Pre-Infection
Marianne was applying the last of her makeup when she heard the familiar rat-a-tat-a-tat that signified that Aru had arrived. Marianne smiled to herself. Aru really was like her son and she was happy that he included her in his life. He didn't have to come by here and have a meal with her. He was a sweet kid and there were times where she wondered if he came by out of pity or if he really saw her as a mother to. Regardless, she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. The blond set her make up down and hurried down the stairs of her quaint little home and opened the door for the teenager.
"Good morning Aru. You are here a bit early." she greeted as she stepped aside.
Aru gave her a small bow as he came into the house, his hood falling forward over his dark hair. "Morning Mom. Chichi and Haha are at work so I decided to come over here. I have so much homework!" he said as he showed her the books he had brought over from his house. I have calculus, anatomy, and English homework, but I do like anatomy best."
"Good! I suggest you do the stuff you don't like first. Then you'll get it out of the way and then you'll have anatomy as a treat to clear your head. Go sit at the table and spread out your stuff."
"Okay," he nodded as he hurried to the kitchen table to get himself situated.
Marianne watched the boy a moment, smiling and aching. She remembered when her son and Aru would sit at the table together and do homework or just talk. Their laugher had always brightened up her day. Marianne pushed her hair away from her face, various bracelets clinging against each other at the movement. She walked over to the table and ruffled Aru's hair, earning a 'hey!' for the trouble. "Did you already have breakfast?"
"Yeah. I am good."
Marianne went to her coffee maker then and started that up while she fussed to get some breakfast for herself. Ugh, she needed to go to the grocery store. She was running out of edible food. Unless she wanted to eat a block of cheese and creamer for breakfast lunch and dinner. She did have some eggs, so eggs it was! When her breakfast was ready, she sat at the table across from her Asian son as she liked to refer to him. She had her black mug of coffee in hand with a poorly crafted white cat and the scrawled words 'Number one Mom' on it that her son had made for her a while back. She sipped her coffee, more milk and creamer than coffee, in relative silence, not wanting to disrupt Aru's studies too much.
"Hey Aru, I am going to go into the garage to work on some cleaning. If you need me, call me, all right? And when you are done, we'll go shopping and maybe hang out somewhere."
"Sounds good," Aru answered with a smile. Aru watched Marianne head into the garage before he went back to his studies, pencil tapping on the notebook as he worked through the reduction assignment for Chemistry. He sang to himself as he worked on the problem. At least until something caught his attention. It had been distant at first but more and more a heavy breathing noise was interrupting his thoughts. He frowned and looked up and tilted his head to the side trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. And was that a growl? He got up from the table and headed outside as he searched for the noise. Had the neighbor's dog got all tangled up again? He went around the house towards the neighbor and the sound was getting louder. "Mr. Anderson? Fluffy?" As he reached the short fence, he rested his hands on the blunt tips and leaned over to see if the dog was stuck in the space between the fence and the dog house. His deep mocha colored eyes settled on the dog's leg kicking but it looked like only its hind legs were behind the dog house. Was the silly thing dreaming? He could hear the growls and he chuckled.
Aru pulled himself over the fence and moved to go around the dog house to wake up the dog but stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes wide. There was blood everywhere in the grass and painting the side of the dog house. Fluffy was lying in the grass giving soft whimpers as someone leaned over the dog. It was quite evident that the blood was the dog's blood and the person was eating out of its side. For a moment Aru was struck dumb. He'd never seen anything like this except in horror movies. His mind was blank and he didn't know what to do. His heart was hammering in his throat and he felt claws of fear crawling down his back. He took a shaky step back trying to be quite but as he tried to shuffle back, he kicked the chain that kept the dog in the yard. The growling stopped a moment as the bloodied human looked up and stared at Aru. In a second it started to growl as it came rushing towards Aru.
"AHH!" Aru cried and shuffled back before finally turning and running. He jumped over the gate but the creature was on his heels. He tried to run behind the house to get into Marianne's back door but skidded to a halt when another one of those things rounded the corner. The creature saw him and immediately ran towards him. Crap! LUKA!" he screamed as he tried to run back. He barreled over the first creature but the other one quickly caught up to him and grabbed at Aru's hood. Aru stumbled with the creature on top of him. He struggled but the thing bit down on his shoulder, earning another pained scream from Aru. Aru could hear screams from various places in the neighborhood and saw people and creature running. He rolled with the thing and managed to kick the one that tried to join the creature already at his shoulder. The biting one tried to claw at him but his jacket helped deflect the thing's claws.
