The gas station greeted me with a ringing silence. There wasn't a soul outside, the windows of the gas station building were completely dark, the only sources of light were a few dim lamps hanging near the gas stations, and the headlights of my car and a nearby police car. Which, by the way, was standing with its doors open wide, as if it had been left in a hurry. The walkie-talkie, hanging on the wire, emitted only hissing interference, adding more oppression to the already bleak atmosphere that permeated the place.

And blood on the concrete pavement: an entire walkway leading to the store.

There could be no more doubts. The worst has happened after all, or the police patrol wouldn't have left their vehicle in this condition and the lights would be on in the gas station building. This is my last chance to stay out of trouble and leave. If I don't do it now, I certainly won't be able to later.

With a determined step I head to my car and grab the door handle, but I don't open it yet.

"Should I go or should I stay?" I half-whispered to myself the same question I'd been running through in my head all this time. My whole world has shrunk to this small patch of light in the darkness of the night. Not only my fate depends on this choice, but who knows what will happen to those who would have survived if I had intervened? I didn't have an answer to that question, but I knew for a fact that their chances were greatly diminished.

So, if you go left, you'll lose your horse, if you go right, you'll lose your head... here, again an unfamiliar saying popped up, but it fits the current situation as well as possible, because ironically, the entrance to the store is just to the left.

- So we'll go the dead man's way," my gaze was fixed on the slightly shabby door with the "open" sign sliding off to the side. I'd never imagined that this was what the gates to hell would look like, and that I'd choose to enter them voluntarily.

I take my hand off my car, pull out my gun. Even though the part of me that I'd recently acquired was screaming at the top of its lungs to run, the other half of me wasn't ready to leave people behind, and if I backed up now, I'd hate myself for cowardice for the rest of my life. Besides, I have nothing to lose: I'm already infected, and if I'm destined to turn into a monster, I'd rather burn in a nuclear fire than go spreading the disease around the country.

Holding my gun at the ready, I cautiously approach the door, ready to shoot at any moment. Unfortunately, my new memory didn't give me the knowledge of where, around what corner, or how many enemies would be waiting for me, but if I thought logically, the cops whose car was behind me had to be inside somewhere. There are at least two of them, plus the gas station attendant, so potentially three enemies.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, I open the door and am greeted by darkness, through which I can see the stalls filled with merchandise, and a trail of blood from under my feet leading somewhere inside. The blood splattered on the floor clearly shows boot prints, illuminated by a cone of light coming from a flashlight lying on the floor right near the entrance. I bend down and take it in my hand, making sure it's police issue, which, combined with the suspicious lack of sounds of human activity, can only mean that things have definitely not gone according to plan for the guys, and I need to double, or better yet, triple my vigilance.

Following the bloody footprints, I walked along the racks past the empty cash register, lighting my way with a flashlight and watching every corner carefully to make sure I didn't miss a surprise attack.

"This is not how I envisioned my first day....."

Along the way, I came across several breathless human bodies with bite marks. Fortunately, none of them made any attempt to get up.

The silence was broken only by the sound of my footsteps, which, despite my best efforts to tread as softly as possible, were clearly audible in the absence of other sounds. And so it was, until around the next corner I heard someone's hoarse breathing and muffled fumbling. Turning there, I came upon an open door leading to a back room, to the right of which sat a bald man in a police uniform. The right side of his shirt was stained with blood from a bitten neck, and he swayed back and forth with his head down, banging his back against the wall.

"Officer? " I called to him softly, without much hope of a dickish response.

"H-r-r-r-r..." He raised his head, showing me an ugly face with the same whitish eyes as the one that had bitten me in the arm. And he got up rather quickly, though clumsily. I'll be honest, when I saw the walking dead in person (let's not count that girl: after meeting her I was under the ward, and the lion's share of sensations blurred), smelled its putrid odor and looked into the eyes filled with bloodlust, I almost shit myself. That's right natural, almost put a cartload of bricks in my pants. Anyone who hasn't seen such shit in real life will never be able to understand what a person feels when they see a corpse stinking of blood and shit a couple of meters in front of them and moving actively to eat you.

Luckily, the permanent fuck-up lasted only a split second, and in the next instant I was already raising my gun, pointing it precisely between the freak's eyes.

- Fuck, I'm sorry, man! - and pulled the trigger, and then again, just to be sure. The bullets hit the target, piercing the ex-cop's head and finally putting him to rest, then he fell back and slid down the wall, leaving a streak of smeared blood and brains behind him.

- Ugh, bitch..." I said after taking a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart.

But I was not allowed to rest for long: from the depths of the back room I heard shuffling footsteps, and a second later two people came out of there at once: one was also in a police uniform - obviously, the second patrolman, and the other was a civilian - probably the one who had initiated my colleague into zombies.

In a practiced motion, I raise the pistol into a close combat position and work it into my knees.

The first two shots hit the floor because of the trembling in his hands, but the third knocked out the cop's kneecap, causing him to sprawl awkwardly on the floor with his face on it. The cynvil who was following the food, not noticing the obstacles, tripped over him and fell in after him. While they were both floundering, I had time to blow their brains out one by one.

Now get outta here. Gunshots are guaranteed to attract someone else here...

"R-a-a-aahhhh!" suddenly roared behind me.

Damn, they're already attracted! Those corpses behind me were just lying dormant, and the loud noises woke them up. I turn around and see the dead people who were lying quietly a minute ago getting to their feet. Luckily, they're doing it slowly enough to give me a chance to get away without getting into a fight.

The short run to the exit went like this: I managed to get past all of them-and then, just as the door was in front of me, it was sharply kicked open with a shoulder from the other side. She was a girl with long hair, her color hard to tell because of the darkness, tied back in a ponytail, wearing blue jeans and a red jacket.

I forgot I came here looking for her.

"Don't shoot!"

"Get down!"

When we saw each other, we shouted almost simultaneously, and as synchronously the girl fulfilled my command, and I took aim and sent a bullet exactly in the eye of the zombie that was chasing her and was almost ready to grab her.

"You all right?" I asked her as my opponent fell with a shot to the skull.

"Yes," she exhaled. "Thank you."

"You'll thank me later, but right now we have to get out of here," I objected, walking briskly outside.

"We can't go back, I'm being tailed!" - Claire ran out, waving her hand forward, and there were a dozen and a half dead people coming in our direction. They'd already passed my car and were about to approach the police car, and then we'd never get out of here, except in the company of these guys.

"Mee too," I said briefly, sprinting toward the rescue vehicle. - "Get in the car! Now!"

Claire followed my lead, not being stupid. We slid inside and slammed the doors shut behind us, right under the noses of the flesh-hungry zombies.

"Hang in there."

The ignition key was in the lock, the engine was already running, and all I had to do was kick into gear and hit the gas, which I did immediately, making a sharp U-turn right off the bat and onto the highway, moving away from the gas station and the infected occupying it.

Now we can relax a little. And finally meet.