Thread: The Day the Lights Went Out [Langschwert x Cal]

The sigh that slipped from between her lips was one of frustration. Bright aquamarine eyes were staring outside of the window with feigned interest. Somewhere in the distance she heard her father mumble and on occasion shout to no one and nothing in particular. He was doing that a lot these days. Catherine closed her eyes for a brief moment before dragging them into the direction her father was speaking from. An annoyed little sigh was brought forth from between her lips again as she saw her father pace around the kitchen, talking to himself. She caught broken sentences such as Told them it would happen. Wouldnt listen. With every passing day, there was less and less food. Less and less comfort. Less and less of the world she once knew. Her father was old by any standard, but that shouldnt have been an excuse for his bouts of sheer insanity. A few months ago or had it been a year by now? She did not know her father had told her and her sisters to keep an emergency bag at the ready. Just in case . Shed grown to hate that phrase. Just in case. . Nothing had prepared her for what came next, though. It was March the 14th, 2016. Her father shouted and screamed in the middle of the night, waking the young girls and their mother up from their comfortable, upscale city apartment. What happened next was a blur. She barely managed to grab her iPhone and iPad, those taking precedence over her bag, before they were all dragged out of their beds. She remembered driving for hours upon hours. Skyscrapers and malls turned into suburbia, suburbia turned into smaller cities, smaller cities turned into towns and eventually, even the small towns dissolved completely, until there was nothing left but wasteland. The cabin they were brought to had once belonged to her great-great-grandfather, or something, and it looked at least twice as old. Shed screamed. Protested. Cried and shouted. Nothing helped. The power went shortly after. The car was dead. There was no escape from isolation. Her fathers supposed salvation had become Catherines worst nightmare. All of a sudden, she had to grow up, something which she hadnt been told would happen so soon. Catherine turned 17 on March the 15th, 2016. The day the world went back to the stone ages within a blink of an eye. Without TV, Cath instantly turned to her luxury items, her trusted iPhone and iPad. She thought back on that particular incident. She reached for her phone, and found it dead. Her tablet was, quite suddenly, without power too. They simply didnt work, while they had been fully charged only seconds prior. The thought brought a crimson color of shame to her cheeks, as she remembered how shed thrown a fit, screeching at the top of her lungs. The hard slap of her fathers hand descending upon her cheek was enough to silence her. Her father had ventured out after the second month. He was gone for a fortnight, and came back with tales that made her blood run cold. The world had seemingly quickly descended into chaos. Every electronic device had stopped working in a blink of an eye, it wasnt just their cursed cabin. Food was in extremely short supplies, the contact to the outside world absolutely broken. People had started, apparently, to feast on each other. Her dad had started shaking at this point, his eyes welling up with tears. Catherine had not believed him, until that point. He described creatures that were once human, but had been taken over by demons. Diseased riddled, deformed, mutant-esque beings that feasted on human flesh. The country was apparently riddled with them, and her and her sisters were told that they should be happy that they lived in such a remote area. The Eaters, as they were called, would not get them there. Her father was so convincing, talked such a credible tale, that she was nearly inclined to believe him. Nearly. Still, her family remained in the cabin. Over the past months, Catherine had mellowed, but not by much. She was still fiercely headstrong and undeniably stubborn, that part of her youth she was unwilling to let go. Still, the events of the past months seemed so very distant. Nothing had happened for at least half a year, except for her father having the occasional fit. So, she rolled her eyes at the raving man and turned back to look out the window. What she saw made the scream die in her throat. Eaters. She knew it was them. She knew her father had been telling the truth the moment they saw them. It was a harrowing realisation. For a moment it felt as if the world really didnt spin anymore. The hideous creatures had managed to sneak up the land and into the garden. Finding nothing worthy of nutrition, they suddenly raised their heads to the cabin. They stared straight at Catherine. None of them moved. Her heart was frozen in her chest as the color drained from her face completely. Perhaps they couldnt see her if she didnt move? Thats a fucking Tyrannosaurus Rex, you idiot! She thought to herself. And yet she remained unmoving, as did they . Until her dad randomly threw a pot into a corner, the metal making a loud sound in protest. She didnt know who moved first, them or she. Her feet took her to the door instantly, bolting it shut with just a split second to spare. As the door was locked and bolted shut, they started pounding on it nearly straight away. Maniacal laughter sounded, horrible, haunting laughter that made the bile rise up her throat. Cath wasted no time in running towards her father, shouting for her mother and sisters at the same time. They were in the backroom sowing, sowing for god sakes. When they joined them in the kitchen they heard the noises of the Eaters, and they too froze. Catherine ran straight into the backroom and grabbed the large shotgun that hang from the wall. She heard a crash, indicating that they had broken down the door, and bolted back into the kitchen. Instinct kicked in, and she stood before her parents and sister, holding the shotgun in front of her and cocking it back. Three.. four.. five of the monsters slithered in, rags hanging from their gaunt, weathered bodies. Shed almost feel sorry for them. Had it been that they were not trying to fucking eat her and her family alive. The front Eater took a step forward, and she let out a shrill scream as she pulled the trigger. There was a puff of smoke and a sizzle, a small crack, and the pellets came rolling out of the casing and the barrel, trickling onto the floor. Somehow the gunpowder hadnt ignited, somehow, something went horrible wrong. Nothing happened. Nothing fucking happened. The Eater seemed to grin, a horrible hissing sound coming from him, although she could not really tell by the way his deformed face leered at her. She took a step back and pulled the trigger again, another, another, again, again, until she bumped into her parents. By then tears were streaming down her face. What use was a gun when it didnt work?! What use was it all. She was going to die. Dear God she was going to die here! Her parents were going to die. Her sisters. The Eaters came closer. Somewhere she heard a scream, not realizing it was hers.