Marianne didn't know what was going on outside her home as she organized some of the things she had in her boxes but she herd Aru scream her name. Marianne's blood ran cold when she heard that sound. She dropped her box, uncaring if its contents broke, and rushed up the stairs. She grabbed her Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mmout out of the drawer she kept it in and rushed into the kitchen. Aru wasn't there. "Aru! Where are you!?" she cried.
She heard a muffled cry and rushed outside and to the side of her house where she saw Aru struggling with two people. Marianne didn't even think twice. She aimed her gun and fired. She hit the first thing Aru was keeping at bay in the arm. It turned towards her and she fired another shot into it in the chest when it got closer to her. The creature flopped onto the ground and she ran to Aru then and kicked the second one until it let go of Aru and then she fire another shot into its head. "Aru! Are you okay?" she asked frantically and looked at the throbbing red bite on Aru's shoulder. Aru winced and shrugged away from her touch. It was obviously very tender. A sharp pain erupted in Marianne's ankle then and she cried out, stumbling and gripping Aru's arm. She looked down to see the creature she had shot in the chest growling and biting her ankle. She turned her gun and shot at it a two more times, one time getting it in the head. At that point the thing finally stopped moving.
"What the fuck are these things?!"
Marianne turned to see a couple more of the creatures running towards them. "RUN!" Marianne rushed Aru towards his parent's house where she knew they had a cellar. She was very happy that they had just recently invested in a bullet proof door for the cellar in exchange for the rotten wood one. The two of them rushed towards it and Aru yanked open the cellar door and hurried inside. Marianne heard the things right behind them. The two managed to get into the cellar and yanked the doors closed before the creatures got to them and used the interior lock and chain to bolt it. Aru lit the candles in the cellar as tears filled his eyes.
"W-What's happening? What about my parents?" he asked. He was beginning to sway back and forth. Was he passing out?
Marianne hurried over to him to catch him before he toppled over. "Everything is going to be okay. I am sure they are safe. We'll go look for them when whatever this is passes," she assured him. She was starting to feel woozy to. She held onto Aru but it wasn't long before the both of them fell to the ground and went unconscious.
Post-Infection
Marianne groaned as she slowly woke. Her head was pounding. She slowly sat up, her golden locks falling in her face. What the hell was going on? She looked down at herself and saw the various chains on her pants and the bracelets. She touched the feather tattoo bracelet around her writ and the scar that it covered and frowned. She couldn't remember getting that. Not the scar and not the ink, though it was pretty. Then she saw the words 'never look back' on her arm. Was she into tribal stuff or something? what else would describe the feather on her wrist? She heard a moan and looked over to see an Asian looking boy moving. She backed up a bit and watched as he woke. The boy blinked at her and rubbed his eyes. He looked young. "W-who are you?" she asked.
"Who am I? I... I am..." Aru frowned. He didn't know who he was. That was disconcerting. Aru patted himself down but he didn't have any ID on him. "I don't remember..." he answered with a frown. "Who are you?"
Marianne opened her mouth but she too stuttered. She patted herself down much the way Aru had and took out her wallet. A flash of... of something touched her mind but she couldn't quite grasp what it was. She took out her ID then and another flash and nothing. She traced the letters of her name. "Marianne Colleen," she answered then. Marianne. There was something about that name she didn't quite like but she couldn't remember what it was. "Do you remember what happened? Where we are?"
Aru just shook her head. Marianne sighed as she got up and stumbled a little. She looked down at the bite mark on her leg. Ugh. That wasn't fun. And it stung. She saw a gun then and picked it up. Another flash and this time she saw herself shoot at bloodied creatures and then the image was gone. "I think we were attacked. Stay close to me. Maybe we can figure out what is going on."
"Okay. Thank you." Aru got up and dusted himself off. He winced and looked at the bite on his shoulder. What attacked them? That looked like a human mouth. He looked up, his dark hair falling into his face. Marianne was already heading up to the cellar door. He pushed his hair away and hurried after her. He swallowed dryly, a bit nervous about getting out of what looked like relative safety considering they had been attacked.
Marianne unlocked the door as the image of her locking it came to mind, and very slowly opened it to peer outside. A blast of cold air reached them but nothing alarming just yet. Marianne got out of the cellar and helped Au up as well before she shielded her light blue eyes to scan the scene. There was blood on the street and covering some of the walls. It made her a little queasy. She didn't want to know where that came from and what caused it.
"Well fuck me..." she murmured.