Bicycle
Kayli sits up and scrubs her eyes. The road stretches away from her on either side, empty, ribbons of heat dancing in the distance.
She doesn't know how she got here.
Her pockets are empty, so is her memory. The last thing she remembers is walking into the lab. She had vials of experimental serum, was supposed to inject the test subjects one by one and record the results.
No one else had been around, not even Dr. Rubin, which was not like him. He was always in the lab.
Everything after that is blank.
There's a bike lying next to her. She's never seen it before: a pink beach cruiser with a bright blue basket mounted on the handlebars.
She could ride it, try and figure out where she is, but that seems like a halfway measure. She's starving and feeling weak. What if she rides in the opposite direction of where she needs to go?
That could make a bad situation worse.
No, better to try something more effective.
The trees crowd up against the sides of the road, marching alongside as far as the eye can see.
Kayli rolls the bike out into the middle of the road and lays it down. Then she climbs up a tree until she's overhead.
It doesn't take long. The sound rolls ahead of the car. When it finally appears on the horizon, it throws off shiny reflections from the windows and black paint. It's an old style sedan, long and square, tires humming on the pavement.
As it draws within sight of the bike, the engine note changes when the driver lifts off the accelerator. The vehicle slows to a stop just ten feet from the bike. The driver's door opens and he gets out, a man in a black suit and tie, white shirt. His sunglasses hide his eyes as he surveys the area.
He lifts the bike up and rolls it to the side, coming directly under her position. His movements are slow and precise. He is wary for some reason.
She waits until he is beneath her perch. Then she drops.
He succumbs without a sound as Kayli sinks her fangs into his neck and begins feasting. Once she's full, she'll take that fancy car and figure out where in this world she is.
