Beginnings

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*OCpocalypse* • All Chapters Here

Sofi could barely remember a time when this old railway station was boggling with people, all with places to go and things to do. Now it was but a somber, gray, and empty space haunted by the souls of the once living. Ember City Grand Station, once the inter-regional railway station connecting to all nearby cities, was now desolate, creating what seemed to be a silent and peaceful environment, even. The sunlight beamed in through the station’s grand windows and naturally lit the interior of the building.

Gazing over the ledge of the second floor, Sofi quickly scanned to make sure the bottom floor was clear. No sign of other scavengers or those… things. With a sigh of relief, Sofi cautiously made her way down the rubble and remains of the second level ledge, which had crumbled down and made an incline, allowing for easy access to the second floor. From what Sofi noticed as she scaled the building, it was the only easily accessible path.

It was vital that Sofi remained relatively quiet, or else she would be swarmed by those monsters. She didn’t know what they were, but they seemed to reanimate after dying or being killed. They carelessly roamed around all of Ember City, without proper direction. All they really cared about was eating the brains and viscera of just about everything, especially the living.

Sofi gripped the inclined floor as best as she could, making sure she didn’t slip. Injury was the last thing Sofi wanted in these conditions. As she slid down, there were some small bits of rubble that slid down with her. Somehow, Sofi had a feeling that the surface wasn’t exactly stable, but continued to mind her business and get down safely. There was a large and sudden rumble beneath Sofi when she was about to jump off and onto the first floor.

A large crash sounded inside the overreaching silence in the abandoned station. Sofi covered her ears as she landed somewhat smoothly and the remains of the destroyed second level ledge had crashed down. The incline that once connected the first and second levels was now completely destroyed and in pieces, lying behind Sofi. Opening her eyes and removing her hands from her ears, Sofi slowly turned around to see a large cloud of dust and rubble.

*I didn’t think I was that heavy…* Sofi thought to herself, almost in an amused manner, as she continued walking on. She knew that loud noises, especially one of that size and volume, would lure in all the nearby monsters. There wasn’t much time left. Sofi needed to find Emily and get out of there before things got worse.

Sofi remembered that Emily went to go check on the other side of the station’s enormous main portion. It was large enough that Sofi wouldn’t be able to yell, not to mention it would generate even more noise. She was quick enough on her feet that it wouldn’t sound like she was clanking her feet as she ran to the other end of the main building. Sofi panted, quickly running to find Emily, who was nowhere to be seen in plain sight. This worried Sofi, considering that they never strayed too far from one another, especially in large areas like the Ember City Grand Station. Normally, they would work together, but Emily wanted to branch out to potentially find more useful items in their findings.

“Emily?!” Sofi called out, gripping her machete tighter out of worry.

No luck. This side of the building remained quiet, but Sofi didn’t give up. She explored further into the darker depths. The entire second level was decimated and debris covered most of the entrances to other hallways and rooms on the first floor. One prominent opening Sofi noticed was a hallway terminal, closed down with a pull down chain door. The chain was cut and pried open, probably opened by previous scavengers. Neither Sofi nor Emily had the proper tools to do that kind of thing.

Sofi walked toward the door with her hand still hovering over her machete in case if anything jumped out in front of her. There was something eerie going on, but Sofi couldn’t exactly put her finger on what it was. She made it all the way to the hole in the chain door and was able to fit through it just fine, even with the large traveller’s pack on. Looking back through the chain door and into the main building of the station, Sofi noted how far she had come from where she originally was scavenging and was relieved that nothing had entered the building yet even after the large crash of the second level flooring on her side. Like the rest of the building, this new terminal hallway was dark, and unfortunately for Sofi, there wasn’t much support from the natural lighting outside. Perhaps for the first few yards, but most of it had little to no visibility.

Sofi sighed, as going into the darkness to search for her friend was the last thing she wanted to do, not to mention that both could be killed if they weren’t careful. Sofi didn’t want to think about what could’ve happened to Emily.

“Emily, are you there?” Sofi called out again into the darkness, but to no avail.

Sofi’s voice seemed to echo on forever, like it was a never ending tunnel. She knew it wasn’t the case and hoped that it wouldn’t have to come to her walking through the darkness. Sofi took out her flashlight, which she loaded up with fresh batteries she found on a previous trip, and switched it on. Several tingly chills ran down Sofi’s spine when she turned on the flashlight, lighting up the rest of the terminal. The floor was still relatively clear and clean in front of her, but as Sofi began walking further and further into it, she came up on loads of lost baggage, some opened, some destroyed, some probably as perfect as they were the day its owners left.

Clothing and items were scattered over the floor, as if a stampede ran through the hall and over all of the people who owned all this luggage. Sofi noticed a very distinct smell waft beneath her nose and as she walked forward with increased awareness and caution, she noticed it was the scent of blood.

Why was the floor sticky? Sofi looked down and she was walking in what appeared to be a dried up pool of blood. As she pointed her flashlight down the hallway even further, she could see that down the hallway, more and more blood was splattered across the floor and all over the walls, like a violent massacre had taken place. She noticed bits and pieces of flesh and viscera scattered among the blood. It was clear that a mess had taken place in this terminal. A rush of emotions flowed through Sofi, mostly ones of disgust and cringe. It didn’t help that the stench of dried, crusty blood was coupled with the sight of body parts scattered all over the terminal, mostof them half chewed. Sofi wanted to turn away, but it was so surprising that she couldn’t take her eyes off. Another part of Sofi felt guilt, horror, and sadness for those who did not make it in the first days of the chaos. It all happened so quickly and Ember City was hit pretty hard

Sofi quickly turned her head to a sudden banging in the distance. It came from her right, immediately drawing her attention and almost frightening her after what she just witnessed. It started off rapid, but pretty soon enough faded out a little bit as Sofi immediately pointed her flashlight in the direction of the noise. Sofi found herself looking at an emergency exit door, half spilled with blood of one unfortunate victim. Initially, Sofi did not know what to think of the banging, assuming it was the undead trying to force their way into the building somehow.

