Rotten

  Daylight breaks into the night slowly creeping up in the horizon. As the first strands of light reflect upon the glass of a thirty-story building, a body pushes through a window. Glass breaks and surrounds the body in shards that cut the skin of the female figure that passes through. The cuts let out blood that mingle with the shards of glass as they fall together pulled fiercely by gravity towards the pavement. The blonde hair tangled in dry blood and filth covers the face of the falling woman. Her mouth is somewhat visible with her upper lip completely ripped out exposing her teeth and gums. She growls on her way down and her arms stretch forward with stiff wrists and crooked fingers. Her tight white t-shirt, dirty and ripped, exposes rotten skin on her stomach with lacerations that ooze green pus. Her jeans cover in dry blood and filth as well with the left leg of her pants completely torn apart at her waist exposing lace undergarment.





  Glass rains on the black pavement and soon after the woman’s body slam into it and splatters. The head flies off the body at the neck and rolls under a pick-up truck. Blood flies out and covers the surrounding cars and her entrails explode out of her belly and scattered all over the smashed body. Under the pick-up truck, the head is stuck and the jaw still moves. The eyes search around demonstrating the brain was still active. A little stream of drool runs down the right cheek mixes with blood and touches the ground. Slowly the jaw ceases the frenzied up and down movement and the eyes freeze in position with their iris facing into the skull. After a few minutes, the head appears to have died.





  At the window, looking down at the incident’s aftermath, a short man with groomed facial hair stands and gasps for air. He looks with fear in his eyes as if he just saw a rerun of his life a few minutes ago. The man is no weightlifter, but he is lean and was able to throw this woman out the window to save his and his female companion’s life. The woman sits terrified in a corner of the apartment with her arms wrapped around her legs and her face resting on her knees. Her black hair dangles dripping sweat and covering her face.





  Are you okay? The man asks under heavy breathing leaned forward with his hands on his knees.





  The woman raises her head exposing a beautiful face with eyes full of tears and terror. What was that? What happened to Natalie?





  I do not know! She…just went crazy, I guess. I do not understand. The man approaches the woman and helps her to get on her feet.







  Ralph, what happened to her? You saw the way she looked. What in the world happened to her?





  I don’t know! I can’t explain it. Are you okay? Did she bite you? Ralph slowly gets her on the couch. He turns to the kitchen just behind them and grabs a glass that he fills from water from the fridge.





  No. Did she bite you?





  I don’t think so. Ralph hands her the glass of water. Here, drink some water.





  Thanks!





  Man, what is going on here Ralph runs his fingers through his hair and pulls on it and releases as he throws himself back on the couch next to his female companion.



 

  What are we going to do? Should we call the police?





  You know what, that is a good idea, Jenny.





  Ralph gets on his feet grabs the phone and dials 911. The phone rings repeatedly with no answer. He hangs up and tries again getting the same result. There is no answer. How can that be? He dials another number and gets a busy tone. He waits a few seconds and dials again and gets the busy tone the second time as well.





  The lines are busy or something.





  What do you mean?





  There is no answer. I even tried reaching your mom and all I get is a busy tone.





  We should go and check on mom. Jenny develops a terrified sense that what just happened with their friend Natalie is not an isolated event.





  Alright! I am going to change quickly and pack some clothes, just in case. You should do the same.





  Okay, I’ll do that.



 

  Ralph grabs a gym bag, throws some toiletries and clothes in it, and closes it. Jenny does the same and joins him in the living room.





  Are you ready? he asks.





  I am not, but there is no option. She fixes her hair into a ponytail and grabs the straps of the gym bag on her back Okay, let’s do it!





  Ralph opens the door and sticks his head to ensure that everything was safe. The hallway is empty; almost desolate which is a usual trait of a Sunday morning. He grabs Jenny’s hand and they walk towards the elevator. He presses the button to head down and they wait for a few seconds. The two of them could not stop looking around to make sure nobody was coming at them unnoticed. The elevator doors open and they rush inside. He hits the button for the lobby. A few seconds later and the doors open. They look around before stepping out. They start to walk towards the front door when a huge figure catches the corner of their eyes.





  A sweaty muscled man steadily walks and places himself in the way to their exit. His eyes are bloodshot and the iris’ in his eyes have a yellowish color to them. He breathes heavily almost grunting. He stands 6’5’’, a giant compared to Ralph’s 5’ 3’’ in height. Sweat runs down Ralph’s forehead. My god is Ron. What am I supposed to do here?





  Ron? Jenny calls out to him. Can you hear me?





Ron does not acknowledge her call. His broad shoulders simply continue to move up and down with his heavy breathing. Ralph lets go of Jenny’s hand and signals her to take cover behind a desk in the lobby. He looks around for something that would serve him as a weapon. He sees a fire extinguisher, breaks the glass and pulls it out. Ron moves towards him and throws a punch at Ralph. He dodges and hits Ron square in the nose with the extinguisher. Ron backs a couple of steps and then strikes back at Ralph. He grabs him under his armpits and lifts him from the floor. He then tosses him through the glass panel into the gym area. Ralph lands on his back with a few cuts on his arms. The extinguisher rolls from his hand and stops a few feet out of his reach.



  Ron walks into the gym through the broken panel. Ralph desperately looks around for something else he could use to inflict damage on this beast of a man.





  Ron, buddy, what has gotten into you? We are friends remember? He continues to look around as pushes his body away from Ron. He gets ahold of a bar with no weights on the floor and pulls it towards him. He slowly gets on his feet with the bar on his side. The bar weighs 65 pounds on its own. It will do as a weapon beautifully. Ralph swings with all his might from behind him in a semi-circle that cracks Ron’s skull on impact. Ron’s head snapped as well making a loud sound and his body drops on the floor like a stone. Blood runs out of his mouth, eyes and head into a slow moving stream that fills the cracks in the wooden floor.





  I am so sorry, Ron. Ralph was sad to have to resort to killing two of his friends on the same morning. He could not believe what was going on and wanted to think this was a dream. Jenny runs to his side, happy that Ron didn’t kill him. She wraps her arms around him and kisses his cheeks and then his lips.





  Honey, what the hell is going on here? Is everyone we know like this?





  I don’t know, but we have to check on your mom. Let’s get moving!





  Ralph grabs her hand once more and rushes with her through the front door of their apartment building. They get into a fairly new blue compact vehicle and drive off in a hurry.