"Cierra, I'm taking my lunch break now!" A woman's voice echoed through the lounge area of the small office building just before the owner of the voice appeared, her red hair pulled back into an elegant bun as she used her only free hand to smooth down the dark material of her pencil skirt.

"I've only got about half an hour until my next client, but I should be able to pop into Marie's down the street for a coffee or someth-" Her voice trailed off as she finally turned blue eyes from the phone in her hand to the empty room, obviously confused by being the only one there.

"Cierra?" The woman called out, taking a step forward, heels clicking against the tiled floor as she looked around the space, though it wasn't as if the young woman she was searching for could be hidden behind the coffee maker.

"What the hell?" She asked herself, voice just a whisper as she moved towards the reception desk where she had been expecting her secretary to be sat waiting to take calls and handle appointments.

The redhead gently ghosted her fingers over the large calendar that sat in the middle of the desk, snagging a neon green sticky note that had the familiar scrawl of her friend and employee jotted across it.

At first, the message was a normal one.

"New client requested for Dr. Amity Walker. Interested in discussing potential CBT. Email: melaniejo〰️"

It looked like Cierra had been writing down the information needed about an upcoming appointment for her to take, but halfway through the client's email address, the pen seemed like it had been suddenly jerked upwards and then the rest was left blank.

Gripping the note tightly, Amity cast her eyes around the lounge again, a heavy feeling settling in her chest when she realized that the front door was slightly ajar.

It wasn't like her friend to pull a prank on her, especially not during work hours, so she couldn't fathom what Cierra was up to.

Striding towards the door, Amity was ready to get to the bottom of this weird occurrence but was stopped by her phone buzzing violently in her hand.

Looking down at the device, Amity read the emergency alert that was now flashing across her screen and her heart nearly jumped into her throat.

Virus? Like the one that had been talked about on the news lately?

Amity had just assumed that there was an increase in people snorting bath salts and that the news was just blowing it out of proportion for a good story, but here she was standing alone in her office with her friend M.I.A.

Nothing about any of it felt right.

Looking at the alert again, she quickly took note of the details about the safe zone being set up in Atlanta before looking back at her friend's empty desk once more.

She couldn't just run off without even looking for Cierra, emergency alert or not.

Making up her mind, Amity continued towards the office door, not allowing herself to hesitate before she yanked it fully open and stepped outside.

The small side street was nearly empty save for her own vehicle parked at the curb and one or two others... Cierra's Mini Cooper included.

"What the hell?" She breathed out as she took another step towards the street, pausing only once she heard a noise from the small garden area that was tucked into the alleyway between her office and the orthopedic office next door.

"Cierra? This isn't funny. Something's actually happened- we need to go." Amity said sharply, the fear that had her hands tingling and breath coming out faster making her tone harsh.

Cierra picked a hell of a time to turn into a prankster.

Stepping into the alley, Amity took in the familiar sight of the small shrubs and flower beds that had one or two benches tucked away amongst them, but what was unfamiliar was the person that was hunched over in the middle of it all.

"Cierra?" Amity asked, her mind so clouded with confusion and wariness that it didn't matter that this person appeared to be a blonde white woman when Cierra most definitely was not.

Amity just needed to say something. She needed to know what the hell was going on and it seemed that the sound of her voice had done the trick.

In the next moment, the blonde woman was shakily straightening up, allowing Amity to get a good look at the mangled corpse of some type of small animal that she had left on the ground behind.

"What the fuck?" Amity exclaimed, taking a step back even before the woman had turned to expose her blood-covered face and hazed over eyes, her skin seeming to sag off her bones.

The emergency alert had mentioned the virus spreading at terrifying rates and that those infected were violent and deformed... and now Amity was understanding what it had meant.

Without another thought, the redhead was turning and sprinting back to her office building and the safety that she hoped it would provide.

Behind her, she heard what sounded like a wet guttural growl coming from the obviously infected woman, but she didn't look behind her.

Pushing her way back inside the building, Amity wasted no time in locking the door behind her and jogging swiftly back to her individual office.

She quickly gathered up her purse, stuffing only the large notebook that contained her most recent research into it, ignoring the diagnostic manuals that laid on her desk as she dug her keys out of the bag.

She didn't know where Cierra had gone or what had happened to make her up and leave her behind, but Amity knew that she couldn't stick around to find out.

She could hear the... thing... that she had seen banging at the front door of her office and could imagine the sight that it had to be making as it smeared blood across the glass, and with that in mind, she ducked out the side exit of her building after checking to make sure there were no other surprises around.

Peering around the edge of the building, she watched the blonde infected thing claw at the door she had run in through. It was snarling, its movements jerky yet holding a strength behind them that she was surprised by due to how sickly grey the creature's skin looked.

