Chapter 16

"This tea is kinda weird. I didn't know green tea was supposed to be... lemony," Holden finished his mug and set it down.

Elise was holding her mug in both hands, holding it up to her face and smelling it in with a peaceful look on her face. "Enjoy it. It might be the last cup you ever have."

"Whatever, it's time to move," Holden got up and Elise nodded, finishing her tea. "What's the plan?"

"The plan hasn't changed. We go to the Tower, and Meagan will do the same thing."

"How do you know?"

"Because she wants to blow it up."

"Wait-what?"

"Time to go!"

"Steve's friends are weird," Holden muttered as they grabbed their gear and cleared out.

Once outside they kept low in the side streets, trying to stick as close to Queen Street as possible. The giraffes were everywhere, but it seemed that they didn't group up unless they were on the attack. The biggest groups they encountered were about five strong, and they were all easily avoided. They were now heading slightly north of the Tower, but Elise wanted to keep their route as simple as possible to avoid losing each other. Besides, she had a plan.

"What do you mean you want to take the Path???" Holden nearly screamed at her.

The Path was a notorious underground shopping mall that connected most of the downtown core together. People going down there for the first time easily lost their way and constantly had to resurface in order to get their bearings.

"That's the worst fucking plan I've ever heard."

"I am downtown every day. I know the Path like the back of my hand."

"But just being underground is not a good idea."

"It's a brilliant idea, because these things are smart."

"Sorry?"

They stopped behind a dumpster while four giraffes crossed in front of them.

"Were you even listening to yourself back at Starbucks? If they do communicate and plan, it stands to reason that they have some understanding of human behaviour. I mean hell, they're driving us out of buildings like cattle."

They made a quick dash across the street and found cover once again.

"As far as their tiny giraffe brains think, nobody's stupid enough to go back underground. So if no one's underground, there will probably be little to no giraffes around."

"A lot of this is hinging on the fact - a fact we don't know for sure - that these things are intelligent."

"Honestly, at this point I just feel safer being underground where I know the hiding places. Being out here in the open gives them too many chances to spot and swarm us."

Suddenly a window shattered across the street and a man fell onto the sidewalk, screaming and kicking as a stream of twenty or so giraffes followed.

"Shit!" Holden dove for cover, but Elise grabbed her gun and started aiming.

"HELP ME!!!" The man, no older than Elise, spotted her and started hollering in pain.

"Leave him!" Holden hissed, but it was too late. The giraffes had already seen her.

She crouched down, took aim, and before Holden could figure out what was happening tiny giraffe heads started exploding with nearly every shot she took.

A minute later no giraffe was left standing and the man scrambled to his feet and ran over to the two, tears streaming down his face.

"OH MY FUCKING GOD!!! When did you become Rambo???" Holden looked at the giraffes.

"I was in cadets, we fired guns a a lot."

The man reached Elise, wrapping her in a sudden embrace of gratitude.

"Get off," Elise struggled and soon the man let go of him and went to hug Holden - who held out his hand to stop him.

"No fucking way. You gotta leave. You can't come with us." Holden shook his head, looking around anxiously for the giraffes he knew would soon be drawn to this place.

"Wha?" The man looked confused.

"He can come with us," Elise rolled her eyes.

"He's covered in blood!" Holden protested, and Elise noticed that Holden looked genuinely afraid.

She turned to the man who was still shaking.

"Are you all right?" Elise asked.

"I was hiding, but they chewed their way through the wall."

"Did they bite you?"

"How did they do it man? How did they eat through a fucking wall?" The man was too distracted to notice their questions.

Holden pulled out his gun. "Did they fucking bite you!?!"

The man took a step back, his hand grabbing something on his arm. "N-no." Then he turned to Elise, his blue eyes pleading with her. "Please, don't leave me here."

"He's been bitten!"

"Everyone needs to calm down!" Elise tried to stop Holden advancing. In the distance, they heard the wail of the giraffe.

"He's going to turn into one of them! He's like a sleeper cell!"

"Please, my name's Jeff Hicks, I'm 26, I-"

"Wait-"

Holden shot him in the eye. The pellet wasn't enough to kill him, but Jeff immediately started screaming in pain, covering his face as blood gushed out of the socket. Realizing the gun wouldn't finish him, Holden grabbed a piece of wood from a broken window frame as Jeff's skin began to take on a slightly translucent tinge.

Then Holden began bashing Jeff's head in until he stopped screaming, slumped to the ground, and was still.

Elise stared down at the dead body in horror. He was dead, his skin melting off his body, but the transformation had clearly stopped.

"This is why we can't save people!" Holden screamed at her, and as the wailing of the giraffes got louder they both took off running.

