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"I bet they sent the to pacify the people on the outside, to keep theet into town Think about it, you got husbands separated froo out of town to go see a concert or so, you leave the kid with a babysitter, then head back home to find the road blocked by a wall of National Guard trucks, telling you you can’t see your child, who by the way is trapped inside ground zero of a bioweapon outbreak"

"Do you have any idea howthis out in his na Just let that conversation fade For now, the goal was to get her away, and safe, and to sit down soure out what to do next Over a beer

The bullshit reached Amy’s dorm ahead of them, so John’s final estimate was that it traveled at about 80 miles an hour Of course, bullshit picked up speed exponentially in the infore--the situation in Undisclosed would make a newscast in Japan within the next two hours, and Internet rumors would assure everyone everywhere that they were all equally in danger of a terrorist/zombie attack

The coathered around a TV uessedhad watched in years It was clear frootten a caot eaten They did have three short video clips that they showed on a loop, all of them shot with shaky cell phones and presumably uploaded to the Web before all of the co, showing a crew of National Guard putting up te fast, using a huge drill thing attached to a backhoe to punch holes in the dirt while a crane filled said holes with poles three times as tall as arazor wire on the ground, then to a group of guys standing guard, holding assault rifles that John recognized as M4s, as he had gone shopping for one that last suuys Jesus

Finally one of the soldiers shouted so the camera and the clip abruptly ended

Then the next two clips were prefaced by the anchor warning that the following scenes were very disturbing, and that you should leave the rooiant pussy They then cut to the second clip, shot fro don, the driver presu their phone out of theto record what looked like so in front of a snized it as Black Circle Records, on Main Street--it hadn’t been smashed up quite as much the last ti facedown Well, part of it was facedown, the torso part The pelvis was a twisted pink s were turned all the way around, so that they were toes-up Suddenly one of the legs snapped into action, bending at the knee as if the legs were going to get up on their own and walk aithout the rest of the body The shot cut to black before we could see if they did

Finally, they cut to a grainy scene shot fro down at the street below There were three soldiers in a standoff with a lone guy as holding a curved object that looked like a scythe--it was hard tocoround He advanced on them and they opened fire, all three of theunsuy He never went down He didn’t even stu at the nearest soldier The soldier grabbed his neck and went down

The other two soldiers ran

The ca, which John interpreted as the ca to the other people in the rooot the attention of the monster beloho turned and looked up, directly into the camera, and thus into the eyes of everyone in the dorm common room

The man reached into his coat and pulled out another scythe John had a split second to realize he had actually pulled out one of his own ribs, before he hurled it at the , shattering it

Everyone in the common room flinched

The scene cut to black

A kid at the front of the roolasses said, "Now tell e career had been brief and he had never lived in a dorm room This one reminded him of a prison cell Amy and her roommate slept in bunk beds They had no TV There was a bathroom and shower that they shared with the people in the next rooe next to the , a hot plate sitting on top of it Not even enough floor space to do a push-up Not that he hadn’t lived in worse

In one corner John found a faht of as A chair that looked like it had co it was her Apple laptop, a rolled-up, half-e of Cheetos, an open box of Cocoa Pebbles cereal that she would eat dry, and four ee juice, Diet Mountain Deater If she were at home you would also find two prescription bottles there, one pain pill and one muscle relaxer that John knew she took for her back She probably kept those in her purse, shit like that would get stolen in a college dorm You could sell OxyContin for ten or twenty bucks a pill here Price would probably go to ten times that now that the apocalypse was here

You stop that apocalypse shit Keep your head, John

Amy had the lower bunk, which John knew because on the wall next to it she had taped up a little worldred stars she had drawn on with a Sharpie Cities she wanted to visit someday John noticed she had added a star to Japan since the last ti around the streets of Tokyo It was like picturing RoboCop in Middle Earth--

"John, you’ve eous Indian roommate She was on the top bunk in paja in Facebook updates A bottle of absinthe leaned against the wall next to her, a textbook nearby served as a tray for an ornate glass, sugar cubes and a disposable lighter Saturday night!

Nisha said, "Okay, I a out over this Did you see that zombie video?"

Amy said, "Yeah, it’s crazy David is still there In the town"

"Who?"

"My boyfriend"

"Oh,I’m so sorry Is he okay?"