Over the last several days a lot of things had happened, but Chloe had been involved in none of it. The only reason she knew anything had happened was because she had a constant ear open and had barely gotten any sleep. She hadn’t even thought of turning on the radio, though it probably only would have given her bad news. She was very wary to leave her stolen motel room, now more than ever. The first time someone had tried to knock on her door, it had been the manager who had threatened to get the police involved if she didn’t come out. She wasn’t sure what happened to him since he never came back to bug her after that. 

Then came the sirens. They were loud and it felt as though every time she was about to fall asleep, another emergency vehicle would blare its sirens and cause her to jump to her feet. Mostly they were just passing by, but sometimes they would stick around for an insane amount of time. After a while they stopped coming, though Chloe wasn’t sure why, leaving people crying out for help that would not come. The gurgles and growls once again haunted her, often silenced with a gunshot. However, sometimes those who they found weren’t so lucky and their screams of pain became silenced before they joined in with the chorus of growls.

The second time someone knocked on her door they were screaming for help, begging her to open the door and let them in. Chloe did nothing and only covered her ears, pretending that she wasn’t there. Once again the growls began to get louder and the screaming got louder until a sickening gnawing and ripping replaced it. For a while afterwards a few stuck around and slammed against her door but her slamming ceased once a loud gunshot went off, causing them to wander off or die, she wasn't sure which.

It was quiet for a day after that. The military rolled in, and began blaring it’s warning on the loud speaker for everyone to stay inside and no one objected to it. Knowing what was out there no one wanted to go outside but the peace didn’t last long as people began to try and venture out for food. One day someone started screaming again but the military quickly found him. At first it was all “Thank god.” But then the shooting started up again and the thankful civilian was silenced. In retrospect, Chloe was very lucky that the military hadn’t tried to get into her motel room, she wasn’t sure what would have happened to her if they had. 

Her stomach growled loudly, causing her to flinch and grab at it as if that would silence it. In all these days she hadn’t eaten anything and it had taken a toll on her but she had been to scared and guilty to do anything about it. However, today was when her survival instinct kicked in. She had to go get food or else she would die.

She took a moment to calm herself down before she began stretching her legs. The worst thing that could happen to her when she was out there was getting a sudden, incapacitating cramp or sprain. It only took a minute or two and she quickly stuck her head out of the door to see if anyone or anything was around. Content that she was alone she exited the room and took off running towards what she assumed was the shopping district. She didn’t have anything like a backpack with her. She had foolishly left that in the car when she had ditched it. For now she figured that she could be able to carry a can or two of food back to her safe motel. 

All of the shops on the street appeared to have been ransacked already. Each and every window along the street was broken and the contents of shelves lay strewn across the ground. This wouldn’t be as easy as she had initially hoped. She stepped over a broken window, axe in hand as she scanned her aisles for anything that was moving. As she began to find edibles, she stuffed them in her small pockets, her eyes never ceasing to look around for anything that moved. In her mind she had killed, and if anything tried to get her she felt like she was able to kill again.