The Last Of Us | tk ✓

prologue | beginning of the end

BUSAN, S. KOREA
September 1st, 2020.

The last harmless sunset that filled the horizon of Busan with yellows, oranges, and reds called wanderers to come back home, children to scurry inside the shelter of their houses when winter snuggled in the month of September, carrying its chilly rustles.

The Jeon household was a joyous site, bubbling laughter of two kids echoing off its walls and engulfing the neighbourhood with vehement mellowness. Oh, how life was a beating heart, timeless uncertainty of the forthcoming events that abided by the laws of perfect nature, like a song with a forever-going tune wringing words into music that swirled in harmony.

Inside the residency, in the spacious living room with the TV switched on while the news reporter rambled on about unlatched government resolutions and pathetic political arrests, two tall kids, one shorter than the other, chased each other with glittery, mischievous eyes, cackling heartily when they would dodge each other's feeble grabs.

Someone's silhouette appeared behind the lilac curtains beside the front door, a tremendous click following the noisy creak of an opening door, the two children jerking their necks at the disturbance's direction across the room, sprinting to embrace their mother who pockets the keys hastily and squats down in her lab coat, taking her sons in her arms.

Her pallor was horror-stricken and hands shaky, pulling away to stare at the innocence in front of her, her breathing uneven and eyes darting away to ensure the door was securely locked. Her voice trembling, she says to her sons, "Hobi. Gguk. Wherever I go. St-stay with me, okay? Promise?"

Collecting the agitation their mother showed, ten-years-old Hoseok bobs his head hastily, eyeing his younger brother pointedly to get a response out of him whilst clutching his mother's hand.

Jeongguk, nine, pursed his lips, nodding curtly. However, Mrs Jeon gaze was affixed on the TV screen, a sudden lung on the reporter's tone told a situation has gotten worse, "The Lu Hospital's patients and staff are unrecognisable, police force unable to take action as the vicious, human-like creatures pile out of the building and are attacking with their mouths. A fire has started inside—"

BOOM! went the building behind the sweaty reporter, sirens wailed, and like a fuse, the TV screen went black, indicating the 'no signal' message.

"Oh, my God," whispered Mrs Jeon, lurching to her feet and grabbing each kid's hand, marching to the garage. With a jerk, she pulled open the door and scrambled inside the jeep with anxious Hoseok and Jeongguk. The garage flap turned up mechanically, and the woman hit the gas, cutting out a distinct blood-curdling scream of absolute terror as she swivelled the car and sped away from the neighbourhood, panting and sweat pooling her temples.

"Where are we going, Mom?" Inquires Jeongguk, staring out of the window and eyeing a fallen hotdog stall that whizzed by, sitting alone in the back seat.

"Out of the city..." she replied distractingly, slowing the car to spot a person casually strolling the road, a weird way of a strut in his steps. "Oh, shit!" She recovered her speed and intended to hit the man, triggering a yell of despair from Hoseok, "Mom, look out—!"

The man hits the bumper and flies out of the way, and Mrs Jeon unclenched her jaw. A sob left the older son, "You probably killed him.. y-you killed him.." He wiped his cheek, abruptly claiming silence. She knew who that person was. A monster. What would take to explain this to her boys?

The traffic was thickening. The bridge that led out was jam-packed. Scratch jam-packed, the cars were unmoving, hundreds of people honking their horns to no avail whatsoever. "Fuck.." muttered the mother, reversing back to find a detour through the alleyways opening from the street at the right. She revs the car in the street and found herself in front of shops, the next street barricaded by a fallen truck.

People were spilling away from the small crack left in the corner, shouting, terrified. Reversing the car, she accelerates to the way back.

Seconds split and in a mix of blurry colours and surprised gasps, another car smashes in them, and the jeep flips, mirrors smashing, earning several cries and yelps from the two kids inside.

"Hobi! Gguk!" Breathed their mother, her forehead bleeding and she blinked furiously, voice raspy, "Are you g-guys okay?" Low moans answered.

"Yeah.. uh.." Grunted Jeongguk painfully, at the verge of crying. Hoseok was desperately trying to retch open his door, squished but unharmed, unaware of the inhuman presence lurking nearby and ears perked for any commotion. Mrs Jeon kicked at the windshield, shattering the glass completely to allow a way out.

The beast lurched forward at the upturned vehicle, Hoseok and his mother squirm out of the car. Snarling, the monster advanced at them, drool dripping from a corner of his mouth, eyes containing a yellowish glow and grime clinging to its obnoxiously withered face, flailing his hands and aiming for Hoseok's neck who screeched for dear life, weakly fighting back.

The creature's grip loosened spontaneously, for Mrs Jeon have stabbed a surgeon's knife in its head with a clean swish, shuddering at her own actions, backing off to let the body fall on the hard pavement with a thump. Hoseok's little frame vibrates evidently as she extracts the scarlet knife unpleasantly.

Jeongguk's muffled cry cuts through the sudden silence, "Mom, m-my leg! It- it's be-bleeding!" Hoseok shivered, worried sick for his brother, leaping with his mother at the back to pull out the sniffling boy, glass crunching underneath their shoes, sirens wailing afar in the gloomiest night.

Whilst cradling Jungkook out of the dangerous gap, her bandaged wrist, exposed, slackens, coming loose and revealing a gruesome bite mark glistening red by the blinking streetlight nearby.

Out of nowhere, a uniformed soldier armed with an M16 rifle ambles at them, his aim directed at Mrs Jeon, who had to pick up Jeongguk in her arms, consoling him as Hoseok's eyes landed on the on-comer, shuddering as he nudged his mother, who turns around, Jeongguk still clinging onto her.

"There's one on Hanbaek Street, bitten but not turned yet." Murmured the stranger in his walkie-talkie, his expression inscrutable behind the headwear.

Static. Someone answered something. The man responds in affirmation.

"D-don't- don't hurt my M-mom- she's-" Hoseok's comprehension was way behind the adults, and the mother, carrying a silently sobbing Jeongguk who knew nothing of anything, stood upright and immobile, knowing her fate, says her last words, "Take care of each other—"

Before the bullet drills in her skull and she collapses on the road, following the screams of two orphaned boys under the diabolic sky of the beginning of the end.

_

so, guys? how
r ya liking the story?
pls do well~!

Check it out!
I will write you the
perfect poem for $25
on #Fiverr
https://www.fiverr.com/s2/87bda1aeb1