Not far down the street, in the direction of the airport, came a shout which curdled into a scream. Dave squinted and could see the incomprehensible. Blood. Lots of blood pouring from a wound in a man's neck. There was the reason for that spraying wound and that reason terrified Dave. A man with grey skin and random, odd looking, yellow patches that might have been some awkward skin infection was using his teeth to rip into the dying man's neck.
Dave was only immobile for a moment and then turned away. His untouched coffee falling to the sidewalk which went unnoticed by anyone. He didn't really have a logical reason, but he just knew that he had to find safety. He heard a new scream from even closer and knew that finding a safe place had to be now.
As Dave looked about the street he suddenly noticed just how few places existed where one could be safe. Dave shook his head trying to clear his thoughts, he had no idea what he was up against. He had so little information that he couldn't even bracket a solution in some realm of the known terms. One needed to understand a threat in order to create a solution and Dave had zero understanding of whatever this was.
For a moment Dave pondered dashing back into the office where he worked, but he couldn't get out of his mind that those buildings were death traps. The front door was the only way out, which meant that if he went in that he'd have to deal with whatever was on the streets anyway when he tried to make his way out.
Nearby, Dave heard the window cleaner swearing. "Fucking hell. Is that blood?"
Dave approached the window cleaner.
"I need to borrow your ladder."
"What the fuck!"
"I'm not going to steal it. I just want to climb up."
"Why would you do that? I'm just cleaning windows with it. There's no where to go up there."
"Yes, there is," said Dave, who then demonstrated his intent by pushing the ladder closer to the awning above the double doorway that lead to Dave's office. Dave climbed mostly up the ladder, and then swung himself onto the awning.
The window cleaner was too stunned to stop Dave and just stared up in confusion. A scream came from nearby, jolting the window cleaner. A few car lengths away another person was being attacked. That was all the window cleaner needed. With a look of naked panic on his face, the window cleaner quickly followed Dave's example and climbed the ladder and got onto the top of the awning.
The awning was a simple metal roof with a fifty centimetre high skirting around it with the building's name brightly painted on it. Dave lay down behind the skirting and the window cleaner did the same. If they lay down then it would be impossible to see the pair from the street. Dave wondered if this was good enough.
"Name's Josh," said the window cleaner, holding out a hand to Dave.
Dave took the hand and gently shook it before quietly saying his own name.
Josh noticed how Dave had spoken quietly and flattened himself further while looking around fearfully.
"What the fuck is going on?" whispered Josh.
Dave paused. "I don't really know. I think I saw someone biting another person over there."
"Why the fuck would someone do that?"
"Maybe they are sick."
"Like rabies?"
"Earlier I saw some news about a disease outbreak in a plane at the airport."
There were a few scattered screams from the street. Dave carefully peaked over the awning skirting. There were a number of bloody bodies on the ground and a few staggering grey skinned people. The transformation of the street from normal to the realm of the dead had taken a few moments. Dave's head revolved at the suddenness.
"I hope the cops get here soon," said Josh randomly.
"Why's that?"
"Lunch will be soon. And these streets will be crowded with people looking for food."
"Fucking hell!" said Dave realising what Josh had meant.
Josh suddenly realised what got Dave so alarmed. "Let's hope that it isn't hell."
* * *
It was hell.
Even before the standard lunch time, people had started to trickle out of their offices in an effort to get ahead of the usual nightmare lunchtime queues. As they came down they were to make a horrible discovery as they walked out onto the streets.
Dave was peeking over the skirting and noticed something incomprehensible. Bodies that had been previously attacked were starting to stand up. For a moment, Dave had thought that those people hadn't been attacked as badly as they had originally seemed. That maybe they had just been lightly knocked down and only needed a little time to gather themselves together before standing up in a completely okay state.
But some of the people that Dave had seen attacked had been mauled to literal pieces. There was no way for them to be fully functional. It was an incredible to see a person bitten so hard through the wrist that hand had completely separated, and yet after their skin had turned a mostly slate grey the severed hand had slid along the ground and reattached itself, making the arm complete. Blood splatter would soak back into the body of the original victim. After such a miraculous process there would be no obvious sign of a wound or prior injury visible.
After witnessing this "healing" process the victim stood and glared around, causing Dave to hide from the vision of their red eyes.
"What the fuck is that about?" whispered Josh.
"I don't get it. Some people are attacking others."
"With their teeth? What sort of shitter does that?"
"Yeah. I don't get it either. I understand even less how the dead are rising."
Josh gave Dave an intense look. "Are you serious? What you're describing is nuts!"
Dave shrugged. "Have you seen what happens? Someone is attacked. Their body hacked to pieces and mutilated. And after a little time their body just rebuilds itself as if nothing happened. Not even a damn scar."
Josh stared at Dave,
