The Scarlet Effect (IC)

Ardent

your blood on my teeth
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Genres
Horror, Dark Fantasy, Modern
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Bree Serif
» THE SCARLET EFFECT


When a viral disease plagues the world and everything falls into ruin, two young individuals are inadvertently thrust into each other's paths to achieve what seems to be an impossible mission. Together, they must traverse dangerous lands, overcome undead enemies, outrun the law, and uncover a government conspiracy that seems to center around their very existence.

But they're running out of time. The virus is seeping into their system, slowly unraveling them to become one among the mindless horde of the infected.

Soon, they must face their worst enemy: themselves.

CHARACTER SHEETS
 
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Bree Serif
KELLEN ARMSTRONG
22 | Male

Sometimes, Kellen wondered if Jennifer truly were the right girl for him.

He still wanted to marry her. There wasn’t a trace of doubt in his mind that she was the only girl who could understand him in a way nobody else ever could. Yet, a part of him--a very persistent part that he desperately tried to ignore--told him it was not enough. That there were things he still held dear to his heart but could never bear expose to anyone, not even Jennifer, for fear that he would not be taken seriously.

Everything seemed to be going fairly well in his life, after all. There wasn’t remotely anything about it he ought to complain about. His girlfriend was good for him, even if she wasn’t perfect, but there were no perfect things in this world. He was earning a degree that would benefit him greatly in the long run and which he somewhat enjoyed, even if he wasn’t all too passionate about it in the way others seemed to be. Others dove into their passions head-first and aflame with ambition, but that was not necessary to live sensibly. Kellen was determined to live sensibly, bound to the ideals that his mother had brought him up with.

Yet, he couldn’t help the yearning in his heart for something more. He wanted to make a name for himself, to leave a mark in this world so great that the eons would find it impossible to erode his name and memory. He wanted to be more like his father, but more. Just like the heroes of Normandy: brave and battle-worn, true heroes of a kind most people would never dare to be.

But he knew he would break his mother’s heart, and even worse Jennifer’s, if he even so much as entertained the idea of serving in the Army. It was useless to think about it.

Presently, Kellen sat amidst the benches in the mostly empty Carmody Hall, engrossed in a book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. His reading glasses had slid so far down his nose that they were now precariously sitting on the very nub. If he noticed them, he didn’t pay them any mind. Nor did he pay much mind to the noise outside that seemed to be growing more urgent and hysterical with each passing second. Finally, the shrill screams had pierced through his deep concentration and he looked up, befuddled, and started making for the window to see what the commotion was all about.
 
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Margret Anderson
Maggie had finally gotten the opportunity she'd been waiting for, working towards for a better future. Only she felt like that opportunity was about to blow up in her face as she stared down at the test paper before her. A test, she thought she'd studied for, only to find it was about a bunch of other stuff she knew nothing about.

She clenched the pen between her fingers, sending a glance around the partly empty room, only a few other's remaining within as the test time drew closer to the end. She'd left her simple life for this disaster, what a mistake she'd made following her heart like this... She sighed down at her doom as she coloured in the last bubble a heavy weight lifting from her shoulders. If this was a bust then she'd try again, simple as that.

Gathering up her bag and the test paper, she made her way to the front of the room to add it to the other pile of papers other's had added. No longer distracted by concentration, Maggie finally became aware of the growing commotion outside the building, what had originally sound like a celebration now began to sound closer to terror. "Thank's..." She said in a distracted tone, making her way out of the room, drawn toward the scream's outside. Surely there wasn't anything that serious happening.

She stepped out of the room, a distressed looking student rushing past her, driving her back into the door she'd just exited. "Aye! Watch where you're going!" She shouted after them, before shaking her head in annoyance. This was the only part of the future she was too keen on, all the wild young people. Getting completely ignored, she headed down in the direction the student had come wanting to see what was going on.
 
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Bree Serif
KELLEN ARMSTRONG
22 | Male

There was a crash.

Kellen had barely reached the window when the glass broke. And through the splintered hole: a bloodied hand, clawing with an urgency that made the hair on his arms stand. The glass misted over with someone's breath for a brief second. Then, the mist faded, and there, clear as a vivid nightmare was the half-rotten face of what used to be a woman. The skin on her jaw seemed to have melted away or clawed out, so that half of her face bore a sinister white-red smile. Her eyes, though white and glossed over, seemed to be staring directly at him. It possessed a hunger, like a wild animal that had been deprived of prey and caged for so long. Insanity personified.

In his utter horror, Kellen could not move. Every inch of his body seemed to have turned into stone. Vaguely, he was aware of the screams, the frantic running of the people around him who had also witnessed what he had seen. But no matter how many times his mind told his body to run, he just couldn't. As if his brain had disconnected from everything else.

