Katerina Romany's Story

Nadia

Nadi ran until her chest hurt. The water bottle in her knapsack had banged uncomfortably against her back, her purse against her legs, and she did everything in her power to keep herself from collapsing onto the dirty city alleyway. She leaned against the brick wall, breathing heavily, moving the water bottle with one of her hands so it didn't press against her.

What the hell had happened?

She remembered the eclipse, and the strange numb feeling she felt as she crossed the street. And then there were a myriad of lights, a crushing pain...she felt her own side. Somewhat bruised, but otherwise completely intact. Her knees were scraped from the road...she remembered tumbling quite a distance, and then skidding. Her pants were nearly indecent. And then, blackout. Like she had fainted. Fainted from being hit by a car? If only.

She fingered the hole in her shirt, from where the police officer had shot her. It was directly over her heart. If the car hadn't killed her, this definitely should have. Why wasn't she dead?

Her blood stained her hands and her clothes. She couldn't go around like this. She pulled off her clothes right there in the alleyway and slipped on the clean windbreaker from her knapsack. She wrapped her shawl around her pants, hiding the worst. She washed some of the water off her face and hands, and after some thought, threw the bloodied clothes away. They were beyond repair as far as she was concerned. And at least it would give her a valid excuse to shop.

Gathering her thoughts together, she started walking down the sidewalk, thinking about her situation practically. She'd probably need to leave the city. Or at least leave the part of the city where she had been staying at. People would mistake her for a ghost, or worse, a zombie. Nah, maybe leaving the city would be better. Who knew where those people went?

She pondered on the thought of the subway. She never liked being underground. Subways weren't as bad as taxis so long as not many people were on them. A crowd would kill her for sure. Though it seemed she had an antidote for that...

She noticed a tall man standing nervously at a corner. Looks like Michael Fassbender... she thought to herself. That would have been all she thought of the man, if he hadn't suddenly disappeared. She stared, shocked, at the spot where he had been standing previously. A few seconds later, he reappeared, same spot, grumbling to himself. He caught her eye and immediately looked away before entering a taxi. The taxi had hardly gone farther when suddenly gunshots pelted the metal exterior of the car, causing her to jump. These men didn't look like police officers. One of them saw her. Without another thought, Nadi raced down the stairs that led to the subway. She bought the first ticket she saw and waited anxiously for the train. Thankfully, it was empty, and she stood in the middle. Her nerves from the men with the guns and her own phobia piled on her, and it took all her concentration to keep her from flat-out panicking.

She got off at the next station, unable to take much more. It was dark, here for some reason. Some boys had just run up the stairs. She decided to follow suit, and briskly headed towards the light. Five steps. Three more. She thought she heard a crackling, along with the moaning of a girl next to the stairs, but pushed it aside as some hallucination from the subway or something. Nearly there...

Before she could take another step, she felt a barrel pressed firmly against the back of her head. She hardly had time to lift her eyes when she heard a deafening sound and an excruciating pain that continued to wrack her head as she fell backwards down the stairs, landing heavily with a sickening crack on the edge of the last step.