Chapter 14

They had a moment to take in the slaughter before two things happened. First the giraffes noticed the small group watching them and like a flock of birds, turned and began charging towards them. Second, a TTC bus burst out the garage of Canadian Tire and made its way toward the road, smashing into cars and pushing them off to the sidewalk as it, also, started coming right for them.

There was a sudden confusion in the giraffes. Their ranks broke up as they tried to both avoid being crushed by the bus and attack it - then there were a few giraffes who completely ignored the bus and just focused on the four unprotected humans.

The bus reached them first, not bothering to slow down and while Elise was still trying to decide on whether to go down fighting or spend the last few seconds of her life fleeing, a hand suddenly grabbed her and started pulling her to cover as the bus smashed into a car, sending it careening to where she had just stood.

She lost sight of Meagan and Steve as she fell to the pavement. Holden stood above her, pulling out a gun and firing into the giraffes. Milo was there one second, but then jumped up and attacked a giraffe that had reached them.

"Get up! Move!" Holden screamed and Elise pulled out her gun and started firing.

The bus slowed down with the added traffic, but still forced its way down the street, now covered in tiny giraffes. Meagan and Steve still nowhere to be seen. Milo was fighting giraffes nearby, but she had no chance of reaching him.

"Come on," Holden grabbed her again, she pushed him off, but he was frantic and didn't let her go, slowly dragging her off and soon she had to follow or be buried under an avalanche of giraffes.

They ran, and didn't look back. The giraffes nipped at their heels and just as they were about to overtake them a wail went up and most of the giraffes suddenly turned and ran. There was screaming somewhere and they thought maybe the bus had been breached.

Holden kept shooting into the giraffes still following them, and after ducking around an apartment building they seemed to lose them, but they could still hear the giraffes calling out to each other.

Elise pulled out her phone and dialed Meagan's number, but she didn't pick up. She pretended the only possibility for that was because Meagan was still fighting off the giraffes and not that she had lost her phone or...

They reached Queen Street. Dozens of giraffes roamed around and they kept in alleys until they saw a back door propped open. They needed a place to hide and gather their thoughts - maybe think of a plan to find Meagan, Steve and Milo.

Once Elise had heard a story about how the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center, people were still lining up in the Starbucks underneath and barristas served them dutifully until they were all crushed underneath the molten steel and concrete. For a second Elise almost expected to see a lineup waiting for frappuccinos, but instead she saw a few dozen giraffes cuddled into a nest.

Without thinking she ripped open her bag, pulled out her Tommy Gun and opened fire. The giraffes woke up, wailing their high pitched shrieks in pain, until finally Elise ran out of ammunition. The giraffes lay dead in a puddle of fur and blood, only one still remained living. It crawled towards the two, its neck had a chunk missing and its head dragged along the floor, its tiny mouth opening and closing, until it too went still.

Holden stepped forward and crushed its head beneath his boot. It crunched like a potato chip.

"Gotta destroy the brain, right?" He asked.

"I don't know. You're thinking about zombies," she looked around the Starbucks to make sure no more giraffes were present.

Holden sat down at one of the tables, needing a moment of silence before he started thinking about survival again. "You know, we need to start figuring these things out. We need to know what kills them and what doesn't. What makes a person turn and why some people just... die..." He trailed off, staring at a skeleton still wearing a green apron. The giraffes had eaten every last morsel of flesh, organ and hair.

"I mean," he continued. "They can communicate, right? Why aren't you guys more concerned about this? Sure, all animals have some way of getting signals across, but these things organize and-"

"Infiltrate."

"Yeah! They seem to be able to get into any building," he cleared his throat, looking around wearily. They shouldn't stay in one place too long.

Elise moved behind the counter, looking for a kettle.

"They drive people out, like that Canadian Tire."

Like my office building, she thought, but she was too concerned with searching through boxes to respond. Holden didn't notice, he seemed wrapped up in his thinking.

"When they need more giraffes they make more giraffes and when they need food," he turned away from the skeleton. "I can't figure out their game plan."

"Giraffes don't need game plans," she turned the kettle on.

"What are you doing?" Holden finally noticed her.

"I'm making tea."

"You're... making tea?"

"Yes," she gritted her teeth.

"We should probably get going-"

"No, tea first."

"Elise-"

"Look! Toronto's overrun by giraffes! Most of everyone I've ever known is dead! Meagan and Steve are lost! Milo is missing! My sister is trapped in a Tower of certain death that I probably won't be able to reach and I JUST WANT ONE LAST CUP OF TEA!"

The kettle boiled, clicked off, and she messily poured a cup of green tea, then stared at it angrily for a second.

"... Make me one too?" Holden gave her a small smile. "Fuck the apocalypse. It's okay to be civil once in awhile."