Origins of the Outbreak by Brian Parker Page A

as the guy in front of him – th e thin g – didn’t even seem bothered by his broken wrist.
    Giant patches of skin had been pulled from his neck and in the porch’s weak light Craig could see that dried blood covered the front of his uniform.  The guard’s eyes were sunken into his skull and the skin on his face that wasn’t torn or missing seemed to sag like it had lost all of the elasticity that normally accompanied a living person.  Whatever it was, the thing in front of him wasn’t natural.
    The creature’s throat emitted a loud moan and it quickly dove in towards Craig.  He sidestepped and kicked hard into its knee, which buckled at an awkward angle.  Again, the man showed no emotion and lunged towards Craig.
    He had a moment of panic as he realized that the thing was now between himself and the safety of his house.  Inside his home was where his family slept and he knew that this guy could just turn the keys and get inside.  He made a poor decision to try and grab the creature and throw it into the yard.
    When he reached for it the thing turned its head and bit down into Craig’s wrist.  He shouted in pain and surprise.  He tried to yank his hand backwards and the fucker pulled forward along with him as it held on like a dog holding a chew toy.  The sergeant punched with his left hand into the side of the thing’s head and kept punching over and over until the skin on his knuckles split and bled.
    The punches bounced ineffectively off of its head but Craig’s arm finally came away from the creature – at the cost of a mouth-sized chunk of missing forearm.  He held his arm protectively against his chest and watched in a daze of pain and horror as the security guard chewed his skin and swallowed.  Its dead eyes focused on him and it stumbled towards him once more, but the dislocated knee gave out and it fell forward.
    Craig wasn’t fast enough to step out of the way and the creature’s one good hand clamped around his running shoe.  He tried to pull away, but the thing was incredibly strong and it pulled itself onto his leg and bit into his quadriceps muscle right above the knee.  This time, Craig screamed in terror and grabbed onto the porch pillar to keep from falling.  If he fell, it was all over.
    With his upper body supported by the pillar, he kicked hard with his opposite foot to dislodge the creature.  It came away with a ragged strip of flesh and lay on its chest chewing happily.  Craig knew that he only had a second before it was done and attacked him once more.
    He looked around in desperation and his eyes settled on a paving stone several feet down the driveway towards the street and away from the house.  He limped backwards to the garden and risked a glance back at the porch.  The creature had managed to stand, but fell when it tried to take a step in his direction.  It quickly abandoned the attempt to walk and dragged itself towards him.
    Craig finally made it to the garden and picked up the brick.  The sickening sound of bone scraping against concrete made his stomach churn as the creature pulle d itsel f along with both arms.  The wrist that he’d broken slid along the driveway and bones poked through the skin.  It moved faster at a crawl than he’d been able to limp on his feet and the damned thing was already less than two feet away from him.
    He thought about running into the house to call the police, but he knew that with the determination that this thing had, it would find a way inside.  He raised the paver above his head and smashed it down into the forehead of the fucker.
    It collapsed downwards, but began to struggle upwards so he fell to his knees and bashed down onto the back of its head.  The thing continued to struggle so he raised the brick again and smashed as hard as he could manage.  The skull gave way and the paver crushed the creature's head in a sickening mix of sounds.
    He swung the brick one more time into the ruined skull to ensure that it was