11:54 PM
Five Hours Into Code Black
The woman came screaming out of the crowd.
Not running.
Stumbling.
Dragging herself forward with the kind of desperation that made everyone around her back away.
Her eyes were red.
Not bloodshot.
Red.
The veins around them looked swollen, angry, spreading farther across her face with every ragged breath she took.
She clutched at her chest like something inside her was trying to tear its way out.
"Please—!"
The word came out broken.
Then she screamed again.
A sound so raw it made even the soldiers flinch.
"STAY THE FUCK BACK!" a soldier shouted.
His rifle was already raised.
The woman kept moving.
Tears streamed down her face.
She looked terrified.
She looked sick.
She looked like she was dying.
"I'M FUCKING WARNING YOU!"
His voice cracked.
The distance between them vanished.
Ten feet.
Eight.
Six.
The woman reached out.
The rifle fired.
The shot echoed across the street.
The woman dropped instantly.
