Amidst the smoke

Chapter 1

Riley sighed as she spray painted a large black X on her front door, or what was left of it.

"What about Jay?" Riley squeezed her little brother's hand and carefully tightened the mask around his face.

"Jamie's gone, Bear. Now we have to be gone too, yeah? But we have to be brave, can you be brave for me?" She felt her heart break slightly as Bear nodded determinedly, a few tears streaked down his cheeks."Good, let's go." Riley wiped away his tears and made sure his backpack was zipped up properly before they started walking.

"Did you check on the cows?" Bear asked.

"Yeah, I checked yesterday." Riley winced as she remembered using the last of the quad bike fuel to drive down to the back paddock. She had been hoping to move the herd up to the house so she and Bear could eat them. All that was left was a bloodied heap of bone and rotten flesh. 'Rather the cows than us.' She thought grimly.

"Was Milkshake there?" Milkshake had been Bear's birthday present last year, she had been a creamy white colour with swirly brown markings.

"Yeah, I made sure she was." 

"What do 'ya think, Bear? Do you like your birthday present?" Her dad asked as Bear wrapped his arms around the calf's neck, grinning from ear to ear.

"She looks like a milkshake!" The calf mooed and licked Bear's ear.

"She does doesn't she, such a pretty girl." Riley's mum stood in the doorway of the barn, shaking her head as Bear kissed every inch of the cow's face. Riley saw Jamie sitting next to her on one of the haystacks in the barn, he was grinning like his brother. Riley watched as his smile slowly twisted into a snarl, his teeth grew pointed and his skin turned pale and scaly. The walls of the barn fell away, she was in her house, standing in the doorway of her bedroom. Jamie pounced onto her dad, his screams echoed through Riley's head. She couldn't take her eyes away, his shouts turned to gurgles and were cut off as Jamie ripped open her dad's throat. She felt the firmness of the shotgun in her hand, the coolness of the metal making her shiver. Riley pulled back the fore-end, tucked the stock into her shoulder and pointed the gun at her brother.

"Jamie! Jamie!" Riley yelled, her voice catching slightly as tears began to run down her cheeks. Jamie turned towards her, blood dripping down his chin. She looked into his eyes, searching for her brother, searching for an excuse not to pull the trigger. The monster's eyes were dull and black, they had the crazed gleam of a ravenous animal and nothing else. Riley clicked the safety off, closed her eyes, and pulled the trigger. 

Her ears rung as the gun's recoil knocked her into a wall, her usually firm legs wobbled and almost collapsed. Riley looked up and saw her mum standing in front of her, a look of horror on her newly scarred face.

"How could you?" She whispered and Riley's heart broke again. Suddenly, Riley was standing on her porch, she had heard the bang of the shotgun and ran outside. Her dad had just set the shotgun down and was kneeling in the grass in front of something on the ground. Riley felt a wave of anger when she saw her horse, Whirlaway, collapsed in heap a few metres away from her father. His strong, powerful legs were twisted at odd angles and blood had dyed his beautiful chestnut coat dark red. Riley ran towards her father, an entire essay of curses filling her mind, but when she reached him the words died on her lips. He was kneeling in front of her mother, her stomach had been completely torn out and half her face was only just being held intact by a hinge of skin. Riley felt her heart thud so loudly she thought it had stopped. She fell to her knees beside her father, she was dimly aware of Jamie grabbing her shoulders and pulling her off of the ground.

"Look after Bear, don't let him see." Riley was inside again, Bear was looking at her with wide eyes.

"Are you okay, Ry?" Riley blinked and plastered on a fake smile.

"Yeah, Whirlaway's just a little sick so Jamie, Mum and Dad have just gone to sort him out." Bear nodded and hugged her.

"He'll be okay, Ry. He's a strong horse."

"You okay, Ry?" Bear stood in front of Riley, his wide eyes filled with concern as he looked up at his older sister. Riley blinked and quickly squeezed Bear into a tight hug.

"I will not loose you too, my Little Bear." Riley whispered under her breath. It was a line out of Bear's favourite book, Riley read it to him every night. They would jump around the room, reenacting the whole story.

"I'll always stick with you, Big Bear." Bear said softly, he giggled slightly as he thought about the book. Riley smiled but Bear's eyes were filled with more understanding than any five year old should have. He raised an eyebrow, put both hands on his hips and tilted his head slightly.

"What's wrong? Tell me or you'll be in trouble." Riley burst out laughing and Bear exploded into a fit of giggles.

"Trouble? Me? Never." Riley picked up Bear and swung him around, tickling him mercilessly as she went.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Bear squealed, wriggling helplessly until Riley put him down. Riley chased him around in a circle.

"Now you're in trouble." Bear giggled, his unruly golden hair bouncing around like it had a mind of it's own as he tried to run as fast as he could.

"No! I'm a big hungry bear and you've made me angry! Grrrrrrrrr!" Bear bared his teeth and let out a fierce growl. Riley laughed.

"Aaaaagh! I'm going to get eaten!" Riley began slow motion away from Bear, Bear growled again and leapt at Riley's back, making exaggerated chomping and slurping sounds.

"I ate you all up! Now you need to be dead." Riley draped a hand over her forehead, crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue.

"Bleh!" Bear squealed in delight again. 'If I can keep him happy and alive through all of this, it'll be enough for me.' Riley thought. They laughed for a few more seconds before they continued to walk, Bear kicking up stones whenever he could. 

So I hope you enjoyed, I know it was mainly flashback and adorable sibling interactions but I wanted to show you how strong Bear and Riley's relationship is right of the bat and give you more background on what happened to their family and how Riley is feeling. It will get better, it's just because I have to lay down all the ground work in the first chapter or two it might seem a little slow. Hope you enjoyed!

Toodles,

Human, OUT.