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loud to a virtual stranger. “We’ll just take the car, they can’t stop us, and we’ll just run them over.”
     
    I could barely believe the words that came out of my mouth and apparently neither could Sebastian.
     
    “ You’re kidding me, right? Those things out there are people underneath it all, and you want to run them over?”
     
    “ In case you haven’t noticed, they want to EAT us, not play Parcheesi,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. A sharp rattle snapped all three of our heads towards the gate in unison. The horde was leaning into the steel gates, the hinges groaning. Every last one of them had their mouths open, teeth showing, saliva dripping and hanging from their loose lips.
     
    “ We need to get out of sight,” Dan said, walking back towards the house.
     
    “ We need to get out of here!” I yelled, hysteria bubbling up. I’d just killed a man and we had a horde of drug-induced zombies on our doorstep. I clapped my hands over my face and tried to block out the moment. The sights were gone, but the groan of the gates the growling of the horde still reached me, denying me my moment of escape.
     
    A hand on my arm snapped my eyes open. Sebastian started to drag me towards the house. “We’ll talk about what we’re going to do inside. The last thing we need is to go off half cocked and get ourselves killed.”
     
    I let him direct my body, but I couldn’t help but stare over my shoulder at the writhing mass of things that had until very recently been human. “This can’t be happening.”
     
    A sharp shake brought my eyes up to Sebastian, fear and the denial of that fear making his eyes those of a person I barely recognized. “It is happening, Mara, and you need to get used to the idea,” he said, his mouth a thin hard line. I jerked my arm out of his hands.
     
    “ You’re an ass, you know that don’t you?” I said as I stomped towards the front door, slamming it behind me. All I wanted was a little comfort, a white lie or two to get me through the initial shock. After that, I could come to terms with what was going on.
     
    The living room was dim, the flickering of the TV the only light, as the curtains and blinds were drawn down. Dan was sitting on the couch, his feet propped up on the hand-carved coffee table we’d bought for our first place.
     
    “ Feet off,” I said, shoving his feet off before he could remove them himself. “I don’t care if this is the end of the world, I don’t want your feet on my coffee table.”
     
    The door opened behind me and shut with a soft click. I kept my back turned to Sebastian, my spine rigid and my breathing slow and deliberate as I tried to rein my anger in. A whine from the bathroom and I stomped down the hallway and swung the door open. Nero tried to scamper between my legs but I scooped him up and held him tight. A minute passed and the anger started to drain out of me. Taking one last deep breath I carried Nero into the living room. I stared at the TV and came to a sudden stop, unable to take my eyes off the screen.
     
    Dan leaned forward. “I’d hoped they’d have gotten it under control in the bigger cities at least.”
     
    “ I don’t think that’s the case,” I said, my hands trembling as I stroked Nero. Lists of major cities that had been overrun and were considered uninhabitable flashed on the screen in no particular order: Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Edmonton, Brisbane, New York, Atlanta, Ottawa, London, Perth, Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, Glasgow, Mexico City, Venice, Lima; the list went on and on, scrolling for a solid two minutes.
     
    “ Every continent has been hit by this catastrophe, though some obviously worse than others.” The male announcer’s voice blared to life on the screen and I jumped involuntarily. Nero gave a squeak and I kissed him on the top of his head.
     
    The camera panned to a reporter in what looked like a bare-bones room, cement walls, and shelves of