Is it ready? she'd asked. My eyes rolled. Of course not!

Yesterday, my boss conjured a project in her jumbled head. She had no idea what she wanted but expected as if by magic, I would extract it from her brain and finish it in an hour.

Idiot.

She demanded I worked today, my day off, to which I said I had better things to do. I gulped. I'll be out of work Monday.

The server grunted, "Coffee?" Unblinking I nodded. My pupils lingered transfixed at a burn mark atop the metal table. Then they stared at the steaming cup put in its place.

It smells marvelous. My lids fluttered shut as I inhaled its nuttiness. 

Why I thought sipping java at 4 p.m. in one-hundred-degree weather would be enjoyable, was beyond me. Sweat pooled at my armpits and my forehead. The curls on my head a frizzed mess and I was dressed in clothes designed for air conditioning.

"Ha-ha, Babe!"

A chatty couple broke the attempted nirvana-state I hoped for. Inwardly I commanded they shut-it, but when I glanced over, my eyes rounded in horror. It was my ex and the new squeeze! 

Aww, shit! Why me?! My butt turned one-eighty on the chair. Shit. Shit. Shit. At a mile a second my heartbeat was at my throat. Don't look. Don't you dare!

My body wasn't listening. With a hand at my temple, the other covering the bottom half of my face, I turned as if it could disguise myself unrecognizable. I shifted in my seat, I looked like shit. They? Out of a magazine. Not a drop of sweat on them looking—delighted. 

I frowned hiding my face behind the menu.

"Aaaah!!"

The shriek would've ruptured my eardrums if I wasn't twenty feet away. Dishes smashed and shattered. I jumped from my seat and saw a waiter snapped a tourist's neck, then ripped the head off its body.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!"

Collective screams echoed. Chairs, tables, people, turned up and shoved to the ground. Mass hysteria took over. Everyone wanted out, but chaos stupidly blinded common sense and turned us insane. 

I shot out of there and pulled at every door. Then I found an unlocked gate. Securing it behind me, I crouched under a table.

"Hey." The strangled voice made me jump out of my skin. 

"Fu—! What are you doing here?!"

"Came for coffee..."

"Not that!" I said exasperated. "Under this table!"

"Um, the-they ate my date, I couldn't get to my car fast enough..."

"You never could, could you?" Even at an inopportune, apocalyptic event, bitter words vipered out me. "I didn't mean... I'm—"

Thunder crashed. 

I throw my hands in the air. "What now?!"

Sharp fingers flew over my mouth. "Stop! Do you want them to hear?"

On the other side of the gate, a handful of waiters chewed on raw flesh and various dead awoke, looking hungry.

I smacked the hand away. "Of course not!"

"I guess we're stuck together—again."

My heart sunk. "Hmph, I guess we are..."