Tuesday: The Beginning of The End...
5am ———
The roar of surf is loud in Jacen’s ears as the water curls behind him, propelling his board forward as it cascades back into the ocean-proper behind him. The salt-spray coats his face and dampens his hair with a fine mist, and he squints into the middle-distance. Lola is solid beneath him as she cuts through the surface of the roiling surf. The edge of the sun is beginning to crest over the edge of the city to his left, the first rays of dawn beginning to glint on the water.
This is Joy.
This is flying.
This is freedom.
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9:59AM
Leia stepped away from the cash register, walking over to the espresso machine to begin making someone’s latte absent-mindedly. She didn’t need much thought as this was routine… but something unusual shook her from her steaming milk.
She turned it off, some of the customers inside the café getting up to see who it was.
Leia even pulled herself away from the counter just to see. The next second, she sees a food truck careening towards the surfing school by the beach.
Everyone in the café gasps.
“Should someone call the police?!” A lady cried, pulling out her phone. That didn’t last much longer as a large black truck smashed in through the cafe’s front windows.
Leia barely managed to dodge the vehicle, shrapnel digging into her thigh, she cried out, immediately putting pressure on the wound.
The truck door opened, a man, probably a local resident, climbed out looking delirious, and sick.
There was a moment of calm. The lady who had pulled out her phone nervously approached him, holding her hand out.
“Sir, are you alright?” She asked, gently putting a hand on his shoulder. “You must’ve hit your head- go ahead and take a seat.” She attempted to lead him to an available café chair, but suddenly he pounced on her, biting into her throat. People screamed, running out of the café, one man tried to help the woman but once he pulled the, seemingly, psychotic man off, he lunged at him and ripped the front of his torso to shreds.
Leia screamed, panicked and afraid. She got to her feet, adrenaline quelling the pain in her leg as she sprinted to the back room, slamming the metal door shut behind her, locking it tight.
First she had to get herself patched up, then… to vanguard to find her brother.
10:30AM
After Leia finished patching up the injury to her leg, she rushed to grab her backpack. She typically brought it to carry things like her sketchbook, wallet, phone charger, extra pads, etc. She typically stayed prepared for simple emergencies, hell she even had a spare set of clothes in there, but it was nothing compared to the actual shit-show going down outside.
She manages to fumble around in the semi dark storage room finding her cellphone. She breathed a sigh of relief.
40 missed calls from Luke
She scrambled to call him back, tears welling up in her eyes.
Dial tone?
“NO!” She tried again.
Dial tone.
“No no no-“
Again.
Dial tone.
She cried, pressing her hands to the sides of her head.
She had to go and find him herself. She couldn’t sit here at this café. But her leg would slow her down, fuck maybe even get her killed.
She cussed over at the door at the now walking corpse that crashed its dumb truck in the first place.
She made up her mind in a huff, reorganizing the things in her backpack soon after she made up her mind. She shoved in any food that didn’t need a refrigerator to keep it good.
‘What are these called again? Non-perishables?‘
She thought to herself, trying desperately to keep her mind off of… everything else.
She huffed, pulling her pack onto her shoulder before picking up the workplace utility knife and putting it in her pocket.
11:00AM
Leia peered out of the back door of the café, cautious. The only real thing she had to defend herself was a butcher knife and a utility knife.
She has to get to her bike but with all the general chaos going around out there she wasn’t all too confident she would make it, and on top of that her leg was injured, stitched up and bandaged, sure, but it needed time to heal. It was still a fresh injury and despite her pain tolerance it would slow her down.
She sighed, suddenly realizing that she’ll have to wait things out for a bit and see if it calms, not wanting to get herself even more hurt than she already was.
Leia shut the door again, locking it as she did, knowing if she kept her head poked out for too long she’d draw in unwanted attention.
She’d have to lay low. She couldn’t think of what to do with so much chaos going on.
1:00PM
Leia jolted awake, mumbling tiredly for a moment.
She rubbed her eye, slowly getting to her feet. She must have dozed off while waiting. She walked to the door leading to the front of the café and unlocked it, peeking out.
The coast looked clear enough, at least to start. She looked around, slowly stepping out with the smallest of limps.