But the woman wasn't about to wait for him to act.

Soon, the glass collapsed under her weight, and she came crawling in--jagged pieces of glass on the windowsill be damned--and lunged at him. The last thing Kellen saw before the red flash of pain was her wild blonde hair, tinged red by the setting sun outside, and that skin--pale as a ghost, cold as a corpse, as rotten as the stench that emanated from its breath.

Then, the bite.
 
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Margret Anderson
Maggie was beginning to seriously regret her decision to inspect the commotion towards the other side of the building. Especially as more frightened student's dashed past her, uncaring of who was in their way in their rush to get away. She'd had 'Don't go that way' and 'turn around' shouted at her enough times to believe it was likely something she should be listening too.

Unfortunately for her, she was more stubborn then she was smart and the burning curiosity within her was far more urging then the nerves prickling down her spine with every frightened figure that raced past her. The scream's grew louder the closer she got, the running student's becoming far less though the amount of blood spilled became more noticeable.

The sound of shattering glass had Maggie rushing through the door's into the study hall, a cluster of scared students almost knocking her to the ground in their hurry to get past. That was when she finally discovered the horror that had befallen the campus. Or more accurately, the horror's, one glance and she could see the destruction the crazies caused, attacking defenceless students, biting them and ripping at them.

She tore her gaze away from the horror before her, preparing to make a run for it like every other wise person who'd already done so, when her attention landed on a complete idiot. Who just stood there as...What the hell where they? Zombie couldn't seriously be an option? Given the look of them however...She shook of the thought focusing back on the idiot in front of the broken window, just standing there as the woman crawled her way through the shattered glass lunging at his still form.

"MOVE!" She shouted, running across the room as the bitch sank her teeth in. Oh god! Don't be contagious! She silently begged as she raced across the room hoping she didn't get killed by this stupid fool. She slung her bag down from her shoulder, using the momentum to smash into the things head, causing a few rotted teeth to smash from her unhinged jaw. Wasting no time, Maggie kicked her off him grabbing at him arm. "GET UP, GET UP!!!" She said desperately, jerking on his arm, wide eye's glued to the groaning woman beside him.
 
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Bree Serif
KELLEN ARMSTRONG
22 | Male

It felt warm, but in a way that was simultaneously dreadful and frightening. The moment the woman bit into his neck, he could feel the blood seep out of his body, trickling down to his shoulder, down to his arm, down to a red pool on the ground. When he opened his eyes again, the woman was no longer on top of him. It was someone else: a girl, likely around his age, urging him to move. Kellen would not have been able to get back up on his feet had it not been for the girl's insistence; he felt strangely lightheaded, like that feeling he would normally get when he's been dreaming while running a fever. Kellen stumbled, but he let himself be led away, one hand pressed against the holes on his neck.

In time, they reached a room, which Kellen guessed must have been a classroom before all this chaos. Now it was just a mess of flipped over desks, scattered papers and bags, and frightened students hiding where they could.

Kellen collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily. What was happening? What had just happened? Where was Jennifer? He needed to find her, and soon. He tried to stand up again, but it was no use. He was shaking too hard.

"Please. Jenny--I need to find her," he said quietly to his savior, but he sounded almost like a desperate madman. A boy on the brink of death, clinging to whatever he could to make his last moments worthwhile.

 
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Margret Anderson
Maggie released his arm as they stumbled into the classroom, quickly slamming the door shut, dragging a desk in front of it for good measure, then turned the lock on the door. The last thing she wanted was the crazies outside forcing their way inside and attacking anymore people. She wished she'd been able to help more people escape them.

With a small sigh she stepped away from the door, almost tempted to tell other's to add to her sad little barricade but the guy she'd helped was on the ground, blood covering his neck and shirt...It must have been agony, being bitten by that thing...

"Woah! Woah, easy," She said, dropping down beside him, tugging off her t-shirt, leaving her in just her grey singlet as she pressed the scrunched up material to his throat. "You can't move yet." If at all, she couldn't tell how serious this injury was, but judging from his weak state...it wasn't good.

"Hey....hey calm down. I'm...I'm sure she's safe enough, you just need to stay still and stop talking so much...Or if you are going to speak, tell me where I can find a first aid kit," She suggested pressing a little harder against his neck. "Once you're all sorted out I'll help you find Jenny," She promised, glancing around at all the frightened student's around them. She was sure, once everything caught up with her she'd be in a similar state.

"Has anyone here been studding medicine...first aid, doctor anything that might help??" She Asked, raising her voice for them all to hear. Her gaze quickly flickering around to each of the frightened individuals. "Please, he need's help..."
 
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