Snippet #2696332

MIKA BLACKFOOT
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Regeneration & Healing
#771100 | Outfit

BEATRICE FOLLEY
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Sonic Scream & Push
#87758F | Outfit

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PRE-INFECTION
Cough. Cough. Cough.

Mika winced as she tucked her grandmother into her bed and pressed a hand to her forehead again to check her temperature. The woman just kept getting warmer and warmer as if her skin would soon combust. She stayed next to the woman's bedside, humming her traditional Lakota lullabies until she fell asleep with ragged, unsteady breaths. With one last glance Mika slipped from the room and closed the door as quietly as possible. She trudged out to the living room and plopped down on the creaky couch with a groan.

Mika had been up for hours now, since the early morning. Sickness had hit her household like a brick. It started with her grandmother; the shaking and the coughing, followed by vomiting and sweating. The fever set in after that. Next after her was Mika's second oldest brother, the middle child of the Blackfoot troupe, yet the one who acted most like a baby. Then came her mother. All three were sicker than dogs and not much seemed to be aiding them.

The creaking floorboards behind her made her turn her head to see her father and brother coming out from their own check ups with their assigned sick person. Mika's father chose the reclining chair as his refuge while her eldest brother, North, flopped down beside her and stretched out, throwing his legs over her lap. Her face crinkled in disgust.

"You know your feet smell worse than a dead raccoon that's been swimming in the dump for a few days." Mika waved a hand in front of her face as if to dispel the smell, but didn't bother moving his legs. She placed her hands on her brother's scrawny shins and looked at the two tired men. "They doing any better? Gram isn't looking so good and the sage incense is only making her cough more."

Mika watched her father's exhausted face crumple in a frown. He almost looked worse then when he's been drinking; eyes all veiny with dark circles underneath and a kind of sickly looking complexion. "Your mother's been coughing up some weird shit. All kinds of colours, you would think she swallowed a fuckin' rainbow." He grumbled.

North ran a hand through his long black hair and sighed. "Jay ain't lookin' that great either. Not even a Tylenol has helped fight whatever's going on. Plus he started groaning and saying crazy shit. Seems possessed or something." Mika sighed and rest her head back and closed her eyes. "Maybe we should run into town? Try some other medications? Maybe get an actual Doctor?" She asked.

Mika's father looked as if she had just told him the white folks had come to plunder their land and pillage their belongings for the second time in history. His leathery brown skin crinkled in disgust. "We Blackfoot people don't use the weird chemical shit the townies use. We stick to our traditional ways Mika, you know this. How many times must I tell you-" His rant was cut short by an episode of coughing. He looked like he was about to vomit. Mika and North both hopped up into action as if they had done this a million times. North ran and got the bucket while Mika tilted her father forward and patted his back. When he finished he leaned back and waved her hands away. "I'm fine. I'm fine." Mika frowned and touched his forehead, only to gasp and pull her hand away. "You aren't okay Dad. You have a fever too. Damn it all." She leaned down and flicked the lever that reclined the chair so her father was laying back. She threw a knitted blanket over top of him and walked to the door.

"Where you think your going?" Asked North. Mika rolled her eyes as she shoved her black hiking boots on. "To get modern medicine that may actually work." She grabbed the keys to their pickup truck and checked to make sure her plaid shirt was buttoned right. "Wait. I'll come too. I'm no help here, but at least I can grab us some more ammo for the rifles. We're running low on bullets and meat so I may as well get some now."

Mika sighed and looked at her father who just waved her off as if it was okay. He knew she was stubborn and would go anyways, better she have her brother with her too. "Fine." She groaned and head out. Her brother climbed into the passenger seat after throwing their hunting rifle in the back. She turned on the car and started the ride into town. "Don't forget to put on your seatbelt." She teased, knowing he had a knack for riding without one. He just cackled and began to entertain himself with the radio.

North, the annoying big brother he was, began to flick through all the radio stations just as he knew she hated it. "Would you just pick one!?" She laughed and shoved his hands. Her older brother always had a way of making her smile, even when he was trying to be obnoxious. North laughed back and stopped on a station that stated there was some urgent news.