She gently shut the door behind her, sneaking forward and stepping out of the slightly ajar café entrance. She turned, expecting to get to her bike. Unfortunately there was a number of…
Those things
Surrounding it.
And unfortunately, they had noticed her.
A CAR-
A person
Letting out a small gasp of horror, she spun on her heel, sprinting out towards the street, nearly getting run over by a car.
She rushed to the passenger side door, grabbing the handle.
“LET ME IN-” She pleaded, panicked as she glanced behind her only to see the monsters gaining on her, and fast.
“Please!!!“
Jacen watches as the girl runs to their car, and looks behind her to see the corpses coming after her. Her grabbing at the door and yelling causes the twins to whimper and he makes soothing noises at them.
The girl seems to be unaffected by whatever it is that’s turned people into those creatures, and he makes a snap decision he hopes he won’t regret. He unlocks the doors. Once she’s safely inside, the doors lock again and he’s driving off once more, careful to avoid any collisions. It won’t due to damage their only major asset right now. Driving beats running, that’s for sure.
“Hi. I’m Jacen. Hell of a day we’re having, huh?”
Leia damn near threw herself into the car as soon as she heard the lock click. She slammed the door behind her as soon as she was safely inside the car and sunk back in the seat, sighing in relief.
She took a moment to process what Jacen had said before taking her turn to reply.
“Uh- Leia… and- Yeah. Sure as hell one way to put it..” she replied, voice soft. She seemed out of breath.
She was obviously fidgeting, constantly checking her phone, her knee bobbing up and down.
“Are you… headed anywhere in particular…?”
He notes the fidgeting out of the corner of his eye as he maintains his focus on the road, but doesn’t comment on it. Everyone deals with shit in their own way; far be it for him to judge.
He shakes his head at her question.
“Not really,” he replies. “We were able to sneak back into our houses and grab some supplies; we tried to hit up Cabela’s for more and better supplies, but that was a wash. Can’t get near the place. So we’ve been trying to keep on the move until we find someplace that looks safe enough to hole up until things calm down a bit.” He glances at the twins through the rear-view mirror, to make sure they’re still okay. He offers them a smile, as they huddle closer, eyes trained on the new person in the car.
“Is there anywhere you need to get to?” He asks Leia.
She toyed with a loose string on her sleeve, looking over the city in the direction of Vanguard Uni. She bit her lip, glancing over her shoulder at the twins before shaking her head.
“Uh- nowhere in particular for now- I think it best to just play it safe till things…calm down a bit- maybe-” She gently pinched the bridge of her nose.
“It’s looking like things are… messy everywhere.”
“To say the least. I wonder what’s going on…”
“Zombies,” Tyler says from the back.
“Zombies?” Jace catches the boy’s eye in the mirror.
“Yeah. They look like the zombies from my game.”
“Certainly not on my bingo card for this year….” Jacen’s grin softens into a gentle smile as Suzy snorts in amusement and the corner of her lips twitch.
Leia giggled softly at the tiny interaction but ultimately felt as though she was intruding on them.
She stared out over the city, smiling a little to herself.
“Maybe we can find somewhere to stay till things die down? Ya know somewhere secure…” She curled one of her legs up to her chest, eyes still trained on the window.
Jacen is silent for a moment while he thinks.
“We can try my Aunt Faye’s place. She still has a stone wall and a solid gate surrounding her property. Not sure how long it’ll be secure, but it’s better than taking our chances in a car.”
He taps the steering wheel lightly. “I mean, it’s not like we can really keep driving around forever.”
He glances at Leia. “Unless you know of some place?”
She leaned further back in her seat, still consistently checking her phone. She felt like she wanted to disappear, melt into the seat She was sitting in and just… forget for a moment, but the longer and longer she went without a message from her brother…
The more she felt a tug towards Vanguard Uni.
She looked over at Jacen, nodding as he spoke, not fully paying attention till he asked her for… something.
“Huh-? I-… n…No. I don’t…. Nowhere that I think won’t be risky…"
She didn’t want to drag other people into a personal… situation. A family situation. Especially since there were kids in the car. Even if she wanted to find her brother, she couldn’t bring herself to possibly endanger children for it.
Jacen nods with a sigh. “Let’s try my aunt’s then.” If only to get the kids off the streets so they can finally have that breakdown they’ve been holding onto.