Eve-
"No, don't go. Momma. Please!" She cried.
A small girl could be seen hovering over her mother's body, tears falling from her eyes onto her mother's cold skin. The girl had sadness in her eyes, as well as the tears that flowed freely. Sobs racked her body, and her arms were wrapped around her now-late mother. Small gasps escaped her mother's body, and the woman would open and close her jaw. The girl would cry harder, and move away from her mother's head. Her mother would slowly raise her arm, reaching out for the teary-eyed blonde. The girl would push it away. The soft clatter of an object could be heard when the girl picked up the kitchen knife, slowly bringing it up. Her mother, or what was left of her, would watch with clouded eyes as the girl brought it up to her forehead. Her mother looked directly upwards when she rested the tip of the blade on her mother's forehead. The girl brought the knife down, driving it through her mother's skull. There was a squish noise, and the girl would cringe, closing her eyes for a moment before breaking into cries again, laying by her mother's corpse.
Geo would be woken up by Eve. The man sat next to the crying girl, and put his arms around her. "It's okay. It was just a dream." He whispered, rocking her gently. She sobbed into his chest, her teddy bear curled up in her left arm, her other gripping him like her life depended on it.
George-
Geo was woken by sobbing, and sat up slowly. He looked around, noticing that Beth was absent. Sometimes Beth did that. She'd be there the whole day, fixing up people who were injured or reading one of her books, or making food for the three. But come nightfall, she'd disappear like a ghost on a windy night. One time, about a week after they had joined up together, he had woken and she'd been gone. To say the least, he had freaked. He had armed himself with his ivory-coloured knife, leaving the comfort of the ambulance and setting off to find the girl. They had parked a little while away from the woods, so immediately he had thought she'd followed a sound, or had left the ambulance for something to go scampering off into the dark. He spent hours searching for her, eventually giving up, thinking she'd become just like the others that walked in the night. He went back to the ambulance, mourning his last friend and eventually falling asleep. But in the morning, she was there. He woke up to her painting her toes, humming a soft tune. He told her, he thought she had died. She apologized. He asked where she went. She didn't reply.
After a while he got used to it, expecting that in the night she'd disappear to wherever she went. She always came back, though. After a few weeks he stopped asking where she went to, and just accepted that she needed her space.
His attention came back to the girl in his arms. Her sobs had quieted down, and she was leaning against him, her eyes closed. He waited there a few minutes before leaning down and kissing the top of her head, gently putting her back in her bed and pulling the blankets over her. Then he tucked himself in and went back to sleep.
Beth-
Flashback/Beginning:
Beth sighed, taking off her reading glasses and putting them on her desk. She was working at a university part-time until she got her feet back on the ground. The hospital in which she worked had just been declared unfit to serve, because of some pesky inspector wanting things the hospital wouldn't give. The hospital would be out for two months while fixing these 'problems', and its employees, and its patients would be out of commission until it was fixed. She was working on a lecture to give to undergrad students. She was frustrated after working a full night shift, trying to write up something that was at least legible so others could actually learn from it. Writing was not her strong suit. Neither was speaking in front of a crowd. She ran her hands through her hair, yanking on it a bit. She felt like she was back in high school, writing essays for teachers who didn't appreciate that she was probably smarter than the whole school combined. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but she was, in fact, smarter than the snobs who worked there. She had hated her teachers, because they were always trying to undermine the students as much as they could. Probably years of working in the same stuffy classroom with the same stuffy teenagers had pushed them over the edge. Whatever the reason, they made it clear she knew how much they hated her. She didn't exactly make it easy on them, either. When they were teaching the class something, she'd butt in every now and then explaining why that theory was wrong or that principle didn't apply. She was only fifteen and she was already a junior. I guess that's what they hated most. They knew she was ahead. They knew she'd go on to higher levels of learning and better jobs while they'd be stuck there. She snapped out of her reverie and groaned, pushing away from her desk. She'd get it done tomorrow. Right now, she needed to go home and take a nice, long bubble bath. Maybe with lavender. That always calmed her down. She picked up her purse and distributed her reading glasses inside. She walked into the hall and saw the other members of faculty huddled around the TV. Some news show was on, a pretty brunette sitting at the desk with papers in her hand. "Oh!" She walked up behind them. "Don't watch that. It'll only rot your brain." Her nose scrunched up. She sounded like her mother. "El, come here." One of them motioned over to her, and with a sigh she walked to where she could get a clear view of the screen, that currently all twenty-six members of the third floor were watching so intently. The screen cut to a man, a microphone in his hand. "Reports are coming in about a group of mad citizens turning on each other." Beth would frown. Turning on each other? 