The Bridge

JULY 16, 1993

LOUISVILLE, KY

No… no… you have to… you have to keep moving, or else…

Your raw hand drags across boiling pavement, pulling back in position to begin to push yourself up. With the other, you brush your blood-matted hair out of your eyes, and look long down the road. The path is clear, save for just one of them.

Just one of them.

You stare at it, and it almost seems to… sense you. It cranes its neck back unnaturally, blood dripping from its chin and deeply staining its front. Threads of torn flesh dangle from its teeth, exposed beyond its rotting lips, and the shriveled eyes sunken deep into its skull peer at you with a kind of curiosity that chills you to your core. Your hand almost slips, and you almost fall back against the concrete, but you catch yourself…

It begins shambling your way, slowly. It rocks back and forth as if permanently unsteady, barely managing to take each step without simply tumbling over. Blood pours off of its jagged nails and what remains of its tongue drags across its teeth. It leaves a long and crimson trail as it toddles your way, its breathing growing louder and its gait quicker and more assured the closer it gets to you.

You can barely feel your legs. Blood drips past the bandage around your throat. Your vision is blurry, and your arms are shaking, and your skull wracks with throbs of pain, and every breath in is utter, electrifying agony… and yet despite all of this you manage to drag yourself to your knees, wobbling though you are. Your hand tests for a distant memory, finding a length of lead pipe strapped haphazardly to your back. It feels like your life has just now begun—all you know is this stretch of road, that glorious bridge ahead, the weapon in your hand and that… thing, lurching your way.

But your gaze passes it, to the figure it left behind… the same figure whose blood now thoroughly paints the concrete.

PAIGE.

It feels as if someone just drove a railway spike through your skull. You double over, clutching it, and scream—but all that comes out is a high-pitched rasp, and testing your torn vocal cords only adds to the agony. Through the din, you hear feet dragging against the pavement… too close. Too close.

No. You won’t die here, so close to freedom. You can’t. You plant one foot firm on the ground, and stagger to an unsteady standing position. In this moment, the way your arms hang at your sides and your head struggles to stay up, and drenched in blood as you are, you look like one of them.

But that illusion vanishes quickly. You draw your hand back, slowly at first, and finally look that thing in the eyes again as it comes close enough to bite you. Its jaw opens wider than it should, and it hisses out, its hands reaching up for you. For just one more moment, you glance past it, and again look at that figure sprawled on the road…

And you just LOSE it. Adrenaline surges, and suddenly you’re swinging with brutal force at this… THING. You feel a sickening crunch as your lead pipe smashes into the side of its skull, completely breaking its jaw and spraying acrid blood onto the concrete. It staggers back, eyes briefly locking with yours before you hit it again on the backswing… and again, and again, until it topples over, and you keep hitting it, and hitting it, and hitting it, and hitting it, until its skull is little more than thin splinters adrift in its blood.

You raise your pipe one last time, held in both hands, but you stop cold as through your hair you catch sight of something…

The figure at the end of the road rises to its feet. It staggers and stumbles, it looks around as if it was entirely new to this world… and then, it locks eyes with you. Your arms drop to your side as you stare in horror at that familiar face, but you just can’t place it…

It barely has time to lift one foot to begin marching your way, though, before its visage is swallowed by a blinding light, and a wave of dust.

...

<bzzt>
Latoya has news everyone.
They're closing the bridges!
What bridges Latoya?
All of them. Everyone headed north through Louisville...
...you're not gonna make it!
How do you mean closing?
No cars can get over, it's gridlock!
People were just running over with bags...
... y'know, all their stuff.
Then they pushed them back, put up barriers and...
*distant explosion*
Shit! Was... *muffle*
*muffle* *muffle*
Latoya, Latoya are you still there?
They blew the damn thing up?
People are trapped!
They trapped them in the Event!
You can't get through any more!
<bzzt>