Derrick's grip tightened around the steering wheel, his attention momentarily divided as he glanced at Tanya. "Wichita might have the answers we need," he said, his tone a mix of hope and fatigue that reflected their long hours on the road. Instinctively, he shifted his gaze back to the pavement, driven by the constant need for alertness.
Tanya hardly noticed the reassurance in his look; her focus was locked on Stephanie's slumped figure leaning against the side of the hard plastic door—a whirlwind of questions gnawing at her insides. The girl's silence felt like an unsolvable mystery. With a soft, nearly silent hum, Tanya reached out to brush her fingertips against Stephanie's cheek, searching for warmth, life—anything meaningful in this confusing reality.
When she found none, she turned her gaze forward again, her eyes tracing the seemingly endless stretch of road ahead.
The car's engine emitted a low, steady drone that blended with the heavy silence enveloping Derrick and Tanya. This uneasy quiet was broken only by occasional rustlings from Stephanie in the backseat—a reminder they weren't alone in their watchful state. Derrick's eyes flitted from shadow to shadow along the desolate highway, gripping the wheel tightly ready to swerve from another monster at an instant. Tanya sat tense beside him, every muscle ready to spring into action while her gaze pierced through the darkness beyond the cracked windshield.
They were running from an unseen enemy that had transformed their world into an unpredictable maze of fear and horror. Each mile marked their descent deeper into the rabbit hole they stumbled into, and Wichita loomed as a faint beacon of hope amidst the rising terror.
Adrenaline surged through Tanya's veins—a bitter blend of anticipation and fear. She reflected on all the winding paths that had brought them here: the close calls and narrow escapes. Derrick and she were survivors; they battled through child abuse, drugs, and homelessness. If it was yesterday she would have bet on them against the world with everything she owned, now she wasn't so certain. Survivors adapt, survivors persevere but even survivors have their limits.
Then suddenly, through the fog a sign materialized from the night. Its green reflective surface caught their headlights, proclaiming 'Wichita - 40 miles' in bright white letters. A flicker of relief stirred within Tanya's chest but was quickly overshadowed by anxiety over what might await them there. Forty miles—less than half an hour if they maintained their speed.
"Almost there," Derrick murmured more to himself than to Tanya or Stephanie behind them. His voice barely rose above the sound of tires on asphalt. The sign faded into darkness behind them, leaving them once again shrouded in night but now with a destination etched firmly in front of them.
The eerie stillness of the night was shattered by a sudden movement on the road. A small creature, with its pink fur standing out against the black asphalt, darted into their path. Derrick's foot hesitated over the gas pedal, but Tanya's voice cut through his indecision.
"Run it over!" she commanded, her tone sharp and urgent.
Derrick didn't need to be told twice. Survival instincts took over and he pushed down hard on the accelerator. The car surged forward, its headlights illuminating the strange figure of the rabbit. With two black horns sprouting from its head, it was yet another abnormality in this cruel and unpredictable world.
As they approached, the presence of the car seemed to trigger something primal within the creature. Its fur began to shift colors, a ludicrous transformation unfolding before their eyes. What was once soft and pink now turned into a vivid crimson, as if the rabbit was bleeding from every pore without a single wound to be seen.
"Jesus," Derrick exclaimed, his foot pressing even harder on the gas pedal as they reached speeds of ninety and beyond. The car was speeding towards the horrifying rabbit, pushing the car's limits as they closed in on it. The strain of their desperate escape could be felt through the trembling of the vehicle. As they got closer, they noticed that the rabbit's blood-red fur began to glow.
Tanya tightened her grip on the door handle, preparing for impact as she stared fiercely at the red glow radiating from the mutated rabbit. It was either them or it, and she refused to let a twisted creature take them down in this hellish world.
Tanya's scream turned into a guttural roar of terror as the rabbit's intense glow filled the darkness, blinding her and Derrick in its searing light. Before they could even process what was happening, the creature exploded with a deafening boom, engulfing their car in an explosion that lifted it off the ground like a toy. The force of the blast shattered the already cracked front windows into a million deadly shards, slicing through the air like a swarm of razor-sharp teeth. Tanya and Derrick were thrown violently against their seats, their bodies battered by the shards of glass that pierced their skin like hot needles. As the car spun out of control in mid-air, they braced for impact, knowing it might be their last seconds alive. With a sickening crash, the car finally slammed onto the ground against the passenger door with bone-shattering force, skidding against the asphalt until it came to a stop.
With a groan of pain, Tanya struggled to regain her bearings as her vision swirled in a foggy haze. A sharp, throbbing ache pulsed through her skull from the force of the impact. Her hands trembled and felt unsteady as she reached for her seat belt, her fingers slick with sweat and possibly blood. Finally managing to unbuckle it, her battered body slumped against the hard plastic of the passenger door.