'This wasn't another domestic disturbance, right?' She asked herself. Her question was soon answered. "Witnesses say that the affected were turning on each other, and biting them." The man looked into the camera like he was about to tell the world's biggest secret. "And it's spreading." By now Beth was convinced this was just another big media scare. Safe to say, she wasn't exactly confident in her country's choice of interesting news. But for a few seconds, she kept watching. The man straightened up, the wind blowing around his hair. His gaze cut to something right over the cameraman's shoulder. He backed up, his face contorting a bit in confusion. "What is-" His eyes widened, backing up. He let out a shriek, and the camera turned to show a somebody running towards them. The person's face was deviant, intended for the two in the middle of the street. It ran straight for the man with the camera, and the camera was dropped when the man pounced. The camera fell, its image cracking up a bit before becoming clear again. It showed the news reporter running, and several more people tackling the man, one biting into his neck. He screamed out, and the group around her gasped as the footage continued to watch the man be devoured by the hungry beings. Then something went after the camera, the feed going dark. The crowd that was grouped around the TV backed up a bit, whispers spreading throughout them. Someone switched the channel, and there was a static on that too. They flipped it again, and an image came across. A person huddled in an office with a camera. "If you're seeing this, then you already know what's happening. They're everywhere. They killed my coworkers.." A few tears fell from her eyes, and she hastily wiped them away. "A secretary. She was the first one in here. She came in during a news broadcast and started attacking people. She bit them, and-" She stopped, closing her eyes for a few seconds and shaking her head slightly. "Then they changed too. I don't know how it happens, but it's like a virus. One bites another one, and they turn into something else. Something bad." She stopped talking, and the sounds of screams could be heard from her position. "If you find one, or rather if one finds you, run. Get away. Go somewhere, arm yourself. Because they will find you. And they will kill you. My name is Marai Kellis. Remember me." She raised a gun to her forehead, closed her eyes, and pulled the trigger. The camera dropped and laid on the floor, and only then could Beth see the badge on the woman's shirt. Then growls filled the room of her office, drawn to the sound of the gunshot. They found her body, and dug in.
Beth shaded her eyes, cringing and grabbing the remote, shutting off the TV. "No, No. This isn't happening." She said, putting her fingers on the bridge of her nose. "It's all a scare. Some stupid April fools joke." But it wasn't April, and it wasn't a joke. Then, noises came from the end of the office hallway. Scratching, tapping. Little scuff noises. Then a face emerged. And then two. And three. Two out of the three had blood running down their faces and on their hands, streaks on their clothes. Then she saw the third. The third's stomach was cut wide open, blood running and intestinal organs falling out with every step she made. Beth's eyes widened. No human could survive that. Certainly not survive that and keep moving the way the woman did. Her coworkers broke out into screams, and the things down the hall broke into attack mode. Beth was among one of the screamers. Well, not initially, but when the first started attacking others, she made a beeline for the closest door she could find. Locked. Locked. Locked! She turned to look behind and saw the woman advancing, some of her organs spilling out and tripping her. She fell, and Beth ran. She ran, coming up on a dead end. The woman had gotten back up, and had started walking closer to Beth. This time, she wasn't running. She was walking. Slowly advancing. Like it was a game. Like she was the cat and Beth was the mouse. And we all know who wins there.
Screams emerged from the rest of the building, and the woman turned her head to look back, her attention captured for a minute. Beth took that as a sign to run up to the nearest door and jiggle the doorknob. And to her luck, it opened. She ran inside and closed the door, locking it. The woman turned back and grunted. Beth could imagine that if this was a book, the woman would be saying something like, 'Where did my prey go?' But this wasn't a book. And it sure as hell wasn't funny. Beth turned around, looking around the room. She saw a chair and grabbed it, putting it underneath the doorknob. The jingling of the knob alerted the woman's attention and she ran up, well, not up, but right at it. A large thump could be heard, and Beth backed away. It seemed to be a small supply room. She searched through the cabinets, looking for something, anything, to arm herself. Just like the woman said. 