"Not now Rhea. Please!" Chris was pleading. "We'll get through this, I promise" he continued, trying his best to keep my spirits up and trying not to let me go through another breakdown. But everything around me was crashing, bottled up emotions were pouring out of me without me being able to control myself.
"We won't get through this Chris, don't try to make promises that can't be kept" I said, while sobbing. Chris did not say anything further, he slowly grabbed hold of my shoulders and pulled me closer to him and placing my head against his chest.
"Please Rhea, just don't loose hope now, just not now!" Chris pleaded again, as he patted my back soothingly, trying his best to calm me down. Travis was driving but his eyes were on Chris, he was slightly shocked cause he has never seen this side of his son, which made him smile a little.
As soon as Travis drove out of the hospital area, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Glad that we escaped the chaos without being affected. But everyone was still worried about getting Daniel's wife immediate medical care.
"Talk to her" I heard Liza say.
Chris was still holding onto me, and I just stayed still, not intending to move away as it made me feel calm. Honestly, i'm so terrified. What if I don't survive? What if I turn into one of those things? This thought kept running through my head as Travis was talking to Liza and everyone at the back, trying to find a way to treat Daniel's wife injuries.
"Stop overthinking!" Chris whispered quietly into my ears, while the other adults were having their own conversation.
"I'm not!" I replied back, quiet enough for Chris to hear.
"I know you well enough Rhea, stop! It's not going to help!" he whispered back. I just nodded my head, and stayed silent. As I looked out through the window, I saw the city that once stood mightily falling down in seconds. Every building around the city was blacking out, and the air smelled like death.
'What is the world turning to?' I wondered to myself.
__
"Rhea" I heard a faint voice, slowly pulling me of from my dreamland.
"Wake her up, i'll go check on Madison! You guys stay here, and don't go anywhere else until I come back!" I heard Travis say before hearing the door opening and soon shutting it close.
"Rhea, we're here!" Chris said, trying to wake me up.
"Mmm, i'm awake!!" I said as I attempt to open my eyes slowly. We were in the same truck and we're still stuck in this nightmare.
"Come on! Let's get you out!" Chris said as he opened the truck door and stepped out. Liza was beside, waiting for me to step out of the car.
"Everything's okay. Don't loose hope" Liza said as she kissed my temple.
"Thanks Liza!" I smiled. "Anyways, how's her leg?" I asked.
"It's quite bad. But yea ... Just hoping for some miracle to happen" Liza informed me.
"Dad is alone, come on!" Chris said worriedly, leading the both of us towards the house.
We slowly walked to the house, trying to not make any noise and to create unwanted attention. Chris held onto my hands and I followed him behind, with Liza in front of us leading us into the house.
"I asked you to wait in the car" Travis said as soon as he saw us entering the house.
"We're staying with you" Liza replied Travis.
"Looks like no one is here dad" Chris said as he looked around the dark and quiet house.
The quietness of the night caused cold chills to run down my spine. As the cold breeze brushed pass my face, a series of frighting thoughts flashed through my mind. We continued walking into the house only to hear faint noises of someone growling and munching. Panic started to engulf me, my grip on Chris's hands tightened only for him to look back at me worried. Travis continued to walk closer to where the noises came from.
"Dad!" Chris whispered, trying to get his dad from walking closer. That was when I saw a man devouring a dead dog. I stood motionless, horrified with the situation that was happening right in front of me.
"Travis, please don't!!" I tried to warn him, but he continued to walk towards the man.
"Peter" he said slowly, trying his best not to alarm the man as he approached him.
That was when the lights around the house turned back on. The man paid no attention to the lights and continued munching onto it's prey.
"All of you, get to the car now!" Travis said, panic was dripped in his voice.
The sudden loud noise caused by Travis caught the attention of Peter, he turned around to see four preys to feast on. He left the poor dog, and walked his way towards where we were standing. Blood was all over his mouth, his eyes looked dead, he wasn't human anymore. The man who was once Peter, continued walking closer to where Travis was standing and Travis was trying to talk to the man as if he was human enough to listen to what he had to say. The man started to attack him and pinned Travis to the floor. We all ran as fast as we could towards where Travis was, and was trying to push the man away from him.
"Help!" I screamed as loud as I could, hoping that someone would come and help us to stop this mess, but that caused the man to growl even louder and started to attack Travis even more. Travis managed to stand up and started restraining the man from attacking him by still talking to him. Travis then pinned him against the wall, and was trying his best to calm Peter down, but he wasn't able to.
"Travis" a woman came running into the house with a shotgun, pointing the gun towards the man.
"No put the gun down" Travis said, struggling to calm down the man. The woman was having a hard time to shoot the man as they were constantly moving. That was when Daniel to interfered, snatching the gun away from the lady and shooting the man immediately, without even thinking.
As far as I knew, anyone who gets shot would be affected immediately. They would either die or faint due to the pain. But this man stood steadily, only making loud growling noises instead. I was shocked. Daniel was not affected by the growling noises, he continued walking closer to the man and shooting him directly on his head, knocking him off. He was dead in an instant.
I screamed the moment I saw blood splattering all over after Daniel shot the man, I quickly brushed pass Chris and ran off outside for some fresh air. The panic and fear robbed off my speech, as I stood there staring at the empty grass. Honestly, at this moment I don't know what I'm doing or where the hell I am.
I was brought out of my thoughts when Chris pushed pass me and ran towards the empty grass patch and started throwing up. I quickly ran towards where Chris was and tried to help him calm down.
"Chris, you alright?" I asked him quietly.
He shook his head and continued to throw up. I could not blame him, all this were too much for us to take in. The gruesome acts that was happening in front of us was scaring us. Chris somehow stopped throwing up and was trying his best to calm his nerves.
