The light of morning shone in on Megan’s face.  Since the night before, her skin had gone from pale to a greyish pallor.  Her eyes were clouded.  One was an iris ensconced in a blood red sphere.  The pain seemed to have abated, but it gave way to a furious fever.  The power and water had long since gone out.  Only the last trickle from the faucet soaked a cloth Kae draped across her friend’s forehead.  Kae looked at her with desperation in her eyes, her breath halting, her every movement laden with dread.  Megan didn’t seem to acknowledge the stimulus.  She lay there, staring at infinity, quivering.  Kae stood to get a better look out the high placed windows.  The sounds had died down outside.  All that could be seen were a small number of randomly wandering figures in the streets and in the yards, some missing arms and legs, all of them a vision of horror.

“Kae” the voice came softly.  She knelt down close to Megan and reached for what had been her ‘good’ hand.  It felt cool to the touch.  Kae smiled.  “Your fever is breaking.  You’re going to be okay.”

“Kill me.” she said simply.

Kae’s smile melted away.  Her voice trembled with barely contained sobs.  “But you’re getting better, you…”

“I can feel it.  I’m hungry, Kae.  I’m so hungry.  And there’s this … rage.”  She looked away from infinity and met her friend’s eyes.  “You’ve seen what they do.  You have to kill me Kae.  I can’t wind up like that.”

Kaelyn wavered on what felt like the edge of madness.  She chose to try to cling to a outcrop of denial.  “No.  No.  Megan, you’re gonna be okay.  You just need to rest…”

Megan looked at her pleadingly.  “Please.  You don’t know how this feels.  You don’t have much time, Kae.  I can feel it.  Do you understand that I can feel it?  Please.  Kill.  Me.  Before it’s too late.”

Kae backed away, now openly sobbing.  “How can you ask me to do that?  Do you know what you’re saying?”

“You have to kill me.”  Anger now tinged her voice.

“Maybe… maybe there’s someone I can call.  I’ll try Doctor Forester again, he…”

Megan shot up from her bed, eyes full of fury, lips peeled back from her teeth.  Her words now took the character of growls.  “You have to help me, Kaelyn!”  Megan surged toward her, arms outstretched.  “You have to help me!”

Kaelyn screamed and jumped out of the way.  She went for the door, took the doorknob in hand, and took one look back toward her friend.  Megan surged toward her, her voice now devolved into a greedy rasp.  Kaelyn’s scream had attracted the walkers outside.  They were surrounding the house.  They were outside most of the windows, banging mindlessly, trying to get at what was inside.  She opened the door and flung herself into the hallway.  The bathroom window at the end of the hallway gave way.  The torso of a biter fell through it and began to claw its way toward her.  Soon another fell through the window behind it.  Megan managed to get the bedroom door open and stalked toward Kaelyn, at the head of the approaching mob, and completely indistinguishable from the others.

Kae bolted up the stairway.  The sickening surge of adrenaline propelled her.  She opened the door to the main house, and rounded the corner just before the front door gave way.  The horde poured into the house.  This couldn’t be happening.  Her mind flailed, trying to make sense of the situation.  Kaelyn screamed again and clambered her way to the second floor on all fours.  She crouched on the upper landing, looked around herself.  Her mind froze.  She was now pure survival instinct.  Zombies were beginning to get up the stairs.  She looked up, pulled down the attic access ladder door, unfolded the ladder, then scrambled into the attic.  she yanked the ladder up behind her just as Megan reached it.  That glimpse, just as the attic door slammed shut, was the last she’d see of Megan.

A cacophony of beating and crashing sounds filled the house beneath her.  She whirled around, looking for some escape.  She found a decorative gable window, managed to wrench it open, and leapt to the roof of the house next door.

She ran.