Supernatural Preferences

Croatoan AU

It had been three years since the first symptoms of the virus had appeared. One insignificant person had somehow managed to infect almost all of the USA, half of Canada and the majority of Mexico. Nobody knew how it had started, but the only thing that was clear was that there was no stopping it now. The camp's elders called it 'Croatoan', an ancient plague that wiped the minds of its victims and turned them into unstoppable killing machines.

You were alone when it happened. Everyone was out for the night except you, leaving you sitting on your couch watching re-runs of your favourite show. Your friends were out partying, constantly texting you to let you know they were having fun and wished you were there. So when the texts turned into phone calls you didn't even give it a second glance. Twelve missed calls later and you were starting to get annoyed. Your phone buzzed one last time and you answered, immediately scolding them for calling so often. You were cut off by the sound of screaming.

"You need to get out of there!" Your friend had cried. "It's not safe, leave town right now and don't look back!"

You tried to communicate with them, ask what was going on, but all you heard in response was a piercing scream being cut off by the dial-tone. Desperately, you tried calling back. When you didn't succeed, you called your family, your neighbours, your co-workers, anyone that could explain what was happening and put your mind at ease. Every time you were met with the harsh beep of their answer machines.

A loud crash dragged your attention away from your phone and towards the back door. Glass covered the floor from where it seemed to have been broken from the outside and the two children from next door were standing just outside, staring straight in at you.

"Your parents won't be happy when I tell them what you've done," you had said shakily, unnerved by their blank gazes.

One of the kids opened his mouth wide and screamed. It was feral and animalistic, sending chills through your spine and straight to your core. With no warning he lunged at you, lashing out with his hands as if trying to claw away at your skin. You shrieked and hit him away out of instinct, feeling a slight twinge of guilt for hitting a child. That was before seeing his younger sister still standing at the door. Her blonde hair was stained red with blood, as were her lips and teeth. Loose skin was buried under her fingernails, as if she had torn through flesh. Only she didn't have a wound on her. You stifled a sob, only to be knocked off your feet by the brother. You were pinned down by his weight as his sister ran over to try to take a bite off of your face. Pushing your morals aside, you shoved your knee into the boy's stomach and threw him into the coffee table before grabbing the girl by her throat and slamming her head into the wall. You remember the sickening crunch of her skull before she slumped to the ground, lifeless.

One boot to the head and the boy was taken care of too. It wasn't until after you had calmed down that you realised you had just murdered two children. Shakily, you picked up the phone and dialled 911. No answer. You switched on the television and flipped it to the news, watching in horror as fire and smoke dominated the city, cars at a stand still whilst everyone tried to leave at once. You couldn't do anything but watch in fear when a man got out of his car to run off the road before being attacked by... something.

Pandemonium broke out and everybody tried weaving their cars through each other, leading to crashes and a blocked road. A large number of people made a run for it, dozens of them sprinting in the opposite direction, clutching their possessions and children to their chest as they were chased by even more of those things. Except they looked like people. Hang on a second, they were people. The news reporter shouted something over the loud whir of the helicopter's blades and the camera began to pan away. But - just as it did - it caught the image of something leaping from a window, aimed right at the helicopter, its arms outstretched and its mouth leaking blood. The footage cut out and you heard a loud bang echo all the way from the city to where you lived in the suburbs. Glancing out the window you saw an orange glow surrounding the skyline and a thick trail of black smoke coming from a particular point near the building they were filming next to.