Reminiscent Hearts

Prologue

It was always warm this time of year, at least as warm as it can be during the winter months. This time however, the sky was cold and gray with the snow still covering the ground on many people's lawns. The neighborhood bursting with life and chatter as children would play in yards and play street hockey, birds singing and dogs barking. It was the perfect setting for a happy family and a bright future.

But not all stories begin with happy beginnings and happily ever after at the end. This was far from it..

Garu woke up to a noiseless neighborhood. It was somewhat bright, which was unusual for this kind of weather. He stood and stretched as he got out of bed, not thinking about the deafness of his surroundings. He proceeded to head downstairs and open the front door to grab the morning newspaper, only to find it wasn't on the ground as he was expecting it to be.

Garu looked around at his neighborhood as shock filled his entire being. Cars were crashed into buildings and other cars in the middle of the road. Some vehicles were on fire, one of the crashed cars were crashed into his neighbor's fence, only a few feet away from crashing into the side of his house. There were bloodied, burned and mutilated bodies scattered upon the road, lawns and sidewalk. Garu hesitantly stepped back into his home, slowing shutting the door behind him.

"What the hell is all of that? This has to be some sort of sick joke right? There's no way any of this-" He was cut off by what sounded like his metal trashcans being knocked over by something. He opened his gun drawer and retrieved his pistol and knife from within and stalked towards the door, holding his knife cocked under the pistol in a similar fashion as to how him and his squad did during boot camp.

Garu opened the door just a crack and let out a startled yell as a raccoon ran past him into the house hissing at him. He took a moment to regain himself as the raccoon had vanished to the unknown. Glancing back at the partially opened door, he though he saw movement from out of the corner of his eye. Glancing in the direction he saw the blur, he saw that whatever it had been could only have hid behind his car as there was no other places to hide without hopping the fence.

He noticed that the crashed car in the fence made a corner with his '67 restored Impala, and thankfully hadn't crashed into his baby. He let out a relieved sigh as he strode over to whoever or whatever had cornered itself between the vehicles.

"Come on out whoever you are. Show yourself," He rounded the back of the car to see a figure in tattered clothing curled up into a ball hiding their face from him.

"P-Please don't hurt me," A female voice pleaded as she began to shake out of fear.

Garu felt pity as he lowered his weapons slightly,"Don't worry I'm not going to hurt-" Garu stopped mid-sentence as he noticed the long blonde hair and cut up pale porcelain skin.

Garu stepped closer to her completely lowering his weapons,"Sara? Is that you?"

She lifted her head and he knew it was her when her saw her tearful emerald eyes,"Garu?"

He smiled warmly at her and knelt down to her level,"There's only one of me last I checked."

he saw the relieved expression on her face as she lunged into his arms and held onto him tightly. Tears fell from her eyes as he held onto her protectively in a comforting manner. He stroked her hair and smiled at her child like actions despite being an adult.

"Sara, what happened? Where's Arlien and everyone else?"

She was silent for a moment, but he could still feel her tears falling,"He's dead Garu..Arlien's dead..They killed him during the riots.."