Megan cradled her savaged arm, wrapped tightly in a hoodie, but still bleeding profusely.  Her fingers protruded from the makeshift bandage, and they quivered with pain.  “Unghhh, God it hurts!”  She called out, rolling her head to one side, teeth gritted.

The passing street lights periodically illuminated Kaelyn’s horrified face, speckled with Megan’s blood, as she navigated the streets of Chico at high speed.  Her little car’s engine screamed, pushed well past its limit.  Megan yelped every time she moved the wheel or hit a bump.  “Just hang in there, Megan, everything will be okay.  We’ll be at the hospital soon.  Breathe.”  She tried to make her voice sound soothing and calm, but it was tremulous and laden with fear.

“What the fuck was that?  Who was that?  Was that one of your junkie friends?”  Megan’s accusatory tone cut right to Kaelyn’s soul.  None of this made sense.  Kaelyn had never seen a junkie that fucked up.  She searched for some meaning, some answer.

Her voice was even and sincere.  “Megan, I swear to fuck I’ve never seen a drug do that.  Not even PCP, and I’ve never even dealt in that shit.  I know how this sounds, ok, but you have to understand that I have no idea what just happened.”

“He wouldn’t let go!  That whole time you were kicking him in the head, he didn’t even flinch, Kaelyn.  He was still … chewing … that’s not fucking normal!”  Megan was horrified.  And while she didn’t have any frame of reference for how much having her hand nearly bitten off *should* hurt, this seemed to be much more painful than it should have been.  “Nggghhh… why the hell does it burn?  Was something in his mouth?”

Kaelyn was just as frazzled and terrified as Megan was.  Her frustration boiled over.  “How the fuck would I know if something was in his mouth, Megan?  Just because it was on the street and at night doesn’t mean I know every goddamn thing that’s going on, ok?  Just… hold it tighter.  We’re almost there.”

They rounded the corner to a scene of chaos.  By the orange light of raging flames, she saw an abandoned fire truck, one fireman dragging a wounded comrade away, and a policeman waving frantically at the car, trying to warn them away.  “Shit.”  Kaelyn spat.  She slowed and rolled down the window.  “What’s going…”

The cop didn’t let her finish.  “GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!  THIS AREA IS NOT SAFE!”

Kaelyn screamed back.  “I can’t.. my friend, she’s…”

“GET OUT OF HERE!”

“SHE’S FUCKING HURT, OK?  THIS IS THE ONLY HOSPITAL FOR MILES, WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GO?”

“Ladies, you don’t understand, there’s…”  his words were interrupted by the sound of a storm of gunfire from the hospital.  Something exploded, throwing flaming debris into the street.  The officer’s radio crackled to life with a flurry of screams and garbled transmissions.  The officer turned and began to ran back toward the hospital, drawing his weapon.  In the light of the fireball, they saw them.  Shambling figures, as Megan’s attacker had been, mindlessly but relentlessly fanning out from the ruined hospital.  Some of them were on fire, but they mercilessly and tirelessly advanced.

“What do we do now?”  Megan asked in a small voice.