" Page asks worryingly as she turns back to him.

"Give or take eight minutes. Please don't tell me whatever is making all that noise behind us is the bull,"

"Um…yeah,"

"Alright than, let's see if we can't speed things up," Jacob once more pulls on the gas as far as it will go, this time keeping it at max power. They slowly start to pick up speed as they continue to drive past cars and zombies. They make a right after a couple more intersections, the bull still keeping up. The street ahead of them is completely blocked off by a dense horde of zombies. They have to break to a halt, turning around, to stop from crashing into them. As the bull continues to charge at them, Page notices a gas truck to their left which has crashed into a building making a large whole in the glass pane.

"There!" Page shouts as she points to the building.

"Alright, hold on tight," Jacob says as he keeps the brake on but starts revving the engine, turning the moped to the hole.

"What are you doing?!" The bull is now a few yards away from them.

"If I go now the bull will follow us into the store!" The bull is now three yards away. Jacob lets go of the brake and they take off for the hole just as the bull comes within feet of them. Caught off guard, the bull keeps charging forward into the horde of zombies as Page and Jacob drive into the building. As they enter the building Jacob slams on the breaks, the moped tilting forward. They almost fall forward, but they came back down with a hard thud.

"Fuck!" Jacob shouts under his breath.

As they get off the bike Jacob kneels down a bit.

"You alright? Did the bull hit you?" Page asks as she gets off, the moped falling onto its side. Jacob takes a deep breath before responding.

"No, but my balls were when we landed," He straightens back up, "Let's go before the bull comes back, getting to my office is going to be a hell of a lot more difficult now," He says as he grabs his pistol, turning the flashlight on. Page does the same for hers, the two of them shining their light around the inside of the building. It appears to be a clothing store, several short tables covered with various clothes all neatly folded, racks of clothes making mini aisles. They spot some stairs in the middle of the store and quickly make their way to them. As they near the stairs the stench of death starts to appear, they spot some blood on some clothes a couple feet away on the other side of the stairs.

They hear a sudden moaning as something starts to move, a head emerging from behind the clothes rack. A zombie, skin a turning a pale grey, and eyes glowing red from their lights starts to make their way to the end of the aisle towards them. Now in a safer situation, Page and Jacob are able to realize what's weird about the zombie's moans. It's breath becomes shallow as it breathes in, almost like its suffocating before it lets out a moan. They make their way up the stairs before the zombie can get to them.

On the second floor they find more zombies and clothes. Though not nearly as many clothes as down stairs since more of the space is taken up by make-up and jewelry shelves and displays. As they shine their lights around to find the next set of stairs, Jacob sees a sign.

"I recognize that sign," He states, "I know where we are now. There's a bridge on the third floor leading to the building next to this one,"

"Alright, let's get moving,"

The next set of stairs are next to the stairs they just went up, so they have to go all the way around. Seeing how more zombies are to their left, they go right. As they near the stairs a zombie stumbles toward them, this one more mutated than the others. It's eyes are completely red, the nose melting into the face and almost completely gone, and the skin is almost entirely a pale grey. Its teeth are longer than a normal person's and stick out from between what remains of its lips.

It's breathing is shallow and unsettling. It doesn't moan like the other zombies and as it walks towards them shakes a little bit.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Jacob mutters as they stare at the grey zombie.

"What?"

"Let's start walking first, I can explain on the way,"

Page nods and the two walk around some displays to get to the stares, the grey zombie tracking their every step and slowly trying to make its way to them.

"That thing, it looks like a regenerator," Jacob says as he glances at it.

"Regenerator?" Page glances at the grey zombie once more, the report popping into her head, "But...how? I thought someone had to have several las plagas surgically implanted?" She asks as they both glance at the zombie with a newfound horror

"Luther must have found a way around it. I have a rifle at my office, and I think my boss had an infrared scope, we're gonna need that if we hope to make it through the streets at all," He states as they make their way up to the third floor.

Reaching the top they see that this floor is completely empty, except for another grey zombie standing in front of the entrance to the bridge, something shiny in the chest pocket of their shirt.