Warmth trickled down her face, and she blinked rapidly to clear her blurry sight. Derrick—she needed to know if he was alright. With great effort, she turned her head, wincing as fresh pain shot through her scalp.
"Baby," she whispered, her voice barely cutting through the ringing noise in her ears. There was no response, only an unsettling silence where there should have been groans or curses. Panic surged within her. "Baby," she called out again, this time louder, desperation creeping into her voice.
Swallowing a sharp jolt of fear, Tanya unsteadily pushed herself up against the crushed door. The car was an entanglement of twisted metal and broken glass, the dashboard lights flickering sporadically like a dying heartbeat. Her hands shook as she reached over to Derrick her fingertips brushing against his neck in search of the telltale throb of life. But there was nothing—no pulse, just stillness.
Tears welled up in her eyes like a flood, blurring her vision as she realized Derrick was gone. A deep ache formed in her throat, threatening to turn into a sorrowful wail that she desperately tried to suppress. She turned to look into the backseat, only to be met with a horrifying sight. Stephanie's body lay torn and mangled, resembling a pincushion with shards of glass protruding from her skin in every direction. Her eyes were now dull and lifeless, and her body remained eerily still as if frozen in time. The scene before her made her heart wrench with grief and disbelief.
She couldn't stay still; she had to escape. She climbed over Derrick's slumped form in the seat next to her, his body barely held in place by the seat belt. She braced herself against the crushed door, feeling the sharp edges of twisted metal digging into her shoulder. It wouldn't budge. The pain was excruciating, but fueled by adrenaline, she pushed with all her might. Her feet searched for anything to give her leverage as she pressed against the door frame until finally it gave way with a loud groan and swung open.
Tanya stumbled out of the wreckage and onto the smooth asphalt, her shoes struggling to find traction on the slick surface. As she fell onto the ground, her body landed on top of the remains of the rabbit, its red innards and fur staining her clothes. A painful cry belted out of her lips, as pain radiated from her gut. Her hands, slick with her blood, pressed against the asphalt as she rolled herself over, her back and hair becoming stained with the blood and fur scattered on the ground. She probed her abdomen with her hands, wincing as her fingers were cut by a shard of glass that jutted out from her flesh.
"Fugh," she mumbled a curse and groaned as she wondered how she didn't feel this before. Pushing through the searing pain, Tanya clutched the piece of glass and, with a sharp intake of breath, yanked it from her flesh. A warm gush followed, and she pressed her palm against the wound in an attempt to stem the flow.
Tanya stood up slowly, her legs shaking as she surveyed her surroundings. The smell of gasoline and burnt rubber hung in the air, while a deserted road stretched out before them. The only signs of life were a mangled car and the remains of her only family, and a stranger who mirrored her own hardships. Off on the side of the road, a battered highway sign marked the way to Wichita, that read forty miles away with its bright white letters.
With each step, her feet stumbled over the uneven ground as she made her way off the road toward the highway sign. The wooden post was weathered and worn, with jagged edges that seemed to reach out and snag at her clothes. As she traced her hand up its side, streaks of blood marked her path, leaving a trail of crimson behind her. Her palm hovered over the word Wichita, before pressing against it with a force that left a violent imprint of her bloody hand. It was a haunting sight, like a warning etched into the sign for all who passed by to see.
A sudden rustling in the nearby bush snapped Tanya out of her daze. With a soft hop, a pink rabbit emerged out of the thicket, Tanya's breath catches in her throat as the rabbit's head slowly rotates towards her, its eyes gleaming with an eerie intelligence.
Her feet gave way, and she stumbled backward and fell to the ground, her body landing in a mix of moist dirt that clings to the cold wet blood on her clothes like a second skin.
"No," she mumbled quietly, her hands clawing at the ground, desperate to pull herself away from the creature. But it hops closer and closer, its soft movements becoming more sinister with each bounce, as its pink fur starts to turn crimson. With one final hop, the rabbit glowing in scarlet stands before her. Tanya's screams pierce through the cold stale air, as the glow becomes brighter engulfing them in a blood-red light. She desperately tries to stand and flee, but her legs refuse to obey, paralyzed with fear. The scarlet light intensifies until it's almost blinding, searing into her retinas as she shields her eyes with her shaking blood-soaked arms.
An explosion erupts in front of her, a shock wave rips through her body, and chunks of flesh are ripped away from her bones, leaving behind splatters of blood and exposed nerve endings running up and down her body.
The once green highway sign, now battered and torn, swayed teetering from the force of the explosion. The sturdy wooden post that held it in place was now bent and broken, as the sign laid fallen upon the earth.
End of Book One.