Eric held out an open palm as the portly, rosey cheeked old woman placed both the receipt to his meal, and the according change within it. Smiling at her with a tip of his cap, he took it all, left hand grasping the brown paper bag while his right one stuffed the eighty-or-so cents in his jacket pocket along with the receipt. "A pleasure, Margey." he dismissed himself with a blatant wink. Margarette couldn't help but laugh nearly outloud at Eric's clownishness, although despite how he teased, it was cute in a way, "Oh, child, please. Now you go on and enjoy that, you hear?"

"Will do. See you here tomorrow at noon, like always, right, sweetheart?" he smiled with a shaky finger pointed cheesily towards Margarette and she nodded with a smirk and a quirked brow, "'Course, hun.. 'course."

Eric laughed, "Alright!", turned on his heel and made his way back to his pickup, out through the backdoor of the diner. He threw the paper bag onto the already-cluttered passenger seat and revved up the engine, planning on scarfing down the meatball sub, chips, and Sprite while driving back the garage. He had a Toyota, a couple of Jeeps, and a Honda bike to work on, followed by him having to take an extra hour of his own time to buy a replacement part for an old boat engine, of all things. All in a day's work, apparently.

-~-

4:38pm

A pit stop at the local bar, was it all it was. All it should have been. He'd already taken the time to call up Fred and make sure everything was green on his side before taking a few hours off for himself with the local bourbon junkies of Raccoon City, not even taking time after work to change back into his street clothes. For all intents and purposes, this was one of the later areas of the city to be considerably trashed by the Outbreak, not that that really made a bit of difference. It was all going to Hell no matter what happened or when.

Kendo's was scheduled to take the day off for tonight. It would be locked tight, but Eric, like the other two who made a living there, had the keys to the whole shop just incase. All day since he'd downed that meatball sub earlier he'd been feeling a rough, cool chill running down his arms and back. He had an overbearing feeling of fright and uncertainty, but not enough to alarm anyone, not even himself. Something just wasn't right, and it wasn't the sauce in his lunch that was giving him that queasy feeling, and he knew that.

But like all others who may have felt something odd was up, he simply brushed it off and took another deep swig of his beer. The bar was a tad emptier than usual, albeit the staff was intact for the evening. Besides that, there was a cop, and old security guard, someone who looked like a plumber, or a mechanic from some other nearby automotive service joint. In either case, he didn't recognize the long girly hair. There was also a little asian girl, but part of him just thought the hops in the beer had hit him too hard too early. No way someone that young would be in here.

It was around this time that Eric decided that things around here were well dead and gone, although maybe not as litterally as it would be in just a few moments time. He stood up, paid his tab, grabbed his jacket, and banked out through the back door as he'd done with the Diner earlier that day. Perhaps part of him thought that if he left a public area the same way twice, then maybe this uneasy feeling would cancel out. Unlikely, though, as Eric didn't much believe in stupid magic or superstitions. Main reason he still hadn't married, he thought for a moment with a laugh, beer bottle still in one hand.

He let the door swing shut harshly behind him as he felt for his keys and found his red pickup beneath the dimming sky and clouds above. As he neared it, though. He caught a glimpse of some extra red over the front passenger window of his vehicle.

"Well.. ain't that the truth.." Eric murmurred to himself as he examined the apparent.. "blood" stain all over his damned truck. He heard a baratone growl coming from the opposite side of his vehicle, and clutched the neck of his beer bottle, readying it as a weapon if necessary. He methodically circled around the front half of his truck and held the bottle defiantly at one side, "Alright, you lousy son of a *****... jigg's up."

Under the dim streetlight, it was a mere silhouette. And it was the single most terrifying thing he'd ever seen. He knew instantly, from his gut feeling prior to this alone, that this just wasn't right. Right arm held way back against his side, left arm half-curled, it's hand clawed up and bleeding all over the sidewalk. His knees buckled, feet pointing in all sorts of odd directions. His neck looked snapped, and his face, glimmering under the light was wretched looking. His clothes was all torn up and matted with blood, and he could smell stale garbage from eight or nine feet away; the stench of death and putrification. He heard another low growl, followed by a helpless moan.

Eric was frozen, and the only thing that seemed to function for nearly an entire minute was his heart, which was pumping so hard it was about to rip right through his jacket and bounce its way out of town, right over all those damned city-high walls they'd placed earlier. That was another thing that added into his fear, and yet, he remained moderately incredulous. Until what happened next, that was.

The ghoul's left leg totally snapped under pressure.

"OH!" Eric cried out, clasping his empty hand over his mouth in complete shock as he snapped back into motion. The thing didn't even flinch, with its vacant, blood shot eyes blankly staring in the general direction of where Eric stood, now using his only functioning, intact leg, and half of an arm to inch closer towards him like a starving old dog. Eric didn't know what to do, but he was not getting anywhere near that thing if he could help it. He tried to run around it, and was tripped as the monster suddenly gathered up the strength to fling its arms around and grasp one of Eric's legs. It instantly went in for a cheap bite, but all it caught was half a beer bottle across the temple and a workboot in its mouth. For the moment, it'd been subdued.

Eric quickly flew up off the curb, wiggling his beer-covered hand out of pure hysteria. It was as if he could feel cold blood in his very grip, and it was already driving him nuts. Just as he stood, he turned, and noticed a few dozen more of those things closing in on either him, the bar itself, or the other nearby buildings and shops. Not good. He hopped into his truck, revved up the engine, and kicked it into full gear and out of there. These things were all over, and the sooner he found his way home, the sooner he could help himself into a calmer state so that he could figure things out for himself. Unfortunately, though, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a large minivan flooring it from his right side. They'd both been looking to do the same; escape. Bad thing was, they both decided to run the same light at the same time. Oh, damn.