Chapter 8: The Strange Crow
"Attention to all citizens! You are asked to remain in a temporary quarantine!""In a moment we will bring you the latest news regarding this strange rain!"
The cold voice of the radio echoed in the cabin, like a distant echo in a box.Richard fixed his gaze on the road, although it was no longer appropriate to call it a road… only a grave of asphalt filled with abandoned cars, corroded by the red liquid that soaked them.
Things had gotten more complicated than he had planned…There were no people around. Not a single person. The surroundings, which only hours ago had been full of sounds, vehicles, and horns, now felt desolate. Every trace of existence had vanished, as if humanity had evaporated in an instant.
The only thing keeping Richard's mind alert was the radio broadcast.However, even the news turned out to be a deception. A mockery of the people who had placed their hopes in them.
They lived in the modern era, yet despite that, the media decided to deceive. To ask the population to isolate themselves without giving explanations was a death sentence. It was like throwing matches on dry land.In his previous life, he had witnessed the havoc this caused. Now he was living that experience again. The cycle was repeating, like bad fortune.
There were still areas where the blood rain had not yet arrived. At this moment, if things had been done properly, the outbreak's chaos could have been avoided.
"…could you help us repair our vehicle, please…"
Richard stopped his vehicle abruptly. A pedestrian stood in the middle of the road… An almost heartwarming image… if it weren't for the fact that their silhouettes were distorted by the blood rain.
"Could you help my father, kind sir?" The girl spoke in a soft voice. Pure. Like a flower blooming in a swamp.
But Richard was no fool. He could see through the rearview mirror as several shadows appeared, hiding among the trees.
"Sorry, I'm in a hurry…"
The engine roared. The truck accelerated. Sending the father's body flying several meters, until it crashed against some rocks on the side of the road with a grotesque sound.
CRACK.
The sound of bones breaking echoed in the darkness.
The terrifying part was that this man stood up. He showed no pain in his expression, only a disturbing absence of pupils in his eyes.His joints readjusted with strange noises. His head moved like that of a drunkard trying to stay on his feet.
Those damn things were terribly dangerous just seconds after turning. They were like beasts with intelligence, only seeking to kill and eliminate.
"My husband!""You will pay for this!"
The woman came out from the bushes. Her face still showed human features, although rage emanated from every muscle of her face. She was around 35 years old, still possessing a certain mature beauty… but now that beauty was just a cover for the monster she had become.
"Raaaghhh…"
"This will complicate things…" muttered Richard as he saw his vehicle surrounded by more infected.
* * *
Inside the van.
"What are you doing in the middle of this rain?""Do you have a problem with your vehicle?"
The voice took Emma by surprise.
On the other side of the glass, a boy was approaching the window. His appearance was ordinary, too ordinary not to be suspicious. He even smiled. The rain fell on him, and it didn't seem to affect him, contrary to the information Richard had given them.
"Richard told us that this rain was dangerous…" Ethan whispered to himself, without taking his hand off the vehicle's window.
The young man seemed to hear him, surprising him."That's what they told you… haha, nothing happens with the rain," the young man mocked. "That problem with the rain is nothing more than a lie from journalists so that everyone stays in quarantine."
To back up what he was saying, he raised his hands to the sky and drank the rain as if it were a divine gift."See… refreshing." He turned his gaze back to the vehicle where Emma and her family were. "You should come out and try it, this rain is a blessing from heaven."
Emma had long been starting to doubt that strange young man.If it weren't for the fact that he spoke so calmly that it was unsettling, she might have thought she knew him and was rudely ignoring him.
At first, the young man remained calm. However, as the minutes passed, his way of speaking became harsher and more demanding.
"Get out of that damn vehicle now!"
His smiling face had long since distorted. His skin began to peel away with the rain, revealing his grotesque figure with blackened and elongated teeth. There was no explanation for what was happening. Although, if Richard had been there, he would have identified him as a rare variant of a mutant infected.
Those infected who had managed to retain intelligence in order to evolve by consuming more infected before the blood feast. The most terrifying thing about those creatures was that they were never alone.
THUMP!
