The rain hammers on the windows of the top story of the office building. From my desk, I can see most of the small town that has been my home for the last eighteen years. The high school I’d graduated from is half a mile away, the greenery of the playing fields just visible through the rooftops. My house is close by, and I can see the driveway clearly from here. Other landmarks break the skyline, the most noticeable being the hospital. It looms over everything; once a place of hope, now a place of fear. The rancid green paint used by the government was dropped from the sky to cover the bricks, helicopters circling and marking the hospital on that fateful night two years ago. The sickening green colour shines brightly today in the gleaming wetness of rain.

“Hannah!”

I hear my name and jump. My boss glares at me, hating my absent-mindedness. I chew nervously on my pen, knowing a lecture will follow.

“It probably seems like the end of the world, but you really do have to get a grip of yourself.” He starts, the authoritarian personality showing.

“Sorry” I mumble, faintly aware of an ambulance siren breaking through the rain.

“You need to stop being so self-centred. Really, you do. Now these reports aren’t going to write themselves now, are they?” He continues, gloating. I shake my head obediently. Yes sir, no sir. Whatever it takes to get him off my back. I’m acutely aware that the sirens haven’t disappeared. They’re not growing louder –always a good sign- but they’re not fading either. The boss sighs. Clearly, I’m a lost cause. I smile at him nervously, hating the silence. He walks away without word and I can relax. When he is out of view, I swivel in my chair to see if the rancid green of the ambulance can be seen moving through the streets. It can. It’s running parallel to the office building – hence the constant volume. Then a lump in my throat forms. The ambulance is on my house’s road. The worst case scenarios play in my mind. Grandma and Libby are at home. They have been there for days, waiting until it is safe and the streets are cleared of The Tainted. They await my return, when I will bring food and water and hygiene supplies. Then I remind myself not to panic – the two relatives that remain of my family are safe. Their reclusiveness guarantees their survival – they will not have come into contact with any Tainted.
But the ambulance is heading in the direction to my house. Paranoid, I cannot take my eyes off the green vehicle as it dips in and out of view in the gaps between houses. It slows, ten metres from my house. Seven metres, five, four, three….no. It can’t be.

“Hannah!” The boss has returned, though I no longer care for punishment. My eyes are fixed on the ambulance, barely visible through the howling sheets of rain.

“What?” I snap for the first time ever.

“I’m so sorry, I just heard…”