"Come on, lets get back into the house. It isn't safe to be out here now!" I said to him, as I helped him get up. As we were getting back into the house, we heard someone screaming followed by the growling noises that was familiar to us. That was when we saw a girl trying to climb over the fence, over to the house we were in.
"Alicia" Chris screamed and ran towards the fence. He was trying to pull her off from the fence, but something was holding onto her leg from the other side. After a few failed attempts, Chris finally managed to pull Alicia to our side, causing them both to fall back. Chris held onto Alicia tightly when they fell, causing her to hit his face with her elbow, while trying to get out of his grip.
"Hey! What the hell" I said, running over to Chris to see him bleeding through his nose.
"I was trying to save you Alicia!" Chris said angrily, pissed off with how Alicia had reacted. Anger took over him and he stormed off from the scene, back to the house.
"Go, you're the only one who can calm that boy down" Liza said to me and pushed me back into the house, hoping that I would calm him down.
I went over to the bathroom where Chris was, he was standing in front of the mirror analysing his injury. I contemplated if I should go in or not cause I've learnt not to piss Chris of when he's mad at a very young age.
As seconds ticked by, I finally got the guts to approach him.
"It isn't that bad, i'm sure it'll heal soon" I said to him, while entering the bathroom he was in.
"No, it won't" he replied back, still pissed with Alicia's attack.
"Trust me it will, i'm sure all the girls will go crazy over you after that nose heals" I joked, trying to lighten up the mood a little.
"Yea right, I hope sh- they will" he said. "Now help me clean this mess" he continued.
"Fine" I huffed and walked over to one of the cabinets in the bathroom, grabbing a towel from it, wetting it, and finally wiping the blood away from Chris's nose.
"Remember when you broke your nose?" Chris said as i was dabbing his nose, a sly smile was seen.
"Correction, when YOU broke MY nose with YOUR basketball" I corrected Chris, causing him to chuckle.
It was back when we were both six years olds. Both of us playing with the new basketball that Liza bought for Chris at the backyard of his place. We were playing catching and throwing as that was the least dangerous game Liza and my mum could come up with that would not injure us. Slowly we got bored with the game and the throwing got a little intense. Chris started throwing the ball with all his might and energy towards me, and I was able to catch. Both of us were enjoying the challenge. Except for that one time, when Chris threw the ball towards me, it landed on my nose instead of my hand, causing me to fall back down and crying in pain. I was sent to the hospital and the doctor informed my mum that I have broken my nose. I walked around with the cast on my nose for months.
"The cast was cute on you" Chris admitted.
"I had to live with that misery for months Chris, it was hell" I whined.
"That was the end of that ball, I never saw it again" Chris sighed.
"You injured me Chris, it's meant to end" I exclaimed, causing Chris to laugh and the groan in pain.
"See, this is what happens when you laugh at someone's misery" I giggled, wiping away the last few bits of dried up blood. "Good as new" I said, finally wiping away the last bit of blood.
"Thank you" Chris said, holding onto my hands and kissing it before leaving the bathroom. It took me by surprise, as Chris was hardly expressive of his emotions. I just smiled to myself and cleared up the mess, and made my way to the living room where everyone else was.
Liza was now treating Daniel's wife, while others sat by her, trying to calm her down. Chris was talking to his dad. I just stood by the corner, not wanting to bother anyone with my presence.
"Hey" a boy slightly older than me came to my side.
"Hi" I replied back with a smile.
"I'm Nick, that's my sister Alicia and my mum Madison" he introduced himself as well as his family to me. That was when I remembered what Chris told me months ago, about Madison and her kids.
"Sorry, I spaced out! I'm Rhea, it's nice knowing you" I said, shaking his hand. That was when I felt someone's eyes were on me, when I turned around, I saw Chris glaring at us. I was puzzled and just ignored Chris. The adults in the room were having their own conversation, while Chris's eyes never left us.
"So, Chris is your boyfriend?" Nick asked quietly, out of the sudden, taking me by surprise.
"What?! No no, we're best friends and that's it" I whispered back.
"You sure?" he asked again.
"Yes, hundred percent sure" I assured him, laughing it off to lighten the mood.
"Whatever you say princess, i'm just seeing things" he mumbled.
I excused myself from Nick and went towards where Liza was and asked her if she needs any help from me, but instead she told me to stick with Chris and told us to have some rest. I walked over to where Chris was seating and sat on the floor, beside the seat he was seated on. "You wanna sit up here?" He asked.
"Nah, i'm fine" I replied back.
"Come up here, there's space" he said again, trying to convince me to sit with him.
"Ok fine. But don't complain that i'm heating up the seat ok" I grumbled, causing him to chuckle and moving in to give me some space. I finally sat on that small space, and pulling my leg up and hugging it.
The silence embraced us and as usual, my thoughts started running wild. This time I wondered about so many things. "You think my dad is alright?" I asked Chris out of the sudden.
"I don't want to say something that would cause you to think that i'm a jerk" he replied back.
"Why the hell would I think that you're a jerk?" I questioned him.
"Well, he'll get what he deserves. That is all I can say!" he said, causing me to hit his chest.
"What?! That's why I did not want to say anything" he exclaimed.
"Sorry!" I murmured. "But Chris, promise me something" I continued.
"What?" he asked.
"If I ever turn into one of those, end my life. I don't want to hurt anyone, please promise me that you won't let me turn" I said, tearing up a little.
"God Rhea, stop talking like that" Chris said, putting an arm over me and pulling me closer to him.
"I don't want to hurt any of you" I said again.
"You won't and I won't let you to" he promised.
"Good" I smiled.