–Kendra–

The glass that rained from the diners' windows slowed to a trickle of fragments clinking onto the wet pavement. When Kendra had left to take out the trash, everything had been fine.

But the monster had gotten inside...

Was everyone dead?

There had to be someone alive...

She listened for who might have survived, only to hear the music playing through the busted-out windows.

"You know it's alright, it's okay." The upbeat disco music was full of shit. The situation was anything but alright and okay.

Kendra rose, looked into the diner, and gasped. Many bodies lay around the collapsed monster that had killed them all. She felt her pulse in her throat, the air sultry as the metallic scent of blood wafted from the inside. She gagged as sweat formed on her forehead.

Was everyone dead?

There had to be someone alive...

She couldn't stop.

Casey and that damn deer were coming.

She looked out past the parking lot in the distance. Figures shambled about aimlessly. The people felt... off to her. They continued their slow advance towards the diner. With each step, their details grew clearer.

"Oh, shit," she said. The longer she looked at them, the worse it got, like a cursed image. Haphazardly woven threads covered their bodies. Some had too many limbs, others were missing parts.

More patchwork nightmares to haunt her dreams.

There were too many of them. Fleeing on foot would be suicide. She needed her keys.

Why did they have to be in the diner full of corpses?

Kendra made her way to the entrance as she passed by the shattered windows. "You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive." The song made a hollow promise. "Feel the city break–" A pop followed by a buzz grated on her ears until another pop sounded and the speaker went dead.

The monsters weren't a fan of the music either.

She leaned towards the glass section of the front door and peered in. The entrance was clear. As she was about to open it, she paused.

The stupid chime would alert everything in there if she opened the door too quickly. She glanced at the area she had come from.

No deer or Casey, yet.

She knelt. If the bell went off, they'd aim for that, but god forbid she get hit by a stray needle. "You can do this." She said under her breath as she eased the door open. Kendra passed through the threshold, then slowly let the door close. The bell hadn't rung.

She made it inside undetected.

Still crouched, she reached for the door lock and twisted it shut. A dull click sounded. She waited to see if any projectiles would come her way, but nothing came. Despite all the broken windows, the locked door gave her some comfort.

And hopefully some time from the enclosing horrors outside.

Make your way through the diner, get your keys, and go. Her plan was simple.

The entryway had booths set on each side of the door. On either side of her, she could hear the squelches of jagged metal as it weaved and wormed its way through the flesh and muscle of its victims.

She couldn't waste time and sit still.

Kendra leaned forward to see beyond the fake leather barrier on her left.

Her heart sank. A woman lay face down. Threads had woven their way through her top, stained dark red with hints of the original pink showing in slivers. An old man sprawled out on the floor as needles worked their way through his chest. As Kendra looked over at another pair of men, she recognized one.

Fred.

He lay on his side, his bug eyes looking at her as the needles wove their way through his right arm and upper back. His mouth gaped as blood dripped out from the corner of his lips to the floor. Had he screamed in agony before succumbing to his injuries?

Unable to bear the sight, Kendra glanced to the floor when she saw something.

A shotgun, the one Miss Della kept in her office...

Where was she?

What about Tif, or Travis... The last time she saw them, they had been in the booth by the kitchen door.

Did they get away?

She needed to know. She rose slowly. The table tops of the booths came into view. The first two booths closest to her were empty, as were the next two. Kendra paused at the woman's body that lay back in the seat of the final booth. Tif? She couldn't breathe. Tif had been sitting right there when Kendra had left. She felt like the room was spinning.

She stared at the back of the head of the woman when her brain processed a glaring detail.

The woman had black hair.

Tif was blonde.

Kendra's held breath released.

It wasn't her.

The room stilled for Kendra as her heart's thumping eased. Tif and Travis must have fled to the kitchen. Maybe they were back there?

Kendra kept her eyes focused on the checkerboard floor as she took another breath.

She needed to know if they were among the bodies on the other side of the diner.

Check them then go. Time was short.

