After revisiting the thought of the whole Walmart situation, I came to the conclusion that it was slightly possible that I had imagined that man. And moderately possible that I ran out of that Walmart looking stupid as fudge.

But unfortunately that slight possibility dwindled each time I took a hand to my stomach. Barely grazing the area that the shopping cart had slammed into me brought out immense pain, reminding me that what I had gone through was real. And I had been too high to even realize it. (Not that I was any less baked now, but still).

Ra Ha ringtone, pick up the phone!

My phone's loud ringtone spooked me out of my thoughts. I reached towards the sound before coming to my senses and leaving it alone. I was driving after all! Eventually the ringtone died down and I was left with only silence. Too much silence if you ask me! I pressed the CD button, hoping whatever I had on last would help calm my once again riled up nerves.

And yet, what I heard was a buttload of Chester Bennington's screaming. Ah Linkin Park, you never fail to make me nearly swerve off the road and die.

I turned the volume down, as I finally did my duty as a driver and actually paid attention to the road. It seemed as though everyone who should've been driving had decided to park their cars on the shoulders and sidewalks of the streets. The sight was more worrying than anything else. But luckily, I wouldn't have to see it much longer as I finally approached the street that my house was on.

I pulled into the driveway, finally parking the car, but not turning it off as I found my phone and looked at my messages.

Let's see here. Five missed calls from Taylor. Three from Jess. And quite a few from mom and dad.

There were also some unread text messages.

'Dude, where in the Conkey Dong are you?!' Courtesy of Jess.

'Hello? Pick up the phone please you piece of shiznit!' Courtesy of Taylor

And a very long text from mom that should've had a tl;dr at the end.

Oh, and also a tl;dr from dad, 'Highly contagious virus. Get home NOW!'

I turned off my car, taking my keys and one of the bags of Cheetos. Just as soon as I reached for the door handle, another jumpscare invaded my brain in the form of my ringtone. This time I answered it, hoping the person on the other line wouldn't ask too many questions.

"Hannah? Oh my god are you there sweetheart?"

"Hey. I'm here" I replied to the frantic voice, setting down the Cheetos and trying to put the keys in my pocket.

"Listen honey, there's this new virus, they're talking about it on the news. Where are you?"

Oh no. More questions.
"I'm here. At home I mean." The keys popped out of my pocket and straight into the crack between the seats.

"That's good, I'll be there soon. It's like the apocalypse here at the office. I just need to make it to my car. I love you."

"I love you too mom." The phone call abruptly ended, leaving me to my thoughts. I got out of the car, noticing that for what the main streets looked like, my street didn't exactly have an apocalyptic appearance. Everything looked normal, like nothing was wrong. That is until an ambulance sped past my house, closely followed by two police cars.

My curiosity couldn't wait, and I peered as far down the street as I could to see. The ambulance and police cars had parked just a few houses down, at Kimberly's old house. Of course, I had no idea who lived there now.

I was able to catch a glimpse of some paramedics pulling someone out of the house on a stretcher. The police had yet to enter my line of sight. That is until one officer tumbled out of the house, waving his or her gun in the air.

A loud shot rang out, causing me to involuntarily duck down covering my head with my arms. I peeked over my car, keeping myself out of sight as much as I could. The flailing officer had latched themself into one of the paramedics. Though I was too far away to see, I could make an educated guess on what that officer was doing.

I attempted to creep towards my garage, glancing around myself before punching in the code to open it. The door slowly made its crawl upward, screeching like there was no tomorrow. I winced at the loud sound, again looking around for signs of these crazed people. The officer down the street looked to be disinterested in his or her meal, looking around above the paramedic for the source of the loud sound of the garage. I quickly punched in the code again, and the door started to come down.

Okay, this will be totally cool. I ducked down and crawled into the garage as the door was closing, bumping my head on it. Dammit.

I stood rubbing my now sore head, and feeling my way around in the near darkness. There should be a flashlight around here somewhere.
I searched, feeling the cold metal of my dads tools.

Not exactly a flashlight. I felt the slim body of a crowbar. Just before I decided to give up and just walk into the house, a low moan from within the garage startled me into dropping a few bottles of presumably cleaning products.

My heartbeat sped up as I strained to listen for other sounds.

A moment passed, nothing. I was just about to let out a sigh of relief when I heard something else. It sounded almost like a scraping. And it was close.

"Jess I swear to God!" I made the mistake of raising my voice, as the unknown assailant screamed at me. I was hit with a large force, this time slamming me into the concrete floor. My head erupted with pain, and I struggled to reach out for something, anything I could find in the dark.

My hands wrapped around something, and I mindlessly swung it in an arc in front of me. I felt the impact between the object in my hand and the person on top of me. Then, a thud, and the weight was no longer present. I quickly got up, stumbling towards what I hoped was the direction of the door.

I finally hit the door, and felt around the wall for the light switch. Light flooded the room and I was able to see who had attacked me.

The body on the floor was face down, and still shifting a little. It took a while for me to calm down enough to take a few cautious steps towards it. My eyes wandered to the back of its head, brown hair, and a few red spots from where I had hit it. My breath started to get heavy, my eyes started to water. A few more steps confirmed my suspicion.

Dad.