The Friend

“I am sorry,” Lizzy told Kayla at first. “I do not mean to do it but it has to happen.” 

“I have to stop being friends with her.” 

For whatever reason Lizzy was being melodramatic about their friendship with Steph, an old friend of theirs from school. She did not know this but Steph was on her way towards them as they spoke about it. 

The fact that Steph was becoming different had become the topic of conversation for the three young women. They were old enough to have already graduated from their university. Lizzy was at the mall with Ramona and Kayla was also there to hear her friend talk about the lost wanderings of their previous friendship with Steph. They were sitting by a cafe in a common area at the mall. People were flooding in and out of the shops, while the three were sipping on their lattes. They usually did this during the weekdays between breaks in classes. There was nothing to do except shop and talk with friends about life and realistic happenings. Kayla was not all that surprised that Lizzy was sobbing over their friendship with Steph. It left her in a vulnerable position knowing that they had lost a part of the same old, safe place friend. 

“Well, everything will be alright now. What’s done is done,” Kayla said. She did not quite understand why Lizzy was so emotional about it. She was almost being rude. It felt like she was displaced in the situation. Ramona as well looked sort of puzzled at her friend’s boldness.

“Steph will be fine no matter what. You don’t have to worry about things outside of your control,” Ramona said.  

What happened was Lizzy had gone with Steph to the movies and Steph just was “not her usual self.” 

“She was swearing like a sailor,” Lizzy said. “Shouting all kinds of profanities.” 

“And then there was her appearance. She was taller and more frail. I was worried she was actually a completely different person and not who she said she was. I thought I was with the wrong person.”

“And you should’ve seen the way she just stared throughout the movie,” she continued. “No reactions.” 

“Zero.”  

“Well maybe she was just focused on the movie. Come on guys you have to give her the benefit of the doubt,” Ramona said. 

“It’s like you just don’t want to be friends anymore, but there’s something more to this than just that. What are you implying?” 

“Remember when we all got those vaccines?”

“Yeah…”

“Well there were a few people who chose not to get them.” 

“It was some kind of antiviral shot, but I doubt that has anything to do with Steph’s case.” 

“There have been a lot of cases, so far, of people getting sick, like the people they loved have transformed completely into somebody different than they were before. But people get sick everyday. People can also choose whether or not they want to change the way they look. It’s people’s outlook that matters.” 

“If something was really happening, don’t you think she would tell us?”  

“Anyways,” Ramona interjected. “She seems fine in my opinion.” 

“She has always went to the beat of her own drum. Maybe we should be more patient with her. There was that time she changed her wardrobe completely, wearing nylon stockings and dying her hair a darker shade. Do you remember that? That time I really thought she looked cute.” 

“I thought it was kind of cool.”

“No guys, this time is completely different. She could not remember half of what I was saying to her and she was just off. Something about the way she just stared at everything like things were going to fall apart.”

“I think I might need a break from everything anyway.” 

Right when Lizzy was going to part ways, Steph joined the three in their conversation. 

“Oh my gosh! It's Steph!” Ramona said. 

“Come on let’s walk for a bit,” Steph said. “No use lounging around all the time.”

“You look different. Did you do something to your eyes? Are you wearing coloured contacts?” Kayla asked. 

“No. My eyes have always been this way.”

“Let’s see now… Do you guys want to go?” Lizzy asked. “There’s some things I have to get done back home.”

Their conversation was cut short when an altercation broke out in the mall’s mezzanine. People kept bumping into each other and forming a circle where the incident had ensued. They decided to approach the noise to see what was going on. Turns out there was a fight that was occurring between two strangers. But it did not so much look like there was a fight going on, but some sort of maddening mob of people. Lizzy had no idea what to think about it. She decided that she was going to leave the situation as soon as possible and let her friends move along. 

“Not really. I am kind of curious about the fight that just broke out.” 

“You look great,” Ramona said. 

“Yeah Lizzy, stop being such a drag.” 

“So what really is going on there—” Steph said. 

What they saw was beyond what they ever imagined. A woman was frothing from the mouth and pouncing on the tables and benches or whatever she could grapple on. Her eyes were glowing bright green and had claws growing out of the knuckles of her fingertips. All they could think to do was run for it.  

“Run…run…run!” Ramona stuttered. 

People began to cause panic. The four young women then did not hesitate to sprint across the mezzanine dodging everyone out of their path. Lizzy was keen on running back home. There was nothing left to do except part ways that day. Lizzy did run all the way home. When she did get home, she went immediately to her laptop. She found an article pop up on her feed about the fight that broke out in the mall and Outbreak: Viral Infection Zombifies Brain.