“Genevieve’s Dilemma”

by Gage Joseph, Evelynn McCoy, Anahi Moreno, Raquel Ndirangu, Charles Ray, Jayden Taylor, Dynasia Wise, & Whit

The figure moved between the burned-out cars and the hulking wrecks still crowding the bridge which had cracked and buckled from heat and sun in the years following the event.

Below the bridge, the tide had already risen higher than it had in months. Below, sharks frothed and turned, fighting over some dead thing. The figure did not pay attention to the beasts and instead focused on moving between the cars.

When the shot rang out, the figure ducked.

Genevieve cursed; she missed. Rifle in hand and skirt hiked up and wasting no time, Genevieve began to reload as she ran towards the godawful thing, her heart beating faster than her feet could carry her.

Panting and struggling to keep her breath, she runs with her weapon in hand, the creature from the wastelands nowhere in sight.

Thinking of all the ways she could possibly get rid of this thing once and for all, she feels her cellphone ringing in her pocket and she decides that she must ignore it, so it keeps on ringing and ringing. Finally, she fished it out of her pocket, and sees the name “Mom”, but her mom died in a house fire last year.

She declines the calls, but soon it is ringing over and over again. When she finally answers the phone, desperate to stop the noise from drawing the creature, there is only a high-pitched loud noise. She throws the phone behind a car and keeps running towards where the bridge opens up into what used to be downtown.

In the distance, a menacing scream is followed by a monstrous thump. She trembles and cries in fear as she hears the creature destroying every car in its way toward where Genevieve threw the phone. Suddenly, the creature is distracted by a distant bang and takes off in that direction.

Genevieve breathes a sigh of relief. Who in the world is calling me?