Nina ran a lot in high school. Before the outbreak, she was on the track team. She wasn’t particularly good - she often fell around the middle of the pack. Not too bad to kick her off, but always with room for improvement. It was the only way she knew how to relieve stress.
And boy, was she relieving that stress.
Her legs carried her across the gravel as she heard the former supermarket collapse. The flames crackled and whipped behind her. While she knew she was moving further away, she felt like it was about to eat her alive, like she had to hop into bed after turning the light off. She remembered the heat of the grills at home, the warmth of her Abuela’s blanket..
Focus.
Her eyes set on the horizon, she noted two figures dead ahead of her. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck. Rationality didn’t cross her mind. Were they slavers? The arsonists that just destroyed her… residence? She had built so much momentum that she was just about fifty feet away from the shapes in front of her. What else could she do? Her face was beading sweat, her clothes escaped any flames but her smell sure didn’t. She brought her arms up in surrender, emptying her pockets. “I’m unarmed!” The woman slowed to appear less threatening, slowing her pace to a walk. A male and female. The arsonist seemed to definitely be a man, by his breathing and heavy gait..
Fear. Distrust. Uncertainty. Emotions that were too familiar to her coursed through her veins, terrifying her. These are either the people who were just trying to kill me… or people who are going to kill me later. She was trapped, subdued. She hated that she knew she was at their mercy right now. What was she going to do? Cut them open with Campbell’s soup?
Nope. She was definitely fucked. She narrowly escaped death by burning alive possibly to make a landslide into the next form of torture. She left at a standstill, arms still raised, at about twenty feet away. She could make out their faces.
Now is an awful time to come in first, Nina.