"-Goverment officials have stated a nation wide emergency as the new critically acclaimed 'super vaccine' seems to have caused various side effects like fevers, vomiting and even signs of mental instability. If you see any cases of this please contact-" The radio suddenly burst into static. North turned it down and looked at the road in confusion. Mika looked back and forth between the radio and the road through her rainy windshield, keeping them on the road.

"What the hell do you think that was all about?" Mika asked curiously and looked over at him.

"I'm not sure. Maybe it has something to do with th- WATCH OUT!" North yelled as he suddenly spotted something on the road. Mika looked over just in time to see a person shuffling across the road in the rain. She screamed and turned the wheel as fast as possible. The truck veered to the right and flew right off the shoulder of the road.

Everything went black.

Mika woke again with her ears ringing and head pounding. She groaned and slowly opened her eyes in confusion. The scene laid before her was like a nightmare. Their truck was rammed into the front of a tree, the metal warping around the wood with smoke curling from the engine. Through the front shattered glass of the windshield lay North across the hood of the car, covered in glass and blood. To the side of him was what looked like to be a human, but instead of helping North he was eating him, ripping flesh from his body.

Mika didn't have enough time to scream because before she knew it, her own arm was grabbed by another human looking thing that's had climbed into her side window and was biting into her own flesh. A half sob half scream tore from her throat and it was too late by the time she grabbed the machete and smashed it into the things skull, it had already taken another bite. Mika grabbed onto the wounds and sobbed. She was losing a lot of blood... Slowly her vision started to go black... The noises went away... The smell was gone.

And Mika's consciousness was also gone.


POST INFECTION
Mika woke up feeling better than she had in a very long time. At least, she thought so? She couldn't quite remember the last time she felt anything. She couldn't quite remember anything at all.

Her dark eyes creeped open and she was left in the midst of a very odd situation. "What the fuck...?" She mumbled as she took everything in. She was in a truck that was rammed up against a tree that was pouring smoke from the engine. There was blood everywhere. The passenger seat was covered as was the hood of the truck and from what she could see, a trail of the same blood went off in a trail to the forest. Mika rubbed her eyes hoping this was all a dream and she would wake up and know where she was, but when her eyes opened again she was staring at the same weird shit.

Mika looked around for some sign that would remind her of what happened but there was nothing. When her eyes met the drivers mirror she froze in shock. Not only because she was covered in blood but because she didn't recognize the person who stared back at her. Mika took a deep breath and tried to focus.

"Don't freak out." She repeated in her head multiple times before she gained to courage to shove the door open and look down to see a dead body laying there with a machete sticking out of it head. "Holy hell..."

Mika jumped out and nervously walked around the dead body. Some sort of instinct in her made her reach out and grab the machete from the skull. The weapon felt familiar in her hand which gave her a bit of relief considering nothing else felt right. She scanned the area and then looked into the back of the trucks bed where she found herself a nice rifle. She felt like she would be needing that too. After stringing it over her body she carefully headed back towards the road to figure out what the hell had happened.

-x-x-x-

PRE-INFECTION
Like any average child, Beatrice Folley was at school when it all happened. She woke up, had breakfast with her parents, got ready for school and head out on the bus. First was the morning assembly and then she went to class to learn things she already knew. Beatrice, also known as Bee by just about everyone, was smarter than your average eleven year old. She could have easily skipped a grade, but she knew she would have to leave her friends and she didn't want that. Her best friend, Lydia, hadn't shown up that day. That was the first thing that should have told Bee something was wrong. Lydia always came to class.

School was boring as always and Bee finished her work sheets fast so she could go curl up with a story book in one of the beanbag chairs her class had. There wasn't a lot of kids in her class and the teacher knew her, so she could get away with reading while others worked. Today her teacher was acting rather odd though. She was shakier and looked nervous for some reason. When Bee asked, her teacher had just said she had a cold. Of course, adults always lied. Bee could tell she had because when she had gone to the bathroom after that she had heard the staff whispering about some weird people who were running around eating other people.

Recess was kept inside for the children's safety. No one else knew about the crazy people running around and Bee supposed thats how it was supposed to be, so she stayed quiet. It was after lunch and recess that parents swung by to pick up their children early from school. Soon enough more than half the population of the school was gone and the others that were left were all shoved on a bus to get dropped off at their homes; school shutting down early.

