Light In My Darkness

Prologue

The first victim was a poor kid with the flu. A virus never seen before, it sprung out of nowhere. I didn't pay much mind to it at first, I had bigger things to worry about. I didn't so much as spare a glance at it until quarantine hit, it was only then I began to notice what was happening around me. Online schooling and wearing masks was the new normal, and it was only then where things truly went bad. It never let up, and soon they had to start blockades along the capital cities to ensure it wouldn't spread further. They were somewhat reasonable precautions, but it was never enough.

Panic was widespread, the news and hysteria took over. People started to riot, some bought out the stores, others just stayed the same. The virus had a high death rate, and was spreading faster than any disease known to man. It was nicknamed "The Reaper Virus", as it took lives just as fast as the grim reaper.. The militia soon issued evacuation out of the cities, trying their best to keep the death toll down from those monsters.

They never got very far though. The evacuation had only worked somewhat in the first place, so a good majority of civilians were still inside those city walls, so the militia were called back to the cities to rescue any civilians and terminate the infected. The infected weren't like the movies, they weren't slow, groaning people . They were fast- loud, monstrous. Their skin was bald and a greyish color, the mutations causing their fingers to become long, sharp claws. Their lips deteriorated to show shark-like teeth, eyes glazed over like a blind man. They were such polar opposites of what we expected. They were the true monsters of the apocalypse, they were the "Reapers". They themselves were harbingers of death.

Two weeks before the evacuation, my town was hit. We were a small town on the outskirts of the countryside, nobody even knew we existed. I felt so cooped up inside the house with my dad and cousin, it felt suffocating. My cousin, Haruka wasn't the root of my strangled state, it was my father who I didn't like. He was an angry man, turning to the bottle rather than the bible after my mother's death. His once kind and loving demeanor was replaced with an angry and cruel man. Living in quarantine with him was worse than any disease, or at least, that was what I had thought.

One night, I decided to sneak out of the house in order to just get some fresh air. I needed something, anything. I was desperate to get out of the house, and that made me stupid. And bring stupid was how it almost got me killed, and how it killed my family.

I carefully slid on my boots as I approached the back door. I was going to go out for a while, but if I told Haruka or even my father... then that was not happening. I pulled out my phone and looked at it. The time said it was 12:34 AM, and I took a peek at the weather forecast.

"Good. Shouldn't be too cold tonight." I whispered to nobody but myself. As soon as my hand was on the doorknob I heard shuffling footsteps and froze on the spot. Dad's footsteps were heavier, so that was the good news. Bad news? It was Haruka, the most overprotective cousin in all of the history of overprotective cousins.

"Yui, where are you going?" She sternly asked with no hesitation, making me flinch. I had told her- no- promised her beforehand, I'd stay put.

"I'm just checking on the cats outside, the neighborhood ones. They haven't really been fed lately since nobody is allowed to go out..." I lied, nervousness embedded within my voice. I was always a bad liar, especially to Haru. Her eyes narrowed in reasonable suspicion.

"No, you will not. I fed those guys at dinner." the redheaded girl firmly objected, her emerald eyes glaring into my pink ones.

"Can I just go out for a little bit? Please Haru?" lying didn't work, so I resorted to my final tactic. Begging and crying until she let me, because I was that freaking desperate. She ruffled her short red hair as she sighed in agitation. Hope sprung within me, whenever Haru did that she was about to give in. Among that hope came suspicion. It seemed like she was giving in too soon.