When The Light Goes Out by Jack Thompson

fact that it was happening, and unless I could find a time machine, it would keep happening. Until of course a solution to the problem was found.
     
    Question was, who was going to find the solution? Not me, I was quite positive.
    Traveling somewhere in a pack of people, in a zombie infested city, made me feel just a little useless. I wasn't a fighter. Physically, mentally, or emotionally. It just wasn't my thing. I didn't want to hurt anyone. For my safety or otherwise, I didn't want to. I didn't like the thought of it. It didn't give me the sort of satisfaction I'd heard some guys talk about. It made me feel bad. I, apparently, sucked at decision making. I knew I sucked at directions barely knowing my left from my right half the time, let alone east from west.
     
    It wasn't a good time to be living, I realized. But that didn't only apply to me. There were countless families, probably completely wiped out so long after the first reports started hitting the news. It was almost frightening, the way that it had literally only been 'yesterday.' You would expect it to take at least a couple weeks for the infection, the virus, the disease, to spread. But, the way it seemed, it only took a few hours.
     
    Unless of course it was already in our systems. Maybe the water supply was poisoned.
    Maybe the food.
     
    I didn't know. I didn't really want to think about it. But with the thought officially in my head, I couldn't help it. I never quite realized exactly how susceptible we, as humans, would be if someone decided to mess with us. Just about anything could be slipped into the water supply, if one really thought about it. Just one person. Just one person, at the right place, at the right time, could potentially kill everyone.
     
    Maybe the zombies were a new form of germ warfare. Maybe one of our neighboring countries decided that we needed to be offed already. People were always joking around about what could go wrong next. Maybe, just maybe, this was it. Maybe some sick bastard planned to kill, and reanimate everyone.
     
    Everything?
     
    There was, indeed, a rather rabid looking dog staring me down. Something was dripping from his mouth, shining in the scant light available with the sun just coming up. Maybe it was drool. Maybe it was water. I couldn't be sure. But, uncertainty told me that it might just be blood. In which case we had a whole new set of problems on our hands.
     
    If animals could carry the infection, we were screwed.
     
    It was rather surprising that I didn't trip as I stared at the fuzzy creature, sitting across the shadows across the street from us. It was even more shocking that I didn't scream holy murder when it got up, and started walking towards us. From far away, it looked sort of normal, given not all dogs drool like water faucets. But the closer it got, the more sure I was that something was terribly wrong.
     
    It was missing an ear, and there were strips of flesh literally hanging off of its side. The sight alone made me want to cry, but I didn't. I just sped up my steps, and raised my voice just high enough for those around me to hear.
     
    Just in case they hadn't seen. "Guys, we've got a problem!"
    "What?" Dustin asked, sounding honestly concerned. Maybe it was my tone of voice. Maybe he was just that close to a freak out as was. I didn't honestly care, because eyes still on the animal it was speeding up.
     
    "The virus has passed onto animals. There's a dog"
     
    Maybe if I'd spoken a little faster, or chosen a location a little closer, there might not have been a blood curdling shriek from the back of the group. A sound that had a good handful of us pulling a complete 180, just to see what was going on. Not so much out of morbid curiosity (as I'm sure the good lot of us knew exactly what was going on) as to pinpoint the animals exact location.
     
    It was tearing flesh from one of the fresh faced young women in the group. A junior if I recalled correctly. She'd lived a life sure but not