Apartment 905 by Sahin, Ned (readnow .TXT) 📕

say to Kathleen. There is not much we can do with a baton and pistol. If that group can’t handle this situation, we can’t either.

Kathleen and I run toward the corner to get to the next block. The couple follows us. Two Ricas turn the same corner and cut off our way. There are only a few yards between us. Kathleen pulls the trigger. Then she shoots again. Both bullets miss the Ricas. I grab Kathleen’s arm, and we run between cars to get to the other side of the street. The Ricas choose the couple as their target. The couple runs back to the block, but the other side is not in a good shape either. The group is dealing with at least twenty Ricas now. One of them already became lunch for several Ricas around him. The other three keep unloading their rifles on all creatures running toward them. It’s not looking good for humanity.

We have a chance to make our way to the next block while the Ricas on both sides of the street are busy. My hope doesn’t last long. A Rica breaks through a window on the second floor of the office building in front of us. He lands a few feet away from me. I hit my baton on his head before he tries to stand up. I can hear his skull cracking. Toshi’s face appears in front of my eyes. A parade of our memories goes through in my mind while I keep hitting the Rica’s head.

Another Rica jumps off from the same window as her colleague. Maybe we interrupted an office romance. Whatever was going on in that office building, their story will end right now. Before the creature gets on her feet, Kathleen puts a bullet in her brain.

As I struggle controlling my anger while smashing the other Ricas’s head, Kathleen touches my shoulder to remind me that it’s time to move on.

The couple was able to take down the Ricas that were coming after them. We all run to the next block before any more Ricas show up or rain down on us. One of the members in the rifle group tries to catch up with us. He is retreating. I can see one of his recently turned friends behind him. She is trying to get closer to bite him. Our fear became reality. Ricas can turn people here too. It wasn’t just Toshi.

We run through another block, but Ricas are closing in. I pull Kathleen inside a restaurant with an open door. The couple follows us inside. The man closes the door. I help him to move a table to support the door. We go back behind the bar and crouch down. I hope none of the Ricas saw us entering this place.

We hear the last member of the group screaming before we watch him get torn apart by a dozen Ricas. Some Ricas don’t bother and keep running. They pass the restaurant. The Ricas who can’t find an opening spot around the hunt follow them.

There is only a handful of Ricas left in front of the restaurant. Their hands are going deep in the poor man’s body. Blood and organ pieces are dripping from their mouth. I can see the lust in their eyes when they look at each other. They are celebrating their hunt.

I sit on the floor next to Kathleen. I can’t watch those animals anymore. The couple in front of me are hugging each other with their eyes closed. The woman hiccups and wipes a tear from her cheek with her wedding ring finger.

The man lifts his head toward us. “Are you going to the museum too?” he whispers.

I glance at Kathleen. She stares expressionless at the man. She doesn’t seem to know what he is talking about —just like me.

“I heard they made the vaccine,” he says.

“Who are they?” I ask.

“Paizen… The manufacturer of the Oxyrica. I saw one of their scientists on TV months ago. He said they were very close to making the vaccine. Someone in our camp told me that they finally made it…and now they are injecting it to everyone for free.” He talks like the value of money actually means something in this world. What would they do with the money if they were charging for the vaccine?

The name Paizen evokes some nerves in my head. I try to refresh my memory about Salt Lake City. I had never been here until today, but I remember hearing about this city in the news. It was one of the cities that had the highest number of cases in the early weeks of the pandemic. It even became the epicenter of the first wave, but it flattened the curve quickly and then disappeared from the headlines.

When I think about what I saw on the Oxyrica box Toshi had, I can finally put the pieces together: Manufactured in SLC.

SLC. I first thought it’s an acronym for a country like PRC for the People's Republic of China. I now realize that it’s the acronym for Salt Lake City. This city is the epicenter of the virus that healed quickly, and nobody heard about it again. It’s because Oxyrica is manufactured here. That’s how they got access to an insane amount of pills in the early days of the outbreak. Hospitals were overflowing with patients before they started using Oxyrica. Then, everything went back to normal quickly.

It was probably the city they used this unproven drug on the biggest percentage of people infected. They felt blessed for getting the drug for free. They didn’t know that they were used as the guinea pig of the country.

This explains why the entire city is overthrown by Ricas now. It all started with Paizen and their drug Oxyrica.

“You can’t be believing that they made the vaccine…” I say to the man. “You know that their drug Oxyrica created these Ricas, right?” We can hear them grunting outside of the restaurant.

“Ricas?” he asks. I notice that the word