The brunette applied his wet brush against the watercolor pan set, tainting the brown bristles of it a blue then swishing it around in a jar of water. He outlined the houses, adding falling leaves to the portrait along with trees. The theme was multiple houses in the winter, everything looks blue, white, and gold. The gold coming from the inside of the houses of warmth, to show families are warming up near the fire. Hot coco in their cold hands, the tips of their fingers and palms a shade of pink from the cold, along with the end of their noses. Their skin as pale as the snow. The fire a bright mixture of warm red, orange, and yellow. As he stared at the woman near the fire, a thick blanket covering her back and a little boy next to her warming his hands by the fire. His eyes were drawn to the dark figure in the corner, a shade of gray representing his eyes and light black as his body figure, he doubt anyone would be able to notice unless they looked very closely. Renjun's focus was on the shadowy figure who seemed mischievous.
“Sit down, baby.”
A mother called for her son, who walked over to her with his tiny feet hitting the floor with each step until he carefully sat down next to her.
“It’s very cold, so you should warm your hands by the fire, yeah?”
The young boy nodded, lifting his arms and holding his hands out towards the fire, warmth invading his finger tips. She gently placed the hot coco down, sliding off the blanket and standing up while her son, Renjun, remained busy. Renjun noticed his mother stand, and tried to be subtle when he turned his head only slightly to see where she had gone. There he saw his father in the dark corner of the room, who was previously watching them until his mother walked to him.
“You have to support this family too. It shouldn’t be one-sided, I’m the one making the money and helping our son get an education but you’re never here. A son needs his father just as much as he needs me. I never receive any money from you, or you never do anything with him, I have to do everything by myself. Why do I have to be the one taking care of a child I never wanted?”
Renjun looked forward and stared at the fire. He was young, but he could understand his mother’s words. Had he angered her? He thought he was doing well, helping her and letting her have some time of the day to herself. She always complimented him, he never cried when he made a mistake, never complained, he didn’t understand. Did Momma simply not want him? Renjun's thoughts wandered, he didn’t notice he was too close to the fire until he heard his mother scream. He looked up immediately.
“Mom–”
“Junnie your arm!!”
He looked back down, he saw his long sleeved shirt had caught while he was distracted. She grabbed a towel and began to hit his arm, trying to get rid of the fire.
“Junnie!!”
Renjun pulled down his sleeve, to where he stared at the long scar on his wrist. She was so angry at him that day, he was crying at the hospital not because it hurt, but because of the thought of how his mother would think. Once they arrived home, she threw a burnt piece of wood at his face which earned a cut on his cheek. He had to aid it himself in the bathroom. He finally took a look at the painting as a whole.
“Tch.”
He grabbed it off canvas and walked towards the window, pulling it open and throwing yet another mistake out into the streets. He shut the window and turned around to attempt to find more motivation by staring at the wall but heard a thump. He spun his body back around and saw a bloody hand print on his window, them banging on his door. He hesitantly placed his hand on the doorknob, and the moment he opened the door it was pushed open harshly and a body entered. Renjun shut the door and stared at the panting woman with her hand clutching her shoulder.
“Hey, are you okay? What happened?”
“Please help me, it hurts.”
Renjun knew he kept a first aid kit in one of his drawers, so he took the box out and opened it. He instructed for her to take off her shirt and sit on the chair. Just as he was wiping the blood with a cotton ball, he noticed the wound was oddly shaped, it looked like a bite. Not like any animal, but human teeth. He glanced at her, she was sweating intensely and desperate for air, blue and purple veins appearing out of her neck. He added alcohol to a fresh cotton ball, before brushing it across the wound. She hissed and moved back, causing the chair to hit the desk and the axe near fall to the ground.
“Ah, I’m sorry, I should’ve warned you first.”
Renjun stood up after dropping the cotton ball onto the desk, the axe was there for cutting wood, at the time he wasn’t able to afford a desk so he bought an axe to collect wood then create one for himself. He wasn’t as skilled, so it came out pretty crappy, he should remake it. He turned around with the axe but the woman was suddenly in his face with her teeth caught in the handle of the axe. He fell to the ground, groaning from his head hitting the ground. The veins spread from her neck to the side of her face towards her eyes and across her cheek, her eyes a cloudy white. Renjun yelled and hit the side of her face with the end of the handle, the knob. He gasped and stood up shakily, backing up.
“I.. I’m sorry, are you okay?”
She remained on the floor for a few seconds, breathing loudly before screaming and crawling towards him. When she grabbed his ankle, he panicked and closed his eyes, launching the axe down into her skull. He breathed heavily, his eyes opening slowly then dropped the axe, her face hitting the floor. Did he just kill someone? He looked around and walked towards the two windows, checking if anyone had saw what he had just done. Renjun couldn’t help but start crying. Someone is going to come look for her, a family member or boyfriend and they will find her dead, they will frame him for murder and he will be sent to jail with no mercy. If he called now, maybe they would realize he is actually speaking the truth when he would say it was out of self-defense and he thought he was going to be injured. He reached for his phone and dialed 911, walking back and forth with a finger in his mouth, waiting patiently but there was no answer. He tried again. No answer. Should he go to the police station? Renjun felt afraid, and brought a knife with him just in case he was attacked again.
