Soul-Bound

Chapter 1 : A World Gone Sour

"This place looks fine to me."
"The signs definitely give it some beauty, eh babe?"
"Come on Mann, let's unload the bags for the night and stop making fun of it."
Mann grabbed took off his book bag and laid it flat along the living room floor, "Who's on first watch?"
"Remember, 2 hours and then you're first." She said.
Mann nodded, "Right." He sat down and pulled out his journal.

This is Mann Geterson, letter number 76. Ella and I just settled here for the night. She wasn't so fond of the choice at first but ultimately wanted to settle down. Then the strange signs up front turned me off and now here we are. It's been 631 days since the Big Bang. That's what I call it anyway. Ella calls it The Human Disease, but I don't understand why. Well, I do—

"Babe, I just heard something." Ella scrambled to her knees and searched for her rifle.
Mann found his pistol and readied himself by the window. He pulled it to the side, slowly. Trees, bushes, a dirt path leading behind the house, and a dark figure.
Ella chambered a round silently and snuck towards the back door. Her gun was raised and her heart was racing.
With immense speed, the black figure darted into the backyard. Mann felt his heart stop, gripped his gun and headed towards Ella.
Ella shushed Mann and held her gun steady. With her sights locked onto this strange dark figure she let out shaky breaths.
In a low voice Mann said, "Don't waste the shot. I don't think it knows we're here."
"Last time you said that we were swarmed." Ella lowered her gun a bit. "I don't want to lose another home."
Mann nodded, "I know."
"I'm gonna shoot it." Ella quickly raised the gun.
Mann put his hand on the barrel of her gun and lowered it down, "I got this." He took a step closer to the door and cracked it open. His pistol peeked outside of the door, locked onto the beast
POW POW!
Two shots echoed through the desolate town and the body had fallen. Mann opened the door and stepped into the cold outside. Each step felt like he had gotten heavier and heavier.
He found himself towering over the corpse and kicked it over. The body felt fleshy underneath a thick coat of hair. The eyes of the beast had scanned the sky as I'd hoping it would be saved. Then it let out a thick huff and fell completely limp.
"Did you get it?" Ella asked.
Mann nodded, "Yeah. Let's go back inside."
They both went inside of the house and locked all of the doors. Ella had went to bed first, leaving Mann to himself and the quiet.
The house was very clean considering. No furniture was destroyed nor moved around from the original places. The stairs leading to the second floor was stacked with a bunch of furniture probably from the second floor itself. Unless there was an attic but it didn't seem so from the outside.
He sat up against the couch and looked over to Ella. She was sound asleep, softly breathing in and out. Every so often a stutter in her breaths would happen but she was mostly asleep.
The Big Bang caused all of this. According to Mann he believed it was a correction for the sins of mankind. Like some form of answer from God. He wasn't religious but it was the only thing he could think about. Nothing else could have caused it, unless someone caused it.
From what they could tell, some people become diseased or sick and if they aren't killed within a week then they turn into these beasts. Beasts who feed on other living things. It's a faster spread of the disease it seemed turning a week into a couple of hours. That's why Ella calls it "the Human Disease" but all of this happened from a giant space explosion. It was like an eclipse but instead of covering the moon it was light brightening the sky to a deadly scale. Mann and Ella were lucky enough to be inside when the Big Bang occurred.
RING RING!
Mann was supposed to switch with Ella for watch but he decided to let her sleep instead. She deserved it. He wouldn't mind waiting another 2 hours so she could rest.
"I love you." Mann said in a soft whisper and smiled.
He pulled out his wallet and within it were a bunch of pictures of them. He didn't know what to grab at first so he took what he could.
Mann always prepared for the worst. He even had silent rules in his mind if he or Ella were to get sick. Morbid as it was, he knew he wouldn't be able to kill her. So he already knew he'd take his own life to be with her in the afterlife.
"I remember you hated this picture." He whispered to himself. "But I thought you were so cute. Your brother planned to slam your face in the cake the whole week."
He shook his head and put the pictures away, "Damn shame, hm? I wonder what we'd be doing right now if all of this hadn't happened."

- The Next Morning -

"Hungry?" Ella asked. "I cooked up some beans."
Mann let out a big yawn, "Yeah. Don't think I ate for probably 10 hours."
"I told you to take a snack last night." She sighed.
He shook his head, "Wanted to save it for you if you got hungry."
"Baby you need to make sure you're eating. I've been eating a lot more than you have." Ella groaned. "Stop being stubborn and take some extra today."
Mann nodded, "Fine. Though what's the game plan today."
Ella sat down next to Mann and handed him a small cup of beans, "We could go out and see what's up with the other houses. We didn't check yesterday."
Mann nodded but didn't say anything. He knew they needed to be really careful around towns like this. Lots of looters and beasts. "We never named the beasts."
Ella scoffed, "Never agreed on a name for the damn thing either. But what would you call them?"
Mann gave a blank stare, remembering what they looked like and what they could do to a person, "Nightmares."
"Hm?" Ella leaned closer.
"Oh nothing. I mumbled to myself. Maybe we'll just stick to beasts?" He took a bite. It was warm and felt nice going down. His stomach was empty for too long and he recognized it.
Ella quickly finished her breakfast and stood up to stretch, "How about, Maneaters?"
Maneaters? Mann thought. "Should we split up or go together?"
"If we split up we could hit more houses at a time, but going together is safer." Ella said and sat on Mann's lap.
"I don't think I wanna kill anyone today." Mann said with a thousand yard stare. "I'm tired of killing."
She rubbed his cheek, "I know, baby. Me too."
He glanced at his gun, "Fuck it. We'll go together. I don't wanna chance anything."
Ella nodded and went to her kit. She grabbed her rifle and a rag. She wiped off dirt from the outside of the gun and glanced at Mann.
She felt this strange sadness come over her. A really strange feeling that didn't make her feel comfortable. She shook it off though and grabbed her jacket, the weather seemed to fluctuate throughout the day. Either a change in seasons or a storm might be brewing.
"I'm ready when you are." Ella said.
Mann nodded and tossed his cup. He grabbed his coat and checked his gun clip. Five rounds. Save them.