Bee sat in her seat against the window and looked out at the streets. Most of everything seemed normal, but it was the little things that confused Bee. Cars were missing from their driveways, house doors were left open, things were scattered about as if people had been in a rush. Her neighbourhood was always peaceful, especially since it was close to the police station, so this seemed a little odd to her.

"Beatrice dear, its your stop."

Bee looked out from the window to the front of the bus. She hadn't realized that the driver had pulled straight up to her home. She grabbed her yellow bag, hopped up and ran down the aisle to the front. The lady sitting there was the same bus driver as always; Cathy the sweet black woman who always sang and gave them snacks. She gave Bee a big smile and patted her shoulder. "Go right into your house, okay? Find your parents. No dawdling." Cathy smiled harder. Despite the smile, Bee could see that she was uncomfortable and nervous from the way her hands clenched the steering wheel and her eye twitched.

"Okay." She nodded and hopped out of the bus when the door opened. Bee did as she was told and ran right to her front door and opened it, walking in. The house was quiet, and Bee didn't bother taking off her backpack, coat or shoes as she walked into the livingroom in search of her stay at home mom. "Mom? Mommy?" She called and looked around as she walked into the dining room. There was a map of the county on the table and things scribbled on papers in messy cursive writing. She didn't bother looking because at that moment someone grabbed her from behind. Bee screamed and turned around, only to see her father there with a worried look on his face. "Oh... Daddy. Its you. Where's Mom?"

Bee's father flinched at the mention of his wife and shook his head. "Bee honey, theres some weird stuff happening right now. I don't want you to be afraid, okay? I just need you to do me a favour." Bee blinked in confusion but nodded. "Okay, what?" Her father grabbed Bee's shoulders and leaned down to her height. "I need you to go hide. Like we are playing hide and seek. You go hide and don't come out until Daddy calls you, alright?" Bee furrowed her brows and looked at her fathers worried face. He looked like he was going to cry. "But why-?" Her father shook his head and pushed her towards the stairs. "No questions, just go honey."

Bee frowned as she ran up the stairs and into her bedroom. It was bright yellow and blue and covered in all things a little girl should have. She was wondering where to hide when a crash came from downstairs, followed by yelling. Bee's eyes widened in fright and she quickly crawled under her bed to hide.

POST INFECTION
Beatrice didn't know how long she had been laying there when she heard shuffling come up the stairs. She had wanted to crawl out of her spot, but she knew her father would be mad because he hadn't told her to come out yet. Instead, she lay there and listened. The footsteps staggered about the bedroom beside hers and then the hallway before coming into her room. Bee couldn't get a good look, but from her spot the person in her room was not her father. From the looks of it, it was a woman. She had a ankle tattoo of a dolphin, one Bee swore she had seen on her neighbour before. Just as Bee was about to call out to her, blood began to drip on Bee's white carpet. A lot of blood.

Bee's eyes widened and she curled up in a ball and covered her mouth with her hands. She prayed for someone to come and help her. Bee closed her eyes tight and tried to stay quiet.

"Someone please help me... Mommy... Daddy?"



PRE-INFECTION
Thane yawned for the fifth time within that hour. It wasn’t his fault, driving back from the less entertaining country side to his home in the city wasn’t exactly a pastime of his. There wasn’t anything to look at unless you were into fatass cows, signs for nascar and the occasional stereotypical beat up old truck that tried to race past his Audi. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget all the corn, corn and oh yeah, corn. The first guy who had tried had a whole deer strapped to the top of his truck that was plastered in mud and John Deere stickers. And as if that wasn’t enough he had the oh-so-amazing ball sack hanging from the hitch off the bumper of his rust bucket. How hick could you get? He just had to suffer a few more hours in the car and then he would be back in his penthouse suite where nothing smelt like hay, motor oil, manure and incest.

