[ WP ] You wake up on a desolate road with nothing but the clothes on your back , 50 USD , and a note saying `` Run '' .

As I return to consciousness I feel the heat of the burning cars and taste blood. Everything hurts as I try to sit up. The smell of burning paint, car interior, and flesh overwhelms me and I vomit into the grass next to the road. There are smashed and burning cars all around as I remember the moments before the crash. 
 
 I remember seeing cars lose control as people walked onto the highway looking to the sky, seemingly oblivious to traffic. I remember a brilliant streak of light followed by chaos. The last thing I remember is brake lights, squealing tires, and crunching metal before darkness. 
 
 I struggle to my feet and fight the dizziness and nausea roiling in my stomach. Looking around I see nothing but destruction. Not a single car on the highway is untouched. Many are burning, most are crushed beyond recognition, and it appears I'm the only person left alive. 
 
 As I stagger into the field next to the highway in the hopes of getting away from the fires and the smell of burning flesh I, without thinking, put my hands in my pockets. Surprised to find anything I pull out some cash and, upon closer inspection, a note that says, `` Run!'' 
 
 Run where? Who put this note here? I ca n't imagine running in my current state anyway. 
 
 Reaching the end of my strength I sit on a hummock of grass and look back at the devastation of the highway stretching as far as I can see both east and west. In the distance off to the east there is a huge pillar of smoke which can only be Dallas. 
 
 I know without question the note in my pocket is telling me to flee from Dallas, from the remains of civilization, from humans. But, how can I? I'm weak, I have nowhere to go, and do n't even understand what has happened. What am I running from? Trusting my feeling and the note I walk east until I ca n't walk anymore. A survival instinct I did n't know I had tells me to keep the road in sight, there is n't much out here that is edible away from civilization. I walk for many hours, pass out, and sleep through the night. Waking up in the cold light of dawn I realize I have no plan and no desire besides walking away from the destruction. 
 
 East, always east I walk. I've been walking for three days now. I've found some water in a couple of dirty streams and some berries to eat yesterday but I'm getting weaker by the hour. Looking back to the unknown destruction I'm fleeing I think I see movement. Not knowing if it is a threat or friends, and being too weak to run, I hope for the best as I sit on a bench at an abandoned gas station and wait for it/them to catch up. 
 
 As I sit staring into the distance I see figures moving along the highway towards me with their backs to the remains of Dallas. As I watch them it becomes clear they are looking for something. I assume they are searching for survivors since they look into every destroyed car and every burned out wreck. One of them happens to look in my direction and sees me sitting helpless on my bench. The figure starts, points to me, and gestures to it's fellow travelers. A couple of them rush towards me but keep their distance. 
 
 They yell to me asking if I'm hurt, do I feel sick, and did I see the meteor. 
 
 `` Meteor?'' I ask, confused. 
 
 They explain that a large asteroid has landed near Dallas destroying the city and killing almost everybody who lives there. But that's not the worst of it. It turns out that the theory of panspermia is correct in the worst way possible. The meteorite brought with it a bacteria that has been surviving in space for millennia. It is immune to our antibiotics and kills 99.99 % of the people, animals, and fish it comes into contact with. No one knows how to stop it and no one knows why some are immune. All of the survivors who found me are injured, deaf ( from the shock wave ), or mentally broken at the loss of everyone they held dear. 
 
 I have no choice but to go with them but I have no idea how we will survive the week, let alone the years of sickness and famine that must be coming.
