Carl rushed to his residence hall. Everyone who crossed his path was on their way somewhere and in a hurry. Carl felt like he was flying as he sprinted to his dorm. And his dorm was like the freshmen girls’ dorm. It was a mixture of parents, siblings and students all trying to move out of the building.
Carl ran into the dorm and rushed up the stairs. He got to his room much faster than he ever had before. Inside the room he saw his roommate, Pete, packing up.
“Hey, Pete, what are you doing?” Carl asked while he started throwing things into a suitcase.
“I’m getting my girl and we are driving into Atlanta. They say they’re going to lock the city down soon and her family is down there. If they lock it down, nobody is going in or out. My girl said they’re setting up shelters in Atlanta. I don’t want to be stuck out here in the boonies when this goes down.”
“When what goes down?” Carl asked.
“You need to check out a television. I ain’t got no time to explain, but this is about to get bad fast.”
“Can you wait for Betty and me?”
“OK, 15 minutes, but that is all the time I got. Meet me at the car in front of the girl’s dorm.”
Carl picked up the phone and called Betty. “Change of plans. We’re gonna hitch a ride with Pete. Meet you at the front of the dorm in 10 minutes.”
“Ten minutes? I can’t get everything I need in 10 minutes.”
“Ten minutes, babe. Yhat’s all you got.”
Pete ran out. “I’m going to start the car up.” Carl finished packing in under a minute. He grabbed a few things without thinking and started rushing out of his room with a duffle bag. He wanted to get over to Betty’s room to help her with the last bit of her things.
A few minutes later, he was running into the girl’s dorm and a little while after that he was in Betty’s room. Betty was sitting, talking on the phone ehile leisurely packing things into a suitcase.
“We ain’t got time for this. One suitcase and we are leaving. We will come back after all this is over.”
Betty sat down. She said, “I talked to my father and he is coming to get me. He said he could get here in a day and told me to wait for him. Anyway, it ain’t like we are dating. I will wait here, you go.”
Carl felt like hitting the roof, but he stopped and looked in Betty’s eyes. He said, “You don’t know what is going on. I don’t know what is going on, but everybody who does know more than us is running around. Now I am going to take you with or without your stuff. Your choice.”
Betty looked upset and yelled, “Fine.” She grabbed a suitcase and said, “Take that, and I will take this one.”
Carl said, “I told you…” He threw one bag to the other side of the room. Grabbed Betty’s arm and grabbed the other suitcase and rushed out of the room.
“But I needed that…,” Betty yelled as Carl rushed her out of the room.
“We have 5 minutes left,” Carl said.
There was a large commotion down the hall. There was screaming and what sounded like growling. Human growling.
“What is that?” Betty asked.
“I don’t know, but it is getting closer. Run!”
Betty followed Carl, who was running down the stairs. They saw Pete in his car. Betty and Carl got to the car and jumped in the back seat.
Pete asked Betty, “Did you see Charlotte? I told her to come on.”
“I don’t know, but we gotta go, man. Some real stuff is going down right now,” Carl said.
They saw Charlotte running out of the building. She had a suitcase in her hand, but it flailed open and the contents fell out on the ground. A few seconds later, three other women were running after her. These women looked to be bloody around the mouth.
Pete said, “Carl, you are driving. I’m getting Charlotte.” Pete jumped out of the car, running towards Charlotte. Carl jumped into the driver’s seat. Pete ran towards one of the students who was chasing Charlotte. Charlotte ran and Pete knocked one of the girls down.
“Did he hit Esther?” Betty asked.
“Esther ain’t acting like Esther,” Carl responded. Charlotte had gotten to the car when another girl was about to reach her, but Pete tackled her. Carl opened the door and Charlotte jumped into the front seat.
“Come on Pete, we got her,” Carl yelled.
Pete jumped up and their former classmate grabbed him and it looked like she took a bite out of his leg. He kicked her and started limping, but he got to the car and jumped in before Esther had recovered.
Pete had jumped in Charlotte’s lap and said, “Hit the gas!”
Right when Carl floored it, Esther jumped in front of the car and her head exploded as the car rammed into it. There were a few other young women chasing the car before they stopped.