Burning Cities - Leon S Kennedy

i. Outbreak

The first day on the cruise ship was mostly spent taking care of Avery. She had an aggressive hangover that had left Maia holding her hair back whilst she puked up the contents of her stomach from the amount of drinking she had done the night before. Maia had assured Quinn and Audrey that they could go explore the ship whilst she took care of her friend. 

After she was sure she had thrown everything up, Maia helped her back into bed. She grabbed a cup of water and a pack of saltine crackers from the cupboard in their room. Avery spent the next 14 hours sleeping and Maia hung around close, in case she managed to vomit in her sleep. Which, would not surprise her in the slightest. 

The second day on the cruise ship, Avery was still tired. She seemed off, her skin pale. She refused food, water and any form of medication the ship nurse offered her. Quinn had volunteered to keep watch on her, but Maia still stayed close. She was very protective of the people she cared about. 

By the night, her veins had began turning black. Slowly,  but surely. None of them had ever seen anything like that before and when the nurse checked her eyes, the whites of her eyes had begun turning grey. The doctor on board had never seen anything like it before either, even during his 35 years of experience. 

On the third day, she began violently shaking. She was injected with medication, which stopped the seizure, but also her breathing. Her time of death was 4:07PM. 

4:11PM, Avery's eyes opened. Her iris' were black, the veins across her body were more prominent, completely black. Her skin, pale. Quinn called out to the nurse who had just walked out of the room, but before she mad it back, Avery had pulled Quinn towards her. Her teeth had sunk straight into her neck, ripping out a large chunk of flesh. The nurse stared at the pair with widened eyes, a scream unable to leave her lips as she stared at them in disbelief. Avery's head had snapped to her direction and within three seconds, she was on top of the woman, her teeth ripping out parts of her flesh. She was choking on her own blood before she finally stopped breathing. 

By 11:00PM, the entire ship was full of passengers screaming, hiding, or their lifeless bodies were scattered across the decks. Maia and Audrey had managed to lock themselves in the kitchen, the metal door strong enough to keep anything out. 

"What the fuck is going on." Audrey whispered, her arms wrapped around Maia tightly out of fear.

"I don't know, but it's bad." Maia spoke, keeping her voice down as she kept her eyes peeled to the door. 

"How do we get out of here? Fuck, Avery. Oh my god, Quinn. They're gone. Aver-" She began, raising her voice slightly as she began to panic. 

"Shut up. I know. Just, shut up, I have to think." Maia cut her off, standing up. "Help me push this in front of the door." She spoke, pushing a cabinet in front of the door for added protection.

Day four, everything was quiet. "We need to get out of here." Audrey spoke up. They had been in silence for hours, not knowing what to do, or say. They had time to explore the kitchen, which had one positive. They wouldn't starve to death. 

"Someone will find us, right?" She added and Maia sighed.

"I hope so. But even if help came, would they even be prepared to deal with this? What if they think we are like them, what if they shoot us?" Maia began. She knew freaking out would be no help, but she couldn't help but overthink. 

"They have emergency rafts, or something, right?" Audrey spoke and stood up. "We could make it, it's not too far." Maia thought for a moment. 

"We are in the middle of the ocean, we will starve to death, or get eaten by sharks, or-" Maia began but was quickly cut off.