Adel's lifeless body lay on the ground.
Ryan thought it was all over. But fate had other plans.
The soldier's fingers moved, and his screams rose as he leaped into the crowd, amidst their escalating cries, landing on an old woman, knocking her to the ground and biting her flesh.
All this happened in mere seconds.
Chaos erupted, and the bodies of the wounded began screaming and attacking the crowd. Ryan ran, trying to escape as fast as he could. But something jumped onto his foot, knocking him to the ground. Ryan screamed, "Get away! Get away from me!"
He was shot in the head, got up, and continued running, warning anyone he encountered to run and shout, "Run! Don't go in! It's contaminated! Run!"
He said this while terrified that the madman who had jumped onto his foot might have had his teeth pierce his shoe and scratched his foot.
But he didn't have the courage to find out for sure. For once, he wanted to live another day.
Things in the street were spiraling out of control; chaos reigned.
On the other side, there was Amir, who had overslept and woke up to the screams in the street. It's more likely he didn't wake up from the screams alone; he'd put on his headphones and fallen asleep while watching a horror movie. But what truly woke him was a gunshot. He opened his eyes, bewildered, and for a moment, when he saw the laptop on his lap and the movie playing on repeat, he thought the sounds were from the film. So he stopped it and removed his headphones. That's when he was shocked to find the sounds didn't stop. He checked if the laptop's external speakers were working, but they weren't. So he rushed to the balcony, only to be horrified by the number of people running from others in the street.
More than three hours had passed since the hospital incident.
It seemed things had escalated very quickly, and Amir couldn't believe his eyes. He even thought it was a scene from a movie and that everything would stop the moment the director gave the cut. The camera kept rolling, and his eyes searched left and right for the director, but in vain.
Then he saw that body, which was undoubtedly real. Not only because it was so skillfully crafted, but also because it belonged to his neighbor on the first floor.
At that moment, he realized this wasn't a movie, that there was a war or something. He saw on TV that most channels were down, but one was working. The news anchor was screaming for help, urging anyone concerned to run to higher ground and not to interact with anyone who was injured or had red eyes.
Amir heard someone scream. The screaming grew louder and louder, as if it were getting closer. He heard the sound of gunshots echoing in the building. Terrified, he dropped to the ground and put his hand to his head. But the drama didn't end there, because he heard loud knocking on his door. He didn't know what to do until he realized it was his neighbor, Mary, whom he secretly loved.
She started crying. "Please open up! I'm going to die!"