They made their rounds like this, every day. In the short timesince his arrival – was it already nearly two months now? – Leo had made ahabit of sitting quietly and listening every time the guards made their roundsin order to catch any little snippet of conversation he could as they passedhis cell. They always cast a glance at him out of the corner of their eyes asthey passed, ceasing their chatter until they were safely passed his door. Heassumed that he’d been the only prisoner holed up on this level of the prison,since they only ever stopped chattering when they reached his cell. Or perhaps he was just the most hated inmateon his cell block, he thought bitterly. In any case, the only opportunityhe had to catch anything interesting was the time before they reached his cell,and the few moments after they had passed him by before disappearing down thehall. There wasn’t usually much, but it was always better than nothing.

Today, however, something wasdifferent. Wrong. The two guards approached his cell, and as they did, quietedtheir voices. But they didn’t stop talking completely, as they usually did.They whispered in hushed tones, as if talking about something that made themconcerned. They both cast their glances toward Leo, who’d turned his head towatch them curiously, when suddenly a frantic voice shouted through the radiosattached to their hips. Eyes wide, one of the guards fumbled with the radio athis waist and shouted into it. He was met with only static in return. Leo stoodup from the bed in his cell and took a tentative step toward the guards, butwas interrupted when the sounds of gunfire broke the silence left by the staticin the radio. The guards took off in the direction of the stairs anddisappeared without another glance toward Leo.

The gunshots continued to ringthroughout the cell block, and were only occasionally accompanied by shouts atfirst, but then the shouting became more and more frequent – more and morefrantic. When the shouts turned to screams, Leo grabbed the bars of his cell,and his eyes darted from one end of the hallway to the other anxiously. When noone came up to his hall again, he began calling for help. Just when he thoughtno one would come for him, he heard footsteps on the stairs and a guard cameinto view. He didn’t seem as if he would even cast a glance in Leo’s direction untilLeo’s hand flew out from between the bars and he yelled for the guard to stop.Startled, the guard stumbled to a halt, looking frantically at the end of thehall. Finally after a moment of deliberation, he pulled the keys from his beltand fumbled to find the key that would open the cell door. Leo watchedimpatiently as the guard tried one key after another, almost as if he’s completely forgotten every key on the damn thing,Leo thought. So focused on the keys that he hadn’t thought to check the hallagain, the guard’s eyes went wide as a hand came down heavily on his shoulder.The snarling that accompanied the movement was so frightening that Leo almostdidn’t look up, and wished he hadn’t the moment he did.

The guard screamed as he tried to spinout of the thing’s grip, but hisstruggling came to a stop as the rotting face of what was once a man burieditself deep into the guard’s neck. He gave one final scream as the flesh wasripped from his throat, and after another weak struggle, he went limp againstthe bars of Leo’s cell. The only sound that came from him was a faint gurglingas he tried futilely to pull in another breath through the hole that was oncehis throat. As Leo let out a cry and scrambled back from the cell door, themonster continued to strip the flesh from the guard’s neck and shoulder loudly.It made the most terrible, wet sound, and Leo couldn’t even bring himself to moveback any further. But after a minute, he finally moved his eyes to the floorwhere the guard had dropped his keys and shot forward, pulling them through thebars. Shaking and unsure if the creature would take a bite out of his arm if heheld it too far out through the bars, Leo struggled through the remainder ofthe keys on the ring until he finally found the cell key.

Figuresit would be the last one I checked.

Leo took a deep breath to steadyhimself, and as soon as he was sure that his legs wouldn’t collapse under hisweight, he pushed the cell door open hard and fast before taking off for thestairs that he knew would lead him down into the heart of the chaos.

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The lower levels of the prison were worsethan he’d imagined was even possible. Inmates and guards alike were strewnabout the floor like discarded trash, bloody and in horrible shape. Some ofthem were missing limbs, misshapen, some still half-alive and only waiting fordeath. There was so much blood that he almost didn’t register it at first, afact that scared him all on its own. Leo looked around frantically for somesort of way out, eyeing several of the shambling creatures that wereuncomfortably close. Eyes darting, he spotted a gun that could only havebelonged to a guard on the ground; it was still loaded. Still visibly shaken,he squared his shoulders and made for the exit. 

