Tim Foreman reached across the steering wheel of his black Lexus and shut the radio off. He was tired of all of the gloom and doom prognostications that had been repeating themselves for the past three days. So a comet had just passed extremely close to the earth . . . big deal. The way people were acting, it was going to be the end of the world. Tim had news for those people; his world had already ended three months ago, the day that he found out that his wife and best friend of fifteen-years was dying of cancer.

Tim glanced over at his wife Jennifer as she slept beside him, her tiny frame seemed to be shrinking by the minute. She was down to a hundred pounds, which wouldn’t be considered terrible for most women, but Jennifer stood six-one. She had lost nearly forty pounds in the last three months, and Tim knew that his time with her was growing short.

"Stop staring at me like that," Jennifer whispered as she lifted the lid of her left eye, revealing a bright, green iris. Those green eyes were the only physical remnants that made Tim remember the good times they had shared over the years. They still held the spark that had attracted him to her when they first met in their freshman year at The Ohio State University. Now, they were the only thing that could make Tim smile anymore.

"Actually," Jennifer continued, "Stop staring at entirely and watch the road please."

"All right, I just wanted to say..."

"Shush. Not now Hun. I’m tired."

Tim had already been expecting that answer and he nodded and gripped the wheel tighter as Jennifer closed her eyes. As he began to think back to some of their better days, a form appeared a few hundred feet ahead, along the side of the road. Tim squinted as he dropped his speed to forty miles-per-hour and tried to make out the form in the darkness.

Just a hitchhiker, he deduced, as the high beams from the Lexus revealed a man walking toward him. Tim put his foot back down on the accelerator and moved the speedometer back to sixty. The headlights reflected off of the hitchhiker’s face, his eyes held a look of hopelessness, like a soul that was lost, with no hope of ever being found again. Before Tim had time to react, the man threw himself in front of the Lexus.

"Jesus Christ!" Tim yelled as his fingers instinctively wrapped tight around the steering wheel. He slammed the brakes to the floorboard and the Lexus skidded to a stop.

"What happened?" Jennifer asked as she grabbed her head. The force of the seat-belt had thrown her back against the seat and her head smacked the leather head-rest hard.

"That guy just jumped out in front of me!"

"Oh my God."

"Are you okay?" Tim asked as his fingers finally began to release their grip on the wheel. They ached, and Tim was pretty sure that he had busted a knuckle, but he didn’t have time to worry about that now.

"I’m ok," Jennifer said as she rubbed her neck.

With a nod, Tim raced out of the car and back toward the broken heap of the man laying in the road. As he approached, the man’s head turned toward him and his eyes popped open. Tim jumped back when he saw the man’s eyes. The pupils were dark and the iris radiated a beautiful, light-blue glow.

"What the fuck?" Tim whispered as the man began to crawl toward him. The man’s legs were clearly broken. They were bent back at odd angles and as Tim looked harder, he could see no possible way as to how the man’s spine wasn’t snapped as well.

"Blood," The man whispered as his arms flailed wildly toward Tim. His face was contorted, a mask of pain mixed with rage, but those light-blue eyes held no human intelligence. They reminded Tim of a trapped racoon.

Tim backed up toward the car as the man continued to crawl toward him. Behind the man, Tim could make out a pile of what could only be the man’s organs and blood-at least some of them.

"What the hell is going on?"

Tim whispered the question to himself before his mind got the better of him and forced him to turn and run back into the car.

"What is it?" Jennifer whispered as she saw the look of terror on her husband’s face.

"He’s not dead!"

"What?"

"The guy’s not dead!"

Jennifer tried to look through the rear window, but her head could not swivel around far enough.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"The fucking guy is crawling toward us...and he’s twisted up like a pretzel...he’s not dead!"

Not bothering to pay attention to Jennifer’s response, Tim twisted the keys and the engine started. "Give me your cell," he shouted as he put the car in drive and blasted the pedal with his foot. Jennifer grabbed her purse and started to dig through it as Tim sped down State Route 20, back toward the small city of Fremont, Ohio. As she continued to dig, Tim noticed something odd.

"Where’s all the traffic?"

Jennifer looked up from her purse and out through the window. There were no cars, but that wasn’t all that unusual. It wasn’t like Fremont was a bustling city.

"It’s six o’clock," Tim shouted, "And we are less than a mile from Fremont! There should be cars out here!"

Jennifer ignored her husband’s shouts and continued her search for the cell phone.

"Jen...Jen?"

"Calm down! You’re starting to scare me!"

"Scare you? I just had a dead corpse crawl toward me, asking for my blood!"

"What?"

"Just get the phone, Jen!"

With a confused huff, Jennifer reached down deep into her purse and finally pulled out the phone.

"Call 911," Tim shouted.

"All right, all right, Stop yelling!"

Jennifer quickly flipped open her phone and dialed the number.

"What’s going on? Tim asked.

Jennifer shook her head.

"What’s going on!?" Tim reiterated, a little more tension in his already tense voice.

"There’s no answer."

"What?" Tim shouted as he looked over at his wife. She met his stare with green eyes that screamed to him-Enough!