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gjnhjfdhns: Part FORTY-TWO: Flicker

There wasn't time for 'three'. There was a burst of motion in the crowd, making us jump up the rest of the stairs and flee. It was like a scene taken out of Dawn of the Dead or something: Three of us normies being chased by a lagging group of zombie-like people. We ran into the pet store and ducked behind the empty cages. After a long wait, the crowd passed by, most likely into the Zellers next door.

"Oh, God..." I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "What now?"

"Let's raid the ice cream place," Brian suggested, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

"Or EBGames; it's just right there," Jerome said, leaning against a rabbit cage. He stuck his finger through the metal, idly teasing an animal that was not there.

With a loud, startling yelp, he pulled his finger out, looking wide-eyed at the cage. The pad of his finger was torn and bleeding.

"Oh my- What the fudge?" I gasped. "Something bit you?!"

Brian and I leaned over the cage to find a rabbit in there- If you could call it a rabbit. It was covered in dark, flaking scales, and its ears seemed to have been cut off half way. Its feet were monstrous claws, and its eyes were absent from its face. Jerome's blood dribbled from its little mouth.

"Oh, snap- That's the ugliest bunny I've ever seen," Brian laughed, raising his brows. It pounced up and tried to gnaw through the cage, making me flinch backward.

"Oh- oh- ohnoes... What if it's poisonous or something!?" I grabbed his wrist and peered down at the victim finger. "It's not green or anything... Does it hurt?"

"No."

"How much- Wha?!"

"It doesn't hurt." Jerome stared at his finger intently, looking puzzled. "It doesn't... feel like anything."

"You mean you can't feel your finger?"

He shook his head.

"Oh, damn..." Brian shook his head. "That can't be good."

"In any case... let's get a band-aid or something." I walked toward the cashier's counter, finding the cashier at the register. Except he had no head. "Holy... Holy holy holy... Oh my... Gaaaahhhhh...!" I turned around to talk to the guys, but instead stared into the dead eyes of the cashier's decapitated head. "F-CK!" I took a hard swing and batted it away, hearing a resounding crack in the hand that held it up. The person attached to the hand was none too pleased. She dove at me, eyes dark and hands bloodstained. I stabbed the bat at her and backed up.

Behind her, I could see Jerome and Brian dealing with even more people. Brian was pushed backward into the stacks of cages of twisted animals, and the little freaks broke free, joining the chaos. Mutated puppies, horrific cats, and menacing birds joined the frenzy.

Never ever EVER hide in a pet store EVER AGAIN.

I whacked my assailant in the head, sending her flying into a glass case. She was just a drop in the bucket, for we were surrounded and it seemed that there was no escape. Kicking a demon dog as I turned, I shoved two people into eachother. They collided into a third, and all three were lost among the feet of the next in line. Someone hit me in the back of the head, and my glasses skittered onto some far-off surface. I wasn't blind, but they weren't clear. Getting a tad desperate, I socked whoever was behind me with the baseball bat, and followed that up with the heel of my hand in the nose on his face.

Is it okay to be fighting like this?

I grit my teeth and took a few more swings. Someone punched my arm so hard, I knocked down a stranger as I crashed into her.

Look at the pain!

I kicked someone in the stomach, using the momentum to tackle another beseiger, saving myself from being crushed.

Look at the blood!

A freaky cat latched onto my already injured leg, its claws digging into my skin. Gasping with pain, I kicked it off.

You're killing them!

How could I not fight against this brutality? I mean, it would be infinite times harder if these were real people, but they weren't- Their skin was a leathery mess of cuts; their hands and feet were stubs, or claws, or fangs, or blades, or other people; their faces were all mixed up; their eyes had no whites.

Neither do Andrew's... What if they're like him? Real? But changed?

Andrew wasn't like them. I pulled a punch at the last second, and was returned with a kick in the stomach. "Shi--!"

What if they're like him? Real? But changed?

I stopped again, and felt burst of pain from all sides. I struggled to bring up the baseball bat and defend myself.

What if they're... Real? But changed?

It happened, the world around me flickered, like someone turning the lights on and off.

Real? But changed?

Again, the world flickered, and this time, it stayed changed. Suddenly, everyone around me was on the ground, their bodies derelict. People, actual /people/, lying there in their own blood, in pain brought from my hands. The pets were there, too: cute little puppies, adorable kittens, sweet little bunny rabbits, heads crushed, life leaving them. It couldn't be real, because we were just there, just in that place where such a scene was common, but it didn't go away. I could still feel the pain, but couldn't see the monsters- just the mess, the massacre, the thing I had done, the people I had hurt, the innocents...

I started screaming, and found it impossible to stop.