(Meghan)
Meghan was anxious.
She thought that once they got inside the car and rescued Rody, they would finally be able to drive out of Prime and head for where their parents were. She couldn't have predicted that things would turn out this way.
"You still have my phone with you?" Ray asked.
"Uhh—yeah," she replied.
"Okay, Rody will call once he gets to Samantha's flat. Keep him on the line till we're able to get back to the A Block entrance."
Meghan nodded that she understood.
Suddenly she heard a faint scream. She looked towards the source of the sound to see a woman being attacked by two Deathless. One of them was a young child and the other a grown man. Meghan cupped her mouth in shock. They were probably her family.
"Oh god," Meghan gasped.
"There's nothing we can do for her," Ray replied without taking his eyes off the road, "I know it's hard but try and ignore it. We'll be seeing a lot more of this going forward."
Meghan couldn't help but feel a shred of guilt. As she sat in the safety of her car, she wondered how many people had already become victims to these monsters. Also from what Ray told her, the deceased eventually became one of them. Which meant that the poor woman would soon join the rest of her family as a Deathless.
Meghan shuddered. The fact that all this was happening in real life was still a hard pill to swallow. She wished she could just magically teleport herself out of this horrible nightmare. Despite how tiring and mundane her morning started out, she would have trading anything for things to go back to that.
While engrossed in her thoughts, she noticed another Deathless coming up on the left. It was a woman with braided hair and a long, red dress. Meghan watched on unceremoniously as the woman slowly staggered towards the car.
She could feel Ray turn the steering wheel a tad to the right in order to avoid her.
Just as the car was about to pass her by, the woman screeched and threw herself into Meghan's side of the door.
"What the fuck!?" Ray shouted as he lost control of the vehicle and had to slam the brakes.
Meghan's heart jumped up to her throat. She was so startled that she couldn't even scream. All she could manage was a heavy gasp. She placed a hand over her heart and took several quick breaths to try and compose herself.
She looked at the window and saw a smear of blood on the glass. She immediately turned back to see the woman slowly stand up from the ground, snarling at them as she rose.
"Did she just ram into the car?" Ray asked.
"Yeah," Meghan said in disbelief, "That seriously freaked me out. Leave us alone, woman!"
As if in defiance, the woman charged at them again and slammed into the back of the car causing them both to jerk forward from the impact.
"Holy shit!" Ray yelled, "This one is fuckin' crazy."
"Drive away! Or she'll keep banging into the car!"
"On it," Ray said as he pressed down the accelerator.
The car zipped forward just before the woman collided with them again, causing her to lose balance and fall to the ground.
Meghan slumped back into her seat and sighed.
"Why do these things keep happening to us?" she asked, "Why can't we just get a fucking break?"
Ray didn't answer.
She could see that he was just as rattled as she was. But he kept his eyes fixated on the road. He darted his gaze from left to right, making sure that there weren't any more unnecessary surprises.
The two of them were already halfway around the apartment complex. Meghan could hear the fire alarm still blaring loudly as they neared the D Block building. She wondered how much longer it would go on. Usually, someone from the management would arrive and turn it off after a few minutes. But at this point they were all either dead or had long since escaped from Prime.
They passed by a couple more Deathless as they drove along but Ray made sure to keep a respectable distance from them. He didn't want them ramming into the car like the woman had. But for the most part, the Deathless they passed only stood and watched them with vacant looks on their faces. One particularly healthy looking Deathless, however, had chased them for quite a distance before the car eventually outpaced it.
"We're lucky these things aren't very fast," Ray began, "Just imagine if they were able to…"
"Nope!" Meghan cut him off, "Don't you say it. I don't even want to think about it."
"Yeah, that's way too terrifying."
"No shit!"
"But have you noticed that not all of them react in the same way?"
"What do you mean?" Meghan asked.
"Well, most of them just stand and stare blankly as we pass by but others start sprinting and chase us."
"You mean like that woman who rammed into the car?"
"Yeah, but also the one that ran behind us for a while. Something's different about them. They aren't the same as the rest of the Deathless we've been seeing."
Meghan thought about that for a bit. She hadn't noticed it till now but Ray had a point. She recalled all the times she had seen a Deathless along the way. For the most part, they just stared blankly at the car without any irregular movements. But a select few of them were more aggressive and erratic. It was hard to predict what they would do next. That made them a far bigger threat than regular Deathless.
'Erratic isn't a bad name for them either' Meghan thought.
Just then, Ray's phone vibrated in her hands.
She picked up the call and put it on speaker mode, "Hello?"
"Ahh Momo?" Rody asked, "Samantha is with me. We both are coming down now."
"Ahh okay, come fast." Meghan said.
"Where are you guys?"
"We're nearing the back side of F Block. We'll be taking a right turn soon and then we'll come straight towards you. Should be there in a minute or two."
"Cool," said Rody, "We're entering the fire exit now. I'll call y'all when we make it downstairs."
"Nah, dude!" Ray called out, "Stay on the line. We can coordinate better."
"Ahh okay, but I won't be talking much." He replied.
"Yeah, we'll mute ourselves too, unless we have something to say." Ray said with a nod to Meghan.
Meghan took that to mean that he wanted her to mute the mic of the phone, which she did.
"Why're we muting ourselves?" she asked.
"There may be Deathless on some of the floors as they're coming down. Any noise from our side might alert them. At least now we can talk freely without risking Rody and Samantha getting discovered."
"Makes sense," Meghan said even though she wondered why the call was necessary if they weren't going to be speaking. She decided it was better not to ask.
Soon enough, the exit ramp came into view. The very same ramp they were supposed to take to reach the main gate. Once again, they would need to take a right and head towards A Block instead of going down it and escaping the apartment.
Meghan secretly wished Ray would take the ramp instead of the right but she knew he wouldn't abandon Rody. She immediately felt guilty for even thinking that.
'What's wrong with me…' she thought.
Just then, she saw something coming up the ramp. she couldn't tell what it was at first. She strained her eyes in an attempt to see clearly.
"Ray," she called and pointed to the ramp, "what's…"
"Oh SHIT!" Ray yelled and slammed down the brakes.
The car came to an abrupt halt and the two of them were heaved forward before being thrown back into their seats.
"Oww! What…" Meghan began.
"Fuck…" Ray said in a shaky voice, "this is not good. This is really, really not good."
Meghan shifted her gaze towards the ramp and, to her horror, saw what Ray was referring to.
A huge swarm of Deathless was slowly making their way up the exit ramp.