Then came the bloodcurdling scream that sent more chills down Sofi’s spine. It was high pitched, feminine even. Sofi’s eyes widened and her facial expression continued to show horror and her hands became even more sweaty. She noticed her hands had started to shake, as the light emitted from the flashlight began to move in small jerk motions. The scream replayed in Sofi’s mind, something she never thought that she’d ever hear in her life. Nothing good would come from a scream of that sort, or so Sofi thought.

Sofi used all her might to kick down the emergency door, which opened rather easily and slammed into the wall. The door led to a flight of stairs downward, where the banging had become increasingly loud and there were sounds of struggling. As Sofi dashed down the stairwell, she began heard some throaty and beast-like growling that overpowered the struggling grunts from what sounded like Emily.

As Sofi recognized the voice, she jumped down the last flight of stairs and into the alleyway beside the station and saw Emily, who was struggling with an undead. The two wrestled fiercely as Emily tried to keep it from biting her, but was in dire need of help. Emily’s pick was on the other end of the alley, bloodied presumably from stabbing the undead.

“Emily!” Sofi cried out, getting the attention of both Emily and the undead.

The undead stared at Sofi and let out a vicious roar, getting off from Emily, and stalked toward Sofi. Sofi almost froze, unsure of whether or not the undead would lunge at her or keep stalking as if it was ready to strike her. Quickly grabbing her machete, Sofi almost fumbled it out of her grasp, but managed to hold on as she prepared to strike the undead. It slowly made its way to Sofi and as it got closer, Sofi shivered with confusion and fear even more. It growled at Sofi with an intense thirst for brains and flesh in its eyes.

Sofi closed her eyes and yelled as she swung her machete into the undead, striking it deep into the head from the side. It fell down onto the ground like it was nothing and laid lifeless on the ground for a few moments, allowing for Sofi to regain her breath and make sure Emily was okay.

The undead opened its eyes again and grabbed Sofi’s ankle as she walked towards Emily. Sofi let out a loud scream and jumped. Its grip was tight on her ankle and no matter how hard she tried to shake the undead off of her, it kept holding on.

“Hang on, Sofi!” Emily said as she crawled to her pick.

Emily grabbed her pick and crawled over to the undead. She swung the pick with all her might, despite all the blood she lost and her injury, at the undead’s arm. Blood spilled out from the initial hit, much to Sofi and Emily’s dismay, but it was the start to chopping it off. The undead growled in pain and swung with its other hand at Emily, who swiftly dodged the attacks and swung several more times at the undead.

 The arm was severed after a few good swings and Sofi quickly took the severed hand off her ankle, chucking it away. Emily used the rest of her strength to strike at the undead’s head with her pick. She began losing consciousness because of her blood loss, but kept going. Sofi quickly came to the rescue once again, removing the machete from the being’s head and repeatedly hacked it.

The undead was, once again, dead. Both girls sighed with relief in between pants. As much as they wanted to lay down in that cramped alley and rest, they knew that a swarm was coming. The fallen debris inside the building and the loud screams from both of them were sure to have triggered more undead to come to the station.

“We can’t stay, Emily. We both know that there will be more of those… things here with all the noise we’ve been making. Or who knows, maybe there will be scavengers. You know it’s not good to take chances with other people.” Sofi urged her friend, who stayed on the ground.

“I want to, but there’s a small thing…” Emily turned to her side and revealed a bloodied broken leg.
 Sofi gasped and went on her knees. She checked her traveler’s pack for bandages and found a cloth, which was good enough. Emily winced as Sofi wrapped the cloth around her wound tightly. It stopped the bleeding for now, enough until they got back to shelter and could fix it better.

“You weren’t bitten, were you?” Sofi asked as she packed up and got ready again.

Emily shook her head, saying that the undead had clawed her and that they struggled down the emergency stairs. It was a hard fall, but nothing seemed to faze her. Sofi knew that Emily was a tough girl.

“I don’t know how well I can walk, though,” Emily said. “You’re gonna have to carry me.”

Sofi bit her lip, unsure of how well they would fare together in that situation, but there were no more options and Sofi certainly did not want to leave her friend behind. She looked up at the sky, noticing that it was getting dark soon. In the distance, she heard more spine-tingling growls and roars from undead that made it to the station. There was no other choice than to carry Emily.

“Okay, fine. Hold on tight.” Sofi said, putting her arms underneath Emily.

Emily grabbed around Sofi’s neck and held on tight. Sofi used what strength she had left to pick up Emily and keep her at a sustainable carry height. As the sun set in the distance, Sofi made her way through the empty streets of Ember City, carrying Emily in her arms. The undead were vicious, mindless killers; nothing would change that. If Sofi and Emily were to survive inthis and see the end of all the chaos and madness, they would have to adapt and change. Even if it meant sacrificing everything, Sofi and Emily knew they would be protecting one another from harm and death.