The Outbreak

Chapter One: Fire Fury

  "River! Please?" Cheyenne whimpered. The fire around them burned brighter and louder as she gripped the pistol, tight and blood-covered. She didn't know if it was his or hers, she didn't care.

"Why do you fight for this world? A world lost to plague, to these useless efforts in fixing what doesn't need fixing?" River asked. His voice was sharp but broken. Cheyenne could hear the tears falling to the charred floor, the roaring fire wasting no time in spreading closer to the last two high school students.

"River. Please, remember our last day here, the last sliver of humanity inside you," she asked, lifting her bloody hands, her guilty pistol that had taken the lives of both undead and living, and rose to meet the student. His hair pulled back, tight in what was once a tightly held bun. His shirt was sleeveless, ripped, most likely from the undead and the fire. His pants were bloodstained, the dark tan cargo pants.

River's thoughts swam deeper and deeper into the broken void of his mind. Once a kind, tender student at Parkview, now turned evil due to the mental struggle of the Shift. One thing was for sure, River understood and remembered the last day at Parkview.

Cheyenne smiled, turning to the slowly setting sun as River held the window up. The two exited the broken window, the bright sun blanketed with light, white clouds. Soon, the two were outside, standing on the edge of the ceiling. Parkview stared directly at the edge of Springfield. River sniffed, tears falling as the single undead crawl along the streets, the deep dark rotting skin of the undead rotting further as time slowly creeps by.

"You ok?" Cheyenne asks, her voice low as River sighed and sat down, dangling his torn and tattered pant legs and shoes filled with limbs over the edge of the building's ceiling edge.

"You know, Chey. I don't know. How could I know?" he says, his hair pulled tightly into a bun, a strand of hair dangling down next to his face as it slowly moves with the wind.

"It's been four weeks, River. We can't expect to change this world overnight," she replies, retorting the same hopeful tone she always held as River's face cringed, almost forcing the tears out as he exhaled.

"I highly doubt we will have anything more than a useless life,"

"You are acting overly dramatic,"

"Am I? Look at this city!" River yelled, standing up quickly. His face was turning red as he held his arm, the left gripping the right's elbow tightly as he rubbed it quickly. Cheyenne stood, following River as he stepped back.

"River! We tried our best, and did what we could! We both-'' she stops and looks down, pushing her hands inside her pockets as her dark brown hair falls to cover her face. "We both sacrificed so much to make it here. Please try to understand that this, us, happened for a reason," she explains. River looked at her. His glasses were squared, black as small bi-vocal lenses sat at the bottom of the already eye-support glass inside the lenses.

"Yeah... You're right," he says as he looks at her, his eyes cloudy as a small explosion echoed inside the empty streets. River and Cheyenne turned their heads as a cloud of milky black smoke rose from an old store as a scream echoed from the same spot the explosion originated. River looked at Cheyenne, unease in his voice as he grabbed the window and lifted it, gesturing toward Cheyenne.

"We should probably help," he says as Cheyenne enters the empty, long-forgotten school.

"Yeah. Maybe."

"I remember that day," River says, his eyes bouncing around the room as Cheyenne looked at River, the pistol shaking in her hand as she quickly lifted it, her bloody finger gripping the trigger. She knew that if he didn't stop what he had planned, release her, his life wouldn't matter anymore because he wouldn't have one.

"I remember that day with ease! The day we saved that woman from the fire, from the undead." he retorted. Cheyenne shook. The same voice she had once loved, once, understood wasn't the same. The kind, understanding voice now turned evil, malice filled, as he tried to fight the sudden urge to kill.

"Do you know why I'm like this?" he asks, his eyebrow-raising as the fire around them crept slowly closer to them, threatening both their lives as River continued to talk. "We saved that woman, the fire, the explosion never-ending. One after the other, we fought the undead, slowly making our way closer and closer to the shop that wasn't even standing anymore. I was so excited, so exhilarated for what I thought was a chance!" he says. He turns to the window, staring outside as the sun slowly crept from its slumber: filling the sky with warm rays of sunshine.

"I was bit," River says softly, contradicting his voice as he turns to Cheyenne. Her arms shook, shivering against the slowly warming room as he stepped down from the window and walked to her. He gripped the pistol by the barrel, holding it as Cheyenne shook her head.

"You were bitten?!" she yells. River nods, sighing as his grip tightens around the pistol, slowly tugging at it as he speaks.

"Do you really think poor old River was capable of doing this? Of burning an old school down, even after the Shift?" he asked, his eyes turning slowly. The once deep blue eyes turned red as he spoke.

"He was weak, and I destroyed him," River says as he tugged at the gun, pulling Cheyenne's finger tighter against the trigger. She cried, begging him not to as he looked at her, his eyes blinking as he looked deeply at the face of his old friend.

"Cheyenne, don't make me destroy you too," he said softly. Cheyenne looked at him, crying as she shook her head.

"I loved you," she said. River stumbled back, letting the gun go as he looked at her.

"K-kill me," he begged, shaking his head as his arms folded to hold his head. "P-please?" he asked. Cheyenne lowered the gun as River started to cackle.

"If you won't, I will," River said as he lifted himself up. He lunged forward, gripping the gun as he jerked it forward, pulling the gun against his chin as Cheyenne's finger slipped, pulling the trigger. Cheyenne screamed as the room filled with white light, the gunshot deafening Cheyenne as she fell back, the dead body flopping downward, away from her.

Cheyenne cried, tugging at the slowly burning tile of the floor she laid on as footsteps walked closer, filling her vision as two, neatly cleaned dress-shoes stepped above her. Tears fell as two words came above the roaring fire, and the ringing filled her ears.

"What a shame. Too bad, I've got better plans for you,"