Renjun pulled over a hoodie before he left his house, stuffing the knife in his pocket. The sidewalk was empty, cars were parked on the side of the road like normal. The axe stuffed between the outside of his shirt and inside of his hoodie was uncomfortable, he decided to bring it for evidence but it would be strange if he was walking with an axe in his hand as if it was a regular thing to do. Renjun had his stomach in a twist, there was a feeling somewhere within him that something was wrong. Or was it the spots or puddles of blood beginning to appear in his view. It was until he saw bodies on the ground, with some having a person or two towering over them. He decided he will just report it later. Out of fear, he ran back towards his home until someone came out from an alleyway, owning a similar appearance to the woman he killed. The man growled, then tried to grab onto him but only managed to grab his sleeve instead of his actual arm. Renjun screamed, catching the attention of many others around him. He noticed and quickly pulled his arm away, a patch of his sleeve ripped off thanks to the man. He then ran across the street, all at once he he heard a gunshot not so far from him. A cry left him, he ran and ran between alleyways until he found himself out of breath. He was in the middle of a street then his eyes caught a convenience store, where a car was crashed into it. There was a huge chance it will be a mistake to go in there, but he was thirsty and wouldn’t be able to go on any longer.
With this, he grabbed the axe by the knob and pulled out from his hoodie. He held onto it tightly as he walked in slowly, but flinched when he stepped on glass causing a shard to break. He heard movement and quickly walked into one of the aisles, hiding at the end and peeked his head out to where he just was. The sound of feet dragging continued, then a slumped body came into view and was staring down at the broken glass. His exit was now cut off. Renjun looked around until he found the drinks, pulling open the door and grabbing a glass coke, throwing it to the left of the thing which quickly caught its attention as it shattered. With the same speed, it walked over to investigate. Renjun stuffed a cold water bottle into his hoodie pocket, then made quick movements to leave the store. But he saw more of them, and ran inside a apartment building before they could see him. He looked around, there were none in the lobby, he should check the rest of the building, perhaps stay here a while until the streets clear or he finds a map.
Renjun walked up the stairs, shoving the axe carefully back into his hoodie. After making it to the seventh floor, he found one very close to where he was.the He pulled his hood over his head. He should sneak up on it. He slowly crept behind it with a knife, but its ears caught the sound of his feet meeting the floor and turned around faster than the rest of them.
“Shit.”
Surprisingly, it caught Renjun's wrist and cursed, that’s when he realized it wasn’t one of the things that would kill him. He was already planning to apologize but then the man took out of knife and tried to stab him. His body moved to the right, missing the attack but just barely. Renjun took back his hand and then kicked the man’s knee, earning a groan and he fell onto the same knee. That’s when he saw an opportunity, but he rolled and his knife collided with the floor. They fought until the two men heard a yell and their hands were in the air, knives in both.
“What is going on?!”
The scolding man came with two men behind him, it seemed the man Renjun was fighting was quick to defend himself.
“He appeared out of nowhere and tried to stab me!”
“It’s not my fault you startled me, I got scared and you tried to stab me too!”
Renjun roughly threw down his hood to reveal his face, throwing a glare at him.
“Let’s chill for a second.”
A man with pink or blonde hair spoke up, his hands gesturing to calm down by lowering and bringing them up.
“We are getting off on the wrong foot.”
“True true.”
The man dropped his knife to the ground.
“I’m Mark. That one is Taeyong, he’s Yuta, and that is Kun.”
“I’m Renjun– woah you’re that one Japanese actor! I love your movies!”
Yuta smiled back at Renjun, while Kun was confused by the whole situation. They had gone from trying to kill each other, to Renjun being a fan of Yuta.
“Thank you for your support.”
“That’s cool and all, but where did you come from?”
“Oh! Well, I live far off, a woman came in injured and when I tried to treat her, she tried to kill me! I was scared, and accidentally killed her.”
Renjun took out the axe, Mark backing up with a ‘wow’ and looking at the bloodied head of it. He saw the bite mark on the handle, and pointed at it.
“I don’t think that was no regular woman.”
“Yeah, she tried to bite me. And her injury was a bite mark too, I found it strange.”
“Is this guy an idiot? Who is gonna tell him?”
“Don’t be rude.”
Yuta sighed, shaking his head but Kun was just impatient.
“Clearly, you haven’t seen the news, but a virus has started where people have began to eat each other alive. I predict the city was taken over around more or less two hours ago. I see that you didn’t give off much attention, so you didn’t notice until that woman entered your home. We call them Lurkers.”
“Cool.”
Renjun swung the axe onto his shoulder, earning a flinch from Mark who then pointed at him.
“Watch where you throw that thing.”
“Right.”
That was when they heard a man yelling from outside the building, the five men other than Mark who went to his sniper were quick to run down the stairs until they made it to the bottom and entrance of the apartment. There was a man in a proper attire, almost like a school teacher who was running at them with a child in his arms with a few Lurkers following them.
“Another idiot.”
Kun sighed and aimed his gun, along with Yuta and Taeyong.
“Ready.. now.”
Bang.