The air in rural Georgia hung heavy with the thick scent of summer. Cicadas buzzed in the trees, the kind of sound that made the days feel endless. For eighteen-year-old Emily carter, that same buzzing reminded her of how trapped she felt—stuck between finishing high school and becoming the caretaker of her little sister, Abby, who was just six.
Their mother had passed away from cancer a few months earlier. Since then, Emily had been both sister and guardian. Their father had taken extra shifts at the mill outside Macon, leaving Emily with the daily responsibility of making sure Abby was fed, safe, and smiling, even when the world felt unbearably empty.
But that morning wasn't like the others.
Emily first noticed it on the news. She'd turned on the old boxy TV while fixing Abby some cereal. The local station was reporting something strange—stories of violent attacks in Atlanta, the anchors urging people to stay indoors. The feed cut to shaky footage: a man with wild eyes lunging at paramedics, biting one of them before being dragged down. The camera cut out.
"Emmy?" Abby asked, her big blue eyes fixed on her sister. "Why's that man biting the other man?"
Emily shut the TV off. "Don't worry about it, bug. Just some bad people in the city."
But her chest felt tight. She grabbed her flip phone and dialed their dad. Straight to voicemail.