Thane flicked on the radio. Johnny Cash. Brilliant. It seemed every time he clicked to a new station it went from Southern, to Hick to fucking Deliverance. He made a mental note to plow over anyone that shows up with a banjo. He had no plan to squeal like a pig. Not today. His mind was so focused on mutant incest and terrifying banjos that he almost missed a sign he drove past that greeted “Now entering Mullen, Hooker County, Nebraska. Population 508.” He tried to hold himself back, but couldn’t help laughing like a child at “Hooker County”. He couldn’t decide what was worse a Hooker County or the fact that he had more kids in his High School graduating class than this entire fucking town. The country side was really ridiculous. Even more so ridiculous was the damn radio stations. Songs about guys and trucks, guys and their dogs, guys and accidentally making out with their cousins. He turned his ipod on instead and ignored the terrible country songs.

The ride was smooth sailing for a while until his check engine light flashed on. Thane, being the idiot he was, decided to ignore it, thinking his Audi would be fine for a few more hours and then he would get it sent in for a clean and repair when he was back. Of course this didn’t happen though. His car made it a few more miles before sputtering and dying out in the middle of the road by the edge of town. Thane, not amused at all, climbed out of his car, giving it death glares and a couple swift kicks to the tires.

“Stupid piece of shit. How dare you die on me? Fuckin’ stupid car… I thought we were friends. Just for that I’m not buying you the new leather seats I was looking at.” He growled sarcastically and looked at the sleek black Audi that he had bought rather recently with his endless amounts of money. Perks of being a city business men with a rich father.

Thane slid on his sun glasses that cost nearly as much as his car that was doing nothing more than decorating the side of the state route. He glared at the town close by. He knew he would have to go see a mechanic there who probably was as dumb as sticks and didn’t even know what an import is. Thane was willing to bet money that whatever grease bucket scratched at his balls in Hooker County probably hadn’t seen a car from the new millennium. He looked down at his shoes and sighed. “What a shame. They were designer and now I have to walk through hick town dust.” He crinkled his nose in disgust and began to walk to the town. Oddly enough there wasn't many people around, then again… it was a very small town. Thane just wasn’t used to the lack of people, coming from the bustling city and all.

Soon enough Thane found himself at a nasty mechanic’s shop. Sure there was a closed sign half-ass-tacked to the door but he didn’t give two shits. Especially considering the garage was open. He could give the inbred hick an extra Benjamin, probably more than he makes in a month. It looked like a hurricane had ran through it. There was shit everywhere. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought there had been a struggle or this dude was the worst fucking mechanic ever. Not like Thane knew anything about cars aside from how to start it and where the gas pedal was. He looked around and knocked on one of the cars inside.

“Aye, anyone in here? I’d like to get my car and myself out of this town as soon as possible. It smells like beer, piss and homeless people.” He scoffed and looked around. No one seemed to be around. This didn’t stop Thane from walking inside more. He paused when he heard a low growling noise and against his better judgement, he began to follow after it. He found himself turning the corner to an office, only to recoil at the stench and scene in front of him. “What the fuck!?” He yelled as he watched a larger man eat a skinnier girl beneath him, and not even in a fun way. His teeth tore into her stomach, ripping her intestines out with each bite. He had known country people were fucked, but since when was cannibalism a trend? He felt like he had just stepped into The Hills Have Eyes. The fatty even looked deformed like those desert freaks.

The yell of surprise from Thane had gotten the man’s attention. He looked over, blood and flesh of the girl below him covered his face and fell from between his snaggle tooth. His eyes looked deranged and he growled from deep in his throat. Thane backed up. “Hey, I wasn’t going to jump in, I prefer prettier, less dead girls… One’s with all their bits and pieces.” That didn’t seem to matter to the man, because he jumped up and lunged at Thane. He was lucky he had fast reflexes and grabbed the closest thing to him, a bat, and smashed it against the man’s skull. The oil and blood covered mechanic fell to the ground, growling more quietly. Thane looked at the bat in astonishment, “Damn bat. You made him eat shit. We can be friends.” He muttered to himself and then looked down at the man who grabbed onto his leg.

“Ah, ah, ah.” Thane hissed and slammed the bat down onto the man’s head again, knocking him out. Self-defense, right? He oddly didn’t feel so bad about slamming cold metal into the skull of a man who had decided to take the term ‘eating a girl out’ to the next level. Thane, knowing he wasn’t going to be getting his car fixed anytime soon, walked outside again and looked around. He pulled his cell phone out and dialed the local police station, but got no answer. He would just have to walk there and report it. Thane, not knowing the town so well, ended up walking around in confusion, bloody bat resting on his shoulder. There’s no doubt he probably looked like some American Psycho fuck. He didn’t know why he had kept it, but he felt comfortable on his shoulder.

