The sky over the mountains was the kind of blue Isabella used to love. It was so clear, it seemed fake; like something from a cartoon. However, today, as she sat in the back seat, she barely noticed it. She gripped the edge of the seat as their minivan slowly navigated along the road.
"Just a quick stop, okay?" her mother said, forcing a smile that nobody believed. "We'll be in and out."
Her mother's name was Dolores. She had long brown hair now streaked with gray, tied back in a loose ponytail. She wore a simple, practical outfit: jeans, a sweater, and a light jacket that suited the mountain air.
Isabella rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. What was the point? she thought, as she pressed her forehead pressed against the cool glass window. Her long, wavy brown hair framed her rounded face, that displayed the storm of emotions inside her. At ten years old, she already carried herself with a maturity beyond her years, a result of the emotional weight she bore. She wore a loose-fitting white T-shirt adorned with her favorite anime character, paired with a denim jacket and faded jeans. Her black eyes reflected the inner turmoil that stirred within her.
Behind her, her little brother Mateo was bouncing in his seat, making his action figures fly through imaginary battles. He had short dark brown hair neatly combed and wore a camouflage-patterned jacket over a bright green T-shirt featuring a robotic dinosaur. Isabella shot him a look, her mind swirling with frustration. How could he be so happy? Didn't he understand how much they'd lost?
Why can't Mom understand how I feel? Isabella thought, her resentment flaring again. It's like she's more worried about keeping things together than about how I'm feeling.
As they continued navigating through the hillside, Isabella's gaze stayed on the passing scenery. Her mind was a storm of anger, sorrow, and confusion as she remained cold and distant toward her mother.
Soon, the familiar red sign of Bullseye Mart came into view. It was a sprawling department store offering groceries, home essentials, and appliances.
As they approached the parking lot, the store's huge red sign glowed against the late afternoon sky. Christmas decorations were everywhere. Plastic wreaths, fake snow, and a Santa Claus who looked like he'd seen better days. People hustled in and out, arms full of shopping bags, their faces tense.
Inside, the store was total chaos. Holiday music played loudly, carts squeaked, and there was a smell of cinnamon candles mixed with floor cleaner. Dolores kept her head down, scanning the shelves with a soldier's intensity. Mateo, as usual, was in his own world, trailing action figures along the cart's edge, making quiet sound effects. Isabella followed, pretending not to care, but everything felt wrong. Mom was too quiet.
Dolores adhered to their list, picking up water, bread, and snacks, her expression determined, conveying "don't argue."
At the cashier's conveyor belt, a woman with a friendly face and laugh lines grinned as she rang up and bagged their items. She was wearing one of those funny Christmas hats tilted to one side and displayed a name tag that read Linda.
As they exited the store, the sliding doors whooshed open, allowing a blast of cold air to hit them while "Silent Night" played over the store's overhead speaker system.
The parking lot seemed ordinary at first. Isabella glanced at her necklace while Mateo swung his new toy in the air, lost in his world.
There was something odd in the air. Dolores paused, her body tense as she scanned the lot. Isabella felt it too, a weird tingle at the base of her neck, like something was about to go wrong.
The weird feeling turned into panic within moments.
Shouts echoed from the far end of the parking lot. People ran, screamed, and some abandoned their bags as they sprinted for their cars. Sirens and more shouting could also be heard.
In that moment of chaos, Dolores's sole thought was to ensure her children's safety. She spotted their van not too far away and knew they had to make a break for it. "RUN!" she commanded, her voice low but firm.
Isabella turned, confused. "What—?"
Isabella saw hell break loose. Figures stumbled between the cars with their jaws hanging open and blood smeared across their clothes. One lunged at a woman with a shopping bag, dragging her down. The woman's scream pierced the air as the man's teeth sank into her neck, blood splattering over the asphalt. She shrieked and thrashed, dropping her bags as more creatures closed in, biting and clawing at her with wild, desperate fury. As the figures ripped through her flesh and cracked her bones, people screamed, scattering and dropping everything in their rush to escape.
More of them emerged. Dozens, maybe more. Some shuffling, others running, and some crawling on broken limbs. All of them seemed hungry. The air reeked of blood and echoed with the cries of those being devoured alive.
Dolores's voice rose, sharp as a slap. "NOW!"