She closed her eyes, then turned around. The opposite side of the diner was heavy with casualties. With one exhale, her gaze slowly rose from the checkerboard floor to the lake of red.

"You can do this," she whispered as she took a slow breath in. The first body was a man in a green shirt with brown hair. The needles were weaving their red threads through his chest and working down his torso.

Not Travis...Keep going...

The next was a woman in a tank top and shorts.

Way too plain to be Tif...

Keep going. Don't look at their twisted faces any longer than necessary.

Her eyes skipped from body to body. Some were easier to recognize than others. The elderly group that got together once a week to talk about their kids and grandkids. The middle-aged couple that gave her advice for all the jobs she had been applying for. A slight relief stirred in her aching heart when she couldn't find the mother and her child among the fallen.

Maybe they had left before it all went wrong.

She refused to consider any other option.

Hot tears ran down her face as she wept in silence at the state of the diner and the fate of those in it. This job was far from her dream job, and she had always wanted to leave and never return.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

But not like this...

With her inspection of the bodies complete, she concluded that the others weren't here. They had to be out there somewhere.

Still alive.

She needed to get out of here and find them.

Kendra began her slow trek to the kitchen. She knelt down and picked up the shotgun from the floor. She could check it for ammo once she was away from the bodies being sewn into monsters.

She was halfway to the kitchen door when she reached the faced-down woman on the floor. Kendra gave her another look when she noticed two small metal tubes with wires connected to them. Her eyes followed the wires until she found their severed ends.

What had happened to this woman? Unlike the other bodies whose needles and threads were unrelenting in their weaving, hers were limp as if unconscious.

She didn't have time to investigate. She tip-toed around the body so as to not set off the needles in Fred and the old man. Once she cleared the obstacle, she reached the door and made her way into the kitchen.

With the door shut behind her, she entered the scullery room. "Thank god, no corpses." With the path clear, she trod softly as she entered the kitchen, also empty, but a burnt scent lingered in the air.

Kendra closed in on the window between the kitchen and dining room. She crouched and stayed out of view. She had been so keen on staying quiet that she nearly fell over when a car horn caught her off guard.

"The hell?" She peeked out the window. Roars sounded from outside when she heard a car speeding up and running over something. The vehicle came into view.

A yellow Volkswagen beetle.

Tif's car.

She was in it, with Travis in the passenger seat and Miss Della in the back seat. The car sped by and zoomed out of the parking lot taking a left. The horn sounded again as it faded into the distance.

More roars sounded out as the pack of monsters outside made their way after the vehicle.

Whatever Tif was up to, that had at least drawn them away from here.

Things were looking better for her escape.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Kendra rushed through the kitchen and into the back area that led to the employee restroom and her boss's office.

She'd reached the hallway when she heard a faint voice. "Should we..." The voice was familiar. "Out of here..." Kendra couldn't believe it.

It was Andrea; she was alive! She hurried her steps towards the door.

"It's too–" Another woman was with her, but she had gone quiet. "Someone's outside. Be quiet sweetie." Her change in tone sounded gentle, as if she were speaking to a child.

Kendra set the shotgun against the wall, then leaned in towards the door. "Andrea, it's me, Kendra," she whispered.

"Kendra?" The lock clicked and Kendra saw the older woman in her matching work uniform before sneaking through the door and wrapping her arms around her as more tears welled up in her eyes.

She had finally found someone alive.

The hug gave Kendra some respite. Once she was calm, she let go of Andrea. "Oh, thank god, you're okay. I thought..." Kendra looked at the woman and the child who occupied the restroom with her co-worker. It was the mother and child from earlier.

They had survived too.

The little girl, Ranny stepped out from behind her mother when she spoke. "Oh, I remember you. You're the lady who brought us our food." Her face lit up. "Do you know if we can go home?" It seemed she was in the dark about what had happened in the dining room.

Kendra replied, "Well, I know we should get out of here. Why don't you just give us a minute to figure that out?"

The girl gave a nod. "Okay."

Kendra turned to Andrea and the mother. "So, how did you all end up back here?"