Sure enough, as suspected, it was smearing gore across the glass door that had her name printed so perfectly across it followed by the words, "Psychological Service."

Taking a deep breath, the young woman double-tapped the button on her key fob that had her car roaring to life, catching the attention of the creature, and forcing Amity to work fast. She sprinted to the car and threw both her bag and self into the front seat before immediately shifting the car into reverse then tearing down the road.

Speeding down the nearly empty streets of her town, making a conscious effort to avoid what were known to be busier areas with more foot traffic, Amity worked to keep her mind from jumping to the worst conclusions.

On the outside, the woman was calm and collected, taking turns sharply but staying cautious once she had come upon a few cars that were speeding down the road and driving even more recklessly than even she was.

People were panicking, but frankly, she was just happy to see that not everyone was one of those monsters like the one she had just dodged.

She was unsure if she was just in shock or if her mind had already just accepted the shift in the world as she knew it due to how many weird-ass sci-fi movies her friends had made her watch over the years, but she knew that it couldn't be normal how she had just given a literal rotting human being the runaround and hopped into her car, now driving calmly towards her home with the mental plan to regroup and head for the safe zones.

"Shit," the woman cursed- the profanity that fell from her lips being the only sign of her distress.

Finally, she had pulled up in front of the large house that was her home and quickly leaped from her car.

Her neighborhood was suspiciously quiet so she didn't bother to stick around outside.

Once the door was closed behind her, it was then that the redhead let herself have a moment of panic. Her breathing kicked up a notch and she quickly tore her hair down from its perfect bun as she kicked her heels off. Her slender hands covered her eyes for a moment but almost as quickly as they did so, they were falling away and the woman was nodding to herself.

Amity Walker was not going to go into any situation unprepared.

Bounding up the steps to her bedroom, she quickly stripped her work clothes from her body, replacing the pencil skirt and blouse with a sturdy pair of skinny jeans and flowy tank top as the Georgia summer was still in full swing.

Quickly, she grabbed a surprisingly sturdy-looking duffel bag from her closet- the dark material looking out of place in her pristine white room- and began to stuff it full of the necessities she thought she would need for her stay in the safe zone.

Hygiene items, some needed only once a month while the others were to hopefully put her ahead of the game in cleanliness when she reached the refugee center, a few more changes of clothes, her phone charger, and a photo album off of her bedside table.

Once her bag was packed, the woman paused for a moment, seemingly thinking something over before she knelt down and tugged a large black hard plastic case from under her bed.

She wasn't sure if she was thinking straight or if her encounter with the infected has just spooked her, but she could hear her dad and brother in her head telling her that it was better to be safe than sorry. Better to have a weapon and not need it, then not have one and do.

If the safe zone didn't allow it, she'd leave it in her car once she got there.

Setting the case on her mattress, Amity undid the clasps with a loud click and sighed a bit at the sight of the compound bow sitting inside of it. It had been years since she had taken the thing out, forced into the woods bright and early at her brother's side because he wanted to get to the deer early and that meant learning to bow hunt.

Upon opening the case, Amity could have sworn that she caught a strong smell of the woods she grew up in and could remember the day that her dad had handed her the damned thing as crystal clear as if it had happened only the day before.

She had been a daddy's girl growing up, there was no doubt about that.

Born and raised on a cattle farm in the backwoods of Georgia, her father had made sure that both of his children, Amity along with her older brother, Michael, were able to fend for themselves both in life and in the woods. Never did he treat Amity like she was incapable of handling herself, throwing her on her first pony at the age of four and having her help both himself and Michael with the cattle by the time she was eight.

Her brother hadn't followed her daddy's line of thinking though.

No, Michael Walker was as overprotective as they came and Amity was honestly surprised that the man wasn't on her doorstep already with everything that had been happening, but then again, it wasn't like North Carolina was just down the road.

The town where her brother had moved to was a good 7 hours minimum from where she lived now.

While she thought over her family of men, Amity had already attached her quiver to the bow and situated it in her grasp, stuffing her release aid into her pocket before hooking her duffel bag over her shoulder and rushing down the stairs.

Just as she was about to push open the door of her home, the woman considered her kitchen and detoured in order to stuff a couple of bottles of water and a few granola bars into her bag as well.

Again, better safe than sorry.

Once in her car again, Amity tried to set the GPS on her phone to the Atlanta Aquarium, figuring that the refugee center would be somewhere in the center of the city, but let out a loud curse when she realized that her service was completely down. Now she couldn't even call her brother, or Cierra, who she suddenly realized she should have called in the beginning when she found her missing.

She was an absolute idiot, but there was no time to dwell on that fact.

Backing out of her driveway, the redhead gripped her steering wheel and was suddenly thankful that she had filled up her gas tank that morning as she began to navigate her way down what she hoped was her usual route into Atlanta.