This time, Isabella snapped out of her daze, her protective instincts overriding her fear. She grabbed Mateo's arm and sprinted towards the van. Mateo's legs moved, but his gaze was locked on his mother. He watched in horror as the creatures were closing in on Dolores. His heart ached with a mix of fear for his mother and the instinctual drive to flee from danger.
As they fled, Isabella and Mateo noted the creatures' astonishing speed. These weren't the slow-moving undead of fiction but rabid, frenzied beings, once humans, now driven by predatory instincts. Isabella, acting on pure adrenaline, narrowly evaded their grasp. She and Mateo maneuvered through the shopping cart corrals, using them as temporary barriers against the initial wave of pursuing creatures.
Meanwhile, Dolores managed to pull out the keys, remotely unlocking and opening the van's side door. As she clicked the remote, an incoming group of creatures blocked her path to her children.
As one of the creatures lunged at her, she shoved a shopping cart forward to halt its momentum and create a temporary barrier. This gave her a moment to check on her children. As she watched her children closing in near the van she exhaled a small sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, a swarm of rabid creatures continued to pursue Isabella and Mateo. They ran in zigzags through the lines of cars in the parking lot to slow their attackers. As they approached the van, Isabella shoved Mateo through the side door, following quickly and slamming it shut just as the creatures crashed against it with a sickening crunch.
As the creatures rocked the van in their attempt to enter, the kids saw their mother through the window standing in the middle of the chaos. She was holding a group of rabid creatures with a shopping cart. As the creatures swarmed around the shopping cart, Dolores punched hard, cracking her knuckles against one of the creature's faces. Another grabbed at her jacket, but she shrugged it off, swinging her fist into its face.
But there were too many.
One grabbed her left arm, sinking its teeth in. Roaring in pain, Dolores tore her arm free, flesh ripping as blood poured down her sleeve. She didn't stop. She swung with her right hand, landing a brutal punch that dislocated another creature's jaw. Another creature came from behind and bit her shoulder as it began to hold her arms.
As the creatures continue to rock the van and their hands smeared blood and dirt onto its windows, Isabella and Mateo watched their mother's last stand. Her fierceness and love shone through every defensive move, even as the horde overwhelmed her.
As she was taken down to the pavement by the horde, she screamed in agony, while attempting to fight. Her fists and feet were swinging and resisting while blood splattered across the pavement.
Even as the creatures overpowered her, ripping her with their teeth and claws, Dolores's gaze met her children's through the window. In that brief moment, her eyes conveyed a world of love, apology, and encouragement.
And then she was lost. As the undead feasted on her, blood staining the asphalt under the cold, indifferent glow of the streetlights, her eyes never left her children until the end.
Inside the van, Isabella clutched Mateo, who sobbed so hard he could barely breathe, his eyes reflecting the harrowing image of their mother's final, valiant stand. Despite her shattered heart, Isabella wrapped her arms protectively around Mateo, embracing a fragile barrier against the unspeakable horror outside. Yet, it was all she could offer in this moment of despair.
Isabella's voice was barely more than a whisper in her mind as she thought, "Why was I always so angry? I should've just listened to her. I was such a brat. Now she's gone, and I'll never get to say sorry or tell her I love her. I wish I'd been better. I wish I'd tried."
The van rocked as the creatures pressed against it, clawing and pounding at the windows. Outside, the world was crumbling in blood and screams.
The siblings cried in despair until their screams faded to shuddering breaths and choked sobs. The initial shock slowly gave way to the paralyzing realization of their new reality. They were trapped, alone in a world overrun by monsters, with no one to save them.
Maybe we can still get out of this cursed place, Isabella thought desperately. Mateo sat shivering beside her, clutching his legs, and she began frantically searching for the van keys. "Where are they?" she wondered.
Amidst her unstoppable tears and the shivers of fear, she realized her mother had the keys.
She glanced through the filthy window and saw the keys on the ground in front of her mother's remains. In addition to the horde rocking the van, fifty to a hundred creatures roamed the Bullseye Mart parking lot."
Isabella realized she couldn't leave. The world outside had ended, and her sole source of hope, her mother, had just been devoured before her eyes, leaving only her and Mateo alone.
On top of that, the monsters weren't leaving.