Tessa stood in her untidy bedroom watching the rain stream her window, waiting for her parents to come home from work. Unfinished homework piled at her feet, forgotten. Her pet corgi, Felicity, laid beside her, impatiently waiting to be fed, whining pitifully. “Shh, it’s ok. They’ll be home soon, Felicity, you’ll be fed.” Tessa whispered, hoping she was right. She placed her hand behind her fluffy ears where she liked to be scratched and let her mind wander. Surely her parents were fine. They were only an hour late. That didn’t mean anything, right? Her thoughts were interrupted by a faint sizzling sound. The sizzling became louder and louder until it was the only thing to be heard throughout the house. Tessa’s eyes darted to the window, which now were a tinge of green and were melting slowly right before her. Holes and drips  appeared in the glass as the rain began to pour harder, pounding the rooftop relentlessly. Tessa grabbed Felicity and carried her in her arms, quickly backing away from the scene. Still carrying Felicity, she opens her bedroom door with the force of her side. More sizzling sounds. Windows melting. Exterior walls caving. 
Tessa grabs her backpack and runs into the laundry room in the interior of the house. She shuts the door and hugs Felicity tightly. Tessa unzips her backpack and unburies her phone from under all her books. She speed dials her parents, wanting an answer. Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep… No answer. Terror stricken, Tessa pulls up her local news app and syncs it up with the current TV showing. A man that seems to be well into his forties, platinum blonde hair and hazel eyes, appears on the screen to report the news. The weather man is speaking mid sentence when she cues it up on her phone screen. “—It’s in the water, the air, in the rain, it’s everywhere. This toxic and corruptive bacteria mutated inside a rusty fire hydrant downtown, and now can’t be stopped. If it comes in contact with humans, it acts like the plague. Deadly and highly contagious. Be cautious. It’s already spreading off the coast of California...” Tessa slowly puts her phone face down on the tile.  She couldn’t listen to anymore of it. She knows she can’t just sit here and wait for the inevitable to happen.