'Yeah, just before she died.' A voice inside her head told her. She pushed it away. "Now is not the time to be going crazy, alright?" She asked herself, sort of rhetorically. She found a scalpel, and sighed in relief. Although she didn't know what she could do with it. It wasn't like physical injuries stopped them. Except for tripping them. What even were they? Certainly not human. At least she didn't think so. Thump. Beth stared at the door, a few moments passing by. Thump. She held her scalpel out in front of her. Thump. Thump. Thump. THUMP. The knocks got more frequent, to the point where she knew that there were more than one. She turned back to the cabinets and started rushing through them. A scalpel wouldn't help. Certainly not with more than one. She saw tongue depressors, boxes of gloves, even a bandage box or two. She looked in the bottom cabinets and found a large duffle bag. She picked it up. Okay, maybe not what she was expecting. But maybe it could help. If she got out alive. She pulled out a drawer and found needles. She put a large box of them in the bag, throwing whatever seemed useful from the drawers in. She looked around and rushed over to a small refrigerator. She opened it, smiling at what was inside. Medicine, pain relievers and more. She dumped it into the bag, rooting through a few more shelves. She found antibiotics and pills, to which she put as much as she could in the bag. She didn't even know why she was taking these things, just that impending doom was nearby and hoarding was satisfying her OCD. She added random stuff, anything that seemed useful. Medical kits. Useful. Respirators, useful. Standard condoms? Not useful. She, after finding that the bag was heavy by now, put the bag down. Now that her OCD was satisfied, she looked around trying to find an exit. If she didn't, she would just shoot herself up with whatever was in one of the vials she threw in her bag and let herself choke on her own vomit. That was a better choice than being one of them. 'No, no,' she told herself. 'You are not going to die.' She sat back, looking around the small room. She checked the closets, small windows, heck she even checked for loose paneling in the walls. But to no avail. Then she spotted it. A small, grated vent. A vent big enough to fit her and the bag. She grinned, getting up on the counter. She used the scalpel to take off the screws and pulled herself up into the vent. She started crawling, and moments after she got a small distance away from the hole she heard a crash, following multiple groans coming from the small room.
The streets were chaos. People were running, screaming, children crying, some were praying to their gods. She hoisted the bag over her shoulder and started running. The first thing she found was an abandoned ambulance, the keys still in the ignition. She checked to make sure that there were no 'surprises' inside before she got in and started it up, rushing past the groups of things that defied all laws of nature.
She got home after a few minutes of panic-driving, rushing into her home and taking comfort in the solitude for once. One thing was evident. She needed a weapon. And she knew exactly where to get it. When she was ten, her grandfather bought her a sniper rifle. "Woah," Her parents had said. "Dad, she's only ten. She could blow her foot off with this." Her grandfather chuckled. "There's no ammunition in there. Plus, I'll teach her how to use it. She can already use a huntin' rifle, and she's a pretty darn good shot too." After promising not to let her kill someone, her parents calmed down and left young Beth alone with her grandfather. "When I was around nineteen, I enlisted in the war. They taught me a lot, including how to use a sniper rifle much like this one. One day, there's going to be a war. A worldwide war. And I want you to be ready." All through her childhood he taught her about weapons and the importance of using one only in the direst of times. And now, the time had finally come. She went to her bedroom and pulled the large navy box out from underneath her bed, opening the case and taking a glimpse at the large gun. There were several clips as well as multiple boxes of ammunition. She picked up the box, grabbing clothes and other items as well as food and personal things. She needed to get out of the city. She loaded the things in the ambulance, making her way downtown. Walking fast, Faces pass, and I'm homebound.
Beth took a deep breath, getting up from her position on a fallen tree and walking past the trees that seemed to go on forever. Thirteen. Thirteen of
them and not
one resembled her sister in the slightest. She guessed that was a good thing, maybe that meant her sister was still alive. Maybe it meant she wasn't one of them. Or maybe it meant that she had left long before Beth got there. The worst part was, she didn't
know what it meant. She just hoped that her sister was alive and kicking. She really hoped that. As she made her way back to the ambulance and slipped inside, she took a moment to look over her two companions in the back. Eve was curled up with her teddy bear, gripping onto him. 'She must've had a bad dream', Beth thought to herself. She opened her backpack and pulled out a squirrel, taking out her knife and starting to skin it. Her nightly quests had taken on a new activity; hunting. Even though they had canned food, it was unlikely that they would have it forever. Hunting frequently and making jerkey out of the things she caught helped to keep their small stock of canned food up. If anything, they could trade food and water for supplies or other things. She cut the hide into little pieces, each with a piece of fur attached. She would dry these out and use them for fishing lures. She discarded the rest of the squirrel pieces, and set the meat in a small pan. She took out one of the empty cans and placed it down, stuffing some wood and dry grass in it. After she had an adequate amount of fodder and kindling packed in the can, she took out her nail polish. She opened it up and dripped a few drops onto the kindling, closing it back up after the coral colour seeped through. She took it out near the ambulance, putting it on the road. Then she added some magnesium to it, and a few sparks. It lit quickly, singing the tips of her hair. She cursed under her breath at the singe, stabbing a stick through the middle of the squirrel meat. She placed the stick across the top of the makeshift fire, watching as the meat burned a little bit. She turned it every few minutes, resting her chin on her hand.