Andrea answered. "The kid needed the bathroom and the one out there was occupied. I brought them back here..." She tensed. "Then we heard the screaming and..." She went quiet. "Elise and I were trying to come up with a plan."

Kendra gave a nod. "Yeah, we need to get out of here." She glanced at the mother and her child. The two seemed to be in agreement.

No way they could handle what was out in the dining room.

Kendra had barely kept it together. The kid would lose it and scream.

"But where do we go?" Elise asked. "I don't live far from here. Our house is a little way down the road."

"Is your house to the left or right from here?" Kendra asked.

"To the left, why?"

Kendra gritted her teeth. She needed to keep things vague to not panic Ranny. "Well, there was a car that caught the attention of the things out there. It headed left and so did they." Elise's face sank. "If we go that way, we might run into them or lead them back to your house."

Andrea chimed in, "What about the church? Most of the town usually goes there during a disaster since they have a generator... there are probably others there."

Kendra shook her head. "That's the church that has the bells ring out every hour, right?"

Andrea tilted her head. "Yes, why do you ask?"

"These things hunt off sight when they first rise and hearing after that, the bells would draw them towards the church and that would probably end badly if we could even get in there."

Andrea's face drooped in defeat. "Where do we go then? The police station?" The suggestion gave Kendra hesitation.

"That might work," Kendra said, giving the two other women hope. "I know a lot of them were responding to calls about animal attacks so they might be..." The fleeting hope left them. "Maybe there's still someone there who can help us."

"What else is there?" Andrea asked, as Kendra went over to the hooks on the wall where her bag hung. Once it was in her hands, she dug through it until she had her keys.

"Ok, let's go, we just have to cross the kitchen and leave out the back. We all need to stay low." Andrea and Elise gave a nod when Kendra dropped to her knees to speak to Ranny at her level. "Hey, so we're gonna play a game, okay?"

"Okay!" she said when her face lit up. "What game?"

Kendra smiled. "Well, it's called the quiet game. We just have to get to the car as quietly as we can. No matter what you hear or see, just stay as quiet as you can."

Ranny shook her head enthusiastically. "Okay!"

Kendra held a finger to her lips. "Remember, we have to be quiet." Ranny nodded her head this time.

They opened the door and re-entered the staff hallway. Kendra took the shotgun. She pumped it and an unspent shell dropped out.

She had at least one shot.

She reloaded the shell; the group made their way to the kitchen door. Once again crouched, they entered. The sounds of the dining room were more lively as she heard shuffling footsteps moving about.

At least one victim had risen.

The shotgun was a last resort, as it would alert everything to their presence.

They just needed to get outside.

Kendra waited at the end of the kitchen as Andrea passed her. Elise guided Ranny by the hand when she and Kendra locked eyes. The girl smiled again as Kendra mouthed her a 'good job.'

Kendra stared through the back room at the shut door to the outside with the tips of the deer needles poking through.

She needed to keep it together. She knew the most about what was happening and how these creatures worked.

She took a deep breath and faced the others. "Elise, can you carry your daughter? We need to hurry once we're out there." She gave a nod, then lifted Ranny into her arms.

Kendra cracked the door open.

Nothing, just an empty parking lot.

The door opened wider and she saw the dumpster. Green metal tie-died with Casey's blood made her stomach churn.

There was nothing she could do for him now.

Kendra stepped out; the back of the building was clear. She waved the others to follow. The group hugged the building to the corner.

Her Jeep was about twenty feet away. They just had to reach it.

Her Jeep was about twenty feet away. She peered around the corner; all clear to her Jeep. They scrambled Kendra unlocked the jeep and they all got in when she noticed something on the pavement.

The carcass of the deer, torn asunder. Its rotting, matted fur and flesh had fallen apart. She watched for movement and noticed that all three heads were missing.

Also, Casey was gone. Had he gone after Tif?

With no time to waste, Kendra shoved the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life.

No response from the deer.

Maybe it was dead for good?

With nothing to stop them, she threw the Jeep in reverse and made her escape from the parking lot.

She hoped the police could help them, or what remained of them.