Chapter 6

Elise was dizzy and in pain as she sat up, unsure of where she was. She grabbed for the car's door-handle, opening it and falling out onto the pavement. It took a moment to remember why she was in a car and why there was a dead cyclist on it, and when she did she didn't feel hysterical anymore, because the dizzy feeling didn't go away. She felt her head and when she looked at her hand it was covered in blood. The airbag had deployed, but when she saw the cracked window of the car door she realized her head had hit that instead.

Milo jumped down from the car and began to nuzzle his face against her arm, apparently unharmed from the accident. She thought he was going to scamper away in fear, but he seemed reluctant to leave her side.

Good, she thought, maybe he'll scare away those things.

She got to her feet, looking around at the quiet street. If Meagan had taught her anything it was that the sound of the crash and the smell of blood was going to attract any giraffes within range. She started walking, still too dazed to really care what direction she was going in, and Milo dutifully followed.

Elise used to laugh at Meagan whenever she would start on a rant about being prepared for the apocalypse, but she had been patient with Elise, ignoring her jokes and drilling the importance for survival into her brain. For her birthday every year Meagan would buy her a book; The Road, World War Z, essentially every novel written by John Wyndham, all to get Elise to soak up some knowledge on how to be prepared for when the day came. She in turn would jokingly buy Meagan SARS masks and mace refills.

And now... Elise still couldn't believe crazy-ass Meagan, who always checked for emergency exits when they walked into a room, had been right all this time. She reached for her phone and realized she had left it in the car. It didn't matter, the damn thing was dead anyway. She could find a new one, and while she was at it she could find a weapon as well.

She thought about backtracking, but it was clear that the giraffes were more concentrated in that direction. She guessed that in a panic everyone had started running in the same direction, but they probably hadn't gotten far. The images of the dead she had passed flashed through her head like a slideshow she couldn't turn off.

They reached a crossroad and looked down at Milo who had begun inching towards the right. She always used to say that in an emergency you should follow the animals, so they went to the right. It was a quiet road with large houses. She decided she needed to get a hold of Meagan if she had any chance of making it out of the city alive and walked up to the first one.

The door was locked, so she grabbed a rock from the garden and smashed the front window. She didn't care if she made noise, she didn't plan on staying long. She picked Milo up and deposited him into the empty house. The inhabitants had probably been at work when the attack had begun. Where had it begun anyway? The airport, she imagined. There was were two in the city, one half an hour from downtown. Meagan would probably have a better idea where this might have come from, and more importantly: how far it might have reached by this point.

She found a land line. It was dead. Feeling frustrated she decided find a weapon and a cell phone - which probably meant digging through pockets of dead people.

First she opened the fridge and grabbed some chicken. She unwrapped it and threw it on the floor for Milo to chew on. He deserved a good meal after saving her life. She went to the bathroom to look at the cut on her head. It was hidden somewhere in her hair, but the left side of her face was covered in blood. She tried to wash it quickly and found some Polysporin to rub on the wound. She bet all her money that Meagan would know how to stitch it up.

She found a bag of golf clubs and grabbed the big one, feeling silly that she didn't know what it was called, but she had seen one of these crack open a skull once when she was a kid and had no doubt it would be able to seriously fuck up a tiny giraffe.

Milo hissed and she heard the sound of the wailing giraffes outside. They had begun to wander down the street. Swearing softly she grabbed Milo.

Two giraffes saw her and ran towards the porch. Milo attacked first, but Elise was right behind him, swinging the golf club at the nearest giraffe and sending it halfway down the block where it splattered into a heap of evil giraffe goo. More were coming and her and Milo turned to run - that's when she saw the dead body being chewed on by giraffe. She almost left it behind, but her need to contact Meagan was becoming imperative.

A Blackberry was in his hand and on the other end of the line she could hear a woman's voice saying hello over and over again. She gave the giraffe a good whack and it flew into a tree with a satisfying crack. Then she grabbed the phone.

"Lock your doors and don't go outside!" She yelled and hung up, then she started dialing Meagan's number. More giraffes were appearing from everywhere and she started running aimlessly trying to get away, Milo on her heels.

At the first ring Meagan answered.

"Hello???" Meagan sounded frantic.

"My head is bleeding and Milo is with me!"

"What???"

"Meagan! Get me the fuck out of the city!"