A bus that had crashed into a house was what made Thane stop. “What the fuck is going on here? Where are the cops? Is this normal here or something?” He asked to himself. “Come to Hooker County… And there are no fucking Hooker’s just cannibals and people who seriously need their license revoked.” He walked forward to see if everyone inside was okay. They were kids after all. He didn’t have a great conscience, but he still had one. He was stopped when a small girl slid out from the bus and began stumbling towards him. At least one was alive.

Thane walked closer. “Aye brat, where’s your family? What the hell happened?” He asked as he got closer. “Alright that’s close enough. This suit cost more than… Well anything in this town.” The little girl stumbled forwards slowly before her head snapped up at Thane and she lunged. He yelled, a manly yell of course, but a yell nonetheless. The little girls face had a large slash across her left cheek, exposing the bone of her cheek and poured blood everywhere. Obviously she didn’t seem to care about the pain, as she jumped at Thane, grabbed onto his leg and bit into his ankle, taking quite a big chunk of flesh along with her. Thane instantly kicked her back off of him with wide eyes. “Devil child!” He yelled and tried to cover his wound with his hand, but the little girl was trying to come at him again. He couldn’t bring it in himself to hit the girl with the bat, so he turned and ran as best as he could with a bleeding ankle. He was lucky the little minnie bitch didn’t get his Achilles tendon or he’d be fucked. The girl followed but Thane was lucky to have long legs that carried him further.

Thane quickly found refuge in the closest place he could find; a small drug store. He locked the door behind him and limped behind the counter. Luckily no one was there. He slid down onto the ground and set the bat beside him, hissing in pain at his bleeding ankle. “Fuckin’ cannibal hicks.” He took his time to check it and wince at the nasty wound. “Fuckin’ demon child.” He had to clean it and cover it or get to a hospital. It never happened though, because before long Thane felt hot and woozy, and could barely keep himself sitting up. Soon enough his consciousness diminished and he slumped against the counter, out like a light.

POST INFECTION
Thane groaned as he woke up. He felt like shit and his ankle was on fire. The first thing he thought when he opened his eyes was, “Where the fuck am I?” He had no idea how he had ended up laying in the middle of a drug store. Had he been partying to hard and ended up here? Where was he? He tried to scratch at the recesses of his mind. “What the fuck did I get myself into last night?” What had he done last night? But it seemed the harder he strained he gave himself a headache. It was like grasping at straws.

With every try he seemed to just get more questions. It felt like all his memories were slipping away as he tried to recall them. He tried to grab a hold of anything. His job? No. Where he lived? No. His name… Easy. He was… His brows furrowed with frustration. “Seriously!? Not even my name!” Thane slammed his hand against the counter before he looked around for any sort of clue. With a spark of an idea he patted down his own body to see what he could find. Just a cellphone, a pen and some credit cards. He felt something tingling on his chest and looked down to see a set of dog tags laying there against his skin. He picked up the tags and looked at them. For some reason the metal tingled against his skin.

“Thane Rutherford.” He murmured. “What kind of name is that!?” The tags also went on to say he was in his late twenties, he was an Atheist and was blood type B negative. That was the extent to what he now knew about himself. Other than his ankle was killing him. He looked down to see the bleeding wound and winced. How the hell had he gotten that? He would find it out eventually, he was sure. But for now he had to bandage himself up before he got infected and had worse problems than his current identity crisis.

Since he was in a drug store, he found the supplies fairly easily. He cursed rather loudly as he disinfected it with alcohol and proceeded to wrap his ankle in bandages. He also took it upon himself to pop a few good pain killers he found. No one was around to care it seemed.

After a few minutes of contemplating what to do in his amnesia’d state, Thane decided it would be best to go ask someone what was going on or if they somehow knew him. Instinctively he grabbed onto the bat that he found beside him and used it as a slight cane as he limped to the entrance of the store. He caught a look of himself in the window of the pharmacy and smirked. “Well at least I’m handsome.” He smirked and then shoved the door open to walk out into the new world.