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It took him some time to find his wayout of the prison. His cell had been deeper than he’d had reason to think,given the crime that had landed him there in the first place. He’d saved thelives of a few inmates and guards as he cleared a path through the creatures,who nodded at him with silent gratitude written across their faces. He didn’tstop to give any thought to whether he’d saved the lives of real criminals ornot, but he didn’t care to give his attention to anything other than themindless shambling bodies all around him. When he was almost to the frontentrance of the prison, he was stopped cold by the sight of a man being attackedby at least three of the things. Even though he’d seen a guard be ripped apartin front of his eyes against the bars of his cell, he didn’t think he’d everget used to the sight, for as long as he lived – not that he was even sure ofhow long that would be. His breathing hitched in his throat and he found ithard to breathe as the man, who was screaming and so covered in blood – whetherhis own or a mixture of both his and others’ – that Leo couldn’t even make outwhat color his uniform was, let out an inhuman scream. He didn’t even know ifthe man was an inmate or a guard from this distance. And as the creatures torehim apart, he stopped resembling anything human at all. Hearing the man’s faintgurgling, Leo realized with a start that he was still alive. His only partinggift as he passed the feeding frenzy was to put his last bullet into the man’s head.The gurgling stopped.

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It was hectic getting away from theprison, at first. Guards were still trying to keep everything contained andunder control outside, but the chaos inside was just too much. There were toomany inmates and not nearly enough guards to stop them all from getting away,so Leo had tossed the empty gun, slipped past the guards, and disappeared outthe front gates – which weren’t being manned, not to his surprise. He melted intothe trees that surrounded the prison’s perimeter, and didn’t stop running untilhe felt as if his lungs would burst.

The streets were surprisingly quietafter the insanity of the prison, and it almost felt too surreal as Leo took tothe sidewalk. Every now and then, he heard a sound that would make him jump andlook around, but for a time he was alone on the streets. Everything wasdeserted – a ghost town.

When he finally did hear loud noisescoming from across the street, Leo ducked into the back yard of one of the nearbyhouses. Everything seemed empty, like no one was home anywhere. He enteredthrough the back gate, and when he deemed the yard to be all clear, closed thegate behind him. It locked with a little click.

Leo stood stock still, eyes closed, andtook deep breaths. Dozens of thoughts passed through his mind all at once – hisfamily and their safety, the fact that he was essentially a fugitive runningfrom the law, the fact that it probably didn’t even matter anyway – but he wassuddenly brought out of his head by the sounds of rustling. With slight panic athis having mistaken being alone, he turned to bolt. But he was stopped by a whisperedvoice that floated down to him from the window of a treehouse.

“Mister? Don’t leave me alone!”

Wide-eyed, Leo took a few steps towardthe treehouse. Two small eyes peered back at him from the small window.

“Where are your parents? Are you allby yourself?” The child nodded. He appeared to be ten or eleven, but he wasstill a child – still afraid.

“I was left with my babysitter, butone of those things came in and she told me to hide in the treehouse. She didn’tcome out of the house. Please don’t leave.” Leo motioned for the little boy tocome out of the treehouse. He did so hesitantly, but perched at the top of theladder. His hair was a dusty brown and slightly tousled. He gave a wary smile,and Leo couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness for the child. His shorts weredirty and his eyes were tired, but after a moment, he descended the ladder andstood in front of Leo.

“Will you take me with you? I know I’mnot supposed to go anywhere with strangers, but I’m scared. I don’t want to be allalone.” His eyes began to well up and Leo crouched in front of him.

“Aren’t your mom and dad going to belooking for you? Don’t you want to wait until they come back?” The child lookedat Leo with eyes that were suddenly wise beyond his years, almost pleading.After a moment, Leo gave a small nod and ruffled the child’s hair beforestanding back up.

“Alright, you can come with me. Butfirst, what’s your name?”