A thud echoed at the back of the van, catching everyone's attention.Emma turned and saw them: several figures emerging from the rain, their bodies bearing some cases of burns on the skin. But apart from that, they looked like people with a case of blindness in their eyes, unlike the creature in front of them. Each one seemed to possess monstrous strength, almost overturning the van.
"Rebecca, duck your head!" He pushed her against the front seat before accelerating to plow through the infected.
He increased the speed, colliding with the beasts. The boy was struck, his figure slammed against the metal wall of the building in front. The noise echoed like crushed meat against metal.However, despite having his neck bent at an impossible angle, he stood up.Their pale, hollow gazes focused on Emma with a disturbing obsession.
"I told you to come out…" all the silhouettes surrounding the vehicle murmured in unison.
If this was a bad horror movie, it was succeeding in spiraling things out of control, because Emma felt terrified just by seeing the white, lifeless eyes of each of those figures.
"Richard… where are you?!" she screamed, her voice trembling.
The beasts began pounding on the windows. The truck shook as if it were in the middle of a raging ocean. The sound of claws scraping against the glass rattled everyone's nerves inside.
But luckily for those present, the blood-stained handprints weren't good either, because they were beginning to take away their visibility.
"We're leaving this place…" the van's engine roared, but it wasn't enough. The creatures had too much strength and began shaking the vehicle again, making it rock from side to side.
BANG, BANG, CRASH!One of the mirrors came off, and with it also the force with which the vehicle was being shaken.
The boy's mouth began to stretch like a snake's before letting out a scream."Get them out!" he roared with an inhuman voice, followed by the others.
"Raaaaghhh!""Hrrrggghhh!""Grrrhhhaaauuughhh!!"
"If help doesn't come, we won't get out of here alive…" Ethan whispered, sweating profusely, not knowing what else to do to escape that situation.
* * *
Road.
Richard had managed to escape from the infected."Something must have happened in the city…" he muttered.
He couldn't get out of his head the fact that things seemed worse than in his previous life. The speed at which people turned was much faster than he remembered. Supposedly, it should have taken at least several days of incubation to turn.
But now, with just a touch of the rain, you became infected.Could it be that his regression had caused everything to be altered to compensate for the variables?
But… if that was the case, who had planned everything so precisely?
It could be taken as if he had actually been lucky enough to have a second chance. But there was no free lunch in this life. He had learned that well, and that's why he couldn't shake that sense of unease.
"I'm almost there…" Richard accelerated, leaving those thoughts behind.
* * *
"Emma!"
The vehicle stopped in front of the shelter.The whole place was full of bodies, or what was left of them, scattered on the ground as if they were food scraps.
The blood had stained the floor. Yet there was a tense atmosphere in the area, and Richard felt watched by several eyes. The feeling was strange. It was like being prey among so many predators.
"Uncle Ethan, what just happened?!" Richard got out of the vehicle with his umbrella.
His boots echoed in the water as he ran toward the van. Everyone was unconscious, but without any wounds, much to his relief.
"What the hell happened here…?" he wondered.
There were no signs that any survivor had helped them. But disturbingly, the bodies of the infected seemed to have been torn apart by an animal. He hoped that whatever had saved them was more a friend than an enemy.
The vehicle was still intact, so Richard towed it to the parking lot without waiting any longer. There were some dents, but the vehicle moved forward without issue.
"What…!" Richard shouted, alarmed by the appearance of a crow that had come out from under the vehicle, which for some reason seemed familiar to him.
The small creature did nothing to him. But could it be possible that this crow was an ordinary animal? For the moment, he paid it no attention. It seemed to be looking at Emma as if she were its owner.
"Are you Emma's pet?" Richard tried to pet it.
WHOOSH!The wings hit him with brutal force, throwing him to the ground.
"Damn it!" Richard gasped, the blow had surprised him. "That creature had the strength of a newly awakened."
That damn luck would end up killing him someday. Although for the moment, the crow seemed calm. And he planned to leave it alone until he discovered if it was dangerous, or until he awakened his ability and it was no longer a major threat.
"I really hope you don't do anything to us…" Richard whispered as he headed inside.